[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Hi all,

I'm planning on building a new PC soon, current one is getting a wee bit crusty.
I'm looking for some input into specs and prices, as I only have a vague idea of what I'm talking about.

I've grabbed prices off of two sites, MSY and AllNeeds. (msy.com.au/default.jsp, allneeds.com.au)

Part	MSY	AllNeeds
CPU: Intel i5-2500K	$221	$225
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4	$219	$212
Case: No idea, o_O	<$200	<$200
PSU: Same thing, >800W	<$170	<$170
RAM: Kingston KVR 8GB (2x4G)	$55	$58
Graphics: 2x nVidia 560 (Asus)	$432	$480
or: 2x nVidia 560 Ti (Asus)	---	$538
Optical: DVD	$24	$24
Blu-ray Writer	$85	$88
HDD: SSD - 128 GB	$198	$222
Traditional - 1 TB	$58	$58
Windows 7 64-bit HP	$95	$89
----------------------------------------------	-----------	-----------
	$1757	$1826
	or	$1884

Okay, and a bunch of specific questions.

What is a good Case/PSU combo? I don't require anything fancy, it just needs to hold the stuff and power it.
Is it worth going for 2 560's or should I go for a single 570?
Is there enough of a difference between a 560 and 560 Ti to justify the price difference?
Is there anything here that can be replaced with something cheaper that is close enough to the same performance?

This is gonna be a bit more expensive than I hoped but with something like this I could smash out some streams.

As a final note, I noticed the other PC build thread. I decided not to hi-jack his since were working in difference currencies and have different enough aims, as far as I'm aware. If I should chuck this in his, just let me know.

Looking forward to everyone's input.

---
Bugalugs

[syfMiley]

128gb SSD for $58? seems a bit cheap.

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Originally Posted by TAMiLes

128gb SSD for $58? seems a bit cheap.

Haha, copy fail, thanks for pointing that out.

[Meatex]

I can tell you from experience DO NOT half arse your choice of case.
It may seem like something you don't need to think much about but when you get a cheap case its makes it very hard to seat your motherboard not to mention it will be messy
Also don't skimp on PSU especially if you want to get 2 vid cards for SLI
personally I would recommend 1 better video card then you can add another later should you need it and it will be so much cheaper

[ikki]

You left out hard-drive, I know the ssd for the OS, unless you plan on using the ones from your old computer.
Try centrecom for cases they have heaps for sub $100
As for the blu-ray drive/writer seems useless imo unless you watch heaps of blu-rays like its something you can skip now and get later if you really need it.
psu = http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/...5.html?sort=3a

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Originally Posted by Meatex

I can tell you from experience DO NOT half arse your choice of case.
It may seem like something you don't need to think much about but when you get a cheap case its makes it very hard to seat your motherboard not to mention it will be messy
Also don't skimp on PSU especially if you want to get 2 vid cards for SLI

Hehe, I figured this would be the case (no pun intended), which is why I've put a bit of extra budget in for the Case & PSU. Anyone got any recommendations. When I mentioned I didn't need anything fancy, it was more along the lines of I don't need to be able to see the innards of my computer, and it doesn't need a tonne of lights.

Originally Posted by Meatex

personally I would recommend 1 better video card then you can add another later should you need it and it will be so much cheaper

I'm not sure what I think of the get 1 better video card and then add another later argument. It's one of those good in theory, not sure about in practice.

Thanks for the response, Meatex.

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Bugalugs McScruffin

What is a good Case/PSU combo? I don't require anything fancy, it just needs to hold the stuff and power it.
Is it worth going for 2 560's or should I go for a single 570?
Is there enough of a difference between a 560 and 560 Ti to justify the price difference?
Is there anything here that can be replaced with something cheaper that is close enough to the same performance?

Do not buy a prepackaged case/psu combo for this system. With two video cards, you need a lot of power, prob. a good quality 750W (seasonic or corsair prob. the best brands), not whatever people want to package with their cases. And you probably want a case with really good airflow.

The 2 560's is actually a good amoung faster than a 570... will just chew through a lot more power and generate a lot more heat.
The 560ti is better... but not by such a massive margin (similar performance to an overclocked 560, but obviously a bit cooler/quieter).

ATI 6950 cards are faster/cheaper than the 560's. And scale better in crossfire than SLI 560's.

If you want to save some money, why are you getting a 2500K (more expensive than 2500, and all you can do is overclock easier). If you aren't overclocking, get the regular one, otherwise you should probably get a non stock CPU cooler.

