$2000 gaming rig, suggestions?

[AlienEd]

Hi guys,

I'm planning to build this rig in about 2 months. I already have the case, it's a NZXT Phantom. My current budget is of about $2000 USD. I need to squeeze a monitor into the budget too. I'm located in the US, I prefer to buy from Amazon 'cuz Newegg charges taxes in my state. I'm a Intel and Nvidia fan-boy so please don't suggest any AMD or ATI, I know, they are cheaper and have better price-performance ratio but I just don't like them, sorry. Any suggestions would be appreciated, my current specs are:



*EDIT: I forgot to update the SSD in the table, now I'm planning to get the 128GB one, its price: $237.49.

Thanks!

 

[Grizzly]

The ASRock board looks overpriced to me, the other boards off of Amazon I'd recommend instead that stay near the original price are the UD4 and the Sabertooth, the UD7 probably breaks your budget and I can't find the UD5 on Amazon.

You can get better performing SSDs like the OCZ Vertex 3, Agility 3 or Solid 3. In fact Crucial even have a newer SSD out, m4 series.

Can't criticize anything else with the build.

 

[DragonPC]

get another board.

ud7 or something like that

 

[sheroo]

If you got the sabertooth it would fit well with that down facing C14 you've listed. What colour is your phantom?

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Yeah, like everyone else says, I'd personally change the motherboard.

They might have changed over the years but Asrock has never had a great reputation.

I'd go with one of these myself and if your going for the C14 then that would be great for the sabertooth and I think it's heatsinks go pretty well with the Noctua fans.

http://www.newegg.co...1-702-_-Product

http://www.newegg.co...1-703-_-Product

You may want to change from the Vengeance memory because it stops you from mounting the bottom fan on the C14. If you go to this thread http://forum.corsair...ead.php?t=92423 and scroll down the page you will see a picture that describes what I mean. It's up to you if you want to live with this or not, it just means it may limit how far you can push your 2500K cus you won't be able to get as good a temps as you would with two fans. If you just want a mild overclock though you should be ok. up to you that one. If your interested in changing your ram then you could always go with some Kingston ram (unless anyone else wants to recommend anything different) as they have a solid reputation and also don't have crazy heatsinks. I would recommend Mushkin but they seemed to be crazy prised in the states.

http://www.amazon.co...5543091&sr=1-44

http://www.amazon.co...5543091&sr=1-45

I listed the 4GB modules because most guys around here say that 4GB is all you need for a gaming rig as that's all they'll really use but if you want to go with 8GB that's fine. You could always go with 4GB now and then get another 4GB later if you felt you needed it and I heard 4 sticks of 2GB would give you a faster access time than two sticks of 4GB but I don't have any proof of that, it's just what I heard. Your not going to need more than 8 GB though unless your doing some big time rendering.

You might want to change the SSD too. That was a great SSD for the money a few months ago but now that OCZ have released there new stuff then you can get a faster drive for about the same money. Well, in the UK you can, not sure how your prices differ over there but your normally cheaper.

Hope all this helps

 

[AlienEd]

If you got the sabertooth it would fit well with that down facing C14 you've listed. What colour is your phantom?

Sexy white man

 

[AlienEd]

The ASRock board looks overpriced to me, the other boards off of Amazon I'd recommend instead that stay near the original price are the UD4 and the Sabertooth, the UD7 probably breaks your budget and I can't find the UD5 on Amazon.

You can get better performing SSDs like the OCZ Vertex 3, Agility 3 or Solid 3. In fact Crucial even have a newer SSD out, m4 series.

Can't criticize anything else with the build.

Thanks for your advices, now I'm going for the sabertooth instead of the extreme6, it looks sexier and has everything I need. I chose the Extreme6 at the beginning because it had more usb3 ports and quad SLI support, but to be honest I don't need those, with 2 usb3 and single SLI support I'm ok.

I'll keep with the C300. Based in a bunch of threads and reviews seems like the vertex3 has an average read-time not very far ahead from the C300, I'll save $100 bucks instead.

