$1200 Rig Advice Please

My post-rebate limit being $1200 this is the rig that I've spent a lot of time researching.  

I do plan on overclocking the processor to at least 4.0Ghz (more if cooling is good enough).  

This rig is primarily going to be used for gaming on as close to possible at max settings at a resolution of 1650 x 1080.

Any suggestions/improvements would be appreciated and thank you all in advance for your time.

Here is the PC Part Picker Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jx25

Here is the list of part links via newegg.com:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

CPU Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226223&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182131&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227757&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162109&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Optical Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146081&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

Not too bad, only 4 things stand out to me:

  •  Not sure why your skimping out on the PSU, for the same price you could get a better quality unit, here is the summary from an anantech review:

"All in all, the Rosewill Hive 550W is a decent mainstream PSU. It doesn't have any special features beyond respectable voltage quality and a remarkable case design. The Hive's strongest competition comes from XFX. The Core Edition PRO550W comes with Japanese capacitors but without modular cables. Furthermore Seasonic offers a very good PSU with 520W (M12II 520 Bronze) which is probably the best solution in this price range. Seasonic provides Japanese capacitors and modular connectors. However, the modular Rosewill Hive 550W is still an attractive offer when money is tight." Both of those units are the same price on Newegg.com

  •  I'd recommned bumping to a 120GB over a 90GB SSD

 90GB is generally a bit smaller than I would recommend, you shouldn't run in too many issues, but for an extra $15 I'd think it to be better to get a 120GB, since you will likely want to install your OS and all your main programs on the SDD, you may run out of space a bit too quickly.

  • I think you should be able to get a better performing cooler for the same price

One thing I hate about CPU Cooler reviews is that they rarely seem consistant from reviewer to reviewer, while I've seen good things about the H100 and H80, I haven't heard so much love for the H60, and at a $65 price point, I think you can do better. I recently came into possesion of a CM TPC 812, which is about the same price, but I haven't had time to test it.

Benchmarks linked should speak for themselves

Ok so I played around and pulled out a 120 gb ssd, a h80, a 7970, and a 750w powersupply

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jyBK

"sponsered by Rosewell" here (lol), the only rosewell series that I recommend are the green series (430w, 530w, 630w), capstone and Fortress series

From what I've read on multiple reviewers, the TPC 812 with the Cosair SP120 performance fans should perform as well as a H100 if not better

I'll get to work on my recommendation for you

expect it sometime tomorrow

@ClouScorpion

The reason for the 550W PSU was due to PC Part Picker giving me the estimated wattage and I wanted to pick one that was 25% more than what I would've needed after SLI'ing with 2 cards.  I didn't even think of the build quality at the time I selected it, I was bascially going off the reviews on it.  I think I'm going to bump that up to a SeaSonic M12II 620W.  Thank you for the suggestion that lead me to it.

As for the H60 I saw on a PC Build episode on Tek Syndicate that Logan recommended it and I read reviews on it and it seemed like a good investment. I took a look into the one that gigabusterEXE suggested and I like that one, unless someone can give me a good reason to get the H80 that costs more.

I had the HD7970 as my pick, but I figured that the extra power consumption wasn't worth the extra cost for the PSU that's why I went with the Nvidia equivalent.  If the HD 7970 is faster and cheaper then I'm all for it.

Also as for the 90GB SSD, the programs I have on it now don't take up more than 50gigs on my partitioned drive I have right now, but seeing as it's only $15 more to get the one that witteknokkels is suggesting I think I'll take a piece of both of your advices and get it.

@gigabusterEXE

I'm looking at that PSU Cooler as I type this and I agree with that recommendation it's only about 2 dollars more and it seems like an easier unit to install, thanks for that!

@witteknokkels

I'm definately going with your suggestion of a 120GB SSD, I had heard of ADATA thanks to the PC build vids on TekSyndicate but I didn't know they were THAT good, thank you very much for informing me.

Seeing as I only plan on going to 4.0Ghz or maybe higher if temps allow, I think gigabusterEXE's suggestion of the TPC812 will be the way to go, but again a good reason for getting an H80 might change my mind.

After looking into your suggestion of the XFX GPU (which I didn't know anything about the company) I think that's a good suggestion.

I'm curious to know why you're recommending a 750W PSU when even with 125% of estimated power usage is only 580W.  Is there a reason to having a PSU that is almost 300W more than I need that I don't know about?  So far I'm thinking of bumping that up to a SeaSonic M12II 620W, but if I can get a good reason to bump that up further I'll take a look into it.

Thank all three of you for your advice/suggestions, here is the link to the parts I'm thinking now: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jAeN

As before any suggestions are welcome, and thank you again.

I would go with your mb for overclocking but if your only going to 4.0 ghz gigi's board should be fine... and with a low OC with an SB cpu you should consider the IVE (check this one out 7zz beter coolers $119 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330 ) 

Biostar $109 after rebates http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138355

the 7970 is the better buy than the 670 Unless your trying for 3d(if so you should have 2). I would go with a different cooler like the zalman cnps11x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118091 and there's a thermaltake psu on new egg for 59 after rebate.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153153

or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139040 (better sleving)

this is a whole lot of cass for a little less http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553008 (black)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c9Cf4wfQEw you just have to deal with the orange

and look on slick deals for an ssd

I just looked at a good strong power supply with lots of headroom even if you put in a second card somewhere down the road.  Other then that there really isn't a reason for such a strong video card.

