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[kharma45]

Don't get a Corsair CX, change to an XFX Core 450w or an Antec VP 450w. Do you need the DVD drive?

Not that keen on that case either. Where are you buying from?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

No. AMD has announced that the 290X will have a BF4 edition for the first 8000 pre-order, but that doesn't mean it won't appear in Never Settle like they said it would.

Hmm okay thanks for the info, Saints Row IV is mighty tempting but I will hold off then for a while and see what happens, especially since I read rumors that Splinter Cell Blacklist also might make it to the gold tier

Never used it, but it should be fine. The screenshot is from MSI Afterburner, which is what I'd recommend if Trixx isn't working the way you want it to.

Oh so the programs from each manufacturer are cross-compatible with no drawbacks or issues? I will try Trixx first then and try Afterburner and EVGA Precision next maybe, thanks!

 

[Addnan]

Hmm okay thanks for the info, Saints Row IV is mighty tempting but I will hold off then for a while and see what happens, especially since I read rumors that Splinter Cell Blacklist also might make it to the gold tier

You won't be getting Blacklist, exclusive Nvidia tech in it and already free with nvidia cards. .

Might as well wait. The price of SR4 is going down all the time and Deep Silver are very quickly to cut the price of their games. Might as well see if BF4 comes.

 

[Casanova]

Don't get a Corsair CX, change to an XFX Core 450w or an Antec VP 450w. Do you need the DVD drive?

Not that keen on that case either. Where are you buying from?

Okay I'll change to the XFX Core 450w

I don't really need the DVD Drive, so I guess that could keep my costs down a bit.

I plan on buying mostly from Newegg if I can find good deals there. I'm ordering today so wherever I can find the best deals, that's probably where I'll order from. I want to buy from one place to save on shipping costs. Would you recommend anywhere to shop, in particular?

And do I need power just to run League of Legends on High Settings, 60 FPS, and just web browsing/school stuff.

Any other suggestions?

Can my current monitor(link in post) handle it?

 

[LordAlu]

Okay I'll change to the XFX Core 450w

I don't really need the DVD Drive, so I guess that could keep my costs down a bit.

I plan on buying mostly from Newegg if I can find good deals there. I'm ordering today so wherever I can find the best deals, that's probably where I'll order from. I want to buy from one place to save on shipping costs. Would you recommend anywhere to shop, in particular?

And do I need power just to run League of Legends on High Settings, 60 FPS, and just web browsing/school stuff.

Any other suggestions?

Can my current monitor(link in post) handle it?

If you're willing to shop around a little (and don't mind doing rebates) you could get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.50 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($125.66 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $598.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-26 16:34 EDT-0400)[/i

Your monitor will work just fine too The reason I chose the XFX 550 over the 450 is you can actually get it for less after rebate ($40 is a steal).

 

[Skyfireblaze]

You won't be getting Blacklist, exclusive Nvidia tech in it and already free with nvidia cards. .

Might as well wait. The price of SR4 is going down all the time and Deep Silver are very quickly to cut the price of their games. Might as well see if BF4 comes.

Oh okay so that info was a fluke :/ But yeah I guess I will hold out for a bit then, alright.

 

[SaintR]

Hi guys been a while since I posted, but I'm back for some advice. My AMD 6950 2gb is finally dying out on me(artifacting, color distortions, etc). It has been completely reliable but i abused the poor thing OCing it so the fault was on me and not the card.

I'm looking to replace it with a Nvidia gtx 770 wind force because it falls right on my budget (a lil over but w/e). Now the question is, the 4gb version is out of my price range, so should I just buy the 2gb card or wait till I have enough for the 4gb version? Is the extra cash worth it? Game at 1080p and my CPU is 2500k.

Any advice would be appreciated and of course other cards are also a possibility if the price is under 400 and comparable to the gtx 770.

 

[Shambles]

What do y'all think of this deal?

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_ONE_VP450

Antec One and VP-450 for $85 Canadian.

It's not a bad deal. The VP-450 is solid. I have an extra sitting around 'just in case'. I think I paid about $30 for it on a damn good sale. I haven't seen the one. If it's like the 300 it's a solid metal case with pretty good build quality but may be lacking in features compared to it's competitors. Hopefully someone with some hands on experience pipes in.

