So I'm putting a rig together. Some questions

SamuraiInBlack

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I just did some Black Friday shopping for a new rig. Some stuff on actual BF sale, other stuff just regular sale pricing.

MSI Z77A-GD55 - [H] just did a review on this board, as a reference.

Fractal Design Define XL Black Pearl w/ USB 3.0 ATX Full Tower

Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

GIGABYTE GV-R785OC-2GD Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16

Going to go to Micro Center this weekend and shop around for a processor, some Arctic Silver, and maybe pull the trigger on a Corsair H-series cooler. I'm thinking a 3770K for the processor. I have some Corsair RAM I purchased about a year or so back, when I thought I was originally going to put a new rig together. This will be my temporary solution for RAM until I decide just how much ram I'd like. (or rather, how much money I intend on blowing on it. :D)

For my uses in order of usage:
Gaming
Movies
General desktop usage

Salvaging from current rig to new build:
3 other SATA hard drives I currently have. Will replace main drive with an SSD but that's not something I'm doing right now when so many new controllers and new players in the SSD game seem to be cropping up.
Samsung DVD burner drive
Corsair TX-1000 PSU

Questions:
1. Is a 3770K the right fit for my build?
2. How much ram should I really be running?
 
It's not a good idea to temporarily be running that Corsair RAM in your PC since it's rated at 1.65V. Intel recommends 1.5V. Higher than 1.5V and you risk damage to the CPU. At this point in time, that Corsair RAM is basically only usable in current AMD CPUs as most Intel CPUs have that 1.5V RAM recommendation. While some people have run Intel CPUs with 1.65V, it's not recommended by the Intel rep here on the forums and you may not be all that lucky. So I highly recommend getting new RAM.

1) No. You're not doing anything where the 3770K would be required (i.e video/audio/3D editing/rendering or large number of virtual machines, etc),. You'll be fine with a Core i5 CPU. If you're planning on overclocking, go for the Core i5 3570K. If not overclocking, go for the Core i5 3450 or 3470.

2) You would be totally fine with 8GB of RAM. With that said, RAM is stupid cheap these days so it might be a good idea to just max out on RAM now to take advantage of the low prices. Just get one or two of this set of RAM and you'll be set:
$35 - Samsung 2 x 4GB MV-3V4G3D/US DDR3 1600 RAM
 
I concur with Danny. Get the i5-3570K at Micro Center, which is better suited for your needs.

Micro Center is somewhat inconsistent with the price of its in-stock RAM. Grab a name-brand 2x4GB DDR3 1333 or DDR3 1600 kit, but make sure that the kit runs at 1.5V. Check to see if the following is available at your local MC:

$33 - Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600 (sale price; available in black or blue)

(Caveat: The tall heatspreaders on the Vengeance RAM may interfere with some CPU coolers. If that's a concern for you, you may want to consider different RAM with lower heatspreaders or even none. Corsair does make the Vengeance LP and XMS3 series, but I didn't find any good sets in the MC web store.)
 
Alright, having taken your guys' advice I picked up two of this set. They were out of stock of the ones tiraides linked.

They were also out of stock on the processors Danny listed, but they have a truck coming Tuesday. So I'll probably call on Tuesday and see if they have them in.
 
Alright, having taken your guys' advice I picked up two of this set. They were out of stock of the ones tiraides linked.

They were also out of stock on the processors Danny listed, but they have a truck coming Tuesday. So I'll probably call on Tuesday and see if they have them in.

All righty then. Good luck with the build.
 
So I'm necro'ing this thread again to tell you all about my build experience this time around. It's not the first time I've built a PC, but I will say it's the first time I've built a PC with a case like this, where the power supply is on the bottom of the case and has its own compartment within the case.

This case and motherboard combination is very unforgiving if your power supply cables are not long enough or just barely able to make it. This appears to be the case with the Corsair TX-1000. The main ATX power connector, when routed optimally (in my opinion) has just enough reach to the board connector. The 8-pin connector going to the board for the processor had to be routed up through the optional opening in the PSU compartment, so as far as cable management goes, I don't have as clean of a setup as I'd have liked. The HD Audio header on the front panel just barely makes it to its respective pins on the board. These things are not a huge issue for me, since there's no window on this case, but I figured I should leave this info out for anyone who wants to buy this case in the future, and this may be a dealbreaker for them.

Idle temps in a room that is normally hotter than hell with minimal airflow put this case at about 40-45C. This is with using the two stock fans, and the rear 140mm swapped out for the supplied 120mm for the radiator. For the H60 I used the stock TIM that was already applied. While digging through my spare parts box looking for extension cables, I apparently forgot that I bought Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 as a just-in-case at some point in the last couple weeks. Should I use that instead for the H60, or will the results not be worth remounting?
 
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