Another build, i5-2500k

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

Hi everybody,

I'm hoping I can summon the usual awesome help that you guys offer here. I'm helping someone with their new i5-2500k build and it just felt wrong to let him go through with it before picking your brains.

The usage: modern high resolution gaming and everything else, primary box for all use and abuse. Well, I say high resolution but he's not likely to get anything that exceeds 1080p. Max budget for the build is $2000.

His list of parts:

$164.99 - Samsung E2320X
$99.99 - Fractal Design Define R3
$184.62 - Corsair AX850
$219.99 - i5-2500k
$219.99 - Asus P8P67 Deluxe
$43.41 - Spire Thermax Eclipse II
$132.66 - Corsair XMS3 Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600 2x4GB 9-9-9-24
$369.97 - EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked 1280MB
$79.99 - WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB

Total $1515.61

I'm sure we can do a lot better. I'm not convinced that power supply is necessary even if he went with dual cards. IMO, he would be better off with 2x GTX 460 @ $150 each, no? I'm sure motherboard and RAM can be had cheaper as well without sacrificing much or anything.

Your constructive criticism highly appreciated as always!

edit: prices may not reflect correctly, the links are automatically being changed to detonator.dynamitedata.com.... ??

stahlhart · Jan 20, 2011

Wouldn't you be better off using 1.5V RAM for an SB build?

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

stahlhart said:
Wouldn't you be better off using 1.5V RAM for an SB build?

That's the list he gave me, I'm looking to tweak it now. I didn't even realize that wasn't 1.5v RAM. Would this RAM be problematic?

Any thoughts on Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 8GB 2X4GB 1333 9-9-9-24? $64 after mail-in rebate.

Also, would the Arctic Cooling 7 Pro rev2 HSF be better?

mnewsham · Jan 20, 2011

zCypher said:
That's the list he gave me, I'm looking to tweak it now. I didn't even realize that wasn't 1.5v RAM. Would this RAM be problematic?

above 1.5v can cause damage.

tynopik · Jan 20, 2011

just some quick thoughts . .

zCypher said:
I'm not convinced that power supply is necessary even if he went with dual cards.

It's not, frankly the Corsair TX750 would still be overkill

zCypher said:
IMO, he would be better off with 2x GTX 460 @ $150 each, no?

everyone has their own preference, but I would say NO

the hassle of dealing with SLI just isn't worth it

zCypher said:
I'm sure motherboard and RAM can be had cheaper as well without sacrificing much or anything.

without SLI, you can drop down to something like the GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3

the RAM is actually contra-indicated for a couple reasons:
1. no need to go higher than 1333 speed
2. that is 1.65V ram, sandy bridge doesn't like ram that's above 1.5V

edit: already covered i see

zCypher said:
the links are automatically being changed to detonator.dynamitedata.com.... ??

yeah a wonderful 'feature' of the advertising program here

i put my links inside a 'code' block to stop that

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

I'm now searching for 1.5v RAM, phew!
What are some good PSU I should be looking for? Can he get away with 650w or is that pushing it?

I heard SLI is a lot less problematic today than it was in the past. It's still a hassle? What kind of hassle? I've never dealt with it myself.

Why no need for 1600?

Zargon · Jan 20, 2011

XFX 650 or 750 for the PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207003

Numenorean · Jan 20, 2011

Check out the Corsair Vengeance for 1.5V RAM. Although it is 1600 too.

It's what I got but I'm on an i7 setup.

mfenn · Jan 20, 2011

tynopik said:
just some quick thoughts . .

It's not, frankly the Corsair TX750 would still be overkill

everyone has their own preference, but I would say NO

the hassle of dealing with SLI just isn't worth it

without SLI, you can drop down to something like the GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3

the RAM is actually contra-indicated for a couple reasons:
1. no need to go higher than 1333 speed
2. that is 1.65V ram, sandy bridge doesn't like ram that's above 1.5V

edit: already covered i see

yeah a wonderful 'feature' of the advertising program here

i put my links inside a 'code' block to stop that

Tynopik, are you my identical twin who was separated at birth???

But seriously, I agree with all of this. To summarize, the following parts are bad values, and here are some alternatives:

AX850, "Professional" is code for "expensive". You don't need anything more than a 750W like a 750TX or Earthwatts 750.
P8P67 Deluxe, Doesn't have any killer features making it worth over $200. The GA-P67A-UD3 (in combo with the CPU!) or P8P67 will do 95% of what the Deluxe will do for 50-60% of the price.
Dominator DHX+ memory, 2% better performance than DDR3 1333 for 50% more cost than G.Skill? No, thanks.

mnewsham · Jan 20, 2011

mfenn said:
Tynopik, are you my identical twin who was separated at birth???

But seriously, I agree with all of this. To summarize, the following parts are bad values, and here are some alternatives:

AX850, "Professional" is code for "expensive". You don't need anything more than a 750W like a 750TX or Earthwatts 750.

P8P67 Deluxe, Doesn't have any killer features making it worth over $200. The GA-P67A-UD3 (in combo with the CPU!) or P8P67 will do 95% of what the Deluxe will do for 50-60% of the price.

Dominator DHX+ memory, 2% better performance than DDR3 1333 for 50% more cost than G.Skill? No, thanks.

But, but , but, i wanted to waste money blindly!!! :'(

tynopik · Jan 20, 2011

you can also trim some money in other places

Code:

 74 Antec Three Hundred
    http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
 38 Cooler Master Hyper 212
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

(those prices include shipping while your price at the beginning did not, so the actual savings is more than it would appear)

now what can you do with all the money you're saving?

how about . . .

