first build in years - advice, please :)

[asar]

Hi all

I'm planning on building my first system for quite a few years and would really appreciate it if you could give me your thoughts on the spec.

I'm aiming for a quiet and reasonably energy efficient machine for general gaming and 3d rendering. I won't be overclocking (stock speeds are fine for my purposes, and save a little on the power) and am only going to be using a single graphics card. These are the components I'm thinking of:

processor: i5 (or possibly i7 860 if my funds can stretch to it)

motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3

memory: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) initially, but adding another 4 GB when I can afford to

GPU: HD 5770 (probably Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 but might stretch to the Vapor-X version if it's significantly quieter and needs less power)

hard drive: 500GB initially (seagate barracuda or samsung spinpoint f3), adding another as I need it.

optical drive: basic dvd-rw sata (e.g. LG GH22NS50)

cpu cooler: something cheap and quiet (possibly arctic cooling freezer 7 pro rev 2?) - I'd go with the stock cooler, but have heard they can be noisy?

Case: antec 300
power: corsair VX 550
(am also considering the Coolermaster Sileo 500 Silent Case with 500w Extreme Power Plus PSU, but am hesitant because of the bad rep for included PSUs and also because of possible heat build up in a 'silent' (well sealed) case?)

OS: windows 7 home premium 64bit

I'd really appreciate hearing any thoughts or advice you guys could offer!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[4Play]

Check out the 4890 GPU, its only DX10 but is a much better performer at that level then the 5770. Not many dx11 games right now could be worth a look at

 

[Didaco]

every thing looks good on that just a few pointers
as a HDD go for the F3
and i know you have said you are not going to overclock but im gonna say reconsider that a moderate overclock to about 3.2/3.4 ghz on an i5 will make a big difference and will be quite easy with guidance

 

[asar]

many thanks for the replies and advice!

the main thing that puts me off the 4890 is it's higher power needs. I'll def have a look through a few more reviews, though.

thanks for the thoughts on overclocking. I might give it some more thought in the future, but I think the stock speed is probably going to be fine for a while (I'm trying to keep energy use as low as possible).

thanks again for taking the time to reply, really very much appreciated!