Building around an i5 2500k

Get a P67 motherboard to fully utilize the overclock potential of your k series processor.

Newegg has an openbox deal going on right now with really good deals on p67 mobos. http://www.overclock.net/online-deal...obos-asus.html

These two are pretty good all round motherboards if you wanna SLI or crossfire
Asus P8P67 Pro
MSI P67A-GD65

is it really a good idea getting open box items?

how do you post a link on here in blue so if I find something and want to ask for opinions I can post it?

I'm just looking at the open box section for motherboards on newegg.com and some of the boards seem to not be there but also the prices look different

thanx N3Xus!

I've heard a lot of people having great experiences with open box items. It is an open box item so there are risks. 1st Open box items only come with a 15 day warranty from newegg, but fortunately, at least from what I heard, mobo brands that require only serial numbers will still honor their warranty if you RMA it. Second, there's a chance that all the extra stuff that comes with the mobo will be missing such as the I/O shield. Other than that, there's nothing to worry about.

As for ram you want something around 1.5v, 1.35v is optimum but it gets pricier at that range.

What type of games are you planning to play and at what resolution?

I have some older games like warcraft 3 and starcraft that I play and also I have some newer ones like dawn of war and nba2k11. I usually play all my games at full hd 1080 with all the settings at their defaults. never adjust anything.

would this thing work or is it too cheapo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813130582R

It's a good budget board as it can handle moderate OC's well and has 8x/8x CF and SLI. For high OC's and a lot of features, you might want to cough up a little more.

not sure what I'm going to play when I build this rig but I'm sure if I have a nice system like the one I'm going to build I'll want to but some better games. what I'd really like to get is dragon age 1 & 2.

I don't know if I even need an overclocked pc but I figured it's better to have the option if I want in the future. even if I do I don't care for doing it way way high so maybe I should just get a basic motherboard and get something better later? what's left in the open box you guys suggest that's maybe not over $100?

Honestly just use the 9800gt, those games dont seem like they demand much.

have a 600watt psu minimum, but if you're buying a new one, you might as well spend some extra dough and get 750 watt psu instead in case you actually want to upgrade your main GPU and use your 9800gt as a physx card. The seasonic x 750 is a very good power efficient modular psu but a bit pricier than the corsair 750 watt. Do not skimp money on a cheap PSU from a bad manufacturer! Unless you want to risk having your computer fried

how about this guy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813138298R

so if I'm going to build what I'm planning and get a new gpu then I would need at least 700 watts?

The MSI P67A-G45 is probably better for you. The 700 watts will provide you ample headroom for future upgrades. Besides a good PSU can be reused for future builds.

I'd recommend an XFX 650W PSU.