My New Gaming Rig

[mkueffler]

any thaughts on this system I designed before I buy would be appriciated!

MOBO;
MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU;
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

MEM;
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH

GPU;
XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
Newegg.com - XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

PSU;
Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,ATX12V v2.3/ EPS12V,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply
Average Rating
Newegg.com - Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W Continuous@40°C, 80Plus Bronze Certified,Modular Cable Design,ATX12V v2.3/ EPS12V,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

COOLING;
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

HDD;
(two) Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[flanzig1]

Mobo: Asus
Ram: Corsair/Crucial/A-data/Kingston
GPU: Asus/Diamond/Sapphire
PSU: Corsair/Antec/PC Power & Cooling
MSI,G-skill, and XFX all have had issues with their products
Rosewill PSUs quailty is spotty between models-best to pick a brand that has consistent quailty with all models.

[glc]

Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: good.

Ram: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B

GPU: Newegg.com - ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

HDD: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[mkueffler]

thanks so much for the info!

[mkueffler]

any thaughts on a good cool looking case for this build?

[glc]

Cases are a personal thing. What might look cool to me might look like crap to you, and vice versa.

By the way, if you aren't going to be ordering parts THIS WEEK, stop back and get last-minute revisions before you do. Specifically, I'd probably wait for the Sabertooth board to come back in stock.

Curious - why do you want 2 hard drives, both 2tb?

[mkueffler]

I wanted two hard drives so I can do raid, set up so the second acts like backup. but im open to suggestions by all means. do you have a link to the sabertooth board your talking about?

[glc]

Raid is not worth it. Get one of those WD 2gb Black drives, then get one of these:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

and put it in one of these:

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX-358-S BLK (Black) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan

Sabertooth:

Newegg.com - ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

[David M]

Your most reliable backup drive is going to be an external drive. RAID arrays have a higher chance of failure than an external backup drive. Plus you have a time buffer in case your onboard drive becomes corrupt or gets malware. RAID 1 (mirroring) writes to both drives pretty much simultaneously which means you would have no chance to stop the problem before it gets written to your second RAID drive.

Additional backup options are to make a clone when your C drive is healthy and has no malware or to pay for an interned based backup service like Carbonite.

[mkueffler]

is there an user friendly software to mirror or back up a healthy drive from time to time. what is the best thing to do in case an OS goes bad, so one can get back to the way it was?

[glc]

Free download from Western Digital - Acronis True Image WD Edition. Works only with WD drives. I recommend you use it to make a compressed image rather than a clone. You can store multiple images on the backup drive, and you can do a "bare metal" restore with a bootdisk or extract files from the images within Windows.

[mkueffler]

thank you all for the info tonight, very much apprictiated.

[David M]

I bought an Acronis boot disk and keep a clone handy which can put me back in business in a few minutes if my C: drive ever crashes, becomes corrupt or malware infested. The drawback is that I would have to make it current from files stored on my external drive. I like that with a clone I will never have to start from scratch.

[Staren]

The question you have to ask yourself when looking at backup options is, is the possability of my backup suffering the same problem as my primary or having to have multiple backups worth the time savings? Personally I only backup data. With an ISO of Windows set up the way I like it, reinstalling the OS doesn't take that long. You can clone as you go, but I think there are easier and safer ways.

[mkueffler]

What I dont like is haveing to reinstall all the software. If it was just the OS I wouldnt mind so much as I do back up my data often. I have an ftp site that I back up my data to as well as an external hard drive. But it would be nice to have some some kind of software that would recognize what data has changed and just send that data to the backup. That way I wouldnt have to try and remember what all to update. Kind of like a software program that would sync the drives without changing anything on the internal drive, if that makes any sense!

[glc]

If you want to pay for software, the full version of Acronis True Image will also do differential and incremental images. For a free solution, Syncback may do what you need, using that in addition to imaging software. You just do not want to have a real-time mirror such as what RAID 1 does.

[Blue Flux Blazer]

Originally Posted by glc PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

GLC, wouldn't you want to recommend this Corsair 650W PSU instead? Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Are the newer versions of this 650 made by Seasonic like the older versions are? Ever since you tipped us off about the new 430W vs. the old 400W PSU's, I've been leery of any new Corsair's with the newer style lettering/new versions.

[glc]

The new V2 TX's are Seasonic units. Either one is fine, depending on availability and price.

[Blue Flux Blazer]

Good to know they are Seasonic. Thanks, glc!

[mkueffler]

will this Newegg.com - XFX HD-697A-CNDC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinityfit in a ASUS p8p67 mb

[glc]

Yes, but we don't recommend XFX. For ATI cards, we recommend Asus, Diamond, or HIS.

[mkueffler]

oh, how come? not good quality!

[glc]

Video Card Rating