check my first computer build please.

**kevinnguyen** · June 14th, 2012, 05:53 PM

hey guys,this will be my first computer build and im pretty sure everything is compatible but can you guys double check for me. thanks

Here are the parts:

Motherboard - MSI Z77A-G45 LGA 1155
Newegg.com - MSI Z77A-G45 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K
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

Heatsink & Fan - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

SSD - Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB
Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

GPU - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Do you guys think all those will fit in this case?
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Other than the stuff i got listed here, I am planning to use a 250gb hdd and a power supply from my old Dell PC.

Just to be on the safe side can you guys tell me how much Wattage my power supply should be. This is my first time building a computer and I do not want to burn out all of these expensive things.

Thanks again for your help!

**RicheemxX** · June 14th, 2012, 05:57 PM

Yikes, why on earth would you spend that much money just to try to run it with an old POS Dell power supply?? Pony up a few bucks and get yourself something from a good manufacture, you'll thank yourself in the long run!!

Besides all that it looks like a nice build. I'm assuming this is going to be a gaming rig? What was your total budget?

**kevinnguyen** · June 14th, 2012, 06:27 PM

oh wow thanks for the quick reply.

im trying to keep this under $1000 but going over a bit is okay.

will this work for psu?
Antec BP550 Plus 550W
Newegg.com - Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

is 550W too much?

and is using the old hard drive okay? the 120 gb ssd will be my main one for OS and games and im just using the hdd for school documents and pictures.

i really dont want to screw this up haha.

**RicheemxX** · June 14th, 2012, 07:07 PM

You can't really go with too much power. If you went with something like 700-800w it would just be total overkill for what you need with a single GPU. That antec looks like a nice unit.

Using the old drive should be fine as should everything else in your build. I'm assuming you have all your peripherals, OS and everything?

One of our other members that is a bit more up on the latest gaming gear might have some suggestions to make to get a little more bang for buck. But all in all it looks like a nice rig to me.

**kevinnguyen** · June 14th, 2012, 07:15 PM

yeah i have everything else.

oh and one last thing...

can you double check to make sure my mobo has enough slots to plug in all of those things. this is my first build so i don't know which parts use which slots.

thanks for your help

**kevinnguyen** · June 14th, 2012, 09:45 PM

is this build worth $868(with out peripherals) or is it better to just buy a name-brand computer of the same specs.

**ShyguyXPC** · June 15th, 2012, 12:54 AM

assuming your old HDD is a SATA Drive and not IDE, it will be fine to use for data storage usage as you plan.

but I took your list and added a few things.

Newegg.com - LG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS90 - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TZ77XE3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

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

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1464-KR GeForce GTX 560 SE (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Subtotal: $795.91

Before shipping.

But I'd opt for this card first: Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1363-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Its based on the same core as the GTX 560's. It has more shader cores than the 560 SE, faster clock speeds, etc, and thus a faster card.

The whole GTX 460/560 Line up is really confusing to explain, especially to a new builder, but that 460 is faster performing than the 560 SE, and close if not on par with a plain GTX 560 for less in cost.

the Seasonic PSU is partially Modular so you will be able to use what cables you actually need, and not have to tuck excess ones away somewhere.

520W is more than enough to run that system as listed. It might not be enough to run Dual Video cards, but should more than be able to run the system as listed, and do some Overclocking on the CPU if you ever want to get into that.

List price is still cheaper than your list of $868 with out peripherals.

Another $100 for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and you still should have enough for a decent Mouse/Keyboard and maybe headset/speakers.

**kevinnguyen** · June 15th, 2012, 05:52 PM

Hey thanks for the replies so far. You guys are so helpful.

Shyguy can you tell me why you switched out the antec psu for the seasonic? If counting shipping, both psu's would be around the same price. The antec has alot more reviews so I trust this one more. Also antec goes up to 550W and seasonic only goes up to 520W. They are both modular.

And thanks for the tip on the video cards. I will definitely buy the one you mentioned.

The motherboard you recommended seems good to me, but I'm kind of scared to get it because some of the more recent reviews says it "boots in circles" and "crashes into restart loop". And one reviewer said you had to pay to get updated drivers....

**ShyguyXPC** · June 15th, 2012, 06:57 PM

Seasonic is the BEST brand you can buy. They actually Make many of Antec, Corsair and other brands units, either carbon copy rebadges of their own units, or to specs the 3rd parties give them for manufacturing.

