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Please critique my proposed build

T

TimLeonard

Junior Member
First-time build.

Will run Linux, use for general computing, programming, and as a low-load server. Not interested in gaming.
Budget is flexible; $700-$900 would be fine.
Will be buying in the US.
No brand preferences.
Will use existing hard drive, keyboard, and mouse.
Don't care about overclocking, but willing to pay a little and give it a try.

Want an efficient PSU, audio and USB (preferably 3.0) on the front panel, an optical drive, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Those goals turned into these constraints:
  • a Sandy Bridge Core i5 or Core i7 with integrated graphics
  • a motherboard supporting Ivy Bridge and four RAM slots
  • SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, and an SSD
  • PSU with active PFC, certified as 80 Plus Bronze or better
Proposed build:

Comments? If you think another component would be a better choice, I'm interested in knowing why.

Thanks in advance.
 
The only change I'd make is the power supply. Quite seriously the only reason I bring it up is that I prefer to use well known PSU brands, because that particular component has the ability to destroy your whole system if it goes bad. Some examples of high tier PSU brands would be Seasonic, Corsair(Seasonic), Antec, and others, but not cooler master.
 
Both of the above comments are good. One thing I'd add is that you mention programming - would you be interested in CUDA or OpenCL programming? If so, consider a cheap nVIDIA 430 GPU, $41AR with shipping.
 
I agree with videogames and Dominion. Swap the PSU and SSD out for the Crucial M4 128GB and Neo ECO 400C respectively. The difference between 80PLUS and 80PLUS Bronze is 2%, so don't worry about that.

Another thing to watch out for is the chipset in your Wifi card. You want to make sure that it is well-supported in whatever distro you plan to run. The one you have listed has a RTL8192CE chipset that uses the rtl8192ce kernel module. That module first showed up in the mainline at 2.6.38, so make sure your distro is at least that version or has backported the driver.
 
Reliability matters, so the suggestions are much appreciated.

CUDA/OpenCL programming is unlikely in the immediate future. If that changes, I'll add whatever is current at the time.
 
TimLeonard said:
What do you think of the OCZ ZS Series 550W?
Click to expand...

OCZ is generally either absolute crap or decent but overpriced. This PSU falls into the latter category.

Your system will (seriously) draw about 120W maxed out, you could probably run it on a PicoPSU if you wanted. Get the 400C or the EA430 that lehtv suggested instead, they are good quality and reasonably-sized.
 
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