Semi grounded for a bit..

[Bizman]

   So.. Just a quick run through on Partspicker, and this is what I came up with. Any comments, suggestions ? overboard or under on anything ?


     http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HTVNwP


               probably add a little more Storage later on

Looks basically nice. But as mikev said, the gtx 750 is somewhat weakish. If you want good frame rates in games, I'd suggest you get a regular hard disk instead of the SSD. That way you'd get an extra $100 to $150 for a better video card and still keep your budget.
 
If you scroll this forum back a bit, you can see that SSD's have been widely discussed here several times. It is true that they make your Windows and games load faster. But they won't add a single frame into your frame rate. Thus, you being on a budget, I strongly recommend you to ponder which is more important to you: To get poor frame rates in seconds or having to wait a couple of minutes for excellent playability. My vote goes for the better GPU, I use the waiting time to prepare for a lengthy session.

[Chalenge]

What Biz said, plus that PSU is good for maybe a year before it starts producing little problems that an SSD will not like and will eventually die from. Also, while I would buy the same CPU (and a similar CPU) the way HTC is going you won't need that and could save redirect more money into a more powerful GPU. I don't know what else you use a system for, or I could help more, but for AH that's what I have to say.

[guncrasher]

get win7 64 if they still sell it.



semp

[Bizman]

Oh, didn't actually look at the processor! The i5-4690K is about the most popular gaming CPU, for AH and many other games the G3258 should be sufficient also in the future. Both can be overclocked. Note: there's a G3460 running at a higher stock speed, but it can't be overclocked. The G3258 can be OC'd to 4.4 with ease. Also note that the G3258 doesn't support DDR3-1600, but the bus speed doesn't play any significant role although some sources may say so. http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Pentium-G3460-vs-Intel-Pentium-G3258

So, with a G3258 you'd save another $250 for the best video card your budget will allow and if needed you can upgrade it later to a second hand i5 for a nice price.

The Corsair CX750 PSU is apparently built by ChannelWell, who aren't among the worst builders. But there are better. This one is among the cheapest, yet it apparently is built by Seasonic who are a very reliable builder: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-tp750c

Also agree with Semp on Win7

[Skuzzy]

The Seasonic built supply for Antec is built to Antec's specifications.  I would not trust it.

[Chalenge]

Yeah, the problem with the G3258 is it will bottleneck the better GPUs (even just one). No way will it ever do SLI. So, just keep that in mind.

[Bizman]

The Seasonic built supply for Antec is built to Antec's specifications.  I would not trust it.

Good point. Yet, it's 80+ Gold Certified which IMO should equal to better quality than Bronze if we're talking about manufacturers of similar reliability. More important, it's got

AQ5 - Antec Quality five-year warranty and lifetime global 24/7 support

which may or may not mean that Antec truly believes they've got a quality product here. The price is also good with the NewEgg promo coupon. For the full price I suppose that http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-s12g750 might be safer bet.

[ebfd11]

I would drop that SSD to a 128 just for your OS and get a 1TB HD and sasve some money...

LAwnDart

[Naughty]

   OK, here's the revised build after considering your suggestions


                          http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Kv6Ggs

                  Changed CPU to:              Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

                  Changed CPU cooler to:    Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
 
                  Changed Pwer supply to:  Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

                  Changed memory to:       Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
                                                       

                  Changed hard drive to:     Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive 
                                                        Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
 
                  Changed GPU to:             EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card

                  Changed OS to:               Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit)

                                        Only about $200 over what I wanted to spend, but I can live with that.

   
Question about memory.. Better to have 2 8GB, or 1 16GB ?   plan to expand in future

[Chalenge]

It's a dual channel MB, so use two slots. Fully populating the slots can affect stability, so better off with 2 x 8GB, or 2 x 4GB. I recommend 16GB.

[caldera]

   OK, here's the revised build after considering your suggestions


                          http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HL8DsY

   
Question about memory.. Better to have 2 8GB, or 1 16GB ?   plan to expand in future

Get (2) 8GB sticks, instead of the (4) 4GB sticks you have on your list.

Why?  Because I have Corsair Vengeance memory and can tell you that (combined with the 212 EVO CPU cooler) the tall cooling fins on the memory stick will interfere with the fan in the slot closest to the CPU. 

[Naughty]

    Yea, I forgot to add that I changed the cooler too, but per Chalenge's response I changed the sticks also

[mikev]

made a couple changes and saved you a few $$.  talk to JimmyD3 you will find that you can use Corsair Vengeance Pro ram with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler. i went with the low profile ram to give me more space for air flow. here is what it looks like after the changes ...http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MAVADAKIN/saved/#view=wztdnQ
  you are going to love that case no matter what direction you go .
I added this Cooler Master JetFlo 95.0 CFM 120mm Fan $14.99 to give more ventilation and a cooler red glow. lol
[/URL]

oh and 1 thing i should mention dont just look at the price quoted on parts picker .i ran into issues with shipping  and delays . it can be worth an extra few $$ to get it from  newegg or amazon . stay away from shipping from tiger direct if you can unless they are in your back yard.

[Bizman]

   ---  Only about $200 over what I wanted to spend, but I can live with that.
   
Question about memory.. Better to have 2 8GB, or 1 16GB ?   plan to expand in future

As I've said in my previous post, your gaming experience won't improve with an SSD, so you can save some money by leaving it out. I'm not against the new technology, but for what I've noticed it seems that a 100 GB system partition or disk easily gets too small nowadays. Back when Windows XP was relatively new, 10 GB was mostly enough! So if you want an SSD, get at least a 256 GB one or prepare yourself doing all kind of maintenance tricks to keep some free space on the SSD.

As for the memory, Chalenge and Caldera are right. Get the sticks in pairs for a Dual Channel motherboard. If you don't already know, Dual Channel is a technology which allows for reading from one stick while writing on the other at the same time. One stick allows only one operation at the time, which is much slower as you can imagine.

I'm not a great fan of liquid cooling, partially because the cooling blocks unlike fans don't circulate air around other components. That only means you'd have to create the airflow with adequately directed case fans. For a silent system, more and larger fans is the recipe!

[guncrasher]

make sure you check on the mobo which sticks can go where.  some mobo's are kind of picky and the first ram slot is right next to your cpu and the cpu cooler you got might be on the way.


semp