[Noob] first real build / upgrade

[ngkickin]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400-600
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Orlando Florida USA
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.
Motherboard, CPU, and RAM
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Samsung writemaster DVD burner
Galaxy Nvidia 660 ti 3gb
6) Will you be overclocking?
Very unlikely
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" dell, 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 days
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
No real special requirements.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64 bit. My key is used on my current system, but I think MS will let me move it (if I complain enough).

[before]
These are the parts I am thinking about buying:
$150 Asus P8Z77-V LK Intel Z77 DDR3 LGA 1155 Motherboard
$230 Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4 GHz
$32 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler w/ 120mm Fan
$54 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Ripjaw Series (9-9-9-24)
total: $466
I will likely drop in a SSD around thanksgiving time
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.

[after] (got the SSD now and still cheaper than initial plan)
$229 - Intel Core i5-3470 and G.Skill Value Select 2x4GB DDR3 1333 combo deal
$210 - MSI Z77A-G43 and Crucial M4 128GB combo deal
$26 Cooler Master Hyper 212
total: $465

 

[tiraides]

What games are you playing? With two 1920x1200 monitors, that GTX 660 Ti may not be enough.

Amazon? Why not NewEgg? Do you live near a brick-and-mortar Tiger Direct or CompUSA store?

 

[Dangman]

The mobo and CPU are a bit overkill for your needs, especially since you're not overclocking. You'll be fine with the Core i5 3470 and MSI Z77A-G43 mobo.

 

[ngkickin]

When gaming I run with only one of the two monitors, I guess I should amend the post to only list one, the only exception I know of is supreme commander which isn't that demanding
The most demanding games I will be playing, crysis 2, borderlands 2, skyrim, battlefield 3 and then assorted older games that should be no issue.
amazon vs new egg, I have prime so I don't pay for shipping, but the prices were relatively similar anyway.
Yes I live relatively close to both a tiger direct and a compUSA (15~30 minute drive). So it would be no problem to go there if I needed to.

Good suggestion on the processor motherboard, that would knock about $60 off the price
since I don't plan to overclock the k provides no benefit for the extra $15-30 of cost
I still need to look over the motherboards to see what features (if any) I would be giving up there, but that would save me another $30 too

 

[tiraides]

If you value saving money more than having a short shipping time, NewEgg has few combo deals that you could take advantage of:

$307 - Intel Core i5-3470 and MSI Z77A-G43 combo deal
$229 - Intel Core i5-3470 and G.Skill Value Select 2x4GB DDR3 1333 combo deal
$229 - Intel Core i5-3470 and Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3 1600 combo deal
$310 - MSI Z77A-G43 and Crucial M4 256GB SSD combo deal
$315 - MSI Z77A-G43 and Samsung 830 256GB SSD combo deal

With a couple of the above combo deals (not to mention any additional deals that you find on your own), you could get everything that you want plus the SSD for under $600 shipped. Then again, unless you live in a very hot part of Florida, you can omit the Hyper 212 EVO -- you won't need it.

 

[ngkickin]

Thanks for the advice, it gets hot here 90+ degrees quite often, but my house will be air conditioned during operation of the PC, so room temp will likely be 74-76
I think I can safely downgrade the fan to a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233103 for half the price ($29)
I will also make sure to check new egg vs amazon before ordering to see who is cheaper, I had not looked at the new egg combo deals to see if I could save any money there.

Current total (on amazon) is down to $396.92
Which is far better than my initial target, I can easily afford a small SSD now
$99 (amazon) $109 (newegg) OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s

Should I be concerned at all about ram timings? I've seen posts about different timings with different processors, but I'm not sure if that is just splitting hairs or something to really look at.

 

[Dangman]

I think I can safely downgrade the fan to a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233103 for half the price ($29)

I recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ since it's $26 and will cool better than that HSF.

Current total (on amazon) is down to $396.92
Which is far better than my initial target, I can easily afford a small SSD now
$99 (amazon) $109 (newegg) OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s

I wouldn't recommend it since it's from OCZ, a rather shady company IMO. Not to mention OCZ's less than stellar track record when it comes to SSDs. I recommend the Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 series SSDs instead.

Should I be concerned at all about ram timings? I've seen posts about different timings with different processors, but I'm not sure if that is just splitting hairs or something to really look at.

Don't be concerned about timings or clock speeds.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Everything Danny said +1

 

[ngkickin]

updated list, for expediency sake for anyone who is looking at this now
$102 Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive
$26 Cooler Master Hyper 212
$54 8GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz
$199 Intel Core i5-3470 Quad-Core Processor 3.2 GHz
$114 MSI Computer Corp. DDR3 1600 Intel LGA 1155 Motherboard (Z77A-G43)
total: $495.86
(new egg price $501.95)

Thank you all very much, you have really changed my build for the better, I did not expect to fit the SSD in
I'll give this a few more hours for any last minute suggestions before I pull the trigger.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Not sure how tight you are, but you could save like $8 ordering the RAM from here:

$46 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

It's got free shipping on it.

 

[ngkickin]

One thing I've neglected, thermal compound... any opinion on what the best kind to get is?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

The stuff that comes with the 212+

 

[tiraides]

updated list, for expediency sake for anyone who is looking at this now
$102 Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive
$26 Cooler Master Hyper 212
$54 8GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz
$199 Intel Core i5-3470 Quad-Core Processor 3.2 GHz
$114 MSI Computer Corp. DDR3 1600 Intel LGA 1155 Motherboard (Z77A-G43)
total: $495.86
(new egg price $501.95)

Thank you all very much, you have really changed my build for the better, I did not expect to fit the SSD in
I'll give this a few more hours for any last minute suggestions before I pull the trigger.

Save some more money and grab the following from NewEgg:

$229 - Intel Core i5-3470 and G.Skill Value Select 2x4GB DDR3 1333 combo deal
$210 - MSI Z77A-G43 and Crucial M4 128GB combo deal

Throw in the Hyper 212 Plus from Amazon and your total comes to $464.65. You'll lose about a day (or a few) in shipping time, but you'll save around $30.

 

[ngkickin]

Another $30 is a pretty good savings, but the g.skill is a bit slower
is the drop off from
DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz
to
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
going to impact me much?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Wont impact you at all.

 

[tiraides]

Both Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge run RAM at DDR3 1333 speeds by default. Since you aren't overclocking, you don't need to worry about using faster RAM.

 

[ngkickin]

All parts are on order ( I neglected to post when I actually placed the order ) but they should be here either today or tomorrow.

Thank you for all the help gentlemen.

One more question for the future, is it a bad of an idea is it to mix RAM sizes / speeds
I'm not going to do this now, but just for my knowledge of how ram sizes / speeds interact

since I will be running 2x4gb 1333 ram, would it be a bad idea to add in 2x2gb 1333 ram? or to add same size but different (higher) speed 1600 2x4gb?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

It should work fine. Just make sure all the ram is rated at 1.5v or less.