Advice wanted on a new $1000 gaming build

[Eldonko]

Couple recommendations.

1) Perhaps consider a Western Digital Black 1TB 6G. $30 price difference, maybe less with price match. Double the space, very fast HD.
2) Why the MSI? Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 was on sale for $125 after MIR or ASRock Z68 PRO3 is a nice board for cheap as well? ASUS P8P67 LE can usually be found in that price range as well. Havent used that board in particular but the last few MSI boards Ive owned sucked for OC.
3) Power supply, always get better than you need not just enough. Say you want to upgrade the GPU in the future you dont want to upgrade the PSU as well. Personally I would go with more not less, perhaps a Corsair Pro HX750W. Better PSU all around, $25 more, 7 year warranty.

[hal314]

Originally Posted by Eldonko

1) Perhaps consider a Western Digital Black 1TB 6G. $30 price difference, maybe less with price match. Double the space, very fast HD.

True, but I don't need the space, current computer has 75GB of space, and I have a 2TB USB external, which I barely use. The smaller HD is cheaper, so it wins.

Originally Posted by Eldonko

2) Why the MSI? Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 was on sale for $125 after MIR or ASRock Z68 PRO3 is a nice board for cheap as well? ASUS P8P67 LE can usually be found in that price range as well. Havent used that board in particular but the last few MSI boards Ive owned sucked for OC.

I did think about going with the Asus for a while.

I'm not too concerned about OC, I chose the MSI because it was a bundle with the CPU I believe. I also like that it has a mouse driven BIOS. Having never built a system before I liked that idea. I also heard that the board itself is solidly built, so I won't feel like I'm going to break it as I install components.

Originally Posted by Eldonko

3) Power supply, always get better than you need not just enough. Say you want to upgrade the GPU in the future you dont want to upgrade the PSU as well. Personally I would go with more not less, perhaps a Corsair Pro HX750W. Better PSU all around, $25 more, 7 year warranty.

Price is definitely headed in the wrong direction. The likely upgrade in the future is to replace the GPU, would that require more power than the current (I didn't think it would). Is the only reason to go with a bigger PSU to have room for upgrades?

[JJThomp]

Originally Posted by hal314

True, but I don't need the space, current computer has 75GB of space, and I have a 2TB USB external, which I barely use. The smaller HD is cheaper, so it wins.



I did think about going with the Asus for a while.

I'm not too concerned about OC, I chose the MSI because it was a bundle with the CPU I believe. I also like that it has a mouse driven BIOS. Having never built a system before I liked that idea. I also heard that the board itself is solidly built, so I won't feel like I'm going to break it as I install components.




Price is definitely headed in the wrong direction. The likely upgrade in the future is to replace the GPU, would that require more power than the current (I didn't think it would). Is the only reason to go with a bigger PSU to have room for upgrades?

New GPU's should use less power because by the time you are ready to upgrade the die size will be much smaller, as a matter of fact I believe 28nm is coming out soon (within the next year) i believe.

[YukonTrooper]

Originally Posted by Eldonko

2) Why the MSI? Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 was on sale for $125 after MIR or ASRock Z68 PRO3 is a nice board for cheap as well? ASUS P8P67 LE can usually be found in that price range as well. Havent used that board in particular but the last few MSI boards Ive owned sucked for OC.

I have the MSI G43. OC's like a champ.

[Blostorm]

I would recommend the TX series of PSU instead.

[Zak_M]

I would get a GTX 560Ti and get a lower wattage PSU, other than that it looks great

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by hal314

True, but I don't need the space, current computer has 75GB of space, and I have a 2TB USB external, which I barely use. The smaller HD is cheaper, so it wins.



I did think about going with the Asus for a while.

I'm not too concerned about OC, I chose the MSI because it was a bundle with the CPU I believe. I also like that it has a mouse driven BIOS. Having never built a system before I liked that idea. I also heard that the board itself is solidly built, so I won't feel like I'm going to break it as I install components.




Price is definitely headed in the wrong direction. The likely upgrade in the future is to replace the GPU, would that require more power than the current (I didn't think it would). Is the only reason to go with a bigger PSU to have room for upgrades?

I would personally vote against the MSI one only on the grounds of their CS Department's past transgressions. GB or ASUS have done much better historically from what I have seen in my times on here.
That is just me though, they do make some nice Kit, when it works 100%.

For the PSU, its a two fold scenerio really. If you plan on upgrading GPU's or Going Multi-GPU it is best to invest right away in something that will give you that kind of headroom, vs something that is on the edge. Sure, it might be overkill now but it is one less thing to worry about. Secondly, much like redlining a car I wouldn't want to be at almost peak power on a unit 24/7. It will run hotter, less efficent, and IMO reduce the lifespan of the unit. Rather try and give yourself a good buffer zone (its never steered me wrong in all the system's I've built).
PSU Calculators are good to maybe get a very rough idea on power consumption, but they are nowhere near accurate.

ST

[BrutalGreen]

Originally Posted by Soultribunal

I would personally vote against the MSI one only on the grounds of their CS Department's past transgressions. GB or ASUS have done much better historically from what I have seen in my times on here.
That is just me though, they do make some nice Kit, when it works 100%.

For the PSU, its a two fold scenerio really. If you plan on upgrading GPU's or Going Multi-GPU it is best to invest right away in something that will give you that kind of headroom, vs something that is on the edge. Sure, it might be overkill now but it is one less thing to worry about. Secondly, much like redlining a car I wouldn't want to be at almost peak power on a unit 24/7. It will run hotter, less efficent, and IMO reduce the lifespan of the unit. Rather try and give yourself a good buffer zone (its never steered me wrong in all the system's I've built).
PSU Calculators are good to maybe get a very rough idea on power consumption, but they are nowhere near accurate.

ST

2nded

even if you have no plans on upgrading later on, still wiser imo to get a slightly higher wattage PSU than u need now as capasitor ageing reduces that output over the years and running at the limit makes the psu much hotter louder and more prone to death!

Not to mention, you should be looking at continuous wattage on the 12v rail rather than peak total wattage...

[_dangtx_]

depends how you work your budget

between a hd6950 and a good 500 watt psu vs a 750 watt psu and a 6870 maybe some cf in the future who knows maybe?

id take the first anyday

why? because youll have a good 100 watts to spare which is more than enough in me book unless you get a unit which loudens up
considerably past 50% load...:)

[hal314]

I'm currently thinking of going with a 600W Corsair gaming series PSU (3 year warranty - should last), drops the price a bit, which I will pocket and put towards a monitor.

In terms of getting cheaper, I'm starting to wonder if AMD (wait for bulldozer?) might be a good choice without loosing on gaming ability. If I can save $100-$200 then I may go for a better video card (6950). I don't want to ATM, because I already feel like it's a little to pricey and the 6870 looks good enough to do most games at quite high resolution.