First time building a PC (Gaming/Workstation) looking for feedback on my parts list (Many Questions)

BNWilliams007 · Nov 2, 2015

Hello, I wish to build a Gaming/Workstation PC in the near future. I don’t have enough money to build my dream machine at the moment, but I’m not in a rush to make it so my budget is pretty open at the moment as I work to save up for PC parts however, I don’t want components that are crazy expensive but at the same time I don’t want anything that is too cheap either. I basically want a build that is good, not super beast-like, and won’t need to be upgraded for a few years.
As for what I want to do with this PC, I want to be able to overtime make creative content. Such as digital art, 2D animation, 3D animation, 3D modeling, and video game design. In addition, I also wish to be able to play and mod games on Steam such as Call of Duty and GTA V at good settings. For now, I don’t need 4K display but I would like to have 1080p at 60+ FPS and possibly upgrade to a triple monitor setup in the near-future not only for gaming but for content creation as well.

Because of what I want to do with this PC, I have decided to go with the GTX 980ti graphics card and 16GB of ram as I believe that will be enough to run most games at my desired settings and render content in an efficient amount of time. However, despite my research I’m still a complete newbie to PC building and how the PC works under the hood in general so I wanted to get some feedback on my PC build rough draft.

Here are the PC parts I’ve decided to build my Gaming/Workstation PC with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHtdkL

Keep in mind though, the headphones, speakers, and external hard drive aren't necessities right now, I was just thinking about buying those accessories sometime after I built me PC.

Newbie Questions I had:

1) Is my CPU and Motherboard choice good? At least in comparison to the i7 4790k CPU, i7 5820k CPU, the ASUS Z170 –Deluxe ATX DDR4 Motherboard, and other i7 CPUs and Z170 Motherboards)?

2) I decided to go with Nvidia over AMD because I heard that they generally give off a higher performance despite the higher cost, is this for the most part true?

3) Is my ram choice good in comparison to other 2x8gb DDR4 rams sticks?

4) If I upgrade in the future and buy more ram sticks, do they need to be the same as the Crucial Ballistix Sport? And do they have to be DDR4 or can they be lower ram?

5) Is DDR4 ram really better than DDR3 ram? And does higher MHz mean better performance? Also, what exactly does MT/s and DIMM mean and what are it’s significance on these ram sticks for example: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC4-19200-BLS2K8G4D240FSA-BLS2C8G4D240FSA/dp/B00MTSWFMM/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1446459108&sr=1-5&keywords=DDR4+ram

6) Do all GTX 980Ti’s perform the same even if they are from different brands? (Ex: EVGA and MSI)

7) Would a single GTX 980ti give me better results than a 970 SLI in terms of in-game fram-rates and video rendering speed? Also, what exactly are the pros and cons to SLI?

8) I’ve heard that overclocking can cause higher performance from your CPU and graphics cards. But if you do this, it is recommended to use liquid cooling over air cooling right? I wanted to ask if anyone on this forum has personal experience of overclocking with liquid cooling and have had positive results? Or is it just better and safer to not overclock and just stick with air cooling?

9) As I said before, at the time being, I am fine with 1080p gaming at 60+ FPS but I wanted to ask, would it be worth it to possibly upgrade in the near future to say a 1440p monitor or a 4K monitor but would I lose framerate by doing this? Does anyone here believe that sacrificing framerate for higher resolution is worth it? In addition, If I decided to upgrade to a dual or triple monitor setup instead, would I still lose frame-rate or anything?

10) Is it better to use a PC Monitor over an HDTV for PC gaming?

11) How can I know the maximum amount of ram a motherboard can handle? Is having too much ram a bad thing for the motherboard or PC as a whole?

12) What are the benefits of big cases vs small cases? And is there any way to determine what would be the best case for my PC parts on my list?

13) Does anyone here prefer Windows 10 Pro over Home? Are there any benefits for Windows 10 Pro as a content creator and a PC gamer over Windows 10 home?

14) Is building a PC from scratch normally more recommended and less expensive than upgrading a pre-built PC over time?

15) What are the best keyboard switches for gaming? I heard red and brown switches are generally good but which are really the best in terms of gaming?

