New Gaming Rig Advice Needed

Hi all,

I'm hoping to build my first rig from the ground up by taking it slow and using web guidance. I was hoping someone here might not mind giving the following some consideration and helping me identify any issues or clashes. Advice on better component choices or good suppliers would be appreciated too!

Case

I currently have the Antec 900 case which I love, but it’s the old school version and the wire management looks a bit of a nightmare, especially as this will be my first build. Is it worth the extra to buy the much newer Antec 902 V3? This apparently comes with wire management channels etc (plus USB 3.0) which might help a noob like me.
Are there any other similarly priced options I should be considering? Or should I be looking to go up a level to the full tower Antec 1200 or Super-mid 1100 even if they cost a bit more, in order to adequately contain the following proposed build?
If you can afford the new case, go with it - both the cable management and the USB 3.0 will be nice features. As for other features, cooling and silence should both be kept in mind - dust filters especially, on all the intakes, are very very very nice.


Mobo and CPU

Mobo: I’m currently using an E6700 on an ASUS P5N32e so am I right in thinking I need to replace the mobo with an LGA1155 socket model to get an up-to-date chip?

A recommendation for a mobo with a good balance of price to performance would be appreciated as I don’t want to spend a fortune but don’t want to bottleneck other components somehow either. Thinking maybe Asus P8Z77-V LX? I will be trying my hand at overclocking if that has any impact on choice.

As far as the chipset goes I’m mainly wanting a gaming rig that will be used for some light video editing and/or photoshopping – just hobby level, nothing professional. So I’m thinking i5-3570k *Still really tempted by the i7-3770k though…)? I have an Arctic Pro Freezer 7 CPU cooler from an old PC but it was a 750 socket mobo – will that still be usable or do I need a cooler too?
You're correct for the motherboard - I highly recommend an AsRock z77 Extreme 4 or 6, both for their features and for their overclocking capabilities. As for the CPU, you hit it head on with the i5-3570k; there's no point in spending more money on the i7, as it doesn't help gaming ANY, and doesn't make that large of a difference for video or photo editing; it just reduces the render time or the time taken to apply filters. As for the CPU cooler, that's not going to have the adapter required to mount it. I'd suggest a $30 Hyper 212 EVO, which will be cooler and quieter anyways.

PSU

Antec TP-750? This one is bronze rated – is gold rating really worth paying a premium for? Will the round cables pose a major issue in terms of cable management and/or case airflow?

I was looking at some other possibilities but I really want a decent PSU that isn’t going to adversely affect overall build performance and I’ve found that it can be really hard to find a decent online supplier in the UK. Any other easily found suggestions would be appreciated.
There's no need to pay for a gold rating as long as the bronze rated PSU is of good quality. However, paying for a modular or semi modular PSU is absolutely worth it, and makes building way, way easier, as well as helping case airflow significantly. Refer to the power supply tier list for reliability, and then look on pcpartpicker for Bronze or Silver rated power supplies that are modular or semi modular. That link will only give you 500-600w PSUs, but that's because if you're only using a single graphics card, you only need a reliable 550w power supply. As for where to buy from, I'd suggest Amazon.co.uk.

GPU

I’m thinking one of the following:

Sapphire HD 7950 Boost 3072MB PCI-Express (found for £239.99)
Or
Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB GDDR5 (found for £209.99)

The second option seems like a really good card for the price. Is the performance of the former worth the extra £30? Or am I completely gimping my system with either of those choices?The 7870XT is absolutely an insane card when it comes to value, and will get you medium-high settings in modern games. However, the 7950, if you're willing to overclock it, will max out most games, if you can keep it sufficiently cool. That being said, I would suggest a 7970 or 670. They'll both max games with ease, and to me, are a better investment. Which one you should get depends on if you see yourself upgrading your monitor in the future - the 7970 gives a higher framerate, and deals with multiple monitor or high-resolution scenarios better, but it also has frame latency issues, which means the 670 is better if you foresee yourself upgrading to a 120Hz monitor in the future. If you don't see yourself doing either, I'd probably go with the 7950, since it's only 30 pounds more than the 7870 XT.


RAM

Corsair Vengence Low Profile White 8GB (CML8GX3M2A1600C9W)
Not much to say here. Good pick - I wish there were more white components on the market. (I think the mac edition 7950 is just bloody beautiful; it's a shame it's mac branded and, of course, more expensive.

Sound Card

No idea really. My old desktop has a cheap as cheap can be sound card in it and I never had any issues I can think of. Is this somewhere I can save money?If you get a decent motherboard, it'll have a pretty decent onboard sound card. That being said, I'd swap over your old sound card and do a comparison between it and the onboard codecs.

HDDs

I have no idea on HDDs really although someone at work suggested a SSD to contain my OS so I would consider that option. I do have old HDDs to move across for general data storage but I think they run at the lower RPMs – will this gimp game performance if game data is on those drives? As for the SSD, it's an AMAZING thing, if you can afford it. Just grab a 120GB Samsung 840; they're pretty cheap now, and represent good value. As for the hard drives themselves, I'd be wary of them both for speed and for reliability. You can pick up a Western Digital Blue 500GB or 1TB for $60 or $70, here in the states, and those are amazing drives. (Take them over a seagate barracuda, even though the seagate will be slightly cheaper. The western digitals are cooler, less noisy, and have a better warranty.)