Building a new rig

[andegramisu]

First off I'd like to say this is my favorite website to find feedback and reviews on parts when building a rig.
I created an account and this is my first posting because I'm just not finding the specific answers I need.

Before I begin, let me say please please please do not suggest intel...lol. I see so many posts of people asking AMD questions and responders saying "get the i5 or i7, blah blah blah" NO! lol I've been building AMD gaming rigs for 17 years + and I'm not going to switch over now.

Ok...so here's the rig I'm speccing out so far. Keep in mind, I'm building this system to hopefully last the next 3-5 years without needing a major upgrade (possibly CPU or ram but nothing more)

Acer S271hl 27" LCD
Thermaltake VN700M1W2N
Asus Sabertooth 990fx (picked this for upgradability)
Phenom II X6 1075t (would go for 1100t but it's not in budget)
Antec HCG 620W (I've read a ton of posts saying 500w is sufficient so I dropped my first pick of an 850w to go with the 620w)
Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7850 2gb (OC edition)
Corsair Vengeance 1600 8gb (2x4gb DC 1.6v CL9) (chose this over the Kingston HyperX 1866 CL11 due to the lower latency)
Crucial M4 128gb SATA3 SSD for Main drive
WD Caviar Green 500gb for secondary drive
LG UH12N529 (Blu ray player / DVD R/RW combo)

Ok....so here comes the questions:

I read that the Caviar green is useless, but it has the 64mb cache while the Caviar Blue is only 16mb. Comments?
I can't settle on Air or Liquid cooling. I was originally looking at the Thermaltake bigwater 760 plus, but I've read a lot of bad reviews saying the refill indicator light on the front panel module malfunctions and that would make this useless for me. The other liquid option would be a Corsair Hydro H100 (or another of the Corsair series). My main problem with that is it's claim of "maintenance free" How can it be maintenance free???? Wouldn't the liquid dissipate over time even being enclosed??

I'm a noob by no means, but I'm definitely noobish about liquid cooling. I've never had a CPU overheat or fry on me...but then again, I don't OC.

I'd like to take a stab at OC'ing the 1075 to get up to at least 3.6ghz out of it...but that would involve in a lot of homework before I begin to ensure I don't fry the thing!

Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!!!

 

[graemevermeulen]

Hi mate,

The Caviar Green is fine, I use one myself. The cache size has a negligible difference on real world performance for day to day stuff.

Go for the H100 from Corsair, this will be fine and is maintenance free. Since the system is a closed loop you will never need to top it up or clean it.

Look online for guides regarding voltage tweaks and overclocking for your particular CPU... I'm an Intel man myself, they do differ greatly.

We're always learning, so don't worry about being a noob on anything.

 

[alexpim96]

one other thing is, at least in the uk you can get a caviar green 1tb drive for about £8 more. Not sure whether it would be beneficial to you or not just a suggestion.
The Ram, Motherboard and graphics card etc are all really solid choices also. just like graemevermeulen said have a look at the corsair h100 or 100i(a bit better)
great build and good luck!
-Alex

 

[andegramisu]

Thank you both for the quick responses!! I'm no longer worried about the Caviar Green. Thank you. ANd Alex, I would love 1tb but honestly, I can't see myself ever using more than 500gb...lol.

I have been so torn on the cooler it's halted my build in it's tracks. I think I will definitely grab the h100i and a couple 120mm fans.

Also, have you guys seen these new dust panels that magnetically attach to the outside of the case? They are supposed to keep dust out of the fan. Any insight on those?

 

[logainofhades]

Thank you both for the quick responses!! I'm no longer worried about the Caviar Green. Thank you. ANd Alex, I would love 1tb but honestly, I can't see myself ever using more than 500gb...lol.

I have been so torn on the cooler it's halted my build in it's tracks. I think I will definitely grab the h100i and a couple 120mm fans.

Also, have you guys seen these new dust panels that magnetically attach to the outside of the case? They are supposed to keep dust out of the fan. Any insight on those?

I told myself that and the next thing I new I had 4x 2tb in Raid 5.

 

[andegramisu]

LMAO logain...that's insane! I am worried that the 128gb SSD isn't going to be enough, but Win7 only uses what, 30g at most? That leaves me almost 100gb for installing games. And typically I only have 2-3 games installed at a time before uninstalling to replace with something new...

 

[gamingboy]

I have been so torn on the cooler it's halted my build in it's tracks. I think I will definitely grab the h100i and a couple 120mm fans.

I don't think you should spend around 100 bucks for cooling, when you're on a tighter budget. You'd be MUCH better off spending that 100 bucks on a better graphics card, or maybe even a newer CPU and Mobo.

Something like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would be perfect.

 

[logainofhades]

LMAO logain...that's insane! I am worried that the 128gb SSD isn't going to be enough, but Win7 only uses what, 30g at most? That leaves me almost 100gb for installing games. And typically I only have 2-3 games installed at a time before uninstalling to replace with something new...

Keep in mind you do not want to fill an SSD. It isn't good on them.

 

[andegramisu]

I don't think you should spend around 100 bucks for cooling, when you're on a tighter budget. You'd be MUCH better off spending that 100 bucks on a better graphics card, or maybe even a newer CPU and Mobo.

Something like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would be perfect.

I spent a lot of time looking at reviews on liquid compared to air cooling and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would be my #1 pick for an air cooled system, but in all honesty, I don't see where I could spend the $100. Other than maybe a bigger SSD, but 128gb should be plenty for what I use the system for. With the specs I have on this new rig, including the h100i I would be right in line with my budget so price is more of a secondary concern whereas the huge size and noise levels of an air cooled system. Thanks for the input though gamingboy.

 

[andegramisu]

Best answer selected by andegramisu.