First Time Builder - Any comments welcome

[Rezjudicata]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Within the next 2 weeks or so

Budget Range: $1800 or so all told.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, photo editing, wasting time on the internet.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes, included in budget.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes - Windows 8 in all likelihood, since the OEM version is so cheap.


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any that get the job done, though Newegg and Amazon are my usual go-tos.

Location: City, State/Region, Country - Cleveland, OH, USA

Overclocking: I intend to, though I would be a true beginner in that.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes, in the future.

Your Monitor Resolution: 5760x 1080 (3x 1920x1080)

Additional Comments: Case is somewhat expensive, but I like the look and it leaves room for upgrades and seems to have good airflow (7 fans come standard). I already have a couple HDDs I can transfer, so I only need an SSD. Power supply is high because I plan to get another GPU within a couple months.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My last desktop (6 years old) went kaput, and I have had to use my laptop for gaming, which is not ideal.

I am most unsure about the choices I made in terms of monitor (I do want triple monitor though, I have been using it for a long time and like the productivity), GPU (seems like there are lots of good choices) and PSU (in terms of brand and reliability), but this is the first time I will build so I would be happy with any comments. I have made these choices mostly based on this forum and reviews, so hopefully I didn't add anything terribly bad. Thank you!

Parts:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125439&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Case: Azza Genesis 9000 (White) ATX Full Tower Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517019&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 900W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371050&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Monitor: 3x Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236288&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

[g-unit1111]

That's an excellent start. Here's what I would suggest:

1. 1866 RAM won't be fully utilized. Get 1600 instead.

2. That PSU is OK, this would be better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151111

3. You'd also be wise to check out the Sapphire Vapor X - great cooling solution: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

4. That case - it looks awesome - but is enormous and major overkill. You don't really need it unless you're using an XL-ATX motherboard.

 

[nbelote]

Full tower case: takes up as much room as a fully-grown German shepherd and weighs as much too, sounds like you're sitting in the center of a jet engine due to the necessary large/amount of fans, and can stop bullets if you're even able to lift it up high enough to protect your chest.

 

[Rezjudicata]

Full tower case: takes up as much room as a fully-grown German shepherd and weighs as much too, sounds like you're sitting in the center of a jet engine due to the necessary large/amount of fans, and can stop bullets if you're even able to lift it up high enough to protect your chest.

Legit funny

@g-unit1111
The Vapor X seemed pretty good to me too, but is currently $55 or so more than the Gigabyte card I had selected, which was $413 today. Seemed like a great price for a 7970 GHz Edition.

I thought there were some (perhaps low) marginal gains to be had going up to 1866 and then 2166 (though 2166 seems not worth the money for the gain, for my uses). Have I been misunderstanding the advice about that?

So the consensus is that a full tower case is unnecessary. Sounds good, probably will save a bit of money not going that route then.

 

[hdeezie80]

From my experience I would suggest this:

Most importantly don't install windows 8 for gaming or for any reason, OEM 7 is the same price.

If your going to go high end graphics card go GTX 680, I own one and have owned AMD GPU's in the past. In my opinion the drivers are much better for Nvidia and my games do not crash as frequently.

You could probably get a smaller SSD if you looking to save some cash, it's best just to boot the OS and run the antivirus off them since they have a limited number of read/writes.

PSU is a little overkill for a possible 2 GPU's i would go 800W max.

Going full tower is always a good investment.

I use the same heat sink on my CPU and it works out pretty well for modest overclocking.

Overall pretty solid

 

[Rezjudicata]

From my experience I would suggest this:

Most importantly don't install windows 8 for gaming or for any reason, OEM 7 is the same price.

If your going to go high end graphics card go GTX 680, I own one and have owned AMD GPU's in the past. In my opinion the drivers are much better for Nvidia and my games do not crash as frequently.

You could probably get a smaller SSD if you looking to save some cash, it's best just to boot the OS and run the antivirus off them since they have a limited number of read/writes.

PSU is a little overkill for a possible 2 GPU's i would go 800W max.

Going full tower is always a good investment.

I use the same heat sink on my CPU and it works out pretty well for modest overclocking.

Overall pretty solid

I thought I read that Windows 8 was a more efficient operating system. Admittedly without a touch screen most of the features won't be revolutionary for me, but if the operating system is quicker that might be a good thing in itself.

I don't mind if full towers are heavy or big since I don't plan carrying it around, but are they typically a good deal louder?

Anyone have an opinion on that monitor? It seems like a great deal for an IPS monitor, but there may be some catch I am unaware of.

Thanks for all the comments.

 

[Rezjudicata]

Best answer selected by Rezjudicata.

 

[hdeezie80]

@Rezjudicata

Windows 8 probably is more efficient since its primarily made for mobile devices, but it would be like running android on your computer in place of Ubuntu or a similar Linux distribution. The UI is pretty bad and there's really not a whole lot of support for windows 8 at this point. Comparing OS efficiency is pretty trivial when you booting from a solid state drive and an i5, boot time will be like 20 seconds max including the bios.

About the full tower, it really depends on how you have your fans set up, but with all the extra space you have in there you could just throw in a fan controller to moderate the fan speed. A lot of people don't like them but it's nice having the extra space to work in especially if you plan on upgrading or water cooling, wire management is definitely a lot easier too. I got a haf xm (a mid tower) which is nice and roomy, but get a case you feel comfortable working in probably best to buy it in person so you can get a good feel for it.

Don't know to much about monitors I use a flat screen tv, It's maybe a little too big for gaming since aliasing is more pronounced, mines 40" my room mate just bought a 37" for gaming, 37" to 28" is probably optimal size, 23 would be good if you got it set up close. Really depends on your eyesight, mines shitty so I gotta go bigger and sit right next to the thing.