Critique my (semi-budget) gaming build.

[Tool]

My

 

[lehtv]

I can't find much fault in that. Perhaps your roommate will never go crossfire so could save $40 on the motherboard. Asrock Z68 Pro3.

Sapphire 6950 is $253 AR shipped from newegg.

Hard drive is inevitably going to cost quite a bit due to the floods. Hitachi 7K1000.D 1TB 750GB at $110 is a surprisingly good deal, most 500GB drives cost nearly $100 and most 1TB ones cost $150 or more, and this is a new fast single-platter drive. I'd grab it before it goes OOS because as availability of hard drives dwindles you're only going to get worse deals later, I'd expect. The only other option really is to find a used hard drive for half that price.

Either case is good.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I agree on the motherboard. You could also skip the $20 cooler since the 2500K is retail box. The intel cooler is fine for stock or even a mild overclock. Keeping the 6950 over the 6870 is much more important.

 

[Tool]

thank you, guys. i am most likely going to pick up a lightly used HDD as that seems to be a good option. i saw a couple people with barracuda drives... any good? i will drop the cooler. do you have a Z68 motherboard option that Microcenter has in stock so i can get that combo deal? also.. is that the card which you can possibly unlock shaders on?

 

[lehtv]

1. Barracuda is decent, just make sure it's 7200.12 and not an old generation drive like 7200.9
2. They still have the $60 off on mobo deal? If so then your original choice is good
3. Sapphire 6950 is unlockable, it comes with a dual BIOS switch and I've read it's preloaded with the 6970 BIOS but it's not guaranteed to work

 

[Tool]

i just read that i should get 1.5v ram. is that correct?

 

[DaveSimmons]

i just read that i should get 1.5v ram. is that correct?

Yes, 1.5v is more important than the speed, DDR 1333 is all that Sandy Bridge needs. Faster really only helps (slightly) in memory-specific benchmarks not real world use.

 

[napes22]

The motherboard in your original build is down to 109.99 with rebate on Newegg so you should stick with it. I'll be buying the same for my build as well. Link

 

[fastamdman]

Ya deffinately stick with the UD3 as I am using it now and it's a great board.

ALSO, grab a hyper 212+ cooler. Whether you are overclocking or not, you need a good cpu cooler to keep the chip nice and cool. Also, if you aren't overclocking, don't bother with a 2500k, just get the 2500.

There is NO reason not to overclock though. Every 2500k can do 4.5ghz, and EVERYONE should be doing it with how easy it is.

 

[mfenn]

There is NO reason not to overclock though. Every 2500k can do 4.5ghz, and EVERYONE should be doing it with how easy it is.

No, they cannot. Please read up about semiconductor manufacturing and binning before you post false information. Can probably 66-75% of them do it at a reasonable voltage? Sure, but that's not the same as "every".

OP, lehtv's suggestions are right on the money as usual. The other thing that you really should change is the RAM. That Kingston is 1.65V whereas you want 1.5V like this G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB.

 

[Tool]

thank you for all the assistance. i will def be OC. from what i read 4.0ghz should be achieved. anything more than what i paid for is fine though.
i was going to try to get Corsair XMS 8GB DDR3-1333 24.99 on BF.. decent?

 

[mfenn]

thank you for all the assistance. i will def be OC. from what i read 4.0ghz should be achieved. anything more than what i paid for is fine though.
i was going to try to get Corsair XMS 8GB DDR3-1333 24.99 on BF.. decent?

Yes, most all (not "every") i5 2500K can do 4.0 on stock volts. The RAM looks fine to me.

 

[DaveSimmons]

There is NO reason not to overclock though. Every 2500k can do 4.5ghz, and EVERYONE should be doing it with how easy it is.

False. Overclocking puts more stress on the CPU, uses more power and generates more waste heat. Besides possibly shortening its useful life, it might also trigger hard to reproduce intermittent errors that cause things like crashes or corrupted saves.

If your game is running fine at stock speed (which already includes intel's automatic Turbo Boost) and is GPU-limited, overclocking servers no useful purpose.

 

[lehtv]

Whether it will be currently useful for the OP to overclock probably depends on how CPU intensive SW:TOR will be. I'd recommend going with the stock cooler for now, and once SW:TOR gets benched, decide whether the increase in performance with higher clock speed is worth the cost of an aftermarket cooler for you.

i was going to try to get Corsair XMS 8GB DDR3-1333 24.99 on BF.. decent?

Even though the Corsair site says it's rated at 1.5V, the newegg page says it's 1.5V-1.65V. This could mean that it's not guaranteed to run 1.5V stable. One of the user reviews on the egg says "stable at 1.55v, but not at 1.5v in my case."

At the moment I'd go with G.skill 1600mhz.

 

[Tool]

i bought the Ripjaws. great reviews and price. thank you again. ill let you guys know how the build goes.

 

[fastamdman]

False. Overclocking puts more stress on the CPU, uses more power and generates more waste heat. Besides possibly shortening its useful life, it might also trigger hard to reproduce intermittent errors that cause things like crashes or corrupted saves.

If your game is running fine at stock speed (which already includes intel's automatic Turbo Boost) and is GPU-limited, overclocking servers no useful purpose.

