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[chaosblade]

On a side note, why no overclocking? Very easy to do and the performance gains would really benefit you in emulation.

Even with SB/IB I would say overclocking is "necessary" for a good Dolphin experience. A lot of popular games won't run at full speed on a stock 2500k, no doubt that applies to IB as well given it's modest performance improvements.

 

[CatPee]

Okay, read the OP and used PC part picker to pick out what I want.

Desktop questions
Budget: Would love to spend 800 USD, but will go as high as 1K total (more on that below)
Main Use: Gaming on max or close to max settings.
Monitor Resolution: Plan on hooking this up to my TV and playing steam games. Not going to use it for anything else.
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Any open world game. Would love to pick up the Witcher 2 and play it on the highest settings w/o any problems.
When will you build?: Probably around Jan or so. This is going to be my tax refund gift to myself.
Will you be overclocking?: Possibly.

Rig
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card
RAM: A-Data Premier Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333
HD: Western Digital Scorpio Black 250GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer

PC Part picker has all this going for a total of about 1100.00. I'm a little over what I'd like to spend so if you guys think I'm spending too much on something when a cheaper part will get me to a similar result, I'm all ears.

There's something funky about this build's pricing... I just checked my wishlist of a 3570K/670 build with a 1TB HDD and a Hyper 212+ and it's at $1100 and only from Newegg. Are you not including the OS with your list?

 

[PedroPanache]

What would people recommend as a good graphics card with the starting point that I was going to pick up an Asus AMD Radeon HD 7850 2gb at £175, but I'm prepared to add £50 or so to my GPU budget if there's a good increase in performance, should I go for something a little more expensive, or will that do the job ? (I mainly want it to run modern games at 1080p/60fps with high settings).

Extra info: CPU i5 3570k & 8gb ram & Asrock z77 Pro3 motherboard.

 

[Rubbish King]

GAF, whats wrong with this build? only an hour left on it on ebay, i know theres probably something shit about it, somebody give us some advice

This is the pc

 

[beje]

GAF, whats wrong with this build? only an hour left on it on ebay, i know theres probably something shit about it, somebody give us some advice

This is the pc

Extremely crappy video card. You'd barely be able to play with that...

Edit: also AM1 platform, 3GHz... that sounds like a 4 years old CPU. Good old "let's sell an overpriced PC made with crappy pieces and barely good for anything using lots of buzzwords"

 

[Rubbish King]

Extremely crappy video card. You'd barely be able to play with that...

Ahh right, i hate ebay, they're full of these builds, its hard to tell who's being honest and who isn't... kinda thinking about going to alienware but im not sure...

I was looking at the i7 X51.. is there anything similar you could recommend or is this good value for money, im not really interested in building a pc, I'm just tired of console gaming and am working 40+ hours a week to fund this dream of mine

 

[beje]

Ahh right, i hate ebay, they're full of these builds, its hard to tell who's being honest and who isn't... kinda thinking about going to alienware but im not sure...

I was looking at the i7 X51.. is there anything similar you could recommend or is this good value for money, im not really interested in building a pc, I'm just tired of console gaming and am working 40+ hours a week to fund this dream of mine

You should really try building it yourself. It's easier than LEGO, honestly, and there's almost no way of screwing up because 95% of cables and plugs are made to fit only the correct way and in the correct place.

 

[LQX]

This Z68 might be great deal for those on Sandy Bridge. Keep in mind though unlike a lot of Z67/68 boards, a bios update has never been released for this one by EVGA to allow for Ivy Bridge CPU's.

EVGA Z68 FTW $60 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2-_-Index-_-IntelMotherboards-_-13188098-E01A

 

[plasticpassion]

I posted this in another thread, but maybe here is more appropriate. My PS3 recently died, so instead of supporting Sony again, I've decided to go back to my PC. I've noticed some stutter while playing some games. Is there anything hardwired here that would prevent me from really making upgrade progress? What would give me the most benefit considering the system I currently have?

Here are my specs from my 2009 PC.

• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-940 2.93 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
• FAN: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
• HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
• HDD2: 1.5TB (1.5TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
• MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-EX58-UD4P Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable(TM)3 Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
• MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair Dominator)
• POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts Power Supplies [+44] (CyberPowerPC XF800S Performance ATX 2.0 Power - Quad SLI Ready)
• SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy SE
• VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB DDR5 PCI-Express Dual DVI-I & TVO

I bought it from CyberpowerPC and wasn't terribly knowledgeable about mixing together the components, so feel free to judge the quality and mixture of my build ha. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Birbo]

Trying to build my first gaming/HTPC without breaking the bank. Just bought an i5 2500; would that z68 be a good pick up?

 

[chaosblade]

Trying to build my first gaming/HTPC without breaking the bank. Just bought an i5 2500; would that z68 be a good pick up?

Yes, and I hope that's a 2500k.

Just note that it's E-ATX and make sure your case supports it.

 

[LQX]

Trying to build my first gaming/HTPC without breaking the bank. Just bought an i5 2500; would that z68 be a good pick up?

That CPU is perfect for that board. Z68's are awesome boards and that one was a top of the line one. Going to have to throw out the baby with the bath water though if you plan on ever upgrading the CPU outside of a SB.

 

[scogoth]

Hey mkenyon don't use silver with in your loop if your EK blocks are nickel plated. Going to pick up some aditive instead now.

http://www.ekwb.com/news/83/19

 

[FinKL]

Samsung just posted a BF ad that has the 120Hz 700D monitor for $250 with 3D glasses (Not nVidia). November 18th to the 26th.
Pretttttttttty good. Best deal on the one of the best 120Hz panels. http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/monitors/LS23A700DS/ZA?

Argh, waited until 12:45AM last night for the price to drop, but it hasn't Hovering around ~$280 which is still not bad

 

[kharma45]

I posted this in another thread, but maybe here is more appropriate. My PS3 recently died, so instead of supporting Sony again, I've decided to go back to my PC. I've noticed some stutter while playing some games. Is there anything hardwired here that would prevent me from really making upgrade progress? What would give me the most benefit considering the system I currently have?

Here are my specs from my 2009 PC.

• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-940 2.93 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
• FAN: Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
• HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
• HDD2: 1.5TB (1.5TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
• MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-EX58-UD4P Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable(TM)3 Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
• MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair Dominator)
• POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts Power Supplies [+44] (CyberPowerPC XF800S Performance ATX 2.0 Power - Quad SLI Ready)
• SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy SE
• VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB DDR5 PCI-Express Dual DVI-I & TVO

I bought it from CyberpowerPC and wasn't terribly knowledgeable about mixing together the components, so feel free to judge the quality and mixture of my build ha. Thanks for any advice.

Get a custom cooler if you don't already for your i7 and overclock it. I'd also look at maybe upgrading your GPU too, but it depeds on how much you've got to spend.

 

[NervousXtian]

I'm looking at a new PC build, but kind of stuck on graphics card options.

Is it worth the extra $60+ for a 7950 over a 7870?

Looking at:

i5 3570
8gb
550w PS

Is the gains worth it?

 

[kharma45]

I'm looking at a new PC build, but kind of stuck on graphics card options.

Is it worth the extra $60+ for a 7950 over a 7870?

Looking at:

i5 3570
8gb
550w PS

Is the gains worth it?

Yeah I'd get a 7950 over the 7870, worth it in my books.

Is the 3570 the K model?

 

[Felix Lighter]

Anyone else that routinely switches from and HDMI audio source to a different audio source using the latest Catalyst Beta Driver? When I switch back to my HDMI receiver, the audio playback device doesn't come back so it continues playing out of my PC speakers in the other room. The only way I've found to reestablish an audio connection is to either restart the computer or disable and renewable the AMD HD Audio Driver in the Device manager. I tried rolling back to a previous Catalyst driver but the problem persisted. Video works fine, it's just the HDMI audio. They seem to always find new ways to screw up HDMI audio. I've had issue of one form or another since 12.3. At 12.10, I managed to pretty much find solutions for all my issues (mainly by upping the default 2D clocks slightly) but now it's something new.

