nice gaming machine, first build--feedback would be lovely!

hello! i'm learning, but not quite confident yet. if you've a moment to spare, a once-over of my build would be wonderful. feedback very, very welcome.


plans: windows7, gaming, and digital painting at decent resolutions.
budget: $1300 is around the limit. i'm also aware that the components in my list might be fancier than i really need.
services/brands: i'm used to newegg, but i'm not opposed to change. no strong opinions on brands, either, due to sheer inexperience.
overclocking: again inexperienced; my last machine never seemed lacking. so i don't really plan on it--that's research for another day.
peripherals: i plan on buying them separately (thus not counting toward the budget), though any suggestions are welcomed.

BUILD $1,107.90

• RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x2GB $26.99
  
• MOBO: GIGABYTE Z68 $169.99
  
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K $214.99
  
• graphics: XFX HD-695X-ZNFC $239.99
  
• PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 (650W) $94.99
  
• heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus $25.99
  
• HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB $114.99
  
• DVD: ASUS DRW-24B1ST $19.99
  
• case: Cooler Master HAF 912 $59.99
  
• peripherals: HANNspree HF Series HF237HPB Black 23" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD $139.99; similar to the one i bought two years ago, works great. built-in speakers ideal (i prefer headphones). already have a mouse/keyboard for now.

ideally, it'd be way nice to enjoy SKYRIM (minimum and recommended requirements) and WoW (minimum and recommended requirements, graphical updates ongoing) both near max settings... also lots of minecraft.

many sincere thanks.

Looks nice to me. Only thing I would suggest is adding a small SSD because you have the z68 chip set for intel SRT SSD caching. Most people like this one for intel SRT.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

and maybe getting the corsair 750w if you happen to want to get a beefier graphics card later, but the 650 should be able to run crossfire 6950 which will be more then enough for most people. The 750watt is about the same price as the 650watt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

And don't forget to get some better thermal compound for your heatsink.

And I assume you are accounting for the $100 for windows 7

forgot about the ssd entirely. and the psu upgrade will totally pay off in the long run---thanks a bunch!

yep, already cot my thermal paste and windows. can you tell i'm pumped?

get 8 gb of ram it will make you future proof and help you when you multitask crosair vengeance or g.skill ripjaw or sniper would do just fine or a better case i mean yours is just fine but when you look in side it is white an it looks kind of bad and old. I would go with a rosewill case of the antect 300/ 300 illusion same price points but they are better.

Oh, and the I5-2500k and radeon 6950 will be overkill for wow. Wow isn't very graphically demanding. With that setup you should be able to play the the games that are out right now and coming out in the near future. And if you feel like your lacking performance later you can crossfire if you upgrade the power supply to what I suggested.

newegg has the gskill ripjaw x rams in 8gb with 8-8-8-24 timings for $55 and that is a good deal and mice to have tight timings

thanks everyone! i will go with a 750watt psu, as well as some other changes.

AlwaysMaybe said:

And I assume you are accounting for the $100 for windows 7

Click to expand...

i am having a bit of trouble finding it for less than $185, sans the "upgrades," which would require me to have an older verified copy i think. if you know something i don't, do tell!

newegg has OEM versions of home premium for about $100. The only caveat is that microsoft will not do customer support on the install. If you're relatively astute at googlin problems in windows, this shouldn't be a problem. It's what I did and I haven't had an issue. Also, I'm sure the support you got would cost you 9.99/minute anyway

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
..and it comes with a 4gb flash drive! haha

notnero, i feel like you just got me a birthday present. saved me 100 clams AND got me a flash drive! (not sure what i'd do with it since i have a 1tb external, but then again, it's halfway full of doctor who already). thanks!

i'll look into the other cases, though i'm not too concerned with looks.

a good friend of mine convinced me to ditch the radeon and pick up a GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB, as he insisted that it would make my skyrim experience orgasmic. i can't really tell how much of that is fact and how much is brand bias, but go big or go home i guess? i won't be able to upgrade anywhere near the forseeable future anyway and i already have the 750watt PSU.

thanks again for all your help, everyone!

The 560ti is good and has nice drivers. The 6950 and 560ti preform the same as a single card. The 6950 tends to scale better when you go dual gpu. Since you said your not upgrading anytime in the near future the it's really a toss up. Which ever one you like and can get a good price on.

AlwaysMaybe said:

The 560ti is good and has nice drivers. The 6950 and 560ti preform the same as a single card. The 6950 tends to scale better when you go dual gpu. Since you said your not upgrading anytime in the near future the it's really a toss up. Which ever one you like and can get a good price on.

Click to expand...

the 6950 has higher average FPS, but also has worse Microstutter.

I don't know if you're agreeing that it is mostly a toss up of which card to go with. He said he probably won't be upgrading to a dual gpu setup so the whole micro stutter issue is irrelevant, but I thought I would post some info on the micro stutter problem. It's still a toss up to me. Dual radeons you get a better frame rate, dual nvidia you get a little "smoother" play. Both can have a micro stutter problem, just nvidia is better about it and some people don't even notice a micro stutter especially at high frames. Most people would use the term, "scales better" because you get a higher average frames with the dual radeon, but they vary more. A large part of why people pick the 6950 over the 560 is because they have a chance to unlock to a 6970.

http://m.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995-5.html

Either card you go with you are most likely going to be happy with it.