Is this a good build for gaming?

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TgPK23 I'm thinking of changing out the 780 for a 770 because I'm only doing single monitor gaming and it would fit my budget a bit more. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance. Also you can change anything else that would make it less expensive, maybe around $1400-1500?
 
Solution
Replace the water cooler for a Phanteks, Noctua, or Enermax for about $30-$50 less, and to add motherboard cooling (liquid coolers do nothing for mobo components).
Get a better PSU. The Corsair CX is made with inferior Samxon capacitors that don't like heat and may fail early. Especially if you cut back to the GTX770, a good 550W PSU like a Seasonic or XFX, or Rosewill Capstone, will be sufficient.
Get a PCIe x1 wireless card. USB adapters tend to have lousy antennas which slow them down and lessen their range.
I would consider swapping the power supply to something better. Corsair CX series are not good for gaming pcs in the long term. They use cheap caps and can easily fail when under stress or heat hence a 3 year warranty.
This psu will work:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $44.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-12 16:23 EDT-0400

Or:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ TigerDirect)
Total: $69.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-12 16:25 EDT-0400
 
Replace the water cooler for a Phanteks, Noctua, or Enermax for about $30-$50 less, and to add motherboard cooling (liquid coolers do nothing for mobo components).
Get a better PSU. The Corsair CX is made with inferior Samxon capacitors that don't like heat and may fail early. Especially if you cut back to the GTX770, a good 550W PSU like a Seasonic or XFX, or Rosewill Capstone, will be sufficient.
Get a PCIe x1 wireless card. USB adapters tend to have lousy antennas which slow them down and lessen their range.
 
Solution
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gdx2bv
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gdx2bv/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-PRO(Wi-Fi ac) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($169.95 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Dual FTW ACX Video Card ($499.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($96.29 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($169.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1756.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-12 16:26 EDT-0400
 
swap the 4670 for the newer 4690k for the newer tim that used under the cpu for better cooling and better power reg. swap out the older mb for a newer z97 chipset that has built in wifi card. swap ut the power supply for a larger unit with the 780 you need a 750w card so under hard gaming the power supply wont brown out. swap in 1866 ram haswell and newer intel cpu run better on faster ram.
 

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680


How are they compared to the 770? And which 770 brand would you prefer
 

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680


I will thank you. And the ram i picked is 1866 but it doesnt show for some reason.
 

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680


Thanks I will choose XFX and I considered changing the cooling, should I go with Hyper 212 EVO or the Noctua NH-D14
 

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680


Why this mobo instead of the Hero? It's priced simularly
 

duongthompson

Reputable
May 3, 2014
126
0
4,680


So which one would you prefer?
 
The Hyper212 EVO is not a bad cooler, but is a bang/buck Loser vs. its competitors. The 140mm coolers like the Noctua are better, and correspondingly more expensive.
The R9 280X is a rebadged HD7970. It offers similar performance to the GTX770. I like the Gigabyte Windforce coolers for being effective yet not noisy. EVGA is a good brand for nVidia cards. I love their motherboards, but have personally had poor results from Asus video cards. MSI video cards are also decent, with good coolers too.