£1000 Build Help

[Smirnond]

Hello,

It's been a long time since I built a PC but looking to get one to act as a gaming rig and blu ray player, not too sure about the components these days but I've had a look around and this is what I've came up with.

Only definite requirement is the Zalman 501 case! I don't have the vertical space for it on my desk and prefer the look, don't need a monitor at the moment.

The case dimensions are 450 x 170 x 455 (WxHxD mm) so the graphics card could be tricky but I'm looking into this now, 260 mm max length for the graphics so the 570 is the best I can see at the moment under 10" length.

This is what I have at the moment:

Zalman HD501 £106.20

Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad, 3.4GHz
Asus P8Z68-V LX, Intel Z68, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III ATX £317.99

Corsair DDR3 Vengeance LP Cerulean Blue, PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £37.19
Coolermaster RS-700AMBAD3-EU Silent Pro M 700W Modular Power Supply £82.62

Gainward 1280MB GeForce GTX 570 Golden Sample £259.88

OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD - Solid State Drive £118.86

Lite On BD-ROM, IHOS104-37, SATA, Black, OEM £39.47

Asus Xonar DG Surround Sound Card - PCI £24.49

Noctua NF-P12 Vortex-Control Quiet Case Fan (Using Vortex-Control Notches) 120mm X 2 £32.86

Total: £1019.56

I know I'll probably need an aftermarket cooler but not sure what's good at the moment, any help/critiques are welcome and thanks.

[MiiCK90]

I personally wouldn't go with the ocz ssd, would go for a crucial m4 or maybe a corsair one. (heard too many issues with ocz and its put me off), check out hotukdeals for deals on bdd's and stuff too. and for quiet case fans you can get even quieter than the NF P12, check this link: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/120mmfans arrange it by noise/dba, and you'll see the Noctua NF-S12B ULN is the best

[qwio]

M4's are nice SSD's especially with the new firmware increasing write speed. People seem to like the RMA aswell which is always good

[EvanJackPenn]

You say you want a "gaming rig and blu ray player" - a i7 isn't necessary. For games, a 2500k is brilliant and playing blu rays would be a breeze!

[Smirnond]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going to steer clear of OCZ SSD's and swap to an i5 2500K.

[ik9000]

You can save a lot of money on case fans - the BitFenix ones are cheap and really quiet (I use them and I'm fussy about noise). No need for PWM fans to the case - case fans tend to run off the 3-pin connectors.

The link to quiet coolers doesn't include coolers such as the ProlimaTech Megahalems (which ship without a fan so you can add your own). The Megahalems is one of the best air coolers you can get. Pair it with a quiet PWM fan and you're laughing. I run it with a single Akasa Apache (uber quiet - and cheaper than the Noctua) and not had a problem with either temps or noise ever.

Just seen the case - you'll need to check what clear height it can give for cpu coolers. Looked at the manual and it's pretty vague.

A really small cooler is this one: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/titan...l-and-amd-cpus and there is an 80mm PWM fan available for it too. Bought one but not fitted it yet, but will post back once I get chance. I'm going to run it on a pentium D so will be a good test of its calibre.

RAM - good pick, I'd get at least 8GB though

Get a BD RW if you're going blu-ray at all.

I'd aim to get at least a gold-efficiency rated PSU if it were me.