First Custom Desktop Build

It's just about coming time for me to upgrade to a new computer and I have decided to custom build one for the first time. I won't be able to afford the current build till about late march or so and wanted to see all opinions from experienced builder first. Any and all feedback is appreciated!

Intel Sandy bridge I7 2700k Processor
Win 7 64 bit OS
NZXT Phantom Enthusiast red/white Case
ASUS VW246H 24" Moniter
HIS IceQ X Turbo Radeon HD 6950 2GB Graphics Card
Logitech 920-000914 USB Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard Keyboard
Logitech G300 Mouse
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB RAM
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 Motherboard (I don't know a ton about motherboards but this one seemed to fit the needs)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm HDD
And i haven't decided on a PSU yet and a suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Again any inputs are appreciated and I look forwars to reading them!

Thanks,
DarkAbyss

to determine your PSU, look at your graphics card and see how much power it needs to run. once you find that out, you'll know what you need.

Thank you for your help Shane! It is greatly appreciated. However I think i am doing something wrong on the psu calculator as I got something in the area of 400w which seems improbably low for a build like this. Would you mind trying it out with my planned build to see if it differs? I'm sorry to cause you the trouble. Also I think i will wait for the Ivy Bridge CPUs to come out because the drop in price on the CPU hopefully will counter the psu cost because this thing is getting to be an expensive beast. I'm hoping to max out every game for a long time. Any guess on how long this will max out games to come? Again thank you very much for your help.

Thanks
Darkabyss.

As much as I would love an ssd it is not essential and I want to keep the price as low as possible, but that will be a probable future upgrade.

Well, that should be your first upgrade. Your computer is only as fast as your slowest part. Having a amazing computer is amazing, but if it takes a long time to get data off the hard drive...

While ~350W may be the recommendation, I'd definitely opt for a ~500W part from a decent brand. Even if you're using 350W at stress loads, you'll likely be within the prime operating usage for the PSU, as well as having headroom should you choose to upgrade in the future.

If you're waiting until March, consider waiting until April for Ivybridge. Even though performance isn't a huge boost, it will likely drive the price of Sandybridge parts down. (I guess you did mention this earlier). You could also consider one of the newer chipsets, though I have no idea what they offer that Z68 does not.

Z68 (and likely future chipsets) offers SSD caching, so if you could spare $40 or so for a cheap ~30-50GB SSD, you'll get a very nice and noticeable day-to-day operating performance boost over the standard HDD.

If you plan on overclocking at all in the future (and with the K series processor, I'd expect this is the case) I'd recommend getting a decent heatsink/fan as well. If you want decent performance for cheap, go with the Hyper 212 Evo, or another similar product.

Also, unless you're planning on building a video editing rig or similar, the i7 is money that doesn't need to be spent. A 2500/2500k has all of the performance for gaming, just no hyperthreading (which games don't tend to utilize anyway).

The process is quite easy with the K series for this generation, and if you can hold out for Ivybridge, it will have more options for overclocking even if you don't get a K series processor. K means the multiplier is unlocked, and is equivalent to the "Black Edition" (aka BE) of AMD's processors. Basically this means that overclocking can be as simple as dragging a slider or changing a value from a lower number to a higher number, without altering the voltage or anything more risky. I haven't overclocked Sandybridge (or any Intel based processor, for that matter) as the only SB based system I have is an i3 based system that uses the H61 chipset. This, combined with the processor being an i3 means I can't overclock the processor at all. I could overclock the graphics, but since the system isn't really used for gaming, this isn't a top priority.

At any rate, for the 2500k, the stock multiplier is 33 and the base clock (which can't really be changed, but if you way for Ivybridge, this is one area that you could get some better overclocking + lower temps) is fairly locked at 100Mhz. With older processors, the way to overclock was changing the base clock to something higher, say 125Mhz. This would mean you were going from 100x33 = 3.3Ghz to 125x33=4.125Ghz. With Sandybridge, the options are just limited to the multiplier, so instead of 33 you either drag the slider or increase the multiplier manually to something like 40. Even at stock voltage, it is likely you'll be able to get to 4Ghz by changing the multiplier from 33 to 40. If you want to keep increasing, you will likely have to increase your voltage to keep a stable overclock. Some people can get up to 4.4Ghz without any voltage increases, while some can go higher, or even can't get to 3.6Ghz without increasing voltage. It's really based on the quality of the chip you receive, though from what I've read it seems the average chip is likely to go >4Ghz without just a simple multiplier increase.

