for my first build...

[anfor68]

well, I have a lot of questions to ask

right now I have:

OCZ Mod Xtreme 600W PSU

PNY nVidia GeForce GTX 550Ti

(or should I buy a new GPU?)

and I have one optical drive

this is what I'll buy

Asus P8Z77-V motherboard

Intel i5-3570

Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced case

and my friend has a Samsung 840 Series 250GB SSD that he doesn't need

I'm not sure about overclocking, if I want to overclock, I'll switch my CPU to i5-3570K

but is there a necessity to overclock a CPU? what is the significant benefit and reason to overclock?

also, I have a mATX case(from a crappy computer that we bought long time ago) that's just rolling around my house and I thought I can use it, meaning I would have to buy a mATX motherboard. so I've got 2 in mind and can't tell the difference between them.

Asus P8Z770-M and -M Pro

what are the features of -M Pro that the -M doesn't have?

or should I actually go with the build I introduced in the beginning?

and I have one last question. and this might or might not be relevant to the build. if I want to overclock my CPU, should I buy a water cooling system(Corsair H100i) or an aftermarket air cooler?

thanks in advance

by the way I'm still in high school, so I'm on a really tight budget of $600

[Guest]

The P8Z77 motherboards are fairly high end boards; possibly not suited considering your budget restraints. At the moment for me the Asus website is derping out so I can't link you to the comparison tool on there which is the easiest way to pick the differences.

Keep in mind that you'll need an after market cooler if you plan to OC but you can get a Z77 and K series and then get the cooler further down the road when you have the money. I don't see anything wrong with the P8Z77V with a 3570K and then the other hardware you listed there. Hopefully Asus fixes their stuff soon so you can use the comparison tool - it's easier than doing it with retail store spec lists.

[Sean]

Overclocking is even better for tight budgets, because you can get much better performance for less cost. It is certainly not a necessity, but it does make a big difference on performance.

The first difference I see between the motherboards is that the Pro has SLI support, but since you aren't using that it won't effect you. The other difference is that the pro LOOKS (I can't see in the specs to verify this but this is what I see on the pictures) like it has 8 phase power, while the other is 4 phase. The 8 phase will be slightly more efficient/better for overclocking.

The only reason to not use your other case is if it doesn't have room for everything, if it does, then I see no reason to spend unnecessary money, M-ATX won't limit you before your budget does.

And for the cooling, I'd definitely go with air cooling. It will be less of a concern to fit in your case (make sure it has the height clearance though) and you will get enough performance. For less than the price of an H100i, you could get a really high end air cooler that do more than enough to control temperatures.

[cxz]

What is your limit on this build? Also no matter what I would get an after market cooler. The OEM ones are super loud. lol Ol' faithful the cooler master hyper212 evo should at least be something you look into. Plus you can over clock with it, but don't go crazy.

[Crowcore]

Overclocking is even better for tight budgets, because you can get much better performance for less cost. It is certainly not a necessity, but it does make a big difference on performance.

The first difference I see between the motherboards is that the Pro has SLI support, but since you aren't using that it won't effect you. The other difference is that the pro LOOKS (I can't see in the specs to verify this but this is what I see on the pictures) like it has 8 phase power, while the other is 4 phase. The 8 phase will be slightly more efficient/better for overclocking.

The only reason to not use your other case is if it doesn't have room for everything, if it does, then I see no reason to spend unnecessary money, M-ATX won't limit you before your budget does.

And for the cooling, I'd definitely go with air cooling. It will be less of a concern to fit in your case (make sure it has the height clearance though) and you will get enough performance. For less than the price of an H100i, you could get a really high end air cooler that do more than enough to control temperatures.

Anfor, you most certainly will not have enough room is the old case you describe for a decent air cooling solution. If you plan to overclock, take the Corsair H60 v2. If not, the included Intel cooler is fine for now. Like mentioned, it is quite loud, but you can always replace it in a year or so, when you'll get the money.

Also, overclocking makes no difference in games, as current CPUs are not bottlenecking our video cards. You will benefit from it if you use photo or video-editing programs, do a lot of file compression or music file conversion.

[anfor68]

thanks for the replies!!! have decided to not overclock because my primary use is games and school stuff as crowcore said. and noise is not my biggest concern for me. but my house gets really hot during the summer, and even in winter it's like 75 degrees in fahrenheit(that's how my computer died...) my mATX case is made of steel, and have NO place to put fans except the one on the back which seems to be a 90mm or a 100mm fan. I've decided to go with the -M as I'm not overclocking nor SLI. I'm still deciding what to do with my cooling solution with the problem I addressed.

and one last question I have is my graphics card. should I upgrade to a more reasonable card or just keep it for now? and what graphics card would you recommend if you want me to upgrade? other than that thanks again for answering the questions I had for a long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

If it's holding for now I recommend leaving it until both the AMD 8000 and NVidia 700 series are released and upgrading then either to a new card or a previous generation (current at the moment) as they'll have dropped in price.

[Crowcore]

At what screen resolution do you play ? If 1440x900 or less, the 550 Ti is fine. Otherwise it will be impossible to run current games smoothly at Ultra.