Upgrading my order

[Pl8]

Hi there, I've made an order but since found I have a bit more available to spend than I thought, so I'm making a few upgrades. Below is what I'm now considering, could anyone advise whether it would be worth me going for the H77 motherboard rather than the H61 (I've upgraded from the i5 3450 to 3550)? I don't plan to overclock, if that makes a difference.

Also, I was going to upgrade the PSU To a Corsair 650W but the compatibility checker indicated that it was far more than I needed - will the one I've chosen definitely be ok for this build? Finally, I had the Coolermaster Elite 430 case, is it worth £24 to go up to the one shown below?


Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/9cHFMYZLFq/
Case
InWin CENTINAL BUC BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE FARCRY3 & 20% OFF MEDAL OF HONOUR with AMD 7770/7850/7870 GPUs!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (500MB/sR,450MB/sW) (Special)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
AOC 23.6" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£109)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK260 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£22)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£69)

 

[keynes]

Morning,
If you want to use your SSD to its full potential then you may want to consider upgrading the motherboard since the one you have selected does not support SATA 6gb/s. I'd upgrade the case for better cooling, probably get a 120gb SSD as the main drive and a caviar black as a secondary drive. You could also consider using the fast track money to upgrade the cpu cooler and/or monitor.

 

[Pl8]

Thanks for the quick and very helpful reply! Would the H77 support the SSD (googling suggests it does but is rather know for sure?

Do you think 120gb SSD would be enough for windows 7 and a couple of biggish games (WoW, Sims + expansions, possibly 1 or 2 others at some point?) if so that would save me £85 which I could put towards the other things you've mentioned. Is the power supple enough, in your opinion? Thanks again

 

[keynes]

Thanks for the quick and very helpful reply! Would the H77 support the SSD (googling suggests it does but is rather know for sure?

Do you think 120gb SSD would be enough for windows 7 and a couple of biggish games (WoW, Sims + expansions, possibly 1 or 2 others at some point?) if so that would save me £85 which I could put towards the other things you've mentioned. Is the power supple enough, in your opinion? Thanks again

You can connect an SSD in either of those motherboards, the one you selected does not support SATA 6gb/s which is what you need to fully exploit the benefits of an SSD. 120gb SSD will be enough for the OS, main drivers and a couple of games depending on the size. From my experience I have not noticed any noticeable difference in loading time between an SSD and a caviar black when storing game there.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sata-6gbps-performance-sata-3gbps,3110-8.html

 

[Pl8]

Thanks again! How do you think this looks then?


Case
InWin CENTINAL BUC BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE FARCRY3 & 20% OFF MEDAL OF HONOUR with AMD 7770/7850/7870 GPUs!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
128GB KINGSTON V200 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (300MB/R, 190MB/W) (Special Offer)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK260 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£22)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£69)
Quantity
1

Price: £1,089.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Frank100]

I'd suggest 1600MHz RAM and it's actually about £4 or 5 cheaper as well.

If you can afford it I'd also go with a slightly higher end PSU. You've got a fairly beefy graphics card in there and if you're running at more than 50% capacity all the time you won't get as much efficiency from the PSU. A better PSU means you are well within capacity and you have room to add more devices in the future. Also a 450W unit might not cope powering an external USB hard drive if you were in the middle of something power hungry.

 

[Pl8]

Thanks Frank100, unfortunately I put through my changes yesterday morning and as it's gone through to quality control already I don't want to make any more changes - I wish I'd noticed that RAM! I had my doubts about the PSU too but left it as it is, at least it looks like it is something I could replace myself if I feel it is struggling.