[Accuracy158]

Here are my components; (I wasn't planning for any water cooling if that is OK... I'm pretty new to this so any comments are welcome)

Case Antec 900 or 300 illusion

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...MP337FHEC6N6QD

or...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129066

Mobo ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131621

CPU i5 760

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115067

GPU (single for now) 1gb gtx 460

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125352

Hard drive (single for now) 1 sata 6GB 7200 rpm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136544

RAM 2x sticks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145260

Wireless adapter

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320048

Disk Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135204

Windows Window 7 OEM system builders

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116754

I want a little room for upgrade and small amounts of overclocking but that's pretty much all I'm looking at now (of course I'll have a keyboard, mouse, and USB headset attached).

Is the 700W OCZ a good choice for me?... Which case do you think I should go with?

I'm without a PC now so I'm wondering if this build is ready to order.

Thanks guys

[Theocnoob]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-506-_-Product

Change GPU to this. () that much $ for ( ) that much performance boost. In MOST cases. Not all GPU's handle all situations the same way. ie- one GPU does THIS game better and they trade places for THAT game.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-482-_-Product

I'd consider this MOBO. Up to you. $10. Nicer looking heatsinks. ROG. Looks nifty. I have the 1366 one.

Definitely grab the 6870 though because it's significantly better in most cases. Also color matches the Maximus mobo.

You need an aftermarket cooler. Otherwise you're buying a higher grade mobo for no reason.

So something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-014-_-Product

That PSU is fine. I like corsair PSU's. They're rebranded seasonics. This is only because they've never screwed me. I also like Western Digital for that reason.

And read the i5 overclocking guide. You'll want to overclock the CPU. It makes a huge difference. Also depending on your budget I'd consider an i7... and the 1366 socket for that matter.

I'm much more paranoid about my own purchases than this. But will it work? Absolutely. Do the components match? Yes. 900 or 300? Up to you. Review them at Antec's website, or check online reviews (3Dgamerman on youtube does awesome case reviews).

A simpler answer to your initial question is yes, the system you put together would work nicely.

[mokrunka]

Your build seems thorough, and it is certainly compatible.

With hard drive prices as low as they are, I would just go for maybe this only another $10 and you get more than double the storage! If you don't like Seagate, I'm sure you could find a similar deal on WD. I am guessing that you intend to by 2 four Gb sets for your RAM, so that is also a good idea. A 700W PSU would be plenty, if you want to reassure yourself, you could go to this site and plug in the numbers.

[Accuracy158]

Originally Posted by mokrunka

Your build seems thorough, and it is certainly compatible.

With hard drive prices as low as they are, I would just go for maybe this only another $10 and you get more than double the storage! If you don't like Seagate, I'm sure you could find a similar deal on WD. I am guessing that you intend to by 2 four Gb sets for your RAM, so that is also a good idea. A 700W PSU would be plenty, if you want to reassure yourself, you could go to this site and plug in the numbers.

Yes if anything the 700W is more than I would ever need.

I don't really want to go over 1000 dollar with this build but I was looking at the ROG board. I wasn't really going to get an after market cooler until I started overclock further down the road.

[Theocnoob]

Originally Posted by Accuracy158

Yes if anything the 700W is more than I would ever need.

I don't really want to go over 1000 with this build but I was looking at the ROG board. I wasn't really going to get an after market cooler until I started overclock further down the road.

Overclocking really isn't that hard. If you are doing a mild overclock it's as simple as ripping off someone else's settings with the same motherboard . You really don't even need to know what you're doing at that point. Just be careful not to enter the wrong voltages more than anything else and nothing will explode on you.

It's only when you do a really insane overclock that your board's individual personality due to the time of day it was made, the speck of dust that contaminated it, 1 degree of offset of this to that will show up. At that point you're doing a very fine overclock to try to get the absolute maximum out of your machine.

If you want to do something that's really very unserious, like taking an i7 950 from 3>3.8Ghz, you can do it mindlessly in about 10 minutes and another few hours of stress testing to be safe using the parrot technique.

BTW any respectable CPU cooler has a 'bolt though' design. You need access to the rear of your motherboard. Unless your case has a "CPU cutout" which is essentially an open rectangle of space on the motherboard tray allowing rear access, you want to mount the cooler's backplate prior to putting the motherboard in the case. Also in certain cases depending on the orientation a larger cooler may obstruct something, like a RAM slot. You want to be aware of this a head of time by eyeballing the cooler over the socket before you install it. If it covers a ram slot you want to use, make sure you put that stick of ram in, then the cooler over top. I don't think the NHU12 will cover anything on either ASUS motherboard.

[Accuracy158]

Originally Posted by Theocnoob

Overclocking really isn't that hard. If you are doing a mild overclock it's as simple as ripping off someone else's settings with the same motherboard . You really don't even need to know what you're doing at that point. Just be careful not to enter the wrong voltages more than anything else and nothing will explode on you.

It's only when you do a really insane overclock that your board's individual personality due to the time of day it was made, the speck of dust that contaminated it, 1 degree of offset of this to that will show up. At that point you're doing a very fine overclock to try to get the absolute maximum out of your machine.

If you want to do something that's really very unserious, like taking an i7 950 from 3>3.8Ghz, you can do it mindlessly in about 10 minutes and another few hours of stress testing to be safe using the parrot technique.

