New PC Build. Feedback appreciated

Death2All · 2013-01-24, 06:12 PM

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

What is your budget and does that include shipping/taxes?
~$850. Yes, with shipping.

Where do you live (Please list town, state, and country)?
St. Louis, Missouri.

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

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

Are you reusing any parts for this computer? If so say what parts (make and model).
None.

What kind of monitor/resolution do you have or want to get to use for the computer?
Going to be using my old 18" monitor for now. I have plans to purchase a larger monitor in the future.

Do you have already have a OS or do you need one? What OS is that?
Will be getting W7.

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.
Any mobo with a chipset that allows me to OC my CPU.

Any plans to overclock the CPU or GPU?
Yes.

What time kind of time frame are you planning on ordering these parts?
Within the next month.

Hello, it's been awhile since I've posted here but since I'm in the market for a new computer I thought I'd run this build by you guys so I could get some feedback on it.

Here's what I came up with:

Case - HAF912 - http://www.microcenter.com/product/3..._Computer_Case

CPU - i5 2500k - http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...rocessor_-_OEM

GPU - Sapphire 7870 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202010

PSU - Antec 520W - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371030

RAM - 8GB Crucial - http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...ory_Modules%29

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB - http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...3_-_Bare_Drive

MOBO - ASRock z77 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157297

Heatsink - Coolmaster Hyper 212 Evo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103099

Optical Drive - LiteOn - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106276

OS - Windows 7

Overall I'm very pleased with it. I'm getting the CPU for very, very cheap I think. I was originally going to go with a 560 Ti but I was given a tip to go with the 7870 instead. Also, I'm aware that the 7870 is currently out of stock, they were having a pretty nice sale on it on Newegg.

Anyhow, any advice/feedback would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

EDIT: Actually on second thought they may have actually discontinued that card. Uh oh

Rbstr · 2013-01-24, 06:49 PM

It's a fine start. It'll hang with anything modern. Especially at the lower resolution you probably have now.

As far as a video card. You're at what, $500-550 w/o the vid card?
I wouldn't get a 560Ti. If you want nVidia (whether it's worth it for PhysX, especially in PS is unknown at this point) a 660 is quite a bit faster. 660Ti if you want to bump into the budget limit. I'd recommend that if you plan on getting a fairly high resolution monitor eventually.
The 7870 is fine in another brand. It sort of shoots the middle of the two. But no physx, but do you care?

You can get a 3570K i5 in there, I think, if you suck with the 660. Then bump up to DDR1600 too.
It hits the OC max a bit, but remember each clock is worth 10% more compared to the sandy bridge.

Death2All · 2013-01-24, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

It's a fine start. It'll hang with anything modern. Especially at the lower resolution you probably have now.

As far as a video card. You're at what, $500-550 w/o the vid card?
I wouldn't get a 560Ti. If you want nVidia (whether it's worth it for PhysX, especially in PS is unknown at this point) a 660 is quite a bit faster. 660Ti if you want to bump into the budget limit. I'd recommend that if you plan on getting a fairly high resolution monitor eventually.
The 7870 is fine in another brand. It sort of shoots the middle of the two. But no physx, but do you care?

You can get a 3570K i5 in there, I think, if you suck with the 660. Then bump up to DDR1600 too.
It hits the OC max a bit, but remember each clock is worth 10% more compared to the sandy bridge.

Not too concerned about about PhysX. Like you said, it's kind of unknown if it's really worth it at this point. And looking up the benchmarks the 7870 is still just a teeny bit better than the 660 Ti and a lot more reasonably priced.

I think I'm going to stick with the 2500k simply because of where it's priced at, even if the 3570k performs better. But I'll stay open minded.

Is it worth the extra money to go with 1600 RAM over 1333? From what I've read it doesn't make that big of a difference, but then again I don't know too much about it.

Goku · 2013-01-24, 09:47 PM

Build looks good thus far to me.

I did see increased performance from running higher memory clocks with PS2, so I think its worthwhile. Its not major, I would peg at at around 5% at most. Thats what I was getting with my ram at 1866 vs 1333 anyway.

Have you looked into the 7870 with 1536 SP? Link to card and review.

Death2All · 2013-01-25, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Goku

Build looks good thus far to me.

I did see increased performance from running higher memory clocks with PS2, so I think its worthwhile. Its not major, I would peg at at around 5% at most. Thats what I was getting with my ram at 1866 vs 1333 anyway.

Have you looked into the 7870 with 1536 SP? Link to card and review.

Hmm, I might look into higher quality RAM then. I only choose that brand because it was the cheapest 8GB I could find.

And thanks for the tip on the graphics. Really bummed that the card I chose suddenly discontinued. I really hope that they get some more in stock by chance in the future but if not I'll probably go with the one you linked. Thanks a lot!

Any little tidbits of advice you could give for a first time builder would be appreciated as well. I've watched/read A LOT of guides on how to build so I'm pretty confident when it comes to putting together, but any advice on what to expect, common things that might go wrong/mistakes you can make would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Vancha · 2013-01-25, 05:47 AM

Why in the fuck is the Z77 Pro3 cheaper than the Z75 Pro3? Newegg has good deals, but their pricing is retarded.

RAM: If you go for something pricier, don't get anything more expensive than the Samsung Green. That stuff clocks ridiculously well (2133mhz + Cas 10 @ 1.5v should be easy).

GPU: The Powercolor 7870 with the Vortex cooler is supposedly very quiet and mildly awesome.

Mistakes: Don't screw up the motherboard headers and don't forget the thermal paste. Anything else should be relatively fixable.

Ailos · 2013-01-26, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Goku

Build looks good thus far to me.

I did see increased performance from running higher memory clocks with PS2, so I think its worthwhile. Its not major, I would peg at at around 5% at most. Thats what I was getting with my ram at 1866 vs 1333 anyway.

Have you looked into the 7870 with 1536 SP? Link to card and review.

For PS2, higher RAM is definitely a worthwhile investment. I recently swapped my old DDR3-1333 modules for a set of -2133 CAS 11 and gained 15 frames in the most heavy combat (Rashnu biodome fight on Mattherson primetime). Other than that, yeah, just agreed with everything else said in this thread.