$2500 Australian Gaming/ Editing PC Build, Need Help!

Frenzy Designs

Honorable
Apr 23, 2013
33
0
10,530
Approximate Purchase Date: Around December

Budget Range: $2500 for pc + $700 for peripherals

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Video capture/editing, general programming

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.pccasegear.com

Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Parts Preferences: Intel i7, Gtx 7xx Series, Corsair or NZXT Case

Overclocking: Yes Hopefully to 4.5GHZ

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Your Monitor Resolution: 1080p

Additional Comments: I would like a Gtx 7xx Series for the grahpics card if possbile, at least 16gb of ram would also be lovely and additionally I definitely want a good keyboard and mouse for gaming.
The games I will be playing include Day z, Battlefield 4 & 3, Crysis 3 and Planetside 2.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Recently my main computer had broken and it was fairly old so I felt it was time for an upgrade.

This is the build I am considering but i would like to get the cost down so I can pay for shipping:
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=193251&action=wish_lists.
 
Solution
Here's what I would do, and if you don't want a closed liquid loop, a Noctua D14 is your answer. I would get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($389.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($145.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard...
Your headed in the right direction for what your doing, though it can be altered to be a bit more efficient.

This is what I would go for (the system).
Add $120 on this for the SSD, PCpartPicker is a bit screwy when it comes to Australian stores which is why a fair bit of it are custom parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($389.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($175.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: NZXT Switch 810 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($155.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Other: Palit GTX780 ($750.00)
Other: Cooling: XSPC Raystorm EX240 D5 water-cooling kit. ($270.00)
Total: $2444.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-28 16:18 EST+1000)

Main differences to yours.
- Cheaper motherboard, unless your really looking to push every clock you can out of that chip, you don't need a premium board.
- Low Profile RAM, the hair combs they glue onto standard Vengeance models don't do anything and will reduce your options later on.
- A GTX780 over dual 770's. It will get you less performance now, but if you ever throw another in later on it will way outperform dual 770's. Its adequate for playing at 5760x1080, though I doubt that's what you will be recording in. For 1080p gameplay expect to be maxing everything (within reason).
- Two HDD's. A lot of people forget that when recording game footage that it has to be recorded too somewhere. A single HDD wont be able to keep up if its tasked with recording 1080p 60hz footage, especially uncompressed (ShadowPlay will help a lot with that). So get two HDD's in RAID0, you'l have much less of an issue in regards to storage bottlenecking.
- Smaller and not-so premium SSD, you have to make room in the budget somewhere and it will still serve your needs.
- Custom Water-cooling. Best possible cooling performance until your getting into extreme solutions, and you can expand it too include your GPU later on. To get the GPU on that loop, reckon it would cost in the range of $200 for a block and more rad space (which the Switch 810 can handle).

As for your peripherals, only thing I would change is the keyboard. Not saying that Corsair is a bad choice, just its pretty expensive and your limited in your options like keyswitch type to MX Red. I suggest you look up the differences between keyswitch colours (They have different properties) and decide which is best for you.
I personally use a Ducky Shine II with Brown switches and love the thing. The Shine III is going to be available in a few days, I recommend you take a look at those.
 

Frenzy Designs

Honorable
Apr 23, 2013
33
0
10,530


With the XSPC Raystorm D5 Acrylic EX240 Water Cooling Kit Will I need to buy any Fans and if so what do you recommend?
 
It comes with XSPC Xinrullian 1650RPM fans, which aren't the best but are fairly decent for water-cooliing purposes (and are a great value aftermarket at $7 each, their what I use for my loop because of that reason).
If you are going to buy aftermarket, I recommend Scythe Gentle Typhoons, Noctua NF-F12's or Silverstone Air Penetrators. However for the slim radiator on that kit, getting premium fans wont make that large a difference.
 

Frenzy Designs

Honorable
Apr 23, 2013
33
0
10,530


I haven't had to much work with water cooling loops before and Is there anything that will have equal or almost equal performance but with less maintenance?
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Here's what I would do, and if you don't want a closed liquid loop, a Noctua D14 is your answer. I would get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($389.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($145.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($829.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: NZXT Switch 810 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($149.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($21.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $2089.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-28 17:22 EST+1000)
 
Solution
I might have been a bit presumptuous to recommend a custom loop without knowing if your comfortable with it. Change it too something like a Noctua NH-D14 if your not. The high end CLC's are a poor value even at US prices, very bad down here in Aus.

In terms of performance, nothing else will match it.
Maintenance if you do it right can be as little as changing the water every 6 months.