Anyone see a red flag before I proceed with this build?!?

[Vinho]

I'm building a computer for my cousin, he as everyone does, wants the best bang for his buck.

This is a rough outline of the parts we're getting for him, he IS looking to overclock which is why I chose the 2500K over the 3570k-- It's also a bit cheaper. Went with a 7850 as well, since he liked the idea of spending a bit more to get a more potent card than the cheaper 7770.

Going for reputable parts / brands of course, will be purchasing these parts In-Store @ a local Tiger Direct (In London Ontario, Canada).

(We have Windows 7 / Thermal Paste / Monitor / Mouse / Keyboard / All Tools Necessary)

Just wanted to get your opinions / suggestions before we go shopping He has a flexible, but at the same time, tight budget. (I'm pretty sure he's willing to spend a bit more, but he wants to keep it as low as possible while still getting quality parts)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Memory Express)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.03 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.88 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Memory Express)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 330 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.88 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: Rosewill Stallion 500W ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($49.97 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $763.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-18 12:42 EDT-0400)

Thank you for your time!

[Meintastic]

as i know barely anything about the inner workings of computers, the only thing i'd suggest is an extra terabyte of space. 1tb doesn't go far these days, what with everything upping the amount needed for installs and updates

[Vinho]

as i know barely anything about the inner workings of computers, the only thing i'd suggest is an extra terabyte of space. 1tb doesn't go far these days, what with everything upping the amount needed for installs and updates

For now he says he just wants 1 TB and will get more later as he needs it;
To add: I tried suggesting getting a separate 64 GB SSD for a boot drive, but we just don't see it in his budget

[Purenight]

I will tell u this Vinho that cooler is freaking amazing for an air cooler, had it on my GF's PC runs like a champ. I dont see anything that would redflag you though as in a part problem.

I would also look at the 660ti cards as they are very very good for the amount of money.

[Vinho]

I will tell u this Vinho that cooler is freaking amazing for an air cooler, had it on my GF's PC runs like a champ. I dont see anything that would redflag you though as in a part problem.

I'm running a similar Xigmatek Dark Knight in my build and I love the style, It's cheap, featured, and comes highly recommended by people so I figured we'd give it a go :P

[Jakexe]

Are you planning to OC?

It's a solid build but that PSU might not be enough.

[Avalyne28]

I think it looks good>>
The CPU is something I have now and I love it...the ivory bridge is more expensive and not that much more output.
The Gigabyte made a good MB for this CPU, so I think that's a good choice too. Out of everything you have, the only things I would question is the PSU and the HDD. I spent a little more and went with PC Power & Cooling because of their reputation and rating. You dont want your PSU blowing out on you....it sucks. As far as the HDD..I havent heard stellar things about seagate, but I do know they are less expensive. I went with WD Black when I built. If you are looking to save money, you might opt to buy a $15.00 optical drive unless he NEEDS a blue-ray reader for something. Otherwise, looks like a good rig.

[vesseblah]

I'm building a computer for my cousin, he as everyone does, wants the best bang for his buck.

Drop the BluRay drive for regular DVD (or just skip it completely if you can install Windows from USB stick) unless he's 100% guaranteed to use PC for watching or ripping BD movies. It will never be required to install any program on your computer.

I'm running a similar Xigmatek Dark Knight in my build and I love the style, It's cheap, featured, and comes highly recommended by people so I figured we'd give it a go :P

Xigmatek Gaia is $2 more expensive than the CM Hyper 212+, performs better and is easier to install. Would rather pick that instead.

as i know barely anything about the inner workings of computers, the only thing i'd suggest is an extra terabyte of space. 1tb doesn't go far these days, what with everything upping the amount needed for installs and updates

No. The requirement for disc space is actually rapidly falling because everything can be streamed. Only the people who are collecting terabytes of porn or doing lossless rips of thousands of CDs/DVDs need disc space anymore.

Majority of people on this forum could easily live with a 250GB SSD alone and totally ditch all mechanical discs.

[Avalyne28]

Are you planning to OC?

It's a solid build but that PSU might not be enough.

I agree with this comment but not for the OC'ing more so for the Graphics card. the MIN. req is 500 watts

[Korgoth]

The only thing that I'd not buy myself is that Rosewill PSU, Newegg store brand on PSU seems iffy to me; id spend the extra 20 for a Corsair.

[Vinho]

He specified he really wants and will use the Bluray player/ writer =\ I already tried advising him against it!

Will be overclocking - Yes
the 500w PSU, imho is way more than enough needed for this system, the estimated watts required on the pcpartpicker app is ~335 -- Assuming a margin of error and the slight increase in power from overclocking- 500 should still be very much in the comfort zone?

Thank you Vessebleh for the Xigmatek Gia suggestion!

