Planning a new build! Tips/Advice welcome AND needed

[forthisgift]

First of all, thanks for opening the topic.

Bit of a preface. This is meant first and foremost to be a gaming rig but I want to keep the grand total ~$1500 with wiggle room of about $100. Parts not listed are going to be re-used from my previous build, i.e. the monitor, keyboard, mouse, disk drive, etc. Again, thank you for your consideration in helping me.

Case - Corsair's Obsidian 650D (non-negotiable)

You know how it is with some things. I fell in love with the look and layout of the case. Yea, the USB 3.0 pass-through nonsense is a bummer but it's EXACTLY what I wanted in terms of how a case should look.

Motherboard - Asus's Sabertooth Z77 (very negotiable)

I spent LOTS of time doing research for the build in general but there were certain things that left me with more questions than answers. Motherboards is one of them. I just want mid-level board that good for gaming and will handle CPU overclocking well. Was thinking of going with the Maximus V Formula but it was just a bit out of my price range and I'm not too thrilled about the idea of having the smaller Maximus V Gene in there looking tiny with few PCI/PCI-E slots. Aesthetics does matter to me if I can afford to care about it.

CPU - Intel's i5-3570k (negotiable)

Felt the i7 was unnecessary. The minuscule gains you get with games don't warrant the extra ~$100 dollars it'd cost considering I do ZERO editing or anything like that which would make use of more cores. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

CPU Cooler - Corsair's Hydro Series H100i water cooler (negotiable)

Pricey, yes. But I'd like to overclock and I don't want a chunky air cooler obstructing the view of the mobo/everything else. If you know of another product that is equal or better and cheaper I'm all ears : )

GPU - HiS's Radeon HD7970 Ghz Edition (somewhat negotiable)

I said 'somewhat' negotiable because I'm afraid to provoke any Nvidia vs AMD fighting. I either want a 7970 Ghz Edition card or a GTX 680. I can't afford to get GTX690 style crazy but I still want the best single processor GPU I can find for a reasonable amount. The card I listed seemed to fit the bill. I'm not particularly thrilled with the PCB color of the card and I've no experience with HiS as a company so, yea. Last card was MSI and I never had any problems with it. Just want a great card for $400-$500 from a reputable company.

Power Supply - Corsair's HX750 (very negotiable)

Figured 750 watts would be more than enough for OC'ing the CPU and having a single GPU set-up. I literally did next to no research on this item. I had one in my previous build, loved it, but want a fresh/new one. Maybe there is something better and cheaper out there?

RAM - 2x 4gb of Corsair's 1600mhz Vengeance RAM (negotiable)

8gb is more than enough I'm sure. Not like I'll be running 12 programs at once or anything. Though, I'm interested about tips on higher speeds in RAM. Is it worth it?

Storage - 1 - OCZ Vertex4 128gb SSD & 1 - Western Digital 1TB black. (negotiable)

Pretty straightforward I think. SSD for high-priority games/software and OS. the 1tb black for everything else.

So that about wraps it up. Comments are much appreciated : )

[Dave :)]

Couple things: Motherboard: I wouldn't recommend the sabertooth - yes, it's a good board, however the hike in price is really unjustified. The MSI Mpower Z77 is a great choice, as is This, there are others, this Asus Board for example, and they all come under the price of the sabertooth.

Power Supply: 750W is unnecessary. This Seasonic x650 is more than suffice, and a much better unit over the HX750. Even then, 650W is overkill, but still, great unit.

Other than that, your choices seem fine. The graphics card will always cause debate, however you should have no problems with that card in particular. The SSD is a good choice, have you looked at possibly a 256GB version, seeing as you may have some spare cash if you don't go for the Sabertooth?

[greenroost1445]

instead of the hx750 you could get an hx650 plus it's $20 less on newegg

[forthisgift]

Couple things: Motherboard: I wouldn't recommend the sabertooth - yes, it's a good board, however the hike in price is really unjustified. The MSI Mpower Z77 is a great choice, as is This, there are others, this Asus Board for example, and they all come under the price of the sabertooth.

Power Supply: 750W is unnecessary. This Seasonic x650 is more than suffice, and a much better unit over the HX750. Even then, 650W is overkill, but still, great unit.