Code:

230 OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
    http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551
269 ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 1920x1200
    http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236047CVF

with that budget an ssd is a must and i personally really prefer the 1920x1200 resolution but i can see how others might feel it's not worth the premium

Zargon · Jan 20, 2011

mfenn said:
[*]AX850, "Professional" is code for "expensive". You don't need anything more than a 750W like a 750TX or Earthwatts 750.

lol yeah pretty much.

The XFX's I linked to get 9+ on johnnyguru which why I have suggested them in most of the recent SB build threads :thumbsup:

Numenorean · Jan 20, 2011

tynopik said:
with that budget an ssd is a must and i personally really prefer the 1920x1200 resolution but i can see how others might feel it's not worth the premium

It isn't a real monitor if it won't do 2560x1600

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

Numenorean said:
It isn't a real monitor if it won't do 2560x1600

That's more like it!
I like the idea of pushing more money into SSD and Monitor.
I don't think he'll budge on the case, he really likes it and it is only $99, not too bad.

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

Alright, let me know how this looks!

$295.32 - ASUS VW266H
$99.99 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black
$75.53 - Antec Earthwatts 650W 80Plus
$125.42 - Gigabyte P67A-UD3
$219.99 - Intel Core i5 2500K
$24.12 - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
$79.52 - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 8GB 2X4GB 1333 9-9-9-24 (-$15 MIR)
$214.79 - OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 120GB
$79.99 - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 7200rpm, 64MB cache
$349.00 - EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked Fermi 797MHZ 1280MB

$1,563.67

mnewsham · Jan 20, 2011

I would argue that the Samsung F3 is a better value/performance vs. the Caviar Black.

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

mnewsham said:
I would argue that the Samsung F3 is a better value/performance vs. the Caviar Black.

The lowest I can get it is $74.99 from Newegg.ca, so only 5 bucks difference.
Other than the price, any reason to go with the Samsung? I'm pretty sold on WD. Open to have my mind changed though for sure.

mnewsham · Jan 20, 2011

zCypher said:
The lowest I can get it is $74.99 from Newegg.ca, so only 5 bucks difference.
Other than the price, any reason to go with the Samsung? I'm pretty sold on WD. Open to have my mind changed though for sure.

In my experiences with WD customer service they leave much to be desired. However that could just be personal experience. I have never had problems with my Samsung drives and thus don't know the quality of their customer service. But I think that might be a good thing though as I would rather not know because I never need to use.

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

mnewsham said:
In my experiences with WD customer service they leave much to be desired. However that could just be personal experience. I have never had problems with my Samsung drives and thus don't know the quality of their customer service. But I think that might be a good thing though as I would rather not know because I never need to use.

heheh, I've come to expect craptastic service sadly. I've only had great experiences with WD, but I can say the same about Samsung over a broad range of products. I've just never tried Samsung hard drives before.

Does the F3 perform similarly to the Black? I guess it's somewhat of a non issue as it's going to be more of a storage and backup drive.

tynopik · Jan 20, 2011

looks like a much better system, getting the bigger monitor and SSD for basically the same price

also it may be fractionally cheaper (depending on shipping) to do the combo at newegg

Code:

$353 shipped i5-2500K + GA-P67A-UD3
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575891

plus you get Civ V

i don't think the WD is 'bad' or anything, but you certainly can't go wrong with the Samsung

compare the egg distribution on the US newegg site. plus the samsung is the 4x winner of the customer choice award for internal hard drives

do you need a dvd or blu-ray drive?

mnewsham · Jan 20, 2011

zCypher said:
heheh, I've come to expect craptastic service sadly. I've only had great experiences with WD, but I can say the same about Samsung over a broad range of products. I've just never tried Samsung hard drives before.

Does the F3 perform similarly to the Black? I guess it's somewhat of a non issue as it's going to be more of a storage and backup drive.

The performance is relatively the same the only thing the samsung really lacks is the SATA 6Gb/s connection (useless) and it has half the cache size (not all that important in regular use) If it is such a small increase then go with your preferred brand, in the USA the caviar black is 89.99 while the Samsung F3 is 64.99 a good $25 increase!!!

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

tynopik said:
looks like a much better system, getting the bigger monitor and SSD for basically the same price

also it may be fractionally cheaper (depending on shipping) to do the combo at newegg

Code:

$353 shipped i5-2500K + GA-P67A-UD3 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575891

plus you get Civ V

Hey, that's cool. It's only about a dollar difference. Shipping tends to be more from Newegg than from NCIX, but I think that with CIV5 it still nets a lower price than to buy everything from NCIX and buy CIV5 separately.

I'll see if he's interested in that at all. Thanks!

zCypher · Jan 20, 2011

Found the same Asus monitor for $262 instead of $295. Sweet!

Code:

http://www.cendirect.com/main_en/tech_specs.php?rPart_no=TDNU-BT-WX167I&rSrc=sb

That brings the total down to 1,530.35. The NCIX pricing before pricematch is 1,707.01.

edit: doh, that was also including the MIR. real price is 292.
edit2: lowest found . $288 before MIR.

zCypher · Jan 21, 2011

Good morning,

#1- he will consider the antec 300
#2- he wants room to upgrade. he wants 2 slots for video cards + an additional slot for a revo style SSD. One more additional slot for a wireless card. Suggestions for motherboard??
#3- he's pretty set on the HSF, based on review at http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm . Any reason to get a different HSF? Any suggestions on that front? Never heard of that one personally. Also, will the spire fit in the Antec case?
#4- Regarding PSU, he wants to stick with a fully modular PSU.

Zargon · Jan 21, 2011

the XFX PSU's I linked are modular

the only things you cant remove is the 20+4, the 4pin and a 4+4pin(EPS) cable.

Another build, i5-2500k

Diamond Member

Super Moderator Graphics Cards

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Elite Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Diamond Member

Lifer