I5 3570k/HD 7850: My first build; advice wanted!

[jaasif]

{Important note: please read everything I write in an over the top English accent!}

'Ello there good people. It's just about time for me to get into the pc gaming space, so I'm building my own. I'll be ordering it in a week or two, and I wanted to ask your esteemed collective opinion. I want to finalise the parts now so that I can order as soon as I scrape up the change from my pockets.

So it's an intel based system; the i5 3570k is a total beast, I just can't resist it. I don't have a very large budget though, so I've settled on the 7850 as a decent card that hopefully will last me a while. (I'm going with the HIS Ice Q: $190). Now, PCs get outdated notoriously quickly. With this in mind, I'm taking a ham-fisted attempt at future-proofing. This is where I really need the advice. Instead of like a 400w PSU, I'm going to get a 600w, and I'm going to make sure my Motherboard has 2 PCIe 3.0 slots, because, down the road, I want to add another 7850. (By the time it's necessary they'll probably be rather cheap I imagine; weren't they like $300+ at the beginning of this year?). So right now, I'm looking at Asrock's z77 Extreme4 board. With this however, it says that if you're using both PCIe slots then it goes from 16/0 to 8/8, implying that the cards will not be reaching their full potential. Is that true or not? Should I be choosing a different board?

Aside from that, I'll be getting 16 GBs of Corsair RAM (it's like $15 more than 8 GBs, so why not), A Rosewill LINE GLOW case, some $20 optical, a Baracuda 1 TB HDD ($85), and...I think that's it. It comes to ~$840, which is a bit high; I'd like to keep it at $800 but oh well. And that's not including an OS... Speaking of which, I'm thinking Win 7; 8 looks like a waste of time at the moment, with it's lame-a$$ mobile thing goin' on.

So yeah! Opinions on future proofing, hardware choices, etc! All are welcome!

Thanks guys!

postscript: one last thing. This is the PSU I chose: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182032
It doesn't have any sort of power efficiency certification, but it has got good reviews. AMD specified 600w as the requirement for 7850 Xfire, and I've heard they usually say something a lil' high just to be safe. I think my system (with 2x 7850s) should draw about 520w or so. What do you think though? Is the PSU appropriate/reliable? Thanks again for at least reading this. Or not reading this. Thanks for everything. For like horses, sheeps, barns, and bicycles.

 

[strife_ff7]

I'd get a better quality psu. With an oc of the cpu and the video cards oc'ed I doubt the rosewill would be enough. If it was enough it would be very close to it's limit. Get this it's way better quality, more power and about the same price xfx pro650 http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=59616&vpn=P1650SNLB9&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1373

 

[jaasif]

Oy! Who asked you?!

hahaha I kid. That's my idea of a joke. hahaha yeah...nvm that.

So you think 650w will do it then? Just to let you know, I don't plan on OCing anytime soon; that would mean buying an aftermarket CPU cooler! Although! I did make a point of choosing RAM with a small profile so that when I do want to install a cooler there won't be a problem with space.

Thanks for the suggestion. Just something to keep in mind however, is that I'd like to order everything from one place--Newegg--so as to keep it all together, you know? I checked out that PSU on there, and it was out of stock. Must be good then. haha. Well, by the time I order, hopefully they'll have got another one. Either that or I'll just try and find a rough equivalent.

Thanks for you (very prompt) reply Mr Strife. I have literally sat here for the last four hours just refreshing the page waiting for a good respectable lad like yourself to give me some advice. By the by, how are things with Tifa?

 

[slatanek]

I don't get what do all the people have against Win8? it's perfectly fine and it at last looks like a 21st century system (I mean live tiles are really usefull and look cool aswell). are you all really that much in love with that START button?

 

[stonedatheist]

For a power supply, I would recommend getting a better brand than Rosewill. You don't want to cheap out on a power supply because it has the potential to take out other components if it fails. Seasonic is the gold standard and a lot of the better rated power supplies will use Seasonic components inside. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-151-096&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo this would be a good choice if you don't need it to be modular.

Splitting 16 PCIe lanes to x8/x8 probably wouldn't hold back your GPUs at all. I guarantee they won't if they're PCIe 3.0 slots.

 

[jaasif]

I totally agree. But then, do you really want to cheap out on anything? Well, aside from the optical drive...

I didn't know that Seasonic was held in such high regard. That PSU looks like a good one. However, a lot of the reviewers were saying the cables were far too short. Some of them had to buy extensions. Incidentally, what's the difference between modular and non modular? I gathered it's something to do with less cables.

As far as the Rosewill PSU goes, I was considering it because it had pretty good reviews.

 

[barto]

I don't get what do all the people have against Win8? it's perfectly fine and it at last looks like a 21st century system (I mean live tiles are really usefull and look cool aswell). are you all really that much in love with that START button?

I think W8 is ugly. I like my desktop background. Screw the whole block, tablet look. I just see it as clutter, but that's just me.

 

[lengcaifai]

a 500-600w quality psu is very enough for overclocked single gpu system, and will be very future proof as u can see that nowadays cpu & gpu have high performance per watt, and future cpu/gpu will have much better efficiency

well when talking about cpu/gpu, there isn't much future proofing , but should last u for about 2-4 years

 

[exeedorbit]

I only have one question, if you're not planning on OCing... why are you going for a K model CPU? A non K will sport pretty much identical performance, for cheaper.

 

[jaasif]

I am not planning on OCing immediately, simply due to the fact that I don't want to spend extra money on a CPU cooler. Also, it isn't necessary, performance-wise. As games become more demanding, however, things will change. Then I'll throw down the munny and start cranking that thing up. That's also when I'll be getting another 7850. Besides the non K version is cheaper by like $5.

Actually, do you think it'd be cheaper to simply replace my GPU later, or to add another 7850 in Xfire?