[Build Help] ~ $1600 Gaming / Software development build — A few questions
See my build so far below. I posted on r/buildapcforme and used a commenter's build as a base. Here are my questions:
- I will have access to a Microcenter until Friday, when I move out of my current city. Are there any good deals on parts that I could store in a suitcase to bring up to my new hometown?
- Does the i5-3570 need a separate CPU cooler or is the one provided good enough?
- How well does the HAF 922 case perform in terms of airflow? I had a Lian Li case in my previous build and it seemed the airflow was rather poor. It might have been just poor cable management on my part but the GPU temperature looked like it was higher than normal.
- Does the motherboard have the ability to play two audio streams at once? For example, in my old box, I was able to plug speakers into the back audio jack and headphones in the front, and set up the driver such that I was playing music through the speakers while playing a game with sounds going through my headphones. Has anyone tried to do so with this motherboard?
- Anything you'd change in this build? The monitor is 2560x1440, for reference.
Thanks!
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $189.99 @ Microcenter |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard | $134.99 @ Amazon |
| Memory | Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $34.99 @ Newegg |
| Storage | Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $88.98 @ Newegg |
| Storage | Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $94.99 @ Microcenter |
| Video Card | Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card | $449.99 @ Newegg |
| Case | Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case | $93.89 @ Amazon |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply | $109.99 @ Newegg |
| Optical Drive | Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer | $16.99 @ Amazon |
| Other | Overlord Tempest X270SE Monitor | $344.99 |
| Total | ||
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $1584.78 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-09-24 22:22 EDT-0400 |
Posted Sep 25, 2012, 2:41 AM UTC
13
You won't need the afternarket heatsink with a non-overclockable CPU
As far as Microcenter goes, it's a question of convenience. Do you want to pay less but have to get the parts yourself or pay a little more and have them shipped with the rest? It's really up to you.
I don't know much about the HAF 922 but I have heard some pretty good things about it.