Building my first own PC

[Starox]

Dear MMO readers,

I just got my vacation money and i wanted to invest it on a new PC, and for the first time in my life i want to build it myself.
My budget is max 950 euro's and i live in holland. The build i've come up with is as follow:

MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
Graphics Card: ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DCII/2DI
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K
RAM: G.Skill 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit
Power: Cooler Master GX650 600W
Case: Aerocool Vs-9
SSD: Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128G
HDD: Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1TB\

This all should add up to arround 945 euro's. I would like some feedback on this if possible and if you think something should
be changed please be free to post cause im a noob in this sort of things.

Thanks in advance,

Starox

Edit: Before anybody asks, this build will be used primairly for gaming (WoW) and programming.

[vesseblah]

GX series of PSUs is known to be really weak quality so don't take that. Also are you sure you want mATX sized motherboard?

Could also switch HDD to Samsung Spinpoint F3 instead to save money there.

[Starox]

ty vesseblah,

Do you have any suggestions for my PSU and motherboard. Those are the 2 things i know the least about. Motherboards always confused me, and i dont know what kind of power this builds need.

[vesseblah]

Here's a list of better quality power supplies -> http://www.overclock.net/power-suppl...-supplies.html

Which one is right is bit trickier question... Are you considering or planning on having two graphics cards for SLI?

With one GTX560ti you can pick any PSU from 500-699W categories in the list without going too much wrong, with two cards you should go for 700-899W bracket to be on safe side even though some of the PSUs in 600-699W category will be good enough.

Two graphics cards will also require more expensive motherboard. Main problem with mATX boards in general is that they aren't nearly as good for overclocking, and therefore will not give the best results with the i5-2500K CPU if/when you want to push it harder.

[Starox]

Im planning on running it with a single grapics card so ill be looking in the 500-699W range. Also as this is my first time building a pc i won't go into overclocking my pc. the 2500k is just 5 euro's more then the 2500 so im just taking the k so i can have the possebility to overclock.

Do you have a suggestion for a motherboard based on this information?

[Templar]

When trying to work out what PSU you need try using this website.

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

Put all your components in and set to 100% power draw for the worst case scenario. This will give you the maximum wattage your system will pull.
Once you have that, look at possible PSU's and their efficiency.

eg. You need 750W to power your system at 100% load and you've seen an 875W PSU with 89% Efficiency. 750/0.89 = 842W. This PSU should be enough to power your system in the worst case scenario.

Some people may prefer to have a bit more headroom than that by going for a 900-1000W which can be overkill but it gives better peace of mind.

[Simca]

Really there are a LOT of good motherboards out (both P67 and Z68). I'd personally go with a Z68 board just for future potential overclocking, future compatibility, and just because they're pretty much the same price as P67 at this point, so why the heck not.

Personally, I'd go with something like this though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128502
It's cheap. It has all the features you need. It isn't great for overclocking, but since you aren't overclocking it will be a fine board.

If you wanted to overclock, I'd probably recommend the Asrock Extreme 4s (either the P67 or Z68 version) but those are $160/$180 and really aren't worth it to a non-overclocker.

Some people may prefer to have a bit more headroom than that by going for a 900-1000W which can be overkill but it gives better peace of mind.

The problem is I see people getting a mid to high end single gpu system, and then getting a 950 watt PSU and I just start :< ing all over the place. His system probably won't even break 500 watts under load at 90% efficiency because he isn't overclocking. Anything over 600 would be a complete and utter waste of money for him.

vesseblah's recommendations are pretty solid.

[Ghâzh]

eg. You need 750W to power your system at 100% load and you've seen an 875W PSU with 89% Efficiency. 750/0.89 = 842W. This PSU should be enough to power your system in the worst case scenario.

The power supply efficiency does not mean how much power it can deliever to the computer but how much power it has to draw from the wall to deliever the promised wattage. Eg. if you have 1000 watts power supply that has 80% efficiency rating it should deliever all those 1000 watts to your pc but in return it will draw 1200 watts from the wall.

So just keep in mind that efficiency ratings have little to do with how much power your computer is getting. Has everything to do with how much electricity your computer is using though and could recude your electricity bill by quite a lot. And sometimes higher efficiency is an indicator of higher quality power supply as most of the better PSU's usually have higher efficiency rating .

[Starox]

Hey guys,

I made a new build after your advice and looking a bit at the latest Narwhal build, please say what you think.

MB: Gigabyte GiBy GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Z68 RG SA - 135.05
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB - 214.90
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K - 192.90
RAM: G.Skill 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit - 37.99
Power: Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 -81.90
Case: Aerocool Vs-9 - 39.90
SSD: Crucial CT128M4SSD2 128G - 159.90
HDD: - Samsung HD103SJ 1TB - 47.99

This will add up to a total of 910.44 euro's.
Is there still something to improve or maby a nice case arround the 50 euro's.

plz let me know

[Sephiracle]

See if you can pick up the g.skill kit that's 1600. It's not really a noticeable difference yet in performance, but it should also be a small increase in price.

[Uggorthaholy]

See if you can pick up the g.skill kit that's 1600. It's not really a noticeable difference yet in performance, but it should also be a small increase in price.

This, twice. it should be more than a 5-10 Euro increase, but the 1600 kits behave the absolute best with the sandy bridge processors.

everything else looks solid