Need advice: How good/bad does this build look?

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

I think I've finally chosen all the parts for my upgrade. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'll retain the following hardware, since it all seems fine and I don't think I need to upgrade these:

Case: Antec P182
Soundcard: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtremegamer
Speakers: Logitech X-230
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (500GB)
Optical: Samsung 20x DVD burner
Monitor: LG 22" L226WTQ-BF (I'll probably upgrade to a 1920x1080 monitor, but it still has to be 22" in order to fit in my desk)

These will be the upgrades:

Motherboard: MSI Z77 MPOWER
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130660
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787
PSU: Corsair HX750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010&Tpk=corsair hx750
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428
HSF: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

I haven't started looking for a monitor yet, but I'll take suggestions. I want it to be 1920x1080, and it needs to be no more than 22" because my desk is enclosed. Also, the motherboard I chose doesn't have a DVI port, so it needs to have either an HDMI or DisplayPort connection, but I'm sure that's standard by now.

Thanks.

Edit: My other considerations were these:

Motherboards:
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545
Asus P8Z77-V PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131819

The main selling point for the MSI board that I chose was that it has 8 USB ports on the back, versus 6 on these two. I definitely want to have plenty of those. Everything else is negligible, although it would be nice if the MSI board had one or two more SATA 6Gb/s ports. Can I use my current HDD (listed above) with a 6Gb port?

RAM:
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

And I looked at other versions of the GTX670, but the EVGA card is slightly OC'ed and not that much more money than the base card.

gunmetalTrevan · Sep 19, 2012

That's a good build. I'm sure there are many things to be critical about, but it looks pretty good so far. The only thing I can think of is that it's better to purchase items with a lot of reviews. That msi board is a bit expensive and you should be able to find something better for the same price or something cheaper.

byteninja2 · Sep 19, 2012

Nice. If this if for gaming, do NOT get the i7. Get the i5. And get the K version, so you can OC. Don't get the asus.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

byteninja2 said:
Nice. If this if for gaming, do NOT get the i7. Get the i5. And get the K version, so you can OC. Don't get the asus.

The main reason for the upgrade is gaming, yes. But why wouldn't the i7 be good (or better) for that?

spirit · Sep 19, 2012

Please stop saying "don't get Asus!" Byte! They're fine, really!

Not used the Asus P8Z77 boards yet but I have used Gigabyte's UD5H and it's a good board and as it is cheaper I'd get the UD5H.

I would spend less on the CPU too and get a 3570K and get a cooler such as the Hyper 212+ to overclock it. That, with the 670, should get you going very nicely for gaming. Reason I'd recommend the 3570K for gaming over a 3770K is because the 3770K is really overkill for gaming and there is very little difference at all between the i5 and the i7 for gaming. The extra threads the i7 has to offer are not needed for gaming.

Rest looks fine.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

gunmetalTrevan said:
That's a good build. I'm sure there are many things to be critical about, but it looks pretty good so far. The only thing I can think of is that it's better to purchase items with a lot of reviews. That msi board is a bit expensive and you should be able to find something better for the same price or something cheaper.

Hmm, I was thinking a board around $200 was a pretty good price. All three I'm considering are around $180 to $200. Granted, the other two have more SATA 6Gb/s ports, but I really don't think I'll use more than the two on the MSI board. The only other thing about it is that it's a new board (came out last month), so there aren't a lot of reviews, but the few that are there are good, and I also found professional tech site review that gave it 9.5/10, or something like that.

wolfeking · Sep 19, 2012

The i7 has more threads than is necessary. Most games are 4 threaded only. HT makes no difference at all in most games.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

spirit said:
Please stop saying "don't get Asus!" Byte! They're fine, really!

Not used the Asus P8Z77 boards yet but I have used Gigabyte's UD5H and it's a good board and as it is cheaper I'd get the UD5H.

I would spend less on the CPU too and get a 3570K and get a cooler such as the Hyper 212+ to overclock it. That, with the 670, should get you going very nicely for gaming. Reason I'd recommend the 3570K for gaming over a 3770K is because the 3770K is really overkill for gaming and there is very little difference at all between the i5 and the i7 for gaming. The extra threads the i7 has to offer are not needed for gaming.

Rest looks fine.

Oh crap, that's what I forgot to mention, the cooler! I plan to get the Hyper 212 Evo. I need to add that up there.

The Gigabyte board looks good, but it's only $5 cheaper. Also, like I mentioned, the MSI board has more USB ports. I already have 6 devices attached to my current PC. With the Asus or Gigabyte boards, that would completely fill them up. With the MSI board, I'd still have two extras. That's why I'm leaning toward it right now.

