My first build

[Brian1963]

My “FIRST” build??!!?? ☺ I am looking for opinions and thoughts on my choices. It started with me wanting to upgrade my current HP Pavilion m9250t to 3D.Not worth it. So after months of research (note: very bad on reading reviews 10 bad out of 1000 I think what if that happens to me☹) I would like an all around computer and be able to upgrade. I like to play games watch movies listen to music (over 300 hundred movies on hard drive and 15000 songs) I plan on hooking up to my Yamaha AV receiver and to my Samsung 3D TV. I picked 1st CPU 2ND Motherboard with thought of video card 3RD video card 4th case 5TH sound card (not sure if I even need, kind of afterthought) 6th RAM. Have not picked hard drive, thinking 1TB and using one or both 500GB drives from old computer, (HELP)??Would like to have blue ray, 3D DVD would like it to write both not sure yet on kind (HELP)??Power HOW MUCH?? Sorry if too much info.
Here are my picks: ☺ or ☹ have not bought anything yet!!!

CPU: Intel i7-2700 sandy bridge
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper
Video Card: Gigabyte GV-N660C-2G GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (mid tower)
Sound card: OMEGA Claro Halo 24-bit 192 KHz PCI Interface (not even sure if needed)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Hard Drive or drives:???
Power:???
I have learned a lot (or maybe not☺) may be in over my head.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Spartin503]

What is your budget?

 

[malbluff]

Unless you want to do high-level photo/video editing, or 3D design work, there's little point in having i7, particularly a locked version, from the last generation.
I would suggest:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212Evo
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
Case: As your choice
Ram: GSKill Ares 8GB (2x4GB) 1600 MHz Cas9 DDR3
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 7200rpm (size to be decided)
PSU: PC power & Cooling Silencer MKlll 600w modular power supply

You probably won't need a sound card, on board provision pretty good. You can always add later.
It is probably worth have an SSD for operating system, and favourite games, something like Samsung 830 128GB
HDD: You can probably judge better than I, how much you need.

I would suggest you price that up, and see what budget you have left for graphics card. If you confirm your monitor resolution, we can advise on the ideal GPU, for your money.

 

[Spartin503]

No offence to Brian but if he doesn't know weather he needs an i5 or and i7 he probably doesn't know how to overclock so I would completely agree with malbuff but get a i5 3570(non k).

 

[malbluff]

A bit harsh. It's a common enough assumption that i7 is going to be better than i5. It is IF you are using a fairly select band of software, that uses hyperthreading.
Personally, I would always recommend a novice to take their time, and get to know their new system, and make sure there are no "issues", before diving into overclocking. I wouldn't suggest, unless budget was tight, that someone forego the ABILITY to overclock, unless they didn't want it.

 

[Spartin503]

The reason I would in Brian's situation get a non k CPU is because overclocking the 3rd gen CPU's they get exponentially hotter and can create hardware failure if done wrong.

 

[malbluff]

Certainly agree that it should be done AFTER you know what you are doing.

 

[Spartin503]

With the k overclocking it you can only go up to about 3.8 without water cooling or A LOT of fans.

 

[malbluff]

With the k overclocking it you can only go up to about 3.8 without water cooling or A LOT of fans.

I don't know if you've got a particular issue, with your rig, but low 4's are not a problem, with a reasonable air cooler. It's only around the 4.5 mark that there are REAL issues with cooling.

 

[Spartin503]

On my rig I have a 3770 so I haven't overclocked my CPU but from what I've read from other peoples testing with the 3rd gen overclocking you need pretty good air flow and defiantly an aftermarket CPU fan but if you what to discuss this any farther I would like to be messaged so we can deal with the question from Brian instead of talking about overclocking a 3rd gen system.

 

[Brian1963]

No offence to Brian but if he doesn't know weather he needs an i5 or and i7 he probably doesn't know how to overclock so I would completely agree with malbuff but get a i5 3570(non k).

No offence taken. This is my first build i know what overclocking is and does. But have no idea how or even care to at this time. This all started because i wanted to upgrade my system to 3D.I am going to hook up my computer to a samsung 55" 3D tv and my yahama AV receiver. Budget $1,400 want to stay under.so this is were im at with my picks. i do have a HD monitoir

NZXT Crafted Series Phantom Black / Green Trim Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case Model #PHAN-002GR
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard Model #:G1.Sniper 3
GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Model #:GV-N660OC-2GD
ntel Core i5-2550K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Without IGP BX80623i52550K
Model #:BX80623i52550K
Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Model #:SSDSC2CW120A3K5
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Model #:F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model #:WD5000AAKX
Right at $1,178.92

 

[malbluff]

If you want to give yourself the ability to overclock, go with i5-3570K and Asus P8Z77 mobo (either V LK, or V Pro). If you don't want to overclock, in future, go with i5-3450, but suggest you stick with a Z77 mobo, if using nVidia graphics. If you want to overclock, you will need an aftermarket cooler, before doing so. You don't HAVE to do that now.
Would suggest, for SSD, either Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or OCZ Vertex 4.
For RAM, if you use either GSKill Ares, or Crucial Ballistix Sport, there is no risk of a clash, should you wish to add an aftermarket cooler, at some stage.

 

[Brian1963]

If you want to give yourself the ability to overclock, go with i5-3570K and Asus P8Z77 mobo (either V LK, or V Pro). If you don't want to overclock, in future, go with i5-3450, but suggest you stick with a Z77 mobo, if using nVidia graphics. If you want to overclock, you will need an aftermarket cooler, before doing so. You don't HAVE to do that now.
Would suggest, for SSD, either Samsung 830, Crucial M4, or OCZ Vertex 4.
For RAM, if you use either GSKill Ares, or Crucial Ballistix Sport, there is no risk of a clash, should you wish to add an aftermarket cooler, at some stage.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kYbc
how does this look

 

[Brian1963]

On my rig I have a 3770 so I haven't overclocked my CPU but from what I've read from other peoples testing with the 3rd gen overclocking you need pretty good air flow and defiantly an aftermarket CPU fan but if you what to discuss this any farther I would like to be messaged so we can deal with the question from Brian instead of talking about overclocking a 3rd gen system.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kYbc
What do you think