Is this build solid?

My roommate is looking to buy a new system soon, and he says his budget could be up to $1800-$2000, if it's really worth it. I whipped this together browsing newegg, which will run just under $1700 with tax and shipping. I just want to know if I'm missing anything, and that everything is compatible and whatnot. And if anyone has any suggestions about switching something out for better performance/price ratio, that'd be welcome. One thing I'm worried about, is that the PSU i found says it's compatible with Sandybridge intel CPUs, and the CPU i picked is an Ivybridge. But I looked at other PSUs, and none of them said anything about it either way. So.. will the power supply I selected work with an ivybridge i5? Or is there some reason it won't? Here's the stuff.

Pretty white case

Asus LGA1155 z77 Mobo

Core i5 3570k

EVGA GTX 670 2gb

16gb Corair Vengeance RAM

Possibly incompatible (?) 700w Power Supply

1tb Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm HDD

128gb Crucial M4 SSD

Asus Disc drive

Acer 23" 1080p Monitor

And of course he'll need windows and a mouse/kb, but we'll worry about that separately. What does the GS computer hardware forum think of this? Yay? Nay? What to change? And yeah, if anyone can confirm whether or not that PSU would work, that'd be great. Thanks in advance, fellas.

The psu should be fine, it said it has an 8 pin connector and so does the MOBO, so you are fine.

there is no real need to have 16gb of ram, 8 is more than enough for todays game, but its up to you because ram is very cheap atm.

everything else looks good.

juts a heads up the sandybrige CPU is better for over clocking than the ivy, its cheaper and is only marginally worse in performance, like 10%

Yeah, I figured 16gb of RAM is alot, but RAM is cheap. And if we decide we want to drop the price a little, that'll probably be the first downgrade. Good advice on the PSU, I'll take that into account.

I wouldn't be the most appropriate person to give you an answer, but I would like to know why your room-mate went for the 3570k over the 3550? I am in the process of building a system as well, sorry if my comment is inappropriate. ArchDuke1

My roommate hasn't actually looked at this list yet. And I don't know a whole lot about the subtle differences in the current stuff (haven't built a rig in almost 5 years). I just browsed quickly around newegg, basing most of my choices off of whatever had good user reviews and wasn't stupid expensive. Is the 3550 significantly cheaper, without much lower performance?

Yeah, if you want to save a bit more, I would just go with the i5-2500Kkrisroe_213

Just based on what I've seen people talking about on these forums, the 2500k does seem to be the most popular Intel CPU among those who don't go balls out and opt for an i7. Is it just the best performance for the price in the i5 line? I almost selected the 2500k putting this list together, but i figured I'd go for at least a slight upgrade from that, and keep it in mind to fall back to, if we wanna drop the price a little. I actually got an i7 to begin with, and downgraded to the i5 3570k to make more money to get a GTX 6 series GPU instead of a 5 series.

Also I just saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233 Looks like it's the exact same CPU i have in the original list, but with Intel graphics HD 2500 instead of HD 4000, and it's a little cheaper. Is there any disadvantage to that? I mean, with a dedicated GPU, the intel graphics doesn't matter, like, at all, right?

Also I just saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233 Looks like it's the exact same CPU i have in the original list, but with Intel graphics HD 2500 instead of HD 4000, and it's a little cheaper. Is there any disadvantage to that? I mean, with a dedicated GPU, the intel graphics doesn't matter, like, at all, right?

the_bi99man

No dont change that, get k version, it has an unlocked multiplier and lets you OC, also why not a cheaper mobo and maybe a 4GB GTX670?

Also, you need a cooler, the hyper 212+ is the cheapest you want to go.

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

Also I just saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233 Looks like it's the exact same CPU i have in the original list, but with Intel graphics HD 2500 instead of HD 4000, and it's a little cheaper. Is there any disadvantage to that? I mean, with a dedicated GPU, the intel graphics doesn't matter, like, at all, right?

GTR12

No dont change that, get k version, it has an unlocked multiplier and lets you OC, also why not a cheaper mobo and maybe a 4GB GTX670?

Also, you need a cooler, the hyper 212+ is the cheapest you want to go.

Ah ha. Didn't see the k. On that note, it seems the only difference in the i5 2500k/3550k/3570k is the clock speed. If I got a sweet cooler and OC the sh!t out of a 2500k, will it be the same performance as a 3570k that was at a higher original speed?

And about the 4gb GTX670. Tempting. It is only a like 60 bucks more, and I could probably save that much on a different mobo. I see the 680s jump up to well over $500 for even a 2gb version. Are they worth it at all? Or would it be better to get a 4gb 670 as an upgrade from the 2gb 670?

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

Also I just saw this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233 Looks like it's the exact same CPU i have in the original list, but with Intel graphics HD 2500 instead of HD 4000, and it's a little cheaper. Is there any disadvantage to that? I mean, with a dedicated GPU, the intel graphics doesn't matter, like, at all, right?

the_bi99man

No dont change that, get k version, it has an unlocked multiplier and lets you OC, also why not a cheaper mobo and maybe a 4GB GTX670?

