PC Build. $2,000ish budget.

[FearXI]

After reading some topics and one I made I'm going to do an out right PC build.
My GPU topic turned into a build thread so I figured it be easier to make a topic on a build.

Background:
Primary use is for gaming at max settings.
Games: WoW, D3, and looking maybe Skyrim +.
Country: USA
Budget: $2,000ish

I do want to OC it.
Anyway down to the spec's I've picked out so far.

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504 ($239.99)

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145345 ($54.99)

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131821 ($239.99)

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...tem=20-147-134 ($149.99)

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130787 ($419.99)

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133188 ($249.99)

Cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...81017&Tpk=h100 ($114.99)

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151098 ($124.99)

Blu-Ray: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106374 ($59.99)

Total: 1,654.91


Now the processor is one of the questions I have which is better i5 or the i7, sandy - ivy ect...?
And which exactly would suit my OC and gaming needs best?
There is a chance I may SLI it still debating if it's worth it, so I need to know if the PS I picked would be able to take on a SLI load.

And from what I can tell it would all fit in the case I picked would you agree?

[BicycleMafioso]

The CPU is fine. If you don't intend to do heavy mediawork (produce, not partake in) or calculations, the hyper-threading, which is the one one-up it does have over the i5, the i7 is just more costly for nothing.

The concerns I'm having with your build;
* You haven't really colourmatched the RAM, for instance. That's the luxury that you do have at those budgets. Get the black ones.
* You only have one SSD, no harddrive. Do you intend to do network storing and streaming?
* Your case is out of proportion, price-wise. Are you sure you're not better off with, say, a Fractal Design Arc Midi or the 500R from Corsair? Obsidian 650D from Corsair?
* The GPU cooler is poor. I'd choose Gigabyte, but out of stock. It's the less worse of those still availible, but I'd personally never settle in that way. eVGA's warranty system is great, though.
* The PSU you selected will not handle SLI on the GTX 670.
* SLI isn't really worth it, especially not now in the lifecycle of the GTX 670. It's good enough on its own; You shouldn't need it; You barely need two for gaming across three screens at once.

[FearXI]

The CPU is fine. If you don't intend to do heavy mediawork (produce, not partake in) or calculations, the hyper-threading, which is the one one-up it does have over the i5, the i7 is just more costly for nothing.

The concerns I'm having with your build;
* You haven't really colourmatched the RAM, for instance. That's the luxury that you do have at those budgets. Get the black ones.
* You only have one SSD, no harddrive. Do you intend to do network storing and streaming?
* Your case is out of proportion, price-wise. Are you sure you're not better off with, say, a Fractal Design Arc Midi or the 500R from Corsair? Obsidian 650D from Corsair?
* The GPU cooler is poor. I'd choose Gigabyte, but out of stock. It's the less worse of those still availible, but I'd personally never settle in that way. eVGA's warranty system is great, though.
* The PSU you selected will not handle SLI on the GTX 670.
* SLI isn't really worth it, especially not now in the lifecycle of the GTX 670. It's good enough on its own; You shouldn't need it; You barely need two for gaming across three screens at once.

Oops I forgot to add that I'm reusing my current 1TB HDD for everything else.
I was thinking with the case I pick (I like the style) the blue ram would look good with the blue LED in it.
Ok so I'll scratch the idea of SLI.
I'll admit I'm a bit confused on the "The GPU cooler is poor." Which Gigabyte are you talking about?

[Dababa]

There is more than one type of GTX 670, here is a list of the 11 that newegg has. As you can see most of them have a very similar cooler on them, that's the reference and standard cooler. Some have better ones though like the Gigabyte 670 here. If you can try and snag a Gigabyte GPU because it will run cooler which also gives it more potential for overclocking.

[FearXI]

Ah ok so I'm going to try and get a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125423 (Gigabyte 670)
And after looking closer I think I will go with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139009 for my case.

And since I'm changing the case I think I'll stick in http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231416 for RAM.

[BicycleMafioso]

GTX 680 (and the GTX 690) is better than the GTX 670. I'd still prefer the GTX 670, on account of it being a great card with great potential for overclocking.

[Deviantmind]

If you plan on overclocking, do your homework with the cpu you've chosen. I know there were a lot of reports of problems OC'ing Ivy Bridge pre-release. Haven't followed too much since they've been out, maybe they've worked out the issues(even though they've only been out a month).

[Nab]

Please don't go with a Thermaltake case, get a 800D or 810 Switch or something.

[FearXI]

Please don't go with a Thermaltake case, get a 800D or 810 Switch or something.

I'm actually going with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139009

And @Deviantmind what kind of issues are / were they having for OC'ing?

