Help with my first gaming PC build

[Hari1]

Hi, so I'm a long-time pc gamer but first-time builder. I've upgraded pieces to premades before but always been too afraid to take the plunge and build one myself. I've finally decided to do it. I'm building this computer to share with my girlfriend, the primary purpose is gaming, including streaming and recording video of myself playing/turning them into vods with audio and editing. I have a few questions, the first is just if everything seems fine with my choices so far or if there's anything I should know/have missed:

NZXT Tempest EVO Enthusiast Mid Tower Case
Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Intel Z68 LGA1155 Motherboard
Intel Core i7 2600k
16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 RAM
Radeon HD 6970
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB Hard Drive
Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W Power Supply

A few notes:

1. I don't care for advice on an Nvidia vs ATI GPU. If there is some issue I might have with compatibility, then I would be happy to hear about it. Also, as far as an actual company from which to get the HD 6970 (I had chosen Visiontek simply because they had a reasonable price for one that I could get shipped to Europe, but advice on this would be welcome). Other than that, no thanks.

2. I chose an i7 2600k over an i5 2500k even though I know that for gaming they would be practically identical and the latter would be significantly cheaper because I plan on using this for a while and I have no idea what future applications it might be used for, so in this instance I'd rather just spend more now. Similarly, I chose to go with 16 GB of RAM even though I probably wont use all of it just because of how cheap the difference between 8 GB and 16 GB is that I'd rather just go for more now, so money-saving tips in these two regards aren't needed. Advice for different brands of RAM is still certainly welcome though.

3. I'm not getting an SSD. I love them, they're awesome, and I can't wait to have one, but I'm not satisfied with the price for capacity right now so I wont be getting one at this time (not even to use as a boot drive with a larger hard drive for storage). That said, I'm not very content with my choice in a hard drive, so suggestions here are definitely welcome.

On anything beyond these notes, all suggestions are definitely welcome. A few more specific questions though:

1. I don't want to go with the stock cooler on my CPU, but I have no idea what to do as far as upgrades to that. I'm not really wanting a huge water-cooled setup, I haven't heard amazing things about the small self-contained loop water-coolers, and I don't know what air cooling I could use that would be good while overclocking my CPU (not extreme overclocking, but I'd like to at least get it over 4 GHz). Help?

2. Should I bother with a fan controller?

3. With everything I'm going to have running, my big GPU, and the 6 fans in the case, will an 850W PSU be fine?

4. I don't know anything about monitors, just that I want a flat-screen that will be good enough to let me enjoy my GPU, but not extremely expensive. I also will only be going with 1 monitor regardless due to space issues in our apartment.

5. If you have any good places to buy computer parts online that ship to France I would certainly welcome any suggestions. I already have tigerdirect, dabs, maplin, skinflint. Thanks.

I think that's pretty much all I can think of right now. Any help in general or answers to my specific questions will be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[edalbkrad]

850W Power Supply is overkill
a 600watt is enough to power a 2600k, HD6970, 1 harddrive, 4 sticks of ram and a ton of fans.
Get a coolermaster hyper212+ cooler, I highly recommend it for overclocking.

I think this site ships to france Cheap Laptops, Computers and Cheap LCD TVs | Ebuyer.com

 

[220racer]

When going with RAM, I always suggest buying either G.Skill, or corsair. Here is a link to some good RAM: Corsair CML16GX3M4A1600C9 Vengeance LP Desktop Memory Kit - 16GB (4x 4GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 9-9-9-24 CAS Latency, 240-pin DIMM, 1.5V, Unbuffered, Intel XMP Ready at TigerDirect.com (make sure your motherboard can support that speed of RAM).
Second, I do suggest you go with an 850W PSU because in the future, you may want to upgrade it.
Also... Here is a link to a good hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 0F12115 2TB Serial ATA Hard Drive - 2TB, 7200 RPM, 64MB, SATA-6G, 3.5 at TigerDirect.com
I always suggest you stay away from Western Digital because I have experienced clicking sounds coming from multiple hard drives manufactured by them.

 

[NeXuS1]

Notes
1. Its compatible.
2. 2600k should serve you well, if your doing audio editing and stuff. I would rather get a higher speed 8 GB 1866MHz kit with tighter timings, you wont even get near 8GB usage and it will little bit slower.
3. Same here though I am tempted to get a 60GB Force 3 from corsair. Its cheap.

Specific questions:

1. For a closed loop kit, get the Antec Kuhler 920 you wont regret it easy to install and you can control the fans via software included. I love mine, I got mine at 4.5GHz and dont even break 64C while gaming, I idle around 36C-38C idle. And the hottest core got 71C while the CPU torture test for 14hrs while testing for stability.

2. Nope although some nice cases have ones built in outside the case. For example my case Antec 902 V3.

3. 600W is fine, if you choose a 850W it would be capable for a OCed processor and GTX 580's in SLI. I reccomend a modular PSU from Corsair orAntec, since they borrow the designs from seasonic and obiously Seasonic itself. Not too fond of Coolermaster PSU's.

4. I love samsung no dead pixels on any of my samsung monitors. Although ASUS is getting popular on monitors.

5. No idea

Now a few suggestions from me. I was the same always upgraded prebuilts a month ago pulled the trigger and built it myself its really easy. For the mobo great choice just go with the P8Z68-V Pro to save money I dont think you'll need the feature on the deluxe which is dual lan ports everything else its the same from the P8Z68. For the HD go with the Samsung spinpoint F3 1tb they are cheaper, faster and more reliable than the caviar black's.

 

[Hari1]

Okay, so a few follow-ups (thanks for the feedback so far):

Would a Corsair AX750W be enough for overclocking, my single GPU, and the fans assuming that I don't decide to ever go with 2 GPU's in Crossfire? More importantly, would using a smaller wattage PSU decrease my energy costs, or not really if the consumption is the same (I don't mind a slight increase in cost now to get a more capable PSU, but lower energy costs in the long run would be preferable)?

I will be going with the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro instead of the Deluxe, thanks for the tip, as well as the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. But as far as my hard drive goes, do I need any software to format it (beyond Windows 7) or do I just need the hard drive itself? It's been a while since I've replaced a hard drive and I remember I had to use something, but it's possible it was just because I was copying over my old hard drive.

As far as the cooling goes, the Coolermaster Hyper212+ looks like a great option, I only have a few questions:
1) Will it be able to fit in my case (a NZXT Tempest)?
2) I'd like to install a second fan for push-pull airflow, but where can I get the right kind of fan for this? Looking online I only find 120mm case fans, but I'm not sure that would work?
3) Will it be quite noisy with the two fans?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[220racer]

When looking for PSUs, always get ones that are 80+ certified, or even better... bronze or gold certified.
All you have to do is install windows 7, then I'm pretty sure you are good to go.
The noise level depends on the amount of decibels it gives out, each fan is labeled with how many decibels the sound is.