Building PC Question

Nice build, the 7870 is around the Nvidia 660 power wise and about the same price, here is a Benchmark but really it comes down to preference there(In other words do you care about better Physx in 10% of games). If not the AMD card is very solid, the rest of your build seems great.

Good job. Youtube is a great source of building instructions, just make sure you are grounded and follow the motherboards instructions and you will be fine, if you get confused youtube a quick video, its really not as hard as it sounds to build a PC, Note: Remember to buy Thermal paste, I prefer Arctic Silver.

Also it should Max(Run on high) pretty much anything you throw at it fine for quite a while.

Here are the 3 videos I used to build my PC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw This one is 3 parts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED_6asYE2yk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkykETgkoo

For your PSU, I would recommend a 600W one if you ever need to put some more stuff.
As for the HDD, 1TB should be more value for money if you can afford it.

Get a 128 SSD for the OS, PC will run much nicer.

Some addition that I will suggest

make your PSU at least 600w. Hard drive, get 2x Seagate Barracuda 500gb then Raid-0 It
Maybe an additional ~80$ wouldn't hurt.

If you have 0 knowledge to build your own PC, ask the shop you are buying if they can assemble it in front of you (ofc it will be in a fee, It's 30$ here in my place)

If you're buying an AMD card, you should consider spending a bit extra on your PSU and/or video card because you'll get free game codes which you can sell to make the money back (or you can use them yourself. but I get the feeling you really want to stay below your budget). Better PSU would be for future upgradeability, better video card...well, you know what that's for :)

Don't forget. You will have to buy an OS. I also HIGHLY RECOMMEND a surge protector. I like cyber powers protectors. Lifetime warranty, and they will cover up to $200k in damages if it fails. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=12-120-401&IsVirtualParent=1

Nice build, i'm not too sure about that 3350P CPU since i've never worked with it specifically, but judging by sites and specs it seems reasonable for its price. Personally i'd get a larger hard drive if i could afford it, but that's just me being picky.

If you ever want to upgrade, you should consider changing that PSU to something beefier with a higher wattage output (600w should be fine) and at least an 80+ rating (yours doesn't, indicating there's not much of a guarantee the psu will be efficient enough, making it a risk for the entire system in the long run).

Overall nice computer for a budget, game on!

Do you live near a Micro Center store? If so you can i5-3570k for around $180 and a better mobo for around $90

Interested in taking a I5-3570K and Z77 motherboard (MSI Z77A-G43) off my hands for $280? Was building a computer for my buddy but he changed his mind :(

Also have 8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD to get rid of from that build.

I haven't heard much of that PSU brand. It may be a better choice to go with an 80 Plus Bronze verified one from a brand, such as Corsair / Antec / Cooler Master.

Since the price climb isn't very high, you may want to consider getting a 1 TB HDD. Assuming it's a gaming PC, and that you would be playing modern games, which can take up as much as 25-30 GB per game, that 500 GB HDD would overflow in no time, and getting a second one would cost more than simply getting a 1 TB HDD now.

I made an edit that might help all of you help me a little more :)

You could probably easily find an i5-2500k for a bit cheaper - and OC the hell out of it. Mine's on air cooling and OCed VERY well.

Your build seems great but i think you should buy a better power supply though :)

Looks like a solid build for a gaming PC: solid base build + money directed at the GPU.
I'll throw in my general thoughs about the discussions arised:

• here's a guide on assembly.
• that PC should consume about 270W during gaming, I'd suggest a 550W PSU to stay right on 50% load, which is where PSUs have their max efficiency. It also gives you a bit of room for the future as PSUs become less and less efficient during their life. Not 100% necessary, but recomended. In either case, when you'll change your GPU in a couple of years, don't forget to check the power consumption and make sure it's not higher.
• the CPU's heatsink (assuming you are buying the "box" version of the CPU, not the "bulk" = CPU alone) comes with pre-applied thermal paste, no need to buy it. And despite what people think the Intel standard paste is almost as good as the best thermal pastes you can find. If really needed, I can hunt for the article(s) about this. :)
• while assembling is pretty easy overall (just follow the steps), the mainboard part can be annoying with all the little wires. Read your motherboard's guide carefully at that point, and you'll be fine.
• I wouldn't recomend buying a second mechanical HD for raid 0. I'd suggest saving money for an SSD instead. I'm currently using a 240GB SSD for O.S. + programs + games, with my "old" 1TB drive for media and full backup of the SSD. The only downside so far is that when I use someone else's PC, I really suffer waiting for stuff to load. It's not a priority when on budget, but it's something I'd suggest to anybody who uses the PC daily.
• AMD vs NVidia GPU: it's mainly a matter of personal preference. I had cards from both companies (and from several of their partners). No problems with any of those. You can still take a look at the benchmarks of the games you'll actually play to see the performance differences. PhysX is something you might like, but again it's personal.
• CPU overclock: by the way you describe yourself I wouldn't recomend it. A moderate OC per se is easy to achieve and anybody can do it. The problem might come if something goes wrong for any reason. You may not be able to understand what went wrong and waste time/money for something that gives you no real benefit in gaming (as it is right now).

You could actually build a computer with similar specs for a much cheaper cost if you bid your time and look for deals on Dealnews.com under the computer components section. For instance, there was a deal posted 3 days ago I believe where the i5-3570K 3.4 Ghz CPU was selling for $160 at tigerdirect.com, It did take me a while, but that's how I built my gaming PC with the following specs for $567:

• Intel i5-2500K CPU
• TZ77XEw Z77 ATX Motherboard
• EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked edition 2GB GPU
• Ripjaws 8GB RAM
• Seagate Barracuda 2TB 6GB/s HDD
• Antec Three Hundred Case w/ 2 Blue LED fans and 3 regular ones
• Certified 80 PLUS 500w PSU (Forgot the brand :P)
• Logitech G500 Mouse
• Logitech K120 keyboard (really cheap, but works just fine!)

I suggest you to buy a better PSU.With that build you'll need 600W or more.I have a HD6850 and AMD x6, even my 500W PSU isn't enough for them.

That's like triple or more what I have, and I bought my computer last year (low-end budget PC with mid-range GPU and between mid/low CPU)
Pretty much the cheapest I could get on everything except the CPU and the GPU... I can play about any game, and I can deal with low settings if that gives me enough performance. I do have a really outdated screen with a really outdated resolution however, which makes the performance way better... I'd say that build is great, and way more then I would ever pay :P

All of this information is so helpful, I'll be reading into each and every suggestion carefully. I like this thread, so informative <3 :D

Asked another question in main post! :)

Build

Probably antivius, browser, any commonly used applications.

Get an AV that's not Norton/Symantec, another browser for Internet cause IE sucks compared to the rest and the drivers for any stuff you use. That's about it.

Actually, if you aren't building right now, I'd just take everything your read here with a grain of salt and ask again when you are ready to build. The reason I say that is because Intel's new CPUs and motherboards will be launching in June and you'll probably want those over what's out now. Plus, there are rumors that DDR4 RAM will be rolling out this year and Nvidia's new GPUs are near.

http://sites.amd.com/uk/promo/Documents/never-settle-multi-bundle-offer-landing.html you should get something from 7900 they're like $170+ but you also get fc3+hitman ab+sd

Edit: Question about monitors and keyboards! ^

Btw, the keyboard doesn't have to be some gaming l33t one, just a nice simple usable one. The monitor however, does that affect anything at all? Whether it does or doesn't I still want a decent monitor.