Attempting To Build My First PC Gaming Rig, Wish Me Luck

GamerFitNation's Gregory Laporte is attempting to build his first PC, wish him luck. "When I was wee lad, I grew up gaming on the Atari, Nintendo, Snes etc. I never could grasp the idea of playing games on the PC even though I have heard of great games like counter strike and certain MMO’s among others. I’ve recently gotten into PC gaming when I downloaded steam and snagged Portal and Team Fortress 2. Now I’m a pretty rational and open minded individual as you can see from some of my other articles, so attempting to build my first PC is no easy task. This I know and some of you may tell me to refrain from doing so or you may even encourage me to do so."

[fluffydelusions]

I purchased a $580 laptop and can run the following:

Battlefield 3 - medium/high
Skyrim - high
Starcraft 2 - Ultra
L4D2 - High/Very high
Team fortress 2 - High
Portal 2 - High

I guess what I'm saying it doesn't cost thousands like everyone seems to think.

[e-p-ayeaH]

You basicly said the only good games PC as to offer these last 2 years.

[bobrea]

Yea, I mean, who cares about superior multiplatform games and crazy Steam sales all the time? Not to mention the new CS game coming out, HL3, and a pretty intense modding community. Oh, and the fact that a PC serves as WAY more than just a gaming console. But go ahead and keep that shit attitude you have about PC, it's nice entertainment.

[KillerPwned]

@e-p-ayeaH
You need to get steam....

O and by the way The Witcher 2 came out this year and that has to be one of the best RPG's I have played in all my years gaming. Highly recommend that to every single person with a PC able to run that game. It is gorgeous beyond anything you can imagine and the combat is superb!!!!

[Kamikaze135]

Looks like you don't know what you're talking about, lol.

[Letros]

mad

[caboose32]

Says a guy who doesnt game on a PC.

How did you come to this conclusion, by looking at pictures?

[e-p-ayeaH]

@bobrea
"Not to mention the new CS game coming out, HL3, and a pretty intense modding community. Oh, and the fact that a PC serves as WAY more than just a gaming console"

bla bla bla doesnt change the fact that consoles have more quality in quantity when it comes to games.

[xtremexx]

just stay the f**k away from carpets

[VanguardOfCalamity]

I'd get the intel i7-2600k for $280.00 instead of the Intel i5-2500k for $225.00

[GamerSciz]

^This...

I recently built a rig with the i7-2600K on liquid cooling and have it from 3.4ghz OC to 4.2ghz easily stable. For $55 more it is totally worth the extra.

[iamgoatman]

Only 4.2Ghz with liquid cooling? I can run stable with my 2500K at 4.8Ghz on air! Come on man, crank that thing up some more!

Also unless you use software that makes use hyperthreading, getting a 2600K over a 2500K is pointless as HT has little to no effect on gaming performance, and in some cases can cause problems.

[Kamikaze135]

While it's nice, it's overkill for the games out now. By the time a game comes out that makes use of it comes out, you could get it for cheaper.

[LightofDarkness]

No point, the 2500k overclocks beautifully and the 2600k's extra advantages are not actually noticeable in almost any high end gaming, you're practically always GPU limited.

Take the money saved on a 2500k and buy a decent air cooler like a Hyper 212, then you can push the clocks up to 4.8 and beyond, easily out-performing a 2600k.

Oh yeah, and you don't really need luck when building a PC, it's like Lego that may require a screwdriver once or twice. In fact, it's much less complicated to put together than most Lego would be.

[STONEY4]

The i7 2600k is barely more useful for games. Benchmarks show like a 2 fps difference at most. It's strength lies in being much better for work, encoding and multitasking purposes due to having hyperthreading.

If you only play games, save the $50, get the i5 2500k, and put it towards the graphics card since that's the most important component for gaming performance.

[Series_IIa]

Don't bother with the stock Intel fan... Noisy and barely keeps decent temps even with no overclock.

The Noctua NH-D14 is your friend... if it will fit.

That beast keeps a 4.7ghz i7 2600k pretty much below 64c at max and around 25c at idle

[iamgoatman]

I had to laugh when I saw the size of the Intel fan that comes with the SB processors, it's tiny.

But like you said, get an after-market cooler, for a SB rig a nice air cooler will easily handle a big overclock. Doesn't have to be an expensive Noctua fan either, I'm using a Zalman CNPS Performa on a 4.8Ghz OC, cost around £30 I think, idles at 25c and never seen it go above 60c even when maxed.

[InTheLab]

I built my rig last summer and I have to say it was a very rewarding experience. I'm not new to PC gaming but building my own was something else....plus I impress all of my friends that think you need a degree in rocket science :)

The one thing I can't seem to get right feels like the most simple task of the pc building process, but I failed horrible. I have cables blown out all over the place and can't seem to tie them down anywhere that makes sense. It doesn't really help that the psu I have has a ton of extra wires that connect to nothing.

[roguewarrior]

Should of gone with a modular PSU, really helps with cable management.

[InTheLab]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

It's not too late though. I'm thinking about adding another gfx card and I'll probably need more power anyway.

At least I can do it with confidence now that I know what to do. Gotta make a few mistakes to get it right.

Another side affect of building my own pc is how all I can think about is doing it again. The hard part is keeping myself from buying a few $500 gfx cards, an i7 cpu, a larger ssd, and an unnecessary amount of ram...just because I can.

Oh...and a modular psu ;)

[roguewarrior]

Did my first build 6 months ago, want to build another one. But its kind of an expensive hobby.

[Azurite]

Don't need Corsair 850 for that setup, even 750 would be higher than necessary.
For such a modest setup I'd go for at most 650.
80 Plus Gold PSUs are a good choice, Corsair got those too, not much of a price difference from the Silver ones.

If you'll go for crossfire or SLI in the future you may want a higher wattage though.