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Afternoon. I'm in the process of making out an order (will order in about two weeks) for a desktop computer. I envision it as being primarily for gaming. When I say gaming, I think of titles like Oblivion, the coming Skyrim, DIablo III, Torchlight I & 2, Minecraft. Some of the things I'm not sure of are:

(1). The Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower. I've got a full tower down because I think a full-sized tower will run cooler, and my 68-year-old hands aren't as steady as they used to be and might need the extra room. But - do I need that much extra room?

(2). The ASUS P8Z68-V Pro motherboard. The ASUS brand seems to be well-thought of. The Z68 chip has some attractive features. I'm not sure if I need the Pro, however. I plan on doing some modest overclocking.

(3). I expect this setup to last me 5+ years. Whether I'll last another 5+ years, however, is another story.

My budget is up to $2,000. The components listed at present total around $1800. I live in the USA.

Thanks for any and all comments. Most will be carefully considered. Component list follows.


Intel i5-2500K CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115072

Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU cooler - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103065

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131730

Corsair Vengeance 8gb (2x4gb) DD3 1600 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145345

Western Digital Velociraptor 600gb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136803

Western Digital Caviar Green 2tb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136891

Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 600W PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817171036

EVGA Superclocked GTX 560 Ti 1gb GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130651

Cooler Master HAF X Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119239

MS Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116986

ASUS 24x DVD Burner SATA OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827135204

ASUS VE228H 21.5" Monitors (2) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824236100

68 and an avid gamer, nice one

your build looks pretty good, I don't have much to suggest because a lot of it comes down to personal taste. The things I noted were, maybe try an SSD instead of the raptor (i havent looked into the performance difference on this, and whether the capacity trade off is worth it). And maybe consider getting a bigger monitor, since it's the thing you spend most of your time looking at it makes sense to get as best as you can within your budget. Personally I prefer at least 24", but like I say personal preference really.

blitzy wrote:

68 and an avid gamer, nice one

your build looks pretty good, I don't have much to suggest because a lot of it comes down to personal taste. The things I noted were, maybe try an SSD instead of the raptor (i havent looked into the performance difference on this, and whether the capacity trade off is worth it). And maybe consider getting a bigger monitor, since it's the thing you spend most of your time looking at it makes sense to get as best as you can within your budget. Personally I prefer at least 24", but like I say personal preference really.

Life is too short for small monitors. Go for a 24" or a 27" if you can afford it. IPS is best, but I have seen 27" TN panels at compusa.com for around $400 or so.

+1 for a larger monitor; +1 for the SSD over the Raptor drive.

Thanks for the comments, blitzy and riviera74. . I did consider the SSD for a while, but, judging from many posts I've read, the SSD are not quite reliable enough for me. Besides, the 600gb storage for all of my games and other programs did appeal to me. As far as the monitors go, it is indeed a matter of taste. I wanted to play games on a full screen and monitor my system, email, reference documents, etc. on the other monitor. A division of labor, so to speak. I would have considered larger dual monitors, but alas, a fixed income and a small desk preclude larger screens. Appreciate hearing from you two.

I reckon we are in a sort of sweet spot right now for building a new pc, there is so much good hardware out there it's hard to go too far wrong.

If I was gonna build one myself it would also be a 2500K build, with very similar specs.. Maybe some differences in the case and PSU, but that's only to match my own tastes rather than a change in the actual spec.

Should be a pretty sweet rig

blitzy wrote:

68 and an avid gamer, nice one

your build looks pretty good, I don't have much to suggest because a lot of it comes down to personal taste. The things I noted were, maybe try an SSD instead of the raptor (i havent looked into the performance difference on this, and whether the capacity trade off is worth it). And maybe consider getting a bigger monitor, since it's the thing you spend most of your time looking at it makes sense to get as best as you can within your budget. Personally I prefer at least 24", but like I say personal preference really.

Yeah, as far as me being an avid gamer, blame Jobs and Wozniak. I bought an Apple II+ and a copy of Wizardry I. I've been hooked ever since.

silverjim wrote:

Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower

If the huge size of this case doesn't bother you, it will work just fine. Consider a mid-size tower like the Antec Three Hundred as an alternative.

silverjim wrote:

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro motherboard

It may be that the P8Z68-V LE has enough features for you.

silverjim wrote:

Western Digital Velociraptor 600gb
Western Digital Caviar Green 2tb

I'm currently running a 3-drive setup on my desktop PCs:
0.12 TB SSD for the operating system, web browser, etc.
1.0 TB hard-drive (7200 rpm) for user directory, program files, games, etc.
2.0 TB hard-drive (5400 rpm) for downloads, photos, recorded television, etc.

silverjim wrote:

ASUS 24x DVD Burner SATA OEM

Have you considered Blu-ray?

silverjim wrote:

ASUS VE228H 21.5" Monitors (2)

Consider the Dell UltraSharp U2311H. The IPS LCD panel works much better than TN LCD panels do when viewed from an angle other than perpendicular to the screen.

silverjim wrote:

Minecraft.

Win!

silverjim wrote:

(1). The Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower. I've got a full tower down because I think a full-sized tower will run cooler, and my 68-year-old hands aren't as steady as they used to be and might need the extra room. But - do I need that much extra room?

