First Build - Needs Advice

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lonewolfassault

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Aug 12, 2013
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Original Post
Thanks for looking. Today I started putting together a build for what I hope will be a good gaming pc on a decent budget. This is the first time I've ever attempted to build my own desktop, so I know there will be some problems and faults that need fixing. I have a decent technological knowledge and I'm hoping I haven't put together some horrible abomination!

On the list below, I'm looking for advice, dos, and do nots.

Case - COOLER MASTER HAF X Blue Edition RC-942-KKN3 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Black Interior and Four Blue LED Fans-1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 200mm top fan, 1x 200mm side fan, and 1x 230mm front fan

Cooling System - COOLER MASTER Seidon 120M RL-S12M-24PK-R1 Performance All in One Liquid/Water CPU Cooler

Power - AZZA Dynamo 850 850W ATX & EPS 12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-32GXM

Processor Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K

Graphics - GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Harddrives - SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD500BW 2.5" 500GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD5000HHTZ 500GB 10000 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

Cd/DVD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136259

And links for all the above

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119239

Cooling System - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103179

Power - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817517003

Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128592
-Ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231569

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901

Graphics - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

Harddrives - SSD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147190
- HDD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236244

CD/DVD Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136259

Wireless Adapter - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127460


This pc is supposed to be designed to take on a heavy game load with great video and speed. Any advice on the build is greatly appreciated, especially if anything is redundant, or especially missing. Thank you again! ~LWA

First Edit
EDIT1: Thank you all for the quick replies and advice. Following quite a bit of it, I have these changes -

For the PSU - I went with the seasonic as Geofelt suggested. Admitedly, I had very little information to work with in choosing this, and the change is very appreciated.

Cooling I took from Tiny Voices suggestion, and I couldn't think to find a better model than what was posted, so that is the one I went with. I like the low sound feature and the efficiency being the same if not better is highly enticing.

For the HDD and SSD setup, I went with a 1TB HDD, and toned down the SSD to a 120gb. I anticipate that 120gb of SSD will be fine for the OS and for whatever game/games I will be playing at the time, and I can manage storage of the rest on the HDD. If my assumption on that is wrong, let me know.

The Ram was toned down from 32 to 16. In afterthought, I agree, 32 is just a little insane, and I likely will cap out before I ever hit it. I'm more comfortable with a higher amount, but fully agree that 32 is just being too ram happy.

Finally, the GPU was changed from what I had to a GTX780 as per Geo's and Tiny's suggestions. Once again, an area that I didn't have a whole lot of information on and appreciate the help.

I am keeping the I7 vs the I5 as per personal preference for power but still appreciate the comments on it. I recognize that there is alot of money saving in downgrading.

Here are the Links

PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118

Cooling - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&Tpk=coolermaster%20hyper%20212%20evo

HHD - SSD
HHD - Seagate 1tb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148784
SSD - Samsung 120 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247

Ram (Tone down to 16) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568

GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125471

Final?(Hopefully) Edit and Build.

So after getting advice from lots of helpful users, making changes, and tweaking the build, this is now the review design before finalizing and ordering. As I have said before, any suggestions, advice, and pointers are always appreciated.

Parts will have base description first, followed by links.

Case
COOLER MASTER HAF X Blue Edition RC-942-KKN3 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Black Interior and Four Blue LED Fans-1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 200mm top fan, 1x 200mm side fan, and 1x 230mm front fan

Cooling
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+

PSU
SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Ram
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM

Processor
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K

GPU
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351VXSR Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Hard Drives
SSD - SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
HDD - Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0011 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive

CD/DVD Drive
LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM

Wireless Adapter
D-Link DWA-548 Wireless N300 Desktop Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates WPA2

Links

Prices are included to the left side.
210 Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119239

34 Cooling - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&Tpk=coolermaster%20hyper%20212%20evo

100 PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118

160 Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128592
123 -Ram - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568

340 Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901


385 GPU - Saphire http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

Harddrives - HHD - Seagate 1tb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148784
140 110 - SSD - Samsung 120 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247

20 CD/DVD Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136259

30 Wireless Adapter - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127460

1625

 
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tiny voices

tiny voices

Titan
Sep 6, 2012
34,175
5
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This is all wrong.

That PSU is trash. Get one from Antec, XFX, Corsair, Seasonic.

Get an i5. there is no benefit to an i7 for gaming. Just wasting money.

Get an air cooler like the coolermaster hyper 212 evo. it will cool as well as that liquid cooler and make no noise at all.

Get a 120gb SSd and a 1tb HDD. SO MCUH wasted money there.

32gb rAM is stupidity. 4gb is all that any game needs and most games use 2gb. get 8gb and call it a day. it is more than you will even need.

Use ALL the saved money to get a better GPU. It makes no sense to waste money on all that useless junk and only have a GPUt hat will play medium settings.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,298
4,146
174,240
I think you should reallocate your budget.

