Toribash
Original Post
Complete Computer Setup, Want feedback! $2500
So I'm going to be actually building my computer part by part and will be ordering AROUND the same parts but cheaper prices since the ones listed will be from futureshop which is a big retail buisness. I'll be asking a computer shop down here to order the parts for me.

Please tell me if you think this will be a good build, or what you think of it, including feedback on the accessories because in my opinion they are one of the most important parts...

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...53da5d6f64en02
Crucial 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 Desktop Memory x 2 (for 8 gb, 4 seperate ram sticks, most likely going to be ordering a different set.)

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...58c9b9e90cen02
Zotac GeForce GTX680 2GB DDR5 PCI-E Video Card x 1 (when ordered probably going for evga brand)

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...64973a4b3cen02
Intel Core i7 Processor (2600K) x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...84fc5989aeen02
Intel Socket LGA 1155 Motherboard (BOXDP67BA) x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...a3b0f24cbcen02
Antec One Hundred Ice Gaming Computer Case x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...d1dd8d46bfen02
orsair 600W PC Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXV2) x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...2b19c1696aen02
Windows 7 Home Premium x 1 (going to be using 64 bit)

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...053da3f80een02
Western Digital 1TB Internal Hard Drive (WD10EARX) x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...4a956da25fen02
Crucial m4 256GB SATA Solid State Drive x 1

And I'm planning on getting THESE to connect to my 32' inch Sony Bravia ...

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...e47c0c41d1en02
Rocketfish DVI to HDMI Adaptor x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...3ae104ab13en02
StarTech 6 ft. DVI-I to DVI-D + VGA Y-Cable (DVIVGAYMM6) x 1

That SHOULD be enough to connect to my HDTV..

And these for the accessories..

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...9f6eba3a84en02
Razer Naga Laser MMO Gaming Mouse x 1

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...6ee88c1d39en02
Razer Mamba Elite Wireless Gaming Mouse x 1

Thinking of buying both mice, the mamba is better overall I think but I'll be playing a lot of Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft and Diablo 3..

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...d0614cd158en02
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Gaming Keyboard x 1 (dat mechanical)

For headsets...

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...8b9df3824cen02
SennheiserPC350 Gaming Headset x 1

OR

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...143f180deben02
Sennheiser Gaming Stereo Headset x 1


That is MORE OR LESS what I'm going to be looking for. At Futureshop.ca it totals in at around $2600, tax included, but the price will go down to about $2000 when I order everything off newegg.ca from a shop.

Comments and suggestions, please?

Also, is everything compatible? I'm not completely illiterate when it comes to computers and I THINK everything will work okay.
A few major points stick out in your otherwise great build;
Firstly you opted for a 256gb SSD - what exactly will you store on that? Do you regularly use 256gb of data? Ignoring 40gb for HDD, what do you use the other 200gb for? At the moment I would recommend cutting that down to 64gb. Remember that after loading a game it will be in RAM so it will run fast no matter where it is. You would be better off doubling your RAM - you will see a faster overall speed and you can cache to RAM and use tools like RAMDisk to further increase your speed (even if an SSD typically runs at 100-500mb/s, RAM runs at 5000-10000mb/s easily).
Second your reliance on Razer is interesting. My Mamba broke within a few months. Be aware that of the current gaming brands Razer has the worst build quality, and most will break fairly fast. Naga is a very interesting mouse, often your right hand is wasted only controlling 3-5 buttons, but I would be sceptical about the build quality. Good job opting for the wired model though, Razer wireless is notorious. As for keyboard, you opt for a first generation Razer mechanical when other companies have been building them for decades? Seems a bit strange. You should check out Ducky for some high quality SEA boards, or for more rounded check out Filco (though they sell cherry blacks and browns and reds too) or perhaps DAS or PFU for something more rounded (DAS are renown for their typist boards, where as PFU use Torpe capacitive - generally considered the best switches in the world). Judging from your case it seems like you just chose whatever had the most glowing lights, but you should really put some consideration in to the quality of what you are buying!
Just going to reply to parts separately in your post, in no way am I not appreciative of your advice.

The 256gb SSD is because I'm a gamer at heart and being able to store my main games on an SSD will triple, or much above that, the loading times of any games. Not affecting game performance but the loading and buffering times.

At 4gb of ram you can't notice any difference in ram because most games don't even allow more then 4 to be used.

I've used razer products before and they have seemed to last and good durability, i would never opt for a wireless mouse. While other companies have been making mechanical keyboards for decades the razer has what I need as far as gaming features and looks nice as far as aesthetically pleasing goes. While I'm not looking for flashy lights I want my products, if i'm paying upwards of $100, to look nice as well.

