Maximum PC

It's been awhile since my last post. Still trying to get my first build completed. Maybe this time I will get it done.

I mainly use my system for games (ex. Guild Wars 2, BattleField, Farcry etc.) and streaming video/video processing. I also run a virtual Win XP.

Just want to make sure I have everything I need.
Please give any feedback or suggestions you can think of...



Case: Thermaltake SOPRANO VO900M1N2N Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Video: VisionTek 900491 Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support
Power: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
SSD: SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Harddrive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM
Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel ...
Paste: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G - OEM






I already have a keyboard, mouse, CD/DVD burner and a monitor which is a Dell 24" Ultrasharp 2408wfp, 1920x1200



Questions:
Is a 650w power supply enough for future expansion?
Should I move up to an i7 from an i5 ?
Is my video card too much ?
Do I need cables? Sata ect.(not sure what "bare drive" means for my barracuda)? or does that come with the cards/drives?
I'm assuming the case comes with fans??

What am I forgetting?

Solid build overall. To answer your questions:

1) 650 watts should be plenty. The trend in both GPUs & CPUs (the most power hungry components in a system) has been downward in power consumption. So if anything your next GPU/CPU will use less juice than the one you're currently putting in.

2) For gaming you really aren't going to see much of a benefit going from an i5 to an i7. The majority of the games out there struggle to use the 4 cores of an i5 as is let alone start using the hyperthreading that an i7 provides. Stick with the i7 you have. edit I just noticed in your original post that you mentioned that you do video streaming/processing. Now the i5 can still handle that however if you do heavy amounts of video streaming & processing on a regular basis then I would say it is worth it to step up to an i7.

3) You might need at least one SATA cable for the HDD since the SSD should come with one since it looks to be a retail packout. You might also get one with the motherboard but it doesn't state whether it does or not in the description. Better off paying the buck or two for a cable and at worst have an extra sitting around.

4) The case you linked comes with two fans, one for the intake and one for the exhaust.


There are two changes that I would suggest for your build:

1) Swap the Visiontek for a Gigabyte 7970 3GB as the cooler is a much better design and you save a few bucks in the bargain.

2) Cases are largely a personal choice but I've been impressed with Fractal Design's offering's as of late. For the same price as the ThermalTake you could get a much better designed (at least IMO) Fractal Design Define R4 Titanium

Thanks for your time and suggestions.
I originally had a Gigabyte on my list... But.. I have a Visiontek available for (now) $50 off the retail price. At the same time I get to help a friend out.

Is the Gigabyte that much of an improvement?

I dont mind spending the extra $50, but if the Visiontek is a known bad design, I dont want it.

I wouldn't say that the Visiontek is a bad design. It's just that it's using what's typically known as the reference cooler which in this case is your standard vapor chamber. Reference coolers generally do not perform as well as non reference coolers and sometimes they can be a bit on the noisy side. Lastly one of the nice things about the 7970s is how much you can typically overclock them, you'll have a higher potential overclock with the Gigabyte or an MSI TwinFrozr cooled card than a reference based card.

I assume that the Seasonic will have the power cable for the hard drive and I should just get one for the "drive to motherboard" ?


Also, I see several different type of sata cables. 1.5gbs models, 3gbps models, 6gbps models...

The SSD the only thing that would use a 6gbps?

Yep, the PSU should have all of the connectors that you need for your drives & devices.

Would I notice a ton of performance loss if I dropped down to a Gigabyte Radeon 7870 Ghz edition or a GTX 660ti

Just pick up a 7870 XT instead, like http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-P ... B00AWKYB1M

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


I notice this memory has "fins" on it.. Will this affect anything inside the case.. as far as space and cpu cooler ect?

any takers?

That partially depends on the cooler that you're using. However since you're only using 2 DIMM sockets for now you can put them in the two furthest sockets and it's not likely to cause issues. You could go with some RAM without the fins to just be sure, some other options:

Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR3-1600 - $86.99

G.Skill Ares 2x8GB DDR3-1600 -$93.99

The best option would be the often referred to "Samsung Magic RAM", no that's not what it's branded it's just sold as DDR3 RAM, but I can't seem to find any in stock on newegg or amazon, and most other places seem to be out of stock as well. If you can pick it up though it really works well when overclocking a system.