Seeking advice and opinions on new build

[Hotblack Desiato]

Approximate Purchase Date: In the next week or so.

Budget Range: $1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: surfing the internet, music, watching streaming video, gaming

Parts Not Required: moniter

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: intel processors

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No, unless cost effective in budget and worth it.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I want cold temps.

I am passing my old build on in my family and am looking to build a new system for general use and some gaming, older games (i.e. Half-Life 2-ish stuff), but at high resolution (1920 X 1200). The old system is an E8400 with a HD4850 video card in a Rosewill mid-tower case. I have had some temperature problems in the old case especially with the video card as it gets above 100 C quickly when gaming (it will be going to a non-gaming person in my family). So, I am looking to keep temps way down if possible. I want to keep the cost at around $1500. Please let me know what you think of this proposed build...

CASE: Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Mid-Tower Gaming Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139007

A full tower is just too big. This case is bigger than a traditional mid-tower, so more space for cooling and the wire management looks great for a clean build, plus I think it looks good. I want something bigger than what I have and all the AZZA and Antec mid-towers are about the same size as my current case.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128505
I know that the cache feature is hotly debated as to its usefulness, but the SSD on the board comes at a bit of a discount when bought with the board and as you will see I only plan to cache the HDD storage drive for limited gains.

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136794
Data storage drive.

SSD: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441
Boot drive only with some applications so 64GB should be enough.

PSU: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

Optical Drives: LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
AND
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
I like having two optical drives, one retail for the software, even though it is old, for $4 more could be worth it, if not no loss.

Video Card: SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100314VXSR Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102925
Powerful enough and cool, hopefully.

CPU Cooler: CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016
Looks great keeping the middle of the case open for air flow, fits the case I like, seems to keep CPU cool well in reviews.

Case Fans and Controller: 4 Rosewill RFA-120-K 120mm Case Fans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200048
For the mesh side panel of the case, maybe one intake and 3 exhaust? I want it cold in there.

NZXT Sentry Mesh Fan Controller w/ Five 30 watts Channels
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992007
Works and matches case

If you have stuck with me this far thank you, and I appreciate your input.

 

[Hotblack Desiato]

Either I have designed the perfect build, or I am about to start feeling really unloved. Nobody has any opinions for me? Pretty please. With sugar on top. Don't make me beg. Okay, I am begging.

 

[9_breaker]

a solid state drive isn't that necessary . instead of getting one you could crossfire two 6850's otherwise this is a realy good build for its price.

 

[9_breaker]

here is a better performing and better looking case and if you dont want to scrap the ssd but you want the two 6850's try this

 

[Hotblack Desiato]

Thanks for your ideas. Shouldn't one 6870 be good enough to run Half-Life 2 or old Call of Duty games at 1920 x 1200 without issues? Crossfire just seems like overkill for me, right? On the SSD side I would rather the system start up 10 seconds faster than for it to play the latest games at insane levels. I am thinking of waiting until Labor Day weekend now to see if I can get some sale deals on this build. And maybe dropping the motherboard with the ssd on-board (switching to the same model without the ssd) and using the difference in price to get the 128GB version of the ssd, good idea or not?

 

[9_breaker]

yes at about 35 fps on max settings with drx9 im not sure about drx11 but it will run smooth on medium settings