Any room for minor improvements for gaming machine?

[bw85]

INTEL Core™ i5-3570K Quad-Core 3.4 - 3.8GHz TB, HD Graphics 4000, LGA1155, 6MB L3 Cache, 22nm, 77W, EM64T EIST VT-x XD, Retail

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler, Socket 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/FM1/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum

ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 All-Around Thermal Compound, Electrically Non-Conductive

ASUS Sabertooth Z77, LGA1155, Intel® Z77, DDR3-1866 32GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /1+1*, SATA 6Gb/s RAID 5 /4, 3Gb/s /4, DP + HDMI, USB 3.0 /6, HDA, GbLAN, ATX, Retail

CRUCIAL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ballistix Elite PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL8 (8-8-8-24) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

EVGA GeForce® GTX 670 915MHz, 2GB GDDR5 6008MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, 2x DVI + HDMI + DP, OEM

CRUCIAL 256GB M4 SSD, MLC Marvell 88SS9174, 500/260 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail

WESTERN DIGITAL 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5002AALX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives

SABRENT CRW-UINB Black 65-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, Internal USB

SONY AD-7280S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM

CORSAIR TX850 V2 Power Supply 850W, 80 PLUS® Bronze, 24-pin ATX12V v2.31 EPS12V 2.92, 4x 8/6-pin PCIe

MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM

Getting very close to pulling the trigger on this one. Can you guys see any last minute changes I should consider?

 

[papablista]

Nope stand back pull the trigger as see how far the bullet goes, Nice rig

 

[bw85]

Awesome, thanks a lot!

 

[Raiddinn]

Arctic Silver 5 is usually what people want for paste.

Sabretooth might be a bit overkill.

Crucial RAM and SSDs are great, keep those.

Video card, HD, PSU - whatever

I would skip the Sony DVD drive, the Asus DRW-24B1ST is better if you can find it.

Card Reader - I guess if you need one, most don't get one of these with their new computers.

Windows version - I would definitely not get this. Retail upgrade CDs are roughly 100x better than OEM System Builder CDs and they cost like $5 more.

You want the one that looks like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116713

I am not sure if that is the 64 bit one, but the same CD may have both types on it.

If it has System Builder, Anytime, or OEM written on it or does not have Upgrade written in small letters somewhere, I would get a different one.

The upgrade CDs can install from scratch just fine and they don't suck like OEM CDs do. They are also a whole lot more legal for most people.

 

[bw85]

Oh ok. I am configuring this on AVADirect. Will the Asus P8Z77-Pro be suitable? I suppose it would be a better idea to have a hard copy of Windows, in case anything should go wrong. How do I know if I need a 32 or 64-bit?

 

[Raiddinn]

Before I continue, is there any good reason you are getting this on AVA Direct and not just on www.newegg.com?

Are you intimidated by the process of putting things together yourself or do you have more money than time and you would rather let other people bother with it?

As far as which version you need, I think you should have a really really good reason to get 32 bit Windows 7 if you are going to do so. If you aren't very clear why you are getting 32 then I would get 64 without thinking about it. 64 is better for like 99.9% of people.

P8Z77 is fine for most people's purposes. I would get that unless you are 100% sure you need the capabilities that are only on the Sabretooth (which is unlikely).

If you are getting other people to set all this stuff up for you the OEM license would be legal but it would still really suck at upgrade time.

If you are doing it yourself, the OEM copy would be both illegal and it would suck at upgrade time.

If you are doing it yourself, I am pretty sure the one I listed has both the 32 bit and 64 bit CDs in it and you just have to pick which one you want to use.

 

[bw85]

Well, to be honest, I am a little intimidated by building such an expensive computer on my own (I understand "expensive" is a relative term, but as it relates to me, it's an expensive rig). And the prices AVA offers compared to Newegg isn't THAT much on some of the components I have found.

Also, the upgrade from the P8Z77 to the Sabertooth is only about $22 (again, on AVA). Can ya, in a nutshell, tell me what capabilities the Sabertooth has that the P8Z77 does not offer?

 

[Raiddinn]

There are tons of different versions of the P8Z77. I would have to know which one specifically.

