KEY COMPONENTS
Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge:
- Motherboards.org - $-for-$ best CPU, Editor's Choice, CPU of the Year 2012.
Intel's Performance Sandy Bridge Processor released in early 2011. It's clocked at 3.3 GHz. But the "K" unlocks the tweaking of the voltages and the clock multipliers, allowing for some pretty darn serious overclocking. This CPU is also meant to be power saving and efficient due to the Speedstep Technology as well as balancing performance. When idling, the CPU automatically tunes itself down to 1.6 GHz (even when overclocked) to cut power use and auto-SpeedStep will boost power for more intensive loads. And it runs cooler and relatively cheaper than most systems. The i5-2500k is reviewed to be of the best balance of both cost and performance, hailing itself as dollar for dollar, best quad-core CPU around. The Core i7-2600K version is slightly more expensive and not much diff to the Core i5. I tweaked it and its core voltage to keep the CPU running at 4.5 GHz to get more juice out of it and it has the juice to come really admirably close in performance with the Gulftown Core i7 980X 6-Core CPU at a quarter of the cost. You can always go for the SandyBridge-E. But I wouldn't bother for the cost because though it's about 20% more powerful, it's like 250% to 350% more expensive and you have to buy a X79 Motherboard to go with it. And it ain't cheap. Though, Ivy Bridge is somewhere in between, it still won't be out for at least till April 2012. The Ivy Bridge however is one of the "Bridge" series to look out for as it is to bridge the gap between the Sandy Bridge and the Sandy Bridge Extreme.
On the side note, I might plan to switch out the i5 2500k for the i7 3770K when it comes out, seeing that it is also of the LGA 1155 chipset.
ASUS P8P67 PRO - B3 REV 3.0
-Motherboards.org - Hot Product
The Motherboard meant for the LGA 1155 Chipset, optimized for mainstream and high performance computers. The motherboard supports both Dual and Quad Channel DDR3 Memory. It is also capable for 2-way and Quad SLI / Crossfire, allowing 2 video cards to be slotted in for some really beefed up performance for gaming. The on-board bios when paired with an unlocked CPU allows for many tweaks for overclocking. The Motherboard also comes with both USB 2.0 and a whopping 4 USB 3.0 ports, to allow for some added flexibility. And also comes with 2 slots for Power Supplies. The Motherboard Dual and 4 Channel RAM all the way up to 32GB of 2200 MHz RAM. It is also rumored that the P67 Motherboards will also be compatible with the upcoming Ivy Bridge Series.
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB PC12800 DDR3 Dual Channel RAM
I opted for a faster RAM base so I went a pick out the faster RAM from Corsair. 4GB is the bare minimum required and 8GB of RAM seems to be standard nowadays. Still have space for 2 more modules though so I can crank up to 16GB if needed. The Vengeance Variant is designed for overclockers. And nowadays, RAM is possibly the cheapest major computer component that you can get these days. 8GB modules can come in for within a SGD 100 price max even for a pretty decent brand like Corsair.
2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon 6970 Sapphire Dual Fan
Hi Tech Legion - Gold
Tweaktown - Editor's Choice
Hardware Canucks - Dam Good! Award, Dam Good Value! Award.
The replacement to my GTX 550 Ti. This was bought at around 420 SGD where the retail price is around 520-550 bucks. This is one of the newer Releases by Sapphire before the end of the year despite the release of the 7000 series.
The AMD 6970 is actually the Single GPU 6000 Flagship card before it was superceded by the 7970. It is known to use little power under idle and uses way less than nVidia Based boards. This card with its Dual 90mm fans, keep the card running cooler and quieter.
With this card, my Graphics for Gaming and my Windows Aero Graphics shot up to the maximum score right off the bat. It can definitely handle my current screen of 1650 by 1080 but this card can easily go up to 2560 by 1600. I've tested StarCraft II, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Modern Warfare 3, BattleField 3 and Crysis 2 with settings at Full Whack.
I plan to do a review video of the card whilst playing some of the games below:
Dota 2 (a full review on it will also be done seperately), Crysis 2, StarCraft 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, DoTA 2, Path Of Exile. These are my newest games whereby all of them push your graphics card to the maximum. Also Putting a second Graphics Card will allow me to have as much power as a HD 6990 or the GTX 590 and allows me to tweak the bells and whistles of every game I play.
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM SATA II Hard Drive
1TB modules come standard on these babies. I partitioned mine to 2 sections, 150GB for Drive 1, the rest for Drive 2. 1TB is considered plenty of space. But because I still have lots of old data from my old computer when it died, my dad decided to plug in a half-full 250 GB Hard drive as secondary. So now I have 1.25 TB of space, if I don't count my 500 GB and 80 GB External drives and 500 GB from my laptop. And I bought that at the right time before those freaking floods in Thailand had hard drive prices boot right up their jackseat.... not very nice.
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Windows 32 Bit whether it is Vista, XP or 7 cannot support more than 4 Gigs of RAM. So installing a 64 bit windows would probably make more sense. Don't need to go beyond Home Premium like Professional or Ultimate, because I don't how the heck the additional functions work. So 7 Home Premium should be enough for everything if you do nothing else but gaming.
Razer Imperator 2012, Battlefield 3 Edition Mouse
A surprise gift that I received this Christmas. The 2012 Razer Imperator is the newer model for gamers in mind. Unlike my old mouse, this one can be programmed for many macro shortcut keys to get more things done. And also, if Sensitivity is an issue, There are 2 buttons below the Backlit Mouse Wheel to crank up or reduce sensitivity to your liking. The software can also program the levels of sensitivity increase or decrease to suit you as well.
ThermalTake SpaceCraft VF-1 Case with Enermax 600W Power
I had to make some room for the chassis so I have to shift my Subwoofer out of the gap at the bottom of the desk to stuff the Case in because it's bigger than my Pentium 4. Also included is an Enermax 600W power which is more than enough for a high end graphics card. I seen GTX 580 cranked in a 500W power, so I think it should be enough. But would definitely need more power if I were to go SLI / CrossFire.
Other small parts
DVD Multi Burner Drive - Gotta need a drive to install box games ya.
Monitor LG225 - 22.5' Monitor for 1680 by 1050 resolution. Lasted me a while.
ViewSonic Speakers 2.1 Ch plus Subwoofer - lasted me since my Pentium 4 HT. Still working but it's starting to fail.
Normal Logitech Keyboard / Mouse - Still on the PS/2 Interface which the P8P67 still has. Lasted since the Pentium 4 HT.
All of which on the Chassis with the exception of the Mouse, Monitor, Keyboard, Printer, Scanner and those small stuff as well as the OS, come up to around 1400 SGD.
