[Jonatan]

hi to all in a bit of a noob with all this but learning im going to be building my very first build now my firsy question is are all of these components compatible with each other and is it wortH adding another gpu "SLI" looking for some guidance on this i would be grateful for any tips on this

case

motherboard

videocard

powersupply

processor

memory

harddrive

bluray-burner

cpu-cooler

thanks in advanced
jonatan

[coastie65]

Hi Jonathan and welcome to the forums. Looks good, but I would make two changes. The first with the Power supply and go with this one: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817139027 It is a much better quality than the one you selected and you really don't want to mess around with Power Supplies.

I would also go with this memory: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231445 . What you selected is fine, but this is a little better in that id lwer latency with lower timings.

The Motherboard you selected is fine, but you may want to look at this one as it has the latest chipset: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157293

This post has been edited by coastie65: 06 September 2012 - 05:27 PM

[Jonatan]

Ty now for the video card will I be fine with one or should I go for 2 and for that board you recommended no pci 2.0??

This post has been edited by Jonatan: 06 September 2012 - 06:21 PM

[LiveBrianD]

I agree about coastie's changes, though you might want to look into ASUS boards since ASrock is the budget spinoff from them. (I've heard they're fairly good now though. The other thing is that I would replace the HDD with a Samsung F3 1TB.

Also, different revisions of PCIe are backwards compatible. The 2500K doesn't have PCIe 3.0 support anyway, so it'll operate in 2.x mode.

For the video card, due to issues like compatibility and micro-stuttering, it's best to get a single powerful video card if you can, like a 660 instead. The 550ti isn't bad, but it's not great either. The 550SE is another one waldojim had mentioned in the past.

Also, due to maintenance, you CANNOT login to pcworld right now. It seems that you can still post if you were already logged in though. So, don't clear your cookies or log out. (I'm still logged in on my phone, but I set chrome on my desktop to clear them when I close it. Darn it... had I known this was coming, I would've changed the setting.)

[waldojim]

The hard drive is fine. Don't worry about it.

Gigabyte makes a solid motherboard, and while the chipset listed is a bit older, it is still quite capable. Newer boards from Asus, Gigabyte, or EVGA are certainly recommended though.

Lastly, I would check into the 560SE, it is about the same price as the 550Ti, and more powerful.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 06 September 2012 - 07:56 PM

[LiveBrianD]

I didn't see anything wrong the the hard drive, but the F3 is known to be rather fast, and it's only $5 more.

Personally, I've found my gigabyte board (similar price range) to be OK, but it's had a few minor bugs - occasionally it revs the fan up for no reason, and it wouldn't stay shut down until I disabled wake on LAN. Those are minor things, and I can live with them, but I have been mentioning ASUS boards in builds for that reason.

Btw, I meant 560SE, not 550SE (typo).

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 06 September 2012 - 08:01 PM, said:

I didn't see anything wrong the the hard drive, but the F3 is known to be rather fast, and it's only $5 more.

Personally, I've found my gigabyte board (similar price range) to be OK, but it's had a few minor bugs - occasionally it revs the fan up for no reason, and it wouldn't stay shut down until I disabled wake on LAN. Those are minor things, and I can live with them, but I have been mentioning ASUS boards in builds for that reason.

Btw, I meant 560SE, not 550SE (typo).

You do realize that with the repair being disabling WoL, that means that something was sending it the message to wake up right? That is not Gigabytes fault.

[coastie65]

The Hdd is fine and cheaper than the F3. I have a Seagate Barracuda in my Gateway and it had served me well. AsRock is a good board if you want to save a little. It was intially, spun off of ASUS to provide Boards to the mass marketers. They are now building to the Entusiast market. The one I suggested is well built and has heat sinks where I want to see them and everything. The one he selected was good, I just threw one out there with a lter chipset for him to look at and tried to keep it somewhere within the price range of where the other one was.

[coastie65]

Jonatan, on 06 September 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

Ty now for the video card will I be fine with one or should I go for 2 and for that board you recommended no pci 2.0??

Hi Jonatan, PCI 2.0 is fine. I meant to bring up the 560SE card and as wj knoiws, I tend to forget it. As he said, it is a more powerful card and generally cheaper than the 550Ti. The otherboard in here is a Z68 and is fine, but if you can get the later chipset ( Z77) than fine.

[Jonatan]

Thanks for the input this is what I have changed tell me what you guys think

board

gpu

ram

psu

case

hdd

bd-burner

CPU-cooler

This post has been edited by Jonatan: 07 September 2012 - 06:07 AM

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 07 September 2012 - 12:22 AM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 06 September 2012 - 08:01 PM, said:

I didn't see anything wrong the the hard drive, but the F3 is known to be rather fast, and it's only $5 more.

