Yet another gaming PC build

[darknite]

So they were impressed with my build from 2 weeks(ish) ago. and i got recruited for another build. Thanks for the suggestions on that one. BF3 looks beautiful

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
95% Gaming. Starcraft, Skyrim like games, some FPS here and there.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2k Max with shipping trying to keep around $1800
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Germany (APO)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, Mobo, CPU, RAM, GPU, HDD, PSU, ODD
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Just mouse, keyboard, monitor.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Eventually, nothing major
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Not too sure. Games on a tv with HDMI
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
by end of weekend
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
USB 3.0, sata 6, crossfire/sli depending on card, best audio i can get without audio card.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
going to get windows 7 pro 64bit

This is what i have. Had great luck with the CPU and Mobo on last build so I'm trying to stick with this, definately the CPU.

Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811352013

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131730

XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814150517

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139022

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115072

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231428

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.D HDS721010DLE630 (0F13180) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822145533

SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827151233

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16832116992

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835103065

Should i go with 16GB RAM? I know it's been asked 100 times.
Is the PSU overkill? the 750 was more expensive, this one has $25 instant rebate.
Thanks for the help

 

[Tsuyoi]

If the 850 PSU costs less than the 750, why not? Leaves more room for expansion later on.

More RAM is more RAM, it's pretty cheap, depends on how budget tight you are. If you got the money, might as well.

Why Asus P8Z68-V Pro? The base P8Z68-V or the gen 3 would have all the features you want, and save you a bit of money.

If it's within budget, consider a small SSD for OS/frequent programs?

 

[darknite]

Working an ssd in there is actually one of my goals. I should have wrote that in there. I have a question though. Would the games be good to install on the hdd and still be fast? I've never used a ssd and this will be my first experience with it. With the 40 dollar difference could help that too. I also saw the fractal arc midi in another post for 85 so there's more saved. Work in another video card if I get lucky.

 

[Dangman]

Why are you getting Windows 7 Pro? Are you getting it for cheaper than Windows 7 Home Premium?

You'll still get good performance out of games installed to the hard drive.

Also you really should really find out what's the max resolution of that TV (720P or 1080P) since that determines what video card you need to get. I.e if it was 720P, that HD 6970 is stupid overkill but if it was 1080P, it would be just right.

SSD wise, go for the Crucial M4 series SSD.

 

[Forceman]

If you don't intend to go multi-video card, you can drop all the way down to a 620 or 650 watt power supply and free up budget for an SSD. If you do intend to [possibly] go multi-card later, than the 750 or 850 is a good choice.

Games don't normally show huge gains from being on the SSD, but it depends on the game. If they are open-world games that stream data off the hard drive (like WoW), they will benefit - but most FPS won't benefit significantly. Shorter load times, but not game changing.

 

[darknite]

With the Windows, short answer is i've always used pro myself and i'd rather not have one of his pirated copies on there. Other than that, just to be a nerd i guess.
The tv is 1080p so i guess im comfortable with the 6970 then.
The crucial m4 128 has a $50 instant rebate so thats only $219 woohoo. I'll recommend him putting his most frequently played games on there with his other on the HDD.
Maybe a dumb question...Should I partion the SSD with OS and say game1 partition? and game2 on the hdd? Im not a huge fan of installing games on the OS partition. Haven't done it for years. With all that in mind, I can experiment here with it before i hand it over.
I dropped the MOBO down to the Gen3. The basic board doesn't have PCI Express 3.0
Went ahead and did 16GB RAM cuz its pretty cheap.
Soooo with throwing in a decent lil RAID card for myself i'm sitting at about $1900 with shipping.
If yall have any other suggestions i'll tweak it, other than that, i'll post final specs when i get up. Its 3am here and i can't sleep.

 

[Dangman]

With the Windows, short answer is i've always used pro myself and i'd rather not have one of his pirated copies on there. Other than that, just to be a nerd i guess.

In that case, drop down to Windows 7 Home Premium then. Really no point to having Windows 7 Pro unless you're actually going to be using Pro's features or you're getting it for a lower price than 7 HP.

