What kind of tower do I need?

[TonyArnold2]

I am building my first PC (primarily for gaming) this weekend and I'm wondering what kind of tower I need - full or mid. The specs are:

Corsair Vengeance 16 GB RAM
Intel i7-3770K Ivy Bridge CPU
nVidia GeForce GTX 690 GPU
ASUS Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
Corsair HX850 PSU
Thermaltake Frio Overclocking CPU Fan
Corsair Neutron Series GTX SSD
ASUS VS248H Monitor
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB HDD

I'm already at $2,687 so I don't want to spend to much more, and if a mid would fit my needs I would save $80.
This is the mid I'm looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

And possibly this full:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119225&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA&gclid=CLeoxeD427QCFdKd4AodNBgADA

 

[TonyArnold2]

NOTE: the $2,687 is including the price of the mid.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The mid tower should be fine, but go for the Full Tower if you want it and drop down to the GTX680 if cost is a concern. Why anyone with financial concerns would pay $500 more for such a small increase in performance is beyond me.

-Wolf sends

 

[TonyArnold2]

I don't have "financial concerns," I just don't want to go overboard.

 

[chugot9218]

Well that is a rediculously overkill gaming PC, you could easily shave off over a grand and still have a top of the line machine. Doesn't matter what size you get as long as it can take your overpriced/under-featured ATX board. Your main concern will be whether that 690 can fit, some case manufacturers list the maximum GPU lengths on their cases, find one that does and compare the size. Note, just because they are labeled Mid-towers does not necessarily mean they are small.

LoL, no offense, but tons of the components you selected are overboard, your paying 1000$ for one card for gosh sakes.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I don't have "financial concerns," I just don't want to go overboard.

Pardon me for saying so, but I agree with Chugot9218 in that you are already, "overboard".

For a primarily gaming system, you want to go with an Intel CoreI5 3570K processor. The 3770K processor gives very little (if any) performance boost and is not worth the extra cost.

DDR3 RAM is so cheap these days, I easy to go ahead and get 16GB, but unless you're editing large HD video files or RAW images, I don't see anyone needing more than 8GB of RAM in a primarily gaming system.

I've already mentioned how I feel about the GTX690. If a GTX680 gives you 100% at $500, do you really want to spend $1000 for a card that gives you between 105 and 110%. Look at it in terms of frames per second. If a $500 GTX680 gives you 60FPS in a game, do you really want to spend another $500 just to get to 66FPS?

I won't speak to the motherboard, but I'm sure you could save at least $20 there.

My only complaint about your power supply is that it's too much for a single graphics card system. Even if you did install a GTX690, a Corsair 650 watt PSU would be more than sufficient to power it. Only look to something like the 850 watt PSU if you're considering a multi-GPU system (and two GTX690s is just right out!).

Finally, unless you have a great multitude of games to install onto your system, I don't see any need to go with anything more than a 120GB SSD.

Cutting back to more reasonable components could easily trim about $1000 off of your build.

-Wolf sends

 

[LilDog1291]

I'm not going to say dont spend money because you can do what you want. I'm all for buying what makes you happy. Chugot is right though. Im using an XFX 7970 Ghz edition and I barely use 70% of the card on top titles such as Far Cry 3 and Crysis 2. If you wanted to save money I recommend dropping the $1000 card because at that price point your price per frame is way too high...but do what you want.

In regards to tower size. I had the CM Scout mid tower and my 7970 did not fit which led to me waiting 2 weeks until my new Thermaltake Level 10 GT arrived and someone bought my old case.

I say go with the Full Tower for case room to dissipate heat into the air more easily, and to future proof any other builds/additions you might decide to make.

 

[TonyArnold2]

LOL. Ok, I realize I am going overboard with the 690, but I am used to an iMac with an AMD Radeon 6770 Mobile, and having Minecraft crash when I run shaders. So, I want a GPU that will be awesome and last me a while.

Does anyone have any areas where I can cut the price? Besides GPU and CPU?

 

[TonyArnold2]

Especially the motherboard, someone said that it's overpriced and underfeatured