$2000 budget: ODE 2 or custom build?

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   Hello all, new to the forums here:

 I am going to get a new desktop computer around Christmas rime with a budget of $2000 not including monitor or keyboard/mouse. 

I am also looking into purchasing a $200 monitor that is 23-24" with resolution of 1920X1080.

The PC will need to be able to play Civ 5, Company of Heroes and Medieval Total War 2 at max settings (1920X1080 resolution).
I also want to be able to play Shogun Total War 2 and Battlefield 3 at high settings (does not need to be maxed out completely).

I will be doing very light Photoshop work as well, streaming movies, al the basic office and web surfing tasks.

I created the below build by looking at some builds others have posted. I did not include an SSD because I have received a free Kingston SSDNOW 100V 128GB bundle thru my line of work.
I know there are better choices but this is helping me keep my budget down. It still has to be faster than the WD HDD and the Kingston does come with a standard 3 year warranty.

I was leaning towards this build over the ODE level 2 to future proof my gaming for hopefully 5 years, adding a second GTX570 when performance starts to lag (in 1-2 years?).
What attracts me to the ODE level 2 is that I would get a SSD drive but there is no SLI option down the road.

Few questions about the below build:

1.       Is the Deluxe the best price/performance for a mobo? Would the V-Pro or Sabertooth be a better choice?
2.       Is Corsair really that much better than the digital store RAM & PSU?
3.       I know many will tell me to get the Intel 320, but the Kingston was free. The Kingston should be a faster performer than the HDD to load OS/games/programs correct? I need to keep budget at $2000 and getting a $140 SSD for free seems like the right choice here.
4.       What are your thoughts on having DS overclock my Processor and GPU?

Ticket Number: 607093
Total Price with Instant Savings: $2,081.00

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue) <b></b>
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance) <b></b>
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)  <b></b>
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition) <b></b>
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology) (EVGA Edition)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler <b></b>
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system

Thanks again everyone who decides to help. I know I am asking a lot of questions but I am a complete novice to this.

SamUlab

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SamUlab Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Oct 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Quote Reply Topic: $2000 budget: ODE 2 or custom build? Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 3:31pm
	Hello all, new to the forums here: I am going to get a new desktop computer around Christmas rime with a budget of $2000 not including monitor or keyboard/mouse. I am also looking into purchasing a $200 monitor that is 23-24" with resolution of 1920X1080. The PC will need to be able to play Civ 5, Company of Heroes and Medieval Total War 2 at max settings (1920X1080 resolution). I also want to be able to play Shogun Total War 2 and Battlefield 3 at high settings (does not need to be maxed out completely). I will be doing very light Photoshop work as well, streaming movies, al the basic office and web surfing tasks. I created the below build by looking at some builds others have posted. I did not include an SSD because I have received a free Kingston SSDNOW 100V 128GB bundle thru my line of work. I know there are better choices but this is helping me keep my budget down. It still has to be faster than the WD HDD and the Kingston does come with a standard 3 year warranty. I was leaning towards this build over the ODE level 2 to future proof my gaming for hopefully 5 years, adding a second GTX570 when performance starts to lag (in 1-2 years?). What attracts me to the ODE level 2 is that I would get a SSD drive but there is no SLI option down the road. Few questions about the below build: 1. Is the Deluxe the best price/performance for a mobo? Would the V-Pro or Sabertooth be a better choice? 2. Is Corsair really that much better than the digital store RAM & PSU? 3. I know many will tell me to get the Intel 320, but the Kingston was free. The Kingston should be a faster performer than the HDD to load OS/games/programs correct? I need to keep budget at $2000 and getting a $140 SSD for free seems like the right choice here. 4. What are your thoughts on having DS overclock my Processor and GPU? Ticket Number: 607093 Total Price with Instant Savings: $2,081.00 Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X Processor: Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue) <b></b> System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator DHX (High-Performance) <b></b> Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) <b></b> Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition) <b></b> Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB (Includes PhysX Technology) (EVGA Edition) Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler <b></b> Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Thanks again everyone who decides to help. I know I am asking a lot of questions but I am a complete novice to this. SamUlab

