$2500 Build

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1

Hello to all. I wish to build a $2500 (give or take) PC for gaming & Video Editing (as well as data encoding) in the next few days. I already made a parts list that I think is pretty solid for the price, however, if you guys could tell me a way to save money while keep the same general performance, or instead spend a little bit more to get a substancial boost in performance it would be very much appreciated. General comments on my part selection are helpful as well. 

Parts List

Main

Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

ASUS Maximus V FORMULA LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

XFX PRO850W XXX Edition Semi-Modular 80 Plus Silver Certified 850 Watt Active PFC Power Supply

2 X SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP in Crossfire

Western Digital Caviar Black WDBAAZ0020HNC-NRSN 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar Black WDBAAZ0020HNC-NRSN 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

2 X Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) in RAID 0

CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler

Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory

Additionals

2 X Corsair Air Series AF120 Performance Edition CO-9050004-WW 120mm Twin Pack High Airflow Case Fan

Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition CO-9050008-WW 120mm Twin Pack High Static Pressure Case Fan

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM

NZXT CB-LED10-RD Sleeved LED Kit - Red, 1 m

StarTech Model PCIEX68ADAP 6" PCI Express 6 pin to 8 pin Power Adapter Cable F-M

Thanks :D

2

get the nzxt kraken x60. far better than the h100

and at that price, get an asrock extreme9 mobo, far better at that price, triple network cards w/ teaming(one is built-in wifi) , 10 sata ports, 6 of them sata 6g/s, 8 rear usb3.0, dual front header

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157322&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

and just get a radeon 7970. far better than the 670. sli is a joke at this price point, with a new build.

asus just puts on a ton of gimmiks like rog. the maximus doesn't really ahve anything special except a good sound card, which imo youre better off with an xonar dx or essence

 

and 1000w is overkill, get an 850 by xfx, they get a really long warranty, and the internals are all seasonic....

3

Thanks, changed the MOBO and the PSU. In terms of the cooler, the NZXT kraken X60 is sadly unavailable ATM (Newegg), and I plan to order these parts tomorrow or today, so the H100 has to do. The 7970 cannot run games at the level I want it to. I need the GPU power to run most demanding games at 1080p, everything on ULTRA while maintaining 120 FPS, which the 670 SLI configuration seems to do just fine. Thanks again.

4

I dont know about the performance of the kraken x60, but its a 280 rad, so might not be supported in all cases.. and from where do you know it outperforms the h100i? (again keep in mind the rad is bigger..)

If you are using this as a gaming rig then the i5 is more than enough..

if already stated that PSU is overkill.. 850 is enough, 750 is probably enough too..

Love that you are getting a WD black drive, good choice imo! :)

the ram is a little overkill I would say, 8gb is enough for gaming and so is 1600mhz speeds.. you could save a little there too..

as far as I know the h100i already comes with some good thermal paste, besides have heard that arctic silver isnt that good, atleast some of them. Also if you are getting the extra pair of SP fans for the h100i you should know the included fans are pratty much the same fans as the SP ones.. so unless you want to go push/pull, then dont get them. (if you want to go puch/pull, then you have to remember some screws..) but a custom loop with waterblocks for the gfx cards would be nice.. :)

5

Thanks for your imput :D. Yes I forgot to mention what type of build it was (Editing the post right now). I will use it not only for gaming, but for video editing and data encoding (hence the 16gb 2133MHZ ram as well), so the i7 suits it well. In terms of the PSU...I'm kind of hesitant, what if it doesn't work with 850w?

6

Ok, its for editing also.. then forget what I said about the CPU and ram.. (though i doubt the extra speed will be very noticable..)

Im almost certain a 750 would be enough for you build.. but here is a link to a calculator, try to throw in your hardware, and see what it says..

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/