Build Validation

[bikeomatic]

Hello everyone!

I am very excited to be in a position to ask for your help

But I will shortly describe what's going on so you should be able to see my point of view. I used to be hard PC guy, but few years ago moved to macbook pro. Small laptop, no gaming power, but design and OS are pure class to me. But as I said not much gaming can go on here. So I was going to get iMac but after new macbook prices and no updates to iMac range I decided to go back to PC (sadly, but it's just better value for money) and keep my macbook for daily internet use.

Main purpose of this set up is games and some photoshop / adobe premiere work for my website. I cannot do this on this laptop so I need something faster. And it will be a plus that I will be able to play any games out there comfortably. I will no be upgrading this rig for 3-4 years. I only play WOW and shooter like BF3, COD some racing maybe, The Witcher 1/2, League of Legends. I might be able to spend maybe up to 5 hours a week on games.

I am heartbroken that I wont have iMac but it just doesnt make sense, sure I could play BF3 or any other game that will be released till end of 2013 but beyond that I don't know so I don't want to end up with situation when I cannot play something. But I just love the design. Slick, minimalistic. Just love it.

So, now the fun part. I used to have big gaming rig with i7 960 and Silverstone FT02. Huge case, heavy. Lot's of cables. Today my vision is Power-Small Size. So this is what I came up with. Where I cannot make my mind I will give few options and tell me what you think. Or tell me different way to go if you think I got this one wrong. I will buy from SCAN. I will not be overclocking the thing - I have no clue how to do it. Would like to have it reasonably quiet and not too hot. Budget around 2000 EURO. +/- 100euro. I will not buy prebuilt as I think I can save a bit by putting it together myself and spend that saving on better gear.

Case:
Silverstone Fortress FT03 - my first choice but then the more I read the more I got concerned about
- slot blu-ray drive - over 70 pounds
- CPU cooling - was thinking of the corsair hydro H60/H80 but will that fit in there I don't know
- graphics card - what will fit in there that will let me play games from time to time without upgrading for next 3-4 years
Silverstone TJ08B-E Temjin - my 3rd choice and at the moment it's winning me over - nothing to be concerned about in this case and can fit Blu-ray Writer for same price as the slot blu-ray reader
Silverstone GD08B Grandia - my 2nd choice but I think this is too big for my desk, plus not sure about all the noise made by the fans, would need to put slot loaded Blu-ray drive in a 5.25" bay rack to have it look nice, because if you fit normal drive and you open the drive cover in the case the eject button is blocked by hinge - and I don't like the look of it (I am very picky on the design side).

PSU:
750W PSU, Enermax Revolution 87+ ERV750AWT-G, Modular, 94% Eff' , 80 PLUS Gold, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX

MOBO:
Asus P8Z77-M PRO Intel Z77 - I went for this because of budget limitation. I was going to pick ASUS MAXIMUS V GENE but I will not do any OC and it saves me some cash. It has to be microATX.

RAM:
CML8GX3M2A1600C9 - 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black LP, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V - will take 2 sets to have 16GB nothing else to add here.

CPU:
Either i7 3770K or i5 3570K - I know the diff is HT (whatever it does) my photoshop and adobe premiere work is nothing fancy, just editing some videos I take at home to show them on my website. So now OMG stuff. The price diff is substantial though. What would you suggest ?

HDD:
1) VTX4-25SAT3-128G - 128GB OCZ Vertex 4, 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s, Indilinx Everest 2, MLC-Flash, Read 535MB/s, Write 420MB/s, 120k IOPS Max - for windowss
2) HDS723020BLA642 - 2TB Hitachi 0F12115 Deskstar 7K3000, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms, NCQ OEM - for storage

GPU:
1) HD7950-DC2T-3GD5 - 3GB Asus Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II TOP, 5000MHz GDDR5, 900MHz, 1792 Cores, Dual Link DVI-I/HDMI/2x mini DP
2) NE5X670H1042-1042F - 2GB Palit GTX 670 JetStream, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6108MHz GDDR5, GPU 1006MHz, Boost 1084MHz, Cores 1344, DVI, DP, HDMI

I was going to go with 7970 or even GTX 680 but then I did some research and no point paying extra 100 for 10% more FPS in games. The one thing I am not sure about is the length of the card and will the case take that in. And the other one is the type of cooling. Should I go with the reference type of card to keep the airflow in the case as designed by engineers or can I go for improved cooling. Then I could get cheaper cards in both cases. But then again not sure if the noise levels will go badly up.

Monitor:
24" Asus VS247H LED Black Full HD HDMI/DVI/VGA 1920x1080, 5ms, 300cd/m², 50000000:1

I was thinking of going with AMD which would save me around 100 quid. But I always had intel. Must be just a habit thing.

Well that's it. What you think ? Does this build make much sense. I chose simple and esthetic cases. I don't like fancy shapes etc. So it has to be nice and discreet. Just like poor iMac I will never get

[Willzzz]

First thoughts:

I've been looking at similar cases to you so guess we have similar needs/tastes, I'm currently eyeing up the Fractal Design Define Mini as a great quality, small-ish and elegant case. An option worth looking at imo.

If you play BF3 then I would suggest the GTX 670, either the Gigabyte or Asus versions.

[bikeomatic]

I'm currently eyeing up the Fractal Design Define Mini as a great quality, small-ish and elegant case. An option worth looking at imo.

True, not too bad looking case. But what would annoy me is the front panel. Would have to open/close. And how does it work, when you have fan there on the front, but then you close that front panel and block the air intake (as I presume) ?