First Build, need input

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ch3co

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THIS THREAD IS NOW "CLOSED". THIS MEANS THAT ANYONE CAN STILL POST IN IT, BUT IT IS UNLIKELY I WILL READ IT. IF ALL GOES WELL, THIS THREAD WILL NOT BE "OPENED" AGAIN UNTIL NEXT SPRING WHEN I AM READY TO PURCHASE ALL OF THESE.

Hi. I am currently making plans for my first custom built PC. If you want more information on why I'm doing this, as well as an estimated budget, check out this thread ri' har.

So, my main goals for this rig are basically twofold. The first is gaming. I'm mainly going to be playing TF2, DoD, EVE, Tribes, and Planetside 2. I'm shooting for 60 FPS on mid to high graphical settings. I'm not concerned about singleplayer games, since the only one I'd play for any extended period of time is Skyrim. Second is graphic design and/or animation (probably using Source Filmmaker, I don't intend on making a career of animation). I'm particularly interested in trying out Source Filmmaker, and I'd like to have a machine that doesn't take 8 hours to render a 5 minute scene at 720p. Those are the two main things that my current laptop doesn't do now that I've wanted for a while.

I'm not looking to build the most powerful beasty machine ever, just something that is powerful enough to do what I plan to be doing in college, which is when I'm intending to have this built by. I plan on keeping my laptop for general use (word processing, web surfing, etc.) and use in class.

So, now that that's out of the way, time for the actual hardware. I have been doing some preliminary research, and come up with a rough idea of the spec I want. This is more to kinda determine the level of hardware I want to use, and is subject to change.
Note: * = Stuff I most uncertain of and need help with, due to lack of knowledge or issues with price. And all prices listed are current prices from Newegg.com.

CPU: Intel i5 2500 Sandy Bridge @ 3.3 GHz, not planning on OCing it. $209.99
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V LGA1155* $189.99
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB), 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 $49.99
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 $189.99
PSU: Cosair CX600 600W $69.99
Storage: Corsair 60GB SSD for OS/Programs, West. Digital 1TB for Games/File Storage $79.99/119.99
Case: Corsair Carbide 400R $99.99
Monitor: ASUS VS Series VS228H-P Black 21.5" (1920x1080)* %149.99
CPU Cooler: Whatever comes with the CPU*
Keyboard: Razer Arctosa
Mouse: SteelSeries Kana

Not including the mouse and keyboard, using current prices at Newegg.com, and including shipping, this current rig rig comes in at $1,178.57. Which is fine if I'm splitting the cost with my parents, but way too much to pay for by myself. But it's under $1200, so I can deal with it.

So, just to review, I need input on my choice of mobo, CPU cooler, and monitor. Any other comments, suggestions, or improvements would be helpful as well. Also, if possible, I'd like to keep this under $1200, as stated above.

P.S. I know I'm thinking ridiculously far ahead, but I like planning ahead, and plus, I'd like to get it finalized as soon as possible so that I can know what kind of money I'm going to need to have saved up.
 
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For $10 more, the 2500k is easily worth the upgrade. Overclocking that processor is about the easiest thing you can do. Free performance for little price. Especially with you requiring some horsepower to render, this would be a big improvement imo.

Motherboard, you could get away with a cheaper one. This is great bang for your buck:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

I would get cheaper ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...yMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

Same speeds and voltage with low profile heat sinks so there is no chance of issue with an aftermarket cpu cooler.

As for cpu cooler, great cheap option is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Vast improvement over stock cooler. Will allow you to overclock the 2500k quite a bit with no worries.

As for monitor, I feel you could go bigger. I currently use a 30", so 21.5" seems pretty small. 23 or 24" would be the sweet spot imo.

Cheaper option at gpu with similar performance would be

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150561

You could also get a away with a cheaper psu with less wattage such as the cx500. Another decent deal atm would be:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093
 
Is that motherboard compatible with either GPU? It doesn't a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, and that's what the 560 interfaces with. And the 6870 interfaces with a 2.1 x16, which I didn't even know existed.

Also, just so you know, I'm using these prices as a way to guess at what this thing will cost. Most of the prices for this stuff will probably drop by next year, which is when I'm planning on building it. I just wanna get the spec down now, so I can have an idea of how much I need to save up. Still thanks for the advice.

