Gaming PC Build Help

[Chhotu uttam]

PSU: Two rules - never get a non-branded PSU, and never overtax your PSU. Getting a PSU that's 600W or above is a good idea, preferably from good brands like Antec, Enermax, Tagan, etc. If you get a modular PSU, you will have an easier time managing cables inside the case.

This ^ +1.

 

[iggloovortex]

PSU: Two rules - never get a non-branded PSU, and never overtax your PSU. Getting a PSU that's 600W or above is a good idea, preferably from good brands like Antec, Enermax, Tagan, etc. If you get a modular PSU, you will have an easier time managing cables inside the case.

This ^ +1.

does the 630W Rosewill work?

 

[Chhotu uttam]

PSU: Two rules - never get a non-branded PSU, and never overtax your PSU. Getting a PSU that's 600W or above is a good idea, preferably from good brands like Antec, Enermax, Tagan, etc. If you get a modular PSU, you will have an easier time managing cables inside the case.

This ^ +1.

does the 630W Rosewill work?

If you ask me,I don't know.
I never experienced it myself(branded one)

I remember I had a non-branded PSU(300W) which went down after a couple of years,but the computer engineer replaced it with an Intex 450W PSU and the shop burnt

I still have the Intex PSU running on my PC.
So I really don't know.
I can only guess its 50:50 coz one of my non-branded PSU went down but the other is still in a great condition.

 

[Originality]

Back from the Gym so I can give more advice that half the time falls on deaf ears:

PSU: I'll just say that the most recommended PSU brands are Antec, Corsair, Enermax, Tagan and Seasonic. I've got a really old 250W Seasonic PSU that never died. I've currently got an Enermax and Tagan 1kW PSU in each of my main comps (both of which had CrossFire at the time, although that was temporary) and my friends have either Antec or Corsair PSUs, depending on their preferences. If you're using a smaller case (in your case, a mid-tower) you'll definitely want to invest in a modular PSU, as having loose cables in the case block airflow and generally are annoying to hide away. And since you're getting a GTX 560 Ti, you'll want around 500-650W. Oh, and always look for the "80+ award", since energy efficiency = less power used = less heat = more eco-friendly.

Graphics: Best GTX 560 Ti brand is the MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC. Never bother with SLI - multi-GPU setups always have microstuttering which is bad for gameplay (but unimportant for video-editing, modelling, animation and rendering). If you have money to spare on SLI setups, you're infinitely better off just putting that money into getting a better graphics card (like a GTX 570 or 580).

RAM: You only need 4GB of the cheapest RAM kit you can find (e.g. Corsair XMS3). Since RAM is so cheap, there's no harm in getting 8GB. It won't make any difference to you, since you won't use much more than 3GB.

HDD: Stay away from Seagate. For a boot drive, your choice is easy: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, or WD Caviar Black 1TB (or, optionally, a SSD... but that's only if you mind the price of one). For a secondary/storage drive, your choice is still easy: Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2TB, or WD Caviar Green 2TB.
In explanation, Seagate drives are unreliable and tend to die within a year (from my observations). Samsung and WD have good performance and good prices. For storage, you want an "ecogreen" model because performance isn't important for storage and it'll save energy (and run at lower temperatures) and ultimately last much longer. Win-win.

HSF/cooling: I know I said this before, but I'll elaborate. If you want to overclock, you'll also need a third party heatsink such as the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advance. The best rated HSF available is the slightly more expensive Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro. Also use good thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 and it will provide very good cooling for the CPU. If you overclock, this means stability. If you don't, then lower temperatures means it'll last longer.

 

[trumpet-205]

If possible, buy PSU that has 80PLUS rating (go to 80PLUS website to check if that particular PSU actually has 80PLUS rating) to save electricity cost.

Yes, Rosewill is a good brand. I'm currently using Rosewill 80PLUS 430W and it works really well.

As for GPU, that depends on how large your screen is and what kind of games you are playing.

