First Ever Build - Critique & Suggestions Welcome

[Berteh]

Hey all,

After much research browsing the internet and these wonderful forums, I have decided to attempt to build my first ever gaming rig and have come up with the following..

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred v3 / Antec 900 $233 / $117
Power Supply: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 $189
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68 UD-4 $209
Processor: Intel i7 2600k / Intel i5 2500k $315 / $212
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 $104
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage 8GB $74
SSD: Cruicial M4 128GB $285
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 64MB Cache 1TB $87
Optical Disc Drive: Samsung SATA Dual Layer DVDRW $24
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 570 $359

Total: $1879 / $1660 AUD

Peripherals -

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM $94
Mouse Mat: Razer Goliathus Speed Edition $24.95
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow $129.95
Mouse: Current Razer Naga
Monitor: Yet to decide

I will more than likely be going with the $1879 AUD build. I want to be able to run all the new release games on high settings if not maxed out.

Any suggestions to parts that keep within $200 of the final price are appreciated if they provide a benefit.

I also have a few questions..

Is all this compatible?
Will it all fit in the case (Im pretty sure it will, just making sure) ?
What monitor do you suggest? (Would love anything from 24-27", my budget is 300-400 AUD

Thanks in advance

Berteh

[vesseblah]

i7-2600K is useless for gaming, easy place to save money.

Also for PSU I'd take a look at Corsair AX750, Seasonic X650, and Antec Truepower 650/750 too. HX750 is really expensive for what it offers. 650W is more than enough unless you're planning SLI of the GTX570's, and if you are planning to get another someday, would rather get 850W PSU just in case.

[Berteh]

i7-2600K is useless for gaming, easy place to save money.

Also for PSU I'd take a look at Corsair AX750, Seasonic X650, and Antec Truepower 650/750 too. HX750 is really expensive for what it offers. 650W is more than enough unless you're planning SLI of the GTX570's, and if you are planning to get another someday, would rather get 850W PSU just in case.

I plan to do video editing at Uni Sorry I didn't mention that.

Cheers for the PSU suggestions! I'm not sure whether I'll end up doing dual GPU's so a 650W might be the go

[SylarAC]

I plan to do video editing at Uni Sorry I didn't mention that.

Cheers for the PSU suggestions! I'm not sure whether I'll end up doing dual GPU's so a 650W might be the go

Just a personal opinion but I would go with the Corsair Obsidian 650D or 800D case. (I personally would rather have the 800D) It's large, roomy, and full of airflow.

[Djinni]

Just a personal opinion but I would go with the Corsair Obsidian 650D or 800D case. (I personally would rather have the 800D) It's large, roomy, and full of airflow.

Corsair Obsidian Series 650DW Mid Tower Case - Black Ultra High Quality Steel Construction, Up To 4 x 5.25" & Up To 6 x 3.5" Drive Bays, Supports ATX & Below Motherboards Order Code: Manf. Code: CSR-OBSID6 CC650DW

Corsair

5 in stock

£128.98

Corsair Obsidian 800D Full Tower Case - Black (No PSU) Ultra High Quality Aluminium Construction, Up To 5 x 5.25" & Up To 6 x 3.5" Drive Bays, Supports ATX & Below Motherboards Order Code: Manf. Code: CSR-OBSIDI 800d

Corsair

Ordered Upon Request

£214.98

And costs almost twice as much 8-)

[DarknessofFT]

its worth the money. i have the 800d, you'll never need a case again...ever. The difference between the 650 and the 800 is the 650 is a steel, mid tower while the 800d is an aluminium full tower...thats a sizable difference.

[SylarAC]

And costs almost twice as much 8-)

Not on Newegg. $190 for 650D and $280 for 800D. But that's besides the point, thanks.

[Deleted]

Definitely take the i5 over the i7.

Also, if you're doing Video-rendering, I'd suggest seeing if you can't get a 3GB GTX 590 dual GPU version - that depends on your budget, though.

[Berteh]

Not on Newegg. $190 for 650D and $280 for 800D. But that's besides the point, thanks.

