What do you guys think?

[LIONSFAN20]

I am trying to build a good gaming PC and have a budget of about $1400.
this is the list I have on Amazon:
motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
cpu: Intel i7-2600k
video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Super clocked 1280 MB GDDR5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB PC3-12800
power supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850 Watts
Cool Master HAF ATX Mid Tower
Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM HD
Corsair Hydro Series H80 CPU Cooler.

Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appriciated, any recommendations are ALWAYS welcome as well.

[bluearth]

I would research that water cooler a bit more, doesnt appear to be so great going by some amazon reviews. I use a Cool Master Hyper 212 Plus ($25) and I get 29-31c idle temps. Once while using 80% of the cores power I got mid 40sC and have not seen 50c yet though 100% may get me there. Downside to the 212 Plus is it may cover one of your 4 ram slots, it covered one of mine.

Your motherboard. It has HDMI out etc but if you have a video card thats extra features your paying for you wont be using

Try to find a motherboard that fits what you want out of the PC. Strip it down as much as possible while keeping key features like 16x PCI express slot, SLI/crossfire support if thats in your plans, support for future CPUs like IVY Bridge if thats coming out soon, and at least 16 GBs memory support to future proof yourself.

The motherboard you picked out looks fine outsude of the unnecessary HDMI and other outputs which may be forced on all high end boards, just be careful to not make the same mistake I made and buy a certain motherboard when there were cheaper AND more expensive motherboards that better suited my needs. Just research like crazy.

With such a large budget consider buying two 1 TB HDDs and running them in RAID

Im a noob take what I say somewhat lightly just giving advice after my recent build

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by bluearth

I would research that water cooler a bit more, doesnt appear to be so great going by some amazon reviews. I use a Cool Master Hyper 212 Plus ($25) and I get 29-31c idle temps. Once while using 80% of the cores power I got mid 40sC and have not seen 50c yet though 100% may get me there. Downside to the 212 Plus is it may cover one of your 4 ram slots, it covered one of mine.

When it comes to technical impressions, Amazon user reviews carry no weight for me. If I need a comprehensive technical assessment of any PC component, there are no shortage of reputable tech websites that fit this bill.

The Corsair Hydro Series H80 Liquid CPU Cooler has been reviewed and recommended on a number of sites:

Legit Reviews - Editors' Choice
Overclockers Club - OCC GOLD
Tweaktown Rating 95% - Editor's Choice

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by LIONSFAN20

I am trying to build a good gaming PC and have a budget of about $1400. This is the list I have on Amazon:

motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
cpu: Intel i7-2600k
video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Super clocked 1280 MB GDDR5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB PC3-12800
power supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850 Watts
Cool Master HAF ATX Mid Tower
Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM HD
Corsair Hydro Series H80 CPU Cooler.

Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appriciated, any recommendations are ALWAYS welcome as well.

This is an all-around solid build; for the most part, I won't change anything except for the case (for its lack of USB 3.0 ports on the front panel, as well as not having dust filters for the fans).

For the same price, I would wait for the Corsair Carbide Series 400R to make its way to retail (which is temporarily out of stock on Amazon at the moment). As you can see, it can house a pair of GTX 580s with room to spare (and yes, that is a Hydro Series H80 CPU cooler mounted in the picture ):

[LIONSFAN20]

What about this motherboard:Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3
its about $90 cheaper, but I think it will still meat my needs

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by LIONSFAN20

What about this motherboard:Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3
its about $90 cheaper, but I think it will still meat my needs

In terms of features, it looks robust. I didn't have time to do a full side-by-side comparison between both motherboards, but the P67 alternative has all of the basics covered, and if you're not planning on using an SSD for caching, then you can forego the Z68 board in favour of the Gigabyte P67 option and save yourself a bit of pocket change in the process. I use a Gigabyte board myself (the other is an MSI board, which I'm happy with as well).