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 5:40pm
	for monitor look at this:1. response time is a bs number, its there to fool you and does not represent the true response time of the monitor, there is no real way of truly finding what response time is, the closest to it is white to white but you don't see that, you see grey to grey or black to black cause they give small numbers to fool users but they don't mean anything, there are different methods to get these numbers also, and each will give a different number as results, therefore you can even compare one to the other, cause we don't know what method was used for which, and even if we did, still GTG or BTB don't mean anything. 2. contrast ratio is also bs number. Most important thing about a monitor is its panel, right now there are 2 major ones, TN and IPS, IPS has superior picture quality/clarity. here is a good one now but never buy it full price, on sale or with coupon you can get it for $260 and yes its well worth it over the cheaper tn panels. all ssds are not the same, the reason we recommend the ones we do is because we know them to be trouble free and to keep their performance. there is no future proofing, think about how future proof a person with sli 275/285 is right now, then you get the idea, on top of that for games like wow, sli won't help since it does not utilize sli correctly. if you want real future proof then you need to upgrade gpus every 2 to 3 years and your pc will feel brand new in gaming. out of all of the ode builds ode 2 makes the least amount of sense to me, since the jump from 570 to 580 will yield little difference where it counts, and the system can't do sli. the build you have is good, it has room to go sli for games like bf3 that will use it/want it. 1. vpro is ok also but deluxe is my number 1 choice. 2. in ram no, in psu hell yes, you are talking top of the line psu with 7 year warranty and great recored for reliability, vs a no name psu with a 2 year warranty, keep in mind those DS psus are not really DS's, they are technps psus and technps don't make psus themselves either, they are just resellers. Not that corsair makes their psu either but at least with them you know the actual maker and know what to expect, then there is the 7 year warranty from corsair, and the track record it has. 3. as I said before, its all about reliability and retaining performance, I would back up that kingston every chance I get if I were you, when you get tired of it, come back and ask us which ssd to get, cause they are not all the same. 4. oc processor for sure, the cpu is the brain of your pc, the faster it can work, the faster your pc is, you always oc the cpu it makes the hugest difference in performance. gpus don't need oc nor will they yield much of a performance increase from it. go with stage 2 oc and vcore of 1.4 or lower. Ask DS specifically for this fan to be added to the top, so you endup with 4 x 200mm fans: haf 200mm non led fan do you know how to move the os and etc when you get the pc from the hdd to the ssd? Edited by DST4ME - 19 Oct 2011 at 5:40pm
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

SamUlab Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 16 Oct 2011 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2	Quote Reply Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 7:19pm
	First off, thank you for the quick response and information, helps greatly. I have a few more questions as well. Does the Dell monitor you recommend have any ghosting at all? Do you recommend andy sub $200 monitors or does the quality degrade to much in that price range? I will definitely back up my SSD often and this will be my first place I go when I want to upgrade. Yes, I have read your article on cloning and I believe the Kingston SSD has cloning software that comes with it. Could I get by doing SLI and this build with less than 1000W for the PSU such as the Corsair GS 800W? Has anyone else have issues powering an i7 2600k and SLI GPUS with only 800W PSU? From other articles I have read, 800W for this setup is good. Also, how much extra will DS charge to installl the top fan? Thanks again for the education Edited by SamUlab - 19 Oct 2011 at 7:20pm

DST4ME Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS ELITE Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758	Quote Reply Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 7:26pm
	the ips monitor I linked to is the the lowest price ips that still has proper performance. look at the review for them here, no ghosting or anything. make sure the cloning software that comes with your ssd can clone to hdd and then back from hdd to ssd, otherwise you are short. you can drop the psu to 800w but then in the future if you want to upgrade the sli to future cards and they have needs of a 580 sli the 800w can't do it, the 1050hx is also a great psu, I mentioned how great it is on my last post. Personally I only use hx and ax models from corsair for psus, cause they have a long track record of reliability. for the top fan I think its around $30 or $40, you can order the fan and install it yourself if you like.
	Nvidia Drivers----AMD Drivers

$2000 budget: ODE 2 or custom build?

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