My first gaming rig. Need opinions/suggestions.

I like that build. I think there just is some over-kill with the PSU. Could go with a less expensive one. 750W to 850W would be more than enough. This EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 80 PLUS BRONZE would be great.

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 80 PLUS BRONZE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438028

With your budget, you can easily afford an i5 - it's basically exactly the same price, and performs better for gaming, and both can overclock.

Yes, the 9590 is by FAR the best bang for your buck... for video editing, rendering, or anything like that... but for gaming, intel has better core-per-core performance, so it wins in any game that can't use more than 4 threads. (i.e. basically all of them.)

Now, you can stick with the FX chip, and it'll still perform just great... just know that the i5 has a slight edge.


I like Arctic MX4 thermal paste much better - it's non-conductive and less liquidy.

Just so you know, a good air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14 will give that all-in-run a run for its money, while being cheaper, quieter, and more reliable. Since you have the budget, I highly suggest upgrading to a custom watercooling starter kit like the Swiftech-H220X. It's far quieter and has better performance.

The sabertooth motherboards are a waste of money, if that's the model with the "shroud" over it. The shroud makes everything HOTTER and the tiny fans are noisy and prone to failure.

16GB of ram is overkill for a gaming rig - 8GB is enough to open over 100 tabs in chrome simultaneously with no slowdown, or to simultaneously run battlefield 3, photoshop, and 40 tabs in chrome.

You don't have a SSD, and that is a HUGE oversight in a rig like this. Get yourself a 128GB or 246GB SSD (the Samsung 850 EVO is a great pick) to install windows and programs on.

Great pick on the 970, though the Gigabyte and MSI cards apparently run slightly cooler and quieter.

That case is a silly waste of money - even after overclocking, a 550w-600w PSU of good quality is plenty for this rig. If you wanted to add a second 970 in the future, get a 750w-800w PSU of good quality.

Don't get a blu-ray burner, you'll hate it. It's a total waste of money, and in order to even WATCH blu-rays on it, you have to pay to get a licensed media player... meaning you can't use VLC and have to use a buggy, featureless program that's going to cause you no end of trouble. Honestly, just watch them on an old game console, it's way easier.

Windows 7 professional is again, a silly waste of money. You don't ever need anything other than home... and why wouldn't you get windows 8.1 x64, which is far cheaper and faster? (They're both getting upgraded for free to windows 10 anyways, so why pay more money?)

The sound card is, and I feel like a broken record, a HORRIBLE waste of money. If you're an audiophile, you want to use an external DAC like a headphone amp or your sound system's amplifier. If you don't have thousands of dollars of audio gear, then you're going to be MORE than happy with your motherboard's audio - it's gotten very good over the ears.

Don't use wifi. Just don't. Especially with a wifi adapter that doesn't even support 802.11ac. Wifi is MILES slower and way, way, way less reliable than a hard-wired connection using Cat 5e or Cat 6 ethernet.

You aren't including peripherals in your budget, so go all out. Get the Asus Swift or the Acer Predator. 1440p, 144Hz refresh rate, G-Sync... everything you could want. You've obviously got the money burning a hole in your pocket, so why not spend it where you're really going to appreciate it?


I'm sorry to tell you, but it looks like you've done some reading, but not paid ANY attention to when those readings were written. The world of tech changes very quickly, and something from just a couple years ago may have been proven laughable now. Don't just throw money at the problem thinking a more expensive part is necessarily better - a whole bunch of the time, that's simply not true.

Yes,a 750W or a 850W PSU will handle upgrades well, even one or two more GPU's. You can actually go with a lot lower wattage PSU for your build. I suggested 750W to 850W to give you plenty head room for upgrades. Extra fans don't use much wattage to begin with.

do u have a heat sink? well any way here u go it has a I7-4790K, ASRock Z97M OC, GTX 970 windforce, etc http://pcpartpicker.com/p/b9w7qs

With a 4790K CPU, you can go with a faster memory, easily. You can install 2133MHz memory and set it up easy in the BIOS without OC'ing the CPU at all.

That thing is a wasting money for gaming. An i7 performs within ~4 fps of an i5 that costs $100 less.

8GB of ram is enough to simultaneously run battlefield 3, photoshop, and 30 tabs in chrome.

You don't need that much space on an SSD - a 120GB ssd still fits about three MMOs - and remember that most games gain basically nothing from being on an SSD.

The 980 is overkill - a $300 970 will do you just fine, even with the 120+ Hz monitor. It's still only 1080p.

That power supply is ridiculous overkill. Even if you wanted to add a dozen more fans and overclock both your CPU and your video card, a 550w power supply would still be more than enough.

