~$1500 CS6 / Gaming Build Advice - no monitor

Hi,

This is really long, sorry about that.

Approximate Purchase Date: Aug 2012
Budget Range: $1200-$1600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: MMORPG and offline RPG gaming (e.g. LOTRO, WoW, Skyrim,i.e. no FPS), using Adobe Creative Suite (Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere a bit), also will be using it for normal office stuff for my small business.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Everything

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca , Canada Computers, tigerdirect.ca

Location: Toronto, Canada

Parts Preferences: I want to use Intel chips as I hear they’re better than AMD currently. Also, I have the 64-bit version of Creative Suite. I have a preference for NVidia graphics over ATI, probably just a leftover from my WoW days so it’s not a strong preference.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 DVI-I input

Additional Comments: The most important thing is that it’s reliable (I have a 1TB external that I’d like to set up to backup daily), and I want to future-proof it for at least 3 or 4 years. Though I game, I don’t need the absolute best graphics and fps all the time, and I don’t play FPS games that are the most demanding on video cards. Quiet would also be good.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I have a laptop (Dell Vostro 3500, I shouldn’t have bought from them) right now that can’t handle graphics-heavy games – even offline ones heat it up so much that it crashes. It has a graphics card (Geforce 310M) that I think is too resource-intensive for its size. A laptop cooling pad helps a little but not much. I want to be able to use Creative Suite and game without worrying about temperatures. I tend to have several applications open at once, so I think a desktop will just suit my needs better.

Before buying this laptop I thought about building my own, but in the end went for the convenience of a laptop. But now I don’t feel safe doing online gaming with it, or even playing graphics-intensive offline games. Now I want to build my own and make sure it has good parts, will last a few years, and can handle everything I want to do with it.

I checked out the recent article on Best Value at $1000 etc for parts, and used the $1000 list as my base for looking at parts, though I ended up changing most of them. This is my first time so I might have made some mistakes or missed better options for me, please let me know what you think. I also noted things that I changed and why

Wishlist link: https://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp...

Component list: (I included the price of components at Canada Computers as well)

Graphics card - GIGABYTE GV-N560OC-1GI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... - $235 ($220 at CC)
-since I'm not planning on playing FPS games, I changed the card to something cheaper that was still recommended in the most recent graphics card article. It says factory overclocked – I don’t want to overclock it myself.

Chip - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... - $299 (CC $299)
-going with i7 instead of i5 for graphics editing, this is where I am willing to spend the money I save on a less powerful graphics card
-it’s still not top of the line though, I don’t think it will make a big enough difference for me

Mobo – GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... - $150 (CC $125)

I also looked at this mobo a lot:

Asrock Z77 Pro3 -129
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

Since I don’t overclock, but I do care a lot about reliability, I went with Gigabyte. For future proofing I chose something that has z77. I notice the gigabyte only supports DDR 2400 not DDR 2800 - is there a big difference?

Also, can I actually get 32gb of RAM, will it make any difference from 16gb? It has this note: (The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.) Should I care about this? I didn’t find anything when googling.

Memory: G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C10D-16GAO
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... - $85
- There’s also the Ares 2x8 - 9 sec latency, heat spreaders, low profile for $104. These ones have 10 sec latency, is this noticeably different?
- Can/should I get 32gb instead? Could I just buy two sets of these?

SSD: I’d like to get a 90gb SSD to put my OS and possibly Creative Suite on. I had a really hard time choosing between these:

Kingston Kingston SSDNow V+200 KR-S3190-3H 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal 7mm Solid State Drive (SSD) (Upgrade Bundle Kit)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... $100 (CC $110)
-This is the ‘upgrade bundle kit’ as opposed to the stand-alone drive. I’m not sure what the difference is.

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos – I wasn’t sure about this because it only has 3 stars on newegg, but here it seems to have a good reputation
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... - $90 (CC doesn’t have this but has a 120GB for $110)

HD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... – $100

Seagate Barracuda (ST1000DM003) SATA3 6.0Gb/s 1TB 64MB Cache (OEM)
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=1...
- $90 – this one has 64MB cache, which I assume is better than 32MB, and is cheaper than the Newegg one on my wishlist
- I figure with this and my external 1TB for backup it should be enough.
- for $20 more I could get a 2TB, which I’d definitely consider.

Case: LOGISYS Computer CS1202BK Black ABS + Mesh bezel , SECC 0.6mm ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... - $50
I don’t know anything about cases, this one had two fans already installed (front and rear) rather than the one in the $1000 build which only had one. I don’t care about how it looks, only that it’s sturdy, big enough to hold everything comfortably and have good airflow. It doesn’t mention USB 3.0 though.
-Canada Computers doesn’t have Logisys cases, but it has this Antec case:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6... for $50, which has a USB 3.0 and two fans (top and rear).

Power Supply: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi Modular High Performance ...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... - $120 ($110 at CC)
I also don’t know much about power supplies. I checked my graphics card against this chart (http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264) and 650W seems fine. This is a bronze certified, is it worth the extra money to get a gold certified power supply?
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681... – this one says “compatible with core i7 power supply” – does that mean the one I chose is not compatible with my i7 chip?

Fan: ZALMAN CNPS7000B-Cu LED 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1683... $42 (CC doesn’t have this, they have Zalman CNPS9900MAX-R RED LED for $60) http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...
Do I need another fan? The $1000 build didn’t have one, but better safe than sorry I guess?

DVD burner: LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... $30
The difference in price wasn’t much, so I went with one with LightScribe.

Peripherals:
I have a wireless mouse and keyboard.

OS: I want Windows7 64 Ultimate $327 – not sure whether the support with the retail version is worth the extra money.

Total right now is $1529 – I could save about $40 getting the mobo and graphics card at CC.

Thanks for any advice!