Reddit reviews Corsair Professional Series  HX 850 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Gold (HX850)

I may come back and edit this if I mess something up, but I'll try to be as granular as possible and give links because I sure wish I would have had someone help me when I was building this. I will say this, I looked for these items over time and waited until I found good deals.


Case:[ Corsaire Air 540] (http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-Airflow-CC-9011030-WW/dp/B00D6GINF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421547180&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+air+540) - This is a large case. However, I have built many PC's and this is the best case I've ever used. All of your cables are hidden, so you have a very clean build with very easy access.

Proc: i7 4790K - I got this on sale for $279. Although I don't need to, I can very easily use the ASRock to overclock to 4.5 ghz straight from the OS.

Video: EVGA GTX 760 SC (I got this at Microcenter for $230.00) - As mentioned, I run three 1900x1200 montors with this. For games - I can run anything (to date) at 1900x1200 on ultra when the Proc os overclocked, unless it is just coded crappy. Lately I'be been playing ESO and Wildstar, but I've also done Bioshock Infinite and The Vanashing of Ethan Carter (beautiful game) as well.

Ram: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16gb - See my comment below on ram.

Motherboard: ASRock z97 Motherboard - Believe it or not, I got this for $86 at Microcenter.

Firewire Card: Syba FW Card with TI Chipset - This is low profile, but comes with a full size bracket. Works great with the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

OS: Windows 8.1 Professional

PT Version: PT11 (Latest Build)

Audio Interface: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Make sure you get the latest software for this and run PT as administrator. I had to do this before the Midi would work right through the Saffire.

Proc Cooling: Corsair Hydro 105 - Do your research. There are a lot of cooling options. I had this in a separate machine and really like it.

Case Fans: Corsair Air Series AF140 LED Quiet Edition High Airflow Fans - One again, there are a lot of options with fans. These matched my case and are relatively quiet. Iknow the Noctua stuff is really awesome too.

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - This might be overkill. I got this because I game some on this system and figured I would add another GTX 760 at some point. Also, not sure you need the HX. You might be able to go with a lower end PSU.

Video Monitors: Two of these are Lenova which I already had and are not included in the build price. The other, I just got and it beats the Lenovos significantly. It is an ASUS PA248Q 24-Inch LED-Lit IPS Professional Graphics Monitor. I use these large monitors because my eyes are bad from years of IT work, staring into monitors. Imagine that. This would be overkill for many as they take up a lot of space.

HD1: Crucial MX100 512 gb SSD. Everybody gets Samsung, and even I have one in my purchased gaming rig. However, before you do that, read this review from Tom's Hardware on the MX100. I'm completely sold on this SSD. I got this for $180 on a Newegg sale.

HD2: [Seagate 3tb 7200](Seagate Desktop 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST3000DM001) - It is a platter HD I put my sessions on, nothing more. I've never seen a slow down.

A couple of other notes.

1. I use a service SOS Online Backup to back up my sessions so in case of a drive failure I don't lose anything.
   
   
2. If I could change anything about this - I would have bought a motherboard with Thunderbolt. However, I think it was a $200 price difference at the time, so I stayed with my budget and I've had no issues with the firewire.
   
   
3. I'm a singer songwriter, so this setup geared for me. I think it would work for just about anyone, but I've seen some of the mixing engineers on this forum say you may need more ram if you ar running huge sessions. The biggest song I run is probably about 25 tracks (including buses), few of which would be simultaneous, and I've never used more than 1/2 my ram.
   
   If you have anymore questions let me know. I had this info an a word doc from when I was planning - so I'm glad I was able to pass it on. I hope this helps.
   

IMPORTANT - You seem to have an X79 motherboard (socket 2011) and a socket 1155 CPU. Try either the i7-3820 or a Z77 motherboard, otherwise they just plain won't go together!

Also, 16GB of ram is probably overkill, a 2x4GB kit would be plenty. Feel free to go for the 16GB if you want it, but you are really unlikely to need it.

As well as that, I'd recommend a 7970 over a 670, given that they are the same price point (a 7970 is more on par with, and can outperform, a 680).

Your PSU is good, but not as good as a Corsair HX850, which is also cheaper.

Is there any reason why you have 3TB of storage? And what about the 250GB SSD? I've heard better things of the 840 Pro than the 840, but it is more expensive.

I don't know much about keyboards, so I'll stay quiet there (though /r/MechanicalKeyboards may object to such a price for a non-mechanical one). I know even less about mouses.

Why the expensive sound card? You're going to need to have some really quite good speakers to see any benefit over on board audio.

And finally, you don't seem to have a case!

will this do?