Building My First PC

[Raven Sinaster]

I will be starting college next year so I decided to build a PC

1. Are you building this computer yourself or having one built for you (Like HP, Alienware, or even a small shop)?

Building it myself

2. What is your budget and does that include shipping/taxes?

600-700$, No

3. Where do you live (Please list town, state, and country)?

Ontario,Toronto

4. What do you need this computer to do (like gaming, Photoshop, and so on)?

Based on gaming and on the side simple research

5. What parts will you need for the computer? List what parts specifically, saying you need everything will not do.

PSU, CPU, Harddrive, RAM and a motherboard

6. Are you reusing any parts for this computer? If so say what parts (make and model).

Nope

7. What kind of monitor/resolution do you have or want to get to use for the computer?

Any is fine just not costly

8. Do you have already have a OS or do you need one? What OS is that?

Yes Windows 7 home premium

9. What are you looking for the motherboard to have feature wise? Like SLI, Crossfire, Firewire, USB 3.0, Sata 6.0 Gb/s, and so on.

I was thing either a H67 or z68 if I where to get a intel i7 2600k 1155

10. Any plans to overclock the CPU or GPU?

CPU yes, maybe GPU

11. What time kind of time frame are you planning on ordering these parts?

In a month or two

[Rbstr]

Building a gaming system on this budget means you're not going to end up with an i7. Which is fine, because you don't really want one - they aren't really better than i5s in this case.

Adding in a monitor makes this quite a bit tougher. You might actually be best off going with an AMD FX chip.

And just an FYI, that blue text is a horrible choice for the forum's background

[Raven Sinaster]

Yea I may be able to bump it up to $800 when I start my part time job also with this PC flexibility I could always add later so if I get a i5 I would run the game smoothly right? also since my dad owns a computer store I could get parts for far lower but I don't want to take to much.

Thanks for the reply and yea i'll stick with white

[Rbstr]

"Adding later" is not something smart to do with a CPU, a generation lasts a single year and you're locked in by socket.

[Raven Sinaster]

Oh fail well I was researching all day and found these parts my dad is fine with the price as long as I work part time and pay him back lucky the monitor will not be counted in this budget just parts so max budget for now is $900 no more changes sorry x.x

i5 2500k

Asus P8Z68-v motherboard

Two 2 gb RAM(any brand sugesstion?)

GPS: EVGA SC GTX 660

PSU Corsair Ethusiast TX 650 650W

And still need a Hard Drive

[Rbstr]

I wouldn't get less than 8gb of ram in 2x4gb.
Sandy Bridge supports DDR3-1333 this is pretty good value: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148347
You could get DDR3-1600 (or even 1866) and overclock to it
Like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233202
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148656
(I just got some of that Cruicial low-voltage in a 16gb kit, it's nice stuff)

You may have room for a 660Ti in that budget.
What's it shake out to now?

Hard drive: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST3000DM001/dp/B005T3GRLY/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361295921&sr=1-2&keywords=seagate
Pick a capacity.

Overclocking is probably going to warrant an after-market CPU cooler. What is the go-to? Coolermaster something something.

[Raven Sinaster]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148347

And 1TB of Hard Drive changed somthings to price it all out

PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033&Tpk=antec%20earthwatts%20PSU%20380w%2b

GPU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133466

CPU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Motherboard http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131920

Are you talking about coolermaster fans? or case?

[Rbstr]

Ah, you're in Canada, woops, I'll link newegg.ca then
That power supply may be just enough now but they lose capacity over time. If you add in overclocking you'll be drawing too much. I'd get like 550w. Probably looking at $75 or so for a decent one.

But looking at your selections there, we need to pause a moment and reconsider:
Don't get the 2500k when the 3570k is cheaper on newegg.ca http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

You're also paying too much for a refurbished motherboard that's out-dated with a bunch of features you won't need. Here's a good Asus Z77 for less money:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837
You could go even cheaper there if you wanted.

If you get an ivy bridge CPU get DDR3-1600 like this: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148656
It's more expensive but you saved the difference easily with the other selections.

The Coolermaster thing I'm talking about is a replacement CPU heatsink, because you said you want to overclock.
But you do need to think about a case.

[ColdCheese]

2500k, Z68, beefy cooler and don't skimp on a quality psu if you want your system to last. Stay away from Nvidia the dark side unless you can afford to pay a premium for similar performance, good deals on AMD 7xxx series right now with good game bundles. Just remember skimp in the right places like cases and you could build a decent rig with $700ish

[Raven Sinaster]

Nice idea alright and for the PSU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

or http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Oh for the case was thinking http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

would this do?http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103039

[Rbstr]

That heatsink is basically identical to what you get from Intel. I mean more like this: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

The XFX is the better power supply.
The case is fine.

[Raven Sinaster]

Alright final build

CPU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

GPU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133466

PSU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&AID=10657534&PID=5414526&SID=skim19668X770041Xf603cbc804e19b1310945131a6891 f96&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

Hard Drive 1TB http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST3000DM001/dp/B005T3GRLY/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361295921&sr=1-2&keywords=seagate

Motherboard http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837

Case http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&AID=10657534&PID=5414526&SID=skim19668X770041X5ff3dce97d82e66448039f8e7a8ba 7aa&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

Extra(goes over budget) http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&AID=10657534&PID=5414526&SID=skim19668X770041X2dc264d269e56472e9ef3bb43ecdb 3dc&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

My Dad will order from some guy so prices may end up different if they are worse i'll order from newegg, thank you so much for your time and help.