First Time Gaming Build Good Enough?

[Yoleven]

I want to invest a high end (not too high) Gaming PC because I'm bored of consoles. The main reason is to play battlefield 3 and crysis on ultra settings. I've never owned or built a PC before and I'm probably what you would consider a "PC noOb" After much researching I finally came up with the following design specs;


CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz

GPU: ATI RADEON HD 6970 2GB

RAM: 8GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600MHz/PC12800

Motherboard: ASUS P8P67

PSU: Corsair 650W TX V2

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive 7200rpm 32MB Cache

Price: £1000 (approx)


For anyone with experience PC gaming what are your thoughts on these specs?

The CPU has overclocking potential to a moderate degree so I chose a 650w over a 550w PSU, and taking into account the Radeon 6970 (pretty powerful) is this power supply sufficient?

How upgradable is it? (futureproof)

Are all these components fully compatible with one another?

I would like to hear your opinions and suggestions

[Sourtop]

Get the low-profile corsair vengeance memory if you're planning on overclocking so you can avoid clearance issues with those tall heat spreaders.

For an ATI card go with ASUS, Sapphire, or HIS.

Swap the motherboard for an Asus Z68 board like:

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

As for the HDD you're better off with a WD Caviar Black, but they're $60 more than the Seagate drive you picked. Maybe someone else could suggest something to do here.

That's an excellent PSU and will do you fine. If you're planning on overclocking I'd suggest getting an after-market cooler like the Coolermaster Hyper 212+.

All the components are fully compatible and that GEN3 board I linked will let you upgrade to the Ivy Bridge CPUs in the future if you want to.

With that set-up you should easily be able to max out every game you want.

[jdeb]

Change the ram to Corsair Vengeance 1.5V memory and get it in low profile if you plan on adding an after-market CPU cooler.

I would change the hard drive to a Hitachi or Western Digital.

You have a little better upgrade path by going with an Asus Z68 chipset. You will be able to add a 40 to 64 gb SSD for SRT or hard drive caching.

The power supply will work but you are not giving yourself very much head room. I would change it to the TX750V2 but that is up to you.

If you plan on advanced overclocking, you may want to consider an after-market CPU cooler. The Cooler Master Hyper212 Plus or Hyper212 EVO work real well.