BTW any respectable CPU cooler has a 'bolt though' design. You need access to the rear of your motherboard. Unless your case has a "CPU cutout" which is essentially an open rectangle of space on the motherboard tray allowing rear access, you want to mount the cooler's backplate prior to putting the motherboard in the case. Also in certain cases depending on the orientation a larger cooler may obstruct something, like a RAM slot. You want to be aware of this a head of time by eyeballing the cooler over the socket before you install it. If it covers a ram slot you want to use, make sure you put that stick of ram in, then the cooler over top. I don't think the NHU12 will cover anything on either ASUS motherboard.

I don't think you can get to the rear side of the motherboard on either Antec case but as far as covering up other slots (like the RAM) would depend on the mobo more than the case... no?

Also copying other peoples settings for overclocking is as far as I planned to go :P

[Accuracy158]

Originally Posted by Theocnoob

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-506-_-Product

Change GPU to this. () that much $ for ( ) that much performance boost. In MOST cases. Not all GPU's handle all situations the same way. ie- one GPU does THIS game better and they trade places for THAT game.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-482-_-Product

I'd consider this MOBO. Up to you. $10. Nicer looking heatsinks. ROG. Looks nifty. I have the 1366 one.

Definitely grab the 6870 though because it's significantly better in most cases. Also color matches the Maximus mobo.

You need an aftermarket cooler. Otherwise you're buying a higher grade mobo for no reason.

So something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-014-_-Product

That PSU is fine. I like corsair PSU's. They're rebranded seasonics. This is only because they've never screwed me. I also like Western Digital for that reason.

And read the i5 overclocking guide. You'll want to overclock the CPU. It makes a huge difference. Also depending on your budget I'd consider an i7... and the 1366 socket for that matter.

I'm much more paranoid about my own purchases than this. But will it work? Absolutely. Do the components match? Yes. 900 or 300? Up to you. Review them at Antec's website, or check online reviews (3Dgamerman on youtube does awesome case reviews).

A simpler answer to your initial question is yes, the system you put together would work nicely.

The graphics card was something I was looking at a while back I do see several better deals now.

I'm actually leaning toward this,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130568

Using the MIR this card would come out 50 dollars cheaper than the 6870 (using the MIR also). Do you think the 6870 is worth a 50 dollar price jump?

[Theocnoob]

Originally Posted by Accuracy158

I'm actually leaning toward this,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130568

It's the same card as your original card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...kim1132X509988

For a bigger upfront price. You can 'superclock' any Geforce/Radeon card with RivaTuner or a similar utility.

Yes the 6870 is worth the difference. You'll be fine with either card. The 460 will handle any current game really nicely as will the 6870. In many cases the 6870 is much better.

[Accuracy158]

Originally Posted by Theocnoob

It's the same card as your original card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...kim1132X509988

For a bigger upfront price. You can 'superclock' any Geforce/Radeon card with RivaTuner or a similar utility.

Yes the 6870 is worth the difference. You'll be fine with either card. The 460 will handle any current game really nicely as will the 6870. In many cases the 6870 is much better.

Yes, but it is cheaper with the MIR come with a life time warranty and EE.

[Theocnoob]

Originally Posted by Accuracy158

Yes, but it is cheaper with the MIR come with a life time warranty and EE.

All XFX cards (ie the one I suggested) have lifetime warranty.
Also, not sure if you've ever done an MIR. It's sort of hit and miss.

You may never get the rebate. You may get it in 2014.

[Knufire]

You'd want a 550VX or a 650TX from Corsair for the PSU, pick your choice based on the cost.

If your planning to get two 4GB sets, that's probably not the greatest idea. You would want one set of 2 x 4GB for 8GB of memory. Good choice on the Corsair XMS series though.

[mokrunka]

Originally Posted by Accuracy158

Yes if anything the 700W is more than I would ever need.

I don't really want to go over 1000 dollar with this build but I was looking at the ROG board. I wasn't really going to get an after market cooler until I started overclock further down the road.

Just be careful with the republic of gamer boards. They are excellent boards, but they are enthusiast level--it may take some tweaking to have them recognize your RAM and voltage settings, etc

Don't want to steer you in the wrong direction, but just a fair warning!!

[Accuracy158]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I really wasn't trying to sound completely set in my ways but I did make my order.

I switched to the corsair 650W (went on sale yesterday), a CoolMaster HAF 922 (instead of Antec), and a 1TB hard drive.

I didn't switch to the ROG board and bought the EVGA 1GB gtx 460 oc (life time warranty 180 dollars) The 5850 just went on sale for 180 today (after I had already bought a graphics card) and may have been a little better both both cards have their strengths and weaknesses.

...the HAF case, ROG board, and ATI card would have been a nice looking combo.

Edit: Sorry I forgot to mention that I also bought the cooling unit and Artic Silver 5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103057

[GT3mich]

Originally Posted by mokrunka

With hard drive prices as low as they are, I would just go for maybe this only another $10 and you get more than double the storage! If you don't like Seagate, I'm sure you could find a similar deal on WD. I am guessing that you intend to by 2 four Gb sets for your RAM, so that is also a good idea. A 700W PSU would be plenty, if you want to reassure yourself, you could go to this site and plug in the numbers.

Do not buy any Seagate 7200.11 HDD's ever. They are very unreliable. Unless you like expensive bricks.