 

[MrCunningham]

2500K is still a good buy, and of course overclocks well, plus if you get an Ivy Bridge CPU with a SB mobo you'll need to use another CPU to update the BIOS to accept IB, at least the 2500K will slot straight in. If you're looking at IB go Z77.

Change your RAM to this stuff

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00592002W/?tag=neogaf0e-20

A 2500k + z77 combination works fine if you don't mind not having access to PCIE 3.0. But at this point I don't think there are video cards that can reach up to PCIE 3.0 speeds so you won't see any performance increases at all running in PCIE 2.0 mode. A 3570K would probably be recommended with a z77 motherboard but it isn't really needed. If you can get a i52500K for cheaper, then go with that. But having a z77 could add a little bit more future proofing to your PC if you want to try throwing in an ivy bridge i7 later.

Also, get the 670. The 660Ti isn't really that good a buy imo, gets trounced by the 7950 which is a much better buy than it. The 670 is the only Nvidia card worth buying now unless you're totally brand loyal.

On a side note, why no overclocking? Very easy to do and the performance gains would really benefit you in emulation.

Truth is the 660ti's price to performance ratio isn't really worth paying out the extra money for when you compare it to something like a non-660. In most cases I have seen it gets about a 10-14% increase over the non-660 and costs anywhere from $50.00 to $75.00 more. The 7950 hovers around the same price point as the 660ti and gets better performance in all cases and is most likely the better value. the 7950 probably also overclocks better too. But I haven't seen any reviews where it beats out a 670:

Here's a pretty good review from TechPowerUp comparing the latest AMD cards (with the 12.11 drivers) to the current NVidia cards:

But considering that the price different between a 7950 and a 670 is about $80 dollars, the 7950 is still a really good buy.

Change your RAM to this stuff

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00592002W/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Out of curiosity, what makes this RAM worth getting over the other stuff? About 6 months ago I purchased some standard Crosair Vengance 1600RAM because it was very cheap, but what would be the difference of switching to something like this? I am just curious, I'm not really interested in swapping out my RAM or anything.

 

[kharma45]

Out of curiosity, what makes this RAM worth getting over the other stuff? About 6 months ago I purchased some standard Crosair Vengance 1600RAM because it was very cheap, but what would be the difference of switching to something like this? I am just curious, I'm not really interested in swapping out my RAM or anything.

Very low profile and overclocks extremely well, Google the reviews for it and see the praise it's getting. Really, really good RAM.

 

[FillerB]

A simple question for Dutch-GAF: which cheap (web)shops do you recommend for getting parts from? I'm looking into replacing replacing my 3-year old laptop with something that doesn't struggle as much with modern games/Dolphin but I'm kinda on a budget with the holidays coming up.

 

[Cow Mengde]

If I get an HD 7770, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

If I get an HD 7850, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

Don't want to go too big budget. I want it to be just enough.

 

[plasticpassion]

Get a custom cooler if you don't already for your i7 and overclock it. I'd also look at maybe upgrading your GPU too, but it depeds on how much you've got to spend.

Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System isn't enough? Is it somethimg separate you recommend? What do you mean by custom?

 

[kharma45]

If I get an HD 7770, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

If I get an HD 7850, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

Don't want to go too big budget. I want it to be just enough.

What is your budget? tbh don't bother with the 7770, the 7850 is such a better card for not too much extra outlay.

Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System isn't enough? Is it somethimg separate you recommend? What do you mean by custom?

Hell yes that's enough lol I just meant if you were running the stock cooler.

 

[plasticpassion]

Hell yes that's enough lol I just meant if you were running the stock cooler.

Well, I assume the liquid cooling is running. The company I bought it from built the PC with the components I chose. I'll work on overclocking the i7 today.

 

[Cow Mengde]

What is your budget? tbh don't bother with the 7770, the 7850 is such a better card for not too much extra outlay.

I haven't really set a budget yet. Right now I want to see what's the minimal I can spend to put a 7850 + CPU to good use.

 

[kharma45]

I haven't really set a budget yet. Right now I want to see what's the minimal I can spend to put a 7850 + CPU to good use.

You could use a Pentium G2120 if you want to go really low end

http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/5
http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/6
http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/7

Handles a 7950 well enough.