 

[kharma45]

Hi guys been a while since I posted, but I'm back for some advice. My AMD 6950 2gb is finally dying out on me(artifacting, color distortions, etc). It has been completely reliable but i abused the poor thing OCing it so the fault was on me and not the card.

I'm looking to replace it with a Nvidia gtx 770 wind force because it falls right on my budget (a lil over but w/e). Now the question is, the 4gb version is out of my price range, so should I just buy the 2gb card or wait till I have enough for the 4gb version? Is the extra cash worth it? Game at 1080p and my CPU is 2500k.

Any advice would be appreciated and of course other cards are also a possibility if the price is under 400 and comparable to the gtx 770.

Considered the 7970? $284 for the Gigabyte one and performance is usually within 5% either way of the 770 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413

Also, have you overclocked your 2500K?

 

[Crisco]

Just tried Lightboost for the first time on my Asus VG248QE. I didn't really like it. The effect itself wasn't that noticeable during gameplay and I didn't like what it did to the colors/contrast of the monitor. Maybe if I wasn't coming from an non-TN panel or this monitor had better baseline color reproduction I could tolerate it. As it is, the trade off didn't seem worth it to me.

 

[SaintR]

Considered the 7970? $284 for the Gigabyte one and performance is usually within 5% either way of the 770 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413

Also, have you overclocked your 2500K?

Yea my 2500k is OCed to 4.6 stable. Ill look into that card. I do like AMD but just wanted to test Nvidia this time but performance/money ratio talks.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[LCGeek]

I bought the MSI TFIII one about 6 months ago. They come in two different PCB's. Mine was the 6+8pin iirc. There was also an 8+8pin which was the same PCB as the 7970 I think.

Anyway, the card is a beast. I run it between 1100 and 1150 to keep the fan noise reasonable. But I've had it stable over 1200 with loud fans under full load. Not bad considering the reference board is only 800. Great build quality too.

Do you know if 450watts is enough for teh card.

 

[LCGeek]

Just tried Lightboost for the first time on my Asus VG248QE. I didn't really like it. The effect itself wasn't that noticeable during gameplay and I didn't like what it did to the colors/contrast of the monitor. Maybe if I wasn't coming from an non-TN panel or this monitor had better baseline color reproduction I could tolerate it. As it is, the trade off didn't seem worth it to me.

What games are you using for it? Also what was the performance of the game?

 

[kharma45]

Yea my 2500k is OCed to 4.6 stable. Ill look into that card. I do like AMD but just wanted to test Nvidia this time but performance/money ratio talks.

Thanks for the quick reply.

If you're wanting to try Nvidia I would wait for the new AMD stuff to launch just in case it shakes up the pricing on the green side. At the minute the 770 is pretty poor value next to a 7970 in terms of raw performance per dollar.

 

[Crisco]

What games are you using for it? Also what was the performance of the game?

I was trying Diablo III, runs locked at 120HZ.

 

[SaintR]

If you're wanting to try Nvidia I would wait for the new AMD stuff to launch just in case it shakes up the pricing on the green side. At the minute the 770 is pretty poor value next to a 7970 in terms of raw performance per dollar.

Thanks again, unfortunately, I should have emphasized that the my card ATM can go at anytime. So I don't know how patient I can be if it goes. However, thanks for the push towards the 7970.

 

[kharma45]

Thanks again, unfortunately, I should have emphasized that the my card ATM can go at anytime. So I don't know how patient I can be if it goes. However, thanks for the push towards the 7970.

Ah I didn't realise it was so badly on it's last legs.

You'll not go wrong wither either a 770 or a 7970, both are great GPUs.

 

[LCGeek]

I was trying Diablo III, runs locked at 120HZ.

Not really the game to show off lightboost You need something that benefits from it, try a an fps and if you don't see it then take the monitor back for ips.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

So this question might be a little different. I have a Verizon router and it is about 100 feet from my room the single goes through 3 walls. Would a Ethernet cable improve my net speed at this distance? What cat would be best?

Thank you.

 

[LCGeek]

So this question might be a little different. I have a Verizon router and it is about 100 feet from my room the single goes through 3 walls. Would a Ethernet cable improve my net speed at this distance? What cat would be best?

Thank you.

If you have no signal strength yes. Ethernet is still far more stable than wireless especially if you online game.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

If you have no signal strength yes. Ethernet is still far more stable than wireless especially if you online game.

