Thanks for all the responses guys. You've all been very helpful. Wall of text incoming, beware!
DPete27 wrote:Do you live
near a Microcenter? You could get the 3570K + AsRock Extreme4 there for $285 + Tax. They have
many other combos to choose from also. Are you sure you NEED a full ATX mobo? Would mATX provide everything you need?
This is where I need the most help, as I'm not sure what MoBo is necessary for my needs and what is overkill. As long as it has room for the build I posted above, then it works for me. MoBo's are mainly what determine the potential to upgrade the system though, correct? If that's the case I'd like to go a little above what I need, just in case I want to make some improvements in the future. But again, I don't need anything ridiculous. Something that's designed for the mid-range specs I laid out earlier would be just fine. Compatibility is what matters most.
As for being near a Microcenter, there's one an hour and a half away from me. But with gas, tolls, and the time wasted driving, I don't know if it would be worth it to make the trip unless I was saving a couple hundred bucks in total.
That PSU calculator is a bit intimidating. NVIDIA says the 660 Ti requires a 550 PSU, so I figure 600 should be adequate. Seems to be the recommended power level for most mid-level gaming rigs in general. Thinking about
buying this one, although looking at it closer the 700 watt version is only an extra 12 bucks. Any good reason not go with the 700 then? According to the pictures they are the same size.
mortifiedPenguin wrote:IBYCFOTA wrote:Samsung 840 120GB SSD - SSD's seem to be very highly recommended, and none more so than the Samsung 840.
Careful, you may be confusing the 840 with the 840
Pro which is one of the fastest on the market right now. However, the regular 840 isn't quite as fast. For just a little bit more, you can get much closer to the 840 Pro's with a Corsair Neutron or an Intel 335 (see the last graph on
this page).
Thanks for the headsup. That explains why the 840 I was looking at was 120gb and not 128gb. A little bit of research indicates the pro has a better warranty (5 years to 3) and is more reliable, so I might go that direction instead. A bit tempting to go with the regular 840 at 250gb which is the same price as the 128gb 840 pro, but I doubt I'd be using all of that storage anyway. Anything non-pertinent can be just be stored on the 1TB hard drive.
You can see TR's Case and PSU section
here. It really depends on how much you want to spend. Many people wouldn't ever spend more than $100 on a case but there are plenty of people that would pay extra for the aesthetics. I'd suggest looking at any of Corsair's lineup and Antec is always a solid choice. Both companies actually make solid PSUs (Corsair more so than Antec recently). You should also look at Seasonic. Your system looks like it could use something in the 500W range (use a calculator to be sure, though!) but I personally like to add a little extra on top for future expansion and long term degradation of the PSU.
Looks matter less to me than being able to comfortably house everything. Most cases have some form of a cooler / fan - is this generally adequate for most mid level rigs or should I look at some kind of standalone cooler / fan? This is another aspect that has me a bit confused.
If you don't have half-way decent speakers or headphones, you might not hear a huge difference between onboard audio and discrete audio. Personally, my X-Fi Titanium sounds great when coupled with my AKG K271 MKIIs but somewhat less so with the Logitech z5300-e 5.1 system I use for most of my gaming. TR's editors recently gave their
Editor's Choice award to the Xonar DSX.
That seems to be the consensus on sound cards. I don't have a PC compatible headset yet, but I plan on making it one of my first purchases after building my PC. Also need a half-way decent set of speakers, at least to start. Sound is of some importance to me, and sound cards appear to be fairly cheap so I think I'll look into purchasing one. The Xonar DSX looks good.
superjawes wrote:Follow the advice of the gerbils above. It is good.
Now if you want advice on cases...there are tons of options. What do you want? Personally, I'm looking for something like
this for easier cable routing, good cooling, intake filters...but I'm going to be getting a lot of use out of my next case, so that might be a bit excessive. Pick out the bits you want most and any aestetic features you want and I am sure you can find something.
Very nice case. Little steep for me at the moment though. I think I'll go with one of the highly reviewed mid-tower cases in the $60-100 range. Any recommendation of one in that price range that has enough built in coolers / fans that I don't need to install anything else? Or is that not being realistic, especially given my desire to experiment with OCing?
Dpete actually hit on something good as well. Full size ATX boards are a bit excessive these days. Most people only ever use one GPU, and mATX boards still leave room for more expansion cards (like your sound card). This also means you can shink your case a bit to have a smaller footprint, be more portable if you need it, etc. There's nothing really wrong with a full-sized board, but mATX sizes might even save you a bit of money.
Good call. You and others have convinced me to get an mATX mobo instead. Going with
this one now, and about $30 cheaper too.
JustAnEngineer wrote:A Blu-ray reader / DVD writer costs only
$40. That's just $17 more than the old-fashioned DVD-only drive that you were considering.
First off, thanks for your input. I'll be sure to take all of it into consideration. As for this, I don't know if it's necessary. I already have a PS3 that is hooked up to my Panasonic Viera, and I can't forsee ever wanting to watch Blu Ray movies on my 24" ASUS over a 50" Plasma. More importantly, the reviews indicate that I still would need to purchase software to watch Blu Ray content. If it were a Blu Ray burner as well I'd buy it, but it doesn't have that capability it appears, and overall it just doesn't seem worth it in my situation.
Grape Flavor wrote:superjawes wrote:IBYCFOTA wrote:I do. Right now I'm trying to decide between Windows 7 and 8.
You're going to hear a lot of 7 around here...not a lot of 8 love. Make sure you check out any educational or home use progams your school/employer might have. You may be able to get a great discount on a license. If not, just be sure to have a copy
The 7 vs. 8 thing is vastly overblown considering the generous array of free and paid software available that both re-enables the Start Menu and allows you to boot directly to the Desktop.
Under the hood Windows 8 is a superior OS. The TR Guide recommends you take the plunge and I'm inclined to agree. Having the latest version of Windows is in the long run going to be worth the temporary hassle of understanding Windows 8 and configuring the interface towards your tastes.
I'm not even savvy with Windows 7 (been using Mac for the past several years, haven't used Windows extensively since XP), so I might just go ahead and get Windows 8 and figure it out. All I'm worried about is compatibility in terms of games and programs alike, and of course general support. If these things aren't a major issue, I think I'll go with Windows 8. Going to do some more research on it now.