$4000 Gaming PC Build - Novice needs advice! Check out my spec so far...

If you got the budget, (Which you do) grab that damn 2011 socket with the hex core. You get more PCIe lanes, as well as more RAM options. Needless to say, more upgradeability in the future (quad SLI anyone?). I see you want to go down the more competitive route, with that 120Hz monitor. That system will wreck any game you can throw at it at any setting.

If you got the budget, (Which you do) grab that damn 2011 socket with the hex core. You get more PCIe lanes, as well as more RAM options. Needless to say, more upgradeability in the future (quad SLI anyone?). I see you want to go down the more competitive route, with that 120Hz monitor. That system will wreck any game you can throw at it at any setting.

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Nope. That won't make a build "future proof". You do not come out ahead buying X79 for a gaming rig. It's way too much investment for almost no payoff. Quad SLI? Unless you're running like 10 monitors you'll never need quad SLI.

To answer your questions:

1. No, the better option is the i5-4670K, you do not need to pay more for the i7-4770K, and an i7-3930K is simply not needed for gaming.

2. Not really, unless you want to to a full CPU - GPU custom loop, then you don't need to spend ridiculous amounts of money on it.

3. DVI D-Link is the best, I feel. I've never found HDMI to be really effective or reduce refresh rates.

4. No. Not to mention 2133 MHz, and the Corsair Dominator Platinum are gigantic wastes of money. Fancy RAM is not worth it, especially with RAM prices as volatile as they are.

5. For gaming actually you don't really need anything more than 2 x 4GB, anything else is a waste.

6. No.

7. I don't know, I've never really recorded myself playing games, or seen the need to. But everything on that build is massive amounts of overkill - especially the Dominator Platinum and all those extra case fans. You could spend 1/2 of your planned budget and then put the rest of that money in the bank. Recording games is not that intensive. The Sabertooth is horrible, there's better coolers than the H100i, and all the extra case fans and useless accessories (surge bar, internal lighting) are wastes of money. You don't need all those extra hard drives either. Get one to start with and add more as you need them. You'll also never need 1050W for any build - even dual 780s don't put out more than 700W max. You could pay 1/2 that and save the rest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($60.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($663.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2366.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 14:48 EDT-0400)

Yes, I like the 4770K. Some future proofing in that.

No, don't like the Sabertooth motherboard. The shroud traps heat and collects lint. Go with this, note the nice audio and included wireless:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131978

For absolutely best cooling, the H100i is it. I'd recommend the air cooler Noctua NH-C14, but the H100i is better. Just be darn careful with water cooling. A mistake can cost you a thousand dollars of ruined components.

With your budget, you almost have to go with a cool 500GB SSD. Plenty of room for everything. The larger size will make it faster and more reliable. go with a Samsung 840.

Not sure why you have two 1TB HDD's. One 2TB would be cheaper. Are you thinking Raid0? If so, forget it. Just go with the 500GB SSD and you are good to go with a single HDD.

For a single 1920X1200 display, I think the 780 is perfect.

Recommended motherboard has sound and wireless adapter.

With your budget, you have to go Platinum supply. It will run cooler and quieter:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207019

You don't need water cooling for your graphics cards. Just make sure your side fans are blowing cool air onto them.

Use Display Port for HDMI doesn't go to 120Hz.

With Intel, anything faster than 1600 helps very little, as in about a percent and only in some conditions.

Go 2X8. It will save power.

I like most of G's advice. A few differences I'd recommend you at least think about though:

1) An i7 does have benefits, but not for everyone. If you were to run some professional type applications, the hyper-threading will help. As for gaming right now, no, the i5 is all you need. It is possible that games in the near future will start using more than four cores, but then again they might not. Your call. Just don't bother with the 3900 series.

3) I'd stick with DVI-D or Displayport.

5) Similar to #1, more than 8GB of RAM is mainly for more professional type apps, 3D design, video editing, etc. If you want to go 16GB, feel free, just know you may not actually utilize it for a while.

As for G's part list, I like it, but if you've got the money, I'd strongly recommend a 256GB SSD, maybe even a 512GB if you really want to spend the money. It gives you more room for games so they load faster. Also, I'm rather partial to Silverstone Raven 3 case ( RV03 ), though the Define is a great chassis too. The Raven's rotated mboard tray and airflow will really help cool your SLI setup.

