I am considering putting this together. Never built a computer myself before. Any tips and/or suggestions? I plan to overclock. Let me know if there are any sites where I can get cheaper parts.


Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

ASUS VH232H Glossy Black 23" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD Monitor w/Speakers & HDMI


(2) EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7


Logitech K100 Black PS/2 Wired Slim Classic Keyboard


Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL


ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000


Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM


CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Rosewill RCW-617 1ft. USB to Serial (9-pin) DB-9 RS-232 Adapter


Total build price: $1,562.93

I am considering putting this together. Never built a computer myself before. Any tips and/or suggestions? I plan to overclock. Let me know if there are any sites where I can get cheaper parts.


Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

- This is fine, I would reccomend an SSD as primary though

ASUS VH232H Glossy Black 23" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD Monitor w/Speakers & HDMI

- Change this to the ASUS VH236H or VH238H!!! its a must

(2) EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

- Change this to the EVGA 2WIN 460 GTX Edition (Its same as GTX 580, and thats all you need. no SLI)


CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7

- This selection is fine, but you can skimp a little to a 700W or something from rosewill/seasonic


Logitech K100 Black PS/2 Wired Slim Classic Keyboard

- I feel the Microsoft Media Keyboard is better then this one layout wise


Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

- Not needed, but would help yes.


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

- 8GB is fine yup

ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

- Thats a nice mobo, but go with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138352


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000

- Just go with an AMD ZAMBEZI CPU, it offers more performance for the same price (on par with i7) and you can multitask better, otherwise the i5 SB is fine.

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

- Skip this, PM me & I can set you up w a W7 PRO Key.

CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

- I would go with a good fan. Liquid Cooling I just never liked & it isnt worth it for this build

Rosewill RCW-617 1ft. USB to Serial (9-pin) DB-9 RS-232 Adapter

- No idea why you need this, but kay.

Personally I would get a single GTX 680 instead of 2 560 TI

also agree with 680 instead of SLI(or atleast 1 powerful card vs 2 lower range ones), 2 card support for TERA is quite bad(doesn't even fully support it?) assuming this is a new PC for TERA

and stick with the 2500k, don't get AMD cpu's, they're utter garbage

2way sli causes microstuttering increasing performance by ~70%(varies on games) from 1 card
3way sli reduces microstuttering and increases performance by ~75-80%(varies on games) from 1 card

SLI/CROSSFIRE Support is still bad for TERA because it needs to be optimized into the GPU Drivers & the game isnt even fully released yet.

AMD is not utter garbage, I think Intel brainwashed you Frisk. Price 2 Performance AMD wins within low- midrange sectors, they blew their chances to catch up to sandybridge with Bulldozer but its still a good CPU. 8 Cores for $250? 8k+ benchmark on stock still puts it well above the i5 2500k. Plus more cores = more multitasking no "Core virtualization" bull.

Once you OC an AMD past 4GHz, its sweeet sweeet victory. I've went around to some professional LAN centers & stuff when I was involved with a boyfriend who played DOTA in the leagues & they ALL used OC'd AMD//ATI Systems one stating blindtesting everyone preferred them.

Unless you plan on overclocking the CPU, you can save a few $$$ by going with the i5-2500 (non K)
I Noticed NO difference from playing tera at 4.8GHZ over stock 3.2GHz on my 2500k

Get fast ram 1600Mhz+

Yes a 680 blows everything else out of the water, but unless you HAVE to have something top of the line for epeen, I would get a 570 and call it good.

Performance of a single 570 beats x2 550 in sli

As for your choice of the H80 Cooler. GO FOR IT! I have the H70 is solid and the waranty from corsair is extensive in which it will cover EVERYTHING in your tower should the UNIT fail. It does come with Thermal grease on the HS, but if you need to re-mount it for any reason you will want to have some extra handy. I prefer shin-etsu over AS5 but to each there own

Don't listen about the BIOSTAR motherboard. You can not go wrong with ASUS or ASRock for a motherboard. I own boards from both and prefer the asus over the asrock for overclocking, but both are solid and worth every penny invested into it.

The PSU you chose is perfect, same one I have in my wifes computer. Again Corsair products rock.

You will want to consider a case with good cable management.... The HAF 912 is perfect, with great airflow, and under $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&Tpk=haf%20912

As for amd over intel.. they both have great chips.. but it is more of a preference vs. fanboy war there.

If you have quests or need some informed advice, shoot me a pm... will be glad to offer my input.

The 1ft adapter comes with the liquid cooler. I'm not sure why.

Quote: ChinaCat on 04/15/2012, 02:22 AM - view

Can't really afford the 680 but I found a GTX 560 Ti for only $230. I'm trying not to go too far over $1500 for the total. Here is what I found:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

I do plan on overclocking the CPU. That's why I'm going with the liquid cooler. I've seen pretty good reviews for the H80.

I've got a friend of mine that said he can get me Win7 so that knocks the price down a bit :) Thanks for the offer though Louise.

I would rather go with a full tower than a mid size because of the liquid cooler. I'm not sure how well that would fit on a mid size tower.

The GTX 680 is a $499 card, only $40 more than what you'll spend on the two 560 TI's.

You just need to be patient as they were just released. I have it watched at Amazon and recently pre-ordered for $499.00 but when a local store got them in the about the same I cancelled and picked it up locally.

I understand they are being sold at $100 or more above retail but you can avoid that if your patient and pay attention to the market.

Good luck.

GL getting a gtx 680, it took me 2 weeks to get one.