Gaming Build for Brother-in-law

Hey Tradesman Thanks for your reply mate, Much appreciated!

I've rethought my build plan and have decided to forgo the Kingpin card and stick with this card;
GALAXY GeForce GTX 780 Ti HOF+ 3 GB GDDR5 - $750 so that's $110 shaved off.

Regarding the processor, I'm a little confused since I was also looking towards the X79 Rampage IV Gene alongside an i7-4820K, side by side with the proposed build above, but had an after thought of the architecture being a little dated and ofc X99 would be popping up soon enough. With that in mind I think, if provided the right tools and given the opportunity, my brother in law will want to overclock the system since the rig will need to hold its ground a couple of years from now.

If the i5-4670K can accomplish that without going overboard on an i7-4770K(which has the least return on investments) then this frees up alot more cash.

Thoughts bro?

Hmmm, good observation+ good pointers bro. I thought of that too though selling a processor down my neck of the woods is a nightmare. In order to do so, you'd need to give up the mobo(and eventually Ram) to get some glimmer of selling at a good price. The other reason I had the i7-4770K was to get the absolute maximum potential out of the system, now and into later down the road.

I was also thinking of sticking with Z87 alone and not go with a Z97 board but considering there are added feature sets that are implemented on them board. I'm yet exploring the option of going M.2 now but at this moment of time Crucial have a 256GB M550 M.2 version ssd but its rated at 6Gbps.

So far I've spoken with my in law again and this is how it looks;

CPU: i7-4770K
Mobo: Asus MAximus VII Gene
Ram: Mushkin 997170R
CPU cooler: NZXT Kraken X60
GPU: Galaxy GTX 780Ti HOF +
PSU: Seasonic SS-660XP2
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO TLC 250GB
Case: Corsair 350D

courtesy of slight bugdet increase. If newegg's stock show up for business I might look into the M550 M.2 ssd however I'm unsure of how the sata ports will act if I populate the M.2 slot. I've also deciding if I should wait until the Haswell refresh arrives on Newegg...though my brother in law would like his machine to game on the soonest.

I also checked back on the sound card. Its the Xonar Essence STX and thus I'd need a PCI-E x1 slot or a x4 slot. Drop down to Z87 and reallocate funds...? or maintain heading?

That's what I suggested in the beginning and an eventual(proposed) shrinkage in the build by going mitx/EVGA Hadron'ish build...however after allowing him a couple of days to think about the future of his Xonar, he decided to recycle it in his new build.

Mind you he will by no means part ways with his Alesis M1 active monitors...he's what you may call a semi hardcore audiophile.

Considering how much is being innovated ontop of onboard devices a dedicated sound card seems obsolete My opinion though.

ASrock Z87M OC formula seems like a good candidate? No?

Seems like my brother in law might need some time to clear his thoughts and decide on a direction and a budget.

When things get moving again I'll update this thread. Thanks for the input so far, Tradesman1, it's much appreciated!

I will bru!

By the looks of things, he may just go for a full tower build with only 1 GPU to populate the slots in all likelihood but he's in Dhaka and I'm in Chittagong. Will need to wait until I haul myself to his end and scoop out his decision.

ETA 10~12 days from now.

:lol: I plan to update this thread later on as a build log...perhaps

Build logs are always a plus to have around. Usually we tend to do some minor modifications that to some are very valuable lessons. Cablemanagement for example.

14 sets?!?!?! Wow! I've got two around the house and I think that's more than I need

Would you please explain where the Hero falls in the Maximus Range? Lowered Price? Reduced Feature set? I think it's catered towards people who can't spend on a Maximus Formula? No?

That is quite an insight there mate! Kudos. Since you reminded me of your test bench. What sort of hardware do you think is quintessential for a systembuilding office? As I realized having those 2 sets of ram would come in handy if and when I'd need to troubleshoot systems with bad memory on them.

For about 6 months, I've been in possession of these tools:
32pcs Bit Set and a soft grip handle driver that accepts the aforementioned bits, similar to this

I've also invested some time and money in getting a proper work bench at a 41" height to get things moving along. My work top ,made of Ghamar ,wood will receive a generous application of Mod/Right mod-mat and that should help prevent any scuffs to the case and table top while I work on the system.

I bought a couple of feet worth of 3mm wires so I can dive head first into custom length cabling and sleeving as well...but I expect to take my time with it and get the process right.

Due to budget constraints I've got an A10-6800K build bread boarded and that will hopefully move to my office when I can get the funds for an IN-WIN BP-659 Mini ITX case to house my little workstation rig.

Yeah I know its kind of a lavish setting but I have a knack for attention to detail, probably why its taking me so long to do what others can do in a few short weeks.