 

[AlienEd]

You may want to change from the Vengeance memory because it stops you from mounting the bottom fan on the C14. If you go to this thread http://forum.corsair...ead.php?t=92423 and scroll down the page you will see a picture that describes what I mean. It's up to you if you want to live with this or not, it just means it may limit how far you can push your 2500K cus you won't be able to get as good a temps as you would with two fans. If you just want a mild overclock though you should be ok. up to you that one. If your interested in changing your ram then you could always go with some Kingston ram (unless anyone else wants to recommend anything different) as they have a solid reputation and also don't have crazy heatsinks. I would recommend Mushkin but they seemed to be crazy prised in the states.

http://www.amazon.co...5543091&sr=1-44

http://www.amazon.co...5543091&sr=1-45

I listed the 4GB modules because most guys around here say that 4GB is all you need for a gaming rig as that's all they'll really use but if you want to go with 8GB that's fine...

Thanks for the head-ups man! I thought that the vengeance was compatible with the C14, I'll take that 4gb Kingston kit, I know that 4GB is all you need for gaming, I was planning to buy 8GB just to show off but you guys just dropped my feet back to the ground, now I'll just get what I really need and save some money. Thanks!

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Thanks for the head-ups man! I thought that the vengeance was compatible with the C14, I'll take that 4gb Kingston kit, I know that 4GB is all you need for gaming, I was planning to buy 8GB just to show off but you guys just dropped my feet back to the ground, now I'll just get what I really need and save some money. Thanks!

Your very welcome. It's what we're here for, all we ask in return is pics in the rig gallery once you've built her, and before if you really want to spoil us

Good call on the sabertooth btw. Really fancy that myself.

EDIT: Don't know how I forgot to mention this but with the Z68 boards being released now then you might want to hold fire and get one of those. Choice is yours though and the sabertooth is awesome.

With the SSD, it's the write times that really make the difference between the C300 and the new OCZ's and like I say, there's a new one coming out that here is about the same price as the C300. Can't remember what it's called but it's in the Aria thread if you care

. That said though the C300 is a solid choice imho and has been out awhile now so you won't have the issue of finding any unknown problems like those who go for the new OCZ drives might do, so can't fault you there either really.

The only other thing that came to mind was that you didn't say if you where planning on adding a second 580 later. If your not then you might want to have a look at the EVGA 460 2win. It's about $70 cheaper than the 580 but beats it in performance as its a double GPU card. Couple of links here if your remotely interested.

http://www.evga.com/articles/00613/

http://www.evga.com/...=02G-P3-1387-AR

Hope you have fun with your new build

Edit: Forgot this link which is probably the best http://www.youtube.c...h?v=SRXCh9onh6M.

Would love this card, a sabertooth and a 2500K for myself

 

[AlienEd]

Good call on the sabertooth btw. Really fancy that myself.

EDIT: Don't know how I forgot to mention this but with the Z68 boards being released now then you might want to hold fire and get one of those. Choice is yours though and the sabertooth is awesome

I'm not really into the Z68 'cuz it won't really make a difference in gaming which is the main purpose of my rig, but thanks for the advice anyways.

The only other thing that came to mind was that you didn't say if you where planning on adding a second 580 later.

In fact I'm going to add another 580 in a near future

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Coolio.Sounds like your all set then mate mate. Nothing more to say except enjoy your new rig

 

[AlienEd]

Thanks! I'm just waiting for the money

I used to have an alienware m15x but now I'm getting a refund because they couldn't fix the problem it had so, as soon as I get the money in my hands I'll order the parts and start posting some pics for you guys

cya

 

[Grizzly]

Thanks! I'm just waiting for the money

I used to have an alienware m15x but now I'm getting a refund because they couldn't fix the problem it had so, as soon as I get the money in my hands I'll order the parts and start posting some pics for you guys

cya

Refund the Alienware overpriced rubbish, an excellent decision.

 

[AlienEd]

Refund the Alienware overpriced rubbish, an excellent decision.

Yes, STAY AWAY form Dellienware. Just 1 week after my 1 year warranty expired my laptop died -.- fortunately I managed to extend it by paying a latency fee, that's how I got tech support and the only reason why I don't have a 2k paperweight. I have been waiting for 6 months now to get my situation solved, got the whole unit replacement already but must send it back to get the refund, I'm just waiting for the confirmation to get rid of that piece of junk. Worst mistake I've ever made with a piece of hardware.

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

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