Tech Wizard · Sep 19, 2012

JohnJSal said:
The main reason for the upgrade is gaming, yes. But why wouldn't the i7 be good (or better) for that?

Games don't use hyper threading so it would be a waste of money and get the sandybridge if you are going to overclock as they are cooler then the ivybridge therefore overclocks higher without using really expensive cooling.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

Tech Wizard said:
Games don't use hyper threading so it would be a waste of money and get the sandybridge if you are going to overclock as they are cooler then the ivybridge therefore overclocks higher without using really expensive cooling.

Ah, so OCing an i5 would be about equivalent to an i7? Is that the point? I've never OCed before, and I didn't plan to now either. That's why I was going with the higher end stuff, so it will last as long as possible.

Edit: Also, would the i7 just be better in general for day-to-day work as well. Wouldn't HT have an effect elsewhere, if not gaming?

byteninja2 · Sep 19, 2012

spirit said:
Please stop saying "don't get Asus!" Byte! They're fine, really!

Not used the Asus P8Z77 boards yet but I have used Gigabyte's UD5H and it's a good board and as it is cheaper I'd get the UD5H.

I would spend less on the CPU too and get a 3570K and get a cooler such as the Hyper 212+ to overclock it. That, with the 670, should get you going very nicely for gaming. Reason I'd recommend the 3570K for gaming over a 3770K is because the 3770K is really overkill for gaming and there is very little difference at all between the i5 and the i7 for gaming. The extra threads the i7 has to offer are not needed for gaming.

Rest looks fine.

spirit · Sep 19, 2012

JohnJSal said:
Also, would the i7 just be better in general for day-to-day work as well. Wouldn't HT have an effect elsewhere, if not gaming?

Not really. Not unless you want to do a lot of encoding or video rendering or photo editing or CAD or something CPU intensive.

I'd get the 3570K and overclock it.

Save yourself some money.

Excluding RMA, there is nothing wrong at all with Asus at all.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

spirit said:
Not really. Not unless you want to do a lot of encoding or video rendering or photo editing or CAD or something CPU intensive.

I'd get the 3570K and overclock it. Save yourself some money.

Excluding RMA, there is nothing wrong at all with Asus at all.

From what I can tell, the only difference is the number of threads, the turbo clock speed, and the size of the L3 cache. None of this affects everyday use or games?

spirit · Sep 19, 2012

None of that affects daily use and gaming. You'd be wasting money going for the i7 if you just want to game.

byteninja2 · Sep 19, 2012

JohnJSal said:
From what I can tell, the only difference is the number of threads, the turbo clock speed, and the size of the L3 cache. None of this affects everyday use or games?

No, the L3 difference really not noticeable, and HT only helps in cad, etc.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

spirit said:
None of that affects daily use and gaming. You'd be wasting money going for the i7 if you just want to game.

Thanks! I was actually considering the 3570 initially, but then I decided not to skimp and go all out with the best one. But apparently, I can now feel better about spending an extra $100 on the GTX670 instead of the GTX660 Ti

spirit · Sep 19, 2012

Yes going for a 3570K and 670 setup would give you better overall gaming performance than a 3770K and a 660 Ti would.

You want the 3570*K*, the K is unlocked so overclocking is easy. You can't really overclock the 3570 non-K.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

spirit said:
Yes going for a 3570K and 670 setup would give you better overall gaming performance than a 3770K and a 660 Ti would.

You want the 3570*K*, the K is unlocked so overclocking is easy. You can't really overclock the 3570 non-K.

Well, just to be clear, I don't plan to overclock. I've never done it and I don't want to mess up anything. Does that change your advice at all, or is the 3570 (non K) still a better choice than the 3770?

spirit · Sep 19, 2012

3570 is still a better choice.

JohnJSal · Sep 19, 2012

Hmm, the fact that the clock speeds of the 3770 and 3570 are the same hadn't really hit me before now. As for the extra threads of the 3770, does that affect ANY games? Just want to make sure I have all the details before making a purchase. (I suppose I'm also somewhat swayed by the -- perhaps arbitrary -- classification of the i7 as being "performance" class, and the i5 as "mainstream." A gaming system seems like it would need the former.)

Need advice: How good/bad does this build look?

Active Member

New Member

banned

Active Member

Moderator

Active Member

banned

Active Member

Member

Active Member

banned

Moderator

Active Member

Moderator

banned

Active Member

Moderator

Active Member

Moderator

Active Member