Storage for Gaming PC

[Scarymonkeys]

Hello, so I'm going to be building a gaming PC very soon, and I've been looking at good drives and SSD's. I'm going to be buying most of my parts off of Ebay, or other used part sites so that I can get things a lot cheaper. Basically, I need help on choosing an SSD and a 1TB hard drive. If I can get an SSD around $70 used on Ebay and maybe a 1TB drive for around $40-50 I'd be good. Suggestions? Here are the parts I'm thinking of getting.

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k (Sells for around $100-140 on Ebay.)

CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo (I've heard it has just enough power to reach 4.5 GHz when overclocking. Otherwise I'd get a Noctau NH-D14 or 15.)

Motherboard: MSI z77 G43 (Not sure if this is good enough or not.)

Ram: Crucial Battlestix Sport 8GB (I might choose to go for Kingston Fury.)

Storage: Well, that's why I posted this.

GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 670 (Sells for $100-130 on Ebay.)

PSU: Honestly depends on what I find and if it's good quality or not. XFX 550w perhaps?

OS: Going to be using Linux. (Please don't rant about it not being good for gaming. I want to learn how to use it mainly.)

[LPTechnoAce]

WD Blue 1TB is good for gaming.Just Buy a new HD.

But if you want a Pure SSD boot drive,then a 120GB SSD is enough.Don't buy 2nd hand Storage devices.There are better alternatives to 2nd hand devices and they are much cheaper.And one thing,Just install Windows 8.1 if you are into gaming because it performs faster than win7.

[Epic_Nex]

I would go with a z97 motherboard if you want to overclock.

 

on the RAM, if you dont plan on upgrading anytime soon, 2v4gb would be better than 1 8gb stick of RAM, assuming the motherboard you get operates in dual channel (most do). If you plan on upgrading the RAM then yea just get 1 stick of 8gb ram and then you can always buy another later. 

 

HDD: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003  

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

Hey there @Scarymonkeys!

 

This build looks great for gaming in my opinion. Maybe the only thing I would change personally would be the PSU - I would get a 600W one so I would have some free space for any upgrades, but if you're not planning any, the one you've selected would do an excellent job.

 

About the storage configuration, I won't be able to give you an advice for a specific SSD model, but for the HDD I can recommend you two WD drives. 

 

The first one is WD Blue which is made for everyday computing usage, has 2 years limited warranty and capacity up to 1 TB. The other one is WD Black that is the performance oriented drive made for gaming and demanding apps and comes with capacity up to 4 TB and 5 years limited warranty. 

 

For pairing with SSD they both are good, but the best choice would depend on what are you going to use your secondary drive for. If you would be installing and running your applications and games from the HDD – the Black would be my choice and if you will be running them mostly from the SSD – the Blue would work just fine.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

[Scarymonkeys]

Hey there @Scarymonkeys!

 

This build looks great for gaming in my opinion. Maybe the only thing I would change personally would be the PSU - I would get a 600W one so I would have some free space for any upgrades, but if you're not planning any, the one you've selected would do an excellent job.

 

About the storage configuration, I won't be able to give you an advice for a specific SSD model, but for the HDD I can recommend you two WD drives. 

 

The first one is WD Blue which is made for everyday computing usage, has 2 years limited warranty and capacity up to 1 TB. The other one is WD Black that is the performance oriented drive made for gaming and demanding apps and comes with capacity up to 4 TB and 5 years limited warranty. 

 

For pairing with SSD they both are good, but the best choice would depend on what are you going to use your secondary drive for. If you would be installing and running your applications and games from the HDD – the Black would be my choice and if you will be running them mostly from the SSD – the Blue would work just fine.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

Come to think of it I actually think I have 4 1TB Wester Digital Black drives hidden away somewhere..They came with my father's Mac Pro. I'll have to ask him about those if they're that good..

[Scarymonkeys]

I would go with a z97 motherboard if you want to overclock.

 

on the RAM, if you dont plan on upgrading anytime soon, 2v4gb would be better than 1 8gb stick of RAM, assuming the motherboard you get operates in dual channel (most do). If you plan on upgrading the RAM then yea just get 1 stick of 8gb ram and then you can always buy another later. 

 

HDD: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003

Alright, so just curious if there are any z97's for around $45-50 that will suit my needs? I've noticed most are around $80-100.

[b45op]

it seems alright but do shop around when it comes to purchase time... you can sometimes find very good deals. I have not done so for your specs but take a look at your future upgrade paths SLI, or a better processor in the future etc it is sometimes worth the little extra now for the easy and affordable upgrade in the future that will extend the pc's gaming lifetime.

 

Also Linux is looking up for gaming there are more games everytime I look, good choice on the Nvidia card for that as AMD has terrible Linux drivers.

[DeViLzzz]

Gaming rig = get a 3 TB Seagate 7200 RPM drive .....

SSD adds next to nothing for a gamer.

[Scarymonkeys]

it seems alright but do shop around when it comes to purchase time... you can sometimes find very good deals. I have not done so for your specs but take a look at your future upgrade paths SLI, or a better processor in the future etc it is sometimes worth the little extra now for the easy and affordable upgrade in the future that will extend the pc's gaming lifetime.

 

Also Linux is looking up for gaming there are more games everytime I look, good choice on the Nvidia card for that as AMD has terrible Linux drivers.

Yeah, it really has and I'm excited to start taking part in that. On the drivers, yeah, I saw a lot of benchmarks saying the Catalyst drivers are absolutely beyond horrible..At first I was going to pick up an r9 270x somewhere.. On the topic of shopping around, I'm especially excited because of Black Friday sales really looking up so far! I'm hoping to get some pretty good deals..

[Scarymonkeys]

Gaming rig = get a 3 TB Seagate 7200 RPM drive .....

SSD adds next to nothing for a gamer.

I'll check it out! Also, I didn't mention I was going to do some video editing and content creation, and the SSD I currently have on my laptop will be highly missed..I might just wait for a year or so when I actually need it though.

[Epic_Nex]

Alright, so just curious if there are any z97's for around $45-50 that will suit my needs? I've noticed most are around $80-100.

yea you would be hard pressed to find one at that price

[Scarymonkeys]

yea you would be hard pressed to find one at that price

Pretty much what I figured. Heck, it would be an amazing deal for that price considering it's quality.