I had been planning to do a new build at the end of this year, and now that I haven't won the "Dear Diary" giveaway I actually have to pick out parts like a pleb. I was thinking I'd go micro-ATX because there is little to no chance I will SLI/CF and I only ever run 1-2 storage drives. I could probably get away with mini-ITX, but I'm a little scared to take that much of a plunge (I'm no expert builder). I use my PC primarily for gaming, but also for a little Windows and web development. I never do any encoding, rendering, or compute, and I never run a billion VMs. Will probably experiment with some mild CPU overclocking. Currently gaming at 1920x1200, but will hopefully pick up a 2560x1440 or better (with G-sync, perhaps?) sometime in the next year.
I'm located in the U.S. and will be shopping primarily at Amazon (have Prime) and Newegg.
Anyhow, here are the parts I've more or less settled on:
Case - Silverstone TJ08B-E (will be removing the drive cage)
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H
CPU - Intel Core i7-4770K
SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 500GB (might go down to a 250 GB)
Audio - Asus Xonar DSX
I'm open to suggestions or criticism on the above, but I'm primarily looking for advice on the rest. I'm not confident enough to have strong choices for the other parts, but here are my preferences and concerns:
PSU - Probably don't need more than 450-500W. Needs to fit within Silverstone's 160mm recommendation, be at least semi-modular, and not have any audible coil whine. And in the TJ08 I should mount the PSU upside down? Still haven't fully grasped the nuances of cooling, airflow, and the positive/negative pressure debate.
GPU - Willing to spend $300-ish. Leaning towards a 770 (the NVIDIA bundle has games I'd actually play, I'm not a BF person), but which one? Do I want an ACX cooler or a blower-style cooler?
CPU cooler - Maybe a Hyper 212 EVO? I have no experience with water coolers.
Additional case fans - Do I need them?
RAM - An 8x2 kit would be ideal if there's a decent sale. Otherwise 4x2 would probably be enough for my needs. Would it be wise to go with low-profile modules, or is that unnecessary?
I'm still combing through previous threads that people have made about micro-ATX builds and the TJ08 in particular, so I might answer a few of my own questions over time. But in the meantime, any help would be greatly appreciated!