With the Hyper 212 Evo (or another heatsink, should you so choose), the goal is to increase the efficiency that the heat generated by the processor gets moved away from the processor. In general with electronics, more heat = bad. So, the heatsink helps spread the heat over a large area, and the fan (or two, if you go to a push-pull configuration) moves the heat from the heatsink to the case, and ideally you have fans in the back of the case moving air from the case to the outside, as well as fans in the front drawing fresh air in. Having a better heatsink allows you to overclock more while still having safe temperatures, as well as potentially lowering the noise level versus the stock heatsink/fan combo.

I realize this did get a bit lengthy, but I hope I helped answer some questions

I'm not sure about *all* Ivybridge processors, but the enthusiast K series will have the option to both increase the multiplier, as well as the base clock, without interfering with the PCIe frequencies. This is something that Sandybridge hasn't been able to accomplish, and the base clock must remain around 100Mhz, perhaps increasing to 105Mhz at the high end. So, that's nice.

Here is the current (January 2012) guide for picking parts, based on money. It's only an estimate, as deals often happen that can change your purchase somewhat last minute.

In addition, whenever you do build this computer, check out Tomshardware's "Best ___ for the money" articles, namely the CPU and GPU bit. If you've got a rough estimate on how much you want to spend, or what settings in games you'd like to have, these can help decide between one product or another.

Here's the link for the January 2012 CPU and January 2012 GPU guides. Be sure to check a more recent article for whatever month you build this...

Switch the case, NZXT's are overpirced and have crap air flow, here is a better one with lots of space, is smaller, has awesome airflow, solid construction, and is cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

Make sure you get an OEM OS, if you're not hooking up to a business infrastructure, all you need is Home Premium: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

This 6950 1gb GPU is rated nearly as well as the card you chose on newegg, while a good deal cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385 (only 1gb of VRAM, but unless you're looking at multi-monitor gaming, you don't need more VRAM, and if you were looking at multi-monitor, you'd be buying a 7970 and several monitors for this build).

I'd pick up the Caviar Black here with the promo code right now, seeing as this a great HDD and the code takes an additional $30 off the already $50 discounted HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 Its better than waiting, seeing as HDD's aren't going down anytime soon.

Alternatively, you could find a 500gb that is a good deal cheaper, and get a 1 tb after prices go down more. I have 15 days of music, 15 seasons of TV shows, a bunch of applications, and 50 something steam games, and I've used less than 500 gb of my 1tb drive. I've had this drive for about a year.

Mobo is good, solid price for those features.

I'd take a different keyboard, and maybe even get a PS/2 keyboard, because with a standard USB keyboard, you can only press 2 keys at one time, and if you press any more than that, the keystrokes aren't registered (say you're playing Half-Life and you're pressing A+W to move sideways while turning on your flashlight and holding something with E, you could only move in one direction and perform one action at a time), while a PS/2 keyboard requires no drivers, will work no matter what if your BIOS goes *******, and you can press all the keys. You'll notice when looking for a PS/2 keyboard that a good deal of them are very expensive and labelled as mechanical. This means they have expensive buttons under the keyboard that are only used by people that have money to blow on the best. Now why would PS/2 have keyboards with features only used by people looking for the best? BECAUSE ITS THE BEST
/rant. tl;dr, get a well reviewed $20 PS/2 keyboard, you won't regret it

Your mouse choice is good, I might have to get one of those myself XD

This comes out to around $40 saved on GPU, $60 saved on case, possible $70 saved if you weren't looking at an OEM OS already, $30 saved with promo code, ~$70 if you just get a 500gb, easily $40 saved on keyboard if you get a solid $20 one.

So 40+60+30+40=$170 if you already were looking at an OEM OS, if not $240, and $310 if you get a smaller HDD and weren't looking at an OEM OS.