New gaming/media build

[noxrulez]

1. mainly using it as a media center and as a gaming PC. (I'd like to be able to play games like BF3 or Crysis2 at max settings, and watch high quality movies)
2. around 1650 Canadian dollars, but I can be a bit flexible with the price range. This is for the parts only excluding shipping, tax, ect...
3. I'll be buying the parts from my country the United Arab Emirates.
4. As for preferences I'll just say that I'd like to stick with an nvidia GPU and an Intel processor.
5. I'll be re-Using my HDD's, DVD drive, Mouse, keyboard, and monitor,speakers.
6. I don't really plan to Over Clock my PC and I have no former experience doing so.
7. As for when am I going to build this PC isn't really set in stone. I'm in no real hurry, and can wait for a while but I'd prefer to get it done as soon as possible.
8. With my current monitor I play at 1920x1080 @ 60Hz on my 40" LED.
9. I'd like to have USB 3.0, and a hopefully a motherboard with good sound support since I'll be using my 5.1 home theater system. ( As I said before I use it as a media center too)

These are the parts that I chose for my build and would like some insight on any changes or improvements that can or should be done to my build:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K ($290)
• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V FORMULA LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard ($280)
• Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer ($150)
• Graphics Card: EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ($500)
• Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL($85)
• Power supply: CORSAIR Professional Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Semi Modular Power Supply ($165)
  
• SSD: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive ($70)

Total = $ 1540



Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you can help me in any way.

EDIT1: added prices

[Dzzope]

Few things...

1), your not looking to oc, your looking to play games and play movies so a 2600k isn't the best option.. An i5 is better suited to your needs..
As your not looking to overclock (or if you do you'll be doing a moderate one). The 3570k will be better as it uses less power and is slightly better clock for clock.

2), Graphics card is overkill.. a 670 will be plenty for your resolution to max any game. Asus DCII TOP is really sweet with your budget.

3), 16 GB is again too much.. get yourself 2x4 GB and you'll not use more than 5GB with a game running along with browsers, messenger services etc etc etc.

4), Power supply is far too big.. 650 watt is plenty..

5), SSD, get a 256GB one with the spare budget from the other parts.. This allows you to install all your games and programs on the SSD gaining the most benifit.

6), get a custom cooler of some sort for the CPU.. it doesn't have to be anything extreme but it will allow you to OC it or even if you don't it will run cooler and quieter.

7) the asus maximus is a really high end board.. you have no need of it..
Nearly all modern motherboards have 5.1 built in.. if you need better sound (I assume thats why you selected it) you'll be better off with something like a xonar DX
Other than that the board is for high end ocing.. grab something like a P8Z77 V pro..


There is nothing WRONG with your build..
But my suggestions above should give you all the performance you'll need for about 4-5 years (with a graphics card boost in 2 or 3 years) but cost a bit less / give you more benefit of the SSD and ability to oc..

[noxrulez]

Thank you for the insight, but to be honest my mind isn't listening. I know that there is no actual need for an i7, GTX680, 16GB RAM, ASUS Rampage V, or a 1050W PSU to run most demanding games with high graphics and so on. I'm trying to find an actual reason to buy the best parts for my PC and try not to bottleneck it with anything, but to be honest it seems to me that there aren't many reasons to go all out and buy top range parts.
So here is what my brain read: Your build is fine, just upgrade the SSD to 256GB and everything else is perfect even though it might be unnecessary.
One question though, even if I did OC my new PC would it make any difference, and what would be the point of it?

[Dzzope]

An over clocked i5 will beat a stock i7 any day of the week... in games..
Games don't use enough threads to make an i7 worth it.. and thats the only difference between the two..

Overclocking raises the clock speed (so a 3570k is 3.4GHZ) to whatever you can get out of it (about 4.5 is a good point to aim at without putting on much pressure)
Thats near 50% extra performance... (for stuff the cpu does)

a GTX 670 (especially something like the DCII TOP) has more than a stock 680's performance, oc to a bit higher and give you 60fps in pretty much any game at 1080p..

The PSU... your machine would need if you were using 3 680's...

The parts I suggested are bottlenecked only by the resolution of your screen...


The only reason to buy the parts your looking at would be if you had:
a higher res (for the GPU),
were doing rendering or the like (for cpu and ram),
looking to max out the possible over clock(for the motherboard)
and as said adding 2 more graphics cards (for the PSU)


There is nothing WRONG with your build.. but there will be capabilities sitting there wasted for YEARS..

My opinion is to save a bit now and get what I said above, which will be more than fine for at least 2 years.. which is when you may look at a new graphics card..

The differences in the 2 builds would give you no longer of usage (ie you'll have to upgrade at about the same time anyway) and no noticeable performance difference in the things you have listed as doing..

Still your call on what to buy but you asked for opinion so there is mine..

If your JUST looking for things to straight up make better.. then a 256GB ssd (vertex 4 or Intel 520 would be my pick) and a decent custom CPU cooler
(corsair H60 / H80 or a Noctua NH-D14 would be about the best without being over the top)

[BryceBooth]

The actual real-world, user experience of over-clocking is not overly noticeable to most users outside of running benchmarks. Today's processors already "turbo-boost" their frequencies. An 850 watt PSU would be sufficient for your rig, and would also do well if you later decide you want to go the SLI route. A larger SSD in the 120 to 240 GB capacity will give some additional breathing room. Damn fine build though.

[noxrulez]

Thank you again, but since I have to change most of my build I'll post my new build:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K ($230)
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($210)
• PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply ($150)
• GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ($408) [or should I get GIGABYTE?]
• SSD: SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive ($230)
• Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer ($150)
• Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL ($46)

TOTAL = ($1424)
old total = ($1540)

A couple of questions though:

1. Is it better if I got (1x8GB) RAM so I could upgrade more in the future or am I never going to need more than 16GB on this build?
2. I'm not sure about the 256GB ssd, the only reason I got the 64GB was to use it as a boot drive and maybe some software. I was planning to install games and other software on my WD black drives. (Already got them)

[Dzzope]

For the cost of SSD's at the moment you may as well put all your games/ programs on an ssd... if you just use it for the os you get fast boot times and bugger all else.

You want 2 sticks for Dual channel.. Either 2x4 (8 GB is plenty) or 2x8GB... the board has got 4 slots so you can put in 4x4GB if/when you do eventually want 16GB so there should be no problems with memory.

[BryceBooth]

If you are feeling adventurous, you could install that SSD as a cache drive for your OS HDD via Intel's Smart Response Technology. Refer to your motherboards manual, make sure to set your Z77 SATA controller to RAID, install one hard drive on an Intel SATA 6 GB/s port, install your OS on it, plug your other SSD into the other SATA 6 GB/s port, open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software to enable the caching.