Cooler Master HAF X Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119239

I have the Cooler Master 932 HAF Advanced. Not sure what differences there are between the one I have and the 942 you have linked there, but I CAN tell you I am so much in love with it! Once you go 230mm, you don't go back!

silverjim wrote:

MS Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 64-bit - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116986

Why not Windows Server 2008 R2 Professional? Cost?

Jim,
The haf942 case u listed is very nice,it is huge,I have the haf 922 they call it a mid tower but it should be considered a full tower,Imm using one right now,no front usb3 is the only thing it doesnt have compared to the 942,I have very big hands and there is plenty of room.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119224 theres the link for the blue led one but it has a see throughside panel you cant add a 200mm fan to, they also make it with red,but the nice thing is you can add a 200mm side panel fan since its mesh and its 90$ cheaper,its also heavy,but lighter then the 942. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119197
As for wizardry i started with that and the vic 20 and a commodore64 but i was 13:) As for the 560ti i have 2 and i love them @ 1080p rez there is no need for more,and you can add another down the road.But if you are goin to save 90$ Mabey get a gtx570, As for brand and the great airflow the haf cases have i would go with a EVGA superclocked,mine came clocked at 900mhz but they both will break 1000mhz,and are quiet up to 40-50percent fan speed,they run at 30 and are pretty much inaudible,they do get loud at 100% but the only way they get that high is if u set the fan speed that high manually,benching and stuff.
You are going to love your new pc,I do have to also say get a Solid state drive,for years HDs have been the primary bottleneck on the pc,since you have a super fast cpu now why hinder it waiting on data it needs to perform @ its best.@67 years young you should be wise to take everyones advice.

Great build Jim, good to see I have something to look forward to should I last as long as you.

I have to agree with swapping a V.Raptor for an SSD. If you've been around as long as it sounds, moving from a HD to SSD will be one of the biggest jumps made in computing history. If you're not impressed enough return it. I'd be pretty willing to wager money you won't. As far as reliability, do your available firmware updates before you start using it. SSDs should last longer then hard drives in theory since they have no moving parts.

Unless you're 100% sold on that Coolermaster, I'm a huge fan of Corsair cases and their stellar support. I have a 600T and managed to break the side panel latches. They sent me an entire side panel with a window for free. They've got me for life. That case is also considered a midtower, but it fits my oversized Rampage II Extreme with no issues.

Your wattage for the power supply wattage is fine, but i'd still probably go to Corsair/Seasonic/Antec. I had a 500W Coolermaster blow on me after putting in an 8800GT a few years ago. I'm not hating on them, I do have a Hyper 212+ sitting here for a new build.

Great build otherwise. Enjoy tinkering!

I'll echo what folks here have said about getting an SSD and make a specific recommendation. I think you'd be most happy with an Intel 510 series or Crucial/Micron M4. Unless I've missed it, both have proven very reliable and the m4 just got a firmware update that improved performance more than a little. I would say a 128GB if you're cost conscious, 256gb if you want to get the full performance from either.

As far as the monitor, get something a little bigger, even if it means you can only fit one on your desk. 24 inch screens are probably a good place to land - Slickdeals.net has had a few nice (ips, 1920x1200) ones for around $300-350 the last couple of days. If you can't swing that bill, the 23" dell linked earlier is a good compromise. 1080p res so you lose some vertical real estate, but at least what you do get is high quality.

I've pretty much decided on the rest of my components. However, I'm still a little unsure about the disks. One reason is the recommendation from nearly all the respondents to get an SSB. So, I've narrowed by choices down to four. My priorities are, in this order, reliability, game performance (Oblivion is a somewhat disk-intensive game), boot performance, general program performance.

Here's my choices, in no particular order. Component, total space, approximate price.

1. Two Caviar Black 2tb disks in a RAID 0 setup. Total 4tb. $280
2. One 128gb SSD and one Caviar Black 1tb. Total 1.1tb. $340
3. One 64gb SSD and one Caviar Black 2tb using the Intel Z68 Smart Response Tech (SSD caching). Total 2tb. $263.
4. One 600gb Velociraptor (C: drive) and one Caviar Green 2tb. Total 2.6gb. $335.

The SSDs would most likely be the Crucial brand.

A list of the other components can be found in the first post. Again, thanks for any and all responses.

Edit: Price of #2 is $340. Blame it on my 68-year-old addled mind. Too much sex n'drugs n'rock n'roll.

I pick #2

$180 0.13 TB Crucial m4 128 GB SSD
$ 59 1.0 TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 7200 rpm hard-drive
$ 73 2.0 TB Samsung HD204UI EcoGreen F4 5400 rpm hard-drive
======
$312, delivered.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

$180 0.13 TB Crucial m4 128 GB SSD
$ 59 1.0 TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 7200 rpm hard-drive
$ 73 2.0 TB Samsung HD204UI EcoGreen F4 5400 rpm hard-drive
======
$312, delivered.

This- though I tend more toward WD's Green line.

riviera74 wrote:

Life is too short for small monitors. Go for a 24" or a 27" if you can afford it. IPS is best, but I have seen 27" TN panels at compusa.com for around $400 or so.

+1 for a larger monitor; +1 for the SSD over the Raptor drive.

+1 on both from me as well. Though I would also say go for a 24" IPS panel monitor over the TN. Dell's U2410 and 2412 (if you can do with fewer inputs) are great deals and very solid monitors. I prefer the 16:10 panels over the 16:9 as well.