New build check

[phlawd]

Hi all

I'm thinking of buying the components to build a mid-level gaming PC, probably sometime this week. It will be a build from scratch, so will need everything; have a budget of up to £1000; will be primarily used for gaming (WoW, Starcraft2, Skyrim, Diablo)

It's been a while since I last built a machine, so just wanted to make sure everything is compatible/fits/right connections, etc

Board - Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX - £120.99
CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K - £169.99
CPU Fan - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler - £14.98
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz - £36.99
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti 900MHz- £169.99
HDD - Seagate 2TB Barracuda - £99.99
SSD - Crucial 64GB m4 - £66.99
Case - Antec 300 - £44.98
PSU - Corsair 600W Builder Series - £49.99

The rest are peripherals which are somewhat secondary:
WiFI - Edimax Wifi
Optical - LG Electronics 10x Internal BD Combo Retail

Been looking around at monitors, but haven't really found anything. Been looking for a 22-ish" LED screen.

One last thing - would it be worthwhile waiting for a month or so until the Ivy Bridge processors come out? I've been toying with building this machine for some time now, so another month won't really make that much of a difference. On the other hand, there'll always be something new coming out "next month". Will the new processors be a significant enough improvement to warrant the wait?

Thanks in advance!

[2o2o]

Personally I would wait for Ivy Bridge they are being released at roughly the same price as Sandy Bridge are now so the SB chips will have to come down in price. The build looks good I would use a better CPU cooler to at lease give you the option to use the 2500k at it's full potential safely something like the Antec Kuhler 620, as for monitor stay with a descent brand and your sorted, you could also look at the passive 3D monitors as they are getting cheaper everyday and don't need the 3D vision kit.

[DMS]

Good looking build but as 2o2o says Ivy Bridge is likely to be worth the wait. There have been a few benchmark leaks which look fairly promising so since the price differential will be minimal waiting would be your best bet. That said, the 2500K is an excellent gaming CPU and will breeze through anything you through at it. In fact, the 560 will be more of a bottleneck.

A couple of thoughts. The RAM you have chosen is pretty tall so there might be a query over clearance if you go with the Freezer. Going with the Kuhler 2o2o mentions would avoid any difficulties, or just going with a lower profile RAM chip.

Also, wireless is OK for gaming but you would be far better off with a wired connection or homeplugs.

[phlawd]

Oops forgot to reply!

Thanks for the advice - I've decided to wait until Ivy Bridge comes out. It's become something of a recurring joke amongst my friends that I keep waiting for something else to come out! Hopefully this will be the last delay On that note, would it be better to get a Z77 board at the same time?

Regarding the cooler, would the Kuhler (and water cooler in general) be that much better? I've always been a bit dubious about having liquids that close to expensive components!

Also, would the Radeon HD 7850 be a better card to get?

btw, that homeplugs thing looks very interesting. Not heard of it before. I may have to try it out

[2o2o]

the 560ti usually averages a bit faster than the 7850 although make sure you are getting the 448 core version which the one you have chosen above is not. I am the same with always waiting for something to be released but the Z77 boards with Ivy Bridge will be a good step up which is why I will go for them, and the Z77 boards are performing considerably better than the Z68 boards. As for the Kuhler it will perform a lot better than the one you chose it will pretty much run on par with the biggest and best air coolers, as for worrying about water there is no need they are fully sealed units you should keep an eye out when you first install it but thats all, and the fluid inside is non conductive so if it did leak from the moment you got it, it would do no damage.