First Build Help

ChrisB7 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:06

Hello,

I am planning my first build, I have picked out a spec below. How does this look? The specific worries I have are, is the power supply powerful enough, is the kit all well balanced, and will SLI work properly with the mainboard (I want to run three screens) ?

Thanks,

Chris

Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK "Super-OC" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics (*2 for SLI)
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **
Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Coolermaster Storm Scout Gaming Case - Black
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM

95thrifles · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:10

Yep looks good mate, but get the K variant of the CPU, this allows OCing, even if you dont want to do now, you may in future, plus it should have higher resale value too
Edit: Though the HDD wouldnt be my first choice, SATA 6Gb/s offers nothing to mechanical drives so youre paying for a gimmick, just get a Seagate 7200.12 or Samsung F3

ChrisB7 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:48

Thanks for the reply, one more question, do you get a cpu cooler with the K series OEM processor ( https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-368-IN )?

Chris

Reaper 392 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:51

no, OEM doesnt have a cooler.

to be honest you can get a really good custom cooler for £25-35

i have heard very good things about the Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (£36.98) but im really no expert in this field

will you need to buy thermal paste seperatly with a custom cooler?

metbandit1 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:54

this week the ASUS P8P67 PRO mobo is £10 off from 149.99 to 139.99 so you could try that board instead.

ChrisB7 · 9 Mar 2011 at 19:08

Ok, so revising my initial proposal:

Removing i5 2500 for a,
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
and adding a,
BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler

Looking at the ASUS P8P67 PRO, am I correct in saying it has support for the four usb 2.0 sockets on the Coolermaster Case, and the MSI board can only support two, but whereas the MSI board has 2x PCIe 16x the ASUS board can only run the two PCIe slots in 8x when using both?

Chris

metbandit1 · 9 Mar 2011 at 19:21

i think that i have read somewhere that the MSI board when it is running SLI also goes from x16 to x8 speeds (someone might be able to confirm/prove wrong) its just not stated on the OCUK site.

ASUS boards are also well known for having high quality and have lots of good reviews.

and yes i think thats correct about the USB 2.0 ports

ChrisB7 · 9 Mar 2011 at 20:56

According to this review you are correct, http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2579 , the MSI board does drop to 16x/8x when in SLI. For my purposes this is better than the asus as according to this article, you can get a drop in performance using 8x/8x when using three screens, http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/ .

Is there anyway around the front usb port issue? I dont mind modding the case so if its not terribly difficult could I replace one external usb 2.0 port pair to a usb 3.0 port pair, as the motherboard does have a usb 3.0 internal connector?

metbandit1 · 9 Mar 2011 at 21:00

erm i dont know if the MSI does have USB 3.0 ports on it. could you possibly get another extension card to have more 3.0 ports?

ChrisB7 · 9 Mar 2011 at 21:38

According to this spec it has one internal usb 3.0 connector, http://eu.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html#/?div=Detail

metbandit1 · 10 Mar 2011 at 07:38

awesome, then im sure if you are willing to do a bit of case modding (and you can get hold of some USB 3.0 case ports. then you could do it.