Need help with building my Tower

[Zentake]

Hey mmohut,

I need help finding specific parts for my Tower, specifically the Motherboard (<$200, dont care so long as evverything works, cheaper would be nice) and graphics card (>$230 and preference with nvidia with 560 ti)

The parts I have already chosen so far:
Tower
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

RAM
Newegg.com - PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model MD8192KD3-1600-X9
(don't know if this part will work but I'm pretty sure it will)

Processor
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

Hard Drive
Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1TB Caviar Black Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gbs at TigerDirect.com

Power Supply
OCZ ModXStream Pro Power Supply - 700-Watt, Modular, Dual +12V Rails, SATA, 80Plus at TigerDirect.com

Thanks for you Time!

[coldReactive]

What are you going to need all that 1 TB worth for? Fraps? As for the HAF-X, you'd probably be better off with the raven rv02 or rv03 if you want non-water cooling. Of course, if you will be moving the computer a lot, go for the HAF-X; just remember to check the difference in the black screws, as the manual doesn't really tell you much on those.

For the motherboard:

Newegg.com - ASRock H61DE/S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard

That's the cheapest full-size motherboard (Not Mini ITX / Micro ATX) you'll find for Intel's LGA 1155 series at this time. It doesn't support 1600 MHz RAM however, even if you overclock, it won't. But I suggest this, as it's better if you want to use 1600 MHz:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157279

I do not know WHY Intel has to force everyone to get a motherboard that has a DVI / HDMI or VGA Port, when the newegg list says there's no onboard video.

ASUS DCII is a good line to look at for video cards, check this one out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121480

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121424

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121432

[Zentake]

That you very, very much!!!!

[Allen]

Let me write a quick disclaimer for choosing 1155 socket parts. Don't buy a H61/H67 chipset motherboard for a unlocked i5 processor (noted by the "K" ex: i5-2500k). Unlocked processors are for people who wish to overclock, which is why they cost more because they have the ability to be overclocked (run faster than stock manufacturer frequencies). To overclock a unlocked (k) processor, you need to have either a P67 or Z68 chipset motherboard. The only thing you can overclock on a H61/H67 motherboard is the CPU's onboard graphics solution (which you wont be using anyways). The only reason you'd buy a H61/H67 motherboard is if you're using a dedicated graphics card or if you don't plan on overclocking (In which case you'd choose an i5-2400 processor because it cannot be overclocked).

Moral of the story, if you're buying a i5-2500k...get a P67 or Z68 chipset motherboard.

If you don't plan on overclocking at all, save 50-100 bucks and just get a i5-2500 and H61/H67 chipset motherboard combo.

Mismatching the two just doesn't make any sense and you end up selling your self short on potential or overspending for no reason.


For the i5-2500k, get this board:

Newegg.com - ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Best bang for buck full featured motherboard on the market. It's 80 dollars less than your budget and it's one of the most solid boards out there. Can't go wrong here, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal.

I'd recommend you not buy the power supply in your opening post. It has a design flaw that causes failure about a year after run time (sometimes sooner, some times later). PSU failure can fry your entire system, I'd be extremely wary of that power supply highly recommend against it. If there's anything in your system you want to spend more on and be sure its of great quality, it's your power supply.

These are some similar priced PSU's I'd recommend:

SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W - Modular (5 Year Warranty) 89.99:

Newegg.com - OCZ ZS Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W - Non Modular (5 Year Warranty) 69.99:

Newegg.com - SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W - Non Modular (5 Year Warranty - I personally own this one) 89.99:

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

OCZ ZS Series 650W 80PLUS - Non Modular (3-5 Year Warranty?) 89.99 (69.99 after instant code):

Newegg.com - OCZ ZS Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

Also, I don't understand why people THINK they need a 200 dollar computer case. You could easily cut 100 dollars of the Haf X and get a full featured 100 dollar case then have an extra 100 dollars to spend either on an SSD or put another 100 into your graphics card. All it does is hold your components and there's alot of full featured really nice cases under 100 dollars, the only reason you'd ever need a 200 dollar case is if you're building an entusiast class PC and NEED specific features. For the everyday gamer, you aren't using any of that...at best I assume you're buying it because it looks cool rather than features you're actually buying. I think you should rethink your decision and put that money somewhere better spent.

Anyways.

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1561-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Those are the two 560ti's you'd get for under 230.

You should rethink your budget on the case and put that into your graphics card, you could easily spend a little bit more and get a GTX 560 TI core 448 or AMD 6950 2GB.


Yup, that's my thoughts.

[Zentake]

Thanks for the advice.

The main reason I was thinking about that case was because of the size and that I can easily upgrade my parts later in life (after I'm done with college and start working in a couple years since I am a freshman) and add new parts later without ever having to worry about space.

Thanks for your advice and I'll take a look into those power supplies. But is 650W going to be enough?

[Allen]

650watts is more than enough for any single card configuration and most SLI configurations if you don't overclock the CPU and cards. It will handle Overclocking + SLI/Crossfire cards for GTX 560/AMD 6870 and lower...So basically, it's more power than you'll ever actually need as it is. At most, your system configuration will pull 400-450 watts MAX at the wall, so 650watts is even a bit over kill

As for full tower cases with lots of room, you should just get something basic for now and worry about that later...There's plenty of great full tower cases for the 100 dollar range.

Unless you plan on having a stack of hard drives, watercooling, multiple video cards and a huge RAD, I don't see anyone ever needing a full tower. I have a full tower NZXT Phantom..I can literally fit my other mid tower case inside this thing, they're massive and I'll likely never get another (Actually thinking about selling this one). There's some really great budget mid towers with all the options you could need, I'd personally recommend this case:

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Buy a few fans and you have a really nice air flow case with great cable management and the ability to fit any size video card. Also, being its built a bit wider than most cases, it can also fit any sized CPU heatsink without issues. Definitely would be my pick if I was looking for a great bang for buck case.