First Time PC Builder; help appreciated

Portagus D Ace

Honorable
Jul 2, 2013
7
0
10,510
As title states, this is my first time ever trying to build a PC. So the following build may not be that great. As such, I'd like some advice in how to improve upon it.

My preferences:
I want a intel core i7 system.

My budget:
$1200 - $1400 (I'd prefer it being as close to the lower end as possible)

What I will do on this PC:
- CAD work (solidworks, autocad, etc.)
- Gaming (do a lot of this)
- Movies (I have 2TB worth of HD movies/shows I’ve been dieing to watch in HD quality)
- Music listening
- School work and job work

My build:
Operating System: WINDOWS 7 Home Premium 64 bit

CPU:
Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502

Motherboard:
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821

RAM/Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

Storage:
*Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
**SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147188

* I want to use this as the pc’s main hard drive (the one that stores doc files, etc.)
** I want to use this as the pc’s boot drive (similar to the newegg pc build part #1)

Case:
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN3-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and Black Interior
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

Power Supply Unit:
CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply & New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

Optical Drive:
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Video Card:
NEED HELP HERE! Don’t know much about choosing this part. Your guys’ recommendations are appreciated.

BUILD COST SO FAR: $1021.92

I dunno if this build needs an additional cooling fan as the motherboard already includes 2 fans, the case has one large one. the CPU comes with one too (not sure if this is enough to keep cpu as cool as possible so it doesn't damage itself)

QUESTIONS:

1) Is this a reasonable/good build? As in does it work? If not, how do I make it work?
2) What video card should I choose for this build?
3) Do I need a different CPU fan or is the included fan sufficient enough? I mean, there are already 2 fans on the motherboard and a large fan on the case. Is it really necessary?
4) Does my PSU have enough power for the system? Not sure how to pre-calculate the amount of power generated by the system to find the right PSU.



 
Solution
Your build looks fine, but if you plan on doing cad, you're going to need at least 16g of memory. Depending on your personal needs in gaming (resolution, eye candy, fast fps, etc), a gpu could range from a GTX 650ti boost to a Radeon 7870le Tahiti.

The sabertooth is a bit of overkill, IMO and you could downgrade that a tad and have room for a better gpu.

Mark
Your build looks fine, but if you plan on doing cad, you're going to need at least 16g of memory. Depending on your personal needs in gaming (resolution, eye candy, fast fps, etc), a gpu could range from a GTX 650ti boost to a Radeon 7870le Tahiti.

The sabertooth is a bit of overkill, IMO and you could downgrade that a tad and have room for a better gpu.

Mark
 
Solution