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First time system builder needs advice

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It's ugly, plastic and I very much dislike those 'gamer' style cases which have that OH LOOK AT ME look.. but cases are personal preference. You pick :). At 79 I personally would be looking at the Antec Three Hundred Two. Or 65 for the Antec One 'gaming' case. Lol.

But cases are 90% looks, 10% functionality. You're the one who has to look at it day in and day out lol.
 
Mjolnir said:
It's ugly, plastic and I very much dislike those 'gamer' style cases which have that OH LOOK AT ME look.. but cases are personal preference. You pick :). At 79 I personally would be looking at the Antec Three Hundred Two. Or 65 for the Antec One 'gaming' case. Lol.

But cases are 90% looks, 10% functionality. You're the one who has to look at it day in and day out lol.
Click to expand...

ok :D thanks. one other thing though, will all of these cases fit the graphics cards i have chosen? E.G. 7850, 7870

also whats your opinion on the GTX 570. worth it or stay away?
 
Stick with the HD 7850 over the 570. But 660 ti is arriving this month. Should change a few things. If the price is right, it'd be a better choice.
 
Mjolnir said:
It's ugly, plastic and I very much dislike those 'gamer' style cases which have that OH LOOK AT ME look.. but cases are personal preference. You pick :). At 79 I personally would be looking at the Antec Three Hundred Two. Or 65 for the Antec One 'gaming' case. Lol.

But cases are 90% looks, 10% functionality. You're the one who has to look at it day in and day out lol.
Click to expand...

Well I guess everyone has their opinion (or lack thereof) regarding cases, but I for one feel choosing a nice case probably serves more purpose than any other component, just like choosing a house to put all your furniture and belongings.

I chose my case with specific intentions. First, I wanted it to display class and elegance, to be "smooth as silk, stong as a tiger" lol , and nothing speaks more class than a Lian li case IMO as well as many other professional well known system builders, which led me to decide. Second, I chose it for the possibility of future expansion, meaning I could potentialially put any size form factor in it including server boards if so be my desire. Third, I chose it for modular tooless design, where changing/adding parts is a breeze plus with having a front mounted PSU, this leaves all the room I could ask for at the back of the case for GPU cards or any other PCI add on. With that configuration, I still have more than enough room for expanding HDDs or SSDs. All my cabling is also at the front and not routed over and around my motherboard liike spaghetti, leaving open access to anything on my motherboard. Fourth, is cooling considerations, where my case came with 4 very silent high quality chassis fans and one exhaust fan plus I can add one on the bottom of the case as it is already setup. Last but not least is the feature of dust prevention, since all intake fans come with romovable air filters. This cuts down on dust entering the case and the need for frequent air dusting. This is the one feature you will not find on more cases, as very few of them come with or are configured with air filters.

Sure, you can put your components in a cheap plastic box, you can put them in a desk. Heck, you can mount them on a wall or put them in a hat box. You can also do the same with where you live and sleep at night and put your personal belongings. Its really all a matter of choice and how you want to present your prized components.
 
To a degree*. I should've added. To be fair you're running a case that's a good 1/3rd of this guys budget lol.

I'm running a fairly cheap 99 dollar case, but comes with Allu front panel, a single 180mm AP fan, clean and simple, and easy cable management for such a small case. I wanted it for the form factor and practicality for my use; plus it's simple looks. And I was getting bored of huge cases. My next case will be even smaller (Going ITX :p).
 
And I personally don't feel like spending money on a overpriced metal box. A hole saw and a drill can be used to add fans. Zip ties and creativity can solve cable management. Woman's pantyhose makes great dust filters.

There is some consideration to ease of build and structural quality. Are those things important to me? Yes. Would I buy a Lian Li? Yes, because I don't think $100 for a high quality case that should last for the better part of a decade is a bad investment at all. My point is its not necessary, and my reasons for buying one is based on functionality only. And it is far from necessary, you can make almost any case work IMO.

I can make some allusion to the robotics competition I participate in. Many teams are sponsored by NASA or GM and have their robot powder coated, add lights, waterjet logos and designs into their frame, and make their robot look like a BAMF. My team uses unpainted aluminum, wood, cardboard, tape, and is jokingly referred to as ghetto bot by some of the other powerhouse teams.

When you post more wins in a season than anyone else in the world, people tend not to care. Functionality over looks.
 
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Mjolnir said:
Fair points. Anyways, we're diverging off the OP's questions/builds lol.

