newbie i5 build - will these work together?

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Goals,

1. PC that would last four years or so (with upgrades).

2. General use, development, and gaming (GW2 & Witcher 2).

3. Should run cool, be very stable, and have some room for OC (later).

4. Strictly Intel for CPU and NVIDIA for GPU. (i7 is too expensive)

5. Sweet spot @ ~1000 USD

6. Everything will be ordered Friday

Concerns,

1. Difficulty of build (never done this before).

2. Components not fitting together and/or not being compatible with each other.

3. Bottlenecking performance somewhere.

4. Forgetting some important component.

With help of Newegg, Google, and YT, I have made the following selection,

CPU,

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K

Motherboard,

ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU cooler,

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel 1366/1155/775 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+

Case,

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan

PSU,

Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W Continuous @40?C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V v2.92, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active-PFC Power Supply

RAM,

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM

GPU,

EVGA SuperClocked 02G-P4-2662-KR GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

SSD (OS),

Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)

HDD (Storage),

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

BD,

LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - OEM

[Brandon H Supervisor]

personally I'd switch out the PSU with one that's at least silver certified, but besides that everything else looks fine

you shouldn't really have any spacing issues with a standard ATX size build and the parts your choosing

[+Red King Subscriber²]

personally I'd switch out the PSU with one that's at least silver certified, but besides that everything else looks fine

you shouldn't really have any spacing issues with a standard ATX size build and the parts your choosing

Alright, will take advice on the PSU.

One more thing, what about noise?

How bearable would it be to, say, have such a PC at high load in your bedroom overnight? (Although a more likely situation would be to download steam games overnight doing nothing else)

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Alright, will take advice on the PSU.

One more thing, what about noise?

How bearable would it be to, say, have such a PC at high load in your bedroom overnight? (Although a more likely situation would be to download steam games overnight doing nothing else)

the better PSU will be worth it, every little bit helps with the power efficiency IMO. your electric bill will thank you in the long run

and as far as the noise goes, it all depends on a few things, 1. the noise rating on the psu (the psu is usually the biggest factor, usually it will say if it's a super quiet PSU). 2. your CPU fan (and it looks like the one you have chosen will be just fine in that regard). 3. the fans in the gpu

over all if looks like the build you have laid out will be pretty quiet so you shouldn't have to worry too much (and honestly if you're anything like me, a little white noise at night is soothing :p)

[JJ_]

Firstly that's a sweet looking build right there. You will be able to easily overclock that to 4.5GHz but not with the cooler in your spec there. The Noctua NH-D14 air cooler should easily give you temps of 60-70 under max load:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835608018

A little pricey but your other option would be water cooling. With the above cooler, those GSkills will not have enough clearance under the fan so switch them out for the following Corsair low profile DIMMs (don't be put off by the 2 x 2 egg reviews, seems like those idiots didn't set their BIOS settings for the DIMMs to X.M.P profile):

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233388

Lastly as Brando mentioned switch that PSU with something more reliable:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817207017

I've been through a fair few PSU's in my time including noisy PSU's with coil whine issues. I'd avoid Corsair/Seasonics new range as they seem to be plagued with coil whine issues. The XFX PSU above, although double your current specced PSU's price, will last you a good while. It's innards are made by Seasonic but from a range not affected by coil whine noise issues.

You shouldn't really hear that machine above the case fans/GPU fan when its under load. I've never looked into Rosewill cases before but that one seems to have decent reviews so I wouldn't assume you'd have anything to worry about on the noise side.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Firstly that's a sweet looking build right there. You will be able to easily overclock that to 4.5GHz but not with the cooler in your spec there.

O.o

I never was planning on going that far.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

With the 3570K, it is meant anything but overclocking. Get it without the K and save $10-20.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

With the 3570K, it is meant anything but overclocking. Get it without the K and save $10-20.

oh nice catch, i didn't even notice that :pinch:

[+Red King Subscriber²]

oh nice catch, i didn't even notice that :pinch:

I didn't mean 'none at all'

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

JJ is right, though. Any amount of overclocking you do, you want to keep your CPU as cool as possible.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I didn't mean 'none at all'

no, what he means is the models with K don't overclock very well if you don't have the right mobo

you'll want this version of the CPU if you plan to overclock at all http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115233

[Colin.B]

no, what he means is the models with K don't overclock very well if you don't have the right mobo

you'll want this version of the CPU if you plan to overclock at all http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115233

I'm confused Brando...You linked the 3570 if he wants to overclock but isn't it the 3570k with the unlocked multipliers for overclocking?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I'm confused Brando...You linked the 3570 if he wants to overclock but isn't it the 3570k with the unlocked multipliers for overclocking?

idk, I might be mixing up the two, i don't know much about over clocking to be honest

[mrp04]

Your BD drive doesn't have the ability to burn DVDs or CDs which could possibly be an issue. I very rarely do it, but if you're going to have the drive you should probably get one that can burn DVDs and CDs at least. $25 more gets you one that can burn BD, DVD, and CD.

