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My First Custom Build, would love some input/advice

A

azaxa

Junior Member
Hey guys, I'm new to the forums! I've read over posts for a while, and finally decided to join.

I'm building my first custom build and want to know what you all think about the part's compatibility/performance.. I plan on buying most the parts tomorrow on Black Friday.

Here's some general info regarding my build-
Will be used purely for gaming, $1,000/+10% budget. I don't plan on overclocking apart from Intel's on board 'Turbo Boost.'

As for Resolution, I am not sure what I will end up gaming with... I need a new monitor and am debating between what do get (details a little further down).

BUILD :

CPU: Intel core i5 2500k. $199.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072.

MB: ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS. $132.99 on NewEgg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131773

GPU: This is one are where I'm debating...
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 for $339.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613

OR

HIS Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit for $289.99 after rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161356

I've always had a preference for NVIDIA, but in this case I'm thinking I'll go with the Radeon because it is cheaper and has comparable performance based on TomsHardware benchmarks for Skyrim & BF3.

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR (buying elsewhere, link for reference) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233190&Tpk=cmx16gx3m4a1333c9
My reason for choosing this ram is because on Friday midnight I can pick this up locally for $29.99. My original choice was G.Skill 2x4gig for the same price on newegg.

PSU CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139020
$84.99 after rebate.

HDD : Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1 TB
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IZN3YI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
$139.99

Plus a dvd+rw from amazon for $19.99.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033Z2BAQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

MONITOR/Resolution

Not included in the $1000 budget I need to get a new monitor.
My IDEAL monitor would be splurging and getting a 27" LCD.
HOWEVER, as it is black friday tomorrow, I can pick up a 32" LCD HDTV for much cheaper- $177. Does anyone have any experience using an HDTV as their primary monitor for a gaming pc? Or is this a bad idea? If so I may just end up buying a 23" comp monitor for $118 at the same retailer, Fry's electronics.

EDIT: I'm just going to get the 23", assuming they still have them once I get there...


RECYCLED PARTS
Case: Coolermaster Wavemaster

Soundcard: (May or may not use, just depends on how well the onboard sound is on the new build.) Audigy 2 ZS Audio [D800]

If you guys think aftermarket cooling would be beneficial, I have a Corsair Nautilus 500 water cooling on my current 6 + year old build that I assume could be recycled.

My 3 main concerns/questions for this build... 1. Did I pick compatible parts? 2. Will I be fine with sticking to the Radeon 6970 & is HIS a reliable brand? 3. Should I jump on this 16gb ram deal or stick with the g.skill 8gb?

Thanks a lot, really appreciate your input/advice!

Edit: OS I will be running Windows 7 Professional.
 
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1- Yes all parts are compatible
2- Nothing wrong with that HIS 6970 but you could go with the Sapphire 6950 which should unlock to a 6970 with the bios switch, also comes with free deus ex game for $244.99 AR.
3- 16gb of ram is generally not needed but for that price its not bad.
4- everything else looks good!
5- you most likely will need revised mounting hardware for socket 1155 to use your cooler.
 
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CPU Good

Mobo Good, but if you want to retain the possibility Crossfire/SLI, get Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 $115 AR.

GPU Get Sapphire 6950 2GB for $245. It has a dual-BIOS switch and is likely to unlock into a 6970. (FYI it's the same GPU on both, 6950 simply has 10% of its shaders disabled and clock speed lowered.) Or get XFX 6950 for lifetime warranty.

RAM You won't need 16GB. A gaming system will only ever need 8GB. G.Skill RipjawsX 1600mhz 2x4GB $30.

PSU XFX 650 $45 AR. Could handle 6950 crossfire at stock. But for CF/SLI, Corsair TX750 V2 $70AR would be optimal as it'd have some OC and upgrade headroom.

HDD Hitachi 7K1000.D 750GB $110. Fast new single-platter drive.

SSD On your budget I think you should get one. Options: Crucial M4 64GB $112, reliable and fast. Crucial M4 128GB $215, faster than the 64GB version. OCZ Agility 3 120GB $120 AR, 'cheap' SSD space, pretty fast but not quite as reliable as M4. Still, the price is hard to beat.

What is this Cooler Master Coolwave case? Do you mean Wavemaster?

With 2500K and a Z68 board you still have the option to overclock even if you don't plan to. I'd say it's worth it to have that option, you could change your mind later and add an aftermarket cooler for overclocking. It's pretty easy. You won't need an aftermarket cooler unless you OC.