 

[Cow Mengde]

You could use a Pentium G2120 if you want to go really low end

http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/5
http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/6
http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/7

Handles a 7950 well enough.

Excellent. I can actually aim for a CPU a little more expensive than that. At least now I know how low I can go.

 

[kharma45]

Yeah even down to something like the Pentium G840 you'd still be fine.

 

[Ty4on]

If I get an HD 7770, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

If I get an HD 7850, what kind of CPU should I match it with?

Don't want to go too big budget. I want it to be just enough.

i3 3225/3240 - first has HD4000, second has .1 more GHz - or any 2XXX/3XXX i3 with more than 3 GHz should be fine. If you want a better CPU (games with lot's of stuff on screen like SC2) the next step up is the i5 3570k (or 2500k if it's much cheaper) which is pretty much as good as 500$ i7 extreme CPUs in most games when overclocked.

If you go for an i3 you don't need a very expensive motherboard because it cannot be overclocked and can go for an H77. If you go for the i5 3570k you should get a Z77 motherboard and maybe a cooler master 212 for a higher overclock.

The i3 sounds like a bad CPU (dual core, i3 name...), but it is a really good gaming CPU with beefy Ivy Bridge cores, enough performance for most every day tasks and cool and quiet. Some laptop i7s and many laptop i5s are in fact dual cores.

Edit: Didn't see the discussion above before posting, the Pentiums will of course be totally fine, but there will probably come a random CPU bottleneck. Multiplayer which isn't benched as much (for obvious reasons) tends to be CPU bottlenecked.

 

[NervousXtian]

Yeah I'd get a 7950 over the 7870, worth it in my books.

Is the 3570 the K model?

That's what I was shooting for.. trying to stay under a grand.

 

[MrCunningham]

Very low profile and overclocks extremely well, Google the reviews for it and see the praise it's getting. Really, really good RAM.

Ah OK. Large heat syncs on RAM like my Corsair Vengeance does seem kinda pointless. I don't think it really does much to keep my RAM cool, TBH; and with the Ivy bridge CPU's running at 77w instead of 95w, it becomes even more pointless.

And as for CPU's, I have a friend who has an i3 & 7950 combination and he can run any game at cranked at max settings. The idea of coupling a lower end dualcore CPU with a higher end GPU isn't a bad one if you are on a budget and you simply want to game. The majority of the big name game engines are still only optimized to run on two cores and there isn't much in the way of quad core support yet. Buying a quad core will future proof your system for when games do start to take advantage of more than two cores down the road. But currently, not really.

Though quad cores probably do offer more when you are running multiple monitors are running extra things on your OS in the background when you game.

 

[Jharp]

Plug the 3 pins into the 4 pin connectors.

Are you talking about the white CHA Fan connectors on my motherboard? They don't fit there. I found a molex cable tucked back behind the case that I was able to pull through one of the cable windows and plug directly into my PSU, and it appears to be powering all three case fans, so I just tied it off and called it a day.

Last night I disassembled all cables and tried my best to reassemble them in such a way that they weren't disgusting and crowded in the case and this was about the best I could do. Some of the ways the cables came, I don't really know how I can do a better job. I had them slightly better with regards to my 24-pin motherboard cable and my USB 3.0 cable for my case ports, but that resulted in the cables running up directly against the GPU, which I don't imagine is any good for it at all, so I opted for slightly less case tidiness.

I have windows up and running, all my drivers installed, and now I'm getting to my games. I just checked out Crysis Warhead which ran so buttery smooth at max that I couldn't believe it. I've never seen that in person before. I can't WAIT to get to Guild Wars 2 and Battlefield 3.

Thanks again, NeoGAF. Couldn't have built this fucker without your guys' help. I'm still fucking ecstatic that it all worked nice and smooth from the first moment I booted it.

Here are my interior pics showing the best I could do with my cables. Sorry for bad lighting.

Front:

Back:

 

[sixghost]

Argh, waited until 12:45AM last night for the price to drop, but it hasn't Hovering around ~$280 which is still not bad

Do you actually purchase it through Samsung's site? Clicking buy now just refers you to a Tigerdirect and CompUSA page.

