New (mostly) Intel Gaming rig advice please

[diableri]

Hi guys, looking for advice and critique of decisions so far. Thank you advance, it's always very appreciated. Hopefully I'm not too far off as it is.

Edited in new info in the red:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Heavy daily Web/Office use (freaking iTunes as well out of convenience sake but iTunes lib stored on USB2 external). Nightly gaming (20ish hours a week). MMOs, Crysis 2, Fallout games, Bioshocks, Bioware games, DLC for all the above and anything Valve puts out.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
About $600 for the SSD, cooling and Case. $350-$450 for the GPU.

3) Where do you live?
Central California, nearly three hours (~$60 in gas) from a Microcenter. I am an Amazon Prime member and no tax so I buy there whenever I can.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, Cooling, GPU, SSD.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
- Gateway 24" 1920x1200 LCD
- 27" 720p Sony Bravia HDTV
- New Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) kit Corsair Product Page.
- New 2500k.
- New Gigabyte Z68 GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
- New Samsung Spinpoint F3
- Old Corsair HX620 PSU (this will be upgraded if I go SLI/XFire. I want this for a new hackintosh anyway.
- Old KB and Mouse and external USB2.0 backup.
- I have an extra EVGA GTX285 that I will use before the last piece being the new GPU get upgraded later this year.

6) Will you be overclocking?
I'll be OC'ing whatever the best stable easy OC is with my board and CPU.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Right now, 1920x1200 main and 1360x768 secondary HDTV. Planning to buy 27" or 30" 2560 LCD by the end of the year (after new machine is finished and not included in the machine budget).

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within three weeks.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Got my Motherboard.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Have a 64bit 7 Home Premium for this machine.

My plan so far:
EDIT:
I'm still undecided on the case. I was hoping I wouldn't put it together until the new Corsair Carbide 500R was out so I could compare it against a NXZT Phantom and the 600T but I'm not sure that case will be available by the time I'm ready.

I want to over cool and don't mind paying for that but I'm not ready for a full water cooled set up so I would like to buy a solid CPU block and make sure my GPU has great cooling on it stock. I'd appreciate it if there was any specific advice on this. I was thinking Corsair's new H80 for the CPU and I've been looking at the EVGA and XFX cards in that price range.

How about an Intel 510 SSD for the OS drive and my current game and apps? I think I made a good choice based on repeated recommendations in other threads for the general drive.

Am I making any obvious mistakes?

 

[tiraides]

Stupid question, but how much can you spend right now? I ask because many of us here could give you a complete build list within the next couple of days.

Nothing that you said you'll do gives me the impression that you need the i7-2600K over the i5-2500K. However, stick with Z68 (over H67) due to your desire to use this system as an HTPC in the future.

Using a self-contained CPU watercooling "block" like the Corsair H-series isn't a good comparison to a more complete watercooling setup. If you're really interested in going that route, check out our Overclocking & Cooling forum for more ideas. Since cooling and noise are huge considerations for you, what specifically are you looking for in a case?

Most reference GPU coolers are designed to push hot air towards the back of the case, but some "unique" coolers, like the VaporX system, perform better. Regarding AMD cards -- ATI is now known as AMD -- we recommend the XFX brand due to its "double" lifetime warranty and comparatively superior customer service.

Regarding SSDs, performance-wise, we recommend Intel's 320 or 510 series SSD or Crucial's C300 or C400/m4 series SSDs. Though new SandForce-based SSDs like the OCZ Vertex 3 have arrived, many of us are taking a wait-and-see approach given that the previous generation didn't perform as well as advertised.

 

[diableri]

Stupid question, but how much can you spend right now? I ask because many of us here could give you a complete build list within the next couple of days.

Nothing that you said you'll do gives me the impression that you need the i7-2600K over the i5-2500K. However, stick with Z68 (over H67) due to your desire to use this system as an HTPC in the future.

Using a self-contained CPU watercooling "block" like the Corsair H-series isn't a good comparison to a more complete watercooling setup. If you're really interested in going that route, check out our Overclocking & Cooling forum for more ideas. Since cooling and noise are huge considerations for you, what specifically are you looking for in a case?

Most reference GPU coolers are designed to push hot air towards the back of the case, but some "unique" coolers, like the VaporX system, perform better. Regarding AMD cards -- ATI is now known as AMD -- we recommend the XFX brand due to its "double" lifetime warranty and comparatively superior customer service.

Regarding SSDs, performance-wise, we recommend Intel's 320 or 510 series SSD or Crucial's C300 or C400/m4 series SSDs. Though new SandForce-based SSDs like the OCZ Vertex 3 have arrived, many of us are taking a wait-and-see approach given that the previous generation didn't perform as well as advertised.

$500. I'll probably spend ~$500 every check (every two weeks) for the next couple months other than the GPU which I imagine will be around or more than that. That's the amount of tertiary funds I can safely blow and not change anything as far as budget goes.

Good to know about XFX. Safe to say they are the EVGA for the AMD cards?

I'm not sure I am willing to jump into more involved Water Cooling than the CPU block set up. I have read some of the stuff in the forum already and basically think it's more than I'm willing to get into at this point. I will do more research though without the H70.

As far as the case goes, truly I just want it cool first and quiet second. Other than that, it needs to hold the stuff I am going to put in it. It can be a full tower, I have lots of room where it sits. I don't care about looks and the price isn't too much of a concern for the case either within reason. I don't even care about ports on the front since the thing is out of sight (it's behind and below my monitors but good free air all the way around). I would kind of like to pick up the case next actually and depending on how much it is, whatever else might be the right price (and in stock) at the end of the week. I even thought about the 800D just due to the raves and future versatility.

THANK YOU FOR THE HELP!

 

[dotCapone]

Just a recommendation, I recommend saving enough money until you can purchase everything at once. Stuff usually gets cheaper over time, so in the end you could build it for cheaper and still have it completed at the same time.

 

[diableri]

Just a recommendation, I recommend saving enough money until you can purchase everything at once. Stuff usually gets cheaper over time, so in the end you could build it for cheaper and still have it completed at the same time.

But then I miss out on any prices between now and then and the only deals I can get will be the few days then of ordering. My way of combating that was to buy GPU/CPU/Mainboard towards the end but really just base all timing on prices. Nothing says I HAVE to spend the money in stages, but I'm watching prices now. I've usually done it this way and it's always proven a pretty good method for me at least. Have I really been doing this part wrong all these years?

 

[draken24]

Il tell u the phantom is an amazing case... I dont recomend buying parts every 2 weeks.. One thing tho.. Maybe u should buy the case now... And save buying all the other parts til u can buy tgem all at once...


Staring at the case will cause evil thoughts in ur head and u will work harder at saving all ur cash up to fill that sucker up.. Mwahahaha

 

[diableri]

Edited in some new information. Please let me know if I'm botching anything important up.

 

[Dangman]

How about an Intel 510 SSD for the OS drive and my current game and apps? I think I made a good choice based on repeated recommendations in other threads for the general drive.

The 510 series is a good choice.