pcpartpicker.com and Memory express

[Kingsix]

I am going to be putting together a new build in about a month, I am in Edmonton and so there are Memory Expresses here, which tend to be the best local place to buy hardware.

I have noticed people posting pcpartpicker.com links up here and have since started using the website.

Finally the question, Does anyone have an experience using pcpartpicker.com to utilize The memory express uber price beat program? Are all alternatives given by pcpartpicker useable for uber price beat?

To make this a build thread I will add the build I am looking at. Mostly PC gaming, a bit of media server etc.



CPU Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core $219.99
CPU Cooler Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid $80.10
Motherboard Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Micro ATX LGA1155 $164.99
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 $39.99
Storage Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" SSD $195.44
Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM $139.79
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB $369.99
Case Silverstone TJ08B-E MicroATX Mini Tower $99.99
Power Supply Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V $119.99
Optical Drive Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer $17.93

For the case I am actually considering the Bitfenix Ghost that isn't up on the site yet. Also if there are deals available I may go for multiple 128GB SSD's instead of one 256GB. Then I will keep one as the OS and the other as programs.

If I do a separate OS drive, is 60GB enough and is there any way to automatically set stuff up so that nothing automatically saves or installs on that OS drive?

The 3TB drive will mostly be used for media, downloads, photos, I may actually get two and put them in a NAS RAID 1 setup for redundant backup, so pretty much all documents, videos, music, pictures etc.

Thoughts, and if pcpartpicker works for the uber price beat I could be looking at saving around $113 off the normal ME price right now. :)

[dandelioneater]

The uber price beat system can only be used on 2 items at a time and I'm not sure if the uber price would be reflected in the partpicker comparison. But anyways, I usually go to pricebat.ca to find the lowest online price, then use uber price match for the 2 most exspensive items, and then will use ncix to pricematch the rest of the gear. You may be able to buy your hardware 2 pieces at a time at memex, and pick them up in store, but this will be rather slow. But you can save the most money this way (so long as you aren't burning 10 bucks in gas getting there each way).

IMO a 60Gb ssd isn't really enough these days, because after installing windows, a few applications, a couple games and you are basically full. 120GB is the minimum I would choose.

[Kingsix]

Ahh 2 items hey, well depending on what I see from savings I just might do that over the course of 2 weekends etc.

Any thoughts on the system components?
I like the sniper m3 motherboard because its fairly inexpensive and also has onboard Creative sound, and seems to have a good mix of other aspects.

Edit:
I think its limit of 2 price beats per item per customer not price beats of 2 items per customer per visit.
As you can price beat over the next 7 days, I am guessing this is to stop people from searching everywhere for the next 7 days to try to get another dollar off.

[zypho]

Looks like a solid build man, even if it saves you a couple bucks.. buy one large SSD rather than buying 2.. will save you the headaches you can run into with RAID... also I am not familiar with the case but I am assuming based on the motherboard its small, just make sure to check that everything will fit! :)

[Dzzope]

There is little difference between price beat and price match..
you may save a few bucks but as long as you beat the price on the 2 items with the biggest difference between ME and wherever else and match everything else you will be within a few bucks of beating everything

Use multiple sources for the prices to find the cheapest around.

60 GB would be fine for OS + standard apps(vlc, anit-virus, browser etc etc etc) and then another drive for your games and larger packages But personally I would just go with 1 larger drive.

Move your default download location to you media drive/nas and you can look into moving other things as well but it's the big writes from downloads that will do the most in terms of using writes on your ssd.

[Apathetik]

Yeah a 120gb SSD should be the bare minimum nowadays. I would highly urge you to go 180 or 240gb, since you only wanna fill em half full of data for pure optimization. The new Intel ones are still among the best if you aren't sure what to get, and Intel has amazing warranty and customer service should a problem arise.

Everything looks super solid though that you have picked out!

[zypho]

Also a note if you are concerned about games taking up space, you can install all your games on a separate drive, then use a program called steam mover to move the current game your playing onto the SSD, obviously this only works for steam installed games.

[BrutalGreen]

standard limit of 2 Per Customer, Per Item

Source