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Out of the little league and into the major leagues

Tags:
  • Cooler Master
  • Intel
  • EVGA
  • Components
  • AMD
  • Seagate
  • Mushkin
  • Rosewill
  • SLI
  • Corsair
  • Asus
  • Gaming
  • Lanbox
  • Build
Last response: in Components
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September 28, 2014 10:45:05 AM

Alrighty, just need some advice on my build to see what I can do to get the most for my money. I've prepped my old AMD based build for sale and I plan on getting at least $800, which I think is a reasonable number. So my total budget is about $1200 (+/- $250). So here's the build I'm planning.

ASUS Z97-A ($139.99)
Intel i5 4430 ($189.99)
(4x2GB)G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 1600MHz Cas 7 ($99.98)
Asus DirectCU II GTX 780 Ti ($479.99) [Main-in Rebate: $30 + Borderlands Pre-Sequel]
Rosewill Hive series 750w ($89.99) [Mail-in Rebate: $20]
Asus 24X DVD Burner ($19.99)
Mushkin Enhanced 120GB SSD ($68.99)
2x Seagate Barracuda 1TB ($119.98)
Rosewill N900 Dual band wireless adapter ($36.99)
Cooler Maser HAF XB EVO ($94.99) [Mail-in Rebate: $15]
Corsair Hydro Series H100i ($99.99)
200MM Cooler Master Megaflow (Blue LED) ($19.99)
3x 120MM Cooler Master Sickleflow (Blue LED) ($23.97)
Transcend USB 3.0 Multi Card Reader ($12.99)

Total: $1499.99 [Total mail-in rebates: $65 + free game]

I think this is a pretty good build all around for gaming and still gives me plenty of room to upgrade later on to a better i5 or an i7 or even add in another two graphics cards for 4 way SLI. Both boards appear to have very similar specs but I'm more familiar with Asus and I know of there quality. I put the Asrock one as a backup board or if someone can convince me to get it because its built better, otherwise I'll stick with the Asus board.

Edit: Changed PSU to a 750w, also added Mail-in rebates
Edit 2: Changed to a difference Z97 Motherboard and graphics card to a GTX 780 Ti with SLI capability. I've also gone slighty over budget but not by much.

More about : league major leagues

a b À AMD
a b Ĉ ASUS
a b 4 Gaming
September 28, 2014 10:52:25 AM

Its all a bit off. You don't need a 1kW power supply, thats eating up far too much budget, particular for the G1 which isn't great when you can get the G2 for less.

You shouldn't be dropping that much on a board for a locked midtier i5.

4-way SLI is generally 2 dual chip cards, 4 seperate cards won't scale well.

Why 2 1TB drives? Why not 1 2TB drive for less money? $120 is a lot for a 1TB drive, they haven't been that much in years.

Why spend remotely that much on fans? There is a point where fans actually raise temperatures by messing with airflow, that many fans will put you there.
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September 28, 2014 11:01:17 AM

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PHNrpg) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PHNrpg/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k) | $234.98 @ OutletPC
**Motherboard** | [ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97extr...) | $128.79 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8...) | $72.00 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-internal-hard-driv...) | $68.99 @ Amazon
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-driv...) | $53.98 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gamin...) (2-Way SLI) | $349.99 @ NCIX US
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gamin...) (2-Way SLI) | $349.99 @ NCIX US
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc902xb...) | $79.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-s12g...) | $99.99 @ Amazon
**Optical Drive** | [Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-drw24f1...) | $14.99 @ Amazon
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $1453.69
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-28 14:00 EDT-0400 |
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September 28, 2014 11:02:17 AM

twice as fast same price
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September 28, 2014 11:06:12 AM

hunter315 said:
Its all a bit off. You don't need a 1kW power supply, thats eating up far too much budget, particular for the G1 which isn't great when you can get the G2 for less.

You shouldn't be dropping that much on a board for a locked midtier i5.

4-way SLI is generally 2 dual chip cards, 4 seperate cards won't scale well.

Why 2 1TB drives? Why not 1 2TB drive for less money? $120 is a lot for a 1TB drive, they haven't been that much in years.

Why spend remotely that much on fans? There is a point where fans actually raise temperatures by messing with airflow, that many fans will put you there.


1. Yeah, I just noticed that. I ran it through a PSU Calc and it gave me about 690w. I'll probably drop down to a 750w

2. Because I rather have a good board that I can just swap components on later on down the road than get a board that fits my currect components then have to swap it out for a better board because it can't handle any newer parts.

