First time building gaming rig

[s.deng94]

Hi guys this is my very first computer I'm trying to build. (so frikkin excited!!!) Would you kindly look over my components and let me know if this is a solid build? I also need some advice regarding the graphics card. I was thinking about a GTX 680 but I don't know what brand I should buy. Also, what site should I buy the graphics card from?
I do not know if it is worth investing in a SATA 3 SSD and if so I was going to go with the corsair force 3 60gb. Opinions on this? I'm sorry I'm bombarding with all these questions but I do not know what kind of optical drive to get either. All advice is appreciated. Thank you

CPU - Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)

Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77-V LK

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU fan

Memory - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Hard drive - Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

Case - Corsair 600t (white)

[Kurotetsu]

One major suggestion, do NOT use a 5400rpm green drive as your only drive. I would highly suggest a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drive if you want to stick to an HDD.

[s.deng94]

what is wrong with a green drive? thanks btw

[piecerad]

Too slow and unresponsive for a boot drive.highly reccomend an SSD such as the samsung 830, crucial M4 or Sandisk extreme. 120/128Gb drives are much better value than 60Gb drives as well.

[s.deng94]

thanks any opinions on optical drives and gfx card?

[rogue426]

Welcome to TR.
What is your budget? Your intended uses? Do you live near a Microcenter? Start with the TR System guide .
http://techreport.com/review/23422/tr-b ... stem-guide
So far your choices look good, I'll suggest an SSD as a boot drive, take your pick between a Crucial M4 and Samsung 830, I have both and recommend either one.

[piecerad]

what resolution is the screen you intend to game on? this is a deciding factor on what Graphics card is best value. cheapest optical drive is best (if you even need one at all), and I would also recommend getting the 3570k rather than 3550 so you can take advantage of the easy overclocking on these CPUs. Even if you don't intend to overclock now, you may wish to further down the line and I can almost guarantee you will appreciate this later on.

[superjawes]

If you're looking to spend enough for a 680, you need to have a sizeable SSD. 128GB at least. Honestly, any new build should have an SSD, and you should step that storage up as your budget grows.

As others have said, you should take a look at the most recent system guide and adjust as needed. Find your price point and you'll get a very good idea of what you need. Also keep in mind resolution. I think the system guide assumes 1080p or higher, so if your resolution is less than that (and will be for some time) you don't need to shoot as high on the horsepower to get similar results.

And also as others have said, "green" drives at 5400 RPM are great for storage, but not good for speed. You could probably go with the green if you had enough storage on an SSD, but even at 128GB, I would go with a 7200 RPM drive for better responsiveness.

For optical drives, Blu-Ray is really the only upgrade there. Almost any regular DVD drive will get the job done, but if you want Blu-Ray capability, you obviously need to budget that as well. If you don't need that, I would either pick the standard in the system guide or something to match your case.

[s.deng94]

i took a look at the guides and all your advice was great. im going to be playing a 27' moniter trying to get top resolution at 1080. and ive decided to go with the crucial m4 and the samsung harddrive
is gtx680 going to be too much?

[superjawes]

is gtx680 going to be too much?

I'd say that depends on your budget...

The 680 doesn't appear in the system guide until you get all the way up to the Double-Stuff Workstation (where it appears as an alternative), which prices out to $2,657.89 (assuming no prices have changed). The 680 and 7970 are very powerful cards and will last some time, but they do carry pretty big price tags. You might be fine with a 670, save yourself some cash now, and you can upgrade the GPU later without any real penalty. Said cash could also go to other upgrades, like a xxxxK processor that allows overclocking, doubling your RAM, or investing in a nice pair of headphones and an audio card.

You have plenty of options. Just figure out how much you're willing to spend first and you can tailor what you get to maximize your value.

[JustAnEngineer]

I removed the unsolicited commercial posting from this thread.

How about some of these components?
$150 Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard
$230 Intel Core i5-3570K processor
$ 31 CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo cooler
$ 65 2x8 GiB PC3-10600 Mushkin 997017 (DDR3-1333, CAS 9, 1.5 V) memory
or $ 90 2x8 GiB PC3-14900 G.Skill F3-1866C9D-16GXM (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V) memory
$185 VisionTek 900505 Radeon HD7850 2GB
or $230 EVGA 02G-P4-2662-KR GeForce GTX660 2GB (1046 MHz)
or $250 -20MIR XFX FX-787A-CNFC Radeon HD7870 2GB
or $300 -10MIR EVGA 02G-P4-3662-KR GeForce GTX660Ti 2GB (980 MHz)
or $310 -20MIR Sapphire 100352-2L Radeon HD7950 3GB (850 MHz)
$109 128 GB Samsung 830 SSD
$102 2 TB Seagate STBD2000101 hard-drive
$ 55 LG UH12LS29 BD-ROM/DVD-RW
$ 67 Antec Three Hundred Two ATX case
$ 47 Antec Neo Eco 520C power supply (40A @+12V)
$100 Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit OEM
$ 16 Microsoft JWD-00046 keyboard
or $70 -10MIR CoolerMaster SGK-4010-GKCM1-US keyboard
$ 35 Logitech G400 mouse
$175 -10MIR Asus VS239H-P 23" 1920x1080 IPS LCD monitor
or $417 Auria EQ276W 27" 2560x1440 IPS LCD monitor

[JustAnEngineer]

What site should I buy from?

Do you live near a Micro Center?

Micro Center store locations are listed here:
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/default.aspx

They offer an unbeatable in-store deal to combine a Core i5-3570K processor with a Z77 motherboard. You could get this combination:
$190 +tax Intel Core i5-3570K
$110 -50 combo +tax ASRock Z77 Pro4-M
That's $250+tax for the same bundle that goes for $327 +7½ shipping from Newegg. You could save $70 or more at Micro Center.

[DPete27]

I mostly agree with others, but more opinions help to solidify the advice:

I would get a 120-128GB SSD, they will only set you back about $90. I think you'll find that anything lower than 90GB will be very restrictive.

Graphics cards in the $200-250 range are really the sweet spot. Something like a GTX 660 or 7870 will get you very solid 1080p gaming performance for half the price of a 680. In fact, I wouldn't recommend a GTX 680 for anything except a high performance multi-monitor gaming rig. It's just wayyyy more power than you need to drive any single monitor.

IMO, optical drives are a dying tech. Just recycle the optical drive from your old rig unless you plan on ripping your Blu-ray collection. These days you can install your OS from a flash drive much faster than a disc and most programs either don't require a disc or give you the option of getting a disc image instead. I didn't put an optical drive in my current build, and I haven't needed it for 4 months and counting.