Edit: The PSU is a placeholder for whatever Tiger Direct will have in stock (at a ~similar price)

[vesseblah]

the 500w PSU, imho is way more than enough needed for this system, the estimated watts required on the pcpartpicker app is ~335 -- Assuming a margin of error and the slight increase in power from overclocking- 500 should still be very much in the comfort zone?

That estimated wattage is correct and 500W is more than enough. Rosewill is not exactly a quality brand, but not totally bad either.

[Rosie1]

I too live in London and can help you out a bit.
the best chip/board combo with $$$ in mind is the i5-2550k and the Asus P8-Z77 -LE.
i got a wicked deal on these at mega computer on the corner of richmond and oxford.
i would also suggest a larger power supply than just 500W. Move up to a 750W at least to ease things.

[lordjust]

...The requirement for disc space is actually rapidly falling because everything can be streamed. Only the people who are collecting terabytes of porn or doing lossless rips of thousands of CDs/DVDs need disc space anymore.

Majority of people on this forum could easily live with a 250GB SSD alone and totally ditch all mechanical discs.

It depends on what you're doing with the PC and what you play. All newer PC games take about 20-30GB of space and on top of that you have very often DLC that takes space too. I have maybe 10 games installed and they already use about 400GB of diskspace plus Windows, savegames and DLCs, word, some music, photos and videos which adds up to more than 500GB of data.

Sure I could remove some games that I don't play so often but downloading (except of 3 all of them are from steam summer sale) and installing them takes a lot of time.

[Rosie1]

I should also mention that I have the chip clocked at 4.7Ghz stable and it will outperform the majority of i7 chips.

[Roffler]

I'll offer my opinion too.
Choosing a PSU based on "whatever Tiger Direct has in stock" sounds risky. I advise against scrimping money on that part. Buy a good reputable PSU, my personal recommendation is Antec, and I would go with 600 Watt minimum if you play video games on it because you're gonna want that extra power for that.
Overclocking: don't do it, unless you like errors in your cpu's calculations. If you need more power from the CPU buy one that's clocked where you want it. Reason, when CPU clock speeds are set, they are set at the fastest that the chip performed *without introducing errors in the calculations, they basically crank em up untill they start goofing up, then dial it back a bit, and call it a whatever gigahertz . When you overclock a CPU you are potentially going to be getting erroneous behavior out of it which you may or may not have any troubles from, but in the long term, I just wouldn't advise doing it to any CPU. I know people claim that they overclock this and that and get X amount more performance, but start delving into what kind of system stability under normal usage they actually have.
Spend a couple extra bucks where it counts and you can build one that will be competitive or at least upgradable for quite some time. Good luck.

[Somarlane]

I also agree about the PSU, it's a major component and needs to be really dependable. Antec and Corsair are both quality brands, though I prefer Antec. (Make certain to stay away from Cooler Master PSUs. Crappy construction.)

[vesseblah]

Reason, when CPU clock speeds are set, they are set at the fastest that the chip performed *without introducing errors in the calculations, they basically crank em up untill they start goofing up, then dial it back a bit, and call it a whatever gigahertz.

Wrong. What actually happens is that out of the one disc of silicon Intel (or somebody else) has done quite extensive statistical analysis that the innermost x rings of chips can run flawlessly at speed x, then the next few rings run at speed x-1, next few rings at x-2 and so on, based on physics. On average the quality of the chips is better the closer to the middle it is in the manufacturing Because the manufacturing process is not exact, sometimes even the outermost chips will run at x+3 or x+4 or whatever speed by pure dumb luck but they are classified lower quality.

Not all chips are tested, but instead thrown into bins based on the classification and also based on what sells today. If they get lot of people asking for lower class chips, the manufacturers quietly take a handful from all higher class bins that aren't selling as well and move those to the lower one.

When you overclock a CPU you are potentially going to be getting erroneous behavior out of it which you may or may not have any troubles from, but in the long term, I just wouldn't advise doing it to any CPU. I know people claim that they overclock this and that and get X amount more performance, but start delving into what kind of system stability under normal usage they actually have.

And that's why all serious overclockers run stress test on the processor to make sure there are no errors. There will be no random problems or stability issues if you spend few days to run the tests properly.

[Mitobunny]

Check out power supplies at directcanada.com and either order their or price match on another site such as memory express or ncix.

After rebate it's a similar priced item and has free shipping:

http://www.directcanada.com/products...facture=Others

It's oem is Seasonic which have a pretty darn good brand name for psu's.

Also unless you have your case, you should note that Canada Computers had that case on clearance sale and it's not available...Which has drove me crazy before lol. If you want that case though you could add this to the same power supply order:

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/cool...ase-rc330ukkn1

Anyways, good luck lol.