Windows 7: Assistance with custom gaming PC

I would take this Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K over the Core i7-3770 you have listed....unless you just really want an i7. The 3570K is rated as one of the best valued CPU's out there, and will run every game you can think of without breaking a sweat. It is also $80 cheaper! Also, you may want to upgrade your motherboard choice to something newer, such as the Z77 chipset...... here Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Motherboards, Intel Motherboards, LGA 1155, Intel Z75/Z77, Intel Z77.



I know without a doubt you will be happy with the new components you are looking at. Not only are you getting amazing bang-for-the-buck deals, you are getting the newest technology that will last you for quite awhile. Buy once, cry once.

Great advice, thanks!

Here's my updated list:

• Asus P8Z77-M Motherboard, Socket 1155
• Intel Processor Core i5-3570, s1155
• Corsair Memory XMS3 DDR3 1333-8GB KIT
• LG TFT Monitor 23 "E2342T-BN LED
• Samsung DVD Burner DVR DL 24X, SATA
• Casing Coolermaster HAF 912 PLUS
• Asus GeForce GTX660 DCII OC Video Card, 2GB
• OCZ Solid State Drive Vertex 4 - 128GB
• Corsair CX600 PSU
• Cooler Master V8

All compatible and good enough?

Yes all these parts should work together. Keep in mind 128gb is not an enormous amount of space by current standards though. You will want a mechanical drive to use as your large storage device.
Of course you can more than likely gut that from your current machine if you need to.

I generally try to avoid micro atx boards unless I'm using a small form factor case for space reasons.
That aside you likely chose it for it's features/ price in which case it's not really a bad motherboard.

I was going to echo the comments about adding a regular hard drive to the mix. Your SSD is a good one, but at 128 GB, that's very small as the only drive in the system. It should be fine to use as your C drive, aka system volume, if you plan to use something like a 1 TB HDD for D, as your actual data storage. I have a 128 GB in my work laptop, which is fine for my uses, but I don't run any games. For a tower system that's used for gaming, you'll want to have a HDD as well.

I confirm this. However since this is your first build I don't assume that you expect to overclock, however if you do I recommend switching that 3570 for a 2500k along with a Corsair H70 cooler, or, if you don't plan to OC keep the 3570 but get at least an H60 because those Ivy Bridge i5's run kind of warm.

EDIT: I am deeply sorry as I didn't see that you had the V8 listed. That's a good cooler. Should be plenty sufficient.

Ivy Bridge is more sensitive to higher temps than Sandy Bridge is when you are talking about temps above 80*C. The stock Intel cooler that comes with the 3570K is as useless as the one that comes with the 2500K. Either will need aftermarket cooling. Both CPU's are excellent OC'ers though.

As far as storage, I can fully recommend a great hard drive for you. Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive. You may think 2TB is overkill, but the 1TB model is only $10 cheaper @ $89.99. I have the 2TB model and I won't have to worry about storage for quite awhile. It is a great value. If you don't mind spending a little more money you can get a Western Digital 1 or 2TB drive for storage also. I've always had good luck with Seagate though.

I ran the stock cooler on my 2500k for a good while (without OC'ing of course) and then bought an H80 to overclock and I can almost break 5 GHz, whereas if I use the same cooler on the 3570k I can't get past 4.5 due to both instability and heat. I was just saying that in the case of overclocking I recommend the 2500k as it is a little better for that purpose (and cheaper). 3570 is great though.

For Benchmarking purposes, the Ivy Bridge CPU's can meet, or score higher than a Sandy Bridge CPU at lower clock speeds. In other words, an IB CPU clocked at 4.5GHz is not the same as a SB clocked at 4.5GHz because the IB is more efficient. You can physically hit better numbers on AVERAGE with SB though, if that's what you want. That is what I've read when researching the two chips anyway. Sandy Bridge can handle higher core voltage and not get pissy with the extra temps. According to an Asus OC'ing guide, all "K" Ivy Bridge CPU's should be able to hit 4.3-4.5GHz on air/basic water......that translates to a 24%+ overclock!

It also depends on your specific chip.......some OC more than others with very little work. YMMV

That's no issue, I am using a Corsair Force 3 SSD 120GB at the moment and I still have 30GB space left. So 128GB should be enough. And for large files (like installations) I transfer them after I used them to my 500GB HDD so I save space. Summarized I am not in need of a new storage device expect the new OCZ Solid State Drive. But thanks for the suggestion.

Oh and I am not a real fan of overclocking, is the stock frequency of the 2500k not good enough? If I were to overclock my cooler is good enough right?

Thanks for the help guys! Without you fellas I would probably still be stuck choosing the motherboard.

Oh, I didn't realize you had a larger capacity HDD.............you seem to have it figured out! I would keep all of my programs and OS on the SSD and move everything else(movies/music/pics/documents) to the HDD as they don't need to open up at the speed of light. There is a great tutorial on this site about moving your "User" folder, or remapping it, to the Storage drive so it never even touches the SSD. That's how I have mine set up and it seems to work very well!

As for the 2500K vs the 3570K, they are primarily the same as far as performance, the 3570K is just the new generation upgrade to the 2500K. Stock configurations are very similar though. It is REALLY easy to perform a mild overclock though, which is what the "K" at the end of the model number denotes. You can OC it to 4.0-4.2GHz at the touch of a button pretty much with absolutely no ill effects. Something to keep in mind.