What kind of games do you play? Fast-paced games would benefit from a 120hz monitor.
 
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nsavop said:
5- you most likely will need revised mounting hardware for socket 1155 to use your cooler.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'll look into that. Since I don't plan on overclocking, apart from playing around with the onboard turbo boost, factory heating likely wont be a problem, right? So I may not even need to worry about the nautilus. Ill look into the revised mounting either way though.

thanks for you input nsavop!
 
lehtv said:
CPU Good

Mobo Good

GPU Get Sapphire 6950 2GB for $245. It has a dual-BIOS switch and is likely to unlock into a 6970. (FYI it's the same GPU on both, 6950 simply has 10% of its shaders disabled and clock speed lowered.) Or get XFX 6950 for lifetime warranty.

RAM You won't need 16GB. A gaming system will only ever need 8GB. G.Skill RipjawsX 1600mhz 2x4GB $30.

PSU XFX 650 $45 AR. Equivalent to Corsair TX650 V2 but with 4 PCIe connectors; can handle 6950 crossfire if needed (though your board isn't compatible; if you want to retain the crossfire possibility, get Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 $115 AR).

HDD Hitachi 7K1000.D 750GB $110. Fast new single-platter drive.

SSD On your budget I think you should get one. Options: Crucial M4 64GB $112, reliable and fast. Crucial M4 128GB $215, faster than the 64GB version. OCZ Agility 3 120GB $120 AR, 'cheap' SSD space, pretty fast but not quite as reliable as M4. Still, the price is hard to beat.

What is this Cooler Master Coolwave case? Do you mean Wavemaster?

With 2500K and a Z68 board you still have the option to overclock even if you don't plan to. I'd say it's worth it to have that option, you could change your mind later and add an aftermarket cooler for overclocking. It's pretty easy. You won't need an aftermarket cooler unless you OC.
Click to expand...

Oops, yes, I meant wavemaster. I'll look into the new PCU/MB combo you mentioned. For now I am going to use a single graphics card. But would like to have the option for crossfire in the future.

As for RAM, I have a preference for Corsair, and since the 16GB is the same price as g.skill 8gb (29.99 local black friday deal) I think I'll stick with that.

And, at risk of being flamed, what is an SSD?
 
nsavop said:
I can pick up a 32" LCD HDTV for much cheaper- $177
Click to expand...
It can work if (1) the resolution is comparable (1920x1080 or 1080p) and (2) the monitor has a "gaming mode" or something, so it doesn't lag all the time.

If you're near a Micro Center and buy a 2500k + a z68 mobo early tomorrow, you can get $50 off the CPU and $60 off a mobo. They don't have your exact mobo, though. Pretty much any Z68 will do, even micro-atx ones; you just need to review the extra features and decide what's right for you.

If you buy from Micro Center another day this month it will only cost you $30 above the BF deal.

This XFX PSU is $66 AR with shipping.
 
nsavop said:
Oops, yes, I meant wavemaster. I'll look into the new PCU/MB combo you mentioned. For now I am going to use a single graphics card. But would like to have the option for crossfire in the future.
Click to expand...
Sorry, had to edit my post a bit, check it out 😛

ken g6 said:
This XFX PSU is $66 AR with shipping.
Click to expand...

$45 AR with shipping from ncix... for $70 better to go with TX750 V2
 
azaxa said:
Hmm, I'll look into that. Since I don't plan on overclocking, apart from playing around with the onboard turbo boost, factory heating likely wont be a problem, right? So I may not even need to worry about the nautilus. Ill look into the revised mounting either way though.

thanks for you input nsavop!
Click to expand...

Right. Aftermarket coolers are only needed if you want to push your 2500k past 4GHZ. You can always pick up a Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus for $25 later if you want to play around with overclocking.

Also aftermarket coolers are generally quieter then the stock intel cooler if that matters to you at all.
 
SSD : Solid State Disk. Flash memory in a HDD package. It's slower than RAM, but faster than any single HDD. (High-speed RAID drives are comparable, but pricier.) It's good for booting your OS from.

lehtv said:
HDD Hitachi 7K1000.D 750GB $110. Fast new single-platter drive.
Click to expand...
This is weird. From the Newegg link:

Capacity: 750GB
"The Deskstar 7K1000.D is Hitachi's first one-disk, 1TB, 7200 RPM 3.5-inch hard drive"
😵

Lehtv has the right PSU. This thread is updating really fast!
 
Ken g6 said:
It can work if (1) the resolution is comparable (1920x1080 or 1080p) and (2) the monitor has a "gaming mode" or something, so it doesn't lag all the time.

