$1000 Build, First Timer

I think you can do better.

1) Nothing wrong with the i5-2400, particularly if you will not be overclocking. But, a 2500K or a 3570K does not cost much more, and it gives you the option to overclock. The "K" suffix cpu's were designed by Intel to be overclocked by somply raising the multiplier from the default of 3.4 to 4.3 or thereabouts. A very nice jump for not much extra. If you live near a microcenter, they will sell you a 2500K for $170, or a 3570K for $190, the last time I checked.

2) You picked a very expensive $250 motherboard. For your purposes, ANY Z77 based $110 motherboard will do the job just as well.

3) For a gamer, the graphics card is much more important than the cpu. My rule of thumb is to spend twice your cpu budget on the graphics card as you do on the cpu. In this case, a $200 cpu deserves a $400 GTX670.

4) Regardless if you OC or not, I recommend including an inexpensive $30 aftermarket cpu cooler like the cm hyper212.
The stock intel cooler gets noisy when it needs to spin up the fan under load. The hyper212 with it's slow turning 120mm fan will be quieter, and keep your cpu cooler. And.. for the new builder, the backplate mount is much easier to do right than the Intel pushpin mounts.

5) The ram is good, but 1.5v ram does not really need high heat spreaders, or any at all. I suggest the low profile ares variant which costs a whopping $ 1 less:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

6) OCZ seems to have mixed opinions as to quality. My short list of quality psu's would include Seasonic, PC P&C, Antec, Corsair, or XFX. The GTX560ti needs a 500w psu, and so does the more modern 28nm based GTX670. It is not wrong to overprovision the psu a bit. It will only draw the wattage it needs.
I would suggest the PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 600W for $70 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

7) Cases are a personal thing. Buy the NZXT if you love it. Otherwise, a perfectly functional case can be found at half the price.
The Antec 300 illusion model for $70 is very well reviewed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

8) How much drive storage will you need? If you will store lots of video files, then a hard drive is appropriate, and the samsung 1tb is fine.
But, for your budget, I would try to incorporate a SSD into the build for the os and some apps.
A 120gb ssd will hold the os and a handful of games. It will not cost much more than a 1tb drive($105).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Could you start with that, and add a hard drive latrer when you need the storage? Or, even a 60gb ssd will be enough to hold the os and a bit more for $60:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

9) As a first time builder, I suggest you download and read, now, cover to cover, the motherboard and case manuals.
Many questions will be answered.

-----------good luck-----------

Thanks!

1) Ok. Thank you for clearing that up. Will probably go for a 2500K then.
2) I kinda like that mobo. Aw well, would this do?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
3) Something like this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
I don't know how much gaming I'm going to do... Why was the previous one not as good? I don't need the greatest graphics.
4) Derp. I knew I should have picked one.
5) Gonna stick with my original ram.
6) Sounds good. I'll shop around a bit more.
7) I like the Phantom.
8) I think I'll start with your first link.
9) I was planning on it  

2) That motherboard will be fine.
3) I don't much like the huge aftermarket cooler.
I would pick this EVGA GTX670 FTW. It is a bit cheaper, and a bit faster(1019 vs. 980).
I also like the direct exhaust cooler better. It gets the hot air out of the case directly, instead of letting it recirculate in the case where case cooling has to deal with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
For gaming, a strong graphics card is needed to maximize the amount of eye candy and details it can render. And, do it at a high enough FPS to give you smooth motion.
In a week or two, we should see the launch of the GTX660 series. It should be a game changer at near GTX670 performance at a lower price. Google for more info.
4) High heat spreaders can interfere with some cpu coolers.
7) The case will be fine.

Would my original graphics card be enough to render at a smooth fps? I don't care TOO much about how nice it looks. I don't need full Crysis 2 settings or anything. Just some mid to high. Should I just invest in a $400 card? That would drive my price up a little more than I would like.

Don't know. It depends on the game, your monitor resolution and what eye candy options you select.
I have never regretted paying for the best, but have often regretted buying a bargain that I was not satisfied with.

I have two options for you.:

1) Buy a EVGA brand GTX560ti. EVGA has a 90 day trade up option so you could exchange it for a stronger card if you wanted to within 90 days.
Read their terms on their web site first.

2) Be patient, I think the upcoming GTX660 of some sort will give you near GTX670 performance at a reduced price.

Well, I think I'll be taking your advice and going with the $400 card. Thanks for all of the input.

Forgot to add to that: will the evga gtx fit in my Mid tower Phantom? Also, what's a good monitor to go with the card?

This build allows you to add another one of those cards later on in SLI.


http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Tower-Gaming-Comp... $89.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case - CC-9011011-WW

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... $149.98 save: $15.00 - $20.00 Mail In Rebates FREE SHIPPING
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9B

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... $316.98 save: $18.00
Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz (3.6GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i53470
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-AD-7280S-0B-Internal-Drive-B... $17.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25
Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive (Black)

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Intern... $79.98 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST1000DM003

http://videocardz.com/nvidia/geforce-600/geforce-gtx-66... est. retail $300 and due for release August 16th.
NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 ti 2GB

or...

http://www.amazon.com/HD7870-DC2-2GD5-DisplayPort-Utili... $297.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping | Price after rebate: $277.99
ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 Radeon 2GB DDR5 VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort GPU Tweak Utilities PCI-Express 3.0 Graphics Card HD7870-DC2-2GD5

Total: $954.93 *not including shipping & rebates


http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Premium-64bit-System-Buil... $90.63 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack


http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/ <----- another look at that board along with a link to the latest bios

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z77_extreme... <------ review of that board w/benchmarks

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bri... <------ another review of that board w/benchmarks

http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/... <----- another look at that case

Ooh, that Mobo CPU combo is nice. so is the ram and psu. Thanks!

I'm an ASUS customer and I love my ASRock FWIW. They have all given you great advice on the GPU because %40 of the total build price is about what Toms uses on their builds.