While I'm thinking about it, is there a guide on the forums on overclocking, and if not, can you point me in the direction of a good guide for someone completely new to building PCs or overclocking. Preferably one that is up to date at least with the Sandy Bridge chipset.
 
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All the pcie slots are backwards compatible so it is not a problem for any gpu to work with that motherboard. As for building next year, the landscape will have changed quite a bit by then. Thus, you will definitely need to come back next year and post closer to the date you plan to actually purchase since recommendations could easily change.

There are plenty of guides. Check the stick on this forum for a building guide by phobus. Google search will bring back a lot of stuff as well. Videos don't hurt either.

For overclocking, you can again simply do a google search. Here is an example:

http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/over...-overclocking-guide-beginners.html#post110576

Overclock.net is another forum you can do some searches for guides.
 
As Huck said, a lot of the prices change often even within weeks of each other. The week you plan on buying it would be a good time to post, then we would be able to find the best deals for you off of newegg/tigerdirect. An example would be I saw a 6950 2gb on sale for $200 with a mail in rebate.
 
As for HDD's also, look into the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. I used to be a western digital guy, but these spinpoint drives are amazing.

As for your GPU, consider bumping up to the 560ti. There isn't much of a price difference.
 
So, decided I wanted to get some more questions answered, so that I can go forward from this point with a very good idea of what level of tech I need. Just to warn to this will be a long post, since I want to try to bet as detailed as possible. I'm essentially gonna reiterate what i said in OP, but more thorough.

First up, uses. These are ordered in terms of time spent on the use and what will be most affected by hardware:
1. Gaming.
Games I will be playing are TF2, DoD:S, EVE, Tribes Ascend, Planetside2, Skyrim, Borderlands 1&2.
Games I may play are CS:S, BF3, Crysis 2, GW2 whatever else may come out that strikes my fancy.
I'd like to be able to run all of the games in the first list at at least 60fps, on mid to high end settings. The second list is less likely, so I'm not as worried about them.

2. Animation/rendering. I'm in the beta of Source Filmmaker now, but cannot run it well on my laptop. Once I get this, I will be doing a lot more. I will probably be rendering at 720p. I may also do so FRAPSing or capturing replays for MP games.

3. Programming: I plan on going for a Comp. Science major, so I'm going to be a lot of programming.

4. Graphic Design: Though I plan on majoring in Comp. Science, I may try to get a minor in some form of graphical design. So doing stuff with PS, Illustrator, stuff like that.

5. Word processing, web surfing, etc.: I plan on keeping my laptop, so I'll be using it for this mostly.

Lots of research has been done, and I have come up with a new rig. I mostly used the Newegg user reviews, and when necessary, Tom's Hardware reviews. This is at current Newegg prices, and assuming I have a roughly $1300 dollar budget. I know that many of these prices will drop when I actually go to buy them.

CPU: Intel i5 2500K Sandy Bridge @ 3.4 GHz, planning on OCing it. $219.99
Mobo: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 $119.99
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB), 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 $49.99
GPU: ASUS GTX 560 DCII OR XFX Double D HD 6870 (both 1GB) $189.99
PSU: OCZ ZT Series 750W $109.99
Storage: Muskhin 120GB SSD for OS/Programs, Seagate Barracuda 1TB for Games/File Storage $89.99/89.99
Case: Corsair Carbide 400R $99.99
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $29.99
Optical Drive: ASUS BD/DVD/CD $54.99

Including shipping, this comes to $1,066.54. This does not include monitor or input devices.

In terms of input devices, I was thinking:

Keyboard: Logitech G110 Wired Backlit Mechanical $49.99
Mouse: (choose one) Razer DeathAdder - 5 Button, Optical, 3500 DPI, wired $42.99
Logitech G9x - 5 button, Laser, 5700 DPI, wired $59.99

And for monitor, I don't have any options in mind, but from what I have read and prices I've seen, I'm looking for 1920x1080 native, 23", DVI or HDMI input. I can deal with tilt only, but I'd prefer to be able to adjust height and swivel as well. And below $300 dollars if possible.

