Self-Build Help?

So, I'm looking to buy a new computer.

(Building myself.)

This is what I have so far for my price-range, and I just want to know if you guys think this'll be a solid system.


(If you could also check and make sure my MoBo/Graphics/CPU/Power Supply are all compatible too >.<



Case: Antec 900
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V LX
CPU: Intel i5 Sandy Bridge 2.8Ghz Quad-Core
Graphics Card: Geforce GTX 550
RAM: 16 Gb DDR3
Power Supply: Corsair 600W
HDD: 80Gb SSD (windows) 500Gb Western Digital Caviar Blue.


Any reccomendations would be nice too, trying to stick to an Asus/Intel build =P

For an extra 20 bucks you can get the more powerful i5 2500K.

If you can hold out until the 29th April the new intel processors (codename Ivy Bridge, will come out, they will cost the same as the current ones do and are projected to provide about 10-15% more performance.

You only linked an 8 GB ram kit, but you don't need more anyway.

The Ram you linked is also 2133. The board is rated for 1600 (2133OC). AFAIK the ram will work with the mobo regardless but there could be stability issues.

There's no significant performance gain by going from 1600 to 2133 so if you want to be safe you might want to consider going with 1600.

Everything else looks good as far as compatibility is concerned. I'd also suggest taking a look at 550 benchmarks vs similarly priced Radeons.

Pyrea wrote:For an extra 20 bucks you can get the more powerful i5 2500K.

If you can hold out until the 29th April the new intel processors (codename Ivy Bridge, will come out, they will cost the same as the current ones do and are projected to provide about 10-15% more performance.

You only linked an 8 GB ram kit, but you don't need more anyway.

It's 2 of those 8G Kits.

and the i5 2500k? Which one is that? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

That one?

And As far as ram goes, I just want 16Gb for a decent price so which ones would you suggest?

Pyrea wrote:For an extra 20 bucks you can get the more powerful i5 2500K.

If you can hold out until the 29th April the new intel processors (codename Ivy Bridge, will come out, they will cost the same as the current ones do and are projected to provide about 10-15% more performance.

You only linked an 8 GB ram kit, but you don't need more anyway.

It's 2 of those 8G Kits.

and the i5 2500k? Which one is that? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

That one?

And As far as ram goes, I just want 16Gb for a decent price so which ones would you suggest?

Also just noticed that you chose a Sata II SSD instead of a Sata III. You'll see better performance with a Sata III, and because your mobo has Sata III slots there's pretty much no reason not to go with a Sata III except maybe a slight price difference.

If the box is for gaming you don't need 16Gb of ram, although ram is cheap these days so meh.

EDIT: Turns out the Intel 320s dont come with a Sata III option. Some other Sata III options in the 100-200 dollar range.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038519%204017&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=100
I've heard good things about the reliability of the Samsung drives, as well as good things about the Mushkin Chronos and some of the OCZ series. I own a Crucial M4 and have never had any problems and see speeds very close to advertised.

I would switch the ssd to a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 73e4faedc2 personally.

The motherboard is meh if you want to overclock, but unless you step up to a 2500k thats not an option anyway.

If you plan to game on this more than anything else i would suggest you drop one ram kit and throw that 60$ together with what the 550 costs and try to get a 560/560ti. If you plan to do something that actually requires 16 gigs of ram then by all means, do it, but dont do it for gaming, it will offer 0 improvement.

Edit: you could also easily step down to a corsair cx430 psu with that system. Id be shocked if you could get the rig you posted to consume much over 300 watts

I would assume Intel offers the best reliability in SSDs because of their myriad fabrication process superiorities. The issue with Intel is that they have been under-specced from day one.

Also, don't forget to get an optical drive.

Just keep the optical drive from your current machine. That and hard drives generally don't need "upgrading" when you get a new box, as long as they still work.

Awesome case choice, but that thing is MASSIVE. Seriously, I had to build an entirely new desk just to house that beast. Still, it's big enough for even my sausage fingers to get around everything in, but wire management is kind of a pain.

Oh intel had the best ssd's... 18 months ago. Now they have old, slow sata2 ssd's, and sandforce based sata3 ssd's. If you are paying a premium for a more reliable controller, then i would look at the crucial m4. I have two sandforce 2200 based ssds in my system though, and love them.

