Help a newbie -Requesting reviews on $1000 budget PC

[zailiner]

Hey there everyone, how's it going?

I was hunting for PC parts to complete my build, and encountered this site quite a few times when I was looking for reviews and such. I happen to be a gigantic noob, and have came to this site once again to request the help of the community here; so I'm sorry if I happen to make you cringe a few times with my choices.

I'm still a student, so I have to work with a budget of around ~1000 AUD.

I'm purchasing all of my parts from PC case gear (good rep from what I've heard on the internet, especially on the whirlpool forums), which is a 10 minute walk from my house. It's either PC case gear or centre com. I'm not willing to get the parts shipped in case there are problems, and for convenience.

My main concerns are compatibility issues and the case being too small.

Here are the parts, feel free to ask for more details if I happen to miss anything.

Case:
CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced - 109.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18722
Heard A LOT of good things about this baby.

Motherboard:
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Motherboard - 139.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19867

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570K - 233.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20138
Decided to pay an extra 30 bucks or so for the overclockable version.

GPU:
Gigabyte Radeon HD7850 2GB OC - 219.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19849

PSU:
Antec High Current Gamer 520W Modular HCG-520M - 99.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19762

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST1000DM003 - 75.00 AUD
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19747

SSD:
Samsung 830 Series 64GB SSD - 65.00 AUD

Optical disc drive:
Samsung SH-222BB SATA DVDRW Drive OEM - 19.00 AUD
I'm not too concerned about the disc drive, I won't be using it much

I'm still looking for a monitor around 150-200 dollars that's atleast 23 inches, it would be nice if you guys could throw in some suggestions.


I am looking for ALL suggestions, no matter how minor or major they are.

Thank you all for the help, again, sorry for the noobiness.

 

[butremor]

You do plan on overclocking right?

Then wait a sec, imma throw you together nice build

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($233.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($36.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($127.40 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.50 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($60.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($255.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case: Cooler Master RC-361-KKN1 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($95.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Monitor: Samsung S23B300B 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1153.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-17 00:47 EST+1100)

I'm afraid it doesn't comes lower than this, without giving up on some options

 

[zailiner]

You do plan on overclocking right?

Then wait a sec, imma throw you together nice build

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVGb/benchmarks/
-snip-
I'm afraid it doesn't comes lower than this, without giving up on some options

1153 with the monitor? That's sounds really decent.

I checked out some reviews of the Asus motherboard you recommended to me, it seems like it has quite a bad reputation, coming along with a lot of problems.

I think I'll stick with the original case - CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced, since I'll be using it for a looooong time.

Everything else is fine though, thanks for your time!

I will take this into consideration.


And another thing, I've been hearing about how overclocking your parts ultimately results in a shorter life for al your parts, if this is true, I'd rather go with no over clocking.

 

[butremor]

If you go without OC, then you can save a bunch. What for you gonna be using PC?

I will post the no OC build *here*


SO here is no OC build. As you see you save alot on cooler, cpu, mobo psu. Swapped HDD for WD, must be good.
But you chose quite expensive case, which brings price up.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nVMv
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nVMv/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nVMv/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($100.70 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($270.11 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.57 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($77.64 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Samsung S23B300B 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($199.95 @ Mac Connection)
Total: $1127.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-16 09:11 EST-0500)

 

[dish_moose]

May want to look at different HDD - where I work we've had more seagate failures than any other.
-Bruce

 

[zailiner]

If you go without OC, then you can save a bunch. What for you gonna be using PC?

I'm going to be using my PC for studying, listening to music and mainly lots and lots of gaming.
Thanks for your time again, sir.

May want to look at different HDD - where I work we've had more seagate failures than any other.
-Bruce

I'll keep that in mind.

 

[zailiner]

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($100.70 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($270.11 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.57 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($77.64 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Samsung S23B300B 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($199.95 @ Mac Connection)
Total: $1127.93

Decided to stray away from Newegg and Amazon because they don't directly ship towards Australia, and will require a forwarding service. So I decided to go check out the items on msy and pccase gear instead.

The total price ended up being 1148, about 20 dollars more expensive, but that I can sacrifice.

I couldn't find the specific RAM, would this do instead?
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7649

 

[butremor]

Decided to stray away from Newegg and Amazon because they don't directly ship towards Australia, and will require a forwarding service. So I decided to go check out the items on msy and pccase gear instead.

The total price ended up being 1148, about 20 dollars more expensive, but that I can sacrifice.

I couldn't find the specific RAM, would this do instead?
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7649

Oh, oh sorry, forgot to change to AU version of site.
That ram's good, but for gaming 1600MHz ram is more preferable.
Btw, if you look parts by merchant pccasegeat doesb't have half of them. So i gues you will have to order online
http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVMv/by_merchant/

 

[rene13cross]

Decided to stray away from Newegg and Amazon because they don't directly ship towards Australia, and will require a forwarding service. So I decided to go check out the items on msy and pccase gear instead.

The total price ended up being 1148, about 20 dollars more expensive, but that I can sacrifice.

I couldn't find the specific RAM, would this do instead?
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7649

Yup, its great (looking) RAM.

 

[butremor]

Hey, i changed the build a bit, but it's basically the same build, only now everything is in that store you favor: pscase gear
I'm not sure how much you want SSD, but i dropped it out, so now it's alot cheaper:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVYh
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVYh/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/au/p/nVYh/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($85.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($250.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Monitor: Samsung S23B300B 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1010.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-17 01:59 EST+1100)

 

[zailiner]

Hey, i changed the build a bit, but it's basically the same build, only now everything is in that store you favor: pscase gear
CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($85.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($250.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($83.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Monitor: Samsung S23B300B 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1010.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-17 01:59 EST+1100)

Everything is fitting into place now. I'm going to stick with the original 20 dollar optical drive I decided on.
Just as a last confirmation, are you absolutely sure all of this is compatible? Sorry if I sound a bit like a douche. :lol:

 

[butremor]

yeah, i'm sure.
Click the link, there's note in top left corner where is gray stripe "part list" where site itself says that it's compatible.

 

[zailiner]

Best answer selected by zailiner.