First Build

[Feersum]

Hi all,

Building my first PC and just wanted to get some opinions/advice on the components.

This is the spec i'm looking at atm:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3P S1155 Intel Z68 Express DDR3 ATX (USB 3.0)
GFX: Radeon HD 5770 (from previous PC)
CPU: 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500K
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Memory: 2x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600MHz
PSU: Corsair Memory TX650 V2 650W ATX Enthusiast Series
Case: Fractal Design Define R3
soundcard: Asus Xonar DS
HDD: 750GB and 320GB from previous PC
SSD: Crucial M4 64GB

Thoughts?

Tim

[2o2o]

I would avoid Gigabyte Z68 boards at the moment I would look at Gen 3 boards with PCI-e 3.0 for future proofing, Asus have updated their boards for 3.0 now as have Asrock. The Xonar DS is a good card, I am guessing you won't be using headphones otherwise I would suggest looking at the DG instead, and only other thing is I would suggest pushing the budget to get a Kuhler 620 cooler for a 2500k it will give better overclocking results and of course a cooler cpu will last longer.

[Feersum]

how about the Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX?
Is it worth the extra £20 for the PRO version?

[2o2o]

It depends on whether you need 2 more SATA3 ports and 2 Firewire ports (via header) then you will want the Pro the difference is nothing more than a few features (unless I missed something, there might be a few bits). Even the power design is the same which is usually changed between a standard and a pro board but the 16 phase design I guess was good enough for them not to need to boost it.

[Feersum]

Ahh ok, i suppose i could have worked that out myself really.
One more thing the 64GB SSD, i have people telling me that with W7 and 1/2 games it's basically full. Would it be wise to upgrade to a 120GB SSD?

[2o2o]

If you can afford it the 120gb will allow Win a few programs and 5-6 games, however as you are going for a Z68 motherboard you could think about using the SRT feature to basically turn the SSD into a cache drive so you install everything on Mechanical HDD then the most used files are stored on the SSD that way while you don't get SSD speed you do get very good speed.

[Feersum]

right, going to go with the corsair 120gb http://bit.ly/uMdah0 instead.
Think that pretty much settles the rig now.

Thanks for all you advice mate, much appreciated