Budget Intel Gaming Build

Hi, I'm intending to build my own LANBOX and it's been a while since I was in the hardware scene. Please advice! My budget is hopefully below $900, and of course, the cheaper the better. My tentative build is

I live in CA, so Newegg, Buy.com's taxes are a pain..hence I'm mostly buying from Amazon prime

SilverStone Sugo SG02B-F ABS/SECC Steel MicroATX (Black)----$74.99
OCZ OCZ600MXSP ModXStream Pro 600 Watt PSU---------------$69.99
ASUS mATX Motherboard P7H55-M Pro------------------------------$94.99
Intel Core i5-760 2.8GHz 8 MB LGA1156 Processor--------------$205.00
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5g-----------------------------$6.75
Kingston HyperX 4GB(2X2GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.7-1.9V--$76.07
OCZ 60 GB Vertex 2 2.5-Inch SSD OCZSSD22VTXE60G----------$144.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA-----$64.94
Gigabyte GeForce GTX460 1GB GDDR5 256B GV-N460OC-1GI---$189.99

TOTAL: $927.71 (excluding ~$35 worth of rebates)

I have already purchased the bold items over the past 2 days, and apparently the ram I got (which is an ongoing deal at Buy.com today) is rated to go at 1600Mhz only at 1.7V-1.9V which might be awfully high. Any comments on that? Since I have bought this crappy ram, should I do any changes to my build?

I intend to do some light(?) overclocking (to the ~3.7Ghz range). I will probably upgrade the stock HSF a while later if the cooling isn't sufficient enough for the overclock. Also will the hardware (like the gfx card) fit into the SFF case with ease? Any other recommendations on mobo, gfx card, etc. Thanks!

I think it all looks pretty good to me...nice little machine...with an SSD!

I wouldn't stress about the Ram, I bet it will run fine...just keep it around 1600mhz...there really isn't that much difference between 1600 and 2000. You will not be able to tell just playing games.

Thanks for the reply. I'm just afraid that with overclocking the CPU, the high voltage required for the ram will affect the stability or life of the components. I intend to use it for at least the next 3 years.

When the rule of thumb says we should not go beyond 0.5V from the vtt, and I need to run the ram at 1.7 -1.9V (manufacturer claims) for it to be stable at 1600Mhz, am I/can I break this rule of thumb?
This might be because I may not overclock the cpu much till I need more than 1.3V vtt. And I probably won't overclock my ram seeing how high the voltage required for it is..

CKtalon said:

Thanks for the reply. I'm just afraid that with overclocking the CPU, the high voltage required for the ram will affect the stability or life of the components. I intend to use it for at least the next 3 years.

When the rule of thumb says we should not go beyond 0.5V from the vtt, and I need to run the ram at 1.7 -1.9V (manufacturer claims) for it to be stable at 1600Mhz, am I/can I break this rule of thumb?
This might be because I may not overclock the cpu much till I need more than 1.3V vtt. And I probably won't overclock my ram seeing how high the voltage required for it is..

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Yea...if you had it to do again I would definitely point you towards some different Ram. You do want to respect that .5 from vtt rule as well, it can harm your CPU.

You really have three options...hope your Ram will run at lower volts...many do, but not all. Return your Ram now and buy something different. Or don't run your Ram at 1600mhz. There is nothing magic about 1600mhz Ram...sure it's nice, but far from needed. If we are looking at specifications, neither Intel or AMD officially recognize anything beyond 1333mhz. I will personally guarantee you that a regular person playing a game can't tell if his Ram is running 800mhz or 2000mhz...the performance difference is just so minimal it's insane.

With that setup, and that card, your going to be fine dude.

Thanks! I guess I would just run it at 1333Mhz at a lower voltage (~1.5V?) instead..(kind of sucks since I kinda paid for it)

Thanks!

CKtalon said:

Thanks! I guess I would just run it at 1333Mhz at a lower voltage (~1.5V?) instead..(kind of sucks since I kinda paid for it)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Post before buying, lol. I do it all the time...just so people can pick apart my hardware and tell me what they have experienced.

After a bit more research, I'm not seeing anybody saying this Ram needs 1.7+ to run at 1600. Where are you getting these rumors? Furthermore this memory has Intel XMP profile, once enabled in BIOS it should set things up for you in regards to vtt and Ram settings.

You will be fine with that Ram I think.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276900-33-build-5850-problem

It was a sweet deal (49.95 after rebate) that I rushed in..assuming the voltages can't be that bad
Looks like I got the model number mixed up. KHX1600C9D3K2/4GX (mine) requires 1.65V to run at 1600Mhz while KHX1600C9D3K2/4G requires 1.7-1.9V
..so I guess that's fine?

Wow, thats strange. Well, maybe you will get lucky and get a golden set that runs on less voltage.

In my opinion...I think a lot of people these days instantly add voltage to Ram whenever memory instability is present (my self included). These days, with the memory controller on the die, I almost feel like more volts to the Ram should be the final thing to try.