Massive Upgrade. Suggestions?

[Fitzwilliam]

Hi, all,

In about two weeks, I will be upgrading nearly every part of my PC. My old motherboard conked out, and it coincided with an unexpected windfall, so I'm taking the opportunity to get all kitted up. I thought I would get some opinions from the TH community before pulling the trigger.

Parts I Will Be Keeping

Windows Boot Drive (Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB)
Data Hard Drive (Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB)
Backup Hard Drive (Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB)
DVD/CD Drive (ASUS generic)
RAM (8GB G.Skill ECO DDR3-1600)
Graphics Card (XFX Radeon HD 6870)
Processor Heatsink (Cooler Master Hyper 212+)

Parts I Will Be Adding/Replacing

Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3)
Processor (Intel Core i5-2500K) **Plan to overclock to 4.5GHz
Arch Linux Boot Drive (Crucial M4 64GB)
Second Graphics Card (XFX Radeon HD 6870)
PSU (Corsair Professional Series AX750 750W)
Monitor (ASUS VE278Q)

Questions

1. Is the PSU too much? I ran a PSU calculator, and it said I would need only a 650W, but I'm a bit paranoid. I can save $50 by going for the HX650 instead.
2. Opinions on the Gigabyte board. Also, are there any other boards (preferably ASUS) that use an Intel SATA controller rather than a Marvell? The Marvell SATA controller is what killed my old mobo.
3. Any thoughts on the monitor?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[mdd1963]

The review I read on the Gigabyte MBs found them exellent performers, slightly overpriced, and, equipped with an awkward/'not easy to use' BIOS...; I'd personally look at MSI's or ASrock's P67 or Z68 variants.

I would not say the PSU is too much; IMO, it's much safer to have 200-300 watts to spare than to be running a PSU at 85% of it's capacity...

If planning on XFire, I think your 750W search is right where it ought to be for a minimum...

Plans for an aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan?

 

[tph15]

The psu sounds perfect for your build especially with crossfire

 

[Fitzwilliam]

Plans for an aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan?

Oh, I forgot. I've already got the Cooler Master Hyper 212+, and it still works. Thanks for the tips. You think I should go higher than 750W on the PSU, then?

 

[mdd1963]

If you could find a Corsair/Seasonic 850 watt, higher margin of load safety under max Crysis -Crossfire load...

 

[kajabla]

I think 750 will be absolutely fine.