Trying to finalize build, thoughts?

[Dougjwjr]

Lets get these questions out of the way first.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Largely web browsing and gaming.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Roughly $800. I dont expect any lower, cannot go above $900.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Seattle, Washington.

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.

CPU, Mobo, Case, PSU, Ram, hard drive (kinda), optical drive

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Video card (5850), monitors (HP ZR24w, older samsung 226bw), keyboard, mouse, speakers.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes, I would like to see 5ghz, though will have to settle for whatever I can get.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

HP ZR24w: 24" 1920x1200 and samsung 226bw: 22" 1680x1050. Occasionally have a hdtv attached as well, 1920x1080.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Within a couple 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 (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

Lets think here. First for what I don't need: Firewire, sli/cf, onboard video. I would really like UEFI. I dont think I will have any need for eSATA. As for USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0, they are possibilities for the future and I wouldn't mind them.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, Win7HP x64.


So, with those out of the way, here's what I've come up with:
CPU: 2500K. I had hoped ib would offer better overclocking, but no such luck.
Mobo: Undecided. Been looking at ASUS, a friend of mine got a P8Z68-V LX which by features should work fine. Do some motherboards offer better overclocking than others? I think I've heard some about this, but want more information.
PSU: Corsair HX750. Yes, it's more wattage than I need. I plan on upgrading my video card in about a year, and this will have me well prepared. I could do with a HX650 I know.
Video Card: reusing my current card, a 5850. Yes, I will be bottlenecked, but I dont see enough of an improvement out there for a reasonable price to justify getting something new.
Ram: 8-16gb, I don't really need 16 gb..
Hard drive: crucial M4 64gb. I have a 640gb drive I could toss in for other stuff. I could grab a tb drive as well, suggestions? I've only bought WD in the past, but recently it's looked like samsung spinpoints have been highly rated, and seem to be cheaper.
Case: Corsair 400R. I love this thing after seeing the reviews. A few questions: Should I get additonal case fans and if so where should they be placed? I want more intake than exhaust so to keep dust from entering through random openings. Will there be room for a fan on the bottom next to the psu?
CPU HSF: torn between the evo 212 and thermalright true spirit 120. From what I've seen, both are about the same. Thoughts?
Oh, and some random optical drive $18, easy enough.

I am most interested in motherboard choice, tb hard drives, case fans and cpu hsf. Thanks.

 

[pcgeekesq]

Do you care about quiet? Case fan selection is about trading off price, noise and airflow, and whether you want PWM for automatic fan control or fixed-speed fans.

As to MB, I am going to build a system around MSI Z77A-GD55 (regular ATX). It has a beefy power conversion section for the CPU, solid components and a good selection of expansion slots without a lot of extra junk. I'm going Z77 for the PCIe-3 and native USB3, but then again I'm doing a gaming/HTPC power build with about $1600 for the core (case/PSU/MB/CPU/HSF/Mem/GPU). See http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038641303#post1038641303

 

[Dougjwjr]

Well the MSI Z77A-GD55 looks pretty decent from what I can tell. Anyone know much about ASUS P8Z77-V LE? It seems the ASUS has more power phases, though I don't really know what difference that will make.

For fans, I would prefer quieter fans. I may put that off, get the case and use it as it is, and get fans later if/when I need them.

If I can pick one of those motherboards, I suppose I have everything selected. That just leaves me wondering when I should buy. I don't see much of this stuff on sale. I don't have a big reason to rush, my Q6600 will last me another couple weeks, would it be smarter to wait until there's some kind of sale in the next couple weeks?

 

[Dangman]

Mobo: Undecided. Been looking at ASUS, a friend of mine got a P8Z68-V LX which by features should work fine. Do some motherboards offer better overclocking than others? I think I've heard some about this, but want more information.

I recommend getting a Z77 mobo since A) they cost about the same as current Z68 mobos and B) offer more features. Maybe Asus ASUS P8Z77-V LK should do the trick.

