Maximum PC

Hey everyone, I've wanted to build my own PC for a very long time now. I finally have the money and have been doing extensive studying up on the matter but im still not comfortable going through with it until i consult some experienced ppl

What I am looking for is a high end gaming PC and multimedia entertainment with lots of room to grow so I can get as much from it as possible b4 its totally obsolete. My budget is about $1200 to $1600. Im looking to play things like BF3, Borderlands 2, and Skyrim,as well as next gen games hopefully. I would also like it to be blue/black for personal preference/expression when and if possible.

I have some parts picked out and I wanted to know if someone could verify that they are all compatible and also input and suggestions on better alternatives (especially if cheaper too!) as this is my first build after all and I want the most for my $$ thanks

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.a ... 6819116504

I saw AMDs new bulldozer 8core processors and some reviews said that even though the Ivy bridge only had 4 they were higher quality and the 8 cores couldn't be utilized yet anyways. Is this true?

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 256bit, Dual Dual-Link DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, 4-Way SLI Ready Graphics Card Graphics Cards 02G-P4-2678-KR

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083Y ... PDKIKX0DER

Is there any better GPU for similar price for this build? I only plan on buying 1 right now as $400 is all i can bear to spend for GPU atm,

PSU: RAIDMAX RX-850AE 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817152043

I'm not sure how much Wattage I need but I plan to run about 2 Geforce 670s(or possibly higher) in SLI along with an SSD, 2 HDDs (1 external),and blue ray/DVD/CD combo in the future. I really want an 80+ Gold as im big on efficiency. any suggestions?

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RF ... PDKIKX0DER

I thought about doing (2x8)GB an have room for more later but would it be worth the extra cash?

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Q0 ... PDKIKX0DER

Is windows home premium 64bit suitable?

MOBO: Gigabyte Intel Z77 LGA 1155 AMD CrossFireX/NVIDIA SLI Dual LAN Dual UEFI BIOS ATX Motherboard GA-Z77X-UD5H

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R2 ... PDKIKX0DER

Storage: Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB SATA 2.5-Inch SATA III Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GBGT-BK)
by Corsair

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057Q ... PDKIKX0DER

Wanted an SSD for speedy gaming, booting and OS functionality. On a side note I have a 1.5TB external HDD would an internal HDD be significantly more beneficial for mass storage?

Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1 ... TVCJXLAJ4K

Now here is something im on the fence about as well. Liquid cooling is expensive and It also makes me nervous to handle water around my first build, but it seems to be undeniably more efficient which im also a big fan of. Is it worth it or should i stick with fans?

Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 VN300M1W2N No PS Full Tower Case (Black)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051U ... PDKIKX0DER

I am in love with this case

Anyone? :/

There is a delay on when new users posts get submitted (review process) so we just saw this appear. As for your questions......

1. CPU and GPU are perfect. The GTX670 i'd put as the second to third fastest GPU and will last you a long time and when you see things get slow in 3-4 years you can SLI. AMD's offerings might have more cores but they are slower than Intel offerings so Ivy Bridge is perfect for you case.

2. PSU - I don't know much about the quality of RAIDMax, i'd personally say get the 850watt Corsair Gold series for better quality but someone might have a better opinion about Raidmax than me???

3. RAM - 16 GB seems a bit excessive. You mentioned Multimedia but thats just watching movies or are you going to be produce/editing movies?? If your just watching than I'd say 8GB with two 4GB sticks (to take advantage of dual channel) and bump it up to CAS 8 speeds at the 1600 range you have now. If you are doing video editing than stick with the 16GB. Way I see it though, if you get two 4GB sticks now you can fill the other two slots with 8GB sticks a few years down the road if you feel you need more RAM which would give you 24 GB or just use two additional 4GB sticks to get you at 16GB. 8GB is more than any game will use so you'll be fine for years to come. Get just two 4GB sticks of CAS8 and ensure you put them in the correct slots per the motherboard manual (typically not side by side).

4. Windows - With Home Premium 64bit your max memory can only be 16GB so....16GB is more than enough even 5 years from now so I'd say don't worry about it. If your doing video editing than you might want to go professional version so you can do more than 16GB of RAM later on.

5. Cooling - your cooler is fine. If you want to test water cooling than I'd suggest the Corsair h80. Its fully enclosed so no piping for you to do. Just connect it to your case and slap the CPU cooler on your CPU and done. Its extremely easy and was my first venture into water cooling and I love it. Its about 80-100 dollars so its if you feel its necessary.....will you be overclocking that CPU???

