Upgrade time!

[[JiF]KellysHero]

Nice build Mike. I'm in the midsts of building my Core i5 2500k system as well. Have had all the parts for over a month now but the Sandy Bridge recall effected me so I didn't build the system. The motherboard was finally sent back this past Saturday and I hope to get the new one sometime this week or early next week.

You might want to consider dropping down from the i7 to the i5, it is a huge price premium for not a lot of extra performance. Use that savings for an SSD drive!

Here's my build...
Core i5 2500k
Asus P8H67-M LE (I'm building a micro-ATX system and will initially use the onboard graphics (thus I can't overclock even though I have a "k" cpu)

1 x G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 1 x Crucial RealSSD C300

Got a great deal on the SSD, it is smaller but uses Sata 3 and it'll be jsut a boot drive.
CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

PS is the Corsair 650HX 650 watt modular PSU.

Windows 7 64 Home Premium

I'll add a discrete GPU eventually, I"m leaning towards the nVidia 560Ti (think that was the one), but not in a great hurry.


The reason for the MB choice is it may become an HTPC (has HDMI output) or be given to my wife. I'd pick up a lower end CPU for her, and she doesn't need discrete graphics and it would be a huge step up from her old Pentium 4 system!

[[JiF]Mike]

Thanks. I initially was going with the i5, but my son has the 1st gen i7..so I didn't want to constantly hear that I "only had an i5." It wasn't a giant leap in price, only like $100, but did hurt a bit. I know the price to performance improvement ratio isn't great, but heck, it is better. My original budget (before I started research) was $2500. In the end I wanted to compromise on some things (for example one video card, no SSD) to cut the price down while getting a pretty awesome system. I looked pretty hard at SSD's on top of the i7 but just couldn't justify the huge cost/GB at this time. You know the prices will only come down over the next year or so! I'll get one when the prices aren't so crazy! I did spend more money on the power supply, especially considering I initially planned to use my current PS (thanx Doc ). I decided to spend the money and get something that should last me (hopefully) 5 years and through a couple of upgrades. I really like that it comes with a 5 year warranty!

Some parts arrived today.

[[JiF]CowHide]

Did you run down the stairs in your pajamas?

[[JiF]Mike]

LOL! No they were delivered to my office where I work. My office is right next to the front door so when the UPS truck pulled up I went out to the lobby and met him. Same thing should happen today!

[[JiF]zougathefist]

Did you run down the stairs in your pajamas?

LOL Cowhide - too funny!

But seriously Mike - I hate you for having such a cool build
I am now all jealous and stuff

[[JiF]Rhykin]

My PC has long been dead and my only usable one is from 2003. I've been acquiring a new desktop every two years for a while (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007), but when 2009 came around, my existing PC was holding up pretty good so I decided to skip that year. However, towards the end of 2009, I started experiencing massive problems with my PC (I'd say November, 2009), which at one point prevented Windows from being installed or booted correctly. This problem turned out to be related to a dying PSU when it spectacularly blew out and killed my motherboard sometime late last year. Had to use the PC from 2003 ever since, since the one from 2005 died then stripped for parts for friends.

I actually went through and spec'd out a PC as well last night, before I saw this post. Mine is a bit more pricey, and doesn't include the monitor and mouse like yours. I like to start at the processor, read reviews of the processor and look at everyone else's system in the feedback. From there I mix and match components that are common, and throw them out if they don't have high ratings.

=CPU=
1x Intel Core i7-2600K - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.618222" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $329.99
1x Cooler Master 212+ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.618222" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $34.99

=MB=
1x ASUS P8P67 DELUXE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131701" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $239.99
OR
1x GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD5-B3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128479" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $259.99

=RAM=
1x G.SKILL Ripjaws X 8GB (2x 4GB) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231435" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $199.99

=GPU=
1x EVGA SuperClocked Geforce GTX 570 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130595" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $359.99

=PSU=
1x COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RS800-80GAD3-US 800W ATX - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817171057" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $159.99

=HD=
1x WD Caviar Black 1TB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136533" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $89.99

=CASE=
1x Cooler Master SGC-2000-KKN1-GP - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119196" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $89.99

=BD-ROM=
LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827136181" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $79.99

-----------------
Outside of new PC that I wanted to buy anyway from NewEgg:

1x Mediasonic HUR1-SU3S2 2 Bay Raid+ 0/1/Single 3.5" SATA HDD Enclosure - SuperSpeed USB 3.0 & eSATA - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6816322005" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $94.99
2x Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136514" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - $79.99

Total (including the RAID 1 external HD enclosure and hard drives) is $1,848.88. It's just sitting in my cart. Haven't purchased it yet. :\
I want to pick up the ASUS motherboard, but they are out of stock so I'm left to buy a $20 more expensive board if I decide to buy now.

I'll probably pull back on the RAM if anything, to try and reduce the price. With the parts as they are now, the HD is probably going to be the bottleneck.

[[JiF]Mike]

Nice specs! Before I left Friday I was able to play around a bit with my new system 'a little'. It is SUPER fast! That core i7 is badass. I was running World of Warcraft (not a huge resource hog, but more than it use to be) and I was running with everything turned up to max detail and 1920x1080 and the CPU never got over 95 degrees F. I haven't had a chance to do anything else, but so far indications are good.

[[JiF]Mike]

I thought it would be fun to do a little time lapse video while I put the pc together. So here it is. I did a very quick edit to add some descriptions of what's going on.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLmp9HpHwVI[/video]

I got BC2 running tonight, 1920x1080 with everything turned on high and the pc simply didn't care. CPU ran at 31 degrees C and graphics were flawless. I did not run a FPS or video card temp but it looked great! Now I just need to finish installing all my software!

[[JiF][AARP]Tissueman]

Cool! Glad it worked first shot. When you were kneeling before the desk at the end did you say the traditional "Please God Let This PC Work" prayer?

Tissue

[[JiF]Mike]

Nah I wasn't praying. I was taking a photo that came out blurry and unusable lol.

I forgot to mention, while playing BFBC2 I was watching my Kill A Watt and my pc peaked at 185W. Maybe that 620W power supply would have been fine!!!! I'll have to find a game that can really test this system.

[[JiF]CowHide]

I forgot to mention, while playing BFBC2 I was watching my Kill A Watt and my pc peaked at 185W. Maybe that 620W power supply would have been fine!!!! I'll have to find a game that can really test this system.

Look at it this way, it's like saying "maybe that Volvo would have been fine!!!!". Sure maybe it would have, but now you have a Ferrari. Plus now you'll have plenty of room for 2 or 3 crossfires without even blinking an eye.

[[JiF]ALargeWoodenBadger]

That was cool. I really like the part where you speed read the manual.

[[JiF]KellysHero]

Woo hoo, my motherboard arrived from Asus! I will still have to bow down to Mike and his Core i7 with my lowely Core i5, but I at least sleep better knowing I'm on the better part of the price/performance ratio!!!

[[JiF]Gib]

wow $700 for dual gpu in 1 card. But oh baby is this sexy...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/amds ... -card-king

[[JiF]Rhykin]

Finally bought the system that I quoted in my earlier post: viewtopic.php?p=41652#p41652" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's arriving Wednesday or Thursday.

For some reason, I'm not nearly as excited as I was when I bought my last computer in 2007. Probably because it's been a long time since I played any sort of modern game (as that's when the other one started failing). Grimp can attest to that when I showed up to Nor'easter 2010 with a 400Mhz laptop