New Build, bit of advice/ suggestions welcome

[Jiambi]

I am building myself a new PC. I would like to keep my price around $1500.

I play WoW and D3 when it comes out. All other games i play on my 360 and the reason being is that this PC works fine for wow. But now i would like to get back to gaming on my PC and its time for an upgrade. I built this PC about 4 years ago and has served me well but its time to say goodbye.

Here are the parts i have chosen from the parts picker website.

ARG!!! can't post links yet /cry. i am sorry

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7BGn

Few thoughts of mine:
CPU: I waited for Ivy bridge for some time to build this PC and i feel the extra $50 is worth it

Cooler: I read tomshardware and they said it was good choice, i would like to at some point do a custom loop

Case: It has a handle and i travel home every month or so to visit family and sometimes that falls on a raid day. My parents go to bed early<before raid> so i bring my PC home with me. Also, im getting tired of Lugging around my Coolermaster Cosmos. That case is freaking heavy. I have no idea how i could carry such a heavy case up and down stairs if it had no rails to hold on. I was trying to get a COSMOS II but wasn't able to convince the wife spending $3-400 on a case was worth it.

RAM: Made in the USA. And that's pretty much it really. I read its pretty good too. I picked 16gig bc i was thinking of making a RAMDisk with it and loading wow on that. Other than that, i have no real reasoning behind 16g of Mushkin RAM. Was thinking of getting faster speed RAM and its all listed as O.C. on my MOBO spec sheet. And im not really sure the faster ram is worth getting. 1600 seems to be what everyone says is best because of timings and whatnot.

MOBO: I wasn't sure what to get, 4 or 6 so i went with 6. More is better right? lol Also this MOBO is an ASUS and i like it. Plus, the wife is from Taiwan<ASUS HQ is in Taiwan she says> and said i had to, i can't lie.

PowerSupply: I heard good things about this series and it has enough power so that if i want to upgrade i can and not worry if i have enough power to do so.

SSD: It fast and reliable from the reviews and what i looked up on Andantech

GPU: I have had great exp with EVGA. Not sure if i can wait for the 6 series. But if there is a better cheaper GPU please say so, im kinda blinded by NVIDIA and EVGA. My 1st Vid card ever was an ATI Radeon and ever since AMD bought them and made a mess of things about what? 10-12 years ago i have gone NVIDIA and cant seem to get myself to look at AMD/ATI seriously anymore. I loved my ATI Radeon 700XL Pro

This post is getting longer than expected, so if after looking at any of that if there is a better option for cheaper or a bit more+20/50$ per part id love to know. I am looking for the best performance for that price trying to not go over $1600 if i can help it.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

---------- Post added 2012-05-01 at 08:43 PM ----------

After playing around i came up with this build, it removes the SSD downgrades the MB to a 4 series, replaces the IVY bridge with a 2500k and adds a 680 GPU. Would this be a better buy keeping in mind i would like this PC to last 4-5 years. Mostly playing MMO's and the odd game here and there?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7BVX

[inux94]

The PSU is overkill, other than that you'll be fine.

I'd suggest a 550w PSU.

[hapylol]

I made a bunch of changes for the better. Since you only play WoW/D3 there is no reason to spend $500 on a video card.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($84.99 @ CompUSA)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($147.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.98 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($124.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($124.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($349.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX Full Tower Case ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($56.23 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1439.00
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-02 09:10 EDT-0400)

You can drop down to 8GB RAM if you want.

GPU- I know you said you wanted Nvidia but there is no mid teir cards for Nvidia right now. The only thing below the 680 that is worth considering would be a 560TI but that would not last you 4-5 years.

Let me know if you have questions!

[Jiambi]

thanks for the suggestions hapylol. But i am not too sure about that Power Supply u listed. From what i was able to ready the main power cable is rather short and im worried that it will need an extender to reach inside my case.

What do u think about this Power Supply? It's a bit more expensive and only Semi-modular. Its also made by Corsair. From what I have read they make pretty good and reliable power supplies. I really dont know much about OCZ. I thought i read on here somewhere to stay away from their power supplies.

