Building for the future :D

Alright taxes are gonna be back soon and I have managed to sell part of my soul to get a 1500 dollar budget from the wife to build a PC that will last me a few years and have fun pwning nan with relative ease.This will be my first build and I need some help.

What I have and might be able to use is:
640gig 7200rpm with vista preinstalled(dont know if i can reuse it)
the optical drive which is a DVD±RW / DVD-RAM

What I have found thru newegg and what people suggested from people who I play eve online with.

18.99 Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner, Bulk Package Black SATA Model AD-7280S-0B - OEM 18.99
139.99/10 mail in rebate Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel ATX MidTower
259.99/20 mail in rebate SAPPHIRE 100312-3L Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX
129.99/30 mail in rebate XFX PRO750W XXX Edition Semi-Modular 80Plus Silver 750 Watt Power Supply
5.98 Arctic Silver AA-1.75G Thermal Compound
49.99 CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile
159.99 GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
229.99 Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
189.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
34.99 COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
104.99 Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
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1324.88 pre tax total
27 shipping
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1460 Total +taxes/not including rebates

This is if i buy everything.My plan is to get bigger HDD,RAM,monitor and maybe crossfire or SLI later on.Im unsure about reusing windows and the optical drive.I also plan on overclocking to atleast 4ghz.Any help would be appreciated.

Vista will require re-activation if a significant number of hardware pieces are different, keep that in mind. Win7 has been cracked, so you can go that route. Make sure it's 64-bit, or it won't recognize over 4gb of RAM.

You might want to wait a few weeks, since the ATI 7xxx series is launching, and should push prices down on older models.

Hard drive prices are high right now due to flooding in Thailand, so expect to pay a per gb price almost 50% higher than a few months ago.

SLI is when you have multiple nVidia cards. Crossfire is for multiple ATI cards.

Overclocking is fun, as long as you're cautious. Gotta keep track of your settings and bench with every change. Cracking 4ghz on air shouldn't be a problem.

Overall a pretty good build.

If i go the cracked win 7 route will i have problems updating the system?

No. I've been running a cracked Win7 Ultimate on my laptop for 4 months now, no problems. Updates just fine.

I assume thats with automatic updates turned on? Also u got u a link that u know is clean for windows 7 ultimate ?

Yeah, auto updates work like normal. I'll find the link when I get home. I'll help you tweak the build with the extra money.

Use this torrent

http://www.torrenthound.com/hash/e57c939dc74b345035af5a57fc269247f6a0ca84/torrent-info/Windows-7-Ultimate-SP1-Activated-x86-x64-MultiBrand-MultiEdition-chitra-dmj-

Add these trackers to it:

Code:

http://www.h33t.com:3310/announce

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80/announce

http://tracker.torrentbay.to:6969/announce

http://php.hdcmct.com:2710/announce

http://193.107.16.156:2710/announce

http://tracker.anime-miako.to:6969/announce

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26052128

This is a updated build to reflect the fact that I have windows 7 now.Speaking of which how do i get ahold a product key that wont be blacklisted?

It shouldn't need a serial, it should install activated.

any tweaks u wanna share before i order the parts for the link i put?I cant go any higher then that in price but if u got ideas let me know

Well the motherboard is $149 on Newegg, so there's an extra $10.

Your tower has a $20 promo on Newegg right now, making it $119 plus a $15 mail-in rebate. Save you a little money.

HSF is $5 cheaper as well.

If you're not buying Win7, I would definitely put the extra money towards a 6970 and consider upgrading the power supply to a CORSAIR Professional Series HX750. You should also have enough to spring for the 128gb SSD.

Solid build even if you don't change anything.

I have the 128 gig ssd picked already.which HSF are u talkin about

Oh, your list says 64gb. The Cooler Master is $5 cheaper on Newegg.

yay parts ordered and should be here in about 5-7 days.Then i get to put together my first PC.Dont worry ill be harassing you atleast once

Good luck. Couple tips:

- Either wear shoes or go barefoot. Gotta avoid static electricity.
- Don't plug the power cable into the wall until you're done with the build.
- Read your motherboard manual twice so you can figure out how to wire it to the case properly. Figuring out which way the jumpers go is annoying.
- Only apply a pea-sized amount of thermal paste to the middle of the CPU, without spreading it. When you attach the heatsink, it will spread the paste perfectly.
- Zip ties.
- Make sure your motherboard is attached to standoffs, and not directly to the metal case.

got it going and its good.I still gotta update and install drivers and install the extra HD.The one thing i did notice is my heat sink still twists on the cpu.I dont know if got too much or too little paste but the heatsink is as tight as it will go.

Check your bracket. The heatsink shouldn't move, regardless of the amount of paste. Make sure you use a burn in program like Prime95+ to make sure your temps are in line with what other people get with that hsf / cpu combo.