finally committed to building a PC! UPDATE!

Sorry all the photos are upside down. I have no idea how to fix that. It looked fine on all my other devices and programs.

Total cost : $1303

Gigabyte GTX 970

Intel i5-6600k

Asus Z170-A

Samsung EVO850 - 250GB SSD

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 2666MHz (4x4)

Corsair H110i GT cooling block

Corsair T870 Tower

EVGA 750 G2

So far in my temp test I have a CPU idle temp of 19c (well with me using the pc for pictures). GPU idle temp of 24c. I haven't played any games yet.

is that good? I have no clue

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here is a rough outline on my build. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nqkvXL

But i want this case instead : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013DYXG4Q?colid=M6JQNES9HYBL&coliid=IJOW1LF539TXA&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl

Would you guys recommend getting a Full size case for possible expansion? if i wanted down the road, would i be able to fit two GPU's in this case?

I have a CD drive already on an recent PC that died. I have a spare 2TB barracuda drive as extra storage.

GPU question: is there a particular brand i should go for?

CPU: is the i5-6600k Good enough? on paper it looks good but i know all you pc enthusiast really know the inner workings. how about over clocking it in the future.

@XxAK47xX: The card is 269mm, the Versa N21 only supports up to 250mm.

Find another case.

Brands kinda depend. For example: I would totally recommend a Gigabyte 970 while I would tell to avoid Gigabyte if you're looking for an R9 390/390X.

MSI 970's have good feedback so you're pretty safe there.

@insane_metalist: ok cool, i was looking at the one first.

As far as the case goes, i guess i better off getting a full tower. ill keep looking till i see one i really like. I do like the phantom cases but they dont have a front intake. < unless that does not matter at all.

im down with this case: http://www.amazon.com/NZXT-PHANTOM-Tower-Black-PHAN-002GR/dp/B004WO17UC/ref=sr_1_12?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449535446&sr=1-12&keywords=full+tower

or this one

http://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Phantom-Full-Tower-CA-PH530-B1/dp/B00F0EB0SM/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449536476&sr=1-3&keywords=NZXT+Phantom+530+Gaming+Full+Tower+Case

will i have any problems here?

Clearance: VGA>350mm, CPU Heatsink support 180mm (without side 200/230mm fan)

You are fine here.

CPU Cooler: 183mm/VGA Card: 282mm (With Cage & Pivot Fan), 310mm (With Cage), 444mm (Without Cage))/Cable Management:26mm (Lowest Point), 34mm (Highest Point)

And you are fine here as well...

@XxAK47xX: Who told you that phantom cases don't have a front intake?

The description for both the cases say 1x intake.

@Coseniath: thanks man! really appreciate the feedback.

Yup, they definitely have front intakes. I used to have Phantom 410 and even it had a front intake.

BTW you were wondering if 6600K is good enough for gaming? The answer is YES! It performs almost as well as 6700K (gaming wise).

Z170-A is a pretty solid mobo so you should be able to get a decent overclock. Although every chip is different so the overclock will vary.

Always corsair, at least the case. You'll have a lot easier time building a pc in a corsair case.

@GhostHawk196: ill take a look. I purchased everything so far except the heat sink and case.

If I were you, I'd purchase a 120 GB SSD

@ghosthawk196 I didn't get any of those cases. I went with something big.

Corsair Graphite Series 780T Full Tower PC Case - Black (CC-9011063-WW) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LA6POK4/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_kRBAwbNR4RT7Q

And I'm looking for a cooler that will be good for over clocking the 6600k. I'm a little scared with water cooling. I don't want to wreck my pc because of a faulty cooler. Unless the company is willing to cover damages.

Also would you guys recommend using the pre applied thermal greas that comes with these coolers or scrape it off and use my own.

@XxAK47xX: Very nice choice, this case is amazing!

You may want to seek other opinions because I'm a bit of a Corsair fan but I only trust their water coolers, you've already spent a lot on the pc you may as well get something amazing. The h110i gtx would be my option if I had your setup. I got the old model and I'm very impressed with its performance with my 4790K. I don't know which region you're in so I'm not gonna link to a retailer you can find the cheapest retailer.

http://www.corsair.com/en/hydro-series-h110i-gtx-280mm-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler

@GhostHawk196: thanks man. I was also looking at that h110i cooler. Being my first ground up build, my excitement is through the roof! I'll post picture when its done. I'll either start building this weekend or Monday coming up. I hope everything goes smooth.

