New i5-2500K build advice

C

Celticbattlepants

Member
Hey all, been researching parts for a new build that has to do me at least 5 years, have come up with the following and would appreciate advice particularly on case, mobo, ssd and RAM. I am looking for parts that will be quiet, i have had enough of pcs that sound like trains in the next room.

CPU: SB i5-2500K

MOBO: Asus P8Z68-V Pro/deluxe <<<< However, I really like the P67 Sabertooth....need a reason to go P67 though

Case: Silverstone Fortress FT02 - one of the windowed ones (Quiet?)

GPU: Radeon HD6950, probably MSI twinfrozr II, hoping to be able to mod to 6970

RAM: really dont know, like Kingston Genesis, but dont know if ill see benefits of 2133MHz over 1600MHz

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

PSU: Corsair HX650 - from previous machine

1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB ssd, would like to know whether this is enough/too much? I dont have experience of SSDs so not sure how they should be used.

HDD: 2x500gbs cant remember make, from previous machine, plus a new 2tb drive, not particulalry concerned with make, probably WD Green, Seagate Barracuda green, Samsung spinpoint, all much of a muchness nowadays arent they?

Anyway, would appreciate comments, particularly RAM and MOBO if anyone can be arsed
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My current machine is a Q6600, which is still a decent rig for gaming, hoping to sell off to cover some of the new build costs
 
Looks like a really good build, maybe a bigger SSD? 60GB is fine for the OS and apps, depends if its what you want to put your games on?

If you are getting the NH-D14, just go for Mushkin RAM, Black Ridgebacks or Blackline would work fine, that's what I opted for anyway. 1600MHz is fine tbh.

The motherboard is very nice, so is the CPU, there really isn't a need to go to P67 unless you want a couple extra fps, plus the V-Pro has BlueTooth, and some other nice features. Looks quite nice too.

WD Green's are very good storage drives.

Also what is your budget?

Is this purely gaming, what kind of work do you do on the PC day to day?
 
My advice is pretty much the same as Ya93sin, I would definately go for a 120gb SDD, I have a 60gb one at the sec and they fill up very quickly.

I would also go for the Mushkin RAM rather than the Kingston sticks, all the reviews I have seen on them have been good and they are also well priced. All the Mushkin RAM is also compatiable with NH-D14 so that would be something less to worry about.

I would also go for 8gb of RAM if you want to future proof your build, this way you can always add another 8gb. 16gb of RAM should hopefully still be enough in 5 years time, but I am not sure that 8gb will!

I would probably go for a bigger PSU, maybe an 850w but the same make. This is a very good way to future proof your build as it gives you ability to add more kit like an extra gcard or more hard drives in the future.

I don't know alot about the case you have picked but Silverstone make solid cases so I am sure it is good!

I also have some WD Green drives and can vouch that they are good drives. They save power and I have had them for a couple of years now and no bad sectors or failures, and there pretty quiet as well.

Also as said before it would be good to see your budget and the prices of your parts as we maybe able to save you some money!, also let us know exactly what its going to be used for that way we can advise on the best parts for your build
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Good luck!
 
I would go sabertooth as I think it looks fantastic, wish I'd waited & got one. If you're using an ssd for the os & a discrete gpu I don't think that there is any advantage in going for the Z68.
 
Thanks for the advice guys!

The pc will mostly be for gaming, my most demanding work application is R, MATLAB Minitab and other statistical programs, so my laptop is more than adequate for that. However, there is a very small possibility it will get used for music in the future, i.e. Cubase and similar.

Also budget is around £1200 but flexible (i.e. can spend some more if it would make a difference, depending on how much I can get for the old rig and overtime at work
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)

I had originally planned for the Raven RV02-EW, but saw the fortress not long afterwards and much preferred the looks.

Prices for this build so far (I will probably be doing this in about 3-4 weeks time, as I am going to sea for two weeks for work), so these may change.

CPU: £157 for OEM version from Scan

Mobo:£148 - Scan again

Case: £214 delivered from yoyotech, limited edition black and red

GPU: £200-£220 various places

RAM: will probs go for mushkin
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Cooler: £68 from pretty much everywhere

HDDs: Most online retailers these are around £55 - £60 for 2TB

SSD: the 60GB version was around £100, 120 GB I have seen for £190 but havent really kept an eye out for the 120GB so could be wrong

Your input is great, really helps to firm up my selections
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sheroo said:
I would go sabertooth as I think it looks fantastic, wish I'd waited & got one. If you're using an ssd for the os & a discrete gpu I don't think that there is any advantage in going for the Z68.
Click to expand...

