Hello everyone and welcome to my first post here on VGChartz!! exciting times.

For this post I thought I'd get into the machine im planning to build to get me through the next 4 years of my university course. To be honest I was originally thinking about getting a playstation 4 for a good money/performance ratio over the next 4 years, but due to the universitys strange and restrictive dorm internet connection i am only able to connect a pc to the internet to play games online, which is the type of gaming that I am most into. Im going for a smaller PC due to having to move interstate to go back home during the breas and carrying a big tower with me is simply impractical.

I thought that I would post the supposed buid here to see if you guys think that it would last me the next 4 years, with games down the end of the 4 years running on perhaps at least medium settings.

Motherboard: ASRock B75M-ITX

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21788

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20893

Case: CoolerMaster Elite 120 Advanced Mini ITX Case

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20856

RAM: Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8R 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18238

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20212

HDD: Western Digital WD Blue 500GB WD5000AAKX

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=15934

PSU:Corsair CX-600 V3 Power Supply

 http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21713

Disk: HP DVD1070i 20X SATA Multiformat DVD Writer

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=24109

All up it costs about $1070 AUD which is just about where I want the machine to be for the period of time that I want to use it ($250 a year basically), however im very open to suggestion in swapping what components are priced where within about $100 such as if people think im overkilling ram and should invest in better gpu, cpu or whatever

I'm also very interested in a setup for steam big picture mode with both a monitor and television and playing certain games with a controller and making it a more "console" like experience, if anyone has experience with a media or tv gaming pc your input would be fantastic.

Can't wait to hear you guy's oppinions. Happy gaming :D

NEW!! added a noctua NH-L12 low profile cooler which i will use the small fan of and will use the big fan for the case, I also bought another noctua NF-F12 for case cooling as i am worried about thermals, hope these parts arrive soon so I can assemble and show pictures!

That's a very nice and small, gaming PC.

The only thing I can say is that with that CPU and GPU you don't need a 600W power supply, a 450 or 500W will be enough.

Oh, and if you plan to get a lot of games, that 500GB HDD will became small sooner than you think. A 1TB HDD would be a better investment.

I would recommend getting an SSD with that. Huge improvement in responsiveness.

You mean just like a boot drive or something? is there a way to put steam itself onto that drive, but the games onto another?

Yes, but the games which use Source assets will need to be installed on the "source" drive.

Yeah, an 120GB drive will do. That's big enough for Windows, your applications, and your most played games

Nah.
Just install Steam onto the Mechanical and everything will place itself within the Steam folder.
The only benefit an SSD brings to gaming is mostly reduced load times.

Also, I would look at Haswell 4670K+Socket 1150, it would be about $50 more expensive all told, but you do get a CPU that can overclock/Underclock+Undervolt and chances are you can upgrade to Broadwell if Intel's past releases are anything to go by, where-as Ivy Bridge/Socket 1155 is End-Of-Life.
Converesly, you could just downgrade the Ivy-Bridge CPU down to a Core i5 3330 and pocket the extra $30, you won't notice that much difference in gaming either way.

Also,  a bit of advice... GET a modular PSU, working in an ITX case with a non-modular PSU is like walking on fire, you will also improve airflow and thus thermals too!

For the Ram, ditch the Corsair, Grab some G.Skill Sniper (Lower profile heatsink too!) and save the $20.

In regards to the case, the PSU will be mounted above the CPU cooler, so check the height of the CPU heatsink, converesly you could get a Scythe Shuriken Low Profile cooler and whack that in, which is what I use on my Phenom 2 x6 HTPC. (If it can cool a hot Phenom 2, it will cool a Core i5.)

Broadwell is not being released for desktops.

It's micro-architecture will.

Seen some deals on some 500+ GB SSD recently in USA.  Still cost a decent amount though.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-SATAIII-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TD500BW/dp/B009NHAF3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374565408&sr=8-1&keywords=500+gb+ssd+for+pc