Build Advice: 4k gaming in the living room (Cooltek W2 case)

Widey

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Jan 18, 2015
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4,510
Purchase date: ASAP

Budget: $2,500 (a bit more if there are clear benefits)

Usage: Gaming on a 65" 4k Sony tv (XBR-65X950B) + watching tv

Key restrictions: Cooltek W2 case, quiet as possible (especially when watching tv)

Other comments:
I'm looking to get the best possible gaming experience given the above restrictions
I'm happy to try some light overclocking with user-friendly motherboard software
I am living in Japan so am getting parts from http://shop.tsukumo.co.jp/, some of the relative pricing is a little different so don't worry too much about small differences in prices for parts (if you happen to have any advice on buying pc hardware in Japan that would be great as well)

Current parts list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Widey/saved/TKZrxr
link for Cooltek W2 case: http://www.quietpc.com/cooltek-jonsbo-w2

Key questions:
Any over-kill or under-kill parts-wise?
General compatibility and balance/bottle-necking issues.
Any stupid lack of future proofing?
Should I go closed loop WC (have heard it is a bit noisy at low loads)?
Will the 2 GPUs produce too much heat for the case (I plan to upgrade fans if required once I see the temps and noise produced)?
Any feel for the likely noise levels?
Will the RAM fit under the CPU cooler?
Will the CPU cooler actually fit in the case (160mm height vs 163mm max height in case specs)?

All comments tips etc. much appreciated.
 
Solution
Ram speed DOES NOT affect gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4
At all. I would grab the cheapest 1600 CL9 and under 1.55v I could find from g.skill (cheapest reliable brand). You can always add 8gb more later on, no need to pay the 16gb up front imo. In Noctua's page I found that this one with a heatsink is compatible with the cooler: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=34&lng=en
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbxl
Adata is a good choice, they are a good brand. The difference between the adata asp and the evo is minimal.
That gigabyte mobo in particular doesn't have very good reviews, go with another one. Future proof of any z97 mobos should be about the same, they...

Demosthenest

Admirable
CPU cooler: get the Noctua NH-D14, quieter and performs better. Should fit in the case.
Overkill and underkill: 16b of ram are not needed for gaming, ssd is expensive and not really worth the extra money (grab the cheapest 250gb imo, the performance differences are very small). MOBO: overkill, grab the cheapest z97 with sli (should be about 100 dollars).
Noise levels should not be very bad.
Ram fitting... I've no idea, never worked with this specific ram and this specific cooler sorry. Grab a ram without heatsink, pretty unnecessary even.
The 2 gpus are pretty cool ones, should not produce too much heat, but do upgrade de case fans and get as many as possible.
No lack of future proofing, looks upgradeable to me.
 

Widey

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Jan 18, 2015
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4,510
Thanks for the comments.

I have changed the cooler as you suggest, thanks for the tip.

I appreciate 16gb of ram is not really necessary for today's games but thought that it might be helpful if I want to have things running in the background or if tomorrow's games start to use more ram (2x4gb version of the same sticks are USD95 cheaper, I don't mind this against the overall budget if it might be handy from time to time and I am an absolute sucker for the more is better argument on RAM size for some reason). I would also be very interested to hear your opinion of the particular choice of ram. I am not really sure what the best clock speed / latency combination would be but I have read 1866 is the sweet spot. If I saved the USD95 on shifting to 8gb is there a better set to get, preferably without a heatsink as you suggest.

On the SSD, I wanted something reliable from a quality manufacturer. The cheapest 256Mb SSD on the Tsukumo site is the Adata ASP600S3-256GM-C-R2 which comes out USD 94 cheaper, I don't know much about Adata but some reviews seem to suggest they are solid although Samaundg has a very good reputation. I don't want to ruin the build by skimping on one part. I have scaled back to a Samsung 850 EVO (USD 43 saving), the 840 EVO is not in stock at this size.

The mobo was my big extravagance, I know I will not really work it hard enough to justify getting a high-end board. The cheapest Z97 with SLI support I found from Tsukumo was the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI (USD 90 saving) which seems solid enough. My reasoning was that as I am not an experienced overclocker but want to experiment with it, I could use all the help I could get in terms of rugged components and additional features/software so might as well spend the extra money. I also, perhaps mistakenly thought that this board would be a little more future proof.

On the ram fitting I assume you have experience with a Noctua NH-D14. Is there much clearance? Hopefully I can get a better ram choice with no heatsink and this will not be an issue. The choice of no heatsink memory @ 1866Mhz seems relatively small I found Corsair Vengeance (http://shop.tsukumo.co.jp/goods/0843591039208/201010014000000) 16GB(8GB×2)、CL=10-11-10-30、DDR3-1866MHz The vengeance pro (as selected above) has CL=9-10-9-27 does this have much impact?

I will be maxing out on case fans but want to see how good the stock fans are on this case, the reviews suggest they are pretty good. I also thought this was a good reason to spend more on the mother board as it would give better control over multiple case fans, is this right?

Looking forward to any additional help you can give me, or any comments from other users.
 

Demosthenest

Admirable
Ram speed DOES NOT affect gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4
At all. I would grab the cheapest 1600 CL9 and under 1.55v I could find from g.skill (cheapest reliable brand). You can always add 8gb more later on, no need to pay the 16gb up front imo. In Noctua's page I found that this one with a heatsink is compatible with the cooler: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=34&lng=en
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbxl
Adata is a good choice, they are a good brand. The difference between the adata asp and the evo is minimal.
That gigabyte mobo in particular doesn't have very good reviews, go with another one. Future proof of any z97 mobos should be about the same, they will all support broadwell.
You are right about the fan controlling in Asus mobos, it's great. I would get a cheaper one from asus if you can find one or stick with the maximus. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome mobo, nothing wrong with it but I'm trying to save you some money.
If you buy extra case fans, get noctua ones, they don't look very good but are amazingly silent and perform admirably.
 
Solution

Widey

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Jan 18, 2015
3
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4,510
Thanks for the help. I have updated the list, looks much better value now:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Widey/saved/TKZrxr

You have saved me a nice chunk of money which is much appreciated, but to spin it round, if you were to spend the, say USD200, you just saved on making something better what would you spend it on?

Is X99 a complete waste of money or might it be handy for future proofing? Are there any benefits in performance or features now?
What are you views on a closed loop cpu cooler instead (will be quite a cramped case and I want it to stay quiet so might need all the cooling help I can get).
 

-Lone-

Admirable


This is so much to read, lol. But I wouldn't get the x99 build if you're going for mostly gaming, x99 is more for editing videos and photo, streaming, that sort of thing. So yes, it would be a waste of money for you, I bought it only because the parts "look" cool, I'm just an average gamer like you, everything I have is unnecessary, so yeah, it's a complete waste of money :D