First Build in over a Decade

M

moorcat

New Member
Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm going to be building for the first time since the late 90s!

My budget is pretty flexible for the most part. I am not overly concerned with price, but I am not going to spend money just for the sake of it either.

Anyway, this is what I have come up with so far, any opinions would be appreciated greatly!

Case - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case -- $60

MoBo - Amazon.com: ASUS P8P67-M PRO LGA 1155 SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 Supported Intel P67 DDR3 2200 Micro ATX Motherboard: Electronics -- $150

Case Fans - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 200mm Blue LED Case Fan -- $44 (2 fans)

CPU - Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K -- $225

CPU fan - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 -- $30

RAM - Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX -- $100

PSU - Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply -- $165

Video Card - Newegg.com - MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card -- $500 (2 cards)

SSD (Boot Drive) - Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G2K5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -- $180

HDD (Storage) - Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive -- $88

OS - Windows 7 Ultimate OEM -- $180

Optical Drive -- Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners -- $18

Total Price -- $1560

I already have a blu-ray drive and monitor.

I think I am ready to go, but if anyone has any input (especially around compatibility since it has been a long time since I have built), it would be much appreciated
 
What would you be using the computer for.Eitherways 8GB RAM is overkill.You can go with a 4GB kit for now and then upgrade if you need more.

Second thing Do not go with a dual GPU setup.When a single card is available of comparable performance.Always prefer a single card as everybody else would advice on this forum.Lesser heat and lesser power and also lesser driver issues.You can go for a single GTX580 or an HD 6990(very expensive but).But go with the GTX 580.

As for memory I would stick to brands like GSkill,Corsair,Patriot,Mushkins.

For the PSU its ok.But even a 600W would do the job untill and unless you plan to sli in future.I would go with a bigger case.Go with a case like a Coolermaster 922 or the antec 900 or the Cooler Master 932 or Antec 1200.Then the case fans will be unecessary
 
mihir said:
What would you be using the computer for.Eitherways 8GB RAM is overkill.You can go with a 4GB kit for now and then upgrade if you need more.

Second thing Do not go with a dual GPU setup.When a single card is available of comparable performance.Always prefer a single card as everybody else would advice on this forum.Lesser heat and lesser power and also lesser driver issues.You can go for a single GTX580 or an HD 6990(very expensive but).But go with the GTX 580.

As for memory I would stick to brands like GSkill,Corsair,Patriot,Mushkins.

For the PSU its ok.But even a 600W would do the job untill and unless you plan to sli in future.I would go with a bigger case.Go with a case like a Coolermaster 922 or the antec 900 or the Cooler Master 932 or Antec 1200.Then the case fans will be unecessary
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up about the video card. I'll take a look at the 580s now.


I was under the impression that Kingston was a good brand for memory, is that not so?

As for the 4GB vs. 8GB. With 8 GB coming in at $100-150 the price is so negligible I'll just put the 8 in now rather than later.
 
Kingston is good as well as GSkill. The GSkill I listed is a bit higher perf. (lower latency), and the lower voltage is a +.
 
Benny Boy said:
Kingston is good as well as GSkill. The GSkill I listed is a bit higher perf. (lower latency), and the lower voltage is a +.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. Didn't even catch that thanks.

Looks like I am ready to order. Hopefully I don't blow it all up! :D Thanks for the input..
 
moorcat said:
Ah, I see. Didn't even catch that thanks.

Looks like I am ready to order. Hopefully I don't blow it all up! :D Thanks for the input..
Click to expand...

Did you change the case?
If you are going for a dual card that case is small.Checkput the cases I listed.
And what about the GPU which one are you going for?
 
mihir said:
Did you change the case?
If you are going for a dual card that case is small.Checkput the cases I listed.
And what about the GPU which one are you going for?
Click to expand...

That's the last sticking point. I am trying to research your advice about the 580 vs. the 560s.

I measured the dimensions of my workspace and the 922/932 might be a bit too big.

I did like your suggestion about the 580 because I suppose I could always throw another one in later if i want to upgrade.

How do you find out about the size of the cards and whether they'll fit in a specific case?
 
It would fit but two card but the 2 cards will completely fill the case.
As for checking the size try both the dimensions of the case on its official site and also the gpus dimensions.

And always go for a single card and the GTX580 is a beast of a card there is nothing it cant play play without a breaking a sweat.No need to sli.

And in future if you need more performance you can always sli but even in that case selling your old card and getting a new single card is preferred.Its not only me who is prejudiced against 2 cards but everyone on the forum will gve you same advice.
I own a GTX275 and till now I dont see any need to upgrade.With a GTX 580 you wouldnt see any need to upgrade for a long time
 
mihir said:
It would fit but two card but the 2 cards will completely fill the case.
As for checking the size try both the dimensions of the case on its official site and also the gpus dimensions.

And always go for a single card and the GTX580 is a beast of a card there is nothing it cant play play without a breaking a sweat.No need to sli.

And in future if you need more performance you can always sli but even in that case selling your old card and getting a new single card is preferred.Its not only me who is prejudiced against 2 cards but everyone on the forum will gve you same advice.
I own a GTX275 and till now I dont see any need to upgrade.With a GTX 580 you wouldnt see any need to upgrade for a long time
Click to expand...

I'll take another look at the 922 vs. the 912 for size again before I order. I didn't realize size would be an issue; that 912 seemed big to me. Thanks for the heads up.
 
I think I will go ahead and grab the 922, thanks for that bit of advice. From what I am reading it already comes with 2 x 200mm and a 120mm fan installed on it? So I shouldn't need any extra case fans?
 
One last question before I order: What's the performance difference between the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k? Worth the $110 upgrade?
 
moorcat said:
One last question before I order: What's the performance difference between the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k? Worth the $110 upgrade?
Click to expand...
Definitely putting 110$ for the 2600k is not worth it as it will just give you the hyperthreading technology with 4 extra threads and extra 100MHz Base clock.
 
moorcat said:
One last question before I order: What's the performance difference between the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k? Worth the $110 upgrade?
Click to expand...

The difference is quite noticeable according to the reviews I have read.100MHz lower base clock and then no hyperthreading and also 2mb lesser l3 cache.
You can checkout the benchmarks from google.
But for gaming it wont make much of a difference but for tasks like video encoding and etc the 2600k is way faster.Even the 1055t is better than the 2500k for video encoding since the 1055t has 2 cores more.

But if gaming then 2500k and 2600k wont make much of a difference.But for applications utilizing multiple threads I woul go for the 2600k.
 
moorcat said:
Thanks for the heads up about the video card. I'll take a look at the 580s now.


I was under the impression that Kingston was a good brand for memory, is that not so?

As for the 4GB vs. 8GB. With 8 GB coming in at $100-150 the price is so negligible I'll just put the 8 in now rather than later.
Click to expand...

Kingston is good memory indeed.

Build looks good. As said, 8GB is over-kill, but if you want to do it now, no problem. You don't need the extra fans, the case you are buying should have plenty. If, however, you really want the extra fans, be sure to check how the fans are setup now, as they have already been setup well. For example, dont add a fan on the back as intake if the other one is exhaust.
 
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