Now, besides advice on choice of mouse and video card, suggestions on what would be good for what I plan on doing, and whether this matches it, would be great. Don't worry about price, as long as its not anything ridiculous like $400 or $500.

EDIT: I forgot to ask about compatibility. The most important question is: does the PSU have enough headroom for overclocking? Also, are there any potential bottlenecks in that spec. And I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for headsets. Currently I'm considering the Steelseries Siberia v2 Circumaural. If anyone has any experience with these, let me know what you think of them.

EDIT #2: Did some more research on monitors, and purely based on Newegg reviews, narrowed it down to these two:
1. ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" HDMI $179.99
2. Acer G235HAbd 23'' DVI $139.99
Both are 1920x1080. I'm planning on getting the ASUS, but I'd like you all's input.
 
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Can't afford it. I planned the spec keeping in mind id also be buying a monitor and keyboard, as well as possibly a mouse and headset.

Also, I know that the mobo has an 8.1 channel sound chip on it. But is there any merit to buying an aftermarket sound card. And if so, what are a few good ones?
 
Build looks fairly good. Couple things I'd change up:

If you were factoring in $190 for the gpu with a 560 or 6870, I would definitely agree with muffs to upgrade to the 6950 for $200 or $190 AR. If you are looking to play skyrim and borderlands 2 on high at 60 fps, this is something that you will need. You will still probably not be able to maintain 60 fps at 1080p, but it will definitely be closer. You could even bump up to a new 7850. One is currently going for $220 which isn't a bad upgrade either. But if you were worried about upgrading to a 6950, than this is definitely out of your range.

As for PSU, not a huge fan of OCZ. It is a decent unit, but I believe there are better for the price. If you need modular, then this looks to be a solid unit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817189027

Unfortunately, there are no reviews of this specific unit. However, OEM appears to be the same as Silverstone Gold Evolution which had great reviews:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=275

However, without seeing it opened up, it is not possible to know if they used some cheaper capacitors or something to cut cost, and the 2 years warranty is a little short (though the silverstone only grants 3 years). 80 plus GOLD is amazing for the price. Still a small gamble given no professional reviews on the unit.

Otherwise, you could go with the strong corsair:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

A trusty seasonic oem with a 5 year warranty from corsair. This is the safer choice though it is not modular.

For your ssd, I would wait for a deal on a crucial m4 128gb or samsung 830 128gb. Better, more reliable units. They have been found recently at several times for $90 or lower when sales go on.

For a sound card, it only will be useful if your headset is analog, not usb. They can make a difference. I would probably recommend a cheap asus xonar one, the dg or ds. Both should be a decent step up over onboard sound.

Not sure on headsets, I will leave that to someone else.

For monitor, I hear good things on Asus, so that is probably the better choice.
 
That ASUS monitor is actually the exact model I own, and it's a gorgeous display. I would definitely take up the ASUS over the Acer. You can also adjust the swivel but I'm looking at the base now and it seems like you'd be out of luck adjusting its height -- I see no option to do so anywhere, but that's what stacking boxes are for I guess. lol

My brother owned the Siberia v2 (actually, I bought it for him as a birthday gift) and it lasted a good two years before the thing finally crapped out on him. I don't pay attention to how well he treats his headsets, but he said he ran over the cord and dropped it several times over the course of those two years. Fairly solid construction too according to him.

It's probably worth noting that I got to listen to some rock music with them on and the sound is pretty good in those things -- they had some relatively good, thumping bass even on the onboard 5.1 with the motherboard in my brother's rig -- so if you were going to buy an analog headset to pair with a soundcard like the Xonar DG / DS, the Siberia v2 will serve you well.

Though as an alternative, it'd probably cost as much (maybe less) to get a Logitech G95 (USB) headset over an analog set with a soundcard. It might not sound quite as good though, I can't say for sure -- I guess that'd depend on which soundcard and analog headset you get, though, but it's something to consider. The G95 sounds really darn good and the mic is the best I've worked with, but the plastic bridge that holds the earcups together seems to be fairly cheap -- the bridge on my G95 broke 2.5 years into owning them even though I was being careful with them.

