Suggestions on build

Let me know if you think this looks solid, or if I should change some stuff around I'm ordering all from newegg...

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Item #:N82E16835100007 - - $11.99

ASUS P8Z77-V LK ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Item #:N82E16813131837 - - $144.99

Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Item #:N82E16819116506 - - $199.99

COOLER MASTER Elite 311 RC-311B-BWN1 Blue Computer Case With Side Panel Window
Item #:N82E16811119246 - - $48.99

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820233254 - - $84.99

OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #:N82E16820227727 - - $219.99

LITE-ON Black Internal 12X Blu-ray Combo SATA Model ihes112-04
Item #:N82E16827106374 - - $59.99

OCZ ZT Series 750W Fully-Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom
Item #:N82E16817341052 - - $109.99

EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 02G-P3-1469-KR Video Card
Item #:N82E16814130662 - - $209.99

CORSAIR H70 Core High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Item #:N82E16835181019 - - $79.99

$1,170.90

I'm not too concerned about the case, this machine won't be in a hot area or have much going on inside. I had the model 310, and was happy with it until I couldn't fit 3 video cards in it. Otherwise I thought it was sturdy and the price is good here so no big deal to me. I Haven't got Windows 7 listed because I don't know if I'll just reuse my copy of Vista or not but I can pick it up later if I need to. I have monitor, mouse, keyboard. Suppose I do buy Windows 7, which version? I was just going to do home premium...

How much extra money do you have to spend? The 560 isn't a particularly strong card.

Spend less on the cooler and more on the CPU. It's pointless liquid-cooling a 3450 because you cannot overclock the 3450 very far. I'd say get a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ cooler and then get an i5 3570K processor and then overclock the 3570K to 4.0GHz+. You could even get an H50 to use on the 3570K if you wanted, but the 212+ would be fine.

Spend less on the power supply and maybe put a bit more money into the graphics card and get a GTX 560 Ti such as this MSI one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127608 (the 1GB card is cheaper but I'd recommend 2GB now) or maybe a Radeon 7850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150609 -the 7850 would be the faster card of the two.

As for the PSU, get a Corsair TX 650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 this 650W PSU would be enough and although it's not moduar, it's still a very good unit. If you still wanted a modular unit you could this unit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018 OCZ units are decent, but I'd recommend the Corsair unit over this one.

Same price range if you want modular.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&Page=1

If you go with a cooling tower make sure it will clear your RAM.

Looks like you already have hdd's?

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg))

Motherboard: Biostar TZ77XE3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($68.00 @ Newegg)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ Newegg)

Case: HAF 912 ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: XFX 550W PSU ($74.99 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Lite-ON 24X DVD Burner ($17.99 @ Newegg)

A MUCH better build for $200 less than yours. Use the $200 for a Crucial M4 128GB SSD.
Never skimp on the GPU.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm on my phone so I will look in to it a bit more as soon as I get home. I like the idea of the unlocked processor but I really don't know if I will be overclocking. I just want an extra computer at my place for friends to game on with me. most likely we will just be playing starcraft 2 and company of heroes.

jgoff14 said:

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm on my phone so I will look in to it a bit more as soon as I get home. I like the idea of the unlocked processor but I really don't know if I will be overclocking. I just want an extra computer at my place for friends to game on with me. most likely we will just be playing starcraft 2 and company of heroes.

Click to expand...

If you're not overclocking why are you even looking into liquid cooling? A good air cooler such as the 212+ would be more than adequate for a stock CPU, it's even enough to get a 3570K beyond 4.0GHz.

The EVO can get the 3570k to 4.2 GHz, which equals 4.5 GHz SB.