Kian, what's YOUR budget for YOUR machine? =)
Click to expand...

my budget is 1000-1200 AUD


as for the cpu im getting a i5 3570k

2 hard drives (not sure if ill go SSD)

maybe the asrock z77 extreme4 (ATX or mATX not sure yet)

G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3

coolermaster 212 EVO cpu cooler (or similar)

windows 7 home premium 64bit OEM

unsure of how muck PSU power i will need

Graphics card: 7850 Frozr (if you have a better idea post it :D)

case: i think ill choose that last, whatever fits the budget i guess :3

Zalman Microphone ZM-MIC 1
 
500W is good for one card, 650-700W for two in the future.

The mATX Extreme4 is not as good of a board as the ATX version. If you want a mATX board, I'd go with something else.
 
If you want an m-atx board; there's the Asus P8Z77 M Pro. I'll mock up your build in a list shortly. =)

Something along these lines...

kianbuild.PNG
 
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In general, there aren't any major disadvantages from mATX to ATX.

Specifically with the Extreme4-M vs the Extreme4, the -M has a 4+2 phase count (same as the ASRock Pro series boards) while the Extreme4 has a 8+4 phase count. Phases are the section of the motherboard that deliver power to the CPU, and that's the part of the motherboard your concerned with while overclocking.

The Extreme4 is such an excellent board at it's price since it's the cheapest Z77 board with a 8+4 phase count.
 
Knufire said:
In general, there aren't any major disadvantages from mATX to ATX.

Specifically with the Extreme4-M vs the Extreme4, the -M has a 4+2 phase count (same as the ASRock Pro series boards) while the Extreme4 has a 8+4 phase count. Phases are the section of the motherboard that deliver power to the CPU, and that's the part of the motherboard your concerned with while overclocking.

The Extreme4 is such an excellent board at it's price since it's the cheapest Z77 board with a 8+4 phase count.
Click to expand...

ok thanks, that will help me choose. if im OC'ing its worth it. also congrats on the promotion :D
 
kian525 said:
if anything im trying to avoid mATX, so what problems does the smaller board face over the larger one?
Click to expand...

Features, like limited PCI slots, I/Os on the back, and usually only dual channel memory or 2 slots for DIMMs instead of 4.
They may be ideal if all you need to do is office apps, email, and internet browsing, or if all you ever want to have is one GPU card, and it would need to be a small one to give you any room to add any other cards.
Not too sure how many SATA ports you'll get either with a mATX board. You might get 2 or 4 USB connections.
 
ok he is getting it this weekend and heres what he says

No OCing of any kind
2 HDD's no SSD's
One GPU
Intel CPU
a decent budget case
windows 7 Home premium 64 bit
500w psu
8gb RAM
z77 MOBO

any thoughts?
 
All seems fine except z77 is pointless for not overclocking.. A b75 board or h77 is more than enough. Why pay the z77 premium when you have no intention to overclock.

And why no ssd... 2 hdd won't make a huge difference for recording.. those seagate hybrid drives are useless too. I own one. The transfer rate is quite slow. Unless they've updated it.. access tines are average. Really only decent for basic laptop use and such.
 
Mjolnir said:
All seems fine except z77 is pointless for not overclocking.. A b75 board or h77 is more than enough. Why pay the z77 premium when you have no intention to overclock.

And why no ssd... 2 hdd won't make a huge difference for recording.. those seagate hybrid drives are useless too. I own one. The transfer rate is quite slow. Unless they've updated it.. access tines are average. Really only decent for basic laptop use and such.
Click to expand...

The z77 is still a nice board and upgrade from the previous. Granted, I realize everything about this website is geared toward OCing, but IMHO, I feel its more reserved for those with older CPUs looking to get more out of them and achieve performance of say a newer CPU and avoid the upgrade expense. Otherwise, its like sitting in your driveway and revving the engine of your new high performance auto. Five years from now, I might need to OC to regain some lost performance on my current system, but for now its plenty fast enough to meet my computing needs. This is more of a hobby to most people here on OCF than it is a necessity, plus OCing makes much more sense AFTER your warranty expires. The person can OC the z77 down the road when its needed. Kinda like insurance, better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I couldn't agree with you more on the SSD, and if you're going to invest in a mechanical HDD, its best to get one with a 10,000 rpm speed, though still much slower than any SSD.

I think most all new laptops are using SSDs, hence why they're so thin in profile.
 
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