As far as the shortening of the CPU life due to overclocking, we are talking about life expectancies that don't even matter, so that isn't a factor. No one is still going to have a 2500k when they are nearing the death range. I have a 2500m that I put through hell and back oc'ing and it's just fine and has been. As far as the errors go, this comes from instability and is not the chips fault, it's the users fault. If you aren't stable either lower the overclock or increase voltage until you are stable. It's VERY easy to find out if you are stable or not, once you are everythings fine. There is more to overclocking then just "ooh fps in games". Overclocking gives you a boost in EVERYTHING that you do on the pc. Some things can receive HUGE benefits and MUCH lower times from CPU overclocking.

Also, GPU overclocking helps out tremendously from gaming and can be done without voltage increases if you are to scared to increases voltages.

Either way, there is nothing wrong with overclocking, it has been done for years and years and will continue to be done. There is a reason why intel sells unlocked multipliers....for people to overclock. There is a HUGE market for it for a reason.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Fair enough. I objected to this:

EVERYONE should be doing it with how easy it is.

It comes down to personal opinion, but to me heat, power, noise and stability are all reasons not to overclock until you have a good reason, such as a game that doesn't perform well at stock speed and is CPU-bound.

Stability can be trickier than you imply, especially with a higher overclock. It happened long ago, but intel had to recalll the Pentium 3 1.1 GHz CPU it released to compete against the Athlon 1 GHz because it was only 99.9% stable at that speed -- it was essentially a factory overclock that didn't always work.

 

[fastamdman]

In my opinion...which is my opinion, EVERYONE, including you should overclock.

I am going to break down what you listed as personal reasons not to real quick <3 I am not nitpicking just giving my 2 cents and informing you in the process.

Heat - SB chips can run EXTREMELY cool. For example my 25 dollars cooler *hyper 212+* runs COOLER while overclocked then the stock cooler does at stock speeds. For example I run 4.5ghz at roughly 60c while the stock cooler does 3.4 at 75+c.

Power - SB chips can downclock to 1600mhz while at idle whether they are overclocked or not. You are only using the power when you need it aka either loading up an application, gaming etc. The difference between power used from 3.4ghz to 4.5ghz is minimal and the power used at idle is the exact same. So the majority of the time, power isn't a concern and in the "long run" the increase in performance outweighs the 1 cent a month.

Noise - This isn't an issue as any decent cooler these days will be 100&#37; better then the stock heatsink/fan combo and are generally QUIETER then stock. My pc is 99.99% quiet, I hear my case fans juuuuust a little bit which I like it that way

Stability - You are either stable or you are not. Stability can be found by running a few different programs. LinX, memtest86+, prime95, IntelBurnTest, OCCT. This is something EVERY builder should do whether they are stock or overclocked to test for stability. You are either 100% stable, or you are not. There is no half way of doing it IN MY OPINION. Some people are "stable enough" to do the job. For example if they are running the program folding at home, they might overclock there 2500k to 5ghz with a low voltage that passes that program, but would fail a stability test.

Stability can be achieved very easily though, and its quick and simple to find out if you are stable. I have NEVER received a BSOD or ANY type of hang/issue after finding a stable overclock. GENERALLY speaking overclocking would help to resolve any hangs/slowdowns/chokes etc that a system could experience.

Overclocking is kind of like modding a car for more horsepower. It might not be needed but there is a HUGE market out there for it and A LOT of people ENJOY doing it because its more POWER for the same cash.

One more thing I want to note is the simplicity to overclocking. You can literally change ONE number in your bios and have a 100% stable overclock. You can take a 2500k and instead of the turbo multiplier being 34, you change it to 40 and BAM you have a 4ghz 2500k that is stable all day long Some people want 4.5, some want 5.0 and some push it as hard as they can aka 6ghz.

Stability is not tricky in any way shape or form however. Either you are stable or you are not. Either the system can do EVERYTHING it needs to do, or it can't. It will either pass the hardest most grueling applications or it can not. Nothing a person ever does on there pc for daily functions will ever be even remotely close to as hard as LinX/IBT pushes there computers. This is also why these 2 programs can increase the heat output much more than any other stability testing programs. Both stock and overclocked heat will increase no matter what with those 2 programs.

Either way, I don't understand why you are so against overclocking and I want to show you the light haha

 

[Tool]

apologies for asking repeated questions. im trying to keep under budget (my buddy said it is too much right now) and the UD3 will not cut it. the asrock pro3 that Microcenter has is the mATX version. would the GA-Z68AP-D3 be an ok board? i am sticking to MC because i got the 2500k for 150 and the $60 off for the combo is still active.

 

[mfenn]

apologies for asking repeated questions. im trying to keep under budget (my buddy said it is too much right now) and the UD3 will not cut it. the asrock pro3 that Microcenter has is the mATX version. would the GA-Z68AP-D3 be an ok board? i am sticking to MC because i got the 2500k for 150 and the $60 off for the combo is still active.

What's wrong with MicroATX for this build? You don't have any requirements that necessitate full ATX. You can get the GA-Z68MA-D2H for $40 AR with the purchase of the i5 2500K.

 

[Tool]

i didn't run into any problems with the build. if it was my machine i would have spent more time fine tuning the overclock... as of now it stands a stable 4.2ghz @ 1.24v. thanks again for the assistance guys.. much appreciated.

 

[lehtv]

Looks clean . 4.2GHz at 1.24V is nothing to scoff at, a bigger OC would be worse MHZ/watt anyway.

 

[mfenn]

Looks very clean and nice. Great job! :thumbsup:

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Nice cable management!

 

[Tool]

Thanks guys.