Other than that, Huck, Muffin and House got the rest of your build covered! The only suggestions I think you might wanna consider is maybe picking up these kickass Samsung RAM sticks for the same price, since their base performance at least matches that Corsair kit and the Samsung's ability to be tweaked far surpass that of those Corsair sticks, but that's just a relatively modest nitpick.

Other than that, solid build, but I think the suggestions huck/muffin/house provided are really important to consider.
 
OK, having looked over all the suggestions, I went back and did some more research. I ended up changing almost all the things you suggested I change. Here is how my Newegg Cart currently stands (no, I'm not buying today, just needed to know a total + shipping):

CPU: Intel i5 2500K Sandy Bridge @ 3.4 GHz, planning on OCing it. $219.99
Mobo: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 $119.99
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB), 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 $45.99
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 2GB (OC Edition) $199.99
PSU: XCLIO STABLEPOWER GOLD 750W $99.99
Storage: Muskhin 120GB SSD for OS/Most Used Programs, SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB for Programs/File Storage $89.99/89.99
Case: Corsair Carbide 400R $99.99
CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $29.99
Optical Drive: ASUS BD/DVD/CD $54.99
Monitor: ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" HDMI $179.99
Keyboard: Logitech G110 USB Wired Backlit Mechanical $69.99
Extras: Two OKGEAR 18" SATA 6 Gb/s Cables

With shipping, at current prices, the whole lot comes to $1,320.69. This is roughly the same as the spec before I changed any of the components. If I were to go with the GTX 560 I had before, it would drop to $1,290.69, about a $30 drop.

I am keeping an eye on the Crucial SSD that Huck suggested, and an ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 sound card.

This is probably going to be the last time I post in this thread until next year, when I plan to buy all of this. And yes, I know that prices will drop by then, I was using this thread as a way to get feedback on what fits for what I'm planning to do, although I do now have a fairly good idea of the general price structure of PC components today. I'll leave the thread for another day or so, and then I will edit the OP to let everyone know that if they want to post in here, great, the more feedback the better; but I probably won't respond to it. Thanks again to you guys for all the help and feedback :thumbup1:
 
Oh, and sorry to runo for not choosing the samsung RAM. The GSKILL had an order of magnitude more reviews, and 99% of them were 5 Eggs.
 
ch3co said:
Oh, and sorry to runo for not choosing the samsung RAM. The GSKILL had an order of magnitude more reviews, and 99% of them were 5 Eggs.
Click to expand...

Eh, it's not a big deal, but to be honest I wouldn't trust 90% of the reviews on there; these are the same people who give a product zero eggs because it arrived DOA, lol.

The reason I suggested the Samsung sticks in the first place was because of the professional reviews it got and its benchmarks, plus everyone I know that owns them loves them (I've recommended the same sticks to several non-eGO friends who were building and they're in love). Still though, it's your rig and you'll be happy regardless I'm sure. Grats on the build!
 
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I don't wanna start an argument, but since I don't understand many of the specifications associated with RAM (i.e. CAS Latency, Timings, Memory Bandwith, anything else tested in a pro review), I'd tend to prefer reviews from people who have similar knowledge and use hardware more similar to what I'll be using. And I have had trouble finding a guide/article that actually tells me what most of that stuff is. As such, I go with user reviews.

While I'm thinking about it, I have read a lot of CPU OC guides that include info on OCing RAM as well. Is it generally accepted that you would OC memory if you OC a CPU?
 
You don't have to. Especially with an unlocked multiplier such as the 2500k has. They will overclock independently of one another.
 
OK, thanks. And thanks again to everyone who commented and suggested stuff. I think I have all the info I need going forward. This thread is now "closed" (i.e. You can post, but I will not respond).
I'll see you all next spring!!!
 
I know I said that I wouldn't be posting again in a while, but stuff has happened. Namely, that Asrock mobo I was planning on getting has sold out. Which make me worried that some of my other components may hit end of life before I have the money to buy them. So, I've decided to make a second spec of higher priced, but newer components that are less likely to go end of life, just drop in price (at least that's what I hope). The new spec will be Z77 with an IVB processer. Once I finish research, I will come back with both the builds, updated as of today/tomorrow.
 
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