$2500 Build for a Friend (Cooler and Compatibility)

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Spot_the_Samurai

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Nov 22, 2013
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Hi guys,

A friend of mine was recently planning on buying an Alienware Aurora so naturally I had to make him reconsider.

He's given me the day (US time) to work out a build for him despite me questioning the short time frame.

Anyway, this is what I have so far: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZJ8KK8

Mainly looking for confirmation that the parts are compatible and advice on coolers although other comments are of course welcome.

The coolers I was thinking about were along the lines of Noctua DH14, Coolermaster V8, Corsair H80i, etc. Are they worth the price jump up from a Hyper 212 Evo? (Even though there's plenty of room in the budget)

Thanks
 
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I'll give you two builds. One overclocking, one not. He can decide later.

Here's the overclocking build. I'd only recommend that he gets this if he's doing some substantial overclocking. With only a moderate or small overclock, this soon becomes a waste of money. If that is the case, he should go with the non-overclocking build.

OC BUILD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($204.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133...
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Alpha3031

Alpha3031

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($334.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($97.16 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 XPOWER AC XL ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($253.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($137.47 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 1300W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($164.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-118BB DVD/CD Drive ($19.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech G105 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G300 Wired Optical Mouse ($23.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $2832.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

4 way CF capable
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Alpha's build looks pretty decent but, a couple recommended changes,
There is no need for more than 8gb of ram when gaming,
The psu is pretty overkill (PC partpicker estimates 770w used, so you should probably be fine with something at about 1000w),
It's pretty unlikely that your freind would need a 4tb hard drive,
If your freind wants too, he could get a much nicer keyboard and mouse and save money by, for example, not going crossfire, since one r9 290 would still be enough to destroy any game, but this is just his choice and is up to him.

Still, it's a good build.
 
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Graphiicz

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Over $300 over budget? And that build is not very good.
 
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Spot_the_Samurai

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Nov 22, 2013
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RE Alpha: I'm liking the Xfire but $380 for a motherboard is too much. He's not a tech guy and I can't foresee him ever wanting the ability to have four graphics cards even though it's an awfully nice board. Also, he cares entirely too much about fancy aesthetics so he wouldn't go for the case.

RE Moozilbee: Again with his lack of techy-ness he's adamant about 16 GB of RAM. I've been trying to talk him down for ages. Yeah, I think stick with the Antec 900W, from what I hear it can take 780 SLI comfortably. The 4TB was largely wasting unused budget. Yet again, he's not fussed about mouse/keyboard so I just went with ones that match the colour scheme.
 
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Alpha3031

Alpha3031

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I'd really like to see you do better.
 
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Graphiicz

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I will once he answers my questions.

You're acting like it's impossible to make a build under $2500.

Stop being such an egotist, trying to recommend poor builds just to gain pathetic ego points for yourself. Had he gone with your build, he would've wasted $2800 of real money.
 
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Graphiicz

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I'll give you two builds. One overclocking, one not. He can decide later.

Here's the overclocking build. I'd only recommend that he gets this if he's doing some substantial overclocking. With only a moderate or small overclock, this soon becomes a waste of money. If that is the case, he should go with the non-overclocking build.

OC BUILD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($204.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.91 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($529.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom 630 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($174.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($27.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1954.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

NON-OC BUILD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.91 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($529.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom 630 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($174.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($27.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1695.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

The Phantom 630 is an excellent enclosure for air cooling. It will perform tremendously in both builds, but particularly the overclocking build. It's not a necessity though, so if he wants to save more money he could grab maybe the Define R4 or something like that.

Explain to him that unless he actually has use for this RAM, he doesn't need 16 GB. I doubt he will, though.

Also make sure it's clear that he should only go with the first build if he plans to overclock A LOT. Otherwise it's not worth the money whatsoever.

EDIT: The 290X is slightly overkill, he could just as easily use the Gigabyte R9 290. Windforce is an excellent thermal solution.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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He probably isn't going to overclock if he's as non techy as you say, he doesn't really sound like the sort of person that would want too.