 

[iggloovortex]

Snip

PSU: Rosewill has the 80+, and Trumpet says their a good brand. would prefer to stick with it
Graphics: taking your suggestion
RAM: keeping my ram lol
HDD: picking the Samsung
HSF/Cooling: I dont think Ill be overclocking, at the very least not right away. but if its also necessary for keeping it in good condition ill see about price now vs later

 

[Originality]

To elaborate on the HSF, the stock Intel HSF that comes with all Intel CPUs is good enough under normal use, however third party HSFs tend to be much more efficient at cooling. Some will run much quieter than the Intel stock HSF and still cut off around 4-12C, whilst other fans may be slightly louder than Intel but potentially never let the CPU go above 40C.

If you do ever get into overclocking, you'll find that the Intel HSF is not nearly good enough to control the increased temperatures, especially when you start overvolting. My own preference is to do a modest over clock (of around 1Ghz) only raising the voltage slightly in order to gain a noticeable performance boost. The MSI motherboard is capable of pushing the i5-2500K to 4Ghz without any problems and up to 5Ghz with good cooling (case and HSF).

 

[iggloovortex]

To elaborate on the HSF, the stock Intel HSF that comes with all Intel CPUs is good enough under normal use, however third party HSFs tend to be much more efficient at cooling. Some will run much quieter than the Intel stock HSF and still cut off around 4-12C, whilst other fans may be slightly louder than Intel but potentially never let the CPU go above 40C.

If you do ever get into overclocking, you'll find that the Intel HSF is not nearly good enough to control the increased temperatures, especially when you start overvolting. My own preference is to do a modest over clock (of around 1Ghz) only raising the voltage slightly in order to gain a noticeable performance boost. The MSI motherboard is capable of pushing the i5-2500K to 4Ghz without any problems and up to 5Ghz with good cooling (case and HSF).

ok then so yea ill look into that if and when i get into overclocking.

 

[iggloovortex]

changing hardrive to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148697

 

[Chhotu uttam]

changing hardrive to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148697


I'll just quote what Originality said-

QUOTE(Originality @ Aug 28 2011, 09:55 PM) HDD: Stay away from Seagate. For a boot drive, your choice is easy: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, or WD Caviar Black 1TB (or, optionally, a SSD... but that's only if you mind the price of one). For a secondary/storage drive, your choice is still easy: Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2TB, or WD Caviar Green 2TB.
In explanation, Seagate drives are unreliable and tend to die within a year (from my observations). Samsung and WD have good performance and good prices. For storage, you want an "ecogreen" model because performance isn't important for storage and it'll save energy (and run at lower temperatures) and ultimately last much longer. Win-win.

I'd had gone by WD Caviar Black 1TB.
Samsung are also great but I like WD.

 

[Originality]

I would guess the reason he wants to switch to the Seagate drive dispite my advice is the fact that it uses SATA III. The problem with SATA III in HDDs is that HDDs don't even saturate SATA II yet, so SATA III will only produce equivolent if not worse performance than normal SATA II.

This is because SATA III controllers aren't that good at dealing with HDDs, since they're designed for SSDs. Of course, there is the Seagate Hybrid HDD (which has a small SSD capacity built in to improve performance, similar to Z68 technology), but the tiny performance gain isn't nearly enough to justify the inflated cost of the drive.

On that point, SATA III Seagate hard drives are typically much more expensive than Samsung or WD drives, and the two I recommended generally have better performance (in most tests at least).

 

[trumpet-205]

SATA III is only useful for some SSDs. Regular HDD does not come close at utilizing the speed SATA II/III are offering because its speed is hindered by moving parts.

Only if you are considering using SSD should you worry yourselves about SATA III. Increasing numbers of SSD are using SATA III but majority of SSDs are still rated for SATA II.

SSD = Faster boot/load time, but far more expensive and limited write cycle.
HDD = A bit slower (couple seconds), but cheaper and tolerant to high numbers of write cycle.

It is okay to use HDD only.

 

[iggloovortex]

well im not sure what SATAIII is, but i know i picked the seagate over the spinpoint kind of because of its SATA 6.0Gb/s

EDIT: did research, found out that is SATAIII lol. sticking with Samsung