New to PC building looking need advice on build

Mahmoud Ali

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Hi im looking to build my first rig ever and im looking around and reading alot. the build is gonna be done in about 4 month or so, so i still have time to change alot. the current build in my mind is the following

CPU: Intel i7 4770k 3.5 GHZ quad core
MOBO: ASUS Z87 Maximus hero VI
GPU: ASUS GEFORCE GTX TITAN (i dont want SLI options since i hate dual processor GPU)
COOLING: didnt decide yet but thinking of air cooling (any advice?)
CASE: didnt decide yet but thinking of the corsair models that optimize air flow
PSU: seasonic 680W platinum
RAM: 16Gb (2 x 8) Vengeance Pro (thinking of getting 32GB advice please?)
Storage: 128 GB SSD 840 Samsung for OS and office suite (Windows 8 pro)
1TB WD black for games and photoshop
1TB WD RED for RAID 10 for photos and videos that i want to back up for the future

Note: i will be using this RIG on a 40 inch 3D Tv 200 - 300 HZ refresh rate and connecting using a HDMI cable. also im an all around user, i might need it for 3D modelling and rendering later on but currently for photoshop and gaming mostly. and i want to have it as a home cinema too so if there is any advice on enhancing sound that would be great :) thanks in advance for any advice and help

 
Solution
If you can afford a Titan and a 4770K you should get a better motherboard, an MSI Z87 G65. For the case, get a HAF X. Cooling, get a Cooler Master v8 GTS or a H100i if you can afford it. Ram, 8 gb is plenty. 16 is overkill, don't even think about 32. PSU, get something better, Corsair HX750. Hope it helped.

David Lugarov

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If you can afford a Titan and a 4770K you should get a better motherboard, an MSI Z87 G65. For the case, get a HAF X. Cooling, get a Cooler Master v8 GTS or a H100i if you can afford it. Ram, 8 gb is plenty. 16 is overkill, don't even think about 32. PSU, get something better, Corsair HX750. Hope it helped.
 
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Mahmoud Ali

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mmm is the MSI motherboard better than the ASUS? also i kinda dont want to liquid cool since its my first build too scared to damage these stuff since as u said its already a large budget. and sure it helped :) gna look up everything u suggested :)
 

David Lugarov

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They're both good actually, but in terms of performance, MSI wins, but ROG gives a couple extra softwares and tricks that come in handy, also, the H100i is a CLC, they don't leak, you don't have to be paranoid about it, but sure you can get the other option, which is just as good. And, just asking, why don't you like to SLI?
 

Mahmoud Ali

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read alot of bad experiences with SLI from people. and since im not using multiple monitors a single GPU seems more reasonable to me. the problems i heard about in SLI are about fps dips and such.
 

David Lugarov

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That is really a thing of the past with Titans and all these new drivers. SLI dips would happen in badly optimized games with bad drivers. And it's more of a CrossFire problem, nVidia never had to struggle with this as much as AMD, next gen games are all very well optimized to scale well, 1 Titan is far more than enough, but in the years to come, don't be afraid to add a second one if needed, although I hardly think there's something a Titan can't run.
 

Mahmoud Ali

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haha exactly im putting that much into this pc to run smoothly for at least the next 3 years :). and i sometimes go back and play some old games like halflife, morrowind and such. thanks alot for your advice and help :) really helpful man :)
 
Drop the ROG board. They're overpriced. There's very little advantage above a GA-Z87X-D3H or Z87 Extreme4.

16GB is reasonable if you plan to do a lot of photoshop work. Same goes for the i7 over i5.

Get a 256GB SSD and drop to a cheaper HDD. You really want photoshop on the SSD, and games help. There's no need for WD Blacks; they're only a little faster for a lot more $$$.

Noctua NH-D14 wins generally for high-end cooling.

Spend less on the PSU. An 850W from any of the brands in my sig will support SLI in future, if not 550W+.

Your TV isn't actually going to accept input at 200Hz+; it generates extra filler frames from a 60Hz signal. Titan is hugely overkill, and only a little faster than a 780. You could go with a 770 and max most stuff out.

Just get a couple of large drives in RAID 1 - you won't need the extra performance, and it saves power/SATA ports. You'll want more later if it's your main storage. I'd guess that the Reds are just marketing.
 

Mahmoud Ali

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mmm you seem to really know your way around a pc :p. ok here is my question, instead of blacks what should i get? i want the RAID1 setup just for photos and family vids (not games, movies, series etc..) i will probably go with ur suggestion on upgrading the SSD and i like the cooler so far since its air based. any advice on a motherboard that is either ASUS or MSI rather the GIGABYTE? i had bad experience with it before and would rather not get a Gigabyte.
 
MSI usually has worse rep than GB... I'd suggest a Z87-A. You may need the extra two SATA ports on the Z87-Plus though, depending on how much space you use.

I'd recommend this then:
  • ■240-256GB SSD: Games, CS, OS, Office etc.
    ■3TB HDD (any 7200RPM drive)(add extra in future): Movies, files, other media, installers, etc.
    ■2x1TB HDDs, RAID 1(any 7200RPM drives): Pictures, other stuff you don't want to lose. Could include work docs etc.

You could also go for 3x large drives in RAID 5.
 

David Lugarov

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A very good HDD is the Seagate Barracuda 2TB, quiet, efficient, 64MB cache, it's perfect. And won't break down anytime soon.
 

Mahmoud Ali

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yea for sure aint going for WD black , just checked the price difference and i was shocked. black is almost double the price for the 2TB version. might as well choose the seagate at that price. however, for the mobo i checked the GA-Z87X-D3H compared to the maximus hero, the price difference is about 30$ and u get enhanced sound and a nice UEFI BIOS system in the hero :S i dno im kinda more enthusiastic towards the hero still. the reviews and make up of the board seem awsome to me still.
 

Mahmoud Ali

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mmm 3 drives would cost extra so i dont really wna pay extra for its option. sorry for this question, but im watching vids and reading reviews and some people are saying that the RAID system fails alot and you need to read your drives often to make sure u dont lose the data :S. is that true? and another thing, if im setting up my OS on a SSD and i have a RAID setup, should i use 2 different controllers on the mobo for each? cz a guy mentioned that if you use the same controller some blue screen incidents could occur and he saw it happen before?
 
Haven't heard that much. Maybe if you were in a datacentre with tens of thousands of dollars worth of data and hundreds of arrays, but it's not really an issue. You could run a chkdsk every few months though. It won't stop your data disappearing, but it will give you early warning if a disk is failing.

You were going for at least 3 drives originally (though you actually need 4 for RAID 10, so that's 5). 3x2TB drives isn't an exceptional cost if you want to have lots of storage and redundancy.

I think that guy is crazy; nothing wrong with using all ports on the same controller. Plus most controllers only do RAID0/1, and you want the SSD on the Intel ports for latency.

The Gigabyte has UEFI too, and you have to have one hell of a sound system to tell the difference. At which point you're probably using S/P-DIF.