Maybe a dumb question...Should I partion the SSD with OS and say game1 partition? and game2 on the hdd? Im not a huge fan of installing games on the OS partition. Haven't done it for years. With all that in mind, I can experiment here with it before i hand it over.

Leave it as one whole partition.

I dropped the MOBO down to the Gen3. The basic board doesn't have PCI Express 3.0

Do note that you probably won't see PCI-E 3.0 being fully taken advantage of for another 4 to 8 years jduging from current GPU progress rates. Also note that you don't actually get to use PCI-E 3.0 until you upgrade to the Ivy Bridge CPUs. So for all intents and purposes, you have PCI-E 2.0 for now.

Soooo with throwing in a decent lil RAID card for myself i'm sitting at about $1900 with shipping.

What RAID card are you planning on buying?

 

[darknite]

The card im getting is nothing fancy. Just need to be able to add 2xRaid 1 to my lil server.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 PCI Express x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115027

Thanks for the other suggestions. This is why i ask the experts. I was an expert in the socket a days I'll ask him about the OS, just to make sure he wont be using the extras. Which he most likely won't. I'll flip a coin on the board and see where it lands.

 

[Dangman]

The card im getting is nothing fancy. Just need to be able to add 2xRaid 1 to my lil server.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2310 PCI Express x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115027

Does your current server not have extra SATA ports or something? Or doesn't have RAID at all? What OS are you using?

I ask because that RAID controller isn't that good for the money. For a simple RAID 1, even the motherboard's onboard SATA ports will be enough.

 

[darknite]

What would you recommend around that price range? I can go up or down a lil
I got 4 ports on this board. 1 80GB for OS, 3 x 2TB (not raid) for movies, anime, series. I have 750 IDE RAID 1 for backup.
I just need something to mirror my movies and series. These are updated constantly. I can manually backup anime to external.
Right now its Win 7. Havent had the time to setup WHS but im working on that slowly.

 

[Dangman]

What would you recommend around that price range? I can go up or down a lil
I got 4 ports on this board. 1 80GB for OS, 3 x 2TB (not raid) for movies, anime, series. I have 750 IDE RAID 1 for backup.
I just need something to mirror my movies and series. These are updated constantly. I can manually backup anime to external.
Right now its Win 7. Havent had the time to setup WHS but im working on that slowly.

Haven't kept up too well on storage controllers and such (i,.e within the last two months). But when I use to, that Highpoint was rarely recommended and the fact that no one has left a Newegg review for that card in over six months should tell you something. But if you're willing to use setup a RAID 1 array within Windows, this might work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072

However if you don't mind eBay, the IBM M1015 seems to be recommended quite often over in the Data Storage Subforums Shows up in this Storage Guide as well:
http://www.servethehome.com/midrange-diy-storage-server-buyers-guide-october-2011/

 

[darknite]

Sounds good, i need four ports though. Ill do some shopping around. Bout to make the final order, ram is out of stock again. selling like hotcakes.

 

[Dangman]

Sounds good, i need four ports though. Ill do some shopping around.

FYI, the IBM card that I linked to supports up to 8 hard drives when you use two SFF-8087 to SATA cables like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116098

 

[darknite]

So the RAM finally came in, waited 2 weeks for one part. Thanks the help once again, everything is running perfect on here. No install issues or anything this time. got a 7.5 on the windows points. Cuz of proc. Everything else is 7.9 and 7.8
I'm very jealous of this case. Beautiful inside and out. the board covers some of the wiring holes, like 1/2 of a few holes, but still enough to fit through. But still a great case for wiring.

 

[Dangman]

Good to see the PC is up and running fine!

But no pics?

 

[darknite]

Ahh yes, could load a few, been traveling past few days alot...

Final product pretty much. Just kinda stuffed teh wires at the bottom

Backside cuz everyone likes a backside

Waiting on the RAM....

Finally...

Not bad not bad. Lines are from teh TV

One of my lil helpers

 

[darknite]

The build you helped on last time...don't have any finalized pics but man it plays beautifully.

Couldn't get the 212+ on there to test cuz they had a screw with no threads...so i improvised later.

 

[Dangman]

Nice!