Planning First Build with Shuttle box. Making any mistakes?

[computerbear]

Approximate Purchase Date: As soon as I decide what parts to get

Budget Range: ~800. After rebates tax and shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, home theatre, school work

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Flexible. But I like amazon because I have prime or newegg because I will signup for shoprunner trial anyway.

Location: SF, CA. Willing to drive 30ish miles to fry’s or microcenter if it’s worth the cost of gas (25mpg)

Parts Preferences: My plan involves a shuttle box and intel CPU. See below

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Games I’ll be using are Guild Wars 2, Skyrim, and random car racing games. I want a system that will work for new RPGs/Car games for a few years moving forward. I want a small cute box, and I want to start with a barebones because I don’t have a lot of build experience (just a few upgrades here and there).

Here is my plan:
shuttlebox 320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=56-101-126&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo
*comes bundled with 60GB OCZ SSD

Hard Drive 110 - Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345955610&sr=1-1&keywords=western+digital+black
-I spent the least time reading about HDs. I have externals so don’t need tons of storage, but I want at least a few hundred and the price doesn’t seem to go up much. I’d be interested in a similar priced smaller drive that would have better performance.

Processor $205 Intel Core i5-2500 Quad-Core Processor 3.3 GHz 6 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80623I52500
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-2500-Quad-Core-Processor-Cache/dp/B004EBUXI0/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1345955421&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=core+i5+2500k
-$15 more than 2400 3.1, is the .2 worth much?

RAM $43.50 Corsair 8GB XMS3 (1x 8GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz 240-Pin 8 Not a kit (Single) (PC3 10600) CMX8GX3M1A1333C9
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-1333MHz-240-Pin-Single-CMX8GX3M1A1333C9/dp/B006XB56VI/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345955540&sr=1-10&keywords=8gb+1333mhz+ddr3
-didn't find any good discounts so I figured I'd start with 1 8GB and have options if I want more

Video card $125 (used) ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card, ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5
http://www.amazon.com/ENGTX560-DCII-OC-2DI-1GD5/dp/B0051E3BYM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
total $803.50

I already have a monitor keyboard external dvdrw and I plan to just plug into ethernet. Am I missing anything?

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I have a year old laptop I used for everything (XPS15) but it has BSOD problems I’ve never been able to fix and browsers and games crash at unfortunate moments. I’m scared to open a laptop and fix it. If I’m going to go through the hassle of problem solving, I’d rather it be with a build I started. I got a new ultrabook for school and want to transition to that + a desktop for home and gaming.

 

[COLGeek]

Looks like you have it pretty much covered. BTW, do you have a copy of Windows to install on it?

Built several Shuttle based systems over the years. Just be patient will stuffing components into it. The cramped space can be a pain, but the end results are generally pretty good.

Good luck!

 

[computerbear]

Thanks for the reassurance. I have one more question about video cards. I heard that external exhaust or "reference cooler" were better for these small boxes to keep heat down. I don't know how big an issue this is. I picked the video card I did because it looked like how the reference cards are described (with the red blower and lines!) Would I get into trouble upgrading to a different card like this one:

XFX Core Edition FX-785A-ZNFC Radeon HD 7850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150617

 

[COLGeek]

The XFX is a good choice. I would only recommend that you not OC this rig (or very little anyway) because of the heat issue potential.

 

[computerbear]

Best answer selected by computerbear.

 

[computerbear]

Thanks. According to this the AMD "7800 series" performs well on GW2: http://gamerfront.net/2012/08/guild-wars-2-performance-listed-by-gpu/23064

It's also supposed to be power efficient and probably will work on future games for a little longer than the 560.

 

[computerbear]

I made the orders! I just finished my DL of GW and it's crashing like crazy. Can't wait to get rid of this monster laptop.

I used chase ultimate rewards 5% bonus at newegg and got an amazon rewards card. With my $50 amazon discount and the rewards points it came out to 800 even inc tax and shipping (after my $20 MIB). Only change from my original build is the upgrade to 7850 and switched the HD to a second SSD since I have external storage for media I think 180GB for programs will be plenty.


OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R1FH3K/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01

Let's see how many problems I have in the setup process! planning to install xp from a USB drive. The instructions I found have many words I don't understand but I have faith I'll figure it out

 

[computerbear]

Parts arrived and posting with my new build! Only hiccup was the only port that worked for USB keyboard was the upper left on the back. Took me a while to get setup the bios because I couldn't hit DEL with the keyboard in the wrong spot. Also had a CMOS error that didn't mean anything but scared me. Model was SZ68R5 in case anyone has the same problem.