Help with case & PSU selection

Hello,

The items I have already purchase are italicized. I’m having difficulty selecting a case and a PSU (wattage & brand). I’m hoping you could help me out with this. This is my 1st PC build.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card 02G-P4-2678-KR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop Hard Drive Bulk/OEM - WD1002FAEX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186

SSD Hard Drive: Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-148-442


CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Optical Drive: ?

Case: ?

Power Supply: ?

Questions:

1. Can you recommend a power supply brand and wattage? I know that I need at least 600 watts, but that’s all I know.

2. Is the 3rd part CPU cooler necessary?

3. How much faster will SD drive start windows vs. the HD I have purchased.

4. Are there any internal parts that I may be missing (I have considered 3rd party 120 mm fans but that would be dependent on which case I get).

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see anything italicized...


First off, I'm partial to this case, mostly because I have the Arc Mini and I love it.

1. As far as the PSU is concerned, check out this thread to look at what brands are recommended. I'm no expert, but looking at the parts you have, I would think 650-750W would be fine.

2. The heatsink is necessary if you plan to overclock past ~4.2GHz or so, otherwise the stock cooler is sufficient.

3. I can only speak for the SSD I have (OCZ Vertex 3), but my rig cold boots to my password screen in ~10 seconds. In my old machine, Windows booted from my HDD (some Hitachi OEM drive) in 25-30 seconds or so. But the main benefit of the SSD is that all my programs/games (SCII, Adobe CS5, MS Office, etc.) are crazy fast.

4. I would definitely fill every available spot in whatever case you get with a fan. More fans means you can get slower (i.e. quieter) fans and still move a good amount of air.

csquared said:

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see anything italicized...

Click to expand...

Sorry about that. I was just copy/pasting from Word. It's been fixed now.

So you have the CPU, mobo, GPU, HDD and RAM, but not the heatsink or SSD? Sorry, the italics don't do much to differentiate the text.

I don't mean to nitpick, I just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

Case Recommendation: Coolermaster HAF 912.

How quiet do you want it to be?

What's your budget?

Are you ever going to go with multiple video cards?

majax said:

Questions:

1. Can you recommend a power supply brand and wattage? I know that I need at least 600 watts, but that’s all I know.

Click to expand...

I would suggest either a Seasonic or Corsair 750w Gold 80plus modular PSU. This gives you room to add additional graphics cards in the future. It is better to be overpowered than exact or underpowered. This is a critical component upon which all others are dependent upon.

majax said:

2. Is the 3rd part CPU cooler necessary?

Click to expand...

Yes, I like to recommend a sealed water cooling unit such as the Corsair H80 or H100 because;
A. They do not block RAM slots for ease of adding/removing RAM where in some cases, you would need to remove and reseat the CPU cooler.
B. Take up much less space and don't add additional weight hanging off your motherboard, which concerns me could eventually warp it.
C. Easier installation/removal from within the case for having more room to work.

majax said:

3. How much faster will SD drive start windows vs. the HD I have purchased.

Click to expand...

The difference is no contest, as an SSD will cut down boot time by 4 seconds compared to the fastest HDD (10,000 rpm Velociraptors) plus with SSDs, there are no moving parts to cause friction and heat. Using an SSD for a boot drive is pretty much mainstream these days and the single most performance factor one can do with a build or upgrade.

majax said:

4. Are there any internal parts that I may be missing (I have considered 3rd party 120 mm fans but that would be dependent on which case I get).

Click to expand...

Depending on your budget and what style of case you desire is pretty much according to individual taste. Many cases will come with fans. Personally, I like Lian li brand cases as many consider them the "luxury" end though often cost more than their competitors, but the differences are notable with regards to quality and construction.

You don't actually need anything close to a 600w PSU. That's a 170w GPU and a 77w CPU. A good 400w unit would work fine.
A good 600w gives you enough room for two cards and some OCing. I'd aim for a 600-650w unit personally, but if there's a sale on an equally good 750w there's no reason not to go there.
There's nothing wrong with having more PSU wattage than you need, it's just more expensive.

A bit of overkill for a single GTX670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182262
A bit of overkill for two GTX670s: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073



If you plan on OCing the CPU much at all, a CPU cooler is definitely needed. Self contained liquid units do work nicely, I dislike that they don't provide any CPU power MOSFET airflow. If your case has decent airflow and your motherboard has MOSFET heatsinks (which the sabertooth does) you don't need to worry about that. The Hyper 212+ will do you fine for normal OCing.
On the sabertooth, I would get something cheaper. The ASRock z77 Extreme4 costs $100 less and will work just as well for you IMO.