16) How do I know if my motherboard needs a sound card or a wireless network adapter?

17) What power supply should I go with according to these results:
http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/b602/SonicKeyblade007/FireShot%20Capture%2028%20-%20Cooler%20Master%20Power%20Supply%20C_%20-%20http___coolermaster.outervision.com_PSUEngine2_zpsnjt9bknt.png

This one has more ratings on pcpartpicker.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Modular-Bronze-ATX12V-EPS12V/dp/B00ALYOPSS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1446448837&sr=8-4&keywords=600w+power+supply

While this on has more ratings on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CX600-CP-9020048-US-Power-Supply/dp/B0092ML0OC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1446448047&sr=8-3&keywords=550+watt+power+supply

But they both look the same.

18) How do I know if I’ll need case fans, fan controllers, or a ups system?

19) Would I be able to achieve 1080p 144 FPS on a game like Call of Duty with this build?

I believe that’s all the questions I had for now, thank you for your time

Hawkshot · Nov 2, 2015

1,yesh the CPU and Mobo are very good choices the Mobo can support upto 3400Mhz ram so I would say get faster ram as the mobo supports it.

2,Yes as far as gaming goes intel have better performance as their single core speed is far higher than AMD

3, As I said in Question 1 no bad ram for the Mobo choice get faster ram.

4, they will have to be DDR as that's all the mobo supports but make shouldn't make a difference

5, Yes higher MHZ does mean better performance and DDR4 is slightly better than DDR3

6, no all brands preform differently some have slightly faster speeds while come have better cooling but any GTX980TI will preform outstandingly.

7, yes the 980ti will be better than 2x970, the advantages are they usually have Higher GB in 2 cards for a lower price than you get in a single card, the cons are when you SLI you don't get 200% performance from having 2 cards rather than one, depending on what you SLI you can lose upto 50% performance.

8, as you are buying the I7-6700K in which the K means its unlocked and easily overclockable it would be a good idea to overclock, also yes it can give you a massive boost in power by doing this, Liquid cooling is good but can be very loud depending on what cooler you go for, it is possible to overclock and still use air coolers such as the 212 Evo for small overclocks or the, Nocta DH-14 for large overclocks this air cooler is considered better than most liquid coolers.

9, when you upgrade screen size you will lose FPS without a doubt, at the moment there is no point getting a 4K monitor as most games are not compatible with it, also with your setup I would say go for a 144Mhz monitor with a 1ms response time this will work amazingly with your setup and give you amazing gaming quality.

10,yes PC monitors have a lower response time there throe are better for gaming as it reacts better to your motions.

11, check the motherboard itself the one you picked out can support upto 64GB of RAM which for a gaming PC is pointless as you wont need it the max you need at the moment is 16GB anymore than it and its kind of wasted.

12,the only advantage is cooling, bigger cases usually have better airflow and they have more space for case fans and longer GPU cards but this is only a small improvement, the onlything you really need to worry about is if your case has enough space to hold your GPU which in your case it will.

13, as far as I know there will be no benefit to having pro over the home edition but I could be wrong

14, a complete new build is always nice to do but can sometimes be more expensive as you could be buying the parts as soon as they come out, but with upgrading over time you can wait for the price to drop before upgrading but do keep in mind the Delivery charges for some parts can be massive.

15, in terms of gaming Red switches are better hands down as they take repetitive button clicking better than any others and you do a lot of spamming in games such as MMORPGS and most RPG's in general.

16, Pretty much all Motherboards come with inbuilt sound so no need to worry about that and Wireless cards are pretty much always required ive only ever come across a handful of motherboard that come with these inbuilt.

17, Not the one you currently picked the CX series is terrible, look out for the EVGA 750W G2 its currently one of the best PSU on the market.

18, there is never any NEED for them as long as your parts aren't overclocked hugely I have an overclocked PC with only standard case fans and I let the computer control the fan speeds never had a problem.

19, yes there will be no problem what so ever with the build you put together.

If you need anything else give me a shout.

BNWilliams007 · Nov 2, 2015

Hello Hawkshot, thank you so much for your answers.

