CPU Build Advice

[01Maverick10]

Hi All,

Im looking at doing my first PC build. In the past I have chosen the parts for a build and had the shop whack it together. My current PC has bitten the proverbial dust and this time round I thought it might be fun to do it myself

Now, I know a bit about how to put it all together etc, not too worried about that, just wanted some advice on certain parts and opinion on the overall build.

So here is the list so far, build will be in October once ive got the funds together so things could change between now and then:

Ram - Corsair Vengeance, 2x4GB, DDR3-1600
LG BluRay Drive
Corsair HX750, 750W ATX PSU
Case - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance
MBoard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard, Socket 1155, Intel Z77
Or
MSI Z77A-GD65 (better looking for my blue theme )
CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4 GHz (ivy bridge)
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850
Intel DRX-B, Watercooling kit, Black/Blue
Seagate 1TB HDD
Will get an HD screen of some sort

Now, how important would an SSD be? Im not too familiar with them and have heard that they can be unreliable... Also, if using an SSD to boot from, what size would be good, 60GB?

Also, would you then just run your other programs on the HDD?

Appreciate any input!

 

[Sketcher]

Power supply looks a little light. I'd go with 1000 watts at least for a gaming rig.

Water cooling is an unnecessary, high-maintenance expense. It's cool and relatively quiet, but you have to flush it out from time to time. Easier just to have some good quality air cooling.

1 TB HD looks a little light. I'd go with 2 TB.

SSDs are awesome for read-intensive operations, though write-intensive operations will slow them down over time. They're too small now to justify having one be your games drive, but maybe we'll see prices drop enough to justify it by the time October rolls around (though that's probably just blind optimism on my part). As it is, people recommend putting Windows and core utilities/business programs on the SSD, and for your games and downloads to be on the hard drive. However, if Windows needs to be reinstalled for some reason, you will still need to reinstall those games, even if they're on a separate drive. Just sayin'.

 

[01Maverick10]

Power supply looks a little light. I'd go with 1000 watts at least for a gaming rig.

Water cooling is an unnecessary, high-maintenance expense. It's cool and relatively quiet, but you have to flush it out from time to time. Easier just to have some good quality air cooling.

1 TB HD looks a little light. I'd go with 2 TB.

SSDs are awesome for read-intensive operations, though write-intensive operations will slow them down over time. They're too small now to justify having one be your games drive, but maybe we'll see prices drop enough to justify it by the time October rolls around (though that's probably just blind optimism on my part). As it is, people recommend putting Windows and core utilities/business programs on the SSD, and for your games and downloads to be on the hard drive. However, if Windows needs to be reinstalled for some reason, you will still need to reinstall those games, even if they're on a separate drive. Just sayin'.

Thanks for the reply

I have done my research on the power, 750w is more than enough to power everything, even if I added an extra video card in crossfire.

The water cooling unit is a sealed unit (no need for flushing) and the lifetime of the unit will outlive the pc probably so no worries there. I'm looking at overclocking a bit and I don't like bulky heatsinks, so water cooling (in a sealed unit) I think is a good option for me for something that will kill a stock heatsink in performance but be relatively quiet and low profile.

Might go 2tb, although I am going to rip the drives out of my old PC and use them as storage with the e-sata docking bay.

Food for thought on the SSD, might skip it at this stage I think. I have read that they speed boot / loading times, but dont make any difference in actual in game performance.



Plenty to think about!