First Time Builder. Opinions Needed Please.

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dstahn236

New Member
Hey all,

I have been trolling this site for a while now on opinions on building a computer. This will be my first one and I am a little nervous about it. I have about a $2200 budget and below I have a basic outline of what I have been thinking. I want something along the lines of rather future proof as well as a strong gaming PC. So any thoughts on what I have and what you all may think will work better. Thanks guys.

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced Blue Edition RC-932-KKN3-GP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119213

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

PSU: SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151110

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231489

Processor:Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Optical:LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136246

MOBO:ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837

GSU: ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637

If there is anything else that you all need to judge this let me know. I hope I am doing this right. Thank you all in advance for your help.
 
For the PSU, if you were planning to get a second graphics card then I guess that'd be OK. But what he's saying is for the parts you've listed, it's overkill.

If you're just gaming then 8GB will be enough.

For the Mobo I'd get Gigabyte over Asus. Asus are still good but you'd be better off with Gigabyte. They make (in my opinion), more reliable boards. They also have better customer support.

I'd also get an aftermarket CPU cooler and overclock that CPU!
 
dstahn236 said:
Even if one day I added more memory and a second video card? I am not sure how to figure for energy requirements.
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1050W is even overkill for two 670s. You'd probably be able to get away with 750W for two 670s, 850W would definitely be enough for two 670s.

Adding more RAM doesn't usually require more PSU wattage really.

S3AnD3 said:
If you're just gaming then 8GB will be enough.
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^ This.

S3AnD3 said:
For the Mobo I'd get Gigabyte over Asus. Asus are still good but you'd be better off with Gigabyte. They make (in my opinion), more reliable boards. They also have better customer support.
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True Gigabyte has better support but I've had 3 ASUS boards in my time and worked on many more and not had an issue with any of them. They've all been well made boards with lots of features. I do however prefer Gigabyte's Z77 boards, so the GA-Z77X-UD3H is my recommendation for a Gigabyte Z77 board, or if you want more features go for a GA-Z77X-UD5H. The ASUS Z77 boards are still great though.
 
dstahn236 said:
I was thinking something like this to cool. Thoughts?

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017

My first step after getting it is to overclock. :) I got the K version which means overclocking should be easier correct. Wanted to make sure I got that right.
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Good cooler, would cool that CPU very well and you should get a nice overclock. Overclocking on K chips is easy because they are multiplier unlocked. It's a matter of changing a few numbers and voltages in order to overclock it.
 
vistakid10 said:
True Gigabyte has better support but I've had 3 ASUS boards in my time and worked on many more and not had an issue with any of them. They've all been well made boards with lots of features. I do however prefer Gigabyte's Z77 boards, so the GA-Z77X-UD3H is my recommendation for a Gigabyte Z77 board, or if you want more features go for a GA-Z77X-UD5H. The ASUS Z77 boards are still great though.
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Yeah, it varies. Although I've heard of more problems with Asus boards then with Gigabyte boards. I'm definetly not saying Asus is a bad brand or anything, but I think he'd be better off going with Gigabyte.

dstahn236 said:
My first step after getting it is to overclock. :) I got the K version which means overclocking should be easier correct. Wanted to make sure I got that right.
Click to expand...

Yes. The 'K' means it's unlocked. You need an unlocked CPU in order to overclock :).
 
S3AnD3 said:
Yeah, it varies. Although I've heard of more problems with Asus boards then with Gigabyte boards. I'm definetly not saying Asus is a bad brand or anything, but I think he'd be better off going with Gigabyte.
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You'll get good and bad reviews for any brand of board, everybody has different experiences. Either way, Gigabyte and ASUS make the best boards IMO. UD3H is a great board for the price. :)
 
Also I realize now that I did not completely specify everything that I will be doing with this computer. I also need it to run 3D imaging with autocad for my architecture classes. I know that AutoCad can push a computer especially if I run anything else along side of it. Would this change anything with my build?
 
I actually just upgraded my Cpu to 3770k for 3ds Max architecture rendering (will be getting the parts in a few hours). I'd say your build is probably the best one you can get without doubling your Cpu spending (ie the 6 cores cpu). I'm not sure what autocad architecture rendering is like but if it's similar to Max then there's no need to change gpu since rendering is cpu-dependent.
 
Awesome. That's good to know I'm thinking that for the most part the rendering is fairly similar. I was just worried i wouldn't have the power to run it.
 
The UD5H also has more phases, 8 vs 6 I think, might be 12 vs 8, not sure. But either is a amazing board. If you don't need to overclock to the MAX or need better audio and more LANs then the UD3H is your board.
 
Got ya. I don't so that will be one less thing i need to buy. With what I'm putting into plus the extra gpu and the bigger psu am going to need any extra cooling?
 
No extra cooling needed for the case but you may want to get an aftermarket CPU cooler, especially if you're doing rendering. I personally use a Cool Master Hyper 212 Evo. I'm rendering at 3.9ghz and 100% load at maximum 63C. Have yet to try OCing the 3770k though. If you can afford it, get a liquid cooler, perhaps one of those Corsair H series.
 
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