I'm going to be building a pc for gaming. Here are the parts I've been looking at, what do you guys think? CPU: Intel core i5-2500k CPU cooler: Arctic cooling freezer 13 GPU: GeForce Gtx 560ti 1GB Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V LX PSU: Corsair TX750m RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2x4GB) HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda DVD Drive: LiteOn iHAS124 24x Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - I already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, which I'll upgrade at a later date.
my 2p; overkill on the PSU 500-600W is fine which HDD is that ? 2TB seagates are usually "green" drives which are slow and quiet. +1 to an SSD if the green drive is for storage ONLY. If the 2TB is a decent 7200rpm then no issues really.
Pretty good build. You dont need anywhere close to a 750w PSU though. My system is pretty much the same except for a 7850 instead of a 560Ti and under gaming it draws about 200w from the wall, or about 180 (give or take 10w) from the PSU itself. If you want to play it safe, get a 500-600w PSU from a quality vender, save yourself some money. All else being equal it will lower power consumption, especially in idle (or anytime your not fully stressing both your CPU and GPU) as well, and still allow for further upgrades down the line.
I was unsure on what psu I would need, I thought I might just buy this to save me buying a new one when I upgrade in the future. Nevertheless, I'll propably just a 600w instead. My hdd is the green version, so I might get an ssd for the os. What's the minimum storage required for an os (windows 7 Home Premium), and what else would I benefit from storing on it (games, files... Etc.)
SSD should be for the OS, games and any applications that need to be opened quickly. It will speed up loading dramatically. You wont get an FPS increase but loading levels and the game initially will be almost instant. I wouldnt put any files on the SSD (documents, music, pictures etc) these do not require quick access. Although if you use photoshop/cad files that will benefit nbeing on the SSD to work with. Put all unessential programs and the pagefile on the green drive things like office (if you are struggling for space), skype, winamp etc.
Have you considered the 1.2GB 560ti? It's not that much more than the standard but with a very mild over clock will outperform the 570 for less money.
Why the pagefile? If you need to use it much it would be a huge benefit to have it on the SSD (more so than games surely). 64GB will happily fit Windows and some programs on it but if you want games too you'll need 128GB+ (unless you love installing and uninstalling games of course). Crucial M4s are a good price at the moment.
i guess more recently with trim becoming much better and drives read/writes improving then its a minor issue. PF involves large amounts of reading and writing which can reduce the lifespan and performance of the SSD. People used disable PF altogether which is fine providing you have a large amount of RAM or put it on the storage drive instead. Also if you only have a small SSD then PF can take up a nice chunk of that valuable space.
On second thought, the drive isn't actually green, I just assumed it was. It's just says seagate barracuda and has a 7200rpm. Here's the link: http://www.ebuyer.com... I also have a question about the psu. If you have 2 builds exactly the same, except one has a 600w psu, and the other has a 700w psu, which would draw more power? Assuming the system only needs 300w to run, would both PSUs use the same amount of power, and still be as efficient as the other?
5400rpm or 7200rpm is like debating whether to use a slug or a snail to win a race; just get an SSD, you won't regret it.
If you can afford a SSD then get one but it is something which can always be added at a later date. I wouldn't get less than a 128 gig version as you have to have very good housekeeping on the smaller drives to not run out of space.
Not sure if that was aimed at me or not. You suggested that an SSD could be added to the chap's build at a later date. Was just wondering if Windows would complain if he bought an OEM licence and changed the drive. I would assume that the worst case would involve a call to MS to allow the change.
In that scenario, there'd be no Windows complaint as such. Though you'd be better off reinstalling Windows to give the SSD a fresh start.
Unfortunately I don't even have enough money to buy this build, nevermind an SSD. However I will buy a 128gb or possibly a 256gb SSD at a later date when I have the money.