If you're near a Micro Center and buy a 2500k + a z68 mobo early tomorrow, you can get $50 off the CPU and $60 off a mobo. They don't have your exact mobo, though. Pretty much any Z68 will do, even micro-atx ones; you just need to review the extra features and decide what's right for you.

If you buy from Micro Center another day this month it will only cost you $30 above the BF deal.

This XFX PSU is $66 AR with shipping.
Click to expand...

I don't believe we have a micro center here in southern AZ. Maybe Online? MONEY is my biggest influence on this build, PERFORMANCE second. So if Fry's Electronics (where I'm going in t-minus 3hrs 5mins) has a similar deal, I will likely buy it. I'm glad to see that basically any z68 will do..

I'll give an update once I go to the sale. For now all that's on my shopping list is:
16gb Corsair Ram, 4x4, $29.99
23" LCD monitor + stand, $177, $0 for stand
Plus other random stuff not related to my build.

And What games will I be playing?
Mostly: Skyrim, BF3, a few of the newer need for speed games. Other games like this.
My hope is that I can play all of these will maxed out graphics and nice FPS. Does this build seem reasonable for my demands?
 
Ken g6 said:
This thread is updating really fast!
Click to expand...

Too fast for me to keep up in responding! 🙂


nsavop said:
1- Yes all parts are compatible
2- Nothing wrong with that HIS 6970 but you could go with the Sapphire 6950 which should unlock to a 6970 with the bios switch, also comes with free deus ex game for $244.99 AR.
3- 16gb of ram is generally not needed but for that price its not bad.
4- everything else looks good!
5- you most likely will need revised mounting hardware for socket 1155 to use your cooler.
Click to expand...

As for the graphics card, how would I go about switching the bios to unlock? I would almost rather drop the extra $40 for the 70, unless switching the bios on the 50 has guaranteed equal performance.

The GPU I listed comes with Deus Ex also 🙂
 
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If you get the 16GB RAM it'd be a good idea to sell two of the sticks on ebay or to a friend, you'll never use more than 8GB. You'd end up with basically free 8GB ram.

As for the graphics card, how would I go about switching the bios to unlock?
Click to expand...
There is a BIOS switch on the Sapphire card. Simply flip that switch and you've unlocked it. AFAIK the unlocking will keep 6950 clocks, so to get 6970 speeds you still need to manually OC from 800->880MHz. That should be very easy to do.

FYI, Skyrim will benefit from CPU overclocking immensely, it's so CPU dependent.

CPU&


Overclocking would give you almost the same % increase in FPS as in clock speed, all you need is an aftermarket cooler. If you can get brackets for your old cooler that'd be fine probably, alternatively if you already have brackets for LGA775, you could try mounting it on Asrock Z68 Extreme3 which has mounting holes for LGA775 coolers.

Battlefield 3 online is also CPU heavy. Online, you'll want to turn settings down as much as needed to achieve 60fps constant. On medium settings, there's a big difference between 2500K and 2600K in 64-player Conquest, see here. Note that this is 8 threads vs 4 threads on similar clock speeds, with a 6990 (~ 2x 6950). But I'd expect overclocking 2500k's 4 threads to improve performance noticeably as well, even with only one 6950.
 
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azaxa said:
I'm not familiar with SSDs, what would be the purpose of having one?
Click to expand...

Basically an SSD is the only part that you can buy today that is literally 10 times faster than the old part (HDD). It immensely improves your systems responsiveness when you're doing a lot at once.

It looks like you've got some good advice from lehtv, Ken, and nsavop on the parts. Let us know how many of those deals you were able to snag!
 
Alright guys, I bought all of the parts! About half from Fry's, other half from newegg. I changed a few parts based on what was available in stock, can return anything for 2 weeks if there's problems with anything.

HERE WE GO 🙂

CPU
Intel Core i5 2500k Sandybridge, $199.99 from NewEgg.

Power Supply
Corsair TX650w from NewEgg for $64.99.

Mother Board
Asus P8Z68-V LE from Fry's for $139.99. This board is pretty.

Ram
Kingston HYPERX DDR3 8GB from Fry's for $19.99

The Corsair 16GB for $29.99 was completely sold out in under 5 minutes.......

HDD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB, 7200rpm from Fry's for $139.99.

Graphics
I went for the HIS Radeon HD 6970 from NewEgg for $289.99 + Deus Ex so I can run it at factory specs for now compared the the 50.