Just because you have $2000 doesn't mean you should spend it - all that extra money saved means more cool games for your killer new computer to max out.

The hyper212 is a budget tower. It may be 160mm tall, but that's to allow for a 120mm Fan. Larger towers don't go out (much), they all pretty much stay around the 160mm mark. What they do, though is grow. Out. Large towers would be like having 2x hyper212 's back-to-back and have enough cooling capability that at stock speeds, the only reason the fans spin as fast as they do is they literally won't spin any slower without shutting off. Basically dead silent.

Most OC is extremely easy, move the multiplier from 40x (default) to 42x and that's it. You just oc'd. Enable Xmp profile for ram and you just oc'd. That's it. For a small OC you don't have to do anything else. It's only the higher OC that require any other adjustments. OC in terms also applies to undervolting. The stock voltage settings on cpus are way higher than what's actually needed, so create unnecessary heat. Turn the core voltage down, turn heat down, you just oc'd. Baby Steps is The rule. The only way you'll break anything is big steps, like changing voltage from 1.2v to 12v.

Honestly, the i7-4790k is powerful and fast enough, that just enabling Turbo (yes that's OC too) is all that's needed. OC IS a hobby, and for that cpu especially, not a necessity.

When you get your system built, first thing you should do even before installing windows is boot into BIOS and set it up right. First set optimized defaults (called something else in MSI BIOS, can't remember at the moment.) Then enable XMP, Profile 1 and the memory should be set up with the advertised speed and timings. Anything over 2133MHz you will probably have to OC the CPU some. Set up anything else that should be set depending on your system. Usually setting optimized defaults and XMP, Profile 1 will be all you need to do.

I would do all of this even with 1600MHz memory...

You should do this with 1600MHz memory too. This will ensure that the speed and timings are correct. Timings are very important and if off can create instability problems.

The MB manual will have all the instructions. You can also download a PDF of the manual from the MB web site.

That is good memory! I have the same memory kit in my main comp.

EDIT:
That memory kit will default to 1600MHz memory when first installed. Enabling XMP, Profile 1 should set them perfectly to the advertized speed and timings. They work great with my i7-3770. My only gripe is that I should have gotten a "K" version 3770. Can't OC the CPU so I am stuck with 1866MHz memory, Max. regardless, I plan on using this system for years to come. paired with a GTX 970, it literally shreds games. The first game I played with the GTX 970 was farCry3 and the comp would flake out and freeze a few mins into the game. Setting the video settings down helped some. Then I checked the computer power settings and 2 cores were parked. It was like I was playing with an i3 CPU. Setting the power setting all the way up makes sure that all 4 cores and all 8 threads were firing and I could max out all video settings and play for hours without a problem. Am into farcry4 now with all settings maxed out and luving it. You'll be glad you got that CPU. Hyperthreading 8-threads comes in handy with games and programs that utilized multithreads. Single threaded games it's a beast too.

Just something to look at, this is Linus on why futureproofing is a misunderstood topic in the computer world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK4ip08auGg

Xmp profile is just that. It's a predetermined set of timings, voltages etc. You'll have to do nothing more than enable xmp unless you get ram with multiple profiles. My 1866 has 2. Non xmp default 1600 1.5v 9-9-9-24 or xmp 1866 1.5v 10-11-10-30. That's it. No messing with manual settings, no adjustments, nothing. It's all preset in the ram itself, you just pick what you want and hit enable. Easy.
And like said, you'll want to do this no matter what ram, otherwise you leave the option open to bios which can decide to bump voltage to 1.65v if it decides that's optimal for increased stability. (My msi bios does this under optimal settings but not factory default)

All of this is basically you taking control of the pc, not the pc doing what it wants regardless of your wishes. You are the boss, right?

The 980 over the 970, that's entirely your call.

In terms of the cpu for gaming though, there's simply not going to be a time when an i5 you buy right now isn't going to be fast enough for gaming, but an i7 you buy right now is. The only difference between them is hyperthreading, which IF it becomes relevant isn't going to be more than a fraction of the difference that faster clock speeds will be.

I use System Mechanic which has an excellent app called "power sense." So. I do not have to set it up or down. It is automatically done now. As I am typing this, I checked and it has 4 of 8 threads firing. essentially an i3 or even an i5. As soon as I start Farcry4 the CPU mode goes from power saving to Ultimate gaming mode. All cores and all 8 threads firing. Also gives me good info on the memory and more. 13.48GB free of 16GB right now.

All the tests I've seen have i7's beating i5's hands down in all kinds of games, single & multithreaded.

EDIT:

i5 vs. i7
http://www.diffen.com/difference/i5_vs_i7