Looking for just a few parts.

[mfenn]

STAY AWAY FROM HASWELL
Its not looking very good... and i have a big feeling intel will go OOPS.. lets fix that with a new stepping.... here...
And not say sorry to the earily adopters... meaning no RMA.
(Intel i7 920 Fiasco they pulled.. is happening all over again)

Aigo, you need to remember your perspective and your audience. You're way out on the overclocking fringes, which is totally fine, but your concerns are simply not relevant to the vast majority of average builders. Haswell is perfectly good for people running at stock speeds or close to it.

 

[AprilMay]

Hi guys,

Thanks again for the feedback!

Ivy Bridge Xeons are clearly stated in many manufacturers' support lists and function practically the same as an i7. It's just a chip; the reason you don't see people begging for help about their "Xeon system" is that don't know the Xeon option existed, not because there is a magical difference between it and consumer chips. When a chip doesn't work, it usually is never the chip's internals, but something else, such as bad RAM or the bottom being scratched.

That's probably true. I thought all Xeon chips were server grade ... shows how much I know!

AprilMay - your new build looks great. If you are truly interested in overclocking, then of course the 3770K is your best choice, and no, for your purposes, I would not get the 3570K.

As for coolers, the Noctura NH-D14 is stellar, but entirely overkill for your needs. You will never tap into its cooling power. I'd suggest a cooler at half the price (and around half the size), for instance a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo.

Question: I saw a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus at tigerdirect store today. Is it the same as the EVO version?

However, if you want to get an i7 and an aftermarket cooler to overclock it, go for it . It is the only way to be able to get a substantial overclock and have HT, and that's part of the reason it costs more than both the Core i5 and Xeon E3.

I think I'm more or less decided to go this route. A friend told me once that when buying a new computer, try to max as much as you can, just so that maybe you can squeeze a year or two more out of it before you need to get a new one. Being able to overclock the i7-3770k will probably help with that.

P.S. I just saw this:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...401&CatId=1078
If you're up for rebates (such as for the motherboard), that's hard to beat, and it consolidates shipping to one less store.

Yes, that's the ONLY item I picked up at tigerdirect.ca today Was indecisive about everything else. I have just one question though: one of the things I didn't keep throwing into the mix is that I have an Asus DirectCU EAH6850 video card that's kinda bulky.

1. Will the power supply be okay to handle that video card? Or possibly a beefier one should I feel like upgrading my video card later down the road?
2. Will that video card fit on the Gigabyte Z77-DS3H? I saw on at tigerdirect.ca (it was on display out of the box, but here's what it looks like) and there's this BLUE gigabyte thing sticking out of the board there. Is there some place where I can find this information?

 

[mfenn]

Question: I saw a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus at tigerdirect store today. Is it the same as the EVO version?

The Plus and the Evo are similar, but not the same. The Evo is a newer model that has a flatter base and a quieter fan.

1. Will the power supply be okay to handle that video card? Or possibly a beefier one should I feel like upgrading my video card later down the road?

The CX430 will handle the 6850 no problem. You won't be able to get a monster GPU down the road, but it will handle any sub-$200 cards just fine.

2. Will that video card fit on the Gigabyte Z77-DS3H? I saw on at tigerdirect.ca (it was on display out of the box, but here's what it looks like) and there's this BLUE gigabyte thing sticking out of the board there. Is there some place where I can find this information?

Yes, it will fit. The height and f the cards is standardized, as is the clearance around the slot. The thickness can vary, but that still goes in standard increments (1, 2, or 3 slots). Only the length is truly continuously variable, but that is more of a case concern than a motherboard one.

 

[Cerb]

1. Will the power supply be okay to handle that video card? Or possibly a beefier one should I feel like upgrading my video card later down the road?

It will handle it fine. A more powerful PSU might be warranted if you had a power hog for CPU and GPU, but the 6850 should leave headroom for OCing the i7, as long as you don't go crazy. You should be able to get to around a 3.8-4.2GHz base clock OC w/ a Hyper212+ and the CX430, without having to push the hardware much. For a long-term stable system, you probably don't want to try to get too much more than that, as it will necessitate significantly increasing the voltage, and it becomes rather difficult to keep temps down once you start doing too much of that, regardless of heatsink, as the interface from the CPU die to the heatspreader on the package becomes the limiting factor (they use fancy glue, now, to save money, instead of soldering the heatspreader on, like they used to, and it is possible to 'outrun' the die-to-heatsink interface, with really good cooling).

 

[AprilMay]

As a matter of interest, here is my final build:

i7-3770k : $330
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H: $110 (after rebate, newegg.ca)
16gb DDR3 1800mhz ram: $150 (I originally wanted to ramp down to 1 stick of 8gb but they didn't have it)
Hyper 212 Evo: $30
Corsair 200R: $47 (after rebate, newegg.ca)
Corsair CX430: $34 (after rebate, tigerdirect.ca)

Subtotal: $701

The cooler, ram and case help push it over $600. The ram was on sale earlier but I missed the sale :/ I wasn't able to get as good a deal on the processor as I thought I would be able to, but it's okay. I ended up getting $30 off newegg.ca for being a new customer, but that more or less just evened out the shipping cost.

Thanks again for all of your help! Now onto a building thread on how to avoid static electricity.

 

[Cerb]

Thanks again for all of your help! Now onto a building thread on how to avoid static electricity.

Just touch exposed metal in the case a lot, and don't shuffle around on carpet much.

 

[Torn Mind]

It's a matter of being in contact with an electrical conductor so the excess electrons are dissipated.

 

[AprilMay]

Thanks! I am working on tile floors and have successfully put on the Hyper 212 EVO. Thank you YouTube for having so many tutorials on how to do it. That's probably the scariest part for me. The second part is mounting it into the case. Other than those two things, I've done everything else, like RAM and hard drives, etc.

Question: Do people still "burn in" their new computers? and if they do ... is there a place where I'd be able to get that information?

 

[Cerb]

Question: Do people still "burn in" their new computers? and if they do ... is there a place where I'd be able to get that information?

No. Except for the occasional bad RAM stick, most everything has been reliable enough thay that kind of thing hasn't been needed since the mid 90s. But, once you start overclocking, you'll want to run stress testing applications, like Prime95, OCCT, and so on.