Thats the spirit! 2x8 is better than 4x4 in this case because only 2011 can take advantage of quad channel RAM configs. (4x4)

+1 Good point about the money. It does indeed come and go. I was a millionaire in 2000, and declared bankruptcy in 2002.

There is no speed change going from 2 channel to 4 channel.

Spending an extra $100 isn't going to make a build future proof. It just means you spent an extra $100 on a CPU when you didn't need to.

For absolutely best cooling, the H100i is it. I'd recommend the air cooler Noctua NH-C14, but the H100i is better. Just be darn careful with water cooling. A mistake can cost you a thousand dollars of ruined components.

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The D14 is great, but the H100i is nowhere near the best in terms of even closed liquid loops. That iLink software is extremely gimmicky, and the Swiftech H220 is far better since it does something the H100i can't do and that's link to a GPU in addition to a CPU.

Optical – definitely want a blu-ray player/DVD writer.

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If you're buying one because you want to watch movies, don't. The playback software you need isn't included, is crazy expensive (we're talking $100 per license), and doesn't always work.

As for G's part list, I like it, but if you've got the money, I'd strongly recommend a 256GB SSD, maybe even a 512GB if you really want to spend the money. It gives you more room for games so they load faster. Also, I'm rather partial to Silverstone Raven 3 case ( RV03 ), though the Define is a great chassis too. The Raven's rotated mboard tray and airflow will really help cool your SLI setup.

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The Silverstone RV03 is a great case suggestion, but you don't really need a 256GB SSD. At least right now they're far more expensive in terms of cost per GB.

You'll only benefit from four RAM sticks if you've got a quad-channel controller. You might find 4x4GB kits cheaper than 2x8GB kits as well. The drawback there is that if you ever want to upgrade your RAM ( unlikely since you'll have 16GB, ) you'll need to get four new sticks. A 2x8GB kit leaves two open slots for RAM upgrades if you ever want/need it ( again, very unlikely. )

Yes, the Raven's fans are more than sufficient. It's got two 180mm fans at the base that blast air all across the mboard and out the top. Even GPUs that recirculate hot air into the case are no match for it.

ALWAYS get a quality surge bar. I'm not saying you need to be stupid and grab a $200 Monster bar, but why would you plug in a $2000 machine into a $5 Walmart surge strip? Get a nice ~$50 A/V bar that has room for transformer plugs.

As G said, BD drives for computers just for movies are hit and miss in price. I'd use one in case BD media becomes an option for media distribution ( I can see games distributed on BD-ROMS pretty soon. )

I heartily disagree with G on the SSD size. I've got a 128GB and it's hard for me to keep more than 50GB free ( SSD performance tends to plummet if you fill them too much. ) A 256GB gives you room to put your games on without worrying about performance. 512GB might be overkill, but I wouldn't say no to it if you had the money. Larger drives can more thoroughly saturate the BUS so they tend to have better performance too, though that difference between 256GB and 512GB drives is pretty small.

You can also try a three tiered storage approach like me: SSD, high performance spindle, low power spindle. The SSD is for my main games and most time-sensitive apps; the performance spindle ( mine's a leftover 250GB WD Black ) is for all other games and apps; the storage is a large 2TB 5400 drive for files and media.

ALWAYS get a quality surge bar. I'm not saying you need to be stupid and grab a $200 Monster bar, but why would you plug in a $2000 machine into a $5 Walmart surge strip? Get a nice ~$50 A/V bar that has room for transformer plugs.

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Well if you need anything more than a standard surge bar get an uninterruptable power supply. A $200 surge bar won't do anything that a $20 surge bar will.

As G said, BD drives for computers just for movies are hit and miss in price. I'd use one in case BD media becomes an option for media distribution ( I can see games distributed on BD-ROMS pretty soon. )

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It's not the price of the drives, it's the price of the playback software, and the fact that the playback software is incredibly finicky with displays. Games won't be distributed on BD-Rs anytime soon. Like it or not, this is the end of physical media as we know it. Everything is moving toward cloud computing and online distribution. Even the new XBOX One is relying less on physical media and relying more on cloud computing.

