First time builders, advice please.

Looks good! I've just finished putting together my first build (so obviously don't take my advice as gospel), but for what it's worth I think you could save a bit of cash by reigning in your graphics card a bit - a 7850 should be more than enough to knock the socks off this rig. Personally, I invested in a 128GB SSD, a 2TB HDD and a slightly higher end mobo, though these are probably all non-essential. And if it's an option I'd chuck the wireless adapter in favour of a looooong ethernet cable.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Computer.aspx?name=Computer...

Check out the youtube videos on how to build a computer. Paul does a great job of explaining the whole process on building. The only thing he doesn't really cover is how to connect the case led plugs to the mobo, but it's a relatively simple process after a quick google search.

Make sure you ground yourself regularly and avoid wearing static-y clothes or working on a carpet.

You can drop the 7970 and pick up a GTX 670 FTW edition from EVGA and have better performance out of the box for less money.

With that money saved you can pick up an SSD and install your OS to it. Really adds a snap to your computer for starting and turning off. Follow guidelines about what needs to be turned off/disabled in windows and never defrag an ssd. Mushkin 120gb around $90 alongside your Barracuda.

Do you live near a microcenter by chance? www.microcenter.com

3570k can be had for 189 and 50 bucks off any z77 mobo. Good Luck

intel newer x68 and the z77 are a bit tuchy on the ram..make sure it 1.5v ram. also check the mb vendor qal list and the ram vendor web site that the ram you want to buy is on the list. also pick up an after market cooler like the 212 or a clone of the 212.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
the intel stock heat sinks and clones of it use plastic feet. not only is it had to tell if the cooler is on all the way.over time the heat and cooling will cause the plastic to weaken. a lot of people have seen over time where there cpu cooler has loosened up and they had to replace it. the ones with the metal back plate are easier to install and dont come lose over time.
some of them do a better job then the intel one but that because there a lot larger then the stock one. (larger the fan on the cooler the slower it runs for the same cooling effect..slower fans..less noise. as this your first build dont forget to pick up some Velcro or tywraps for cable management. plastic tywraps are cheaper just dont over tighten them and cut into the wires..they just need to be snug. also pick up a screw kit..with bulk OEM drives there no screws with the drives..ok if the case is screw-less one for the dvd drives. the hardest part of the build will be lining up the standoff...and putting the mb in and cable management.power and fan cables..ram and the cpu are keyed. before you put the cpu on check that there no bent pins on the cpu or the mb. you may need a magnifier to check. the sta power and data cables are l shaped key.they only click in one way.
some of the new mb like asus now put in a mb header plug that makes it almost full proof to miss-wire the case headers. the only issue most builder will hit and you wont know till you get the part...is one of the power or fan cables are to short to reach.
they do make extension cables for those issues. (had to use one for my antec 100 and z77 sabertooth mb..the 8pin power cable on the power supply was to short to reach..had to use an extender cable.). the last tip i give..get a screw driver with a tip that hold screws on to it..it a pain in the neck if a screw falls under the heat sink or mb and you got shake the case to get it to fall out...even worse on a saberthooth mb that has thermal armor and the screw falls under the amore.

Thanks for the input everyone it all helps.

ohyouknow; "You can drop the 7970 and pick up a GTX 670 FTW edition from EVGA and have better performance out of the box for less money.

With that money saved you can pick up an SSD and install your OS to it. Really adds a snap to your computer for starting and turning off. Follow guidelines about what needs to be turned off/disabled in windows and never defrag an ssd. Mushkin 120gb around $90 alongside your Barracuda. "


I like that idea, we'll see if I can talk my co-builder into it - he is rather obsessed with 'mopower right now' - or as I call it extreme overkill in regards to the gpu.

My other concern is the powersupply - good brand? is 750w enough?

Thanks all.

750w Plenty, you could probably take it down to 650w and still have room to add another graphics card down the line, if you want to go the Crossfire route. I don't know the model but Corsair are reliable.

Thanks smorizio that is all good advice. I was planning on using a 212 cooler, I will use the model you suggested, it is $5 cheaper than the one I found.

So would this be a good SSD/HD combo?

OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128G 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820227791
Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy
-$50.00 Instant
$179.99
$129.99

and

Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822152181
-$30.00 Instant
$89.99
$59.99

Great Dad! & Great advice on this thread. Cheers!

Good deal on the OCZ Vertex 4. I got my OCZ Agility 3 for much more... but that was 6 months ago.

I think we are both sold on the gtx 670 now....

Would this be the right one to get?

EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814130787

$10.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$419.99

Also before I order are there any problems/ better options with the RAM or MOBO?

Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX
Item #: N82E16820104262

$49.99

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128546

-$5.00 Instant
$149.99
$144.99

I plan on ordering about 4 hours from this post....
Thanks again all!!!

And now I've found another case I'm interested in:

COOLER MASTER HAF XM RC-922XM-KKN1 Black Mesh, Plastic, Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Item#: N82E16811119257

$119.99

I was planning on

Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Item#: N82E16811139009

$139.99

Which is the better case?

Thanks again everyone for your help, we went with the corsair case and gtx 670 ftw, components are ordered we will see how assembly goes.

Good Luck! and very glad to have been of help. Enjoy and start fragging some peeps online!

OK, parts question.

I ordered a "Bare" HDD:
Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

and this MOBO
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

and I just realized i will probably need cables to connect them since the drive is "bare" the MOBO appears to come with 2 SATA cables but will these also provide power?

I have no idea what to get....

Help please  

power comes from the sata power cables from your power supply if they have them if not you have to buy a four pin molex to sata power plug.

So that was needless panic then, the MOBO comes with data cables and my Corsair will have the power.

Thanks!

Update: By Thursday PM everything had arrived except the Monitor and OS, so we proceeded with the build starting around 6:30 and despite having no idea what we were doing, the web research and help from the forum members here had prepared us well and by 9:30 everything seemed to be in place to hook up our old monitor and try to post and enter BIOS. So we pushed the button and....

It worked first time  

Now we need the OS so we can install it, update drivers and stress test it, but so far so good.

The only thing I chickened out of was the aftermarket cpu cooler, I got as far as the thermal paste and looked at the nice pre measured lines on the intel cheapo and decided if we want to overclock later I'll think about installing the EVO.

Also I could not find anywhere on my Gigabyte MOBO to connect the cases front 1394, no biggie, I think I might have used a 1394 connection once in my life...

6/26 Update: OS finally arrived, installed that, drivers and important updates, left everything else un-updated to see what troubleshooting was required and ran basic stress tests then let my son advance stress it (online play for 8hrs straight..) and everything seems to be running flawlessly.

Thank you again everyone for all the help! We will definitely do this again!