Well I did it....somehow this dummy managed to build a computer.

[Beefcake]

Well I somehow did it, with the help of a good friend I managed to assemble my first computer after saving up and buying parts on sale for over a year. This thing is incredible with an SSD as the boot drive, from power to usable desktop is less than 12 seconds. Unlike my old computer which took 3 minutes to boot and suffered from regular BSODs (usually 10 a week).

Everything has been smooth as butter so far but after reading these forums for weeks I'm afraid that maybe my PSU might not be high enough for the system. Granted I know you don't want to go to high otherwise having to much PSU might not be good for you, however, I figure I'd ask and see what you guys though of it and to give me impressions on the rig. Granted I know it's stupid to ask now after the thing is built and running but most of the parts were already ordered in February of last year so I was kinda stuck.

These are the system specs in all their boring details.

Motherboard:
MSI Gaming Z97-G45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130771

Processor:
Intel Core i5-4670 Haswell Quad-Core 3.4 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116898

Graphics Card:
MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127832

Ram:
2 X G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 (Four 8GB sticks or 32GB total system ram [Motherboard Max])
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568

Power Supply:
SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151122

SSD Boot Drive:
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 120GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147371

HDD Storage Drives:
WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM
WD Black 1TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM
I plan on adding another WD Blue 2TB drive later as the case has 2 hot-swap bays up front.

Operation System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

Case:
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO - High Air Flow Test Bench
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119265
This case is massive but it made assembling this thing so easy since it has a TON of space inside.

CPU Cooler:
CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i High Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181031

It also has 4 x 120mm fans (1 intake, 1 exhaust, and 2 intake/exhaust on the CPU Cooler), 2 x 80mm fans (rear exhaust), one 200mm fan (top exhaust) and your standard DVD Burner drive.


I hope to get at least five years out of this thing before any major upgrades but as I said the PSU worries me.

[BaldEagl]

Normally I'd recommend minimum 600W for a gaming rig and ideally 750W but you should be ok.  It's a quality PSU but I'd be hesitant to add another HD.  In fact I might unplug one of those 1GB spinners and I'd avoid overclocking anything. 

[Bizman]

As BE said, it's a quality PSU. Based on this calculation there should be some headroom even with a third HD: http://outervision.com/b/qUOzcS. However, that doesn't allow for much aging. If you plan to build another one with less power usage, I'd suggest you to use the current PSU there and get a 600-700 W one instead for your gamer. Other than that, looks like a very serious build. 

[Beefcake]

Well if I'm getting good "headroom" with 2 HDs then I probably won't add a 3 for awhile. I went about 8 years with only 1TB to work with so I should be good for awhile with 2TB. As long as you guys don't think it's going to damage anything I may just hold onto if for a year or so and upgrade later. I plan on building a PC for my Dad sometime in the future so I may just get a new 600+ PSU and use the 520 in his.

Addon: And I have no plans to OC this thing BE. Trust me, I was scared to death building this thing as I have very limited PC knowledge. I was afraid I would break something and set me back months until I could replace it. I have no idea how to OC and don't intend to.

[Bizman]

If you take a closer look at the PSU calculator, you'd notice an orange "Edit Component List" button. The extra HDD only adds 11 watts. Then again, 11 watts adds 15% to the headroom. Also, the HDD's power usage is pretty much independent of the storage capacity, so you can free more reserve power by replacing two 1 TB drives with one 2 TB.

As a side note, how much is much? When I changed from XP to Win7, I also invested in a new hard disk. It's a whopping 500 GB and there's more than half of it free. One reason might be that most of our recent photos are in the wife's computer.

[bortas1]

  way to go woot

[Pudgie]

Well done, Beefcake!

 

 

[oboe]

Congrats!   

I ran it through PCPartsPicker.com, and it said the nominal power requirement was 417W http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bpNHvK, so according to their numbers, you have a little headroom. 

With all those fans + liquid cooling, I'd be interested to know what your CPU and GPU temps are when running AH3.         

[Chalenge]

I think with a proper power profile his setup is where it needs to be.

[Beefcake]

Thanks for the info guys, that is a really neat little tool there.

The guy that helped me with this did break down everything on how much power it uses and that there should be no problem, but I suffer from paranoia and even though everyone tells me the sky is blue I still have to ask if it's green.

[Bizman]

even though everyone tells me the sky is blue I still have to ask if it's green.

Turquoise, that's what it is...

[guncrasher]

i say emerald.


semp

[Beefcake]

Given the time I work the sky is usually black....or it looks black with the gain turned all the way up.

[Gman]

Wtg Beefcake, great system build too.  I remember that feeling the first build when it powered up the first time and everything actually worked.

[DREDIOCK]

Starting a movie studio?
Why so many and so much hard drive space?

I have yet in over 20 years  ever filled up a hard drive before I was ready for an entirely new build. If you havent filled your past hard drives. Odds are you wont fill these either.