The case is one of the most easily accessible for around here to get and is only $75, has all the space I need for future upgrades and current upgrades, no?
Current gen of games can use 4gb of RAM, but your OS and other programs will use some too. And besides that there is going to be another gen of games coming soon enough! And ignoring that, use a RAMDisk application to make superfast harddrives, sure 3 or 4 times faster is nice, but 100 times faster is better! (Not exaggeration, as I said the fastest SSDs will run at 100-500mb/s where as RAM runs at 5000-10000mb/s)

With a 256gb SSD you can fit quite a few games on there, but compare the price to a 64gb or such. With a 64gb you can easily fit a handful of games on there - with over 400 games on Steam I did a quick check, and the average size of a game is just over 10gb, so unless you play 20+ games regularly I wouldn't say it is justified for the cost. Also consider how many games you actually play regularly and would benefit from a speed boost. Games that require constant loading (think of big RPGs and MMOs where they need to load many different parts of the game at different times), as compared to a game where all loading is done at the start and quite rarely afterwards (especially RTS, FPS etc, where you load on startup and then when you join a new map - most of the load time in such games is communication with servers not HDD).

Well if you judge ascetics on the amount of glowy lights then I guess Razer is the one for you :P But just know their quality won't compare to others :3

Actually Ducky has some glowy boards and they are high quality, so maybe check them out. They look a lot more slick then Razer, less chunky.
Originally Posted by kumi View Post
Current gen of games can use 4gb of RAM, but your OS and other programs will use some too. And besides that there is going to be another gen of games coming soon enough! And ignoring that, use a RAMDisk application to make superfast harddrives, sure 3 or 4 times faster is nice, but 100 times faster is better! (Not exaggeration, as I said the fastest SSDs will run at 100-500mb/s where as RAM runs at 5000-10000mb/s)

With a 256gb SSD you can fit quite a few games on there, but compare the price to a 64gb or such. With a 64gb you can easily fit a handful of games on there - with over 400 games on Steam I did a quick check, and the average size of a game is just over 10gb, so unless you play 20+ games regularly I wouldn't say it is justified for the cost. Also consider how many games you actually play regularly and would benefit from a speed boost. Games that require constant loading (think of big RPGs and MMOs where they need to load many different parts of the game at different times), as compared to a game where all loading is done at the start and quite rarely afterwards (especially RTS, FPS etc, where you load on startup and then when you join a new map - most of the load time in such games is communication with servers not HDD).

Well if you judge ascetics on the amount of glowy lights then I guess Razer is the one for you :P But just know their quality won't compare to others :3

Actually Ducky has some glowy boards and they are high quality, so maybe check them out. They look a lot more slick then Razer, less chunky.


SSD>Ramdisk, for one size matters, when you're talking about limited space on an SSD. as it is a ramdisk will at most utilize 75% of your available memory(not smart honestly) even if it is faster. a WD caviar black is decent enough for gaming, the SSD lume chose would be a lot better than that. sure if you have $300 to spend on ram to be able to effectively have enough room to store a game like battlefield 3 on a ramdisk you might want to think about it but for price to space an SSD is WAY more effective than ramdisk. (seriously not sure if you thought about the cost)

aside from that, i personally own and have installed on my computer over 30 games that i do play occasionally, more than enough times to not want to reinstall them when i play them. it's just more convenient to have them installed for when you do want to play them.

as for the keyboard issue (lol considering it seems you didn't read what lume said previously) "While I'm not looking for flashy lights I want my products, if i'm paying upwards of $100, to look nice as well. " show's he clearly doesn't judge aesthetics by flashy lights.



MY only change would be instead of the i7 2600k swap it out for an i5 2500k or 2550k because for gaming you wont notice much if anything between an i7 2600 and an i5 2500.

just one more thing i think is funny "(even if an SSD typically runs at 100-500mb/s, RAM runs at 5000-10000mb/s easily)." later you say " use a RAMDisk application to make superfast harddrives, sure 3 or 4 times faster is nice, but 100 times faster is better! (Not exaggeration, as I said the fastest SSDs will run at 100-500mb/s where as RAM runs at 5000-10000mb/s)" while theoretically a ramdisk CAN run as fast as your ram is able to run generally they aren't that efficient as you still have to calculate read/write times into the ram. ram doesn't "run" at 5000 to 10000mb/s that's generally it's read time. the write times for ram are generally worse. in my test of using a ramdisk the performance was around 2000mb/s utilizing hdtune to benchmark. while faster it's not worth the cost over an ssd. while useful for firefox or chrome or some small applications it's nowhere near practical to use when running games or ram extensive applications like photoshop.
Last edited by Organ; May 10, 2012 at 12:25 PM.
You don't say?
Thanks for the feedback, between the time I posted this and now I've been looking into what exactly I'm going to get and, funny enough, was actually looking at the 2500k or the ivy bridge model because, as you said, it won't be a noticeable difference in gaming.
plus the money you save by switching can go towards your videocard/ram/hdd budget which would be better choices at that moment for gaming and overall system performance.

the gtx 680 should come with an hdmi cable also though, or if you already have a vga cable the gtx 680 should as well come with a vga to dvi adapter. the sony bravia should have a vga port i will say this though.. out of the tv's i've used for pc gaming they've all had issues on hdmi through the videocard. some, like fable III run at 30 fps or lower on hdmi where as on vga i get much better performance. at least double what i was getting on hdmi. i don't know what the cause of that would be but in any case i would suggest going dvi/vga over hdmi for gaming.

the wd caviar green would be great for overall energy efficiency/storage but if you want to maintain good performance even on your storage drive i suggest the wd caviar black series.
Last edited by Organ; May 14, 2012 at 01:35 PM.
You don't say?