First Custom Desktop Build

Sandybridge - Looking like a good option in any desktop. Unless you're planning on some fairly high overclocking, Ivy should be fine.. Still, the "look what I can do" factor is higher with Sandy. Ivy at ~4.5 is ~4.8 on Sandy, so there is some benefit.. plus less power for that, too. Just no very high overclocking on standard cooling devices.

I think the fan configuration will be fine. Generally front = in, top/back = out, but with that configuration you'll want to run the top fan a bit slower to compensate for an uneven balance of in/out. Ideally you have more in than out, and your case creates a positive pressure which keeps out dust. Honestly it's never been a big thing for me as I don't mind cleaning my case every few months, but that's what most people recommend.

The 7850 you picked is out of stock at the moment, but many others look to be still in stock. The XFX card looks to be the best matched vs the Gigabyte one you chose, as it does have the dual fan configuration whereas the three cheaper cards have a single fan. $30 more up front, $50 more without rebates, but it'll be quite a bit quieter and cooler running. The other fantastic bonus from XFX is a lifetime warranty, which is why I often choose them when possible.

Past the CPU and GPU, all else should be in order. You could go with a Z77 motherboard as they offer PCIe 3.0 slots and USB 3.0 naitively, but PCIe3 isn't a huge concern for most people unless you're multi-GPU and multi-monitor gaming. I'm not talking 2x1920x1080, I'm talking 3+ 1920x1080 monitors or larger. Not a huge usage scenario for most people. USB3 is addable after the fact via fairly cheap PCIe cards, so I wouldn't necessarily mark it as a must-have feature.

I'd assume the Z77 Extreme 4 is basically the upgraded version of the Z68 board, meaning you've got a great board.

Great GPU, both for design and actual performance. Plus XFX has the lifetime warranty, so you'll be set for quite some time.

We've got that series of SSD at the shop, but we haven't used it, so I can't comment on it personally. It looks to have good reviews, and the specs look on-par with most others in that price range. The three year warranty isn't too shabby, either.

PSU is a well known brand for PSUs, has an 80+ bronze rating, and has plenty of oomph to provide for your system now and a few upgrades in the future. It's modular, too, so you won't have to have a crazy amount of cables messing around in your case. On that note, try to route as much as you can behind your motherboard (they generally will go out one side of your case, and come in a different hole, then are covered by one of the case sides once closed.) It keeps it nice and organized, and have decent airflow.

It looks like several website have determined that the thermal compound Intel used to attach the heatsink on the processor was sub-standard, which is one of the reasons of poor temperatures while overclocking Ivybridge. It's not something you'd want to remedy yourself, but it's still good to know. It shouldn't deter you from buying Ivybridge, so no worries.

Sata, hdmi cable, keyboard - yep, kinda standard stuff.

Case - looks nice.

Mobo - I'm a fan of Asrock, and it seems they always get great price:performance features that are often reserved for more expensive boards. Three year warranty, so anyone ***** about issues cropping up (they're not NASA, stuff does break on rare occasions) shouldn't be too upset.

Graphics card - XFX always gets my preferential choice due to the warranty. The card / series itself got great reviews, and I doubt you'll have disappointments.

Mouse pad - seems more expensive than I'd imagine, but I haven't had to buy one in ages, so whatever. Looks to be one of the cloth topped ones vs the plastic topped, so I'd say that's a major plus.

PSU - Corsair has a sale going on till the 30th (some go till June 10th, but w/e) where you can get 10% off. Here's the list + codes. Yours is on there, too. Looks to be a nice PSU, modular, and have great reviews. Definitely a nice part to spend some money on.

CPU - I just advised Shane on getting this processor vs a slightly cheaper locked processor. It seems he's quite pleased with the purchase . I don't think he'll overclock at all for a while, but it has quite a bit of potential should you or he end up doing so.

SSD - I wasn't thinking that SanDisk would be on a price:performance list, but sure enough it is. With that said, I can't argue anything against it

RAM - I've got G.Skill in all of my builds, and they're doing great. It's RAM, so there's no reason why it shouldn't, but still.. They look cool, perform great, and since it's RAM it's got a lifetime warranty. This particular set got 2x customer choice award for desktop memory, so there's no arguing with the quality.

HDD - Spinpoint F3 drives generally get great reviews, and I think that was what I was *supposed* to buy for mine. Reason being, if you partition them correctly (~300gb or so for the first partition, then whatever for the rest), you can get Velociraptor type data transfer / access speeds wthout paying an arm and a leg, nor dealing with the noise/heat that those drives produce. Alternatively, here's a 500GB Caviar Blue (the second tier in the 7200rpm drives from WD, the first being the Caviar Black editions) for $5 less. It's got some bundle deal with a DVD burner, but the combo listing for the drive is quite extensive, so I didn't look all the way through.

Monitor - Looks nice, great reviews, and 1080p. It does come with DVD and VGA cables, so if you want to skip the HDMI cable, you'd be set as your GPU has 2x DVI out.

DVD burner - I dunno if you'll need it, but it won't hurt to have. I'm almost a year into my build without a DVD burner and haven't had a need to use one yet.

Win7 - comes with $20 promo card till the 28th, so that's nice. If you're a student though, remember you can get Win7 Pro for $65 (+ tax). It's really easy to use the upgrade version to install a fresh copy, and I've done it several times at this point.

Thermal paste - I've been happy with that for a while, and am still on the first tube after several re-applies + 4 builds + 2x laptop re-applies.

Fans - High CFM + quiet. A great combination.

CPU Cooler - That one tends to get lots of thumbs-ups from people, performs great, and has the ability to be set in a push-pull configuration.

Wrist strap - Yep, peace of mind. ... I've built ~7 computers now in the past year, none of which have used a static strap. All have worked fine. But peace of mind doesn't hurt.

All in all, you'll have a *fantastic* build. Hope this means you'll show up time-to-time to the PC Gaming Event and kick some butt with us

Oh, ok. I couldn't remember the exact situation, but figured it'd be worth the mention.



Derp, totally forgot about the audio. With that, it definitely makes sense going HDMI. Plus it's pretty cheap, even if it's not Monoprice.


I knew I remembered seeing a Corsair discount in my email, so I'm glad I was able to find it since you're going with them for a PSU. Lots o' pictures are all the welcome here. I'd like to see what you end up with, and I'm sure more than one other person here would, too.



excellent. The more the merrier, especially if you're on my team.

Everything is done! That was a lot of fun building!
Here's a bunch of pictures I took throughout the process.
Thanks so much for your help everyone! Especially you Paul, without you, this build would not be what it now is.