Building my first gaming desktop. Need advice on hardware selection.

[bazkook]

You have been of tremendous help Wishmaster. Thank you sincerly.

 

[bazkook]

Now on to the monitor. What monitor would you all recommend? I'm not looking for a huge one,just something in the low 20 inch range that also might fit near my budget.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I have two of the cases you plan to use, and I love them. One is my primary system and one is running my WHS 2011 server.

I would consider the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ for the CPU cooler. It's cheap, and still one of the best air coolers out there. I also have two of them, and they are very quiet.

Since you know the parts you want, just build the computer yourself. It's actually extremely easy....easy enough that before my wife got into I.T., I had her build her own. This way, you can either save some money, or put that money towards better hardware.

 

[lnav83]

I personally have the 560 Ti Superclocked... not only is it a great card by itself, but it's also the perfect card to double up on when going to SLI, for the price of one GTX 580(about) you get better performance than the 580 and the PS you have gives you the freedom to upgrade later. I don't know much about the PS brand you are thinking of getting but I have a 850 Raidmax and I haven't had any problems with it.

 

[bazkook]

I have two of the cases you plan to use, and I love them. One is my primary system and one is running my WHS 2011 server.

I would consider the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ for the CPU cooler. It's cheap, and still one of the best air coolers out there. I also have two of them, and they are very quiet.

Since you know the parts you want, just build the computer yourself. It's actually extremely easy....easy enough that before my wife got into I.T., I had her build her own. This way, you can either save some money, or put that money towards better hardware.

Thanks Deacon,I think I will use the Hyper 212+. I do plan on assembling it myself when I found out the shop quoted me at $90 labor. I have upgraded parts on my desktop and laptop before, namely the video card on my desktop a couple of times,and memory and hard drives on both my desktop and laptop. Plus on my old desktop I modified it by installing a plexiglass window with a small neon light inside. Assembling one shouldn't be too hard.

 

[bazkook]

RAM

I found 4 sticks of G.Skill 2GB Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ RAM for only $40 shipped from an individual. According to around 1000 reviews on Newegg, the RAM holds a very good average rating (4 of 5 stars). Plus it is compatible with the motherboard I am going with, which is a Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3. Not a bad deal for the RAM IMO!

 

[essenbe]

If you can find it at a good price, I would go with 2 X 4GB sticks rather than 4 X 2GB sticks. It is easier on the CPU and will not require any voltage tweeks. The Ripjaws X serise was made for Sandy Bridge and will work well in it. I also agree with Wishmaster on the SSD. I ran my system for almost year on a Crucial M4 64GB. There is plenty of space if you move your user files and games to another hard drive. Also, for an OS drive the 2 most important things are 4kb reads and access times. Those will not improve with a raid set up. Plus, you lose trim with raid.

 

[bazkook]

If you can find it at a good price, I would go with 2 X 4GB sticks rather than 4 X 2GB sticks. It is easier on the CPU and will not require any voltage tweaks. The Ripjaws X series was made for Sandy Bridge and will work well in it. I also agree with Wishmaster on the SSD. I ran my system for almost year on a Crucial M4 64GB. There is plenty of space if you move your user files and games to another hard drive. Also, for an OS drive the 2 most important things are 4kb reads and access times. Those will not improve with a raid set up. Plus, you lose trim with raid.

Thank you. I did some research after you suggested going with 2x4GB sticks over 4x2GB and you're completely right. It supposedly makes it easier to overclock your CPU if you have less memory sticks and it is also better to have only 2 sticks for a dual channel setup.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Assembling one shouldn't be too hard.

Given all of that, you shouldn't have any trouble. Good luck!

 

[profdlp]

...they are only 650W but they are far more power than you'll need. Plus, just better PSUs all around.
Wattage alone doesnt tell the whole story.

I agree. I am running both of the systems in the "My System Specs" listing off of quality 600W PSUs. Check the tool here to see how you stack up: Newegg.com - Recommended Power Supply Calculator.

 

[WolfSoul]

TNT panels = fast speed
IPS panels = better colors
Just to throw some info out..

 

[bazkook]

Well I got a few parts today at Best Buy.
First I picked up a Seagate Internal 1 TB HD (Model ST310005N1A1AS-RK) for $120 plus tax. I kinda wish the HD was SATA 3 instead of SATA 2 but it shouldn't make a huge difference since the SSD will be my primary drive and the Seagate is just a storage drive.
Next I picked up an EVGA GeForce GTX 560 2GB Superclocked card(Model 02G-P3-2069-KB) for $260 plus tax. However, I will be returning this card because I thought it was a Ti version. The aforementioned card is exclusive to Best Buy so you won't find it on Newegg. Here's the listing for it on Best Buy's website: EVGA - GeForce GTX 560 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - 02G-P3-2069-KB
The Ti version I mentioned in my original specs is cheaper through Newegg and should perform better than Best Buy's model.
Third, I bought a motherboard and processor combo. They were selling an Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard and an Intel Core i5-2500K for $430 plus tax on their website. I should be able to pick that combo up from the store next week along with a couple of 4GB stick of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM I got for $52.
Finally I got an Antec 300 case for $60 plus tax along with a couple of extra 120MM fans for $15 each. It has a lot of great reviews and it cost about the same as the Cooler Master HAF 912 case I was looking at.

 

[bazkook]

TNT panels = fast speed
IPS panels = better colors
Just to throw some info out..

Thanks for the info Wolf!

 

[WolfSoul]

I got an IPS panel Dell (U2412M) myself But it's a 24 inch However I know you said 20 but 24 might be a "sweet spot"
In the end all just depends on how much you wanna spend

 

[peaceful]

what WolfSoul said is right, 24" would be nice, or at least 22" so that you could optimize your VGA (1920x1080 or 1680x1050). You might down power your psu to 700 watt, and allocate the budget for a 22" or 24" monitor.

you might as well consider cpu cooler with Corsair H80, it could make your rig look cleaner besides well-managed cable management.

 

[WolfSoul]

He already downgraded to 650 W.. just noticed that then when I was about to recommend 750/850

 

[bazkook]

I've actually decided to go with the following PSU:

Newegg.com - OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

It's got plenty of reviews,an average of 4 eggs,and 3 rebates ($40 instant,$30 mail-in,and $10 off promo code) which effectively makes the PSU only about $50. If that's true then that's not a bad deal!

 

[bazkook]

I know it's been a long time since I updated this thread but I have built my desktop and have had it running for several months now, possibly close to a year.
It runs great and I am about to upgrade to 32GB of RAM. I found someone selling 2 packs of 16GB of RipjawsX 2133MHz (4x8GB sticks) for a fair price.
I have attached a text file exported from Speccy, which details the specs, to this post. Maybe someone can comment on my build.