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Leah-Alaine

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Jul 11, 2014
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So I have decided to build a gaming computer. I need some help choosing my parts, since it is my first time I still have a lot to figure out! I would really appreciate your help! I am going to use this computer for my studies and for a lot of gaming.

Chosen parts-----

(CPU) i7 4790k 4.0 Ghz
(CPU cooler) Phanteks PH-TC12DX 68.5 CFM
(Video card) Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X (recommend any other?)
(Memory) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866
(Motherboard) ? Max 200$
(Storage)? Max 350$
(Case)? Max 130$
(Power supply) Cooler Master V850 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX
(Optical drive) Max 100$
(Operating system) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
(Moniter) Asus VG24QE -bought
Mouse and keyboard already bought
Sound cards?
Wireless network adapters?
Fans?



Thanks in advance! :)
 
Solution
Thelps
For your motherboard I'd recommend a Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3H board. It's robustly built so difficult to damage during installation and has a backup BIOS so if you mess up the original BIOS it will auto-restore. It's also SLI-capable and has good overclocking potential built-in.

For storage, definitely get at least a 7200RPM Hard Drive. If you can afford it, get one standard HD and 1 Solid State Drive for your hardware-intensive games. The near-instant access rate on a SSD improves game loading times considerably.

For my case I used a Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 case. They're a little more costly than your average case but have useful features such as easily removable fan filters. Antec also make a range of durable...
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Ytyoussef

Ytyoussef

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Do you need an i7? You could save some money by going for an i5-4690k.

For your motherboard I would suggest the Maximus VII Hero, an amazing motherboard :)

For your storage I would suggest an 840 evo 500gb for your boot drive and for your games and programs you use the most (You'll have enough space for that ^^) And a 2tb drive, like a seagate st2000dm001 or so.

For a case, it basically comes down to personal choice, I like the H440 for example, but it has no optical drive bay. The 500r is also another case I like. Oh and that's a great PSU so no worries about that.

The optical drive, you said you had 100$ for that, so I'm guessing you want a blu-ray writer? And you should probably get windows 8 as windows 7 is losing it's support soon. (Even though I prefer windows 7 as well.)

The sound card that comes with the Hero is good enough, unless you're an audiophile and really need something better.

The fans you will choose will depend on the case you choose, and for a wireless network adapter the asus PCE-AC66 is a high-end wireless AC adapter, with great reviews, but that also depends on what you want exactly.
 
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Leonell12

Leonell12

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Apr 8, 2013
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what do you think of this? you didnt post your total budget so...
what i changed and why:
1) you dont need an i7 for gaming, there is very little performance difference, if at all
2) beefy cpu cooler to take advantage of overclocking
3) personally love the msi gaming 5, amazing features with amazing onboard audio
4)faster ram for only a little bit more, plus it looks badass
5)SSD+HDD combo, the mx100 is almost as fast as the 840 evo in real-life while being cheaper
6)Asus 290x, i'm assuming you dont want physx or shadowplay or any of nvidias features so an amd card instead
7)personally love the case, tons of features, amazing cooling, if you dont like the looks then just say so
8)why windows 7?
9) i wouldnt recommend a soundcard, they're useless. If you want good audio then an external AMP/DAC is what you want. that is only if you have a headset/ headphone that is good enough to take adantage of it
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($81.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290X 4GB DirectCU II Video Card ($498.40 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 530 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($111.00 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1455.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 10:49 EDT-0400
 
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Thelps

Thelps

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Feb 20, 2013
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For your motherboard I'd recommend a Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3H board. It's robustly built so difficult to damage during installation and has a backup BIOS so if you mess up the original BIOS it will auto-restore. It's also SLI-capable and has good overclocking potential built-in.

For storage, definitely get at least a 7200RPM Hard Drive. If you can afford it, get one standard HD and 1 Solid State Drive for your hardware-intensive games. The near-instant access rate on a SSD improves game loading times considerably.