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

ATI 6950 cards are faster/cheaper than the 560's. And scale better in crossfire than SLI 560's.

I'm biased towards nVidia cards, but I'll check out the 6950s, see what I think.

Originally Posted by |Erasmus|

If you want to save some money, why are you getting a 2500K (more expensive than 2500, and all you can do is overclock easier). If you aren't overclocking, get the regular one, otherwise you should probably get a non stock CPU cooler.

This is useful information. Is there any other major differences? At both MSY and AllNeeds there is less than $8 difference.

Anyone got any recommendations on Cases?

[ToRDjvillian]

Originally Posted by Bugalugs McScruffin

Anyone got any recommendations on Cases?

I suggest the thermaltake chaser mk-1 it has pretty lights.

I'm going to be building a rig very soon and I'm Gettin that case.

[Meatex]

Getting a single faster video card would be better than 2 mid level cards simply cause you don't get a 2 fold boost with 2 video cards and games have to be specifically coded to make use of it. Often you will get a very minor benefit and some games you plain have to turn one of the cards off to get it to work

I bought a very nice motherboard and a mid-high level video card at the time. Only now am i starting to have to not run things at max settings so now I can add a duplicate card which because its been a while will be very cheap and extend the life of my current system a lot

[dekay'd]

Few things:

(Hopefully none of this has been said in previous comments, I only glanced at them)

Store/Site
Have a look at www.pccasegear.com, their based is Melbourne and they have by far the best customer service out of all the companies I've dealt with (MSY and PCDIY). Their prices are practically identical to MSY's although you will have to pay delivery.

CPU
Intel has announced that they are releasing a new line of CPUs, socket 2011, to replace the 1366 socket CPUs as the high-end range. I would wait until they are released to see if you want to get one of them.
The main difference between the i5 2500K and the i5 2500, is that the 2500K is 'unlocked' so you can overclock it more.

GPU
I recommend not getting two graphics cards and instead buy a single good one. When you have two cards in crossfire and SLI, one them won't run at 100% it will be more like 50%-70% depending if you go ATI or nvidia.

Case
As for cases, try to get one made out of aluminium and mid-tower. I have an Antec 1200, which is a good case, but as it is full tower and steel it weighs 14kgs by itself without the components. Quite annoying since I go to LAN parties

Operating System
The OS your getting will be OEM so it "binds" to the motherboard and you cannot replace it later. You should seriously consider buying the retail version (or pirating works just as well)

CPU Cooler
If you plan on overclocking the CPU you will need an aftermarket CPU cooler, the stock intel coolers are complete garbage.

Overclocking
I've talked about overclocking quite a bit, but as you said " I only have a vague idea of what I'm talking about" I will say DO NOT OVERCLOCK unless you know EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE DOING. People can easily damage their CPUs if they have no experience in overclocking

Power Supply
650-700W if your getting one GPU
>750W if your getting two

OK I could probably say more, but I'll just leave it at that.

PS: Pretty long for my first post :P

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Meatex

Getting a single faster video card would be better than 2 mid level cards simply cause you don't get a 2 fold boost with 2 video cards and games have to be specifically coded to make use of it. Often you will get a very minor benefit and some games you plain have to turn one of the cards off to get it to work

I bought a very nice motherboard and a mid-high level video card at the time. Only now am i starting to have to not run things at max settings so now I can add a duplicate card which because its been a while will be very cheap and extend the life of my current system a lot

go read a review before saying these things. 2 560's even easily outperforms a 580 on most titles...

And the vast majority of people who end up in the whole 'buy one better card now and then another matching in a few years when it's price comes down' usually find that they go out of production before the price drops significantly, and the new generation once again fits into the whole 'i'll just buy one good one now and add a second eventually'.

And most games being released now usually work alright with SLI/Crossfire afaik. The issues with needing custom crossfire/sli profiles for every game and some of them just not giving any benefit with dual cards were from a few years back when the technology was new. Basically, i've not heard of these issues for a while... if you have a source about how they're still around, post it.

If you want to go SLI and get really high performance, just do it now iwth the 560's (or6950). They scale more efficiently than the higher up cards with SLI/crossfire.

As for cases, Thermaltake do have pretty lights, but generally not great build quality (from a lot of things i've read at least. never owned one). Grab something like the Lian-li lancool series or something from Fractal/Antec/Coolermaster/Silverstone for your budget/needs.