PC to last a few years, looking for feedback and cooling advice

[nwmoose]

Hi all, I'm planning on buying a computer that I hope will last (in terms of reliability and specs/speed) me through three or four years of Uni, with the potential to upgrade components later if need be. The main uses will be programming, 3D work (modelling, rendering, etc.), image editing and a bit of gaming. At the moment the component list is looking like:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($263.00 @ PC Force)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.00 @ Computer Lounge)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.00 @ PC Force)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.42 @ Aquila Technology)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($259.00 @ Computer Lounge)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($103.50 @ PB Technologies)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Other: ASUS PCE-N15 Wireless Adapter ($45.00)
Total: $987.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-23 20:40 NZDT+1300)

Budget Range: The above system is currently sitting at around NZ$1250, and I don't want to go much higher
Approximate Purchase Date: In the next couple of weeks

System Usage: Programming, 3D work, gaming, photo editing

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS, monitor

Preferred Website for Parts: More than likely will be buying from PBTech here in New Zealand (pbtech.co.nz)

Location: New Zealand

Overclocking: No

OS: I'll be multi-booting between Windows 7 or 8 and a couple of Linux distros (mainly Ubuntu or Mint)

As well as just checking that all the components should work fine (and that I'm not forgetting anything essential), I am looking for some feedback - is anything over/under-kill? I'm also not sure about what cooling will be sufficient. The Corsair 200R includes 1 front-mounted 120mm fan and 1 rear 120mm fan (source), but as this is my first custom desktop, I am not sure whether I need to get any extra fans (I'm not going to be overclocking). Also, are there any down-sides to getting a case with so many fan mounts, particularly if several are going to be left empty?

Cheers.

 

[admbautista]

With that budget, All is well then. The most I can do maybe would be is change the board to asrock h77m, could save you some bucks. For the uses of the system, it is a pretty balanced build. Ofcourse you can upgrade some parts like the gpu, and adding ssd, but since your budget is tight, your good to go.

You won't need extra fans in the case since you won't oc. And Adding extra fans sometimes ruins the airflow in the case if you plan to fill up only some mounts. So going with the stock fans would be fine, unless you see the temps gets high too much which I'm pretty sure will not happen.

 

[nwmoose]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I'll be going ahead with this build (although I might swap the case for an Antec One, after looking at some reviews).

Ofcourse you can upgrade some parts like the gpu, and adding ssd, but since your budget is tight, your good to go.

Yeah, I'll probably end up adding an SSD at some point, and upgrading the graphics card as well if I find it's not powerful enough in a year or two.

You won't need extra fans in the case since you won't oc. And Adding extra fans sometimes ruins the airflow in the case if you plan to fill up only some mounts. So going with the stock fans would be fine, unless you see the temps gets high too much which I'm pretty sure will not happen.

Great. I'll be sure to keep an eye on temperatures.

Id take this set intel xeon 1230V2 it is faster than 3570k at stock clocks.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085MQUTU/?tag=pcpapi-20
is GTX 660 better than 650Ti?
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-PCI-Express-Displayport-Graphics-GV-N660OC-2GD/dp/B00942TK8I/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358952463&sr=1-1&keywords=gigabyte+660+oc

The 660 is better, but for me it's not going to be worth pushing my budget for a performance increase I don't really need.

 

[AMD Radeon]

improve on a few things

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($263.00 @ PC Force)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($120.00 @ Paradigm PCs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.00 @ PC Force)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.42 @ Aquila Technology)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($259.00 @ Computer Lounge)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($96.97 @ Ascent Technology)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($124.09 @ Aquila Technology)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Other: ASUS PCE-N15 Wireless Adapter ($45.00)
Total: $1096.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-24 17:05 NZDT+1300)

 

[iceclock]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/nz/p/zg31
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/nz/p/zg31/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/nz/p/zg31/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($263.00 @ PC Force)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($120.00 @ Paradigm PCs)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($87.43 @ Ascent Technology)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ PC Force)
Video Card: PNY Quadro 400 512MB Video Card ($237.80 @ Ascent Technology)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($103.50 @ PB Technologies)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($143.53 @ Aquila Technology)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Other: ASUS PCE-N15 Wireless Adapter ($45.00)
Total: $1099.26
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-24 17:16 NZDT+1300)

got u a quadro 400 alot faster for 3d rendering than the 550ti

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphics/display/20110406235438_Nvidia_Quadro_400_for_169_Outperforms_GeForce_GTX_580_by_Five_Times.html


outperforms a gtx 580 by 5 times. based on Pro/Engineer score in the SPEC Viewperf 11 on a standard industry workstation