1. 4770K is good, but since few games use more than 2-3 cores, save $100 and use a 4670K instead.
2. The graphics card is the real engine of gaming. In this case, a GTX660 is inappropriate. It should be GTX770, or even a GTX780.
3. No game, by itself, will use more than 2-3gb. 8gb is the norm, but since ram is cheap, I do like 16gb. Windows will keep more in ram available for instant reuse. But a 2 x 8gb kit. 1600 speed is fine. If you really want 32gb, you will need more than windows home premium which is limited to 16gb.
4. I do not like liquid coolers when a good air cooler will do the job. Particularly for a first time build.
A good air cooler will be cheaper, quieter, more reliable, and cool just as well in a good case like yours. I might suggest a $30 cm hyper212, or for top cooling, noctua NH-D14 or Phanteks @$80
5. I love the Samsung 840 500gb pick. That is probably all you will ever need. I might defer on the hard drive, it is easy to add one later. And, when or if you do, there is little value in the velociraptor. They were good in their time for the os because of the reduced seek times that came with 10k rpm. The ssd is 50x faster there. For bulk storage, something like a WD black will be cheaper and have better sequential transfer rates.
6. A graphics card as good as a GTX780 needs only a 575w psu.
I do not know about the quality of AZZA as a psu. I suggest you stick with a tier 1 or 2 unit from this list:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
Seasonic is my favorite. I might suggest this 650W unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118
 
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ncasolo

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Aug 7, 2012
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Pretty much everything he just said. I saw 32GB of RAM and an i7 CPU and I figured I was looking at a $2,000 build. Then I saw the GPU and have to say WTF?

You're going to create a bottleneck with that CPU and GPU combo. Your CPU will be able to massively out-perform your GPU thus limiting what benefit you get from your CPU.

I recommend an i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM. More than 8 is a waste. Liquid cooling is fine if you want to go nuts on overclocking. However, for a first timer I would not recommend going nuts. Get a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and do a nice OC and you'll be fine. As far as a GPU that's completely up to you, but I would look for something in the $300-$400 range. I prefer AMD cards so I would recommend a 7970 Ghz edition, but I don't know a ton about the NVidia cards.

 
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ncasolo

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Aug 7, 2012
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I would also add that for an SSD ~120gb-250gb is more than enough. Anything over that becomes a huge waste. You don't need to store any media files on your SSD. Only your games and Operating system. Unless you have 100 games installed at once (which why would you there's no way you play them all at the same time so uninstall some if you run short on space) that's more than you need. As far as your secondary HDD don't spend needless money on a performance HDD. A nice basic 1TB storage drive will do fine. It will take pretty much no time to open an MP3 file or movie from that drive. A faster HDD won't make your gaming experience any better (that's what the SSD is for... faster load times).

 
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L

lonewolfassault

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Aug 12, 2013
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10,510
Post has been edited and changes have been made. Thanks for the feedback. I think I've gotten some improvements in there.

Any continuing advice is appreciated for feedback and fine tuning.
 
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ncasolo

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Aug 7, 2012
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I have to chuckle a little bit. You went from a $100 GPU to a $700 GPU. I'll say this. There are minimal performance increases when you reach the top end of a particular piece of hardware, but the increases in price are drastic. The difference between a $150 video card and a $200 video card is probably about the same difference as a $400 video card and a $680 video card. This becomes a matter of personal preference. You can get pretty similar performance out of a $300-$400 card that you can out of the card you selected. It just becomes a matter of if that added increase in price is worth it to you.

Like you said with the i7 CPU the potential for added performance is worth it (I would say with current gen games there really isn't a difference). If it is worth it on the video card as well go for it.

My preference when building a PC is to spend $1000 now and another $1000 in 2 years. I spend $2000 every 4 years and when I upgrade in 2 years I'm probably running quite a bit faster than the guy who spent $2000 up front.

 
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lonewolfassault

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Aug 12, 2013
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10,510
I do agree, it is somewhat laughable when it is put like that. I will attempt to shop around a bit. Though all the help here is really working to fine tune this process.

I'm going to start looking, but any particular products on toning down the graphics while keeping close to the same power?
 
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ncasolo

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Aug 7, 2012
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I would look at whatever costs ~$400 right now and then look for articles comparing the different manufacturers. I believe an AMD 7970 Ghz edition card fits that bill for AMD cards and a different type of 780 will fit the bill for the NVidia cards. I'm not as up to date on the current cards to be able to be much more specific than that. I just know when you look at bang for your buck the highest end hardware has seriously diminishing returns. It is true of CPUs, GPUs, Motherboards, HDDs etc.

 
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lonewolfassault

Honorable
Aug 12, 2013
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After hunting around a bit, I came up with two possibles that I could work with and would appreciate a reference check by people more experienced.

The present card is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125471

The two possible changes are
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121716
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

Obviously there is a severe drop in price, but what I care about most is how much a drop in performance I would be looking at. From my complete lack of knowledge and just looking at the details section, it seems to me that the ability of the cards is not vastly different, yet the price is greatly reduced on the AMD cards.

As always, any info on this is great.
 
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ncasolo

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Aug 7, 2012
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In this case I think the gains are worth the extra money for the 7970 Ghz edition. Though the 7950 is a great card (I have an HIS 7950) that'll run everything on high that isn't on the market.
 
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L

lonewolfassault

Honorable
Aug 12, 2013
10
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10,510
Budget is certainly not a problem, but I do like what Ncasolo suggested earlier. While I won't be at 1000$, I can certainly hang around the area and develop the pc as time goes by with upgrades every now and then.

That is a great GPU, and it reminds me of the Titan itself which is just way too awesome and insanely expensive, but for now I don't mind staying with the 7970 mentioned above. Great advice all around though and I'll put together the "final"(hopefully) build in a edit of the first post soon.
 
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