I have a signal. But it drops once and awhile would the cable work? I plan to use it for PC and next gen console stuff.

 

[kharma45]

I have a signal. But it drops once and awhile would the cable work? I plan to use it for PC and next gen console stuff.

You could try home plugs rather than trail an ethernet cable over a large distance.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

You could try home plugs rather than trail an ethernet cable over a large distance.

It's an apartment. We don't have plugs other then the router.

 

[kharma45]

It's an apartment. We don't have plugs other then the router.

What? You've no power sockets?

 

[Laughing_Man__]

What? You've no power sockets?

Ethernet cable from a outlet? The router is in a fixed spot in the main room if that's what you mean.
I think it's fixed I'll check in a bit.
Maybe a long coax cable and move the router to my room.

 

[LCGeek]

Ethernet cable from a outlet? The router is in a fixed spot in the main room if that's what you mean.
I think it's fixed I'll check in a bit.
Maybe a long coax cable and move the router to my room.

You get a powerline adapter, rather two. Put one near your router and then put the other near the devices that needs the ethernet. Just be warned your circuits need to be connected.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

You get a powerline adapter, rather two. Put one near your router and then put the other near the devices that needs the ethernet. Just be warned your circuits need to be connected.

Gonna move the router. Just need a 100 foot coax cable and that should be it.


Thanks for the help.

 

[kharma45]

Ethernet cable from a outlet? The router is in a fixed spot in the main room if that's what you mean.
I think it's fixed I'll check in a bit.
Maybe a long coax cable and move the router to my room.

No I was wondering why you'd no power outlets to use power line adapters. Plug one in beside your router and one beside your PC, have ethernet from the router into the adapter and then ethernet from the other adapter into your PC.

 

[Hazaro]

So, my build came together pretty well, but I'm having this annoying little issue.

I'll have a rock-solid 60fps with all settings cranked in (say) Diablo 3 or Warframe or BF3 or whatever, but every 20-30 minutes or so I'll get a random audio stutter/framerate drop. IN BF3, with the counter running, it'll drop to 47 fps for a second, and then pop right back. I disabled all of the little ASROCK utilities, so I'm thinking this is a windows issue. I'm running Windows 7 and I have two 1TB platter drives in there: a seagate 7200rpm/64 mb drive with windows/steam/etc installed on and an older samsung drive as a file store.

Could be a GPU driver issue or HDD issue.

I'd uninstall drivers, run CCleaer, reinstall newer/older one and see if it happens again. Then try an install from a different drive and see if it keep happening.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

No I was wondering why you'd no power outlets to use power line adapters. Plug one in beside your router and one beside your PC, have ethernet from the router into the adapter and then ethernet from the other adapter into your PC.

Got a 100 foot coax cable at Home Depot.

 

[Erebus]

So I've been getting a few BSODs lately that occur randomly (probably once every two days or so) when I use my PC. At first I thought it was software-related (caused by Firefox or the nVidia drivers) but now I think it's some part of the hardware that's failing.

I let Prime95 run for about 7 hours the other day to ensure that my OC'd CPU is stable, thus I don't think it's that either. Then, I decided to check on the RAM so I downloaded memtest86+

To my surprise within the first hour of running the test I got this:

Is it safe to assume that the RAM is the culprit here? For the record, the error message that I am getting from Windows 7 everytime my PC BSOD'd has the code 0x00000024. I researched it a bit but from what I gathered this error can be triggered by pretty much anything (software or hardware).

 

[Gaf_SentMe]

Newegg preorders for new AMD GPUs?

Also, how does one go about installing linux on a custom built pc with no hard drive. Looking into that possibility.

 

[kharma45]

Newegg preorders for new AMD GPUs?

Also, how does one go about installing linux on a custom built pc with no hard drive. Looking into that possibility.

No pre-orders yet.

You can run Linux off a USB from a quick Google.

 

[Gaf_SentMe]

No pre-orders yet.

You can run Linux off a USB from a quick Google.

Gracias.

 

[Hazaro]

So I've been getting a few BSODs lately that occur randomly (probably once every two days or so) when I use my PC. At first I thought it was software-related (caused by Firefox or the nVidia drivers) but now I think it's some part of the hardware that's failing.

