Out of Pod Experience

Hey all, I have made up my mind to build myself a new gaming machine for a lot of the fall/winter releases that I am looking forward to. I have never build a custom machine before but I have a few friends who have and they have lent me their advice on the subject, but I am looking for some more opinions. Below I have put together a list of parts that fits close to my budget of ~$1000 and I would greatly appreciate any feedback on it. If you notice any compatibility errors or conflicts with EVE or other big titles if they exist, or if you have any other concerns please by all means tell me. I am very new at this and a lot of the jargon goes over my head so use layman terms please


Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

[Updated] Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX

[Updated] Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W

[Updated] Graphics - MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

[Updated] RAM - Patriot G series ‘Sector 5’ Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Hard Drive - Seagate Constellation 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[Updated] Power Supply - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS

Wireless - ASUS PCE-N15 PCI Express 300/300 Mbps Wireless Adapter


Most of the part descriptions probably contain more than necessary so I have included links to each part. Thanks in advance for your feedback

I was actually planning on a mega pulse laser

just a thought and a question:

what operating system are you planning to use with this new build?

have you considered a solid state drive? such as this

When you cobble together your own system you run into unforseen problems - like programing the bios. That was my scary one.

I didn't know crap about programming a bios, but by reading online and making a call to a small pc repair shop i gained the confidence to do it. It may not be optimized but it works.

My point is you will have some sort of a problem, murphy will always be there to kick you in the balls when you least expect it.

Are you prepared for the time and frustration ? Also you need a working pc to download the motherboard drivers and burn them to a DVD - things like that.

Even a complete layman like me can do it but be prepared for a couple set backs

Why are you going with Micro ATX, instead of a full ATX?

Also, Sparkle cards generally suck. Get XFX, Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI.

This is the case that I got last year:

Coolmaster HAF 932

It's very big and very heavy.

The HAF 932 also has wheels, so moving it around is easy since it's quite heavy. It has quite a few fans as well. I decided to go all out on the case since I didn't want to replace the case over and over again. I can probably keep this case for years to come while just upgrading the internal components.

I think it also has the option for liquid cooling and you would have to buy a separate kit for that, but I haven't looked into that yet.

Optical drives are easy, just make sure its a SATA one. Some of the cheap optical drives still use IDE ribbons. Some other tips for building your first machine, take your time and read and watch as many guides as possible like this one;Basic PC building.

Another thing I found when building my first, be careful when fitting the CPU heatsink, they take a scary amount of force to fit. Also sometimes things can be a tight squeeze, even in the larger cases. Finally you should be able to check the full compatibility of all your parts on the manufacturers website, they publish test sheets showing exactly what parts they have tested with each other and if there are any issues, start with the motherboard.

Bits don't matter, performance does.



Otherwise:

Ditch the 460, get a 560 for a slightly higher price, or even the 560ti. Both those latter ones also have the massive benefit of not running as hot and needing slightly less power.

Ditch the PSU, it's far too powerful. Get a quality 600-650w Seasonic or XFX unit, which will be more than enough. Don't bother "planning for SLI" - Not worth the trouble for the casual user.

Ditch the 2400, get the i5 2500k. No reason not to.

Think about getting the Asus P8P67 Pro as your motherboard - No real reason why you would really need a more expensive board. Maybe even leave the Pro and get the normal version, it has everything you need.

Only get a wifi adapter if you have no other choice. Wired is ALWAYS prefered, especially for a desktop PC which you won't be moving anyway. Wifi is okay if you're fine with getting disconnected once in a while whenever it snows, rains, fogs, earthquakes or when you're sneezing or talking, or if anyone in a 2 mile radius uses anything wireless. Seriously though, wifi communication is easily interupted, and since you have a desktop PC i don't see why you would need the wifi adapter unless it's 100% impossible to get a wire into the room.

$1000 for your original setup seems a bit expensive. I've been able to squeeze an SSD in mine and that was 4 months ago. I'd recommend a Hitachi anyway, currently they seem to be a little more reliable (for a normal HDD). Also consider getting an extra hdd, whether you're getting an SSD or not. At least remember to partition the disk before using it! No point letting Windows have more than 96-128GB, if you keep all your programs and files etc on another partition it makes a windows reinstall really easy aswell.

The case is great, i've used Antec for several builds and you can't go wrong with them. Also, while the above poster might be right about the PSU being overpowered, consider that it is one of the longer lasting components you will buy, and can last several builds. I recently replaced my first PSU only because today's GFX cards use more power than those i originally used. When pricing the new PSU i found a 1000W only slightly more expensive than the 500W i first used (less than $100). So I bought a 1000W even though it's more than i currently need and am salvaging my original for another build. If you can afford it, it might be worth getting more than you need. (plus, the modular ones are nice!)

As for the GFX, as others have stated, go with a known brand; (i.e. EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI)

I agree with above poster on the wifi adapter. I always have friends asking me to come over and trouble shoot their wifi issues. use a cable unless there's no other choice.

Other than that, your build looks good. Protip: when attempting a new build, make sure you have another computer with internet access available. You can troubleshoot just about any problem with google search. just search the part model number you think may be at issue with the word "support" or "forum" and you're bound to come across someone that has had the same issue in the past. GL.