Attempting my first build here, and after a lot of research I'm pretty set on this, but I'd appreciate a second opinion that everything is good to go before I commit. Also wondering how necessary the 212 Plus fan is, since I've heard that Intel's included fan is pretty good?
Looks good, but go with a bigger SSD if you can. PSU isn't great, but it is cheap. If there is more I would also go with a stronger GPU, but you didn't mention what games you play.
If possible bump the SSD to the 128GB, you might regret the small sized SSD in the long run. I believe the Scorpio Black is meant for laptops? Either way you can get an extra 250GB, WD Black for less:
Thanks for the advice, the larger SSD is tempting but I'm concerned since I'm already stretching the budget for the 64gb model as it is; also not sure what else I'd really want to put on that drive that would make a HUGE impact besides the OS.
For video cards, I've been constantly bouncing around the Radeon 6850 ($135 with rebate atm), Radeon 6870 ($170 with rebate atm), and Geforce 560ti ($200 with rebate atm). I'm not a super hardcore PC gamer who needs everything at 60fps on Ultra all the time (but would be nice...), but I do plan to play mostly online games such as WoW, LoL, and soon D3 and GW2 and would like a card I could rely on.
EDIT: I've also been constantly switching my mind on HDD depending on price and stock, is WD's Caviar Green as much of a slow down as the RPM's suggest?
A 560Ti wins against the 6870 more often than not in benchmarks, but you could grab one for $180 AR. If not, a nice 6870 is on sale for $150 AR.
A 6870 isn't enough to play WoW with every single setting maxed, but it comes close if you turn down shadows and AA. I haven't paid much attention to GW2, but I would imagine it would help to have at least the 6870, if not something better to play it at high settings.
The second board has a different audio codec (which is hardly worth talking about) and USB 3.0 headers (which don't concern you because the HAF 912 doesn't have USB 3.0 on the front panel), those are the only differences as far as I can tell; the first board is fine for you.