Gaming Are these good parts for building a new PC for the first time

[totunforster]

It's a bit overkill unless you're an enthusiast for BF3......the I7 2600k would be a challenge to get to 100% cpu usage.....I have roughly the same setup except with a AMD 6990. After tweaking my GPU I maybe use 90% of it maxing out BF3 and my cpu (which is a I7 2600k @ 4.5 ghz) is only being used at 40% if Im running every app I have and installing a few things at once.

 

[qlum]

It's a bit overkill unless you're an enthusiast for BF3......the I7 2600k would be a challenge to get to 100% cpu usage.....I have roughly the same setup except with a AMD 6990. After tweaking my GPU I maybe use 90% of it maxing out BF3 and my cpu (which is a I7 2600k @ 4.5 ghz) is only being used at 40% if Im running every app I have and installing a few things at once.

Read the rest of the topic and you will see that its still a valid choice. Not everyone uses a pc exclusively for gaming.

 

[Chaosruler]

Didn't actually read it, just pointed out some highlighting stuff...
use HD103J, not 50xJ, Samsung Spinpoints F3's are a good series in total, just the 503's fail rate is real high, same thing with SSD, go with M4...
2600k is a much-go for a overclocking-designed CPU with a Z68, it will better use the HD3000 graphics with the z68 chipset but you got an external video card so it'd be stupid to go with 2600k, rather 2500k
* for that system, 550W is enough, 750 is overdoing, are you preparing for a CFx\SLI? if that's the case, why prepare for a dual core GPU first?
at that case, I'd recommand using ATI's CFx, it proves to have better results then an SLI on cheaper cards for mainstream games, and not performance, even though drivers tend to destroy that, it is usually a hotfix a week or two after game release, which is great
since series 7xxx is out, we can expect 6xxx price drops through the year, 6xxx is generally weaker then 5xxx equals, but it is cheaper and uses less power and less heat... therefore I'd go with 6850, it is strong enough on its own for advanced gaming, when you feel ready for CFx, buy another 6850 and you will be graphic-ready for 3-4 years of gaming at most advanced settings (which is alot! especially counting the 7xxx performance coming)

actually the whole build is based on a mistake which burns a lot of cash on wasted potential....try redoing it by using every bit of cash on things that uses their max potential (chipset to use the max potential of the CPU and GPU, but not going anymore) and then waste cash on better cooling, better\safer PSU, SSD\HDD or even CPU and GPU [though Mobo should be first]

also when choosing a mobo for sandy bridge, choose a mobo with more MOFOs, since the transistors get the electrcity before the processor socket, dividing it on more MOFOs drop heat and voltage unstabling and vdrops better than cooling fans and water cooling, which supports overclocking - the highlighting altername of the "k" series" is overclocking

 

[Originality]

2600k is a much-go for a overclocking-designed CPU with a Z68, it will better use the HD3000 graphics with the z68 chipset but you got an external video card so it'd be stupid to go with 2600k, rather 2500k

The 2600K can overclock around 300Mhz higher than the 2500K. Either way, both can go above 5Ghz (although many motherboards can only manage 4.9Ghz) so there's no real comparison in overclockability. The only difference worth mentioning is HyperThreading. Also certain P67 motherboards are better overclockers than most Z68 motherboards (which all run hot anyway). The only reason to go with a Z68 motherboard is if you want to use the iGPU functions, HDD virtual cache functions (using a SSD), or need to overclock the CPU whilst still using the Intel HD 3000 (not the case here). To this end, the OP will lose no performance by getting a P67 motherboard instead of a Z68 motherboard.

for that system, 550W is enough, 750 is overdoing

550W is enough? Then he should get at least 600W. Never go for "enough", always go for 10-30% higher than what you need. Not only will this result in more stable power flow (and power efficiency), it will also make the PSU last longer and also give you the flexibility of adding lots more drives later on (or a beefier graphics card, which these days recommend at least 600W anyway) and any other upgrade you happen to require in future.

6xxx is generally weaker then 5xxx equals, but it is cheaper and uses less power and less heat... therefore I'd go with 6850

This doesn't make sense to me. The lower and mid-ranged HD6 cards are mostly identical to the mid-ranged HD5 cards, they've just had a die shrink and a little revision to add HD6 series technologies to the mix. Why would this make them weaker? As for the higher ends, it's either identical with clock boosts (facilitated by the die shrink) or entirely new technology thrown in (HD69xx range).

also when choosing a mobo for sandy bridge, choose a mobo with more MOFOs, since the transistors get the electrcity before the processor socket, dividing it on more MOFOs drop heat and voltage unstabling and vdrops better than cooling fans and water cooling, which supports overclocking - the highlighting altername of the "k" series" is overclocking

This is NOT good advice for a first timer, who would probably have no idea what MOFO means (aside from the American colloquial). Instead, try giving specific examples and explaining the difference to help him choose which part he thinks suits him best. Here's an example - choosing between the MSI P67A GD53 and Asus Sabertooth P67. Between the two, the Sabertooth scores better when playing games, thanks to its thermal armor dissipating heat effectively across the entire motherboard, but the GD53 is a much better overclocker because no matter how much you pump up the voltage, it stays very cool (which is ideal for overclocking stably) where as nearly every other motherboard (P67 or Z68) tends to get very hot if you raise the voltage too high. True story.

Now remember what the OP needs. He will be video editing (Vegas) more than gaming, so HyperThreading is useful for him. It also means his main focus will be on the CPU core count (4+4 for i7), the GPU FLOPS rate (I've heard AMD are better than nVidia in this respect, whilst nVidia are better at gaming... can't remember the details), and RAM capacity (but RAM is cheap, so upgrading from 8GB to 16GB in future is easy). He only needs a stable PSU of 600-750W (the prices should be mostly the same for this range), so going with Corsair is a safe bet for a good PSU. The motherboard only needs to work safely, so P67 is minimum and Z68 is useful if it's a very good motherboard (i.e. if it's better than the MSI GD53, because that is easily the best value P67 motherboard available). For the SSD, it only makes a difference if Windows and/or the video editing suite is located on it (so it needs enough space for that... otherwise the HDD will slow it down anyway). That is more important than which SSD he picks because any SSD will be an upgrade for him. All that's left is the case, and I recommend the Silverstone RV03 I linked above because he wants easy access to USB ports.

It's not so complicated, is it?