tech wizzies advice

[jedip_enguin]

Some interesting stuff in here, I'm way out of touch with current tech standards, as the last time I built a PC from scratch 1GB of DDR2 was the shiz.

[DKNS]

That's better. Here are some notes:

 

Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155:

 

Is there a reason you picked a $230 motherboard? From what I can see, you've got one video card and no other cards worth noting. Why not this motherboard (ASUS P8Z77-V) which is only different from the Sabertooth in a couple less USB ports and no flashy PCB cover? The P8Z77-V is $100 less. You can still do whatever overclocking or cooling-optimization you want on the cheaper card. If you're looking for something that looks cool, however, the Sabertooth is pretty much the best you'll find. I've just never been able to justify the extra $100. Especially when you pick this:

 

CoolMax 600W ATX12V / EPS12V

 

This is a trash PSU. The manufacturer is actually known for selling PSUs that not only fail to match the ATX12V spec, but fail to actually deliver the numbers on their label. I wouldn't advise this PSU for a home office build, much less a gaming build.

 

Now, I don't mean this as an insult to you. Mostly the problem here is that people don't know about PSUs and think shopping for one is like shopping for a gas tank for you car. The better analogy is that the PSU is your transmission. Considering you want to spend $230 for a pretty looking motherboard, it seems strange to pick such a cheap --and frankly ugly-- PSU.

 

That doesn't mean you need to spend $150. What you need for this build is a decent quality 600W power supply (I think you can easily drop to 500W, but other people will say 600W, and the price difference is essentially nothing). A good PSU from Seasonic, Corsair, Enermax or some other good brand will cost only $60-80.

 

Suggestions:

 

Seasonic S12II 620W = $65

Corsair CX600M = $80

Silverstone ST60F-ES = $65

XFX Core Pro 650W = $80

Seasonic SSR-650RM = $100

Corsair CMPSU-650TX = $90

 

There are probably some other options, but that's what I could find in 5 minutes under $100.

 

These are good suggestions, especially the motherboard and PSU. You don't need the Sabertooth at all, it's an elite mobo. Get the P8 series. I use the ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro and it is an excellent high-end motherboard and gives me no trouble in overclocking my I5-2500K above 4.5GHz.

 

And as many have said. DO NO CHEAP OUT ON THE PSU. It's an integral part of your computer and a cheap one will end up damaging your other expensive components or cause them to perform sub-par. I would still say the Corsair TX650 is one of the best you can get around that price range. So shell some money from the mobo and get a good PSU.

 

About the Hard-disk, do no go for anything less than 7200RPM. 5400RPM is outdated and will affect your performance. 320GB is also very less. You can get a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD easily these days. I use a 7200RPM as well as a SSD For Windows and application, but a SSD is highly optional.

 

The CPU cooler is an OK one and will suit you well as i don't think you will be Overclocking with voltages any time soon. That one will work fine for basic OC'ing at default Core voltages.

 

Everything else looks fine to me.

[Malastare]

About the Hard-disk, do no go for anything less than 7200RPM. 5400RPM is outdated and will affect your performance. 320GB is also very less.

 

Yes and No.

 

I wasn't bothered about the hard drive, but I should have been. First off, modern 5400rpm drives are not what you think. Yes, old drives ran at 5400. Then they started making 7200rpm drives. Then they started making 5400rpm drives again when the figured out how to make them act like 7200rpm drives. Currently, WDs Green drives deliver some decent performance with noticeably less power and noise. The thing to look for now is cache size. A 5400rpm drive with a 64MB cache will often (usually?) have better real-world performance than a 16MB 7200rpm drive.

 

To be a bit more concrete: I run SWTOR off a 5400rpm drive. It has 32MB of cache. It loads planets in SWTOR faster than my wife's 7200rpm drive.

 

Now, my mistake was not looking at the WD series. OP picked a Scorpio. Scorpio is the 2.5" form factor for laptops. The platters are smaller and so are the caches, resulting in slower speed. OP should pick from the Caviar series, which is the desktop/performance series. I'd advise a Caviar Green or Caviar Blue with 64MB of cache. Green if you care about the earth, noise, and heat. Blue if you want to save 2s on every planet load.

 

And yes, 320GB is a bit small for a modern PC, but unless you're storing a lot of video (or a lot of audio) then a simple user (Internet + a couple games) would do fine with 320G. Still... 1TB disks are pretty cheap and it would give you space to do weekly backups (which people never do).

 

If I had to recommend one, I'd suggest this:

 

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB (64MB Cache) = $70