Building a Gaming/Balanced PC Budget is about $2300

[mtwrestling]

Hello, I am looking to build my first pc and I have been doing a lot of research but I still need help with the parts I should buy, I have a general idea but I am not sold yet. Here are the parts I'm looking at.

CPU
Intel Core i7-3770k Ivy Bridge Quad Core 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo)

Motherboard
Asus Sabertooth TUF Z77

GPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 670

Case
Corsair Obsidien 800D

Memory
Kingston HyperX DDR3 8GB RAM

Hard Drives
Samsung 830 256GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 750GB

PSU
Corsair 750W Enthusiast Series

CPU Cooler
Corsair H100

Disc Drive
Sony Blu-Ray, DVD, CD Combo Burner

 

[g-unit1111]

Good choice for GPU but I'd ditch the rest of it. The H100 is known to have issues and I'd cut back on the case. If it's a true gaming PC then the 3770K isn't needed. You can use the i5-3570K and be perfectly fine.

Try this:

Case: NZXT Phantom - $119.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII 750W - $109.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - $189.99
CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K - $239.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $33.99
RAM: 8GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 1600MHz 1.5V - $56.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $129.99
HD: 2TB Samsung Ecogreen F4 - $119.99
Optical: LG Blu Ray Burner - $89.99
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 - $399.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99

Total: $1,590.81

With the difference you can add a second 670 and a nice monitor and still come out under budget.

 

[TheBigTroll]

i would go with g-unit1111's build but i would change certain parts

1:instead of the MK2 psu, i would get the XFX XXX 750w psu. it is modular comapred to the mk2

2:you can get more oc headroom with the cooler master TPC 812

3:i would get the seagate 1tb 64mb barracuda. its faster and is slightly cheaper

4:if you are to get a 670, get the evga ftw edition or the asus directcu2 top edition cards

 

[g-unit1111]

i would go with g-unit1111's build but i would change certain parts

1:instead of the MK2 psu, i would get the XFX XXX 750w psu. it is modular comapred to the mk2

2:you can get more oc headroom with the cooler master TPC 812

3:i would get the seagate 1tb 64mb barracuda. its faster and is slightly cheaper

4:if you are to get a 670, get the evga ftw edition or the asus directcu2 top edition cards

1. I'm personally not a fan of modular PSUs - it's a myth that having less cables in your system dictates your air flow, but actually it's all in how you route your cables that will determine that. Buy a case that allows you to route cables behind the motherboard tray, that will look a lot cleaner.

2. Most average overclockers won't need that - only the most hardcore people are the ones who take their CPU beyond 4.5GHz, I can't see people who don't know what they're doing go much further.

3. That Samsung drive is a steal for the price (even with flood prices) and you won't notice the difference between 5900 RPM and 7200 RPM on a secondary storage device if you have a fast SSD as your primary.

4. As long as it's not the monster 3-slot Asus form factor you're good.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the 670 from asus is 2 slot

 

[rocknrollz]

Unfortunately, many people do not agree with closed loop water cooling. I say stick with it. The H100 will provide better cooling, especially if you want to OC. And from personal experience, closed loop systems provide a better experience overall.

~This is a personal opinion~

 

[TheBigTroll]

most air coolers can perform the same as a h100 or better. its just that water coolers has the advantage of that it allows for tall ram sticks and uses less space (although the h100 will require dual rad support)