Sound
Going to try out the onboard sound. Maybe recycle the 5+ yo sound card.

SDD
Samsung 830 Series SATA 6gb/s, 64GB from Fry's for $99.99 + Arkham City.
*What are the best programs for me to add onto this for optimized performance? OS?

Case
Cooler Master Elite 430 Black from Fry's for FREE.

DVD
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner from NewEgg for $17.99.

Monitor
Waited in a separate line for 5 hours... Great feeling when I finally picked her up. HP LED HDMI 23", 1920x1080 from Fry's for $118, plus free wall mount.

OS
Still have to buy... Still Windows 7 Pro.

The line up of free items was pretty crazy... Free Logitech iPhone speaker decks, bluetooth headsets... Gotta love black friday!

What do you guys think of this revised build? Like I said, not too late to return if there are any major issues you guys see.

Thanks again!

mfenn said:
Basically an SSD is the only part that you can buy today that is literally 10 times faster than the old part (HDD). It immensely improves your systems responsiveness when you're doing a lot at once.

It looks like you've got some good advice from lehtv, Ken, and nsavop on the parts. Let us know how many of those deals you were able to snag!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I also mentioned this in the build under SDD, but what would be best to run on the SDD? OS, Games?
 
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The only big issue I see with those parts is the memory. Some Kingston HyperX is 1.65V, whereas you want 1.5V for Sandy Bridge. The rest looks good to me.

As for what to put on the SSD, only having a 64GB one makes it kind of easy. OS, frequently used applications (web browser, email, Office, etc.) and maybe a few games that you play a lot.
 
mfenn said:
The only big issue I see with those parts is the memory. Some Kingston HyperX is 1.65V, whereas you want 1.5V for Sandy Bridge. The rest looks good to me.

As for what to put on the SSD, only having a 64GB one makes it kind of easy. OS, frequently used applications (web browser, email, Office, etc.) and maybe a few games that you play a lot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, didn't realize that about the ram.

It looks like the i5 also limits the speed to 1333. The G.Skill is sold out, but I found this:
Corsair Vengeance.

It says it is compatible with intel core i5, but runs at 1600. Would I have to set the ram to 1333 in the bios, or is it actually able to run at 1600?
 
i5 does not limit speed to 1333MHz. That is simply the standard speed, but if the motherboard supports faster RAM, it can be up to 2133MHz. H61/H67 chipsets limit speeds to 1333MHz though.
 
lehtv said:
i5 does not limit speed to 1333MHz. That is simply the standard speed, but if the motherboard supports faster RAM, it can be up to 2133MHz. H61/H67 chipsets limit speeds to 1333MHz though.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks. I returned the hyperx ram, and I'll order the corsair vengeance. My mb supports 1600 so I should be fine, then.

Too bad it's too late to pick up the new ram with the BF sale! I did however see a 3TB hdd for $161.. Open box return that they tested and still has full factory/store warranty. I picked it up and will return the Seagate. Couldn't pass it up! It's a Hitachi Deathstar 5400RPM, but Newegg reviews gave it 4 eggs. I sacrificed the 7200RPM seagate since I go through memory so fast on my computers, the extra 2TBs will come in handy 🙂
 
As long as you have an SSD for the operating system, a 5400RPM storage HDD is fine. BTW it's a Deskstar. Deathstar would be a certain spaceship from a certain movie 😛
 
lehtv said:
As long as you have an SSD for the operating system, a 5400RPM storage HDD is fine. BTW it's a Deskstar. Deathstar would be a certain spaceship from a certain movie 😛
Click to expand...

Haha, the old, old Hitachi Deskstars used to overheat and die often, thus deathstar 😉
 
mfenn said:
I would have probably gotten something that costs a little less like this G.Skill and also doesn't have tall heatspreaders that get in the way of coolers. The Vengeance will be OK if you use the stock cooler though.
Click to expand...

The main reason I chose the Vengeance was it clearly stated it is compatible with my cpu--less headache for a first time builder. Depending on how well it performs on Skyrim/BF3, I don't plan on overclocking so I will just use the stock cooler for now. Judging by the looks of the Nautilus 500 in my current pc, it looks like it'll fit on my new build okay with a new adapter if I ever need to use it.

Very impatient waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive on Wedesnday & Thursday... I'll post pics once I have it together.

Also, I ended up buying a new soundcard:
ASUS XONAR_DG 5.1 Channels.
$14.99 after rebate. Had a hard time finding a low end one without horrible reviews regarding running on Windows 7!
 
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