First gaming PC in ages. Opinions?

Hi. The last time I played a proper PC game was back in 1998, but now I've decided to dive into it again and get some gaming going. I've been slaving away on the Xbox 360 for several years now, but for games like Rage, Skyrim and Deus Ex: HR, I figured I'd jump over to the PC again.

Anyway, here are the parts I'm planning to order. I don't need the PC to be cheaper than this, just wondering if there are any strange combinations going on here, or if there are any clear weaknesses to this setup. I need all the space for my lossless music collection. Also, how long do you figure it will last me? Couple of years or so? Opinions and suggestions welcome.

Oh, and I'm not going to overclock anything.

Intel Core i7-2600
16GB DDR3 SDRAM PC3-10600
Intel 510 series SSD 120GB (for the OS)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX580 1536MB
WD Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2x2TB
H67 Express ATX Motherboard
750W Delta Electronics PSU
Pioneer BDR-206BK/WS Blu-ray
FILCO Majestouch 2
Razer Mamba 2012
Samsung SyncMaster B2230H
Win7 x64 Ultimate

Whats your budget?

Do you need all the components?

From where are you going to buy them ?

I live in Japan -- I'll just buy them at my local hardware store. Money isn't an issue. Just looking for a general opinion on the setup listed above. Anything I should think twice about? Any strange or dumb combinations? No overclocking.

For the PSU, it's a good idea to stay with Corsair and Seasonic.
For the proc, I recommend the 2600k, it's the unlocked, overclockable version. The 2600 has a locked multiplier.

for gaming the 2500 is just as good as the 2600, for $100 less. this being an overclocking forum, the-K series will always be recommended

go for a Z68 board. You don't need more than 8 GB RAM (2x4GB sticks) and having only 2 sticks leaves room for expansion, get DDR3-1600(12800), not 1333(10600) A single 580 GPU will be more than adequate for games for the next 3 years or more.

delta is ok as far as PSUs go, but Antec, Seasonic, XFX, Corsair are all better, grab one of those.

don't bother with Caviar Blacks. Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate are just as good, but cheaper.

ScrewySqrl said:

for gaming the 2500 is just as good as the 2600, for $100 less. this being an overclocking forum, the-K series will always be recommended

go for a Z68 board. You don't need more than 8 GB RAM (2x4GB sticks) and having only 2 sticks leaves room for expansion, get DDR3-1600(12800), not 1333(10600) A single 580 GPU will be more than adequate for games for the next 3 years or more.

delta is ok as far as PSUs go, but Antec, Seasonic, XFX, Corsair are all better, grab one of those.

don't bother with Caviar Blacks. Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate are just as good, but cheaper.

Click to expand...

Alright, thanks for the super reply. Gave me a few things to think about before shopping. Thanks again.

Get the 16GB of RAM. RAM costs nothing now. In JAPAN it'll be even cheaper than it is for us in North America. Get RAMDISK ($10 program) and make 8GB a RAMDISK and use it as your page file. This way you are using more RAM and not having to page a slower SSD or HDD. The system will always run a page/swap file if you allow it to.

Say you are playing a game and running some downloads and uploading a video to youtube. Total RAM usage is 3.4GB-- but you are still using about 2GB of page file. If you run RAM disk you can put that whole 5.4GB on RAM. This increases system responsiveness and eliminates the possibilty of stutter, which can even be present if you are using an SSD for your page file, when a large amount of data is moved from the page file to the physical RAM.

Though 4/4 RAM/PAGE is possible on 8GB running 16GB gives a wider margin for multitasking. Although you are almost entirely unlikely to ever hit 16GB in use, it is nice to have and so cheap now that there is no reason not to do it.

I think we are all so used to RAM being costly that we suggest 'only what is needed'. But now we can all afford 16GB of RAM and a 3TB hard drive.

I also suggest you spend (approx 10 to 10 US dollar difference) the money on the "K" CPU. You can make it over 1Ghz faster. Also get a cpu cooler (like coolermaster hyper 212) and a P67 or Z68 board. Not H67.

Also, I have a GTX 580, but did you know that for much less money you can get a volt tweak 6970, like the ASUS Direct CU II model, overclock it, and make it as fast (almost) as a GTX 580? For more than $100 USD less money?