I let Prime95 run for about 7 hours the other day to ensure that my OC'd CPU is stable, thus I don't think it's that either. Then, I decided to check on the RAM so I downloaded memtest86+

To my surprise within the first hour of running the test I got this:



Is it safe to assume that the RAM is the culprit here? For the record, the error message that I am getting from Windows 7 everytime my PC BSOD'd has the code 0x00000024. I researched it a bit but from what I gathered this error can be triggered by pretty much anything (software or hardware).

Yes. RMA.

 

[Laughing_Man__]

No I was wondering why you'd no power outlets to use power line adapters. Plug one in beside your router and one beside your PC, have ethernet from the router into the adapter and then ethernet from the other adapter into your PC.

Check it

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2994565071

 

[opticalmace]

I'm looking for a second monitor (primary is a Samsung T240HD, 24" 1920x1200). I saw a few listed in the OP, but is there a better resource for comparing monitors/picking the best ones?

Thanks.

 

[LCGeek]

I'm looking for a second monitor (primary is a Samsung T240HD, 24" 1920x1200). I saw a few listed in the OP, but is there a better resource for comparing monitors/picking the best ones?

Thanks.

The op has some of the best if you don't like it go to hardforum and check out their display forums much more detailed. The threads are split but they go in depth on a variety of big name models gamers like to use.

 

[kennah]

Clueless guy kinda made my night.

 

[Big Chungus]

Not sure if this is the right thread but...

Jut put together a pc with sorta old parts (2010/2011).

Had everything set up correctly, took me like 2 hours to get everything right.

When I turned on the PC, I smelled smoke and quickly turned it off.

Looked around a bit and found that the southbridge chip (I think?) had two red sparks...it had caught on fire.

Anyone know what could have caused this?

and im right to assume that my PC is dead...I turned it on, fans and cpu cooler are working, bu tno beeps or display.

 

[Femmeworth]

I was thinking about getting a new laptop, but I'm not satisfied with my options at my price range ($500 - $600). Would a mini PC and possibly a portable LCD monitor be a better option? Any recommendations? I want something I can take to school and bring home to use as my primary computer.

Edit: I'll update this post to be more thorough later.

 

[teh_pwn]

So I've been getting a few BSODs lately that occur randomly (probably once every two days or so) when I use my PC. At first I thought it was software-related (caused by Firefox or the nVidia drivers) but now I think it's some part of the hardware that's failing.

I let Prime95 run for about 7 hours the other day to ensure that my OC'd CPU is stable, thus I don't think it's that either. Then, I decided to check on the RAM so I downloaded memtest86+

To my surprise within the first hour of running the test I got this:



Is it safe to assume that the RAM is the culprit here? For the record, the error message that I am getting from Windows 7 everytime my PC BSOD'd has the code 0x00000024. I researched it a bit but from what I gathered this error can be triggered by pretty much anything (software or hardware).

RMA it. Infrequent memory errors are the worst. I had RAM at work that would fail every 4-8 hours. I much prefer instant blobs of errors.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I was thinking about getting a new laptop, but I'm not satisfied with my options at my price range ($500 - $600). Would a mini PC and possibly a portable LCD monitor be a better option? Any recommendations? I want something I can take to school and bring home to use as my primary computer.

Edit: I'll update this post to be more thorough later.

College? you mean bringing it to you dorm and then bring it back to your house in holidays?
Or you mean to carry the thing around?

I wouldn't recommend something that is not a laptop for the later, even laptops gets beaten up by carrying them a lot and they are designed for that.

 

[Tablo]

I was thinking about getting a new laptop, but I'm not satisfied with my options at my price range ($500 - $600). Would a mini PC and possibly a portable LCD monitor be a better option? Any recommendations? I want something I can take to school and bring home to use as my primary computer.

Edit: I'll update this post to be more thorough later.

In what way are you not satisfied? If you can save a bit to stretch to 650~ you can get a decently specced Thinkpad Edge, I like recommending those for normal use and they're great for school stuff, only shortcoming is a mediocre screen, but fine for school and regular usage, and appropriate for the price.

 

[Femmeworth]

College? you mean bringing it to you dorm and then bring it back to your house in holidays?
Or you mean to carry the thing around?

I wouldn't recommend something that is not a laptop for the later, even laptops gets beaten up by carrying them a lot and they are designed for that.

