Testing The Waters

skidude

skidude

Active Member
Hey guys, been what seems like forever since I've posted here but over the past 3 years I've been stuck with a gaming laptop that I regret buying. Last weekend the thing completely gave out (probably either failed graphics cards or a dead motherboard, not sure which because I don't have known good ones to swap them out with) so I'm in the market for a new desktop. My budget is no more than $1200, so I'm sort of testing the waters with different build configs on newegg. I must have done like 10 different wish lists in the past week, and this is the one I think is best:

BIOSTAR TP67XE Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138317

Intel i7 2600-K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

EVGA GTX 570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

GSKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

OCZ ZS Series 750W PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341049

CoolerMaster Storm Scout
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

Plus a simple DVD Burner, 1TB SATA 6.0GB/s HDD, Zalman heatsink, etc. for a total of $1131.

Any comments about or experience using any of these components, or potentially any viable alternatives that may yield better gaming performance without jacking the price up above budget? It's been years since I've built a gaming desktop (my last desktop graphics card was an X1900XTX :rolleyes: ) so I've been out of the loop for a bit. I'd also consider waiting for the next series of NVidia or Radeon GPU's but I'm not quite sure how far off they are.

Cheers guys
 
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Are you doing any heavy rendering or multitasking? If not, an i5 2500k will suit you just fine. Its a very powerful processor.

You can get RAM with better timings than that for a little more money. And 1600 is listed as overclocked in your motherboard specs, so you might want to consider changing that.

OCZ are an OK brand of power supply, but better ones are corsair, antec, PC power and cooling, silverstone, seasonic, and xfx. You only need about 650w, unless you're thinking of SLI.

And SSDs are really popular as an OS drive. I have one and it was a great buy.

Do you have an OS at all? If you haven't tried win 7, its great. I just got it a couple months ago and I love it. I never thought I'd part with XP, but I'm glad I did.
 
Yeah I work at a computer retailer so I get all my programs for free, so I'll be running Win 7 64. I was on the fence with RAM and was considering spending a little more for better timings, so I think I'll swap that out with some 1333. As for the CPU, I really want an i7 for its power.

My other PSU idea was a Corsair 650w (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005) but I may potentially make this an SLI system in the future.
 
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Nothing besides increased performance. :) There are many boards out there that support 1600 RAM without OCing.

Like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128487

Support 2166 RAM, even.

I know the 2600k is really powerful, but the main difference between it and the 2500k is hyperthreading, which is only used in very CPU intense programs. Just saying. Could save you a hundred bucks.

That's a good PSU, but yeah, if you're gonna SLI, might as well get a 750w.
 
I've heard end of the year/beginning of next year. The 570 will destroy anything you throw at it so you'll be safe for a couple of years.
 
Good, because that's really the only thing staying my hand right now. Always nervous that as soon as I buy new hardware they release the next gen.
 
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