I have no doubt that your computer is expensive for you, it is way better than my computer and I throw every dollar I can spare at mine.

I would, however, suggest that you just do it yourself unless the thought literally fills you with terror (it would with my wife).

You don't even really have to know a whole lot about electronics or anything, pretty much everything only goes in one place and it can only go in one way.

I guess if you are the super clumsy type and you think you might drop things or bend things or something like that it would be better to just pay someone else to do it, but there is a nice feeling of accomplishment when you learn how to do it yourself and see it come to life after you put it together.

- Edit - I just wanted to throw it out there that you did make your way here. This is one of the best places on the internet to assist you through such a do it yourself process.

 

[bw85]

Everyone has been very helpful so far! Although I do take very good care of my electronics, it's the tools I tend to be pretty heavy-handed with.

ASUS P8Z77-V PRO, LGA1155, Intel® Z77, DDR3-2600 (O.C.) 32GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /1+1*, SATA 6Gb/s RAID 5 /4, 3Gb/s /4, DP + HDMI, USB 3.0 /8, HDA, GbLAN, Wi-Fi, ATX, Retai

That there is the P8Z77 I could have in place of the Sabertooth.

In the future, I do plan to add more RAM and SLI the video card, so I am not sure if that makes a difference or not.

 

[Raiddinn]

The P8Z77-V Pro actually looks to be better than the Sabretooth unless for some reason having the airflow blocking motherboard cover makes you particularly happy.

They are pretty much the same thing except the Pro has DVI ports to the monitor built into the motherboard if you need them for troubleshooting (quite useful, actually).

The Pro motherboard has built in wireless too, which can be handy at times.

All I can see that you really lose with the Pro is the pretty little covering over the motherboard.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[korimus]

The only thing I have to contribute is, I have the Sabertooth Z77 and it is awesome. I am sure the P8Z77 is great too, but boy does the Z77 look awesome!

 

[Wastert67]

have you considered the asrock extreme 4 z77 motherboard. i looked at the specs between the asrock and sabertooth. they're pretty much identical for 100 dollars cheaper. but you do get 5 year warranty with sabertooth and it does look cooler so.lol idk. i'm also debating between these two motherboard for my second build.
Also why is you power supply 850watt. i mean 750 watt is more than enough. even for sli

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021&cm_sp=Cat_Power-Supplies-_-YTVideo-_-YT17-139-020

also you don't need 256gb ssd. trust me. its just waste of money. get your 128gb from crucial m4. for programs and operating systems. its more than enough and you'll still have 90gb left over for games and such. unless you going to play 10 games at one time. you don't really need more than 128gb. this is the arctic silver 5 that you want with arcticlean. to wipe off preinstalled thermal paste on your aftermarket heat sink fan. i'm not sure if its preinstalled but better be safe. and its pretty cheap on amazon. i got this for myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-ArctiClean/dp/B001FVI91U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339452714&sr=8-2&keywords=arctic+silver+5

also get evega gtx670 ftw edition. its over clock but stable and it almost matches the gtx680.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

and did you pick up a case yet. here is the link to a case which i think looks pretty darn cool.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119245&Tpk=storm%20trooper

good luck with your new system

 

[Wastert67]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119245&Tpk=storm%20trooper

sorry heres the link for the case. lol

 

[bw85]

Thanks for your post man! That was actually one of the cases I was considering lol. I think I would like to stick with the Asus brand, as they are who I've become to trust. For 20 bucks more I've considered getting the superclocked 670, but wasn't sure how much more heat that would produce. And I think I went with the 850 just for the sake of having piece of mind that I'd always have more than enough juice.

 

[Wastert67]

Yea. I'm about to build a computer as well. Pretty much same parts your getting. I think I'll go with Asus as well. Just for extended 2 years warranty for 5 total. BTW there is white version of storm trooper with side window they is coming this month. It's called storm stryker.
I'm sure any gpu will have heat issues if there isn't enough airflow for it. But anyway I didn't see any heat issue on the review at newegg. I'll look into it more because I'm planning on getting that card lol.

 

[bw85]

Cool man, it sounds like it will be a pretty solid rig. Ive actually been looking into getting the HAF X.