Advice/opinion on a new $650 gaming pc

[tole]

[Approximate Purchase Date] This week

[Budget Range:] ($600-700) After Rebates/Shipping

[System Usage from Most to Least Important:] gaming, watching movies, internet videos, and surfing the internet

[Are you buying a monitor:] No

[Do you need to buy OS:] No

[Preferred Website(s) for Parts:] newegg.com, I'm also going to a Micro center (Silicon Valley)

[Location: City, State/Region, Country] Stockton CA, America

[Parts Preferences:] Intel

[Overclocking:] No

[SLI or Crossfire:] Yes

[Your Monitor Resolution:] 1680x1050.

[Additional Comments:] Max setting aren't extremely important on games, so I really need a second opinion on what I picked out and on the crossfire. I'm also concerned with a bottleneck on the GPU (especially if I do a crossfire) or the i5-3450 not having enough power.

So far this is the build,

CPU: i5-3450
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116506

Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304&Tpk=ASRock%20Z75%20Pro3
or ASRock Z77 Pro3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157297&Tpk=asrock%20z77%20pro3

Ram: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1.5TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102967

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

PSU: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

Wireless Adapter: EDIMAX EW-7811Un Wireless Nano Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091

Reason for the 750w PSU is I plan add a second 7770 GPU for a crossfire setup later on. Also the thing about the motherboards the z75 is the one I'm going with and the z77 is in there because I heard the micro center bundles cpus with z68/77 motherboards (not sure if true tho) of course if thats not true no real reason (as far as I know) to go with the z77

So any advice to change/add/remove anything? Any bottlenecks? Really nervous as this is my first build...so second guessing pretty much everything

 

[guerrero]

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0388579

$50 cheaper : OOOO

 

[avenseth12]

Your build looks good. Input:

Your cpu is not a K or unlockable cpu -
Your GPU is on the low end but it depends on when you plan to Xfire. If you are waiting for a year I would invest in a higher gpu like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102987 for better gaming performance.
You do not have an operating system listed, windows 7 goes for $99 on newegg or you can get it cheaper as a student.
Either mobo is fine

 

[guerrero]

He's not overclocking and that 750w is way to much power for this

 

[batuchka]

At just 1680 x 1050 i wouldn't complicate it and just go basic board and just a singe HD 6870 (30-35% gain over HD 7770) going cheap these days Upgrade later with higher resolution/more demanding games in future
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161389

 

[DirkAction]

I'd go with Samsung RAM over the Ripjaws.

I'd also try and work at least a 60GB SSD in the build, or swap the 1.5TB for a 750GB hybrid drive. Haven't personally used a hybrid but I've heard many good things about them. Used many SSDs though and absolutely refuse to use a mechanical drive for anything other than bulk storage now. The difference really is night and day.

Otherwise looks good.

 

[tole]

For the power supply since 750w is too much, I'll go with a milder 650w after realizing that newegg has a PSU finder the 750w looks ridiculous now.
Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132

For SSD I had been looking it over but I think DirkAction won me over, I'll switch the mechanical 1.5TB for a 128GB SSD and use the old mechanical from my old PC for storage.

At just 1680 x 1050 i wouldn't complicate it and just go basic board and just a singe HD 6870 (30-35% gain over HD 7770) going cheap these days Upgrade later with higher resolution/more demanding games in future
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161389

Well I can't argue with that less complicated is certainly better but what would qualify as a basic board?

Would this one work? Seems its compatible with i5-3450 (I think), will support the 1600 ram, but would HD 6870 fit into a micro ATX board?
ASRock H61M-DGS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315

 

[batuchka]

If you are going with an Ivy 1155 chip a basic board would be the H77/B75 chipsets ^^ H61/H67/P67/etc may need a BIOS flash and/or the board maker could also stop caring lol. Reports of older 1155 boards not getting any support are floating online. For single GPU set ups, any board would suffice for the most part.

 

[azeem40]

I'd still get a board with only one PCIe 3.0 slot if not running multiple GPUs, because those are usually cheaper,

 

[tole]

edit: What about ASRock B75M PRO3? Cheapest I could find that supports turbo/hyper-threading, unless I'm missing another board or site I think this is the best feature/price combo I can get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157313

 

[batuchka]

Ya if you could cut non essentials out and slot in a HD 6870 and a quality PSU in there you'd be flying at 1680 x 1050 w.r.t a HD 7770 based rig

 

[tole]

Actually I just noticed that the i5-3450 doesn't have hyper-threading, only turbo (which is a .4GHZ increase). The next cheapest featureless board is GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3V which is the same price except it has free shipping which put its about $8 dollars cheaper.

The ASRock has a few features I'm really curious in, so $8 is worth it.

Another discovery I made, neweggs shellshock deals only last a day. That power supply I mentioned earlier has gone off sale. My build needs a 500w minimum anyone have recommendations? Been searching for several hours now and still can't find something thats in the right price range and at or above 500w.

 

[batuchka]

Err in some cases HT neither gets u better frames or could even hinder gaming performance - this is the reason the i3 2xxx was much loved budget gaming chip as many games still do not leverage on > 2 cores to this day. Toms in their gaming CPU articles also frequently suggests i7s of various generations as "past the point of reason" for a gaming rig
http://www.behardware.com/articles/774-11/windows-7-performance-in-games.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-975-950_7.html#sect0

As for PSU choice: Seasonic M12II 520?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093&Tpk=M12II%20520

 

[tole]

The i5-3450 doesn't support HT so I'll never use it so it doesn't really bother me. The features I'm interested in is mainly the ASRock xfast ram, haven't seen anything like that on any other boards and its peaked my curiosity.

Alright so my build now;

[cpu] i5-3450 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0388579
[board] ASRock M75M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157313
[HD] SanDisk Ultra SDSSDH-120G-G25 2.5" SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171545
[case] Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
[psu] SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093&Tpk=M12II%20520
[Wireless Adapter] EDIMAX EW-7811Un Wireless Nano Adapter http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091
[GPU] SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948
[ram] Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148500

For the GPU I'm going with Sapphire instead of HIS only because their RMA/customer service seem more reliable--according to the reviews. After rebates theres only about an $8 dollar difference between the two small price to pay if something goes wrong.


Just finished making the order. Thank you one and all for all of the

 

[tole]

Best answer selected by tole.

 

[batuchka]

You are welcomed and happy shopping ^^