Building a gaming PC- how does this look?

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Sarquinios

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Dec 2, 2015
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I am building a PC to mainly play games on. The main thing is for it to be able to run Fallout 4 smoothly on high graphics, and new games for the next few years.

I essentially have decided on this build, I just want clarification on if all the parts will work together, or if there are any bottlenecks or if I'm overspending on anything. The total cost of these parts is $1598, ideally I wouldn't be spending too much more than that, I'd prefer to spend less if possible.

Thanks for the help :)

Motherboard:
MSI Z97-GUARD-PRO
$179AUD

Processor:
Intel Core i5 4690K
$359AUD

Processor Cooling (Do I need this?):
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X CPU Cooler
$55AUD

Graphics Card:
MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2GB
$299AUD

Memory (May upgrade to 4x4GB in the future):
Corsair Vengeance LPX CMK8GX4M2A2133C13 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4
$99AUD

Storage:
Western Digital WD Black WD2003FZEX 2TB
$185AUD
Corsair Force Series LX 128GB 2.5in SSD
$99AUD

Case:
Corsair Graphite 230T Case with Window Black
$119AUD

Power Supply:
Corsair CS650M Modular 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
$139AUD

I am purchasing this PC in Australia.
 
Solution
Mxhawthy
Hello,

I'm surprised no one has suggested this yet, but my first thought as soon as I read your question, was that you are prioritizing the CPU over the GPU which you shouldn't do on a gaming PC.

You can still get an i5, but any i5 will do a great job in a gaming PC, so you should buy a cheaper i5 than the 4690k and allow yourself some money to buy a GTX 970 instead of the 960.

I would recommend the i5-4460 as the cheapest i5 without sacrificing barely anything.

The 970 will perform much better than the 960 in 1080p, and will last you much longer as well. The 960 can only just reach 60 fps on high at 1080p on some games, and on others it cannot reach 60 on high, so you will be needing to turn quality settings down to medium...
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m7mod

m7mod

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Apr 24, 2015
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Very Nice Build man ,, you don't actually need the cooler because the cpu already comes with a stock heatsink but yours is a loooot better that intel's so it's recommended for batter performance
 
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Sarquinios

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Dec 2, 2015
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I might drop the cooler for now then. Anything else I should consider?
 
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azaran

azaran

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Feb 17, 2010
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Couple of things

CPU Cooler: Nope you don't "need" it. But Intel stock coolers are generally crap compared to most after markets. The only thing is it does overhang the RAM slots. But you can adjust the height of the fan so it shouldn't be a big deal.

SSD: It'd almost be worth it to lose 8GB and pick up the Samsung 850 Evo 120GB drive. Better yet if you could swing the extra $40 and pick up the Evo 250GB. 128GB starts to get small pretty fast with the normal bloat of OS and games.

PSU: Not the best in the bunch. The CS line is a bit on the lower rung. You can go up a tier or two in build quality and still have full modular with
EVGA B2 750w
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/28100
Seasonic M12II 620W EVO
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/13567
If you can go a bit higher, the EVGA G2 750W is $159 from a different merchant
http://cplonline.com.au/evga-supernova-750-g2-gold-power-supply-220-g2-0750-xr.html
It is oddly hard to find 650watt PSUs that are in stock down there.

 
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Sarquinios

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Dec 2, 2015
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Thanks for the detailed reply;
I swapped out for the EVGA PSU, and the Samsung 850 Evo. Anything else I should consider?
 
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Hawkshot

Hawkshot

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Aug 19, 2014
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The build is fine, the Aftermarket CPU is not needed unless you want to overclock and with the I5-4690k its a very good idea of have the CPU cooler so you can overclock the cpu by .5Ghz without a problem, you don't need 750W psu you can use that build on a 550W with enough headroom to overclock, you can look at anything from either XFX or SeaSonic, all the PSU's made by these guys are very high quality, also as previously suggested the EVGA G2/p2 Series are very high quality but save some money get either 550W or 650W (you don't need this much but it wont cause any hard) you should be able to find an XFX TS 550W much cheaper than the EVGA G2 750W
 
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azaran

azaran

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Feb 17, 2010
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Hawk I agree, the 750watts are over kill. But the vendors for their area had either crap 550-650s or decent 750s for near the same price so I went with that. Anything decent in the 650w range was sold out.
 
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Hawkshot

Hawkshot

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Aug 19, 2014
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Yeah that build looks really solid, and the PSU is very high quality, its over what you need but will give you the room to upgrade to the future and wont do you any harm :)
 
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Mxhawthy

Mxhawthy

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Mar 9, 2014
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Hello,

I'm surprised no one has suggested this yet, but my first thought as soon as I read your question, was that you are prioritizing the CPU over the GPU which you shouldn't do on a gaming PC.

You can still get an i5, but any i5 will do a great job in a gaming PC, so you should buy a cheaper i5 than the 4690k and allow yourself some money to buy a GTX 970 instead of the 960.

I would recommend the i5-4460 as the cheapest i5 without sacrificing barely anything.

The 970 will perform much better than the 960 in 1080p, and will last you much longer as well. The 960 can only just reach 60 fps on high at 1080p on some games, and on others it cannot reach 60 on high, so you will be needing to turn quality settings down to medium.

Also, the 2gb of VRAM on the 960 is going to really struggle with gaming. I've seen some people choose the R9 390 (8gb) instead of the GTX 970 (4gb) simply because even 4gb can be maxed-out in a few titles these days.

It really depends on what games you will be playing... If you are only playing Mobas other 'light' games, then the 960 is fine. But anything demanding, and you should get the 970.
 
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Mxhawthy

Mxhawthy

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Mar 9, 2014
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Good choice. Yes, there is quite a big jump in performance from the 960 to the 970.

The 970 is the 'sweet spot' in price-to-performance for 1080p. Other cards that perform just slightly better than the 970 in 1080p, start to cost waaaay more. (mainly because these cards are needed for 4k)
 
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