The TPC 812 cools as good as a H100, that zalman does not, I stick with quality boards like Asus that won't jank up like biostar and asrock, and with the combo deal they cost the same, so why go with lower quality for the same price, PSU is also high quality and 80+ GOLD not bronse

Asrock is owned by the same parent company as asus.  If he is overlcocking having better cooling for the power delivery vs almost zero is much more importent than the name on the board. and as for the psu I gave 2 options both by quality names.  Just because a psu is 80+ gold dosen't De facto (make) it a good quality psu. ex. 80 Plus Gold certified Thortech Thunderbolt Plus 1200 W http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCuKM6Ux4B4 I would argue that thermaltake and corsair are better psu brands than the newegg's in house brand Rosewill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewill . That zalman is 600g and has a very large surface area, but ya know that i see that the TPC has a mass of 830g, I would like to see them side by side I think the TPC 812 will win. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Zalman-CNPS11X-Extreme-CPU-Cooler-Review/1266/6

m3t4ldr4g0n you can decide and maybe you want a blue mb with all red and black parts.

seems pretty high quality to me, and so does techpower up

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Rosewill/CAPSTONE-750-M/4.html

thermal take http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/SP-730P/

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-TX750W-Power-Supply-Review/505/1

and im surprised at how well that specific rosewill psu dose.

ps not an arguement just info

 

Many of them win awards for their quality actually, hardware secrets and techpower

@gigabusterEXE

I like your rig for the most part but I have a couple of questions. I have heard and read that if you get an Ivy Bridge chip that overclocking it is a bit of an issue due to heat, the cooler that you're suggesting I assume will counteract that?  Also, I know from some of the other posts I've seen that you are a huge fan of ASUS boards and I have a basic idea why but can you elaborate a little further please?  One other thing, I've looked at that case before (Redbone) and I had originally selected it but then went with the NZXT, I can't remember why I switched, but why did you pick that one, I'd really like to know.

@Akira 4950

Yeah, I'm going to change up to a 7970 after looking further into it based on the suggestions beforehand, but thanks for the 3rd vote of approval. I'm not going for 3D, that's way more than my needs. I'm still looking into the PSU and maybe going for a different model.

@witteknokkels

That makes sense now, the overhead for the 2nd card in the future, thanks for that.

One other note, I'm not looking to show this rig off, this is just for my own personal gaming purposes so colors matching doesn't bother me really.  I would rather have a better component than a matching color scheme, but that's just my humble opinion.

Again, thank you all for your time and help!  I'll update what I'm thinking of going with in a seperate post.


Asus boards have High quality control, asrock may be the daughter company that sells cheaper motherboards with "High quality" parts but the QC is a bit lax, meaning more mistakes.  Asus makes it a standard to included Digi-VRMs on all of their boards no matter how cheap they are along with dedicated USAP USB 3.0 controllers, and after combo deal savings they are just as cheap as asrock, If I'm going to recommend something to people I can't have it blowing up or not work when they get it, that's on me if it does, sure Most of the time biostar and asrock are fine, but ALL of the time ASUS is

they gennerally Overclock better due to the highquality and type of parts but they also have a lot of overclocking feature that might not be in other brands such as MSI

The TPC 812 is 2C shy of the H100 and is quieter, it will cool it just fine

The redbone I lised has front panel USB 3.0 2x120mm side fans, a rear 120 fan, and a front 120 fan, seems pretty good cooling for 44 bucks, only problem would be is if you didn't like red

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jH5B

This is the revision based upon your sugesstions, here are the reasons.

I still feel that the ASRock board will be good enough for what I want to do, and comboed with the CPU I save about $50 off the rig that I was able to turn around into the Case and still save a few bucks

@Akira4950 - That is one of the coolest looking and functional cases I've ever seen, I really like it and it made my list.  The REDBONE suggested has no ventilation at the top as far as I can tell but if I can be proven wrong I may reconsider.

As for the PSU, I don't want my electricity bill to skyrocket, so I'm going to go with the SeaSonic M12II for now and if I need to Crossfire in the future I can always pick up the CX750 and hand me down the 620 to another computer in the house.  I am aware that the CPU and the video card are the primary players in how much electricity the computer draws but the PSU does play a part in it too.

All suggestions and constructive criticism are appreciated, thanks again!

@gigabusterEXE

Thank you for the clarifications on why you like ASUS so much.  I will probably rework my list tonight when I get home from work to include an ASUS board.  After reading your post and doing my own research on the subject I agree with you, I'd rather have a board that's proven quality and is good across the board then take a chance on a decent one.  The color scheme doesn't really bother me on the outside/lights of a case as long as it's not neon yellow or something obnoxious (lol).  My thoughts as of the time of my posting this are, go with the ASUS combo for the CPU/MoBo, and go back to the NZXT Tempest 410 case that I had before.  I remember reading that top of the case ventilation is a good addition to rotate hot air out.  I haven't totally ruled out the REDBONE though, I'll have to look into a side-by-side comparison of how the air flow works.  If I'm satisfied with how the REDBONE works I won't object to saving a few bucks and getting good quality at the same time.

Thanks again!

for the best airflow/price ratio the Rosewill FUTURE case can't be beat $54 shipped

Thanks a lot to all of you, much appreciated. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jO6x is the result.  From what I started with to what I'm going with now is a massive world of difference!

If you have a microcenter nearby, SEARCH THERE! You can get your cpu for $40 less and even the 3570k for $10 less. Some things they dont ship so its more convinient to just go to the store, that is if theres one nearby.