3. I'm somewhat new to SLI/Crossfire so I'm still reading on the subject.

4. Because I already have 2x 1TB Seagates of the exact same type that I plan on putting into a RAID array for redundancy. Each of the drives are $59.99 not $119.98.

5. Because I've used those fans in older builds and they're very much worth every dollar in my opinion. On a full load, my AMD build never got above15C to 20C (Depending on the task) and idled at around 5C with a lower end Liquid cooling system. I will also point out that the processor was OC'd to 4.02GHz so it did generate more heat that it did at stock so I'm very happy using those fans.
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September 28, 2014 11:10:42 AM

velutch said:
[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PHNrpg) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PHNrpg/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k) | $234.98 @ OutletPC
**Motherboard** | [ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97extr...) | $128.79 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8...) | $72.00 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-internal-hard-driv...) | $68.99 @ Amazon
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-driv...) | $53.98 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gamin...) (2-Way SLI) | $349.99 @ NCIX US
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gamin...) (2-Way SLI) | $349.99 @ NCIX US
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc902xb...) | $79.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-s12g...) | $99.99 @ Amazon
**Optical Drive** | [Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-drw24f1...) | $14.99 @ Amazon
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $1453.69
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-28 14:00 EDT-0400 |


These parts are separated through several stores and I don't particularly trust Amazon for computer parts, new or otherwise. I buy heavily from Newegg and I also have free 2 day shipping for all my purchases. That and the board I'd like to get can do two way SLI over dual X16, which if I'm right in saying , is faster than Two way over dual X8
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September 28, 2014 11:11:47 AM

this is intel and nvidia cool as a cucumber
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September 28, 2014 11:12:49 AM

velutch said:
this is intel and nvidia cool as a cucumber


That doesn't change my opinion on my choice for cooling.
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September 28, 2014 11:13:15 AM

version 3 pcix is twice as fast no problem there on 8x
you can get all those parts from newegg
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a b À AMD
a b Ĉ ASUS
a b 4 Gaming
September 28, 2014 11:18:31 AM

That board isn't meant for what you intend to use it for, its meant for GPUCompute applications, not gaming, for the most part 8x/8x doesn't result in a significant performance hit, the bandwidth of a PCI-e 8x slot is still huge and cards that use a bridge don't eat bandwidth from the PCI-e slot, they talk over the bridge so that also lightens the load a bit, you won't get a big performance hit.

Also, look at it realistically, what are the odds of you actually updating your CPU in the future? I'd say absolutely zero, so why are you buying a board with meaningless features? If you think its a reasonable probability then buying a midtier CPU now is just throwing away money since you will never recoup the cost when you buy a new one for nearly the same price later.

The build velutch posted is quite good, but i think i would avoid starting with SLI and go for a 980 6GB at the start and throw a second one in down the line.
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September 28, 2014 11:26:53 AM

true you only need to upgrade intel cpu like after 4 years if you buy a good one to start, the price of the 970 is just to good to not sli but one will do if you still on 1080p
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September 28, 2014 11:35:09 AM

hunter315 said:
That board isn't meant for what you intend to use it for, its meant for GPUCompute applications, not gaming, for the most part 8x/8x doesn't result in a significant performance hit, the bandwidth of a PCI-e 8x slot is still huge and cards that use a bridge don't eat bandwidth from the PCI-e slot, they talk over the bridge so that also lightens the load a bit, you won't get a big performance hit.

Also, look at it realistically, what are the odds of you actually updating your CPU in the future? I'd say absolutely zero, so why are you buying a board with meaningless features? If you think its a reasonable probability then buying a midtier CPU now is just throwing away money since you will never recoup the cost when you buy a new one for nearly the same price later.

The build velutch posted is quite good, but i think i would avoid starting with SLI and go for a 980 6GB at the start and throw a second one in down the line.


I'm still not really convinced that Dual X8 is not that much different from Dual X16, I want numbers, a chart. Anything that'll give that statement some backing, otherwise its just words.

You make a good point about the processor but I still like having that buffer if the time comes earlier or if I get a opportunity to get an i7 below market price. I have friends in different places who are able to get me some parts at lower prices so after I get a build that I'm not likely to change anything on, I'll ask them if they can help then I'll order the rest off of newegg.

Edit: After some more digging, I found a detailed explanation between dual X16 and dual X8 on both express 2.0 and express 3.0 and the difference is negligible, usually no more that 2-3%. What I found odd was that on few occasions Express 2.0 was actually faster than 3.0. Not sure what that exactly means but the difference was again, about 2%. I'll probably find a different board that supports dual X8.
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