Also, check if you live near a Microcenter. They have the 3570K for $40 less than Newegg and you also get $40 off a compatible motherboard. I believe most managers will match Newegg's prices, too. They have a 60 day return policy (that in my experience has been no questions asked) in case anything goes wrong.

You also don't have an OS listed. If you plan on using Windows don't forget to take that into consideration.

[JJ_]

The 3570k is fine. The k denotes the CPU has an unlocked multiplier thus allowing overclocking. Non k processors cannot be overclocked.

If your not planning on overclocking it by much, I'd stick the the stock cooler & your original choice of ram but my suggestion was based on you wanting something that'd be competitive and give your decent performance for a few years.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Some other questions,

I take it I will have to set the proper memory speed manually (reading up on it - seems like the answer is 'yes')?

Now the i series CPUs have the intel graphics chip on them - and it gets turned off if a PCIe GPU is detected?

What would I expect the temp of the CPU to be (vanilla - as to check that I mounted everything OK)?

JJ is right, though. Any amount of overclocking you do, you want to keep your CPU as cool as possible.

EDIT: Answered as I was writing post

I'm confused Brando...You linked the 3570 if he wants to overclock but isn't it the 3570k with the unlocked multipliers for overclocking?

That confused me too.

Your BD drive doesn't have the ability to burn DVDs or CDs which could possibly be an issue. I very rarely do it, but if you're going to have the drive you should probably get one that can burn DVDs and CDs at least. $25 more gets you one that can burn BD, DVD, and CD.

Also, check if you live near a Microcenter. They have the 3570K for $40 less than Newegg and you also get $40 off a compatible motherboard. I believe most managers will match Newegg's prices, too. They have a 60 day return policy (that in my experience has been no questions asked) in case anything goes wrong.

You also don't have an OS listed. If you plan on using Windows don't forget to take that into consideration.

Noted.

I already have the OS - will be Win 8 x86_64 professional - legal.

There doesn't seem to be one in my state. =(

If your not planning on overclocking it by much, I'd stick the the stock cooler & your original choice of ram but my suggestion was based on you wanting something that'd be competitive and give your decent performance for a few years.

I think, I will skip on the HDD & BD (for the time - I have been living w/ external ones and a netbook problem free anyway) and will go with your suggestion.

The CPU & Motherboard are most difficult to upgrade and in as much getting good ones from the start will save me trouble. =)

Edited January 23, 2013 by _Alexander

[Andre S. Veteran]

Firstly that's a sweet looking build right there. You will be able to easily overclock that to 4.5GHz but not with the cooler in your spec there.

Of course you can. I've been using the Hyper 212+ to overclock my 2500k to similar clock speeds and very comfortably so, and I'm far from the only one doing it. It's diminutive price tag isn't representative of its performance, really.

[remixedcat]

I would recommend an Antec HCG620M PSU, Antec uses solid caps in thier PSUs so you don't get dodgy chinese caps.

Also the modular ones are way nice for cable mgmt and air movement.

Excellent CPU cooler. I have the 212 EVO and it's HUGE but very nice. My temps never go above 55C in Skyrim on pretty much max settings.

Normal ops is 38C on the CPU (i5 3570K) and 25C for the GPU (EVGA GF650Ti SSC)

On the SSD:

Avoid Sandforce controllers. Those have lots of problems and are very unstable and have the shortest life span. TONS of people with less then 6 m.o. drives that died.

I recommend a Samsung 830 or 840 pro.

GPU:

Excellent choice. I got the EVGA 650Ti SSC and it's pretty nice.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Already bought. I may ask more questions though (as they come up).

Edited January 26, 2013 by _Alexander

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Got it working together today.

I am very much surprised by how much physical force was necessary to shove things where they belong.

I mean, for all intensive purposes the CPU is under the force of a thousand suns right now.

Some hard points were,

Figuring out how to plugin reset, power, and HDD led

Stuffing the GPU in there, the showing part and the moving all cords out of the way part.

The PSU cords are a pain they are not that bendable.

I don't know where to shove cords - for now they are dangerously close to the fans (The main mobo power plug and the noctua fans plug).

CPU, Memory, and Primary HD: 7.8

Graphics and Gaming Graphics are at 7.9

RAM is in single channel as otherwise I would have needed to remove that hell of earth of a cooler (when upgrading) - so I can improve some of those numbers in the long run.

This is a nice breath of air compared to my netbook's 2.3 for the CPU.

I mean I am transitioning from a primary of a netbook connected to an HDMI monitor to this.

Been running prime95 for half an hour (vanilla 100x38),

Min C / Max C

21 / 49

28 / 55

27 / 55

24 / 49

room tem is 74 farenheit - ~23.3 C says bing

Not sure why Core 1 and Core 2 are hotter than Core 0 and Core 4

W8x64 boots under 3sec

[Andre S. Veteran]

I mean, for all intensive purposes the CPU is under the force of a thousand suns right now.

... hem, anyway, back to the topic. For cords you can tie then together with tie-wraps or whatever you have, those that tend to be loose in the case I just tape them to a nearby side. People who do it properly route them through the back of the case so there are no cables at all hanging around, but it's not really necessary.