New Build..exciting time!

[Rey Ramon]

So most my components for a new build arrive tomorrow. I'm very excited. I'm definitely going outside my comfort zone on this one..spending a little more than originally anticipated as well. I'm at a point in my life that I have a lot of clutter or ..."crap" around my house. I don't want my computer to be one of those things. So'm going for a high performance SFF (small form factor) build. Components as ordered from newegg and amazon are below.

GIGABYTE GA-Z77N-WIFI LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
ADATA XPG SX900 ASX900S3-128GM-C 2.5" 128GB SATA III
Silverstone ST45SF 450 watts SFX form factor power supply
Corsair Hydro Series High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H60
EVGA 02G-P4-2660-KR GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5
Silverstone Tek Aluminum Tower Computer Case FT03B-MINI

And an a little extra something to track real life flights on planeplotter and flightradar24...

NooElec TV28T v2 USB DVB-T & RTL-SDR Receiver, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input

at least we'll see if it works..

So yes I'm excited...we'll see how it turns out.

[Norberto Rivera]

Looks like a good setup Rey. The only thing I'm wondering about is your HD space. 128GB will get eaten up pretty quick with the typical FSX installation most of us run. I would recommend getting another, less-costly HD to handle the OS and put FS on your SSD. That will make a big difference in your FPS and your addon installation issues. I've been reading the AVSIM forums recently and they have a pretty good hardware guide you can check out if you haven't already.

Edit: You could even recycle your existing HD to run the OS and not have an added expense!

[Rey Ramon]

Yup, planning on recycling an old HDD. The ssd is mainly a boot drive and I'll place a couple frequently used programs on it as well. Really excited about this build. I'll post a video link of the case of you are not that familiar. NCIX.COM had build similar to what I'm doing on YouTube.

[Harold Henderson]

You're sure 450w power supply will be sufficient?

[Rey Ramon]

Not really planning on OCing much if any. In fact, I probably should of gone with an H77 board. From what I've been reading 450 Watts has been running these setups appropriately due to increased efficiencies of the cpu and gpu. Even Nvidia has said 450 watt psu are minimum. Besides, if you guys have looked into the type of computer case I'm putting this all into, 450 watts is about all I can get into there as an sfx form factor psu is the biggest toe I can get into there.
Check this video out...very similar to what I'm doing. Again....this build makes me a little nervous, but I'm really liking the small foot print if it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWAeZYB9DGg

only thing on that video is that they are using the 80plus gold version of the psu I got..I got the 80 plus bronze version...hoping it will work. after watching the video, you will see why I went with water cooling...cramped quaters.

What size SSD do you guys recommend?

[Rey Ramon]

I have an old 500GB HDD I'll be reformatting and using it in conjunction with the SSD.

[Rey Ramon]

hmmm...so newegg just emailed me some codes as a token of appreciation for purchasing the gtx660. I wonder if everyone got them, but found it odd how it mentions specifically about the VC purchase. So one of the codes is for 20% off select Samsung SSD. This is in addition to their sale price now. So i could get the 840 120Gb for around $76. or the 840 256GB for around $136. That seems like incredibly good deals for both..don't you? What do you guys think? Now if I can just get my wife to spring for this little bit more....

[Rey Ramon]

Keep in mind I would also be getting free two days shipping since I'm trialing their ShopRunner service.

[Rey Ramon]

Yeah well I missed it. Apparently there is a certain amount of funds set aside for those kind of deals. When I first checked the price all was good. But later that evening I was going to purchase it and I got a message on the check out page saying the promotion had been deactivated due to of fund exhaust. I got that promotion for the gtx660 i purchased a week ago. i purchased all the rest of the components three days later...so i'm wondering if i'll get another token of appreciation...i won't delay this time. It was a totally awesome deal.

[Rey Ramon]

So I have it up and running! This is difinitely a tight build. But it's running good thus far. Took World of Tanks for a spin since it's an easy install. CPU is idling temps around 28C and maxing around 44C. The GTX 660 Idled at 28C and Maxed at 70C(if I turn gpu fan to max manually it's down to 66C). This was on Maximum Settings getting between 75 FPS and 95 FPS. By comparison my gtx8800 was idling 55C and Maxing at 88C giving me 30 fps on medium settings. So I am pleased. Windows 7 performance score is 7.6 out of 7.9. my 7.6 came from the processor. RAM was 7.7...everything else was 7.9. I think I have a little room to play with my cpu...although OCing will be limited by my mobo (voltages can't be regulated), and as Miguel mentioned...my water cooler. I may try for 3.8 or 4.0...but we'll see. still breaking it. I'm very pleased thus far. I just wish my 50 inch LG was WiDi compatible in the next room..then I could have some real fun streaming World of Tanks and FSX over to it...but I wonder how well WiDi works for gaming...
here is the demo WiDi...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4WFJ6PcavY

[Norberto Rivera]

That sounds sweet!

A buddy of mine just went for a projector. He rubbed in the fact that he was playing Black Ops II on a 96" screen

[Rey Ramon]

Just an update. I'm able to run my i5 3570K at 4.4 Ghz and keep temperatures at 50C. I'm happy with that. I did try and push to 4.6 for the fun of it, but I can't get it to post. The reason is not temperature related, but mobo related. My mobo does not allow increasing the voltages. It does it automatically. I think it's odd, but like I say, I'm happy at 4.4 Ghz. besides from what I've read..Ivy Bridge does not like more power. Temps increase dramatically with just a little bit more volts.