Building new rig

[kyippee]

Currently in the process of building my first rig on my own.
Here's what I have planned for the rig.

Motherboard: MSI Z87 G43
CPU: Intel i5-4670k
GPU: Zotac GTX 660Ti Amp Extreme Edition
Case: Fractal Design R3
PSU: XFX Core 750W
Cooling: Coolermaster Seidon 120M
RAM: 2x4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tactical 1866Mhz
HDD: 2 Gb Seagate 7200.14
SSD: 120Gb Kingston V300

Thoughts and any recommendations for the system would be appreciated.

[AETAaAS]

Looks like a solid build all around and well balanced.

If I HAD to make criticism, 120GB might be small for some people these days depending on your use case. And the CM 120M might be overkill if you are not going to be doing heavy overclocking. A CM Hyper 212 Evo will offer good performance at low noise, still offer overclocking headroom and you can throw the extra cash towards getting a GPU bump.

[NecronomicoN]

Like the other guy today, skip the 660. The 760 is only £30 more, and you won't have nearly as many issues with it. nVidia's forum is completely saturated with 660 owners having driver issues. I don't see anything amiss with your build though, seems solid.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is your total budget and does it inlcude Windows??

[kyippee]

Thanks for the input, unfortunately already got the GPU. And the Seidon will be bought in a bundle with the mobo which makes it actually cheaper than buying the mobo and an evo 212 anyway. I'm going to be using the ssd for the os and core programs mainly. Should have also mentioned that this is a sub £700 build.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

MSI motherboards are a bit meh. They seem to have the highest number of VRM failures I have seen with their Intel and AMD motherboards. They could have got better recently though.

[bytejunkie]

120 is tight. i've got an os, a bunch of regular apps (open office, dropbox, steam, notepad++ etc) and one game in starcraft2 and im down to 1/3 free. so its tight.

[Listy2021]

You thought about going mATX and getting a Fractal Core 1000 case along with a Gigabyte Z87M-D3H & CM Hyper 212 Evo rather than the options you've chosen?

You could also save more money by using a smaller PSU (I use a Corsair CX500M and it's a super solid tiny unit), and Crucial 1600MHz Tactical Ram

It's what I'd have done if I'd known how small those Zotac 660 Ti's are!

So something along the lines of:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
CPU: Intel i5-4670k
GPU: Zotac GTX 660Ti Amp Extreme Edition
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000
PSU: Corsair CX500M 500W
Cooling: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
RAM: 2x4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tactical 1600Mhz
HDD: 2 Gb Seagate 7200.14
SSD: 128Gb Sandisk Ultra Plus

[Listy2021]

Ugh the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo won't fit in a Fractal Core 1000, so disregard that bit, apologies

But if someone can recommend a smaller (yet good performing cooler) then my advice would still stand (or find an alternative mATX case with a tiny bit more side clearance)

[kyippee]

Haha, yeah I was really surprised when I got the zotac at the size. I thought the PSU was bit on the large size, but in my current rig I have a old Corsair TX650 which is made by seasonic and have had no problems with it, so was looking for PSUs which are made by seasonic that are fully compatible with haswell. Unfortunately the CX500 isn't fully compatible with haswell and are made by CWT if I remember correctly. I was also looking at the FSP Raiders instead of the XFX but I'm not sure.

[Listy2021]

Actually the v1 CX series made by Seasonic aren't as good as the CWT v2's, feel the burn from the irony lol

The CX500(m) is awaiting Haswell validation but from looking around the web (and on that Corsair page comments) they work fine

Still it's your build but I hope at least a little of my advice could be helpful

[kyippee]

Good thing I didn't have the v1 CX series then, I have the TX
Yeah it's been helpful. Need to do some more research, don't know too much about PSUs, just seasonic seem to be the top brand and coincidently the current PSU I have is made from them and it hasn't missed a beat.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Actually it was the CX V2 series which was worse when launched.

1.)The CX430W V1 had less volts on the 12V line than the CX400W
2.)The CX430W V1 was not 80+ like the CX400W
3.)It took until the CX430W V3(yes it took three goes) for it to have more volts available on the 12V line than the CX400W. This is despite the CX430W being a 430W PSU and the CX400W being a 400W PSU.
4.)All revisions of the CX430W used a cheaper sleeve bearing fan and the CX400W a better quality ball bearing unit
5.)The CX430W V1 and V2 used lower cost quality capacitors than the CX400W,which has only been somewhat rectified with the CX430W V3

In fact the CX400W was based on the VX450W and was only rated at 400W so it could be 80+ rated.

Most of the CX430W reviews were done in the US where it was price dumped with massive rebates often meaning the PSU was selling at 50% to 60% off.

The main reason Corsair stopped making the CX400W was since it cost too much for them. The XFX PRO 450W uses an upgraded version of the platform used in the CX400W.

[kyippee]

Just found that the be quiet! PSUs are all Haswell compatible. Would the 630W Pure Power L8 be good for the build? I've heard good things about their units, and the L8 is semi modular which is a plus.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Just found that the be quiet! PSUs are all Haswell compatible. Would the 630W Pure Power L8 be good for the build? I've heard good things about their units, and the L8 is semi modular which is a plus.

Most modern PSUs will be fine with Haswell TBH,and the lowest power states for the CPUs are only in the mobile variants anyway.

[Pob255]

Ugh the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo won't fit in a Fractal Core 1000, so disregard that bit, apologies

But if someone can recommend a smaller (yet good performing cooler) then my advice would still stand (or find an alternative mATX case with a tiny bit more side clearance)

The cases you're looking for are the ACE ecco 250 or coolermaster N200

Actually the v1 CX series made by Seasonic aren't as good as the CWT v2's, feel the burn from the irony lol

I was going to start on how wrong that is but CAT has beaten me too it, I'll elaborate slightly.
The original cx400w was seasonic made, based of their S12II 80+ platform
the cx430w which replaced it was CWT made, based of their ageing DSA platform it was weaker on the 12v ampage and not 80+ plus rated, in the US it was heavily discounted and rebated, here in the EU&UK it was more expensive than the CX400 it replaced
The cx430w V2, followed shortly, it's exactly the same as the first but has had the power regulation control chip tweaked to push the efficiency a tiny bit higher but dropped optimum operating temperature (not enough to be of concern) to pass 80+ testing
The latest cx430w (often called the v3, but not by corsair) is still a CWT but now based on their newer improved DSAII platform, this moedl is the first version to beat the cx400w in both performance and efficiency.