This is the one point I am really struggling with.... I love the looks and reviews of the P67 sabertooth, but something in my head is saying to go for Z68, to try and ensure maximum uprgadeability.... Although I have read that there is not much between P67 and Z68.

The other concern with the Sabertooth is, would using a tower cooler like the NH-D14 compromise the temps or would you need to get a downward pointing fan OR use a small 50mm in the mobo as suggested? I really need it to be quiet (first child on the way, hence the need for future-proofing and low volume, dont know where my money will go to.....)

Cheers
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Celticbattlepants said:
This is the one point I am really struggling with.... I love the looks and reviews of the P67 sabertooth, but something in my head is saying to go for Z68, to try and ensure maximum uprgadeability.... Although I have read that there is not much between P67 and Z68.

The other concern with the Sabertooth is, would using a tower cooler like the NH-D14 compromise the temps or would you need to get a downward pointing fan OR use a small 50mm in the mobo as suggested? I really need it to be quiet (first child on the way, hence the need for future-proofing and low volume, dont know where my money will go to.....)

Cheers
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Click to expand...

I think a cooler like the NH-D14 with the 140mm fan where it is, would still give really good temp results on a Sabertooth. I think if you bought a downward blowing cooler then the CPU would suffer so it would be a bit of a play off.

I seen a good video on youtube the other day with temps with and without the 50mm fan and they come to the conclusion that it was worth having one. Plus a 50mm fan is not really going to add much to the noise level:

The link below will give you some good reviews on the Sabertooth.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SingularityComputers#p/u/1/Q4VpTBWm1LI

This Guy has done several good reviews on this board, with armour/without armour/with and without the assist fan, which gives you a good overview.

Good luck with the new child, I have two and if you think PC parts are expensive kids eat money lol
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Seem to be a lot of deals on the MSI cards the last few weeks. I wont be in a position to order anything till july at the earliest, just hope they get some new offers then!

I think I will wait to decide about the Sabertooth till I get off the boat.....hopefully a Z68 sabertooth will come along and sort everything out
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cheers for all the advice (and warnings about children
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I read on http://www.techpowerup.com/ that when they reviewed the 6950 twin frozr 2 that they where unable to use the 6970 bios on it but they later reviewed the twin frozr 3 version and that went on just fine.

Basically the 6970 bios won't work on a non reference PCB 6950.

Just something to bare in mind.
 
I swear Twin Frozr II is usually the reference PCB, and Twin Frozr III is the non reference PCB?

edit: Read the Frozr II/III reviews, seems the II is non-reference. CONFUSED
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If you want that black and red special edition, this board would look good IMO. And ofcourse more expensive.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_ExtremeZ/

But that big case is rather expensive, so unless you plan alot of upgrades, I would go with the little brother.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_GENEZ/

And a cheaper case like the Fractal Arc Mini

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=59

That will free your budget for a bigger faster SSD, putting the money on speed instead of looks.

Some more info on if you want to go all out silent, then you could go for the Fractal R3 Mini.

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=58

Also if you are going for silent, note that for this generation AMD is noisier than Nvidia.

If you plan on expanding alot, i will agree with others on a strong corsair AX PSU.

Rest of your plan looks sound to me
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Thanks guys. The thought about a non-reference 6950 had crossed mind, good to get some more info on that.

Mad_Dane, excellent suggestions :-) There is something about the silverstone thermal design that really appeals to me, I guess u could look at a cheaper raven (03 or 02) and get a bigger ssd. I won't have Internet access for two weeks after today (!) so I'll have to check those out when I get back. Great stuff though.
 
agility 3 SSD are knocking around for £160-£170 now.

be careful flashing the 6950 to the 6970, just watch GPU temps if u are planning to overclock the "6970" card.. i have seen some high temp reads
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other than that its looking good
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Not to mention a flashed 6950 sounds like a jumbojet, which he clearly stated he is tired of. only way around that is custom water cooling, and that will never happen on this budget. If your tired of noise the only choice right now is Nvidia 5xx series or some card with custom cooling.
 
Nice silent ones:

Gainward Phantom GTX 560/570/580

MSi Twin Frozr II GTX 560/570/580

MSi Twin Frozr III GTX 570/580

Those are in order of quietness pretty much.
 
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