I heartily disagree with G on the SSD size. I've got a 128GB and it's hard for me to keep more than 50GB free ( SSD performance tends to plummet if you fill them too much. ) A 256GB gives you room to put your games on without worrying about performance. 512GB might be overkill, but I wouldn't say no to it if you had the money. Larger drives can more thoroughly saturate the BUS so they tend to have better performance too, though that difference between 256GB and 512GB drives is pretty small.

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I don't store my games on my SSD. I use mine for OS and main programs only. What you have to keep in mind is that they slow down after you load them over 80% capacity. That's why I recommend at least a 1 - 2 TB hard drive in addition to the SSD. 64GB definitely won't cut it anymore.

Some higher end surge bars also have power conditioners in them ( not something everyone needs, but those in rural areas can benefit from them. ) I've also had el-cheapo power bars continually trip on me when drawing a heavy-ish load. I simply recommend something between this and this. NOT this.


I and a lot of others do store games on the SSD. No, it doesn't help in-game performance, but I love loading save games and launching maps in under 10 seconds instead of 20-30. Just personal preference. And actually the higher capacity drives are cheaper per GB. 256GB drives are around $0.75 / GB while 64GB are around $1.20 / GB or more.

My PC is hooked up to my 42" Vizio monitor. When I try to watch movies on it, I get all kinds of errors that the display is not HDCP compliant, and search after search on Google and other tech forums has yielded nothing about how to fix this menace. I use mine more for backups than I do watching movies. And like I said - games will most likely never be released on BD-R. Even the new consoles are relying less on traditional media and more on cloud computing and online distribution.

Bro, bro, bro, bro.
Take out your GPU or set the integrated one to be used by default
Enjoy movies!

If your integrated one sucks and won't play a blue ray disc at a steady FPS,
Get a VGA to HDMI box. (Any input output that suits you is OK, just make sure its a analog to digital one.)

Use your high end GPU to watch
****DO NOT PLAY GAMES WITH THIS. IT CAN CAUSE A HUGE LATENCY AND FRY YOUR BOX*****

Really? I shall have to check this out.

Don't listin to haters. Windows 8 is OK on my desktop, works better then 7 as far as hitting that pesky windows key. The tiles are nice to have and you can search things in eight by hitting win and w. Not that it takes up less ram and around 256 mb of vram.

This http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0016SN49Y/ref=aw_d_img_back_electronics?qid=1371659013&sr=8-14

N this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0032JAG4G/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?qid=1371659225&sr=8-16&pi=SL75

Will do you good. Don't buy a VGA to HDMI cable, you need a box. The second item is unnecessary if you don't want audio from your TV.

I've been using Win8 on my work computer for months now and haven't had a problem with it ( admittedly I'm not running games at work either. ) In terms of usability, I don't have complaints. Yes, a few features and settings are moved around from where we've become used to them ( Shut Down is now under Settings? ) but overall it's a minimal learning curve for the tech-savvy. Win8 does run more efficiently than Win7 and I haven't had any problems with compatibility. If you need to buy a new OS license, I'd just go with whatever is the cheaper option.

I'm going to put it this way - I don't hate Windows 8, but at the same time I do have a lot of complaints about it. Auto update has become a complete nuisance and I'm not the biggest fan of the cell phone interface and app store. The desktop is fine.

1 I never use the appstore
2 you can still use it as a start menu, its the same thing as haveing a windows 7/vista menu just blow up to fit the screen.

Not a bad build. Have you considered going with a platinum supply? Assuming your rig draws 800W, your silver supply will be throwing away 141 watts as waste heat. A platinum supply will only be throwing away 99 watts of heat. Have you ever seen a 40W light bulb? You cannot touch it, it gets so hot and you can feel the heat coming off it. With your budget, I'd strongly recommend one. It will keep your case and everything that much cooler, and quieter.

Windows 8. There is Windows 8.1 coming out where I believe they take care of the "Start Button" fiasco. I'd recommend Win8 but mostly because it is faster and will be supported longer and has more safeguards against viruses etc.