Looks like a great case, but the price is just a bit too much. I don't see anything that the 1200v3 doesn't offer which is dealbreaking

[SylarAC]

Looks like a great case, but the price is just a bit too much. I don't see anything that the 1200v3 doesn't offer which is dealbreaking

Was merely a suggestion :-D

[Berteh]

Definitely take the i5 over the i7.

Also, if you're doing Video-rendering, I'd suggest seeing if you can't get a 3GB GTX 590 dual GPU version - that depends on your budget, though.

But but... the i7 is better for video editing/encoding/rendering, no?

---------- Post added 2011-08-02 at 09:23 PM ----------

Was merely a suggestion :-D

Suggestion was greatly appreciated

[SylarAC]

Suggestion was greatly appreciated

There is also THIS if you want to get a little flashy :-P

[Fuzzykins]

Definitely take the i5 over the i7.

Also, if you're doing Video-rendering, I'd suggest seeing if you can't get a 3GB GTX 590 dual GPU version - that depends on your budget, though.

Err... What? You'll render video way faster on an i7 2600k than a 590, and for less money. Not sure where you're getting your suggestions from...

[Berteh]

Err... What? You'll render video way faster on an i7 2600k than a 590, and for less money. Not sure where you're getting your suggestions from...

I thought so

Anyone have any suggestions for a monitor? 24-27", $300-400 AUD?

[vesseblah]

I thought so

Anyone have any suggestions for a monitor? 24-27", $300-400 AUD?

Samsung & LG are good brands for midrange gamer needs like yours. Size is going to be in 23-24" bracket, cant expect to see 27"s without doubling your budget.

Make sure it's LED backlight type, it has all input connections and stand adjustability you need, and it's hard to go wrong picking a monitor. TV tuner is a gimmick and not worth a penny more. 120Hz/3D monitors are probably out of your price range or at the very top of it, and not really worth looking for at the expense of other factors.

[Cyanotical]

590 is okay for rendering, but it's not a workstation card, and it only has 1.5gb of memory

i would ask as to how much video rendering do you plan on doing, if it's just a youtube video every couple of days, then stick with the i5, if you plan doing professional editing and compression on a daily basis the i7 is a must, or even a higher end xeon, but thats way more expensive

[Wries]

I'd hardly recommend consumer oriented CUDA-software for video rendering. Output usually ends up looking not so good. Now, Elemental's CUDA based pro-solutions might deliver some excellent results at great speed, but that's in another ballpark.

For general in-the-editor-render-the-effect-faster-goddamit things, going with a strong CPU is the key. And not necessarily the one with the most cores, but rather the one with best performance per core. This might be just me though. Monitoring CPU-activity during timeline-rendering, often finding only one or two cores doing any work.

Where the 2600K would excel on over the 2500K would be in final output rendering where, with the right codec and software, you can get all the threads to work. If this does not matter to you, don't bother paying the premium.

[Berteh]

590 is okay for rendering, but it's not a workstation card, and it only has 1.5gb of memory

i would ask as to how much video rendering do you plan on doing, if it's just a youtube video every couple of days, then stick with the i5, if you plan doing professional editing and compression on a daily basis the i7 is a must, or even a higher end xeon, but thats way more expensive

I'm not 100% sure on how much professional editing I will be doing, but I know I will be doing some. I do what to end up releasing YouTube video's every few days or so as it is a aspiration of mine. I guess I just want to make sure im prepared for the future. I'm not really fussed about paying the premium, they are both quality CPU's

[vesseblah]

I'm not 100% sure on how much professional editing I will be doing, but I know I will be doing some. I do what to end up releasing YouTube video's every few days or so as it is a aspiration of mine. I guess I just want to make sure im prepared for the future. I'm not really fussed about paying the premium, they are both quality CPU's

2600K is about 10-25% faster than 2500K on the programs that benefit from the extra fake cores of HT, in video rendering probably closer to 20%.

Just need to keep in mind that video editing (making the cuts and fine-tuning the material) will usually take 10x longer than the actual rendering unless you do dozens/hundreds of effects, and the cutting don't benefit much from 2600K. But since money is not a real problem, go for the 2600K for the little extra punch.

[DarknessofFT]

for monitors, ACER makes a nice 21.5 in LED that comes pretty cheap (last i checked it was like 129 or around there)