PSU: Corsair HX750. Yes, it's more wattage than I need. I plan on upgrading my video card in about a year, and this will have me well prepared. I could do with a HX650 I know.

If you know it's more wattage than you need, then why are you still getting it? You said it yourself: You're not planning on SLI or Crossfire. So no point in getting a 750W PSU when a 650W PSU will handle all single GPUs out there. Remember that GPU power usage is going down, not up.

Ram: 8-16gb, I don't really need 16 gb..

I recommend this RAM:
$38 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

Hard drive: crucial M4 64gb. I have a 640gb drive I could toss in for other stuff. I could grab a tb drive as well, suggestions? I've only bought WD in the past, but recently it's looked like samsung spinpoints have been highly rated, and seem to be cheaper.

I recommend the Samsung F3 1TB:
$120 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Case: Corsair 400R. I love this thing after seeing the reviews. A few questions: Should I get additonal case fans and if so where should they be placed? I want more intake than exhaust so to keep dust from entering through random openings. Will there be room for a fan on the bottom next to the psu?

You should be fine with the stock number of fans. With that said, a side fan makes a huge difference in cooling for the CPU and GPU area. Yes, you can place a fan at the bottom of the case. I highly recommend reading this article for a better idea of case cooling:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1

CPU HSF: torn between the evo 212 and thermalright true spirit 120. From what I've seen, both are about the same. Thoughts?

The 212 Evo cools a little better and is cheaper. I'd go with the Evo.

 

[E4g1e]

You should be fine with the stock number of fans. With that said, a side fan makes a huge difference in cooling for the CPU and GPU area. Yes, you can place a fan at the bottom of the case. I highly recommend reading this article for a better idea of case cooling:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1

Thanks, Danny, for the link to the article on case cooling. It turned out that the stock cooling in one of my Cooler Master cases, an Elite 430, was less than ideally located: At default, its single included fan was located at the lower front of the case, leaving all of the other fan mounts (side, rear, bottom, top) open. When I got that case (which now houses my i5-2400 auxiliary rig), I added a 120mm rear fan for exhaust - but the same stock front-mounted intake fan. Today, I relocated the front intake fan to the side panel, leaving the lower front open (except for its stock dust filter). This improved the cooling performance noticeably. For an even bigger improvement I could add a third exhaust fan at the rear top opening (pointing upwards).

On the other hand, I could not do much for another Cooler Master case, an Elite 335: In this case, the rear 120mm exhaust fan was the included stock fan, and the side panel could only accept an 80mm intake fan. Worse, this side fan opening was located a bit too high to be of much use (it was at CPU level). There was a second side panel opening that's lower on the panel, but it was merely a vent with no obvious screw mount holes whatsoever. The only other available fan opening in that case was one at the lower front. Under that circumstance, it was wise to restrict the components that could be used inside that case to a lower-end CPU and onboard graphics.

And the third Cooler Master case I have, a CM 690 II Advanced, had three fans as stock - but the locations of those three fans were less than ideal (one at the lower front, one at the rear, and one at the rear opening at the top) for a three-fan configuration. For that case, I simply added a side panel intake fan.

 

[Dangman]

Thanks, Danny, for the link to the article on case cooling.

You're welcome. It was a pretty informative article. Unfortunately a lot of the cases in my home don't have places for side fans (Antec P180 and Antec Sonata II) or not at the optimal place (Antec NSK 4480). Though I did end up reversing the top fan on my Antec P180 as an exhaust rather than the intake it was before. I did see a few degrees drop on the GPU but the CPU temps increased a little. However,I still haven't had the time to play with/fix the cooling on my Antec Lanboy Air.

 

[Dougjwjr]

I recommend getting a Z77 mobo since A) they cost about the same as current Z68 mobos and B) offer more features. Maybe Asus ASUS P8Z77-V LK should do the trick.


