Gaming build

[Full Speed]

When I get my tax return I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a new system. I don't have any parts to use as my current desktop is a P4. It'll be used mostly for gaming, anything else won't be demanding anyway. I'll be ordering from NCIX with price matching. My budget is about $1000-1200 but I'm a bit loose with it. I don't really have brand preferences. And I plan to OC.

Here's what I plan on tossing together:

Core i5 750
MSI HD5770
Lancool PC-K62
WD 1TB Black
Corsair TX750W
LG 22x DVD Burner

Here's what I need suggestions for:

Motherboard - Don't think I'll ever go crossfire but the option would still be nice. Don't care about SATA3 or USB3.
RAM - Probably a 4GB kit. Whatever's the best value now.
Heatsink - Don't think I'll OC aggressively. So again, whatever's the best value.
Monitor - I'm not really counting this in my budget as it'll be a seperate purchase, maybe in a few months time. I don't want anything too huge. 22inch would probably be good.

I'll probably toss a SSD and a sound card in there later in life, but I'll worry about that as it happens.

[martin_metal_88]

For the board actually Asus are in the game for P55 (normally I would go with gigabytes but for some reason their P55 suck ) So a P7P55D is your best option. EVGA have also really good board.
For the memory, the best bang for the buck now are some G.skill ripjaw 1600 4GB you can find them for 110 very often, good memory and perform good will also allow you to OC if you ever want to do it.
If you want a cheap heatsink that give many headroom for OC then...no other choice, Coolermaster CM Hyper 212+ is the one you need.
With that and the part you already have you will be ready to game for a little while;)

[MrDiaz]

I think the following are great options for you.

NCIX has all these parts all you have to do is price match it like you mentioned before.

RAM: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL Ripjaws PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Core i5 1.5V Memory Kit - DirectCanada

Display: Canada Computers - LCD Monitors > 23" & Over LCD Monitors : Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor -Black, 2048 x 1152 , 20000:1 (DCR) 16:9, 5ms, D-sub, DVI-D (Retail Box).

[Rison]

Exactly what Martin_Metal said.

There are a few flavors of the P7P55D - LE, Standard, Deluxe, Pro and Premium. All have "minor" differences, LE if you're not doing crossfire (second PCIx is @4x) or Pro if you are.

I have the Pro, with the 4gig ripjaws mentioned (PM for $110) with an i7 860, very good combo.

[Raserei408]

My main suggestion (or the one that hasn't been said yet by someone else) is to go with the 5770 HAWK if you can get it. There's a price premium ($10-15 maybe) but it's got a killer cooler and OCs like crazy (especially with tweaked voltage; it gets the best OC/ΔV of any 5770).

Also, I'd recommend a Spinpoint F3 over the Caviar Black. There are a number of debates that I don't want to replicate here (please no comments Mark) over whether the F3 or Caviar Black is better. The F3 is often cheaper and is faster than it's Caviar Black counterpart, which are the main reasons I recommend it, but the warranty is only 3 years rather than 5, and RMAs in Canada are supposedly more difficult (never dealt with either company, especially not in Canada, so I can't really comment from experience). Take that for what it's worth.

[Ryoohki]

Well you can have a pretty kick ass gaming machine for about 1300$...

Mine costed

MB : Gigabyte P55M-UD4 : 160$
CPU : I5 750 : 208$
RAM : 4gb Kingston Hyper X 88824 : 118$
HDD : 1TB WD Green : 88$
Case : Antec Three Hundred : 60$
GPU : Powercolor PCS+ 5850 : 319$
DVDROM : 28$
PSU : Antec TruePower 750W : 120$
FAN : 2xAntec TriCool : 18$(for both)
CPU FAN : Thermalright MUX120 : 45$

1164 than add 5%, so about 1250$ (all bought at directcanada)

I can run pretty much everything at 1920x1080, 4xFSAA, 16xAF Maxed out at 60fps (even some at 8xMSAA).

I overclocked my CPU from 2.6ghz to 4.2ghz (with the CPU FAN) and my GPU from 760/1050 to 945/1145

I'll buy a SSD soon too waiting for my Provincial Tax Return :)

[martin_metal_88]

Like I said before I wouldn't go with gigabytes board. They are awesome but for any reason their P55 line is not that good, they are having some chipset issue. I use myself a GA-P55-UD5 and I should have wait a bit longer to get it because now I am suck to wait for bios update that fix few problem. Fo any other socket they are leader in the mobo market. For that I think that the P7P55D would do the job so if ou ever go cross fire with your 5770 you will do 16X 8X on PCI-e slot which is enoug for that card. You can also go with the Pro if ou are willing to add the little premium.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by martin_metal_88

Like I said before I wouldn't go with gigabytes board. They are awesome but for any reason their P55 line is not that good, they are having some chipset issue. I use myself a GA-P55-UD5 and I should have wait a bit longer to get it because now I am suck to wait for bios update that fix few problem. Fo any other socket they are leader in the mobo market. For that I think that the P7P55D would do the job so if ou ever go cross fire with your 5770 you will do 16X 8X on PCI-e slot which is enoug for that card. You can also go with the Pro if ou are willing to add the little premium.

interesting....

[martin_metal_88]

Originally Posted by MarkOne

interesting....

Gérard no!

[Raserei408]

For RAM I'd suggest something by G.Skill, probably something from their Ripjaws line. The 4GB kits are very cheap (oddly the 6GB ones are overpriced) and perform well enough, since even low-end RAM makes very little real-world performance difference.

For the monitor, if you've got the budget for it, and don't want anything bigger, go for a 2209WA. They've got an IPS panel so the color is far better than most monitors, and it's half the price of most IPS 24" panels. Furthermore, if you do go with ATI and you eventually find a 22" monitor a bit small, you could probably add on a couple more for a 5040 x 1050 or 3150 x 1680 screen. Ah, the magic that is Eyefinity.