Hey its me again. I was on here a little while ago talking about upgrading for Battlefield 3. Well I have done some more research and looked into it a little bit more and I think I am coming closer to actually buying the thing.


This is only the third computer I have ever ordered, I am far from and expert and will appriciate any and all advice given.


I will only be using this computer for gaming and personal computing.


I already have keyboard, mouse, speakers and monitor. Currently only running one display.


Here is what I have so far;


CPU - Intel Core i7 - 2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4 GHz

H/D - Seagate Barracudea 1TB

Ram - 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance 240 PIN DDR3 1600

M/B - Asus P8P67 Deluxe

Video - Asus ENGGTX570 Nvidea

PSU - TBD

Case - White Corsair Special Edidtion 600T

ODD - Plextor Black Blu-Ray PX-B9405A-11


Some of the things I am unsure about:


I get the feeling that the Motherboard is a little much. It is SLI ready, it actually can run 3 video cards and I am only buying one for now. There is a possibility I will upgrade to a second card down the road. Motherboard is the part I am the most clueless about it so any help here is appriciated.


I have no idea on power supply either. What is a trusted brand? Does it matter?


I know the cpu is for over clocking, I don't know how to over clock and I don't want to water cool. If I can figure out how to over clock it a bit using only air cooler I'd be interested in doing that.


What do you guys think?

 

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For motherboard, I'd probably go with something user the newer Z68 chipset. Z68 is what the P67 should have been in the first place.

This Gigabyte is probably one of the cheapest boards you can get with SLI support included.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

If you want to spend a bit more and like the ASUS brand.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729


For power supply, what you pick is pretty important as there are some power supplies when tested should be illegal to even sell, they are scary bad.

Antec and Corsair are two mainstream names that are pretty affordable and I trust. If you want to spend a bit more, I happen to like Seasonic a lot.

Thank you Ravy, I think I will take your suggestion on the motherboard. I will probably still go with the Asus brand, but the one you suggested still saves me some money and sounds like it is the better choice to begin with.


Thank you for your suggestions on the PSU. I'll look at both those companies.


How many watts do you think is required for a rig that mine?

 

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600 watts would cover this. I'd bump it up to 700 watts if you think you'll add a second card later.

OK,


I'm looking at the Corsair Professional Series HX650 50W PSU. Its $130 on new egg.


http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012


And I am going to get that Asus board Ravy recommended to me.


I will edit the original post to reflect the changes to the build.


I just hope my local computer shop is capable a putting together the system well. That is my only worry. I almost looked at pre built machines through Dell this time but they are over priced and come with a bunch of crap.


I looked into Falcon NorthWest but.. heh. I'm not made of money.


I'm sure you all build your own computers but I think I'd blow something up.

 

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Ok some other changes I might make.

I think I am going to drop the HD and go for an SSD. Just a small 120gig drive. I have the computer I am using now for storage I won't be getting rid of it, and I also have an external hard drive.

I will only keep every day applications and games on this rig. Lean and mean.

To accommodate for the increase in price I will drop the blue ray burner down to just a regular DvD burner. I don't have anything that plays Blue Ray anyway.

 

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Of course it is up to you how comfortable you are with this, but I thought I just say it anyway - putting computers together has become easy as pie. You basically plug things into each other, and the connectors are made so they will accept only the correct plug.

I takes about an hour ( or even less) to put the thing together from scratch and can save you some money you can use towards the build itself.

Once again, I have no idea how comfortable you are with this, or how much spare time you have, but I personally think it is not only easy to do but also worth it for a computer enthusiast experience. It helps when troubleshooting stuff down the road too.

With the many guides online and the helpful people on these forums it can be a fun project.

Whichever way you choose to go, congrats on the new build, parts look great!

 

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I agree with Locuus it's really easy to build computers yourself. The only real problem is when something doesn't work it can be a PITA. When I built my comp 1 stick of ram was bad causing windows from installing onto my HDD. The end result is I learned that not being lazy and following the guide, such as only putting the necessary components to start up the computer is the best way to go. Do not be lazy like me and put everything together inside the computer case and start it up.

 

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I'd personally recommend going for an EVGA branded Nvidia card. I believe many other posters here would agree.

 

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This. What a lot of people ignore is that *properly* testing everything can be a real pita if you run into an issue. Quite a few people don't have parts or a second system to test something on and turn to "computer part roulette" and just start RMAing near random things to fix the problem.

Also, dealing with strange issues that are unexpected like buying a cpu cooler that is the correct socket type but wont fit on the motherboard due to spacing / RAM etc.

Finally, the price comparisons tend to be apples and oranges type comparisons where people try to say building your own is cheaper. Oh, it is - when you pirate Windows (or use Linux) and all you need is the computer (no mouse, keyboard, monitor) and reuse components from their old computer (optical drive, old HD for a bulk drive) so the context gets lost and the blanket statement is made.

I just put together a low power box to use as a NAS, and getting the mobo to boot to a USB drive was interesting, as was getting it to recognize a compact flash as a hard drive. It was also picky on what keyboard I could use. With my "flagship" mobo, it will recognize a wireless keyboard that uses logitechs unifying reciever. No dice (though not a surprise). Then it would not recognize my G110 - apparently this wired keyboard was too advanced! (has a built in audio device that was prob confusing it). Had to go rip an old dell keyboard off of another computer.

I find that even though its "easy", every computer I build is a bit of an adventure.

All too many bad reviews left on newegg or Amazon are related to lack of experience, a less than exhaustive approach to troubleshooting, incorrect expectations (unlocking extra cores / shaders / overclocking "not working" or just flat out stupidity (mad that an old LGA775 board wont take a 1366 i7 and bending the pins).