[BicycleMafioso]

They don't have any issues with OCing, per se.
However, since intel chose to cheap out on the manufacturing process, on account of the CPUs being so low in TDP, they chose to use standard thermal compound instead of (what is it called in English again? solder?).
Which means unless replaced with either a better thermal solution (Really, really do not recommend), they start to shoot off in heat after ~4.5-4.6 GHz if you need high vCore to reach there.
However, I do think that they, like Sandy Bridge, will not really have a real world perceivable performance increase past 4.6 GHz either way.
I wouldn't be super worried about it.

[endgame619]

I got the 500R except in white and the H100 in December and from my experience it's a really solid case that looks real good. The radiator fits perfectly on the top of the case under the mesh, I did get a couple of aftermarket 120mm fans though after reading the reviews about the stock H100 fans being less then perfect for that mounting, I got 2 blue led ball bearing fans that look pretty nice with the white case fans.

[FearXI]

They don't have any issues with OCing, per se.
However, since intel chose to cheap out on the manufacturing process, on account of the CPUs being so low in TDP, they chose to use standard thermal compound instead of (what is it called in English again? solder?).
Which means unless replaced with either a better thermal solution (Really, really do not recommend), they start to shoot off in heat after ~4.5-4.6 GHz if you need high vCore to reach there.
However, I do think that they, like Sandy Bridge, will not really have a real world perceivable performance increase past 4.6 GHz either way.
I wouldn't be super worried about it.

Since I plan for water cooling I shouldn't have an issue on heat right?

[protput]

Since I plan for water cooling I shouldn't have an issue on heat right?

You shouldn't even have much issues with the H100 mate. It's a very good cooler, and is the closest you can get to an actual closed watercooling loop... Especially in push/pull. Just make sure it fits your mobo/case, it was a VERY close fit for me (cpu cable blocks it).

Said it before and I'll say it again, the Sabertooth is complete overkill.

[hapylol]

Since I plan for water cooling I shouldn't have an issue on heat right?

That has nothing to do with it. Basically what happens with Ivy Bridge when you increase the voltage it heats up a lot faster. My Ivy Bridge runs 4.3 @ .99 volts @ 55C in Prime95. If I were to increase the volts to 1.1-1.2 my temperatures would sky rocket.

Sandy Bridge does not have this problem which allows them to reach a much higher stable clock with lesser temperatures.

As for your build- the sabertooth offers no increased performance and costs $100 more then most standard motherboards. I suggest looking at the Asus 77 boards or the Asrock z77's.

[FearXI]

Ok here's my updated list with a few changes.
With everything I have listed it'll work well together?

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504 ($239.99)

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233142 ($57.99)

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131821 ($239.99)

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147135 ($266.99)

HDD: Reuse current HDD

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125423 ($399.99)

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139009 ($139.99)

Cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...81017&Tpk=h100 ($114.99)

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151087 ($159.99)

Blu-Ray: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106374 ($59.99)

[Enhshamanlol]

Said it before and I'll say it again, the Sabertooth is complete overkill.

Well, It has a 5 year warranty. Some built it in fans/cooling. And the dust covers are nice.
And it would not be as much over kill as say http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131850

[glo]

Since I plan for water cooling I shouldn't have an issue on heat right?

If you're going to watercool (the video card), the extra couple bucks for a 7970 would be a much, much better choice over a 670. More performance at stock speeds, more headroom for overclocking.

Then there's always the 680, but that's going to be at least $50-60 over the 7970.

[FearXI]

If you're going to watercool (the video card), the extra couple bucks for a 7970 would be a much, much better choice over a 670. More performance at stock speeds, more headroom for overclocking.

Then there's always the 680, but that's going to be at least $50-60 over the 7970.

I have cooling for CPU not the graphics card and from reading the cooling I have doesn't mention GPU cooling...

[glo]

I have cooling for CPU not the graphics card and from reading the cooling I have doesn't mention GPU cooling...

Ah ok. Thought you were going for a full liquid loop.

However, on that note, I'd suggest looking into a good air cooler instead of a closed loop liquid solution, such as this Noctua:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018

or Silver Arrow:

http://www.amazon.com/THERMALRIGHT-S.../dp/B003XRAKLQ

Closed loop coolers are nice to look at and all, but their performance isn't up to par with similar priced air solutions. Not to mention their noise levels are typically the same or higher than an air cooler due to the fact that there's still going to be 2 120mm fans on the radiator. Real full loop liquid coolers will always be the best choice, but those setups are both very costly and time consuming to implement.

[BicycleMafioso]

That's because people assume you mean watercooling when you say watercooling.
You mean a closed-loop liquid cooler, and not a custom loop.
The H100 is not the same as proper watercooling, but one of the best choices when you go for a CPU heatsink.

I'd definitely stick with a GTX 670 either way, though.