Buliding Cheapish Gaming/Multimedia Computer

[ac1dr3volver]

So I've got a smallish budget, this is meant to be a modular computer i.e. I will be putting new parts in at different times throughout the computers life time.

Budget is between $600 and $700

So this is what I'm looking at getting......


Rosewill Challenger Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower (will replace later, just a starter tower)


ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X


EVGA GTX 560ti FPB


PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W High Performance 80PLUS Silver


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz


CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM


I have no use/already have an optical drive and several hard drives with the intention of putting a few SSD's in when money allows.

Anyways, that is what I'm thinking of putting together, Just wanna know what people think.

 

[malbluff]

If using the Phenom, you really need to overclock it to get reasonable performance, so you would need cooler, like CoolerMaster Hyper 212Evo. You should consider that, for MOST gaming an Ivybridge i3 will outperform even an overclocked Phenom, for similar installation cost, and lower running cost.
There are better graphics cards, than the 560Ti eg MSI TwinFrozr GTX660 @ $234, or a HD7850.
Corsair XMS isn't necessarily their best. Prefer CML, or GSKill Ares, or Crucial Ballistix Sport.
You don't need 750w, unless you are planning to use 2nd graphics card, in SLi. If using i3 and GTX660, 500w would be enough.

 

[ac1dr3volver]

If using the Phenom, you really need to overclock it to get reasonable performance, so you would need cooler, like CoolerMaster Hyper 212Evo. You should consider that, for MOST gaming an Ivybridge i3 will outperform even an overclocked Phenom, for similar installation cost, and lower running cost.
There are better graphics cards, than the 560Ti eg MSI TwinFrozr GTX660 @ $234, or a HD7850.
Corsair XMS isn't necessarily their best. Prefer CML, or GSKill Ares, or Crucial Ballistix Sport.
You don't need 750w, unless you are planning to use 2nd graphics card, in SLi. If using i3 and GTX660, 500w would be enough.

Yeah, I was planning on eventually going to SLI another card in there.

If I'm going to go with the i3 what MOBO should I use?

 

[malbluff]

If you want the ability for SLi, it would need to be a Z77 board. Suggest Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, or ASRock Z77 Extreme3 (or 4).
An i3, like i3-3220 beats an overclocked Phenom, in 95% of gaming. You do need to be aware of the other 5%. A few games, BF3 being the most notable, use multiple cores, to improve interaction, between large numbers of players, in multi-player role. i3, whilst still Ok' isn't as good, in those specific applications, just all the rest.

 

[ac1dr3volver]

Alright,


I decided to go with the i3 3220 for now, its cheapish and will most likely be a placeholder til next years intels come out.

I am getting the ASRock Z77 extreme4 MOBO, and the HD7850 and probablly another HD7850 in a few months.'


I'm unsure about the new psu I'm getting though. I had to go with a 500w because of the extra money spent on the mobo and cpu so I am going with a raidmax, link below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028


I've built computers before, but nothing this indepth, mainly replacing parts with some better ones. I'm unsure if these will all work together optimally.


I'm at work currently and will update my list if you could go through it and see if its all good that would be awesome.

 

[malbluff]

NO!!! Not Raidmax. At all costs. They're the pits. I don't think Newegg do it, but the XFX 550w is reasonably cheap, and very good quality. In all honesty, though, a 550w PSU, no matter how good, isn't going to run two GPUs, which was the only advantage of getting a Z77 mobo. Plus the next series of Intel processors will use different motherboard.
My personal opinion, and it is just that. If it makes the difference with getting a decent quality PSU, if you can't also get one that could give you SLi, anyway, get H77 mobo and 550w XFX (or Rosewill HIVE, if you want modular), will be more reliable, all round. Use what you save, on mobo, to pay for decent PSU.