SSDs are well worth the money, I would get a 120GB drive at a minimum. You'll be blown away by the speed, it's a massive difference.

Case wise I'm not very familiar with the lower priced end of things. If you have the money I really like my Thermaltake Armor Revo. It's odd stylistically, but functionally it's great.

csquared said:

So you have the CPU, mobo, GPU, HDD and RAM, but not the heatsink or SSD? Sorry, the italics don't do much to differentiate the text.

I don't mean to nitpick, I just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I just changed it to bold and italics, so that should help.

Knufire said:

How quiet do you want it to be?

What's your budget?

Are you ever going to go with multiple video cards?

Click to expand...

1) As quiet as I can get it I suppose.

2) I don't have a budget.

3) I'm not going to use multiple video cards.

Bobnova said:

You don't actually need anything close to a 600w PSU. That's a 170w GPU and a 77w CPU. A good 400w unit would work fine.
A good 600w gives you enough room for two cards and some OCing. I'd aim for a 600-650w unit personally, but if there's a sale on an equally good 750w there's no reason not to go there.
There's nothing wrong with having more PSU wattage than you need, it's just more expensive.

A bit of overkill for a single GTX670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182262
A bit of overkill for two GTX670s: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073



If you plan on OCing the CPU much at all, a CPU cooler is definitely needed. Self contained liquid units do work nicely, I dislike that they don't provide any CPU power MOSFET airflow. If your case has decent airflow and your motherboard has MOSFET heatsinks (which the sabertooth does) you don't need to worry about that. The Hyper 212+ will do you fine for normal OCing.
On the sabertooth, I would get something cheaper. The ASRock z77 Extreme4 costs $100 less and will work just as well for you IMO.

SSDs are well worth the money, I would get a 120GB drive at a minimum. You'll be blown away by the speed, it's a massive difference.

Case wise I'm not very familiar with the lower priced end of things. If you have the money I really like my Thermaltake Armor Revo. It's odd stylistically, but functionally it's great.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. so I'll be looking for a 600-650 watt then.

I just bought the SSD drive so now I'm only down to 4 items (updated OP, getting excited):

case
PSU
optical drive
Hyper 212 EVO

Is there any other internal components I'm not considering?

For the optical drive really they're all about the same. I've always used Samsung drives and never had an issue (mostly use them because Microcenter always had a deal on them) but in general doesn't matter much, just grab the one that meets your needs either cd/dvd burner or if you want blu-ray (though I'm not sure if blu-ray has any brands that may be better)

For the case you may want to browse newegg and find ones you like visually and come back to get opinions on them. Me personally I don't like alot of the new cases visually as I like a fairly plain looking case.


The only thing I see you may want is a fan controller. I personally always use one as you can have a pretty quiet machine while idle/browsing the web and can crank up the fans for gaming when the added noise won't be noticed due to game sounds.

cases
mid towers
Haf 912
400R
500R
phantom 410

Full towers
932
Haf X
Trouper
Phantom
are my top cases that i've liked and worked with.

PSU, corsair, OCZ 750w would be fine.

I'd go with SSD if you can. I will NEVER have windows on a HDD ever again now that I have been using SSD's for a few years.

I have two additional questions:

1) Are internal memory card readers obsolete?

2) Do I need a sound card?

1) Depends on whether you want to read cards without having to have an external card reader. I realize this is a non-answer, but it's the best I can do. Given that most (all?) cameras can plug directly into a USB port (well, with a cable) these days, I doubt you'll need a reader if you aren't a professional photographer.
If you are, you're going to want a super ultra speed USB3 reader.

2) No. Modern motherboard sound is really quite good.

Bobnova said:

1) Depends on whether you want to read cards without having to have an external card reader. I realize this is a non-answer, but it's the best I can do. Given that most (all?) cameras can plug directly into a USB port (well, with a cable) these days, I doubt you'll need a reader if you aren't a professional photographer.
If you are, you're going to want a super ultra speed USB3 reader.

2) No. Modern motherboard sound is really quite good.

Click to expand...

Thank you. That answered both of my questions perfectly.

1) I just realized I have a media card reader in my PC and I've never used it so that'll save me some money by skipping that.

2) I think it'll be a good idea to just test the on board audio first and see if I even realize a difference. I heard that sound cards are made pretty cheap these days.