New Sandy Bridge Build.

[von Monster]

So I've been researching this until my head hurts and think I'm finally ready to pull the trigger but wanted some additional input into this as I haven't built a PC in almost 7 years and wanted to get back into PC gaming (Thanks 5 dead Xboxs!).

I've based this off Tech Reports 2011 Summer Guides 'Utility Player' system, with some modifications due to budget and my own past part biases. So starting with the Stickied Form -

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Moderate gaming, mostly RPGs and hoping for a system that plays Diablo 3 well.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

approx $1000 shipped.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Canada.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy,
ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

Not really.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic, but will probably replace it in build for ease of front jack usage.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yes, here and elsewhere.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Most likely stock to start, moderate OC eventually to compensate for aging system.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

This Month.

9. What resolution do you use?

1680x1050, would like to upgrade monitor to 24"-27" Dell Ultrasharp at X-Mas time.

Parts List:

• CPU : Intel Core i5 2500K ($209.69)
• Main board : ASUS P8P67 LE REV3.0 ($122.72)
• Memory : G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory ($55.08)
• Power Supply : Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-500CXV2 500W ($52.48)
• Case : Antec One Hundred ($49.69)
• Graphics : ASUS Radeon HD 6870 DirectCU ($183.53 - $20 rebate)
• Sound : ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 ($24.96 - $10 rebate)
• DVD : ASUS 24X Internal Super Multi DVD-RW ($24.96)
• Hard Drive : Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache ($79.69)
• OS : Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM ($111.30)
• Keyboard : Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 English Black USB ($11.64)

Total : $927.84 Taxes $120.61 = 1048.45 with $30 MIR. Free Shipping.

This price is based of DirectCanada's website at the moment - I've put basically the same system through every other Canadian retailer and DC wins by around $100 except for NewEgg.ca which it beats by roughly $50.

Any comments Parts, Pricewise, or one choice of retailer would be very appreciated.

[PerryC]

Looks to me like you picked yourself a decent computer there. Good luck with the build. I know there are guys who are going to be looking to see screenies of benchmarks and all that.

[_dangtx_]

get a haf 912 for case, hd6950 for gpu,500 black vs 1tb,forget the sound card for now if you're tight with money

and welcome abaord!

[yycraven]

Get the HAF 912 case as Dan suggested. Everything else looks good.

[von Monster]

Is the HAF 912 really a better case? Just asking as it's kind of fugly and unless it's a signifigant improvement I'd prefer the Antec aesthetically.

@_dangtx_
I'd like to keep the HD at 1TB as I rather need the space for home movies / photos, and the Sound Cards pretty cheap at ~15 after MIR, unless integrated sound is alot better than it used to be. Do you find the 6950 to be that much better in real world performance as I picked the 6870 being as it seemed close in performance unless the resolution goes above 1920x1080.
AnandTech - Bench - GPU11

So I'd like to save the $100 if I can. And thanks for the Welcome!

I also wanted to see if DirectCanada is a decent retailer - never bought anything from them before and they had the best price all told - I'd prefer to order everything from one store to make it easier to keep track of parts in case of warranty /RMA.

[_dangtx_]

in my humble opinion? frog yeah!

your doing it wrong then. get a zippy os drive, and a 2tb for storage. wd greens make great storage drives :)

nope,get the 6950. hdd space you can add later. vieo card,you better do it right. same with mobo,cpu. there you did your homework :)

pretty much so. sometiems that measle 100 buckers can be a game changer. oh,no worries. well have you fold as payback muhahah :p

theyre good, a sister company of ncix. slower customer service(well less resources towards it...:)

you can pm at ncix from dc,theyll aprove right away since dc is tehre for that ;)

[JJThomp]

Dan is right especially if you are upgrading to a dell ultrasharp your 6870 wont be able to push that resolution, I believe in this case the $100 is well worth it.

[von Monster]

Hows this for a parts list:

• CPU : Intel Core i5 2500K $208.79
• MB : ASUS P8P67 LE $122.72
• RAM : G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB $55.08
• VGA : XFX Radeon HD 6950 800MHZ 1GB $259.99 - $30 MIR
• DVD : LG GH22NS70 Super Multi 22X SATA DVD $19.87
• HD : Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache $79.69
• PSU : Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-500CXV2 500W $52.48
• Case : Antec 100 One Hundred $49.69
• OS : Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM $93.79
• KB : Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 English Black USB $11.64

Total = $953.74 or $1,102.03 after HST, Electronics Recycling Fee, and Shipping Ins. at NCIX. The prices are a bit different as I've put in a PM against either DirectCanada or BestDirect on some components depending on where it was cheaper hoping that being as their all sister companies that the PM would go through without issue.

Also I understand the KB isn't fancy but I rather like plain old KBs and the one I'm currently using needs to take a trip to E-waste bin.

[_dangtx_]

black/sammy f3 500 + 2tb wd green

haf 912

how much more is the 2gb 6950? mir or no mir?

[von Monster]

Ok you've officially broken my budget ;)

Dropped down to a 500GB WD and will reuse the 250 I already have and upgraded the card to this:
NCIX.com - Buy XFX Radeon HD 6950 800MHZ 2GB 5.0GHZ DDR5 2XDVI HDMI 2x Mini DisplayPort Fansink PCI-E Video Card - XFX - HD695XCDFC - in Canada

Going to keep the Antec One hundred case unless someone can convince me why the Haf is better - bit-tech likes the Antec a bit more (only place I've found that has reviewed both) and I prefer the styling.
Antec One Hundred Conclusion | bit-tech.net
HAF 912 Plus Performance Analysis and Conclusion | bit-tech.net