smallghost wrote:Psu: Seasonic X-560
I don't see any problem with this. I was looking to buy this, but the X-650 went on sale to a price below this model. Note, this model is actually a newer revision of the X-Series than the X-650/750, but the changes are pretty minor. As for "aggressive" fan behavior, I've never heard anyone say that about this line before. On the contrary, in JonnyGuru's
cold test, the fan didn't even start spinning until the PSU was putting out 300W. It did the same thing in the
hot test, and managed to turn in nearly identical voltage and efficiency numbers. Everything I've read about this line has said that you won't hear any fan noise short of pushing it to its upper limits. Looking at what you've chosen, you're probably going to run totally fanless except in high-demand gaming.
smallghost wrote:Cpu: Intel i5-2400
This should be a respectable CPU for mild gaming. I expect that it might start being a bottleneck in CPU-heavy games in a couple years, but so long as you know that going in, you'll be fine. (It also requires some bold guessing about the future of games)
smallghost wrote:Ram: 16GB G-skill DDR3-1600
While its a bit hypocritical (I just bought 16GB of DDR3-1600), this appears to be a bit more than a normal person would use. First, there's very little benefit to DDR3-1600 over DDR3-1333. You're just not going to notice a difference. Then we have the amount. 16GB is
a lot. I have 8GB now and only use it all when running hefty VMs. I don't expect any games in the next three years will use more than about 3GB of RAM, and you'll be hard pressed to stack up a collection of other apps to run at the same time that will eat up more than 5GB. In short: 8GB should be enough for anyone. (<eye roll> Except me, it seems).
Next, I'd really recommend that you strongly consider the Sniper line of RAM if you're going to be buying G.Skill RAM. There's really nothing better about the Ripjaws or Ripjaws-X, and both of them have taller heat sinks that will restrict your options for CPU cooler (
as I am rather familiar with).
smallghost wrote:Ssd: Crucial 128GB C300
A fine choice. Be sure to look around and see what sort of deals you can get. Now that the C400/m4 drives are out, a lot of retailers seem to be draining stock on the C300s. I was able to find one for
$200.
smallghost wrote:Heatsink: ??? (need advice here, is stock heatsink & fan loud?)
Heh. I'm far too familiar with this. The Hyper 212+ is rabidly popular and cost effective, though you'll want to buy a better fan with it. The S1283 and its variants also work, and the Scythe Mugen a good choice, if somewhat huge. For my build, I'm strongly considering a Thermalright MUX-120. All of these have mid-level performance (which is all you'd need for a 2400) and prices ranging from about $30-$45. More than that is overkill. Less than that and I'd start worrying about the quality.