First build, want to make sure everythings good

[Toony]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: this week

Budget Range: After shipping: 460

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing net, movies

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: Orange County, CA, United States

Parts Preferences: Intel

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Additional Comments: (e.g.: Need to have a window and lots of bling, I would like a quiet PC. Please also list specific software or games you're using)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Old prebuilt, mobo busted








My 5 year old prebuilt has recently bit the dust and I've decided to build my first rig but I'm not super knowledgeable on this even after weeks of studying. I don't want to make one big mistake that costs me 500 dollars.
My budget isn't super high (The current cost being almost 460, not including windows, and I really didn't want to go that high). I'm in the process of finalizing it and I want to make sure I have everything and that the build is solid and will work or if I could do better for the same price or less. So I'd just like some input on if this will all work and is good enough. I do plan to use it for gaming but I'm not expecting to run super intensive games at 60 fps.
I'm happy as long as I can run it with decent framerates at medium.

Here is what I have come up with so far.

Case: COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227

SAMSUNG Internal DVD Writer 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model SH-222BB/RSBS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151255

HDD: Seagate ST310005N1A1AS-RK 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148321

Powersupply: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

Memory: G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077


MSI H61M-P31 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130639


For GPU I planned to reuse my GT 430 until I could scrounge together more funds. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121397)



My main concerns here are the motherboard and PSU. I had picked out a higher priced motherboard earlier on but cut back to save cost. Is this okay for my needs? I'm not wanting crossfire/sli or really feel the need to overclock, I just want a functional motherboard with all the parts I need for what I have. I don't want it to bite me in the butt.

Is the PSU strong enough? I want to upgrade my GPU in a few months to possibly a Radeon 7770. Would this have enough juice to run that or would I need something with a little more oomf to keep it going? I used neweggs power calculator (which I'd assume probably isn't super accurate, but...) and it came back with, using this current set up and my current GPU the calculator spat out 261 W. If switching to a 7770 it gives me 301 W. I've no idea how accurate this is and I'm not crystal clear on exactly how much headroom I'd need. I'd appreciate any advice that could be given, please. Thank you.

 

[TheBigTroll]

i can tell you now if you spend a little more now, the system wont bite the dust as fast

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cWmK

 

[Augray37]

Looks like a good build to me, i see you caught the corsair builder series sale. And yes, your PSU choice is fine and will easily handle a 7770. I ran my power hungry phenom ii x4 955 and hd 6870, both OC'd, on a 430W Antec Earthwatts for about a year, so you should be fine. As for the motherboard, here's a couple others that might be worth looking at...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315 (it's really small, borderline mini-itx. And i'm a fan of ASRock).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131793 (a little more expensive, but it's ASUS).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157313 (ASRock, USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, SATA III, yet affordable, and my personal favorite).

 

[axsmith234]

FINAL BUILD Price

CPU Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core... $200.99-bought

Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155... $95.99-bought

Video Card SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870...2x $169.99

PSU Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W... $74.99-

CASE LOGISYS Transparent Computer Case... $59.99-bought

Memory Pareema 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600... $21.49-

DVD Drive Dell RW Drive(Old) $0.00

Cpu Cooler Stock $0.00

Harddrive SSD...Later $0.00


Add On 4x Logisys 15n cold cathode $30.00- not included in price


Total=... Final W/o GPU's $453.45
Final w/ GPU's (1)$613.45 (2)$773


play on the intel hd graphics until you get a gfx card

 

[TheBigTroll]

FINAL BUILD Price

CPU Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core... $200.99-bought

Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155... $95.99-bought

Video Card SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6870...2x $169.99

PSU Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W... $74.99-

CASE LOGISYS Transparent Computer Case... $59.99-bought

Memory Pareema 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600... $21.49-

