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[darkrider2]

Hi guys, I'm working on defining all the parts I want to order off of newegg for a self assembly computer.

Its a gaming rig for my personal use and I want it to last.

So if you guys could just give me your input on the parts and tell me if I screwed up anywhere that would be great.

Intel i5-3570K 3.4 GHz Quad Core
2 x 8 GB RAM DDR3 1600
Radeon HD 7850
1 TB HDD
128 GB SSD
600W PSU

[rutsber]

I think if you want an SSD for the OS, you probably want to go with one that's 64GB or greater. 32GB might be too few in the long run. Assuming you're using Windows 7, on my computer the windows folder alone uses 21.7GB. Everything else looks good to me, although from what I've been told Nvidia video cards play nicer with an Intel CPU. Someone else might know more on that though. Do you have a specific PSU picked out? You want to make sure you get a good PSU, otherwise it will cause you problems later on. I don't think water cooling would really matter unless you plan on overclocking, and if you haven't built a computer before it might be a lot more work than it's worth to put it in.

[Malus]

SSDs are incredible. I'd go for a 64GB if possible, but a 128GB one would let you put a few games on it. 32GB won't get you much.

I don't know if things have changed recently, but AMD CPUs are generally inferior to Intel processors. Last I checked, Ivy Bridge Intel CPUs were the best bang for your buck, on both the high-end and low-end price ranges.

Don't waste money on watercooling unless you're buying a top-of-the-line CPU and want to eke out a few megahertz of extra performance, and even then, it's almost certainly a waste of money. My i7-2600k OCs to 4.7Ghz. Pushing it much higher leads to instability, and not because of high temps: it has more to do with the voltages and my godawful motherboard. A good aftermarket air CPU cooler will achieve 99% of the results of an expensive watercooled system, and it's much less of a hassle to put together and take apart.

The graphics card seems fine.

[darkrider2]

Okay so whats the difference between the i7 and i5?

And I really just wanted enough space to fit the OS on it and windows 7 64 bit says it need 20 GB. Though I guess extra space wouldn't be a problem.

[gimlet]

If you live in a city with a Microcenter you can save at least $70 off that AMD 4100/Asrock 990 Extreme 3 combo over newegg prices.  If you *must* get it from newegg, save $10 by ordering the CPU/mobo as a combo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1067398 I think that's the same board.   Although look carefully at benchmarks, I have not tried one but from what people have been saying the 4100 is almost the same performance as the Phenom II X4 965 Black, also on sale at newegg/Microcenter for $80 or $90.

I presume you're going to run a 64 bit OS, otherwise 3/4 of that RAM will be wasted.  Don't pay a ton for 1866 ram if you can find cheap good-quality 1600 ram, it's just not gonna make that much of a difference.  you'll see WAY more performance difference from a $40 better CPU than a $40 premium buying 1866 ram over 1600. 

The power supply is overkill for what you've got, but I guess not if you're thinking of getting a 2nd GPU.  Don't cheap out on the power supply however tempting it may be - stick with Seasonic or the Corsair/Thermaltake/NZXT/etc specific models that get a good review on jonnyguru.com

I would forget water cooling for now, it's a big hassle.  If you want the performance, spend the $$$ you'd blow on water cooling and just buy a better CPU - it's just not worth buying $80 of gear to overclock a $100 cpu.

Yeah if you do get an SSD you'll have a lot less hassle with a 64G one, I was able to live with my windows XP partition at 20G by never ever EVER installing anything else in there, but those days are gone.  All kinds of crap insists on installing in inconvenient places deep inside your windows directory *cough* Chrome *cough*.

The 4100 isn't the GREATEST gaming cpu, but it's OK.  AMD is supposed to be releasing a new generation of CPUs any day now so you might wait to either see how that shakes out either with better performance for the $$$ or discounts on the current generation.  Fake edit:  I see news stories on "Piledriver" and it looks like another disappointing release    For a gaming cpu I'd be seriously looking at Intel - the Microcenter combo of $170 or so for an i3-3225 + Asrock motherboard is just too tempting to pass up (I sound like a microcenter ad but their combos are scary good - but in store only )  And having the Intel socket 1155 gives you more headroom for gaming cpus - i5 3570k is only $190 and that's a LOT of cpu power.

Cases are kind of a personal thing, but I mostly wait til something I like is a current free-shipping special on Newegg or Amazon. 

[rutsber]

An i7 is faster, and more expensive than an i5. It also has hyperthreading, which gives it 8 cores as opposed to the 4 the i5 has. I'm pretty sure only 4 of those 8 are physical cores, but I don't know much more than that. It kind of depends on if you want the extra speed. In my opinion an i5 is fine, but some people I know disagree.

[darkrider2]

I think I'll just go with an i5-3570.

And really 1600 RAM works just as good?

I noticed almost all intel CPU's have integrated graphics, but I don't really need it since I'm getting the video card, right?

[Tellemurius]

An i7 is faster, and more expensive than an i5. It also has hyperthreading, which gives it 8 cores as opposed to the 4 the i5 has. I'm pretty sure only 4 of those 8 are physical cores, but I don't know much more than that. It kind of depends on if you want the extra speed. In my opinion an i5 is fine, but some people I know disagree.

Actually the only difference between the two is i7 has hyperthreading, its faster on some multithreading cases but same speed overall. Prices depend on the speed and if you want a P (no integrated graphics),S (powersaving), or K(unlocked cores) class processor.
Those are the LGA 1155 chips of course, the i7 Sandy Bridge E chips LGA 2011 are a different story with their hexacore.