6.Case - Interesting that you can just plug a HDD up top like that, I wouldn't recommend it because it would stick up like a sore thumb and someone might bump it and break the connections on the case or damage the HDD thats sticking up and out like that. Anyway, its your tastes so if you like it than get it.

7. Mobo - Do you need Dual LAN?? Not sure if gigabyte offers a cheaper board with only 1 LAN that has everything you want while sticking with the Z77 chipset. I'd also do a quick google for reviews on this board.....i think most boards are all the same now and its just ensuring you have the extras you want but won't hurt to check a review or two out.

I didn't total up to see how much your current system costs so if you can do that and let us know how it matches to your budget...higher or lower. We can help make adjustments if you need to lower the cost of what you currently have specced out or any changes you make due to our suggestions. Thanks.

Everything looks good though a better PSU would be better something like a corsair, seasonic, Antec, maybe even a OCZ a 850W should be a good wattage for 2 way SLI.

The way the Intel CPUs work and the AMD CPUs work are uniquely different.

For simplicity:
The 3570 (which does not have Hyper Threading) has 4 CPU "cores" each one capable of working on 1 item at a time (referred to as a "thread"). The 3570's 4 cores can process 4 threads at one time.
An i7 3770 (which has HT) has 4 cores and each one is capable of working two threads at the same time (8 threads total). This is what HT does, so in effect you have 4 cores and 4 "theoretical cores" which total 8.
The AMD FX 8150 has 8 physical cores, but they are grouped together in pairs (I think they're called "modules"). In this layout, the 2 cores work in tandem to process 1 thread - so the 8150 can process 4 threads at once. AMD's theory was by using 2 cores to tackle 1 thread, they could process the threads faster. The issue with AMD's methodology is the OSes have not been optimized to use 2 cores to tackle 1 thread. Even with optimization, best case scenarios indicate AMD CPUs will only gain ~10% efficiency.

So to answer your question, the 8 cores can be used, but not optimally.

Hope this helps.

AMD is going down a bad path, much like Intel did back in the early 2000s with the Pentium 4. AMD's focus is on cores, which when first introduced, did improve general performance without increasing power and cooling requirements. But it also brought on the misconception that, like the Megahertz Myth, more cores automatically is better. And it was to the point where marketing was claiming a 2.0GHz quad core processor is effectively the same as an 8GHz single core processor (a gross misconception).

However, the problem with introducing more cores is that most of the programs you use, they won't take advantage of them. And most of them won't need to. A core only increases the computational throughput, if the program you uses most of the time is just waiting for you to do something with it (like an internet browser or a word processor), it'll sit there doing nothing. Not to mention that certain functions can't actually be split amongst cores.

Anyway, that's part one of why AMD's Bulldozer is "meh".

The second part is that AMD didn't bother to increase the Instructions Per Clock throughput. If you compare a single threaded task between a Bulldozer and a Phenom II part, they're on par.

So you basically have a processor with little improvement to performance (if any) as the last generation in many programs, and the only place Bulldozer shines in is multi-threaded tasks, which are few and far between with the average person.

Thanks so much for the input guys!
So as far as price goes it would be approximately $1400 i believe. I don't plan on ever using the top hotswap bay on that case btw :p

I appreciate the explanation of the differences in the processors, I believe i will go with the Intel I listed then.

As far as the 16GB of RAM I did plan on making gaming montages I dunno if that is considered Video editing. I read on several posts that 16GB was overkill, the reason I wanted 16 was so i could have an all matching batch an save the trouble of upgrading/finding matching RAM in the future. :/ although i suppose that could go towards a better name brand PSU!

As for overclocking I plan on doing some light to mid overclocking. But my priority would be stable temps, and better component life over performance.

What about the HDD? like i said i have a 1.5TB external via USB along with USB 3.0 headers for the new build. would a SATA 2/3 HDD 7200RPM be justifiable for the extra $100, for my mass storage?

lastly could anyone explain how the "Next-Gen" of gaming transitions for PCs? I mean do they release all new GPUs , or could you still play them decently with the aformentioned 670, or do you need to upgrade everything? how did the last gen transition work on PC (when xbox jumped to xbox360)?

i know what you mean about the games...but you cant really build for next gen when next gen hardware is not out...
thats the hassle though with PC's although there is a tradeoff, you have to constantly evolve your hardware to keep up

If you want to play with semantics, it's impossible to build a next generation system, because once a part is released, it's current generation. Even if it's the only generation on the market.