So I've been talking to my local computer shop, and they talked me into getting an Intel Mobo, I can't remember which one off the top of my head. It's in the 150 price range though.

So I think what I'm gonna end up doing is
Antec 900 case.
500Gb WD Caviar black drive
120Gb Intel 520 series SSD
600W Power supply
16Gb Kingston DDR3 RAM (I do AutoCAD Modeling for work, so being able to do it at home would be nice =])
EVGA Nvidia GTX 550 Ti 1GB DDR5
And some bluray/DVDRW Drive for 20 bucks.
Oh, and the i5 2500k Sandy Bridge

The AsRock Extreme3 Gen3 is widely regarded one of the best value-for-money 1155 motherboard, clocking in at $121.99 on Newegg. The only thing it is missing is the internal USB 3.0 header, which is included on the Extreme4 for about 30 dollars more. Just throwing it out there.

You could knock another 10-20 bucks off the SSD by going for a Crucial M4 128GB instead of the intel one.

I've been seeing a lot of SSD deals popping up on passwird.com lately -- several $100 120G SATAIII, and there's a $200 240G SATAIII up now. Are mfgs clearing out inventory for some reason?

I'm itching to build a new rig, but waiting to see what the ivy bridge chips look like, per Pyrea.

I'm itching to build a new rig, but waiting to see what the ivy bridge chips look like, per Pyrea.

This is what my new build will look like:


Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Will actually be an i5 3570K (£168.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£69.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£57.55 @ Amazon UK)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£113.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Actually an XFX DD 1000 Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£263.98 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.22 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£89.98 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£13.67 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.44 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £822.57
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-12 03:29 BST+0100)

IB is rumoured to be coming out on the 17th April, at least that is when a bunch of shops are accepting pre-orders for. Others are saying 22nd April.

Some time in the future:
Buy a dremel and make a window for the case
get some black tubing, silver/chrome compression fittings and waterblock it all up. Add a couple of white/light blue LED strips wrapped in muslin to soften the light a bit.

Pyrea wrote:Total: £822.57
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-12 03:29 BST+0100)

Is that with or without VAT?

Including VAT, I believe. Prices quoted are including VAT on the respective vendor websites. However, I am not sure if that is including the PSU and motherboard prices.

edit - stupid website forgot to append a couple of prices:

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£168.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£69.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£109.99 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.99 @ Dabs)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.85 @ Amazon UK)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£113.90 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£259.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.22 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£89.98 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: Sony DDU1681S-0B DVD/CD Drive (£11.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (£69.45 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1056.77
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-04-15 12:27 BST+0100)

Had to change a couple of parts for the website to display prices (apparently it has completely forgotten that Mushkin RAM exists), but they are about the same price so the total didn't change.

So. The Final build SHOULD look like this. Some from Newegg, some from My local Computer shop.

Case Antec 900 BOUGHT
Power SupplyCorsair 650W
MotherBoardIntel LGA 1155
CPUIntel i5 2500K Sandy Bridge
Ram MemoryKingston DDR3 (16Gb)
HDDWestern Digital Caviar blue 750Gb
Crucial M4, 128Gb SSD.
GraphicsEVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Disc DriveLite-On CD/DVD Burner
KeyboardLogitech G510Bought
MouseRazer LachesisBought

Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium.
And Dual 24" Monitors.

You would be better off with a Z77 motherboard. more features, newer tech, same price.

AsRock Z77 Extreme4 (139.99, currently out of stock at newegg)
ASUS P8Z77-V LK (144.99)
ASUS P8T77-V LX (139.99)
ASUS P8Z77-V LE (164.99)
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H (159.99)
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H (144.99)

All of these would make a more sensible use of your 160 dollars that you have budgeted for that intel P67 motherboard.

Aubade wrote:Running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium.

If you haven't already bought it and plan on using Windows 7 long term, it might be worth paying the extra $30 for Professional instead of Home Premium. I can certainly imagine needing more than 16gig of ram in four-five years. From the looks of it, I don't really want to touch Windows 8 or anything else they make in the Windows 8 mindset.