Other than that, your choices seem fine. The graphics card will always cause debate, however you should have no problems with that card in particular. The SSD is a good choice, have you looked at possibly a 256GB version, seeing as you may have some spare cash if you don't go for the Sabertooth?

Thanks for the quick response : )

- Of all those motherboards you posted the MSI Mpower z77 definitely caught my eye the most. It would look AWESOME with MSI's Radeon HD7970 Lighting. I'll look into the specs for each individually in a bit

- At the moment the HX750 and the Seasonic you mentioned are the same price but if you believe the Seasonic is a better unit I'll take your word for it.

- I actually did look at larger SSD's. I was hoping to have enough money for OCZ's new Vector series 256 gb SSD. I hear it's leaps and bounds above everything else out at the moment.

[forthisgift]

instead of the hx750 you could get an hx650 plus it's $20 less on newegg

Is that the one you use? Just curious if you had personal or experience or anecdotal info. Saving money on the motherboard with daves advice getting the cheaper MSI Mpower Z77 and using the hx650 saving another $20 could make putting the more expensive MSI 7970 Lightning in the case to color match some parts would be pretty neat. the hx650 and x650 are getting similar reviews though I'm hearing that the x650 has some slight coil whine and the hx650 has some similar weird noise issue : /

[Dave :)]

instead of the hx750 you could get an hx650 plus it's $20 less on newegg

Most PSUs will have coil whine, the x650 uses the same internals as Corsair's AX line up (Seasonic is Corsair's OEM) and I haven't heard awful stories from them, it is a very well regarded unit. Also, the x650 is fully modular, a big, big bonus over the HX for cable management.

[Guest]

As pointed out, the motherboard and PSU are really the only two points of change on this build. Everyone has their own preference for a PSU and mine is the Silvestone Strider Plus if you're on a budget. They're fully modular and really reliable and the 600w is only like $105?

As for your board, the fans that are on the board to provide cooling are really really noisey and quite noticeable. The thermal armour is a gimmick and as a whole, it's a good board but overpriced. You could get more features for the same or lower price with their P8Z77 boards. Otherwise as Dave suggested, the MSI MPower Z77 is a good choice.

It's good to see that peoples build plans are getting more and more sensible for what they actually need - well done :)

[forthisgift]

instead of the hx750 you could get an hx650 plus it's $20 less on newegg

sounds good to me. Seasonic's x650 it is! Thank you.

[Dave :)]

As pointed out' date=' the motherboard and PSU are really the only two points of change on this build. Everyone has their own preference for a PSU and mine is the Silvestone Strider Plus if you're on a budget. They're fully modular and really reliable and the 600w is only like $105? As for your board, the fans that are on the board to provide cooling are really really noisey and quite noticeable. The thermal armour is a gimmick and as a whole, it's a good board but overpriced. You could get more features for the same or lower price with their P8Z77 boards. Otherwise as Dave suggested, the MSI MPower Z77 is a good choice. It's good to see that peoples build plans are getting more and more sensible for what they actually need - well done :) [/quote']

The Strider is also a very good choice, so if you want to save a bit more, go for that one. :)

[forthisgift]

As pointed out, the motherboard and PSU are really the only two points of change on this build. Everyone has their own preference for a PSU and mine is the Silvestone Strider Plus if you're on a budget. They're fully modular and really reliable and the 600w is only like $105?

As for your board, the fans that are on the board to provide cooling are really really noisey and quite noticeable. The thermal armour is a gimmick and as a whole, it's a good board but overpriced. You could get more features for the same or lower price with their P8Z77 boards. Otherwise as Dave suggested, the MSI MPower Z77 is a good choice.

It's good to see that peoples build plans are getting more and more sensible for what they actually need - well done :)

Right, I was never really convinced on anything regarding motherboards. Of what feels like dozens and dozens of boards I researched I can't remember reading about the MSI MPower Z77. Really happy it was mentioned because, after reading about it and loving its overall aesthetic, I'm totally sold on it. I've heard great things about your PSU's company. The best I've been able to figure is that 650 watts is more than enough and I suppose I'll take it from there, haha. Leaning towards the Seasonic that Dave mentioned, though. Also, thanks for the compliment : ) Trying to keep a level head about all this because it's really easy for me to get carried away making hypothetical x79 builds with SLI that end up pricing out at ~$4,000... yea, no.