For my case I used a Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 case. They're a little more costly than your average case but have useful features such as easily removable fan filters. Antec also make a range of durable, high-quality cases. The main concern for yourself is that your case has sufficient space to fit your GPU, which almost certainly will be your single most difficult component to accommodate.

Optical Drive is only important insofar as what kind of media you want to play on it. If you want Blu-Ray those are more costly but your bare minimum should be a mid-range DVD-R drive.

Lastly, be sure to protect yourself against static discharge while assembling your rig (earth yourself via a grounded home radiator or via a anti-static wrist strap) ensure to install the CPU Cooler's Motherboard 'backplate' before you attach the Motherboard to the case (so many reinstallations if you forget that...) and make sure the motherboard is the first component you attach to the case, since it's the most unwieldy to fit.

Hope that's helpful.
 
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Leah-Alaine

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Jul 11, 2014
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Every one of your answers has helped me thank you, this is what im thinking of building.
PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com

(CPU) intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

(CPU Cooler) Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM

(Thermal Compound) Arctic Cooling MX4 4g Thermal Paste

(Motherboard) Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

(Memory) G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory

(Storage) Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

(Storage) Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

(Video Card) Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X Video Card

(Case) Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case

(Power Supply) Cooler Master V850 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

(Operating System) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ---may go for window 8

(Wireless Network Adapter) Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter

(Case Fan) Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($34.99 @ Memory Express)

(Mouse)Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse ($64.99 @ NCIX)

(Headphones) Turtle Beach Ear Force Z11 Headset ($39.99 @ Newegg Canada)

Total: $2338.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 15:06 EDT-0400

What do you think? Anything I shoild change?
 
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Ytyoussef

Ytyoussef

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First of all, you don't need to buy extra thermal paste, the one that comes with the cooler is just fine. You should probably go for windows 8 indeed as windows 7 is losing support in january. I would go with with the g502, even though it is more expensive, but the deathadder works just as well and is a great mouse. Here's a review for the g502 though http://www.tomsguide.com/us/logitech-g502-proteus-core,review-2138.html . Otherwise your build is very solid.
 
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Leonell12

Leonell12

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hmm nice build actually, couple of things:
1) what the above post says is true, you dont need to buy your own thermal paste, the one that comes with the aftermarket cooler is good enough
2)the Asus Directcu ii cooler i recommended is more capable than the Sapphire
3) despite the good quality of that power supply you've chosen, you dont need 850w unless you're going to sli, the 650w unit i recommended earlier is high quality and is plenty of juice, if you want something of a higher quality, then this is a solid choice: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-hx750
4) yea i'm not a massive fan of the Deathadder either, there mice out there that are much better quality for the same price
for claw grip: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-mouse-ch9000022na
for palm grip: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/func-mouse-funcms3r2
5) just an after thought but if you're going to spend so much on your build, you might want to consider getting a slightly better, more expensive pair of headsets for all that rich audio, the HyperX Cloud pro from kingston is a good choice but unfortunately it seems its not available in your country as of now, in which case this is also good http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/steelseries-headphones-51101
 
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Ytyoussef

Ytyoussef

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Leonell12

Leonell12

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right, my bad then i guess i was mislead by a lot of things and people alike :(
and indeed i agree a real pair audiophile headphones something like the Audio-technica ATH-M30 will provide better audio than a gaming headset. However these headphones have crazy impedance levels, i think the M30 has an impedance of 250 ohms just off the top of my head while the hyperX has an impedance of 60 ohms, no motherboard will be able to drive high-impedance cans, you need an amp/ dac for that. And anyways the maximus boards really dont have the best audio out there so take advantage of the higher end headphones would require a better motherboard with better audio (something like MSI's gaming series boards) ..or an amp/ dac as stated earlier
 
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Leonell12

Leonell12

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oh right i mixed them with the Beyer DT-990. my bad apologies, i said it was the top off my head you know
 
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