If you know it's more wattage than you need, then why are you still getting it? You said it yourself: You're not planning on SLI or Crossfire. So no point in getting a 750W PSU when a 650W PSU will handle all single GPUs out there. Remember that GPU power usage is going down, not up.


I recommend this RAM:
$38 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM


I recommend the Samsung F3 1TB:
$120 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

You should be fine with the stock number of fans. With that said, a side fan makes a huge difference in cooling for the CPU and GPU area. Yes, you can place a fan at the bottom of the case. I highly recommend reading this article for a better idea of case cooling:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1

The 212 Evo cools a little better and is cheaper. I'd go with the Evo.

Thanks Danny. I found the article to be quite interesting. I'll be keeping stock for now, though may introduce a side fan in the near future (and possibly top exhaust, who knows, I might mess around with it, but I now have a better idea anyhow).

Also, this is news to me that power usage from gpus is on the decline. Does that mean everything else the same, any 8000 or 700 card I might get in 12-18 months will be fine under 650W? I'm attracted to the HX750 most by the silver rating, honestly. I know that I will not be able to utilize all 750W, and the difference in efficiency will often be irrelevant, if existent at all. Still, when I first saw it, it was on sale for $120ish, rather than $140. With the extra cost, it has me more skeptical.

 

[Dangman]

Also, this is news to me that power usage from gpus is on the decline. Does that mean everything else the same, any 8000 or 700 card I might get in 12-18 months will be fine under 650W?

Yes. Check this out:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/28/nvidia_kepler_geforce_gtx_680_sli_video_card_review/8

Note the power difference between the GTX 580 SLI and GTX 680 SLI. The GTX 680 uses a lot less power than the older GTX 580. In addition, note how with TWO video cards, most of the power draw is still under 650W. So yes you will be fine with any single GPU with a 650W PSU.

With that said, if you see the Corsair HX750 for only $10 more than the Corsair HX650 without ANY rebate, then grab the HX750 as that will be the better deal.

 

[E4g1e]

Thanks, Danny, for the link to the article on case cooling. It turned out that the stock cooling in one of my Cooler Master cases, an Elite 430, was less than ideally located: At default, its single included fan was located at the lower front of the case, leaving all of the other fan mounts (side, rear, bottom, top) open. When I got that case (which now houses my i5-2400 auxiliary rig), I added a 120mm rear fan for exhaust - but the same stock front-mounted intake fan. Today, I relocated the front intake fan to the side panel, leaving the lower front open (except for its stock dust filter). This improved the cooling performance noticeably. For an even bigger improvement I could add a third exhaust fan at the rear top opening (pointing upwards).

On the other hand, I could not do much for another Cooler Master case, an Elite 335: In this case, the rear 120mm exhaust fan was the included stock fan, and the side panel could only accept an 80mm intake fan. Worse, this side fan opening was located a bit too high to be of much use (it was at CPU level). There was a second side panel opening that's lower on the panel, but it was merely a vent with no obvious screw mount holes whatsoever. The only other available fan opening in that case was one at the lower front. Under that circumstance, it was wise to restrict the components that could be used inside that case to a lower-end CPU and onboard graphics.

And the third Cooler Master case I have, a CM 690 II Advanced, had three fans as stock - but the locations of those three fans were less than ideal (one at the lower front, one at the rear, and one at the rear opening at the top) for a three-fan configuration. For that case, I simply added a side panel intake fan.

An update on this:

As it turned out, a front intake fan is needed if one is going to have more than two HDDs installed in the same case: Using only the side and rear fans helped the CPU and GPU but allowed the HDDs to bake. I experimented with my Cooler Master Elite 430 case again, and discovered that the best three-fan combination for it would not be a side intake/rear exhaust/top exhaust combination, but rather a front intake/side intake/rear exhaust combination (with the rear exhaust fan set to operate at its full speed full-time by being connected directly to the PSU using 4-pin Molex adapter(s) and the two intake fans connected to motherboard header(s)).