Also, you need a cooler, the hyper 212+ is the cheapest you want to go.

Ah ha. Didn't see the k. On that note, it seems the only difference in the i5 2500k/3550k/3570k is the clock speed. If I got a sweet cooler and OC the sh!t out of a 2500k, will it be the same performance as a 3570k that was at a higher original speed?

And about the 4gb GTX670. Tempting. It is only a like 60 bucks more, and I could probably save that much on a different mobo. I see the 680s jump up to well over $500 for even a 2gb version. Are they worth it at all? Or would it be better to get a 4gb 670 as an upgrade from the 2gb 670?

The 2500k OC's better but its older and doesn't support PCI-e 3 (not really an issue currently but future cards such as 8xx series might be gen 3). On the motherboard front, look at the Asrock Extreme 4 or Extreme 6, theres your $$$ for the 4GB card, it helps if he might go multi-monitor or a higher resolution.

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

the_bi99man

Not sure on that case exactly, but on the Carbide series (Corsair), they have these 2.5" drive bays.

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

No dont change that, get k version, it has an unlocked multiplier and lets you OC, also why not a cheaper mobo and maybe a 4GB GTX670?

Also, you need a cooler, the hyper 212+ is the cheapest you want to go.

GTR12

Ah ha. Didn't see the k. On that note, it seems the only difference in the i5 2500k/3550k/3570k is the clock speed. If I got a sweet cooler and OC the sh!t out of a 2500k, will it be the same performance as a 3570k that was at a higher original speed?

And about the 4gb GTX670. Tempting. It is only a like 60 bucks more, and I could probably save that much on a different mobo. I see the 680s jump up to well over $500 for even a 2gb version. Are they worth it at all? Or would it be better to get a 4gb 670 as an upgrade from the 2gb 670?

The 2500k OC's better but its older and doesn't support PCI-e 3 (not really an issue currently but future cards such as 8xx series might be gen 3). On the motherboard front, look at the Asrock Extreme 4 or Extreme 6, theres your $$$ for the 4GB card, it helps if he might go multi-monitor or a higher resolution.

Mmk. I doubt that would be an issue any time soon. As for the motherboard, it looks like the Asrock Extremes are actually more expensive than the asus I have picked out. I could save some money there with a cheaper Asus I was looking at, but it's only got one PCIe 3.0 slot, and less audio and usb plugs. I'll have to see if my roommate would mind losing that stuff, as I think he may be interested a dual video card setup in the future. Also, I went ahead and added a Cooler Master Hyper 212 heatsink for the CPU. It doesn't look all that fancy, but I don't really know what I'm looking for there. Will it really be much better than the one that comes with the processor? And if I put it on an i5 2500k 3.3 ghz, would it be enough to safely OC to like 3.5-3.7ghz, maybe even 4?

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

GTR12

Not sure on that case exactly, but on the Carbide series (Corsair), they have these 2.5" drive bays.

Hmm. I looked at one from the Carbide series, and it didn't list 2.5" drive bays in the details description. But I have seen newegg leave stuff out.

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

the_bi99man

Not sure on that case exactly, but on the Carbide series (Corsair), they have these 2.5" drive bays.

Hmm. I looked at one from the Carbide series, and it didn't list 2.5" drive bays in the details description. But I have seen newegg leave stuff out.

Look at Corsair site directly, my 400r has them, same with 500r.

3.7Ghz is easy with the 212+, might be able to get 4.1 or 4.2

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

[QUOTE="the_bi99man"]

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

the_bi99man

Not sure on that case exactly, but on the Carbide series (Corsair), they have these 2.5" drive bays.

Hmm. I looked at one from the Carbide series, and it didn't list 2.5" drive bays in the details description. But I have seen newegg leave stuff out.

According to the manual:

Six drive bays with 2.5in SSD support The six drive bays accommodate both 3.5 and 2.5 hard drives and SSDs with no adapters needed. Snap-in mounting brackets facilitate installation and configuration of 3.5 drives, while 2.5 drives can be installed with the included screws.

Awesome. That explains that. Sweet. Well, I've got some great stuff to work with here. Thanks, guys.

Also, thanks for the link to the manual for that case. Just read all of it. Now I'm stoked on that case, and don't want to get a cheaper one. Any idea what CPU/heatsink is in the demo pictures from that manual? Looks extremely minimal.

Another thing. I just noticed the solid state drive says "form factor: 2.5"", and none of the cases I've looked at say anything about 2.5" drive bays. Where does the solid state drive mount?

the_bi99man

I'd change these:

- Switch from 16GB RAM to 8GB

- Get the 4GB GTX 670

- Switch from 700W PSU to 600W

The drive trays in the 600T have holes for screwing on a 2.5" SSD (Yes, it comes with the screws ;) ). You just have to push out one of the gromits that would normally push into the side of a 3.5" HDD.

There's no reason to get the 4GB version of the 670 if you're only using 1 monitor.