DVD Drive Dell RW Drive(Old) $0.00

Cpu Cooler Stock $0.00

Harddrive SSD...Later $0.00


Add On 4x Logisys 15n cold cathode $30.00- not included in price


Total=... Final W/o GPU's $453.45
Final w/ GPU's (1)$613.45 (2)$773


play on the intel hd graphics until you get a gfx card

]

i dont think you are the brightest bulb

1;why would i buy 2 6870s when a 7850 or 7950 is a better single card solution
2: single channel is pretty slow trust me. intel uses dual channel

 

[Toony]

Looks like a good build to me, i see you caught the corsair builder series sale. And yes, your PSU choice is fine and will easily handle a 7770. I ran my power hungry phenom ii x4 955 and hd 6870, both OC'd, on a 430W Antec Earthwatts for about a year, so you should be fine. As for the motherboard, here's a couple others that might be worth looking at...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315 (it's really small, borderline mini-itx. And i'm a fan of ASRock).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131793 (a little more expensive, but it's ASUS).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157313 (ASRock, USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, SATA III, yet affordable, and my personal favorite).

The asus was the one I originally was going to go for but went to the MSI instead to cut costs. Would the MSI be good enough for my demands or should I switch?

 

[TheBigTroll]

it would be sufficent

 

[Toony]

Alright. I'm just worried that if I don't go with a more pricey one, it'll crap out in a month.

 

[TheBigTroll]

asus is pretty reliable with their stuff

 

[axsmith234]

]

i dont think you are the brightest bulb

1;why would i buy 2 6870s when a 7850 or 7950 is a better single card solution
2: single channel is pretty slow trust me. intel uses dual channel

because not everyone has 400 dollar to shell out at 1 time....

 

[axsmith234]

]

i dont think you are the brightest bulb

1;why would i buy 2 6870s when a 7850 or 7950 is a better single card solution
2: single channel is pretty slow trust me. intel uses dual channel

you can just buy a extra memory stick for dual channel.... dual channel refers to the motherboard...

 

[Toony]

Well I'm mostly on the fence on the mobo still. I'm willing to go up a bit because having looked around I'm not sure I trust MSI too much. What is the overall opinion? I've heard mixed things about asrock, and have heard ASUS has been sort of declining in quality the past few years. And what about gigabyte? I was looking at this board which was a bit more pricey, but....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128540

Opinions on it? Is it too much for my needs so a waste of money?

 

[azeem40]

you can just buy a extra memory stick for dual channel.... dual channel refers to the motherboard...

Stop treating others like they are dumb. He is right. $460 is not enough $ for a gaming build.

 

[Toony]

Stop treating others like they are dumb. He is right. $460 is not enough $ for a gaming build.

I've played modern games on a 5 year old prebuilt. Modern games aren't that demanding unless you want to run 3 instances of them at once all at max along with mods to increase graphics.

 

[TheBigTroll]

450 is doable in some situations but i usually dont do that.

as for the memory thing, why dont you start of with a dual stick kit instead of a single dimm? the sticks in dual stick kits or 4 stick kits are specifically binned together so that they can work better together

 

[Toony]

450 is doable in some situations but i usually dont do that.

as for the memory thing, why dont you start of with a dual stick kit instead of a single dimm? the sticks in dual stick kits or 4 stick kits are specifically binned together so that they can work better together

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this?

 

[TheBigTroll]

i was talking about how a 450 prebuilt isnt enough for games. i said that it can be done but i really wouldnt recommend it as paying a little more can get you much better results at this price point

i then replyed to the memory thing where axesmith234 said that one stick of memory in a 2 stick optimized setting is good enough for the time being. i said that it is better to start of with 2 sticks as the memory is binned this way so that it works better.

 

[Augray37]

I've played modern games on a 5 year old prebuilt. Modern games aren't that demanding unless you want to run 3 instances of them at once all at max along with mods to increase graphics.

what games do you plan on playing? what resolution? what settings? if you don't mind playing at low settings, and are playing at a lower resolution, then technically yes, most modern games will run with a 450. however, the point of most "gaming PCs" is to play at 1080p and get good FPS, which is no simple task.