1500$ Gaming Build

[Volrat]

Hi everyone!

I would like to know the opinions of the awesome Tom's Hardware community on this build. I will be using it mainly for gaming and I am trying to not go over the 1500$ budget (including TAX/SHIPPING). I am from Canada and I intend to buy mainly from NCIX, Tiger Direct and New Egg. I do not plan on overclocking and if I ever chose to, I'll get proper cooling beforehand.

I will not be buying an OS since I will be using the one I recently bought. I already have a good monitor. This is for the tower only. I am not very interested in AMD but I might still consider their video cards.

I plan to buy this at the end of August (I know the 660s are releasing in the "near" future and I am aware that prices may drop and that's even better!)

Here is the build, if you guys need links please let me know I can provide them :

CASE - Cooler Master Haf 932 149.99 (NEWEGG) (do I really need a full?)

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS P8Z68-V Pro 199.99$ (NCIX) (probably cheaper/better boards for less)

POWER SUPPLY - Corsair TX750 V2 750W 80PLUS Bronze - 99.99$ (NCIX) (is 750W enough?)

PROCESSOR - Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge 6MB - 229.99$ (TIGERDIRECT)

RAM - Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 - 52.99$ (NEWEGG) (not too sure about those)

VIDEO CARD - EVGA GeForce GTX 670 - 399.99(TIGERDIRECT) (660s releasing soon?)

HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 - 114.99$ (NCIX)

SSD - OCZ Vertex 3 120GB 2.5IN SATA3 - 109.99 (NCIX) (good feedback on those?)

I will be trying to price match everything at the end on NCIX.

Total of 1357.92 $ (CAD) before taxes/shipping.

 

[Volrat]

If you guys need me to provide the links please tell me and I'll edit the post.

 

[mocchan]

750w is bit overkill for your system unless you're planning on SLI in the future. If all you're going to have in your system is one card, I would recommend a 550w or 650w PSU

Also why don't you go with a Z77 solution? VirtuMVP is pretty wicked in my opinion :lol: I can personally see myself using it a lot.

The only other thing I will comment on is the case. I don't really think you'll need a full-tower for your rig...that and I personally dislike the styling of the case :lol:

One last thing, just make sure the RAM is 1.5v. Other than that, I don't really see anything that needs tinkering with.

 

[Volrat]

I might be picking up another 670 in the future (if the price drops considerably) which is why I thought about getting a full tower and a 750W but dropping the PSU would still be a good idea. Can you recommend me any good Z77 chips boards?

 

[mocchan]

Ahh that would explain it Then your current PSU choice would be a nice choice. I think it was recommended a 700w PSU for a GTX670 SLI configuration.

Though since your GTX670's are reference design (I'm assuming, since I don't see a special SKU), I'm sure a mid tower with good ventilation would suffice. However, there's no harm in a full tower.

Here's an article on Tom's that might help you with your decision My friends are all still currently using Z68, so I can't really give you any input or educated opinions.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-gd65-z77h2-a2x,3187-22.html

 

[Volrat]

Everywhere I checked Z77 seems to be superior to z68 but I didn't think about it a whole lot.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2276156

This board seems interesting (refering to the link you gave)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=684760&CatId=1842

This case looks like it has a lot of space, plenty for the build I'm going for.

It'll probably take a long time for me to get SLi in place so going mid/cheaper MOBO/downgrading PSU sounds like what I need. I'll have some extra money with time so I could just go for a massive upgrade in the future (like...1 year or so). Thanks a lot for your input. Highly appreciated. I'd like to have someone else's opinions about the chipsets.

 

[mocchan]

You're very welcome, I'm glad some of my input could be of help

Though yes, I agree about more input about the chipsets. I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance in that area

 

[Volrat]

Best answer selected by Volrat.