 

[FinKL]

Do you actually purchase it through Samsung's site? Clicking buy now just refers you to a Tigerdirect and CompUSA page.

The Black Friday promotion material is super confusing. The $280 is through Tigerdirect/CompUSA. I was hoping I could buy through Samsung's site, but it won't let me and the way it's worded, is that not every1 of those retailers will honor the $250 price.

 

[coopolon]

Oh man. So I ended up cancelling my computer order because I wanted to try to fix my computer.

Part of that was reformatting and reinstalling windows. AFter installing updates all of a sudden after the Windows Boot Up Screen my monitor goes to sleep. I spend hours on it all day trying to figure it out, thinking the computer is freezing so trying to figure out what's wrong the with system partition, maybe something wrong in the bios, etc.

Turns out the update that was breaking it was the display drivers, and the computer wasn't freezing, it was just outputting my display to my TV over HDMI (which is turned to a different input so I don't see it) instead of to my monitor over DVI.

It's always the dumbest things.

 

[blindrocket]

I read this on another website and wondering how accurate it is. I am building a new gaming rig in a month or two, and would like to consider playing Crysis 3 era games at max settings.

Crysis3′s requirements on the HIGHEST SETTINGS is:

Intel i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06 GHZ or AMD FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHZ
16GB System RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 2GB RAM or AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 3GB RAM

 

[scogoth]

I read this on another website and wondering how accurate it is. I am building a new gaming rig in a month or two, and would like to consider playing Crysis 3 era games at max settings.

Doubt it considering this will also be released on consoles. Even if it is true play it on 1 setting down from high will probably require half those requirements. Turn on high tessellation, lighting effects, shadow effects, bloom effects, high AA, etc give very minimal visual benefit for massive computing requirements. People just like saying they can run it on everything maxed but its not going to look that much better.

 

[SolarPowered]

Went and put some money in the bank for my build's Hard Drive and Power supply. I may buy the RAM immediately tonight too. My ideal gaming PC has been a long time coming and I can't wait to boot it up.

2500K is still a good buy, and of course overclocks well, plus if you get an Ivy Bridge CPU with a SB mobo you'll need to use another CPU to update the BIOS to accept IB, at least the 2500K will slot straight in. If you're looking at IB go Z77.

Change your RAM to this stuff

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00592002W/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Also, get the 670. The 660Ti isn't really that good a buy imo, gets trounced by the 7950 which is a much better buy than it. The 670 is the only Nvidia card worth buying now unless you're totally brand loyal.

On a side note, why no overclocking? Very easy to do and the performance gains would really benefit you in emulation.

The price difference between the 660ti and 670GTX is making me twitch uncontrollably. I already took people's advice about the 2500k and I'm just seeing where the deals take me on the CPU and Case. Also, has RAM become nearly universal in compatibility with motherboards now? It seemed like you always had to go through the hassle of looking for compatibility before. That Samsung RAM will work regardless of checking?

I don't overclock because this will be my very first build. I don't want to worry too much. Someone's previous post about emulation has put me in a bind though. It surprises me that Dolphin emulation is that hardcore.

 

[scogoth]

The price difference between the 660ti and 670GTX is making me twitch uncontrollably. I already took people's advice about the 2500k and I'm just seeing where the deals take me on the CPU. Also, has RAM become nearly universal in compatibility with motherboards now? It seemed like you always had to go through the hassle of looking for compatible units. That Samsung RAM will work regardless of checking?

I don't overclock because this will be my very first build. I don't want to worry too much. Someone's previous post about emulation has put me in a bind though. It surprises me that Dolphin emulation is that hardcore.

Dolphin is trying to entirely replicate a chip which calculates very differently then a PC CPU. It is very inefficient to emulate a piece of hardware so it requires a LOT of processing power to compensate. Dolphin will take as much CPU power that you can throw at it. Overclocking can easily give you an extra GHz of processing power on a 2500k

 

[SolarPowered]

The hard drive is currently sold out on Newegg after all the waiting. Thirty minutes did me in.

goddamit

Dolphin is trying to entirely replicate a chip which calculates very differently then a PC CPU. It is very inefficient to emulate a piece of hardware so it requires a LOT of processing power to compensate. Dolphin will take as much CPU power that you can throw at it. Overclocking can easily give you an extra GHz of processing power on a 2500k

I knew it was intensive, but I didn't think it was that excessive.