You've made some very helpful pointers and to be honest, that last one is what I usually do. I tend to create partitions for my client builds off my own machine and also copy over some of the essential softwares as stated above and usually I tend to download drivers off respective sites (onto my system first and then move them over to clients drive/partition) since I noticed that not all drivers found in Windows Updates play along nicely with Windows. Razer is one example where the driver update for the Lycosa would cause the touch pad to become unresponsive. Uninstalling the update and the touchpad is active again. That and it just takes longer for Updates to finish with power outages being a common phenomenon down these parts so I make double sure that my system is up-to-date My go to site for freeware is Filehippo. Been using it for the past 6 years and haven't had an issue with them.

Regarding a spare powersupply, I bought a Thermaltake Litepower 450W PSU for bread boarding my system(due to funding) although it works for me I know it isn't the most reliable of units, so to ask; would you recommend a reliable unit or that of a higher wattage or the unit I have is fine to get by for situations where I need to see if the system is POST worthy?

I've never thought about offering discounts or swapping parts out under clients consent...would be interesting to see what people round my end think of that deal

With all this rich feedback, I sure wish I could offer you a drink buddy

Hmmm, points have a resounding effect in my head I've got a pair of 4GB 1333MHz OCZ platinum Dimms, a pair of 4GB 1600MHz OCZ Intel XMP Editions(black PCB) and a pair of Mushkin 996991. I'll see I can work out a test bench'ish sort of a build for the office.

Back on topic!

This thread/build now has a new direction. In spite of going back and forth, with my bro-in-law, he has decided to keep his budget intact at 120,000TK (max and 100,000TK min) for his build. We are not shipping anything from the 'States so Newegg is out of the picture.

Build should include;
CPU/Mobo/Ram
GPU
Case
SSD if there is spare funds
CPU cooler if there is spare funds

Parts not needed;
PSU - Coolermaster RS-500-ACAA-B1
Sound Card - Asus Xonar Essence STX
HDD - 2x1 TB probably WD 3.5 drives
Monitor - ASUS MS238H
Speakers - Alesis M1 active monitors
Keyboard + mouse - Razer Lycosa+ something else razer

Although the crippling blow to the build is the PSU I have to believe I can build a balanced system with room for overclocking and a small upgrade path. My bro-in-law seems adamant at getting an i7 no matter what but I can't seem to get him to justify the path of an i7 right about now. In fact it gobbles up 1/4 of the available funds if i go with a K variant and it's pointless building a non overclockable i7 for him so late down the road. He also would like a presentable system when his friends come over. I'd like a presentable system as well so I can include it to my works

These are the sites/vendors who deal with some of the reputed brands and the sort of hardware I have access to:
UCC-bd
Computersource
Binary logic

Mixing and matching a couple of their products;
CPU: i5-4670K - 22,000TK
Mobo: MSI Z87 Mpower - 19,300TK
Ram: Mushkin 8GB 1600MHz (2x4GB kit) - 8,000TK
GPU: Leadtek GTX750Ti - 14,500TK
Case: Corsair 500R in white - 14,000TK
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO MLC - 17,500TK

Total: 95,300TK

That leaves me with 24,700TK to reallocate.

I just find it a little distressing to have such a small GPU in a large case/mobo. The PSU would also choke if I went anywhere near the GTX760/770 OC. I'm leaning towards being safe since my br-in-law doesn't actually take care of his machine so the dust/dirt and temps have taken some life out of his unit.

Thought about waiting for the Z97 boards to come out in my locality but the wait may not be so good and the M.2 seems futile for us since it will be skyrocket worthy prices and thus agreeing with you that it has little potential and more marketing to do with its rearing.

Furthermore If I could get some sort of a nudge regarding the units integrity that would be helpful in swaying him to a better (Gold rated) unit if need be and compromise on the GPU for now.

I've also played around in my head to build an APU system with the A10-7850K(MSI gaming A88X board), though I'm not such a big fan of the APUs since my latest outing with an A10-6800K and on top of that I also think the HAF 912 Advanced is a lovely case but with so many years between it and the actual release date I don't think it's a good case to build in so late in this century...or is it?

Thoughts mate?

Edited OP to bring members looking on upto speed.

Nah mate! Its all good, if I can get some details set aside from the get go its much easier for me after I make my trip down to my bro-in-laws house which is about 5~6 days from now.

I also get to see my 14 month old niece and hug her till she stops breathing though I doubt she will come close enough for me to do that.



Appreciate the effort, advice and feedback bro!

Haha, will do! I know my bro-in-law would be stoked to hear of my post here on Tom's and alot more when he hears the mod team also said hi

I've got some good news, I may have access to Asus' Z97 series motherboards...although I'm unsure of prices and the sort of boards available would you have any reservations? I know I'm an avid ROG fan but I'm trying out different brands + I'd like a second opinion on matters every once in a while.