New Gaming build, Ivy, GTX670, A$1600

[oxidised]

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: A$1600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, email, boring everyday PC usage

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, HDD

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.pccasegear.com

Country: Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel, Nvidia

Overclocking: mild only 4-4.2GHz (this build needs to last 4 years and run everyday)

SLI or Crossfire: future upgrade

Monitor Resolution: Dell 24” 1920x1200 (new) + 2x Syncmaster 1440x900 (old)

Additional Comments: My old AMD Athalon Dual 64 with a Nvidia 7600GT housed in a Coolmaster Centurion case has been great, but it is about to hit its 6th birthday and desparately needs replacing as it no longer handles any modern games!
Used to run dual screens at 1440x900, which I will keep as aux displays. Have picked up a DELL U2412m on sale to use as main monitor.
Will rebuild from ground up and I generally leave my PC on 24/7 (too lazy to turn off – though new SSD make make boot times a tad more bearable!). I play MMO’s and RTS type games (SWTOR, Starcraft, Civilisation etc) don’t like first person shooters. Build needs to last at least 4 years as I won’t have the opportunity to regularly upgrade.

Below is my current ideas based on reading lots of threads on this forum, any comments are much appreciated.
Also note, I can get parts via my IT manager at work straight from distributers, so use PCCASEGEAR as a reference, but my final price will be a touch cheaper.

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CPU – Ivy bridge I5 3570k $245

Motherboard – ASUS P8Z77-V $199
My old board was ASUS and very happy with it, reviews all seem good, but noticed a lot of Asrock getting recommended, any benefits of going Asrock instead of ASUS?

RAM – Corsair Vengeance CML8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $65
I think I have chosen the correct RAM?

Cooling – Corsair H60 $99 OR Coolmaster Hyper 212 EVO $39
Been trying to evaluate benefit of closed loop vs air, any thoughts?

Graphics – ASUS GTX670 $519 OR EVGA GTX670 $499
This is the price point and quality of card I am after, very confused over brand? As mentioned I have been happy with ASUS in the past.

SSD – SanDisk Extreme 120Gb - $129 (cheap) OR Crucial M4 128Gb $169 (lots of recommends on this forum) OR Samsung 830 128Gb $199 (higher quality? expensive?)
Again quite confused over SSD’s. Have a read a bit and would like the better quality with synchronous NAND etc, thoughts on which is best as a boot/program drive?

PSU – Corsair TX-650M Modular - $135
Should have enough grunt for x2 GPU in the future?

Case – Antec 900 Two V3 $135
Would love to get a Coolmater case (HAF 912, 922, Storm Enforcer, etc) but I am limited to a case width of 210mm, so CM doesn't work (unless I completely rearrange study). This Antec seems to be the best of the options that include USB 3 on the front, have big fans and generally look good! Love the LED’s! Another option could be Corsair Carbide 400R $125

Optical Drive – Samsung SATA DVDRW $22

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Total ~ A$1528

Did I miss anything? Extra cables, fans, etc
Thanks in advance for all your replies
Oxidised.

 

[hopz]

The build looks pretty solid. I would make a couple changes.

-Motherboard, I would go Asrock, generally can get a little cheaper, great quality/reliability and if anything does go wrong they have good customer service.

-The 212 EVO is perfect for a 4-4.2Ghz OC, if you want to above that you would need to get a different cooler.

-For the GPU, go with EVGA, a lot more reliable and much better service.

-For the SSD, I wouldn't go with the sandisk, have hard the crucial M4 is good, and the samsung is always good and reliable, but more pricey. You also might want to look into mushkin, it's cheap but suppose to be really good and reliable (they just had a new bios upgrade).

-PSU 650 is plenty for 1 GPU, but you want to SLI in the future I would bump up to 750W.

-The Antec 900 does look cool. But I heard it has a lot of cable management issues. I would personally go with the Corsair 400r or 500r. They are really nicely designed, and the fan speed controller on them is awesome. If you really like the Coolermasters they just released a new mid case a couple weeks ago, the HAF XM I believe, it looks pretty good. not sure if fits in your size though.

I'm also about to purchase a relatively similar build, you can check it out if you like.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19187772

 

[oxidised]

Thanks Hopz, very helpful comments. Will bump up PSU and have another look at the motherboards. Your build looks pretty good too!

 

[Why_Me]

Like Hopz pointed out you want a 750w psu in order to push two of those 670's. Corsair, XFX, Seasonic, Silverstone, Enermax or Antec.

That Sandisk SSD is a bloody steal for Oz prices and I would jump all over that in a heart beat.

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10476/kw/SanDisk%20Extreme%20SDSSDX-120G-G25 <---- that's a recent firmware update that was just released for that Sandisk SSD. Make sure you upgrade your firmware.

Corsair 400R > Any Antec case. That 400R is a beauty of a case that comes with everything you could want.

CM EVO cpu h/s if you don't plan on doing any extreme over clocking. And over clocking these IB cpu's nets you about zero gain in regards to gaming (FPS).

Everything else looks good.

 

[oxidised]

Thanks heaps for the reply Why_Me, Corsair TX-750M Modular PSU now in the list, the Corsair 400R and CM EVO 212, along with EVGA GTX670

Will be putting the order in tomorrow with some confidence of having a nice shining machine that will fly... especially compared to the snail I am typing on right now!