 

[MedIC86]

I hope anyone can help me with this:

Some parts of my HTPC died so i decided to get some new parts. But i have a question concerning the GPU's of my system.

I ordered an ASUS F1A75-M LE motherboard with an A4-3400 cpu. I also have a low profile AMD 6450 gpu.

The A4-3400 has an built in gpu or something right? which one should i use, the cpu one or my normal 6450? Also, if i dont want to use the CPU one do i have to disable it in bios? or does it auto-detect i want to use a standalone gpu?

thanks!

 

[Cow Mengde]

Ok guys, how does a i3 2120 or i3-3220 sound? The 3220 is obviously better, but is the extra money vs performance gain worth it?

 

[Ty4on]

Ok guys, how does a i3 2120 or i3-3220 sound? The 3220 is obviously better, but is the extra money vs performance gain worth it?

Depends on how big the price difference is. The Ivy Bridge CPU seems to perform 5% better, but it does also use ~10W less in idle and load. Ivy Bridge was a pretty small performance boost.

 

[NervousXtian]

How's this case/PSU combo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1133809

 

[Cow Mengde]

Depends on how big the price difference is. The Ivy Bridge CPU seems to perform 5% better, but it does also use ~10W less in idle and load. Ivy Bridge was a pretty small performance boost.

The i3-2120 is Sandy Bridge, right?

 

[Ty4on]

How's this case/PSU combo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1133809

It's not modular. Modular means you can remove cables you don't need and with a non modular PSU you will have to find space for every cable that you don't use (power for extra HDDs etc...) and it's flat out harder to get good cable management. When I helped a friend with his computer I could plug the power cable to what it would power first and then get it around the back and into the PSU. That it was harder to do that when the cable was plugged into the PSU and had to be fought.

That said it should be quiet and very efficient and modular PSUs, especially fully modular (every single cable can be removed from the PSU) are expensive.

The i3-2120 is Sandy Bridge, right?

Yes. For the core i series CPUs that fit in 1155 mobos all 2XXX are Sandy and all 3XXX are Ivy.

 

[NervousXtian]

It's not modular. Modular means you can remove cables you don't need and with a non modular PSU you will have to find space for every cable that you don't use (power for extra HDDs etc...) and it's flat out harder to get good cable management. When I helped a friend with his computer I could plug the power cable to what it would power first and then get it around the back and into the PSU. That it was harder to do that when the cable was plugged into the PSU and had to be fought.

That said it should be quiet and very efficient and modular PSUs, especially fully modular (every single cable can be removed from the PSU) are expensive.

Thanks, seemed like a decent price for a decent quiet case/psu.. any example of some modular PSUs?

 

[Ty4on]

Thanks, seemed like a decent price for a decent quiet case/psu.. any example of some modular PSUs?

The Seasonic M12 series are semi modular and bronze rated. They should turn a little over 80% of the power they draw into power for the computer and not be very noisy (the rest of the power turns into heat which the fan has to push out).
The Seasonic X series are fully modular and gold rated. They are really efficient and have gotten tons of praise by reviewers and gaffers for low noise and clean power.

You may haven't heard the name before, but Seasonic produce PSUs for other companies like Corsair.

You can find cases on the first page of this thread, but it's a very personal choice (like the OP says). You can google cases for reviews and specs and some reviews even check temps.

Extra edit, but you've got some great PSU prices. The cheapest Seasonic X' up here are like $170+.

 

[megarockexe]

So I'm planning on spending $200 to upgrade my PC soon. I saw a Crucial m4 64GB on sale for $66, which seemed like a good deal. I could also go for 128GB for just $89, so whichever is a better deal, I guess. Also picking up a GTX650 for $120 because it seems like a solid mid-tier card and a great upgrade at a fair price. All of these at Microcenter just for the convenience of returning if anything goes wrong.