Personally, I've found my gigabyte board (similar price range) to be OK, but it's had a few minor bugs - occasionally it revs the fan up for no reason, and it wouldn't stay shut down until I disabled wake on LAN. Those are minor things, and I can live with them, but I have been mentioning ASUS boards in builds for that reason.

Btw, I meant 560SE, not 550SE (typo).

You do realize that with the repair being disabling WoL, that means that something was sending it the message to wake up right? That is not Gigabytes fault.

I've never had that issue on any other machines with it enabled on my network.

Anyway, I've read of others having the fan issue as well (it revs it to the max of 2500RPM, but under full load never has to go past 1500RPM. That's not a major issue, but since they never fixed it with bios updates, it's costing them with me recommending different brands to people.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 07 September 2012 - 06:07 AM

[LiveBrianD]

The motherboard looks good, and keep in mind that it comes with 8GB gskill 1600MHz ram (only 9-9-9-24 though). It's up to you to decode if it's worth spending the extra $45-55 to get better ram on top of that.

As for the GPU, you might want to look into EVGA cards - they're pretty reliable, and not much more.

The PSU looks good.

[Jonatan]

How to decode memory? and could I use all 4 sticks

[coastie65]

Jonatan, on 07 September 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

How to decode memory? and could I use all 4 sticks

Hi Jonatan, I think he meant decide. What I suggested is 8 Gb and plenty, but you could get another matched set for 16 Gb, but it isn't really necessary.

UPDATE: Briam just pointed out that the Motherboard comes with 8 Gb of memory ( limited time ). What I sugested is better, but it is your call. One thing though, do not install both for 16 gb of ram as it won't work, because of the differences between the two sets.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 07 September 2012 - 05:59 PM

[LiveBrianD]

Remember - there's no point in getting another set of ram to go with the included set, since you'll be stuck at 9-9-9-24 anyway, and 8GB is plenty for 99% of people. Personally, I would just go with what's included, as it's good enough, and you can use the $45-55 elsewhere.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 07 September 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Remember - there's no point in getting another set of ram to go with the included set, since you'll be stuck at 9-9-9-24 anyway, and 8GB is plenty for 99% of people. Personally, I would just go with what's included, as it's good enough, and you can use the $45-55 elsewhere.

He went with the suggested changes and he'll be fine. I suggested going to 8 Gb ( 2x4GB ) of GSkill RipJaws SeriesX which are Latency 8 with timings of 8,8,8,24 @ 1.5v He'll be fine with the list he has now.

[LiveBrianD]

Yeah, but what I'm saying is that the motherboard INCLUDES 8GB of 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 gskill RAM for free at the moment. See on the listing, "Free 8GB desktop memory w/ purchase, limited offer".

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 07 September 2012 - 04:30 PM

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 07 September 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

Yeah, but what I'm saying is that the motherboard INCLUDES 8GB of 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 gskill RAM for free at the moment. See on the listing, "Free 8GB desktop memory w/ purchase, limited offer".

Yep. Missed that. Course when I did mine, I missed the Samsung Optical drive with I got the 2600k processor and it was aggravating to keep seeing two optical drives on my list. One with the a price ( the one I selected ) and one without a price ). I'm goin to add a note to my last post to him.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 07 September 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Jonatan, on 07 September 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

How to decode memory? and could I use all 4 sticks

Hi Jonatan, I think he meant decide. What I suggested is 8 Gb and plenty, but you could get another matched set for 16 Gb, but it isn't really necessary.

UPDATE: Briam just pointed out that the Motherboard comes with 8 Gb of memory ( limited time ). What I sugested is better, but it is your call. One thing though, do not install both for 16 gb of ram as it won't work, because of the differences between the two sets.

Yeah, that was a typo. (Darn onscreen phone keyboard...)

I suspect that you'll be able to use both sets at once, but they'll run at the specs of the worse one by default. For 99% of people though, 8GB is plenty, so there's no point in doing that. personally, I would go with the included ram and use the extra money elsewhere, but it's up to the OP.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 07 September 2012 - 07:16 PM, said:

coastie65, on 07 September 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Jonatan, on 07 September 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

How to decode memory? and could I use all 4 sticks

Hi Jonatan, I think he meant decide. What I suggested is 8 Gb and plenty, but you could get another matched set for 16 Gb, but it isn't really necessary.

UPDATE: Briam just pointed out that the Motherboard comes with 8 Gb of memory ( limited time ). What I sugested is better, but it is your call. One thing though, do not install both for 16 gb of ram as it won't work, because of the differences between the two sets.

Yeah, that was a typo. (Darn onscreen phone keyboard...)

I suspect that you'll be able to use both sets at once, but they'll run at the specs of the worse one by default. For 99% of people though, 8GB is plenty, so there's no point in doing that. personally, I would go with the included ram and use the extra money elsewhere, but it's up to the OP.

Don't get me started on the onscreen typing on a smart phone.