I've updated my list using your suggestions: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MWPWpg

I also had some more question about my current build:

1)I forgot to mention that another thing that I wanted to do with this build was to play the Oculus Rift and/or the HTC Vive with it. As far as I know the HTC Vive has no recommended PC specs yet but the Oculus Rift does:

Oculus Rift Necessary PC specs:

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM or greater
Windows 7 SP1 or newer
2x USB 3.0 ports
HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture

I'm pretty sure that my build should meet all of the given requirements, however how do I know if the Maximus VIII Hero mother meets the "HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture" requirement?

Here is the information I found on the website for Graphics specs but I didn't see anything about HDMI 1.3 video output:
Integrated Graphics Processor- Intel® HD Graphics support
Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DisplayPort 1.2 ports
- Supports HDMI with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz
- Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 4096 x 2304 @ 60 Hz
Maximum shared memory of 512 MB
Supports Intel® InTru™ 3D, Quick Sync Video, Clear Video HD Technology, Insider™

2) Also, I know you stated that the Asus Maximus Hero can support up to DDR4 3400Mhz ram but I don't see any specifications of the maximum Mhz that ram can handle on this motherboard according to the Amazon and official Asus website. I may just not understand how to look correctly since I'm still a newbie about this but I found some specs of compatible ram on the Asus website and it looks like it can go up to 64GB of DDR4 3800Mhz ram but I may be mistaken.

Ram Specs I found on the Asus website for Maximus Hero VIII:
4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3800(O.C.)/3733(O.C.)/3600(O.C.)/3500(O.C.)/3466(O.C.)/3400(O.C.)/3333(O.C.)/3300(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/3000(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666(O.C.)/2400(O.C.)/2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
* Refer to www.asus.com for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).

3) I looked for faster ram and I believe the G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory looks good. However, I'm concerned that I may have enough space for it due to the Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler. Is there any way to determine if I'll have enough room on my motherboard before I buy the cooler and ram sticks?

4) You mentioned that if I wanted to game at 1080p 144 FPS I should look for a 144 Mhz 1080p Monitor with 1ms response time. Will this monitor fit the bill: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B2HH7G0/?tag=pcpapi-20

5) According to the Asus website, the Asus VG248QE monitor has built-in 2W stereo speakers. With this, would it be worth it to buy the additional Logitech Z623 200W 2.1ch Speakers accessory?

6) Does anyone else think that Windows 10 Pro would be unnecessary for gaming and content creating and that I should just stick with Windows 10 Home? I would like to some day make my own website to sell art if I become popular online as an artist. Would that be reason enough to get the Pro edition?

Thank you for your time.

Hawkshot · Nov 3, 2015

1, your build is more than enough to be able to handle to oculus rift don't worry about that.

2, from the information I found online I could only see it supported upon 3400MHz RAM which is more than fast enough in itself but from the website you maybe right with it supporting upto 3800Mhz.

3, this is kind of hard to determine but the NH-D14 dose have the potential to block 1 of the RAM slots on the motherboard without any doubt in my mind, if you're worried about this go for the 212 EVO instead its a lot smaller cooler but still allows for a very nice OC.

4. Yes that monitor looks to fit the bill just fine

5. Yeah it would be as to use the 144MHz from the monitor you will need to use a Display port from your GPU to your computer screen and this dosent carry Audio very well in my experince so external sound will be needed.

6.While Windows 10 Home is focused firmly on the consumer, Windows 10 Pro is more for power-users, and those running small to medium businesses. This can be seen in the advanced security features found in the Pro package. the way this reads is that pro is only really of use to small businesses and offers higher security, you can do everything you asked about on the home edition, I am a web designer professionally and the home edition works fine for me

BNWilliams007 · Nov 4, 2015

Hello Hawkshot, thank you again for all the wonderful answers. I believe I am pretty confident and will stick with my current build that I picked out thanks to your advice. All I have to do now is figure out exactly which after market CPU cooler I will stick with which I am asking about now in another thread. But thanks again for all of your help, you're amazing.

awolberg · Nov 24, 2015

Hello BNWilliams007, I am also working on putting together a computer to run OVR. Please keep us posted how your project goes, I am very interested!

Hawkshot · Nov 25, 2015

awolberg :

if you have any questions on this subject that haven't been answered in this thread let me know in a private message

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