Gaming Build for $1000

[Jebusman]

A friend of mine is looking to get away from his Fail-In-One PC so that he can actually play games with both graphics AND framerate (stuff like Starcraft 2), now and in the future.

So he's asked me to put something together for him, with a "Budget" of $1000, give or take $100.

I threw together something fairly quick, and now I'm trying to decide on a few things.

1. P67 or Z68

While I know SSDs essentially give stupid performance benefits, the cost of adding one, even a small one, pushes him beyond his budget limit. So I'm wondering if I should abandon the 2500K, go with something like.... a 2300 with a Z68 board, then throw in a 30-40GB SSD, or just see if I can convince him to spend another $100 on a 60GB drive to use as boot?

2. Video Card

I was thinking of going with a GTX560 (not Ti), and then overclocking it to Ti performance levels (which apparently is not hard at all). But again I'm still not sure on that. Benchmarks at this point are becoming useless because it tends to be more about the game than the card.

Any recommendations? (to my questions or to the build, attached. Using NCIX, I live in Nova Scotia).

[belinik]

get a cheaper motherboard imo,
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 goes for 115 dollar from Infonec(pm) and then get the 2500k, it should end up around 323$, grab a low end ssd for 60 dollar and problem solved ;)

I was told in another thread you can add the ssd later down the road without wiping the machine if you set the bios correctly.

[_dangtx_]

not suret hat simple ti will do the jobbe,you an do better :)

[Jebusman]

Originally Posted by belinik

get a cheaper motherboard imo,
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 goes for 115 dollar from Infonec(pm) and then get the 2500k, it should end up around 323$, grab a low end ssd for 60 dollar and problem solved ;)

I was told in another thread you can add the ssd later down the road without wiping the machine if you set the bios correctly.

Adding it down the road would definitely be preferable.

I tend to deal with NCIX a lot, so I'm riding on tonight's sale to be awesome.

If not, I'll see about that GA-Z68.

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by Jebusman

Adding it down the road would definitely be preferable.

I tend to deal with NCIX a lot, so I'm riding on tonight's sale to be awesome.

If not, I'll see about that GA-Z68.

What he was meaning ( I assume anyways ) is to pricematch the gaz68ma at NCIX.

[Jebusman]

Originally Posted by Supergrover

What he was meaning ( I assume anyways ) is to pricematch the gaz68ma at NCIX.

I got that. Pricematching is usually my last resort when buying things though, mainly because I'm lazy.

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by Jebusman

I got that. Pricematching is usually my last resort when buying things though, mainly because I'm lazy.

I pricematch when ever I can NCIX doesnt really have the best pricing IMO and their sister sites 90% of the time have better pricing.
YMMV

[Arinoth]

Price matching can end up saving you quite a bit of money sometimes. All it takes is spending a few minutes using our compare search on the site, shopbot.ca or pricebat.com and bam, money typically saved. When buying multiple items you can really save quite a bit as 5-10 here and there adds up.

[Jebusman]

Yeah I've seen that most of their sister sites (DirectCanada, Compu2000, etc.) have some ridiculous prices on things sometimes. I do pricematch when I can/can be bothered to remember, but it's never a dealbreaker for me if I can't price match it down.

I'm the kind of person who forgets to actually fill out and submit the mail in rebates.

I've probably missed out on hundreds of $ in rebates over the years.

After awhile, it just doesn't phase you, and if that means I have to spend a little more money than I should, oh well.

[_dangtx_]

for single gpu the 430 v2 will do very nicely. i have it on a 560 i5 build,even at full load(no oc) it's rather quiet.

the way i see it you gots two choices. 2300-2500 and either h or z board, or p/z board and a 2500k

if you will be overclocking,well,your frend,than look up something like a corsair/seasonic in the 500 watts range.

your initial choice for psu is decent,but that that price you could do better.

and dont get the non ti 560 :)