My First Build (finalized list)

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690
Hi all. I've done 2 weeks of research and I'm about to build my first PC. It's for 1440p browsing, multiple monitors, HD movies, and moderate gaming (Civ5, CSS, nothing too extreme, but who knows I might play BF3 or 4 sometimes).

Let me know if you would suggest any tweaks. Keep in mind a few things: I don't want to SLI or overclock. Some of these items were chose for visual appeal (I know that's not super wise), and yes, I will use 6TB of storage (already using 5TBS). I CAN'T spend any more money. Also, I'd really perfer not to return anything I've purchased. Some of the stuff (PSU, HDDs) were purchased cause of crazy good 1-day deals.


  • Fractal Design R4 Black with Window ($90, going to purchase)
    SeaSonic M12II 750 ($60, purchased).
    Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX and Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.4Ghz ($260 bundle, going to purchase)
    EVGA GeForce GTX650Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB GDDR5 192bit ($170, going to purchase)
    Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 ($60, going to purchase)
    2x Seagate Barracuda 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM ($220, purchased)
    Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III internal Solid State Drive ($95, going to purchase)
 

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690
Well, the CPU and Mobo was a $260 bundle with Microcenter. I wanted a good motherboard brand (i.e., gigabyte) and I think a 3.2Ghx i5 with a cheaper mother board would have been about the same price (or just slightly less)
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Yeah, after I saw that word 'bundle', I figured it was Microcenter. Looks good to me.
I'd think about adding an aftermarket CPU cooler, even if you're not going to overclock. Much quieter, and minimal $$.
 

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690
OK. I'll definitely consider that. Any suggestions for a >$20 one? Something that looks sleak if possible. The Refine r4 is supposed to be quiet, and that's a big priority for me.
 

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690
Also, I'm thinking of picking up a ~$25 sound card, cause I've had a pair of audiophile ($400) headphones for about 6 years now and I care about sound quality.

I think I need a wifi card too? I won't be able to plug in to a router for about 3 months.
 
Looks pretty good but keep in mind the GPU will be very underpowered at 1440p if you try to play BF3/4 with any amount of eye candy.
http://www.techspot.com/review/661-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-boost-sli/page3.html
1440p requires the GPU to render 60% MORE frames than the 1200p used in the above benchmarks, so you can expect significantly less than the amount shown. Just trying to ensure expectation management.

Happy building!
 

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690


Thanks for the perspective.

That makes sense. I won't be able to 1440p game unless I have a better GPU. I might have been able to afford one, but I really wanted to invest in a nice case and things like SSDs and HDDs.



 

Brian_W

Honorable
Jun 9, 2013
173
0
10,690
UPDATE!!

Newegg has a deal today for ASUS GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 2GB. Should i get that over the EVGA GeForce GTX650Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB GDDR5? The price is the same.

I looked at the tech specs and the 650Ti boost seems to have high OpenGL 4.3 and CLock speed. What should I do? It seems that 660 must be better, right?