In all honesty your freind sounds pretty annoying if he's completely sure he wants 16gb of ram, despite being told by people who actually know what they're talking about that it's pointless, I don't get why people ask for an opinion and then just second guess whatever the person told them and assume that their idea was better because "16 is more than 8, so it must be better, right?".

Anyway, Alpha, you need to be able to take criticism, because, in all honesty the build wasn't that good, a lot of completely wasted money, and it was $300 over budget for no apparent reason, motherboard was overkill, way too much spent on HDD, etc, first time I just had a quick look and wrote the first mistakes that came to mind in the build, but looking at it more it really has some weird choices and isn't really a good idea.
 
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JustaNobody

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only put 16gb ram cause your friend sounds like a stubborn guy. can always lower it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($97.16 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($156.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($148.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Vapor-X Video Card ($439.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VX248H 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($179.00 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($27.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1871.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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JustaNobody's build is a much better choice, only thing I would say to change is get a quiet, cheap cooler if your freind doesn't want to overclock, if he DOES, or just wants a completely silent cooler then stick with the h100i.
If he wants he could get a 1tb drive instead of a 2tb since he probably won't need the extra space and he can save some money, but it really doesn't matter.
If he feels the need to spend more money, he could just get a bigger, nicer monitor, and/or a mechanical keyboard from Steelseries or Corsair or similar, and maybe a decent mouse like I suggested before.
And if your freind doesn't like the case that JustaNobody suggested, he can get an NZXT H440 which look.... nice.



Just for the love of god force him to not buy a Alienware Aurora.
Or 16gb of ram.
 
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Graphiicz

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The H100i isn't a silent cooler.
 
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JustaNobody

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he can definitely shave some $$ switching the cooler, ram and storage. i would have recommended the nzxt 440 too but not to sure if his friend would prefer having a optical drive.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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@Graphiicz
Oops, I should have wrote "quiet", or something similar, of course no cooler with fans is silent! My mistake.

@JustaNobody, about the optical drive, his freind could easily just buy a external optical drive if he really needs one, using his seemingly disposable pile of money (oh about that, can I have some? :D ).
 
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Graphiicz

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But there's never a reason to get a CLC. If he's not overclocking, he could just get a cheap air cooler.

As for the other build that was posted, it's decent. Better than the others posted, but I fail to see how it's stronger than mine.
 
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JustaNobody

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true but seeing how his friend is not tech savvy nor listens to people with knowledge/experience i thought it'd save the hassle.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Oops, I somehow missed your build post completely Graphiicz, I just quickly looked over it and it looks like it's probably an even better option because it already has the adjustments made (smaller HDD, less ram, etc). I'm talking about the non OC build here btw, since I assume his freind is not overclocking and for the extra price of the OC build he might as well just get better components.

Anyway, it looks like the best so far, only thing I would say to change is the GPU to the R9 290 that JustaNobody put in his build since it's a lot cheaper for not much worse performance.

@JustaNobody, how much hastle is it to use an external optical drive? I never use one, but I always assumed it was just plug and play, and maybe a drive install?
 
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Spot_the_Samurai

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Nov 22, 2013
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XD

Well I'm considering just recommending a 4690k and Hyper 212 Evo. Let's him do a little overclocking for bragging rights without too much expense.

To be honest the 2 TB is my doing because, from my experience, 1 TB hasn't been enough. Besides, given the budget, an extra $50 won't hurt.

I'm also thinking that maybe 120 Hz is too high a goal for him. It could be done within budget but at considerable expense compared to settling for some 'futureproof' (pretend I didn't say that) 60 Hz.
 
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Alpha3031

Alpha3031

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No I'm not


In what way am I an egotist?

If he's happy buying an Alienware aurora, he'll be happy spending 2800 knowing that there's at least 10 features he'll never use.

In fact, I might even suggest an FX 9xxx, just because his friend seems like the kind of guy who looks at specs without understanding them.
 
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