So I almost have enough cash to build my first rig, but seeing as it's my first rig, I thought I'd post up what I've got so far to make sure everything's good, and to see if there's any improvements to be made. Keep in mind the $2000 includes absolutely everything, including OS, mouse, keyboard, and monitor. I'd love to save cash where possible though, so if there's anything where I could save some money for minimal performance loss, or if there's anything you think I'm going overboard on, let me know. I also don't really have any ideas as to what mouse/keyboard I want. I do know that I want a mechanical keyboard, mostly used for typing, and neither has to be particularly fancy, since I won't be extensively gaming on this rig. Here's what I have so far: Motherboard: MSI P67-GD53 $152.99 CPU: Intel I5-2500k $219.99 GPU: MSI GTX570 Twin Frozr III $369.99 PSU: Antec TruePower 650w $119.99 Case: Fractal Design Define R3 $109.99 RAM: Corsair XMS 8GB $76.99 Cooler: Thermaltake Frio $59.99 HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 1TB $74.99 SSD: Crucial M4 64GB $149.99 DVD Drive: Lite-On DVD Drive $20.99 Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX $83.99 OS: Windows 7 Home Premium $109.99 Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 $9.99 Monitor: Dell U2311H $229.99 Keyboard (possibility): Ultimate Model S Silent Das Keyboard 4135 --------- $1924.86 Budget: $2000 Main uses of intended build: I won't be gaming a lot on it, but I do multi-task quite often and video editting every once in a while. Parts required: Everything, plus monitor, OS, keyboard, and mouse Previous build information (list details of parts): This is going to be my first build. Monitor resolution: 1920x1080 Storage requirements: The 1TB should be fine for now, since I'm surviving on 500GB, but I will probably buy more storage when I have more cash. A 64GB SSD should be fine. Will you be overclocking: Quite probably, although I've never done it before and probably won't be overclocking by a lot. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Nothing out of the ordinary. Thanks, and let me know if I've left out any info! Edit: Oh yeah, anybody know why the Fractal Design Define R3 and MSI P67-GD53 are deactivated on the Canadian NewEgg website? Most other website seem to still have them in stock, so I don't believe they've been discontinued or anything...
Well I saw this earlier and it didn't seem to make sense at the time. Why are you getting the 570 for graphics if you are not going to be gaming much/at all? Do your video editing software suites use a lot of GPU power? Otherwise the build is pretty solid though I personally don't know much/anything about that PSU... but it could be great. As for Canadian Newegg, I don't know... we still have them active on USA Newegg. That keyboard looks pretty cool. I was looking at a split keyboard, I think that might be cool.
Well I would like to future proof the thing as much as possible, as I will occasionally game on it, so I figured I might as well go for a GTX570. My other choice was a GTX560 Ti, but I still had a bit of cash left in my budget so I figured I might as well go for the higher-end card. Also, I believe video-editing softwares do make use of the GPU to do rendering, especially real-time rendering, so things will be a bit speedier if I have a nicer GPU. I'm not 100% on that though, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong. As for the PSU, I'm more woried about whether or not it has enough wattage for my build. I believe it was recommended in Bit-Tech's most recent buyer's guide so hopefully it's good. Thanks for the reply!
guys doing quality video encoding generally use ati or intels 2500k integrated graphics to encode.. it's because it's just faster and quality wise it's same here's a couple of threads that might help http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20439464 http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146228 intels quicksync kicks ass.. seen ati's performance and quality for myself I doubt I'd ever go back to nvidia.. it's all hype, but gaming if that's all your doing- then fine.. huangs got the devs wrapped around his little finger
Hmm interesting, good to know, thanks. However, I will probably end up gaming on the thing, so better safe than sorry I guess. I will however downgrade to a GTX560 TI, since in reality I probably won't be needing a GTX570, and I can save some money to put towards other things. I've worked through absolutely everything I need and this is what I've come up with: It works out to $2329.25 for everything which I can probably live with. If I've forgotten anything, or if something's incompatible, or if you guys have any suggestions for better parts or places where I could save money, I'd be glad to hear them! Thanks!
Everything looks good. Do you have a .edu email address or know a friend with one? You can get Windows 7 Pro for 29.99 through Microsoft's Student Discount Program. Also, it is more than possible to do a full clean install with a Windows 7 Upgrade disk (if you didn't already know). Also, personally, with your budget (and also considering the drop from 570 to 560 in the graphics department) I would try to squeeze in another 64GB SSD for some RAID0 goodness or perhaps a 128GB ssd. 64 is plenty to get that great SSD feeling on your most used programs, windows, and a couple games . . . but more is always better right? Oh and I believe you will be just fine with that many watts for the 560 in case you were still wondering. I ran a 600W PSU with my rig (see sig) for about 3 weeks, I only changed it out because I got the CX850W from Corsair for free through one of my design clients. Is the PSU you are purchasing modular? *edit* The price seems kind of high but I am also having a hard time making out the shopping list, it is pretty small. I see you are purchasing from Newegg, so you are from the US like me... right? Check to see if you have a MicroCenter in your area, they sell the i5-2500K for 179.99 (in store only). That's a good $40 savings for you. *edit 2* Upon closer examination I see you added a bunch of stuff that are not strictly build related (ie mousepads, mouse, keyboard) in which case the price is all good but you can still save at least the money I mentioned above.
Hmm that's a good idea - I'm not a student yet, but I'll definitely check with some friends, thanks! I will look into another 64Gb drive but as it stands my budget is already pretty stretched, so we'll have to see. For my PSU, I believe it's a hybrid, where the mandatory cables are hardwired, while the rest are modular. Unfortunately, I live in Canada and we don't have MicroCenters here. And yes haha, I've added absolutely everything I'll need PC-wise for a while, including an external hard drive, muse, mousepad and keyboard. Thanks for the response!