On September I'll be coming to the US to finish college. I wish to build a rig there, as it is impossible to carry my water cooled system with me. Budget: 2000 Dollars Main uses of intended build: Gaming Parts required: Everything except monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset. Monitor resolution: 1080p. Storage requirements: I won't be storing anything too large. About 50 GB's of music, three or four games, a few films. I have an external HD, so storage is not a problem. will you be overclocking: yes Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): None. Extra information about desired system: I need parts that can be found and ordered online. Also, as I'll be rooming with someone else, noise may prove to be a problem if it becomes too loud.
So far I have this: Mobo: ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $224.99 CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K $219.99 RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D $102.99 GPU: EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ... $479.99 HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $84.99 PSU: Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,Active PFC"Compatible ... $129.99 Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $59.99 CPU Fan: ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm 2 Ball Low-noise Blue LED CPU Cooler $58.24 DVD: LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM $19.99 Total: $1,481.16 tax included. What do you think? Any ideas for improvement?
Change the HDD to a Samsung Spinpoint F3. Where are you planning buying from ? As il take a look at the store for you and advise changes according to stock.
Save money on that motherboard. I know you want to OC but that is a very expensive board and unless you are obsessed about getting those last few Mhz from your CPU you can save alot of money there. Id consider the MSI twin frozr GTX580. The frozr cooler is widely regarded as freakin awesome, and its cheaper than the EVGA one you mentioned. Dont get that RAM, you dont have or need 3 channels. Get 8GB of DDR3 in 2 x 4GB kit. Get the cheapest 1600Mhz RAM you can find. The 3 channel stuff is designed for the older X58 chipsets from the first save of i7's. Sandy bridge uses the normal 2 channel (4 slots) layout. That PSU is overpriced and overpowered while being less efficient than rivals. Get something in the 600-700w range, 80plus silver or even gold if possible. Again, corsair sell great PSU's, as do Enermax, OCZ and seasonic to name a few. All very reliable. I'd go for this one personally. Plenty of wattage and super efficient and apparently very quiet. That CPU cooler looks lovely but it doesnt cool anywhere near as well as the normal tower coolers, which will be better for OC'ing and probably quieter. Scythe, xigmatech, Thermalright all do much better coolers for the same or less money. Could probably save alot of money and have just as good or better performance.
I'm just going to throw it out there. Get the HX-650 by corsair. Excellent PSU. Oh and forget the CNPS9900, just nab a Gelid Tranquilo or if you can find it for a discount a Scythe Mugen 3, they're excellent coolers and not that much worse for less money. If you want the best of the best: Be Quiet Dark Rock, or the Thermaltake Frio. And as much as I want to recommend a GTX580, it isn't worth the extra cash from say a GTX 570 or a HD6970. Of course the GTX 580 is definitively faster, but not justifiably so, move the card one notch down. Get a Fractal R3 if you want some nice silence instead of a wind tunnel. And of course get a 2x8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM. A better alternative suggestion: Get a 1TB Caviar Black And then get a 128GB (or 256GB) SSD. Load your favorite games and OS on the 128GB SSD and you'll see a world of difference.
If you do decide to go GTX 570 then i can recommend the MSI TWIN Frozr II, bought mine a few months ago and i love it, quite a long card though bear that in mind when deciding on your case.
For 1080 a 580 is rather pointless and I agree that the p8p67 deluxe is ott unless trying to OC very precisely. I would recommend a vertex 3 SSd and get the corsair h80 for the CPU cooler. Edit: for a psu get one of the corsair ax units (650/750/850 depending on headroom wanted)
+1 on the Corsair units, i have a few year old HX 520W thats been on every day since i bought it, and its still running strong, however im going to relegate it to my server so it can live a bit of an easier life til the end of its day. Il be buying another corsair to replace it in my main rig though. The vertex 3 120gb is a very good SSD, still quite pricey though. I have the Asus P8P67 EVO mobo, but aint the Z68 boards better ? Where abouts you live in the states and whats your average weather like..as if its hot all the time then the case/cooling will have to be examined a little more.
MSI P67-GD53. Excellent board, although watch out for the fact that it only has one USB 2.0 front panel header. Or the AsRock Extreme 4. That thing is quite good.
Of course, the Z68 boards have marginally better options and at least a $20 USD price premium. If I wanted a M-ATX build then I would consider Z68 maybe, but it isn't worth the money as far as I'm concerned. You only really get integrated graphics and Quick Sync, neither of those really help boost actual performance so there's no point. Plus there's a bunch of awesome P67 Boards already out. However I would consider one of those Gigabyte UD3/UD4 Z68 boards if I could get a discount.
yeah, could trim alot of that down price-wise, then get a better psu, hx or ax series of corsairs as already suggested...don't pay for oc performance on a gpu that you can easily get urself...don't pay for dominators, any 8gb ram kit will do, though as elton will confirm, not sure the 1600 mhz is worth the price premium over 1333...the antex 300, while a solid case, is noisy and if you have to share a dorm or w/e, the illumination isn't ideal...grab a fractal for silence as mentioned already as well...caviar black's are great drives, but not worth the $25 premium over the f3 samsung's...me personally i'd grab the p67-g45 msi board...and since you need silence, the gpu cooler mentioned earlier, the gelid or the sythe, would be the way to go... edit: oh, and second the msi frozr versions...love mine as well...
The G45 is a bit...warm on the southbridge. one of my friends have one, it's a solid board, but the SB chips can get a bit warm. The GD53/GD55 is worth the slight price premium. And Agreed with the Samsungs. Go for DDR3 1600 if you like, but the money you pay isn't any gain at all. Look at anandtech and even Bit Tech's articles.
The board memory is dual channel which i believe that you cannot have 3 x what every spec memory you choose but either 2x or 4 x....so you need to rethink your memory needs to make sure its dual channel ram and not triple channel
confused me for a second, since there technically isn't a "southbridge", just the p67 chipset, but i can see how people can still refer to it as that lol ...the chipset is the same as used on the other boards, and as near as i can tell, uses the exact same heatsink...so the temps shouldn't be different...probably more to do with his case than anything....i've used the board once for a build and had no issues with it... having said that newegg has it for $10 more than it was when i bought it, and only $15 less then the gd55, so yeah, prolly worth it to go that route...but hey, $15 buys a few big macs, so there is that to think of o.0
i have been seduced by the herbs and spices found in their original recipe chicken many times over i'm afraid...lol
Church's fried chicken>KFC. And hahaha, I always forgot that the new chips no longer have southbridges.. Man I'm old.
Okay, thanks for all the help so far. I've changed almost everything. MSI GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) N570GTX Twin Frozr II OC Video Card $354.99 Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $219.99 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $59.99 GELID Solutions Tranquillo CC-TranQ-01-A 120mm Hydro Dynamic CPU Cooler $39.99 Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case $109.99 Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory $49.99 CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W Power Supply $189.99 OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $249.99 LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 $19.99 ASRock Z68 Extreme4 ATX Intel Motherboard $184.99 Grand Total: $1,479.9