I also removed the SSD. I think i will be ok with longer loading times a lil while longer.

http pcpartpicker com p 7Ez3

Thanks again for advice =D

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

Here is my take on your build (notes are after):

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7F1o
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7F1o/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7F1o/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($78.47 @ CompUSA)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($147.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($86.98 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($387.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX Full Tower Case ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1347.80
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-02 20:10 EDT-0400)

I removed the BR-D/DVD-R and replaced it with a regular DVD burner. Will you watch movies on your computer? If no, then leave the BR-D off. Its another $50 you can save.

I switched the PSU to a Seasonic unit that is good.

I changed the CPUHS to the Noctua because it can perform as well, if not better, than the H80.

I also upgraded the GPU because I saw a decent one for $30 more.

Have fun and good luck

[Jiambi]

ok, well thank you everyone for all the advice. After a week of going back and forth i decicded on this build. Was able to get a seasonic 650w modular 80+gold Power supply for $103 and at that price that PS is an absolute steal. Decided to stay away from the Noctua bc its so freaking massive and me using 4x4 sticks of ram wasnt sure it would fit, went with hte Corsair H-100. I hope i dont get a lemon.

Anyway here is my Build I cant wait for the parts to arrive!!!

http pcpartpicker com/p/7WGv

[hapylol]

You really should have an SSD drive on a build this expensive

I don't know why I even linked the H80 in the first place but I would have recommended a cheaper cooler and case so you could of got an SSD.

O well, it should run excellent and I hope it treats you well!!

[Jiambi]

I agreed with you Happy and i am glad i did. I ended up getting a Crucial M4 128, but am having a bit of buyers remorse. 128 seems kinda small now that i have W7 D3 and Wow installed. But overall i am thrilled with the new system. Windows loads in under 10 seconds, that there alone freaking blew my mind lol. I think next paycheck im picking up a
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167086 for storage
and another Crucial M4 128 to use in a raid config with the 1st for booting.

But i just got it up and running so i still have some cable management ect, but one thing i did notice is that the air flow out of this rig is much much MUCH cooler than the air coming out of my Cooler master cosmos.

[hapylol]

Jiambi,

There are a few things you can do to free up some space on your SSD. Google "how to delete your pagefile" and "how to turn off hibernate mode". I also think there was a thread about it so you can search this forum if you want to take the time This should free up ~15-20GB of space.

I don't think I would recommend getting 3 SSD's. You would probably be better off just sticking with 1 and having a normal 500-1TB Western Digital Caviar Black for anything you don't need excessive speed on.

[Jiambi]

Yea your prob right, i was just drunk on speed last night. I have a 1TB WD Cav BLK storage atm and I also have 2 150g Raptors I can put into this PC in a RAID config. if i feel like it, and i prolly should as my old gaming PC is heading to HTPC land where those 2 drives won't really be used to their potential.

And thank you for the tips on pagefile and hibernate mode. I looked up that thread about reducing the WoW folder to 11g on ur SSD by moving the sound files to a storage drive. So i am going to try that out.

I have 1 issue that is bothering me. It might be a setting i need to lookup, but anyway, My PC seems to just turn off. Example, lastnight i went to bed while my WoW updater was running and Diablo was downloading. I woke up and my Pc was turned off, not in hibernate, OFF. So i started it up prior to leaving for work changed power settings to performance, started up WoW updater again as it wasn't finished and i came home and my PC was off AGAIN and wow wasn't done updating.

I have never had a PC do this before so i am not sure what the cause is. I am running HW monitor and CPU-Z to monitor temps and whatnot and im topping out at 42C max on the one core rest in the 30's. So i know its not overheating /shrug I dunno. If u have any ideas pls lemme know i'm going to poke around and see if there is a shutdown after X amt of inactivity option somewhere.

Thanks again for your help Hapy

[hapylol]

I don't believe there is an option to just plain shut off and if you are 100% sure it is not hibernating I would say your CPU might be crashing.

I think Windows update normally restarts the computer but it is possible it is shutting it down completely?

You might want to post in the general computer section because you will get better technical support there