>2000 First Gaming Build

[Cirkimo]

Hey guys, planning on making this gaming tower for under 2000 or around it

I plan to play the following games on the highest settings:

Battlefield 3
Arma 3
GTA 5
Team Fortress 2
Guild Wars 2 (Those 600 player battlegrounds are going to be crazy)

And many more through the followings years. I will be playing on this monitor that I have already bought:

1920x1080

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001552&fb_source=message

I intend to overclock to around 4.5 ghz or under.

I don't feel comfortable with water cooling, to be honest I already know I'll be paranoid about the water leaking or something. So air cooling only.

Here are the parts:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($75.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($58.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.86 @ Outlet PC)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($399.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($399.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 600T White Graphite ATX Mid Tower Case ($166.55 @ Mac Connection)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1792.31

A good friend already got me the OS ( Windows 7 Ultimate )

I also plan to stream on Twitch.Tv using xSplit if it makes a difference.

I hope I can get some good second opinions. Thanks for reading.

 

[inzone]

Really nice well thought out build and all quality parts , there is just one suggetion that I would make and that is the power supply. You have the budget for it and with all the quality parts that you've chosen this psu is a top quality brand and has more watts so that you are sure to be ok with the two video cards and it's fully modular and gold certified.

SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
$159.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087

I have the 1200w SeaSonic and I think it's the best I have had and I really do like it.

Plus if you buy it by 7/15 it has a $40 off promo code.

 

[Cirkimo]

Oh nice, thanks inzone.

 

[bctande1]

CPU - Good - BUT, If you are intending to overclock to 4.5GHz, you will most likely encounter a problem that many Ivy Bridge CPUs have been experiencing since release. At approximately 4.5Ghz and over, and about 1.25V, Ivys have been noted to run up to 20C hotter than Sandy, and consume much more power per clock. This is due to the material's that Intel used when manufacturing the CPU. So I'd say do a little research there before you make that decision. I understand that you are very conscious about water cooling, so it wouldn't be pleasant if you realized you had to water-cool your Ivy Bridge CPUs after purchase.
Remember, Sandy's are still very formidable CPUs and the gaming increase between them and Ivy's are negligible in most instances. But just do some research in that area.

Cooler - Good

Mobo - Good

RAM - Good

HDD - I'd say look into a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, or a Seagate Barracuda 2TB.

SSD - With this budget, you should definitely aim at a 256GB SSD. And there have been a myriad of SSD sales recently so you should have a hard desicion finding a good one for the right price

-- Here's a good example -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

GPU - Very good SLI combo, probably the best you can get as of now.

Case - Good, make sure it has good fan controls.

PSU - REALLY tricky here. I can see the PSU obviously got many good reviews from users but I'd recommend at least a QUALITY 700W PSU in this set-up, just to be safe.

CD Drive - Get yourself a Blu-Ray Drive..

Looks like a really beast set-up so far. I'd only recommend looking into a Sandy CPU, a better PSU, and a bigger SSD, but otherwise you will be having lots of fun on this MONSTER

 

[Cirkimo]

CPU - Good - BUT, If you are intending to overclock to 4.5GHz, you will most likely encounter a problem that many Ivy Bridge CPUs have been experiencing since release. At approximately 4.5Ghz and over, and about 1.25V, Ivys have been noted to run up to 20C hotter than Sandy, and consume much more power per clock. This is due to the material's that Intel used when manufacturing the CPU. So I'd say do a little research there before you make that decision. I understand that you are very conscious about water cooling, so it wouldn't be pleasant if you realized you had to water-cool your Ivy Bridge CPUs after purchase.
Remember, Sandy's are still very formidable CPUs and the gaming increase between them and Ivy's are negligible in most instances. But just do some research in that area.

Well if I needed to I'd do water cooling.

How much maintenance is required to maintain a water cooling device? And what is the chance of it leaking?

 

[bctande1]

Well if I needed to I'd do water cooling.

How much maintenance is required to maintain a water cooling device? And what is the chance of it leaking?

As far as device reputation, I'm not too familiar with top water coolers so you'll have to look that up yourself.

As far as leaking, I think it's safe to assume that it all depends on the quality cooler you are using, and the carefulness of your approach. If you take your time and go through each process thoroughly, I doubt you should have any problems. But read up on the topic first, learn the ins-and-outs.

 

[inzone]

The time you see any leaks is when your putting it together and you get better with it the more you work with the different parts. There is a good way and a not so good way of putting it together and the best way that I have found is to make all the connections and then run the system and not have the MB power connected , that way if there are any leaks the liquid would not make contact with live components. There is a trick that you can do to run the liquid cooling system with it pluged into ths psu and that is to take the main MB power connector out of the MB and insert a paper clip into the holes where you see the green and black wires , it's actualy called the paper clip test and it powers the psu and makes it run so that the fan and anything else that's connected to the psu will run , including the pump. You also want to use non-conductive liquid and any liquid that does leak out and makes contact with any parts you want to wipe up right away. If you have a can of compressed air or an actual air compreeor you can blow the liquid off the parts. I have been using water cooling for a number of years and have had a leak here and there but never lost a cmponent because of the liquid making contact,the key being no power going through the video cards or the MB when testng the loop and cleaning up and leaked liquid before power is connected. Compression fittings are foolproof in that as long as the tubing is pushed in all the way the locking fitting prevents any leaks. Once connected to all the components a recheck of all the connections is a good idea. When running the loop for the first time it's important to get the air ou and make sure you have the liquid flowing so bleeding the loop is important and you don't want to get a pocket of air blocking the flow. If you are serious about water cooling then you will need to increase the psu to account for the pump and radiator fans.
This might seem a little crazy but I run two power supplies , one for the two loop water cooling system and the other psu for the computer. I don't ever have a budget so I just kind of experiment with different things and I like the idea of a seperate psu because it allows me to turn on the water loops seperatly and also shut it down seperatly to give it a cooldown before shutting off. I can also make sure that the liquid is flowing before turning the computer on.