Hi, I was just wondering if this is a bit overpowered and I should lower some parts.

From memory:

Intel i7 2600K @ 3.4G

8 gb RAM

Nvidia GeForce 560 Ti

2 TB HDD


Couple that with all the other stuff, and I'm at around $1900. Am I spending too much? Are these parts overpowered?

It's not overpowered, but that price sounds way too high.

This does include monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.

Seems fine to me. You can never have too much power, if you can afford it.

With my job, birthday, family support, etc. the money isn't that much of an issue. I should be up to around $2500 by August.

You don't need all that to run current games. I guess it might last you longer, but from what I've learned, you will want to upgrade anyways for new tech. For example: I have a powerful gpu that can run all current games on high but I may upgrade soon just to take advantage of DX11.

For me, I wouldn't upgrade to new tech just because it's new tech. I have a huge "If it isn't broke, don't fix it" attitude. I will only upgrade once new games demand it, so I picked these parts hoping they would last me a while. I'm not exactly a steady person, and the thought of putting together (or taking apart) a bunch of parts that cost $2,000 quite frankly scares the [censored] out of me.

this was my original build from almost a year ago. ive upgraded a couple of things since then like the processor since they are cheaper now.

i got an asus p6t mobo
i7 920
12 gb corsair dominator ram (best ram)
26 or 28" samsung monitor cant remember which one
300GB raptor harddrive
new microsoft natural keyboard $70
new mouse
new speakers $160
antec 1200 case for a bit over $100
nvidia 285
auzentech 7.1 soundcard
extras like cpu cooling fan etc.
850 corsair PSU its nice but definitely going modular next time. i spent more time on cable management than i did actually putting the system together

i forgot what some of the individual prices were but altogether everything cost me $2500 from newegg. i probably could have saved a bit more if i shopped around a bit or made an AMD billed but i didnt want to deal with multiple retailers.

side question: how much wattage will I need just based on those parts? I think I have a 750W or 850W picked out.

Pricing the parts individually I get this:
http://i.imgur.com/FzSCO.png

That's just a price estimate. I didn't comprehensively research the motherboard or monitor, but that's about the average price you'd pay for those parts.

That's actually how much I'm paying for the parts. My mobo is like 250, and then I'm getting pretty good monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. Windows 7 isn't cheap, but I don't really care there since I like it.

Are you building this yourself?

yes

Not sure why you'd ever go out and buy the buffest computer you could get unless you were doing some hardcoe rendering. But if you do spend that much, you'd atleast be set for the next few years [only having to upgrade your graphic card when you want to keep it top of the line].

My suggestion would be hit up some liquid cooling, overclock the CPU to 4.5GHz and let mother nature know you don't give a damn about "being green"

The price does sound a little high. With that CPU I'd probably go a little higher on the GPU as well. What about a GeForce 570 or Radeon 6970? On the PSU the brand matters as much or more than the wattage. I think I've been seeing good deals on Corsair PSUs, which are generally pretty good. You don't want to buy a cheaply-made PSU.

There's no real advantage of an Intel CPU over an AMD CPU at this point. All you are doing is spending more money (probably 2x on the cpu) compared to a cheaper part that would do just as good. Frame rates in games are barely changed with expensive CPUs, for example. You may gain 5 FPS, but it's negligible. I recently went with an AMD Phenom 2 Black edition. It cost me $130 dollars for the CPU(The intel above probably costs 300+). it runs at 3.4Ghz and has 4 cores. It is technically slower than the "i" series CPUs, but their is nothing in gaming that takes advantage of Intel. IMHO, it's a waste.

Intel Sandy Bridge is probably a better price/performance CPU than AMD Phenom II at the moment.

Not only that, but blanket statements about a certain brand of component tend not to be very useful. Unfortunately you just have to do the research and evaluate on a product-by-product basis. I don't understand brand loyalty when it comes to electronics and PC components.

Haha, not even close. Competitive intel chips are more than double the cost of adequate AMD chips. You've just bought into the hype. Go check the gaming benchmarks, and note the minor differences in performance. It's a joke, imho. Sure, intel offers a better chip for other types of computing, but for gaming there's almost no advantage.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727 $134.99 (AMD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115071 $299.99 (Intel) i7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067 $209.99 (Intel) i5

Difference in gaming? Negligible at best.

Benchmarks: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-965,2389-8.html

There's a huge advantage to Intel over AMD!

But there's no reason to get an i7. The best deal out there right now is an i5 2500, or i5 2500K if and only if you plan to overclock it.



But that AMD chip uses 125W of power, while the Intel ones don't even top 95W. That alone tells you what better quality they are in design and build that they can have such efficiency, but on a more practical level it means much less heat generated in your case, which means less noisy fans to cool it down and longer component life.

A Lynnfield chip? Come back after you've done some research.

Many people use their computers for more than gaming, myself included.

I agree with you on this sentiment. Intel is better for other types of computing at the moment. (Think music apps, graphics apps, rendering, etc. Basic desktop environment is probably no different to the naked eye) For gaming, they are way over priced in comparison to AMD. There's almost no real advantage. Maybe you gain an advantage at the super high end, with SlI/cross fire setups using the most expensive cards, but that's an unrealistic comparison. If gaming is the main goal, go for an AMD CPU and spend the saved cash on a better GPU. Hands down.

Edit: The second one is a lynnfield, the first is a sandy. Just showing examples. The AMD is easily better price/performance in gaming. That was my main point.

Not overpowered. Overpriced.

See, that argument doesn't hold. The truth is the same as it always has been. AMD has the budget options. The advantage is in price only.

If your budget is already $1900 you can afford a better made chip.

If money is no object, just buy the best of the best, sure. However, if it is (and it always should be) go for price/performance and use the money saved to upgrade in areas that make the most sense (video card and an SSD hard drive).