About to pull the trigger on this build purchase. ~$1200, gaming/HDTV system

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Purchase Date: Today or tomorrow morning.

Budget Range: ~$1200-$1500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, watching movies.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Full new build.

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I use NCIX & Newegg for pricing. An NCIX store just opened in my hometown so it's convenient

Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Parts Preferences: I'm a fan of modular PSUs, and have had good luck with my old Antec. I'm not overly tied to any brand in particular, just picked mid-range recommendations from TH, other research, and my own experience with vendors.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Probably not.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: Quiet is key for me. This unit lives in my living room and will be used for gaming & watching movies. I plan to run one HDMI cable to my main monitor, and one to my TV and want to be able to game & watch a movie at the same time.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My first ever PC was built over the holidays in 2006/2007, and it finally bit the dust last month. At this point most of the parts are so old that the only things I can salvage are the case, optical drive, and HDDs.

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts. Please do not post only links.

Edit: Updated list below!

[strike]CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K Unlocked Haswell Quad Core 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 8MB Cache Retail

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 660 OC DirectCU 1020MHZ 2GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card

Mobo: ASUS Gryphon Z87 mATX LGA1150 Z87 DDR3 3PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 SLI SATA3 USB3.0 HDMI Motherboard Edit: Looks like this isn't compatible with my case. Need to investigate a full sized ATX alternative.

Alternative mobo: ASUS Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Z87 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFireX/SLI SATA3 USB3.0 HDMI Motherboard

PSU: Antec High Current Gamer 850W 24PIN ATX12V V2.3 Active PFC 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1866 CL9-10-9-28 Memory x2 (16GB total).

HDD:
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5in SATA3 MDX Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD I figure it's time to upgrade to an SSD for my OS partition.

Case: Antec P180 (already own this)

A little extra cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 1366/1150/1155/1156/2011

Also ordering the standard Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. Figure you don't need a link to that

Grand total for everything including taxes is $1,372.78 CAD. Using in-store pick up so no shipping.[/strike]

Am I missing anything? Any major "OMG THAT IS A PIECE O CRAP" warnings, or incompatibilities I should be worried about?

For giggles, here were my old PC's specs. They were pretty impressive when I built it!

- AMD Opteron Dual core 2.2ghz processor
- 500 GB SATA hard disk space
- 2GB RAM
- 512 MB ATI Radeon x1950 pro (this thing cost me a fortune!)
- 22" widescreen LCD monitor
- Lightscribe DVD burner


Edit: Updated shopping list.

I'll be doing online price matching on all of these, so the prices might not be the lowest. I'd rather do it all in a shop that has a pick up option in town, and ncix having online price matching makes this a very good all in one option.

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink
Mobo: ASUS Z87-A ATX LGA1150
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 770
RAM: G.SKILL RipjawsX F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL
SSD: Samsung 840 Evo Series MZ-7TE120BW 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PSU: Corsair RM 650
Optical: ASUS 24X DVD-RW,BLACK SATA


Total before price matching/taxes: $1,298.13

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

One big "OMG THAT IS A PIECE O CRAP" warning, you are getting a 660?? Go for at least a 770. If need be, drop the cpu for an i5 4670K. It's pretty much the same as the i7, just no hyper threading.

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

Also, because the Optical Drive that you are planning on using is so old, it might have the old ribbon IDE cable, instead of a SATA cable. That's what my old drive was like, and I had to ditch it when I built this PC. Check on that, you may have to get a new drive.

 

[Whammy]

This would be a lot better:
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/2TLud

Current games won't require more than an i5 4670k, no game will ever ever need more than 8Gb of RAM, and as mentioned, the 660 is awful for your budget. A 770 will be adequate for any game, however if you want a little more, I would recommend a 780 or780Ti. Finally, a Samsung 840 EVO (not pro) is currently going to be hands down the best SSD you can buy for the price

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.79 @ DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.50 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($150.06 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($97.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($81.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.00 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($559.00 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Memory Express)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.50 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1399.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-15 15:44 EST-0500)

 

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Hm.. so downgrade the RAM & processor, and upgrade the vid card. Makes sense. And good call on the optical drive - not like they're expensive anyway, so throwing one in isn't a bad idea. Worst case scenario I end up with two - my drive bays can definitely support it.

I also see that everyone recommended the Corsair across the board over the Antec PSU. I shall take that as a sign! Redoing my specs... will post again in a bit.

Alright here we go with a new list! I'll be doing online price matching on all of these, so the prices might not be the lowest. I'd rather do it all in a shop that has a pick up option in town, and ncix having online price matching makes this a very good all in one option.

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink
Mobo: ASUS Z87-A ATX LGA1150
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 770
RAM: G.SKILL RipjawsX F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL
SSD: Samsung 840 Evo Series MZ-7TE120BW 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PSU: Corsair RM 650
Optical: ASUS 24X DVD-RW,BLACK SATA


Total before price matching/taxes: $1,298.13

Would love to hear feedback on this build before I commit! Also, the PSU... is the 650W enough power to keep me going for a while?

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

Your PSU is enough to run the PC, and OC it a bit, but not for 2 gpus.

 

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Your PSU is enough to run the PC, and OC it a bit, but not for 2 gpus.

I don't foresee doubling up on the GPUs, so I guess I'm good to go! Thanks! Looking forward to getting my hands on all these goodies.

 

[Whammy]

Looks great! Let us know how it turns out