The Antec has a lot of reviews, so what... the PSU has been out for longer than the Seasonic one, so take that into account.

so what, 550W vs 520W, a mere 30W more you won't be using with your current 550W selection.

Your entire setup you have listed, or even I have listed, will only use less than 400W total.

the +12V Amp Rating is greater on the Seasonic than the Antec. The Combined +12V Rails on the Seasonic (has Dual Rails) is 480W, the Combined on the Antec (3 Rails) is 444W.

Since all computers now days MAINLY use the +12V Rails on a PSU (Video cards, Drives, etc), and only tap into the 3.3 and 5V rails as extra power is needed, a stronger +12V Rail is better. Computers from 5 or 6 or 7 or so years ago, a Stronger 3.3 and 5V Rail was recommended, since only Video cards needing power from external connectors and some Hard drives and such really needed the 12V Rail.

Both are modular, both are good brands, but he Seasonic has the better +12V Rail power, and its from the premiere PSU company, that makes many of Antec, Corsair, Silverstone and other brands, including the NZXT Hale82 850W I have (as well as my Corsair 750W I have as well),

If you were to run Dual Video cards (of the GTX 460's or 560's) the Seasonic might not be up to the task of running 2 stably, but if it wasn't I can guarantee you the Antec definitely wouldn't with the lower Combined 12V Rating.

as to the Motherboard, another tip for new builders, take reviews on newegg with a grain of salt, 90% of what you read (at least in regards to bad reviews or poor reviews) are morons that don't know what their talking about, they claim to have high tech knowledge, but when you see them complain about petty issues, or they didn't get their rebates back, or some other stupid stuff, had they done research on the parts, or read the description for the items and then proceed to degrade a product in a review due to their own ignorance, you start to see the kinds of people that do reviews on newegg. Sadly Newegg doesn't really police their reviews or allow them idiots to be reported and removed anymore.

so take what you read on there with a grain of salt.

as to updated drivers, paying for? Apparently that user has no idea what their talking about.

The user complaining about the reboot freeze loops or whatever is just an a**hole, you can tell from their shouting in all caps and bitching about manufacturers should read the newegg reviews...

Its possible whatever they were doing was wrong, or they weren't installing something right, 3 brands, 3 boards, different RAM and PSU's something should of fixed the problem, the way they make it sound is its a platform wide issue with these Chipsets and boards, which should be affecting EVERY brand out there, and more of an issue, but its not, so its something their doing thats messing things up, or they just got a bad stroke of luck with parts.

Usually a reboot cycle as the explained is something with RAM, or defective chipset/bios or something like that. Its possible the RAM they bought is all the same RAM, they never listed each of the PSU's or RAM they replaced with, the RAM sticks may have all been the same series and brand, and causing the problem as well. its hard to say.

also none of these twits bothered to mention and check if the CMOS pins on the motherboard were on the wrong 2 pins, (3 pins total, 2 of the 3 when crossed with the jumper, resets the bios settings back to default, and if left on those 2 pins, will/can create the problems their describing).

but the a$$wipe complaining about paying for drivers... (he has 2 reviews on there, the one under the name "Duh" in all caps, and his initial review, he's just a flipping troll posting bad reviews, no need to post a 2nd review under a different name and give an equally bad rating, this is the kind of BS that Newegg needs to weed out of their reviews, but they don't)

TZ77XE3 :: Motherboard :: BIOSTAR

Um... no.

Thats the link for the latest info on the motherboard from Biostar, just click the Bios or Drivers tabs and the downloads are easy to click and free.

I mean the damn link for the product is right there on the right hand side of the page under the Details Tab, with all the warranty info links and what not.

Like I said, take Newegg reviews with a grain of salt, many of the reviewers are complete idiots and don't know what they are talking about.

Couple other threads from one of the other forums some of us here are on:

Biostar TZ77XE4 vs TZ77XE3, what is the difference?

Biostar TZ77XE3 - Reaching SATA Ports with Crossfire

seems some other members there also reaffirm that this is a good board.

along with some of the Asrock Boards in this price range, the Biostar is one of the better boards in this price range for features, support, Upgrades, and performance.

MSI is still good, but I have noticed they have been slacking a bit, most of their good boards are closer to $150-200 range now days, same with Gigabyte boards.

Gigabyte had some good Z68 chipset boards in this price range, but with Z77 chipsets, seems the $150 range is where their good boards start.

If your not going to run SLI or Crossfire, or Overclock, then you can get away with even cheaper boards, but normally for Upgrades sake its not recommended if you can afford these better boards.