Another board that you may want to consider as well is the MSI P67A-G45 (B3) Military Class ($104.99 after $20 MIR), which features a UEFI (Universal Extensible Firmware Interface), used for navigating the BIOS menu with a mouse.

[Dave_6]

Originally Posted by PrivatePixel

This is an all-around solid build; for the most part, I won't change anything except for the case (for its lack of USB 3.0 ports on the front panel, as well as not having dust filters for the fans).

For the same price, I would wait for the Corsair Carbide Series 400R to make its way to retail (which is temporarily out of stock on Amazon at the moment). As you can see, it can house a pair of GTX 580s with room to spare (and yes, that is a Hydro Series H80 CPU cooler mounted in the picture ):

I don't know much about PC builds (trying to learn) but that looks like a nice build. Is it yours?

[LIONSFAN20]

I swapped out cases, and I think I will go with the Gigabyte motherboard, I have been using them for years and really like them.

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by Dave_6

I don't know much about PC builds (trying to learn) but that looks like a nice build. Is it yours?

I wish. The image was borrowed from a website that reviewed the case. The cable management is impressive (I'm tempted to get one of my own, just to see if I can duplicate this result )

[Dave_6]

Ah ok, looks like a bada$$ build. Aren't those 580s over $400 each? Is there any game out there that requires that much GPU?

[bluearth]

Originally Posted by LIONSFAN20

I swapped out cases, and I think I will go with the Gigabyte motherboard, I have been using them for years and really like them.

The Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3 doesnt support 2 NVIDIA cards in SLI, only ATI cards in crossfire. And the 2nd PCI slot is only 4x. But a single 570 should be MORE then enough by itself for a while. By the time the 570 shows some age new single cards will be a better buy then getting a second 570 for SLI anyway.

So if your not going SLI with the board your good to go.

Really wish I could help you more but I researched AMD boards for my recent build. My board was $140 but it only exceeded your board by having a few more somewhat useless 6GBs SATA connections and the 2nd PCI slot ran at 8x to your 4x. I wish I got the next step up in boards for $20 more which had a second PCI slot running at 16x or something similar to your board. Ill never need more then two 6GBs SATA connections because I will always have just 2 SATA devices, the DVD drive and Hard drive

EDIT: one more thing. Research the difference between a Intel i7-2600k and a Intel i7-2500k. I ve heard they are similar performance wise in gaming but the Intel i7-2600k shines only during multimedia processing. With $100 between the two research benchmarks and comparisons

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by LIONSFAN20

I am trying to build a good gaming PC and have a budget of about $1400.
this is the list I have on Amazon:
motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
cpu: Intel i7-2600k
video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Super clocked 1280 MB GDDR5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB PC3-12800
power supply: Corsair Enthusiast 850 Watts
Cool Master HAF ATX Mid Tower
Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM HD
Corsair Hydro Series H80 CPU Cooler.

Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appriciated, any recommendations are ALWAYS welcome as well.

No 2GB GPU? Look on TechPowerUp for benchmarks.

[LIONSFAN20]

Well I got it up and running yesterday, after a lot of delays and decision making it is FINALLY complete. I went with

intel i7 2600K
H80 Corsair Cooler
Asus P8Z68-Pro Gen 3 Motherboard
16 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Dual EVGA 560 1024 MB
850 Watt power supply

I am really happy with it, turned out better than I thought it would. Bring on Batllefield 3!! Thank you guys for your input

[doctorD]

Originally Posted by LIONSFAN20

Well I got it up and running yesterday, after a lot of delays and decision making it is FINALLY complete. I went with

intel i7 2600K
H80 Corsair Cooler
Asus P8Z68-Pro Gen 3 Motherboard
16 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Dual EVGA 560 1024 MB
850 Watt power supply

I am really happy with it, turned out better than I thought it would. Bring on Batllefield 3!! Thank you guys for your input

I'm sure you will really enjoy your new system.