Yes, college. I was thinking I could carry it around and set it up in the library or wherever. Frankly I don't know much about mini PCs, more or less learned about them yesterday. Now that I think about it, I realize how silly carrying around a desktop, mini or otherwise, would be.

In what way are you not satisfied? If you can save a bit to stretch to 650~ you can get a decently specced Thinkpad Edge, I like recommending those for normal use and they're great for school stuff, only shortcoming is a mediocre screen, but fine for school and regular usage, and appropriate for the price.

For one, I don't want to be stuck with a mediocre screen. Also I don't want to get a non-Haswell laptop (mainly because of the better GPU), which means I will have to wait for them to drop in price.

 

[Argyle]

Thinking about putting together a high end Steam/HTPC/extra distributed build box...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($8.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VI IMPACT Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($346.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1227.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-27 01:35 EDT-0400)

No video card or power supply - I have a Seasonic X750 I can use, and I'm going to throw an old Radeon 6970 in there for the time being. When new graphics cards come out, I might upgrade the 7970 in my workstation and move the 7970 into this machine. Also thinking about downsizing the SSD to 256GB as I was also planning to throw a mechanical HDD that I have lying around into this box.

Cooler Master has an installation video that is almost what I plan to do (the CPU cooler they use is different) but if anyone has any opinions on this case and this configuration of parts (this seems to be a newer version of a case in the GAFBox guide), let me know...I don't know what RAM is good, I just got something on the cheaper end that was also low profile.

 

[littleworm]

Ok I have a question. I am at school, and in my room I only have one ethernet port available to me. The issue I'm having is that I want to connect both my 360 and my PC up to the internet, in previous years I just used the wireless for my 360, however this year I am not able to. My question is what is the best way to have both my 360 and my PC connected to the internet at the same time using one ethernet port?

 

[LCGeek]

Ok I have a question. I am at school, and in my room I only have one ethernet port available to me. The issue I'm having is that I want to connect both my 360 and my PC up to the internet, in previous years I just used the wireless for my 360, however this year I am not able to. My question is what is the best way to have both my 360 and my PC connected to the internet at the same time using one ethernet port?

Get a ethernet switch....

 

[kharma45]

Thinking about putting together a high end Steam/HTPC/extra distributed build box...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($8.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VI IMPACT Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($346.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1227.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-27 01:35 EDT-0400)

No video card or power supply - I have a Seasonic X750 I can use, and I'm going to throw an old Radeon 6970 in there for the time being. When new graphics cards come out, I might upgrade the 7970 in my workstation and move the 7970 into this machine. Also thinking about downsizing the SSD to 256GB as I was also planning to throw a mechanical HDD that I have lying around into this box.

Cooler Master has an installation video that is almost what I plan to do (the CPU cooler they use is different) but if anyone has any opinions on this case and this configuration of parts (this seems to be a newer version of a case in the GAFBox guide), let me know...I don't know what RAM is good, I just got something on the cheaper end that was also low profile.

Drop the thermal paste.

No need for an i7 and 16GB of RAM unless you're doing lots of media work. Why a BR writer?

 

[tehbible]

Thinking about putting together a high end Steam/HTPC/extra distributed build box...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($8.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VI IMPACT Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($346.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1227.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-27 01:35 EDT-0400)

No video card or power supply - I have a Seasonic X750 I can use, and I'm going to throw an old Radeon 6970 in there for the time being. When new graphics cards come out, I might upgrade the 7970 in my workstation and move the 7970 into this machine. Also thinking about downsizing the SSD to 256GB as I was also planning to throw a mechanical HDD that I have lying around into this box.

Cooler Master has an installation video that is almost what I plan to do (the CPU cooler they use is different) but if anyone has any opinions on this case and this configuration of parts (this seems to be a newer version of a case in the GAFBox guide), let me know...I don't know what RAM is good, I just got something on the cheaper end that was also low profile.

I would NOT recommend the H60 as it is known to run really loud and does not offer as good of performance as higher end air cooled heatsinks

Since it looks like you will be OC'ing, I would recommend you grab the Noctua NH-D14. Runs quiet and gives great results in terms of temps.

16GB ram? Max you need is 8GB. 16GB is complete overkill. Get 8GB of higher frequency like a 2133+ 8GB ram.