First time building a computer, input appreciated

T

TheKonkomo

New Member
This is my first time looking at building a computer and these are the parts that i am considering getting, I have had friends help me do this but I want to make sure nothing could possibly go wrong, if anyone is able to offer any advice or suggestions at all it would be much appreciated.

Intel i7 2600K 3.4GHz/8 Cores
4 MB Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA1155/DDR3/USB3/Crossfire
2 x Powercolor HD 6850 Crossfire/1GB RAM
2 x Patriot 8GB Singles 1333Mhz/DDR3/8GB HDD Seagate 1Tb
Case Thermaltake Commander MS-II
Shaw Gaming Viper-1200 1200W/Supports Crossfire
Windows 7 Home Premium

I was wondering whether using an i5 CPU would really have much of an affect on the quality as well as whether or not the power supply needed to be this one, a friend suggested it and I was wondering if I could get away with something a little more energy efficient.

I also am not sure wheter or not I need any aftermarket cooling, I do not intend to overclock or do anything like that but I want to make sure nothing goes wrong with this thing.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Right OK, go for a 2500K rather than a 2600K if you don't need the extra 4 threads (for gaming, you don't) and with the money you save on the CPU spend on a much better power supply. 1200W is complete overkill for this system, get a Corsair TX650, that should power your two Radeon 6850s. On the subject of graphics cards, drop the CrossFire setup and go for one 7850 or 7870 instead, I always recommend one big card over two smaller ones. 16GB of RAM is overkill for gaming, and 2x8GB DIMMs is expensive right now. If you want 16GB, go for 4x4GB, but I'd recommend 8GB via 2x4GB DIMMs.

If you don't intend to overclock, then you will be OK with the stock cooler, but you may still want to invest in something a little better than the stock cooler even if you're not overclocking. However, both the 2500K sand 2600K overclock very well, so why not overclock?
 
I was hoping to use this PC for gaming and video editing for the next few years. Im interested in knowing what benefits the one video card has.

is there much difference between aftermarket cooling apart from fan or liquid cooling?

Thank you for your help I will investigate the Tx650 and video cards suggested.
 
TheKonkomo said:
I was hoping to use this PC for gaming and video editing for the next few years.
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I use the 2500K for video editing and it's a great CPU to use. The 2500K is a great all rounder. However, if you're in no rush, wait two weeks for the new Intel CPUs to come out. Ivy Bridge comes out on April 29th and the i5 3570K is replacing the 2500K. The Ivy Bridge chips will work with the motherboard you have specified, so you wouldn't need to change that.

TheKonkomo said:
Im interested in knowing what benefits the one video card has.
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One 7850 or 7870 is likely going to be faster than two 6850s, the 6850 is kind of a mid-range card whereas the 7870 is higher-end. Also as you'll only have one card, there will be more room in your case should you wish to install anything else such as a sound card, and there will be less heat and noise produced by one card.

What software do you use to edit video? If you use something like Premiere Pro, you may want to consider an NVIDIA card because of CUDA support which allows the graphics card to help render video. The GTX 560 Ti or GTX 570 would be a good choice for you then. However, not all video editing makes use of CUDA, only Premiere Pro and a handful of others do.
 
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Vistakid has got it right. i5-2500K is much better for the value. Go for one graphics card that costs the same as two 6850's.
As for overclocking, ASUS has the best automatic overclocking utility built in the UEFI (BIOS). You can buy the i5-2500K and overclock it to somewhere between 4.2-4.5GHz with one click and the best possible voltage.
I did the same thing with a i7-2600K on a stock cooler to test it, temps didn't go over 75C when Priming for 5+ hours. (4.43GHz did my mobo take it to)
 
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