Building a gaming PC

[Flare]

I'm currently looking into building a gaming PC (and I'm not very good with these things, so please bear with me ) - at present, exact budget isn't known, but I'm aiming for somewhere in the €1000 - €1200 region, but I'm at a loss as to what exactly I need

Currently, the parts I'm looking at right now are

Black Xaser VI (Red accent): £127.52 from www.dabs.co.uk
ASUS ATI Radeon 5850 HD 1GB: £201.25 from www.dabs.co.uk
Asus S1366 Intel X58 ATX A L: £134.00 from www.dabs.co.uk
Intel Nehalem i7 920 S1366 2.66GHz: £213.76 from www.dabs.co.uk
Corsair Memory 850W Corsair Modular PSU: £126.27 from www.dabs.co.uk
Western Digital 640GB Caviar 7200RPM 16MB SATA 3.5: £45.16 from www.dabs.co.uk
Crucial 4GBKIT (2GBx2) 240PIN DDR3 PC3-8500 NON ECC: £60.38 from www.dabs.co.uk

Sum total: ~€1006 (excl. the cents part of the prices, for the sake of simplifying the math )

So, what I need to know is:

• Are any of these parts incompatible with each other, at a glance? Is there some way that I can check? One in particular that I'd like to know is if the screwholes on the case will align with any motherboard (you have to screw the motherboard onto the case, right?)
• Are there any parts there which would be in need of an upgrade? I'm not looking for something mind-blowing, but I really don't want to spend money on something which may hold everything back for one reason or another
• Are there any other vital parts that I need to add to my list?

Also, I must find out some information on cooling - will I need to buy cooling fans separately, or are they part-and-parcel of the GFX card, CPU and case?

 

[Samael88]

The motherboard support both the ram, and the graphics card and the processor have the same socket. The UPS does also seem to be good.
Things to keep in mind though:
That graphics card seem to require two extra power cables connected to it and a minimum UPS of 500watts minimum is recommended.

So as far as that goes you seem to be good I can't help you on the rest though.

Edit: btw, that Graphics card makes me drewl DDR5 RAM on it

 

[Ghan]

I would not get that RAM. I don't know if it will work, though I suspect it would. The problem here is that it is not triple-channel. X58 and the i7 9xx series support triple channel memory. So what I would do (and what I did, actually) is get a 6GB kit (2GBx3) so that you have triple channel.

 

[Tru_Power22]

Yeah, like Ghan said, the triple channel memory is a good idea. Not to mention it's not that much more expensive.

 

[AnthraxXx]

Everything looks good, but personally I would go Core i5 750 BUT seeing as how your budget allows for i7, you can't go wrong with the 920. As said above, get Triple Channel memory, there are benchmarks that show triple channel is better for core i7 systems which show significant improvements in gaming. Also get PC3-10600 rated RAM, it is faster than 8500 and doesn't cost much more. RAM brand isn't really important but stick to the well-known ones.

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15967 (Skip to the gaming page in the article)

Yes your motherboard will screw into the case, as long as it is ATX and your case supports ATX-sized motherboards.

Good choice of PSU, a single rail is much better than dual or quad rails.

Don't forget the OS if you haven't got one already.

Other than that, looks good.

 

[Flare]

Just looking around, but Dabs doesn't seem to give a whole pile of information with regard to that PC3-#### thing (e.g. this, which is the only 6GB memory kit available that is DDR3 and Non-ECC, as the compatibility checker here says that the motherboard is Non-ECC only). So, with that in mind, would the memory I linked be ideal (or, at least, worth the money), or would I be best off finding another retailer for the memory?

Don't forget the OS if you haven't got one already.

Ah, completely forgot about that, thanks for the reminder

EDIT: Ah, the Corsair site is quite informative - found that the memory I linked ic PC3-12800

 

[Icyculyr]

Do you have a screen or are you going to buy one?

 

[Flare]

Do you have a screen or are you going to buy one?

I already have a monitor I just hope I don't find the sudden need for anything more than 19"

 

[SD_Ryoko]

I see a lot of people picking up quad cores with lower speeds for gaming systems.

Almost no games on the market utilize a quad core. -some- utilize duo core processors.

You could get a higher single, duo speed processer and have better gaming performance. IE, 3.x ghz duo cores rather than a 2.6 quad.

Just my 2 cents. Research the games your playing / intend to play to see if they will utilize it or not.

 

[AnthraxXx]

i5 and i7 obliterate the top end c2d's.... namely e8400, 8500...
The days of C2D are nearing its end.

ALL benchmarks of E8500 vs i5's are topped by 10-30 FPS, regardless if all four cores are utilised or not.

 

[SerraAvenger]

i5 and i7 obliterate the top end c2d's.... namely e8400, 8500...
The days of C2D are nearing its end.

ALL benchmarks of E8500 vs i5's are topped by 10-30 FPS, regardless if all four cores are utilised or not.

Benchmarks are fake.
Nevertheless, I'm an avid Intel hater for one reason or another.
When AMD dies... I can't even think about it

I like to have three HDDs with RAID 5.

A faster RAM might be nice too (as AnthraxXx pointed out...)