First Build in 10 years - $1500ish Gaming PC

[k2climberOR]

This will be my first build in over 10 years. I'm looking to spend around $1500 (give or take a couple hundred).

Uses (Most to Least): Gaming, Movies, Programming, Homework

Any suggestions on ways to cut costs without sacrifice performance. Or adding a little cost to give a big boost to performance and/or reliability would be awesome. I added the bigger power supply hoping to add a SLI system down the road and overclock the system eventually.


CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz - $229.99 @ New Egg - Link

CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO - $30.00 @ New Egg - Link

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 - $114.99 @ New Egg - Link

Power Supply: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750M 750W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 - $114.99 @ New Egg - Link

Memory: G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $104.99 @ New Egg - Link

Video Card: EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP - $419.99 @ New Egg - Link

SSD: SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $124.99 @ New Egg - Link

HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $199.99 @ New Egg - Link

DVD Drive: LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - $17.99 @ New Egg - Link

Case: NZXT Phantom 410 CA-PH410-B3 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Orange Trim Computer Case - $99.99 @ New Egg - Link

Total Cost: $1456.91 before rebates

I am also looking for a new monitor. I would like a high quality one and it seems like the price jumps are pretty interesting. Currently I am looking at: HP ZR2440w Black and Brushed Aluminum 24" for $389.99 @ New Egg - Link

Any suggestions on that would be awesome. I don't mind spending to about $500 on a monitor, but I definitely want to get the best bang for my buck and would like to eventually add a second monitor as well (of the same type of course!)

I know there are some similar posts right now, but I wasn't really finding the answers to any of my questions. Or if this build I had going was any good!

Thanks!

Edit 1: I changed my graphics card and power supply to those recommended by inzone and cpu cooler to the one recommended by dish_moose. I'm still thinking the 16GB of ram would be good for me, but maybe I am being overkill. For work and school I often have a lot of applications running at the same time from ArcGIS to VisualStudio to SQL Server and a ton of tabs!

 

[inzone]

There are a few suggestions and they will actually save you some money.
First the cpu , motherboard , case , HDD , DVD Drive and SSD are all good choices and you don't have to change them.
The things that I would change are the video card , ram and psu.

EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$419.99 and a $10 rebate makes it $409.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750M 750W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi Modular High Performance Power Supply
$114.99 and a $15 rebate makes the final price $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139030

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C8D-8GAB
$54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231548

The reasons for the changes are these , you don't have a need for 16gb of ram and 8gb will be good.
The video card is a FTW model and will perform just as good as the one you chose but for less money and unless your going to run four monitors the 2gb of video ram will be good.
The power supply is a better brand name and has a rebate , I just can't see a Rosewill psu being any good.
Overall savings $140.

 

[inzone]

DoubleSight DS- 2200WA Piano Black 21.5" 5ms Pivot, Swivel & Height Adjustable Widescreen Dual LED Monitors 250 cd/m2 1000:1 Built-in Speakers
$584.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824185028

This could be interesting.

 

[dish_moose]

The i5-3550K will be fine for gaming. 8GB of Ram will also be enough for typical gaming systems. 212 Evo cooler has be a fav here at Tom's for value coolers.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423&Tpk=N670OC-2GD is Tom's recommended GTx670.
-Bruce

 

[k2climberOR]

Alright, I'm about to pull the trigger and order the above build unless anyone has any last minute suggestion.

Does anybody have an opinion on a good monitor?

24" seems to be ideal, I was looking at 27" at the store and they seem pretty large for being right on a computer desk. Any suggestions? Is 3d worth it for games?

 

[phunky_21]

For the same price you can get a 42 in TV and use that as a monitor. 42 in would be crazy awesome for gaming. Check out best buy website. The TV can be used as both a TV and a monitor.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Coby+-+40%22+Class+-+LCD+-+1080p+-+60Hz+-+HDTV/4302057.p?id=1218471896796&skuId=4302057#tabbed-specifications

This might not be the best price or anything just an example. Supports 1920 x 1080. However you'll need an HDMI cable they are about 16-30$. I'm pretty sure the GTX 670 has an HDMI slot.

 

[inzone]

ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 (1000:1) Built-in Speakers
$199.99 and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049

This is a good sized monitor with a nice low response time of 2ms and the bezel does look thin so that if your adding other monitors the thinner bezel will be good. The price is low enough so that you can actually go with three and have the Nvidia surround. There is also this one;

ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" 2ms HDMI LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1
$204.99 and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

 

[boulbox]

CASE+PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.994368

CPU+MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.985159

500R has enough space for a nonmodular PSU for cable management

MOBO is nice and cheap for the ability to upgrade to 2x GPU's