@XxAK47xX: Good luck and have fun!

Don't ever use pre-applied thermal paste, it's garbage. Get Arctic Silver 5 and H110i is more than enough for overclocking a 6600K.

@insane_metalist: OK great. Good thing I ordered that already just because.

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound, 3.5 Grams

I like big cases (full tower) personally; I am big guy, big hands, and I like lots of room to work with. Having all that room for future upgrades is nice, too, if you want to venture into water cooling for example, and so forth. Vid cards are also getting huge these days; Im sure most will fit into mid tower, but you never know.

I'm a big NZXT and Fractal Design fan when it comes to cases. Just make sure you get metal case, plastic feels so flimsy and cheap to me.

As far as brands go, just do research. As others have said, some companies do better with certain things, and worse with others.

On a similiar note, a couple rules I have. Not sure if this is your first build or not, so ignore if you know what you're doing:

Get an SSD for, at the very least, your OS; a 128GB for your OS and maybe some core files is perfect. A larger one for games will help in some instances, but isn't critical.
No need to spend more than 150 on a motherboard; unless you're a serious tweaker-of-settings, all that extra crap is useless
16GB memory; 8GB is fine, but memory is cheap, might as well future proof while you're at it. 32GB is excessive
No need for sound cards any more; on-board audio is just fine
If you're mobo doesn't have built-in wifi, get a wifi card (not a USB stick) if you plan on using wifi and not using a physical ethernet cable (I recommend a cable, though).
When building, pull any extra HDD cages/crap out of your case
Stock coolers are great now, but after-market fans and heatsinks look cool and are quieter. Affordable, too
Hands off the shiny parts of components (i.e. where the video card goes into the slot)
Do not force your fan/heatsink lever when installing it; I've broken so many flimsy plastic levers, I wan't to cry sometimes
Quad core is fine. Hell dual core is fine. 6- and 8- core is crazy.
Get some small zip ties for tidying up your case
If you can spend a bit more, get a modular power supply. Makes your case so clean, and you'll never need all those connections unless you get a crapload of hard drives and other components.

These aren't for everyone, just things I've found out along the way.

ok I have added some pictures.

@XxAK47xX:

Those temperatures are fine my G1 970 idles around 23-24C and my i5 4690k idles around 29C on a Hyper 212+ evo.

Load temps are what you need to check , under 80C for gpu is fine and under 60C is fine for cpu.

@04dcarraher: sounds good.

Looks beautiful. Now do some benching and post it in the pinned thread above.

@04dcarraher: Then you need to clean your case's filters like me. xD

I haven't clean them for like 2 months and I have 24C idle in my G1 GTX970:

@horgen: .....how do I do that? what software. I just played metro 2033 maxed out flawlessly for 30 mins and backed out to see the temps. So under load the CPU jumped up to 25 and the GPU went to 28.

@Coseniath:

My room is usually 75-77F so 23-25C is lowest it will get. ie 75 is 23.8C and 77F is 25C

Here is a test of some sort.

Some good benchmarks to use: 3DMark | 3DMark11 | Heaven 4.0 | Valley 1.0 |

This is a benchmark thread, it shows you where to download benchmarks I listed above. Once you do some benchmark runs, post your results in The All New Gamespot PC Bench Thread

The benchmark you posted above is a CPU benchmark.

Your build looks pretty sweet, I really like your choice in components/brands.

@insane_metalist: thanks for the heads up/info and thanks for the complement!

Yeah.. no problem mang.

BTW you can use GPU-Z and Afterburner to monitor your temps.

HWmonitor, Afterburner, GPU-Z...

@04dcarraher: Oh, that explains the 23-24 minimum.

I have a little lower temps only in the place (in the corner of a corner room xD) where I put the case (19C-20C and even lower) thats why in the screenshot you can see the 20C minimum.

If I clean it, I would probably reach below 20C in idle. :P

so I got these putting everything on max except for 3d and duel monitors.