Need Advice First build Bitfenix Prodigy

[theoneonlyz]

Hi,

I am making my first ever gaming pc because i got tired of the horrid visuals on the PS3. I have a budget of $1000 BUT that would be including taxes and shipping (13% taxes on everything, CANADA CURSE YOU). I need a mini ITX case because of space constraints so i chose the bitfenix prodigy. The energy bills are also off the charts here so I need a PSU that is 80 Plus Platinum. Also I will not be overclocking anything hence the B75M board.

Order of importance:
GAMING, HD MOVIES, BASIC WORK (word)
I will not be doing any video editing, or photoshop or any other such thing


This is the build I am planning on buying:


BUILD
CPU: i3 3220
GPU: Galaxy GC GTX 670 (has gtx 680 pcb and cooling and is factory OC)
MOBO: ASrock B75M ITX
RAM: 8GB GSkill Ripjaws
HDD: Seagate Barricuda 1TB 7200rpm
PSU: Rosewill FORTRESS Series FORTRESS-550W (80 plus platinum)
CASE: Bitfenix Prodigy (white because it's $15 cheaper here than black)

I have some concerns:

-Is this the best gaming build I can buy for the money ($1000 including 13% tax)?
-Will the GTX 670 be bottlenecked by the i3 3220?
-Is the 550W PSU enough for all these components?
-Will the stock fan configuration in the Bitfenix Prodigy (white) provide enough cooling for everything (no overclocking) or will I have to purchase more case fans?
-Do I need an aftermarket cooler for my CPU?

This will need to be reasonably future proofed (2 years or more). I only game on 1080p but would love to max everything out (except for max AA). If the CPU is too much of a bottleneck then I might upgrade to i5 but will only be able to do so next year.

This is my first time building, would love any help.

 

[bodeen2012]

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-3330 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($228.98 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: Asus P8H77-I Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($124.28 @ NCIX)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.96 @ NCIX)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($90.37 @ NCIX)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($276.83 @ NCIX)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.08 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($96.03 @ NCIX)
Total: $968.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-26 18:50 EDT-0400)

 

[theoneonlyz]

But will an i5 with HD 7870 provide better gaming performance than i3 with gtx 670? And what about the cooling? Will it be enough wit stock config

 

[Guest]

To be quite honest, the HD 7870 is a great graphics card. It completely slaughters the GTX 660 and is just about as good as the GTX 660 Ti. For your HD gaming, I would go for a HD 7970 which you can get for about $450. It completely mushes the GTX 670 at just about everything and will be a great GPU for HD gaming. However, for HD gaming, you honestly do not need a video card that expensive and advanced. A HD 7950 would do you fine for about $300.
To answer your other questions:

-It is a pretty good gaming PC for your budget but if I were you I would balance the GPU and CPU out a bit more - maybe go for an i5-3570K and a HD 7870.
-The GTX 670 may be bottlenecked on the most demanding HD gaming but should be fine for less demanding games.
-The 550W PSU should be fine unless you consider using a card with a larger power consumption. www.hwcompare.com is a good website to compare video cards.
-If I were you, I would go for a few more BitFenix Spectre Pro fans. Maybe 1 or 2 at $13 a piece.
-You only need an after market cooler for your CPU if you want to overclock it or want super-quiet cooling. As the i3-3220 is a locked CPU, it cannot be overclocked, so you're fine there.

And, as this is your first time buidling, BE SURE TO TAKE ELECTROSTATIC PRECAUTIONS. Thanks for reading!