New gaming build

[bamdaman14]

Hey guys these are the parts I have picked out for my build, let me know if you have any recommendations or what you think of it.

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty P67 PROFESSIONAL

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

SSD: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB

PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series HX850

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm

Video Card: EVGA GTX 580

 

[erixx]

looks full of awesomeness! and ready for all kind of games from angry birds up to BF3

 

[twicksisted]

I would get the ASUS equivalent motherboard, but thats just me
Also the UEFI bios on this board has a stupid looking picture background of Fatality staring at you when youre in the bios...

 

[caleb]

I'd also go with the ASUS P87. There are a lot of good opinions of it around TPU.
Also I think its worth waiting for the "just around the corner" AMD CPUs. ^^

 

[entropy13]

What's your specific budget? US$ or euro or GBP? Where would you be buying them?

 

[Shihab]

+1 for the ASUS motherboard.

What are you going to use for storage ? I don't think you'll live with only 64GB. SSD or not.

 

[theeldest]

Also +1 for ASUS.

And on the SSD, I'd go up or down but 64GB is a strange size. IIRC, Intel's SSD caching supports up to 40GB, and anything over gets partitioned to a separate drive.

With that 64Gig you'll have a 20GB partition. Not much reason for 20GB (that I can see, at least). So go up to something like 120GB for a decent sized partition, or down to 40GB so you're not wasting money.

(does this make sense to anyone else? I've got a wicked cold and my brain is working at half speed today)

 

[theeldest]

Ha, just realized you're looking at a P67 board, not Z68. Ignore me.

 

[reverze]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

As the previous posted recommended, go with a 120GB SSD like the one above or you will be a bit disappointed.

Otherwise, that looks like a solid build.

 

[entropy13]

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Tu...
Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/...
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM...
XFX PRO850W XXX Edition Semi-Modular 80 Plus Silve...
OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III ...
MSI N580GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536...

TOTAL: $1630. Only around $50 more than your list in the OP which was around $1580 (case and optical drive not included in that $1580 total).

 

[bamdaman14]

I don't know much about the new Z68 boards you think it's worth it? I was also looking at the Asus Maximus IV extreme. But I agree with the MSI N580gtx great card. I'm probably gonna go with the OCZ vertex 3 for the SSD.

 

[theeldest]

Anandtech had a pretty good review of the Z68 boards. The caching feature worked pretty darn well and really only fails if you run a lot of different programs. (I personally only run BF2, EveOnline, and Firefox in a given month).

I recently got a 120GB Agility 3 and am realizing that managing what's on the drive and what's not is going to be a bit more of an active process than I thought (Steam games alone took up 40GB on my last install).

You will have better performance if you manage the SSD yourself, but you'll also need to work for that performance.

 

[bamdaman14]

I am going to be running alot of different games so it might not be a good idea to get that board then.

 

[mooch37]

I'm looking at a very similar build to the OP, except I'm probably going to go with G.Skill ram because I've heard you don't have much clearance due to the NH-D14. I want to go with Corsair ram too, but I don't want to buy everything and then not be able to fit it underneath the cooler because of the large heat spreaders on the Vengeance series.

 

[Shihab]

I'm looking at a very similar build to the OP, except I'm probably going to go with G.Skill ram because I've heard you don't have much clearance due to the NH-D14. I want to go with Corsair ram too, but I don't want to buy everything and then not be able to fit it underneath the cooler because of the large heat spreaders on the Vengeance series.

Get a smaller HSF. IMO, the difference in cooling between different heatsinks is rarely worth the size. If you ask me, either go with water cooling (simplest ones, Corsair H50, H60, etc), or get a smaller heatsink. Or you could even settle with the stock.
I don't think you'll need a better cooler unless you are going to overclock. and even if you do, water cooling seems the better choice.

 

[theeldest]

On the other hand, the noctua does look pretty badass.

(+1 on the G.Skill comment - G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 S...)

 

[ShiBDiB]

Scratch the SSD and dont get the stupidly overpriced "GAMING FATALITY UBER BOARD".. and save yourself a few bucks

 

[theeldest]

Scratch the SSD!?

I'd have to say that my SSD was one of the most noticeable upgrades I've ever done.

 

[mooch37]

On the other hand, the noctua does look pretty badass.

(+1 on the G.Skill comment - G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 S...)

Would it be better to have two sets of these or just go with this:

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3...

 

[Fourstaff]

If you are going to use the fancy storage in the Z68 board, then don't bother with SSD. Otherwise, get one. Also, you might want to drop down to 2500K, because games currently can't really take advantage of the other 4 threads (yes, you can run background programs etc., but its not worth it imo). We are just about moving towards 2 cores as standard, and 4 for demanding games. I can't see any more than 4 threads yet, but if you really don't mind spending the extra $100 then go for 2600K. The Noctua cooler is a fine beast, but you might want to have something lighter (and cheaper).

 

[theeldest]

On the memory it'll depend on if you're over clocking (and if you're even *looking* at the noctua and the i7 k series I assume you are).

If you want to OC go with 2 dimms of the faster memory. As you add sticks of RAM you put more stress on the memory controller. It'll limit your overclock.

If you're not OCing and want 16GBs of memory, it's really a toss up between the two options. The 4x4GB is guaranteed to work with all 4 sticks together. Getting 2x (2x4GB) isn't guaranteed, but if you're looking at the 1866, you can be pretty sure it'll all run together at 1600 no problem.

Now a lot of these decisions come down to how much you've budgeted for your system. From the looks of it, we're going pretty high end so I'd assume budget is somewhat loose.


Regarding i5 vs i7: Games are starting to ramp up to use more threads. If BF3 is something you're looking forward to it'll most likely thrash any system on ultra settings. (IIRC, Bad Company 2 will use up to 8 threads). The main reason to get the i7 is you have room in your budget but no other upgrade would make much of a difference. If you could put that $100 somewhere else, then do so.

Regarding the SSD: You're dropping about $1500 on a new system. You want it to feel like it's a blisteringly fast high-end system, right? The SSD will make your normal use feel fast and load times will drop quite a bit. I'll use BF3 again (maybe you can guess what game I'm waiting for): Do you hate dropping into a game when other people have already started? Decreasing your load time will help keep this from happening.

 

[bamdaman14]

Would you say that this build is future proof?

 

[hhumas]

awesome setup ... you will get higher rating due to rams

 

[Shihab]

Regarding the SSD: You're dropping about $1500 on a new system. You want it to feel like it's a blisteringly fast high-end system, right? The SSD will make your normal use feel fast and load times will drop quite a bit. I'll use BF3 again (maybe you can guess what game I'm waiting for): Do you hate dropping into a game when other people have already started? Decreasing your load time will help keep this from happening.

I use a 7200RPM WD Caviar Blue and I nearly always load the new map the first on the server :/ You wouldn't believe how long I stay in Black Ops' pre-match. or even back in the days of Battlefield 2 (I smell fanboi-ism)
I agree with ShiBDiB on this one. Unless you are rolling on cash, nix the SSD. Get a 1TB 7200RPM, 32MB cache HDD.

 

[twicksisted]

personally the most noticeable upgrade i did was my SSD... and its not even a really fast one i got... i went for a small 64gb SSD for OS & programs and installed all my games (steam etc) on the large terrabyte storage drive.