Questions Regarding Building a System

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Asthuran

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Dec 21, 2015
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Greetings,

I'm currently looking into upgrading my computer for gaming. I only upgrade my computer every several years so I usually do a big upgrade overhaul when I do.

Right now my main things I'm looking to upgrade are the RAM, the video card, the processor and the motherboard.

The items I'm looking at are:

Processor: i7 4790k

Motherboard: msi z97gaming

RAM: (not sure which RAM to buy, but I would like 32 GB of ram so it's good for now and the foreseeable future of gaming. A game I'm looking to prepare my computer for is Star Citizen while using the oculus rift when it's ready for the game, which I hear will require a really solid computer to run properly)

Video Card: Nvidia GTX 980 Ti



If anyone here could give me any advice or input, particularly on the RAM, but anywhere in the build overall, I'd really appreciate it. I don't know what meshes well together. Also, my power supply is 750W and the Nvidia GTX 680 Ti requires 600W, so I don't think I'll need to upgrade that but if you see a reason why I would need to I'm all ears!

Oh, and if it makes any difference for some pieces of hardware availability, I live in Canada.

Thanks in advance!


BUILD SURVEY:

Approximate Purchase Date: Within a week or two

Budget Range: 1500-2000 CAD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Surfing the internet, Streaming

Are you buying a monitor: No



Parts to Upgrade: Processor, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card (My power supply has 750W, not sure make/model)

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any website that's used most commonly works, you guys would know better than me!

Location: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

Parts Preferences: Whatever parts work best with the parts I was looking at the first half of my post. I just want to make sure that everything will run together smoothly.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Want to be able to run Star Citizen at maximum graphics with the oculus rift when it's all available.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Can't run games at decent graphics settings, I want to be able to run them at ultra high settings without any lag issues.
 
Solution
R
So here's a go. You'd need to add a case, but I've left that for you as it's mostly aesthetic. It does have a PSU, capable of handing a second 980ti down the track. I'd need to know the make & model of your current PSU to decide whether it's worth running $1500+ worth of hardware off it. You could also save a bit by dropping down to a 650W unit if you don't need the option of a second GPU down the track.

The cooler is very much budget, so could be upgraded if you wanted.

It's worth pointing out that this rig is complete overkill for 1080p, a waste really. But you say it's for the Rift, so that makes more sense.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core...
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rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
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So is this a completely new build, or when you say "upgrade" are you hoping to reuse components you already have. If you're talking about the latter, we need to know what you already have, so we can decide what (if anything) is worth hanging on to.

If you're talking an entirely new build, it's a good idea to use the new-build sticky: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgrade-advice
Or at least answer all the questions it contains.
 
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Asthuran

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Dec 21, 2015
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4,510




I updated my original post and filled out the survey to the best of my knowledge. I also editted the video card, I'm looking at the 980 Ti not a 680 haha.

I'm replacing most of the parts, just probably keeping my power supply unless I really need a new one. But by the information in the other thread you sent me, as long as I have enough watts to power the video card + 100 more for the rest of the system it should be enough. The Nvidia GTX 980 Ti requires 600W and giving another 100W for the rest of the system leaves me at 700/750W on my power supply. Unless there are other things I don't understand of course.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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With Skylake now available, there is absolutely no question in my mind that a new build should be Skylake.
a. Prices for cpu, z170 motherboard and ddr4 ram are almost precisely the same.
b. 6600K has an estimated 5-10% performance improvement per clock over haswell.
c. 14nm runs cooler, you get a decent overclock without the need for exotic cooling.
d. The Z170 chipset permits the use of much faster ssd devices on the horizon. Samsung 950 pro for example:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html

With a i5-66600K you should get to 4.6 with most chips.
There really is nothing better for gaming. The I7 gives you hyperthreads, but since few games use more than 2-3 threads, they hyperthreads will largely be useless.

Spend the $100 saved elsewhere.

Plan on a SSD for windows and performance critical apps. You will never go back.

If your budget permits, the 500gb Samsung 950 pro m.2 drive will fit most A170 motherboards.

If your psu is a tier 3 or better unit, keep it.
Here is a list:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true
 
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rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
4,366
29
26,990
So here's a go. You'd need to add a case, but I've left that for you as it's mostly aesthetic. It does have a PSU, capable of handing a second 980ti down the track. I'd need to know the make & model of your current PSU to decide whether it's worth running $1500+ worth of hardware off it. You could also save a bit by dropping down to a 650W unit if you don't need the option of a second GPU down the track.

The cooler is very much budget, so could be upgraded if you wanted.

It's worth pointing out that this rig is complete overkill for 1080p, a waste really. But you say it's for the Rift, so that makes more sense.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($428.15 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.15 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($148.08 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($95.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.15 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($839.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Antec HCG M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.00 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1837.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 19:14 EST-0500
 
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Asthuran

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Dec 21, 2015
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4,510




Oh, and I just wanted to ask before I forgot.

If I buy everything you posted in that list along with a case, is that everything I need to make a complete computer from scratch? Like, are there any other parts I would need to finish it or is that literally everything? Thanks again!
 
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Asthuran

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Dec 21, 2015
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4,510


Thank you, you've been a huge help.

Last question, I promise haha, but do you think it would make a difference waiting until after Christmas to buy any of these things, like on boxing day or whatever, or do you think the prices aren't going to really change since these are pretty new parts?

Also, what's the difference between the G1 and the WF versions of the card? There's a slight price difference between the two, the G1 being slightly more expensive. Would I not want the gaming one over the windforce?
 
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rhysiam

Splendid
Mar 24, 2013
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Hard to say with prices, I don't know to be honest. I'm in Australia myself so don't follow North American pricing that closely. I'd be surprised if it went up. Might be some post-Christmas sales, I'm not sure.

Just RE this being "new" parts, that system has actually been available for a long time now and the replacement system (a 6700K CPU on a Z170 motherboard with DDR4 RAM) has been out for a while and should be priced similarly. The issue is that Intel is having massive stock shortages on 6700Ks, so the prices are astronomical at the moment. The 6700K is about 5-10% faster clock for clock over your 4790K, and there are a couple of nice things about board which might be useful down the track (extra PCIe lanes and native support for NVMe SSDs, sometimes USB 3.1 Gen 2). But generally they're very similar. If priced properly you'd get the Skylake 6700K, but they're just not available at sensible prices at the moment - hence my Haswell recommendation.

Re G1 vs WF: The G1 is Gigabyte's top tier 980ti. It's the same GPU underneath, and if you're going to overclock it, they'll probably end up about the same. But out of the box, Gigabyte clock the G1 version quite substantially higher. They also add bling with a multi-colour LEDs on the card, a slightly larger heatsync, and semi passive fans (the fans turn off when not required).

It looks like the G1 is about $50 more, (about 6% more). It does offer more like 14% extra performance out of the box. As I say, they're the same GPU underneath so would likely OC about the same. But if you just want it to run as fast as possible out of the box, or if you care about any of the G1 features, then pay the extra $50.
 
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Asthuran

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Dec 21, 2015
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Haha yeah I ended up just going with the windforce that you recommended in the build. I made another thread asking about the comparison between the two as well just incase you didn't come back, and the guy there basically said you said about being able to get the same clock speed with the WF card with some overclocking and just recommended going with whichever one was cheaper.

I think I'll be happy with either one though. I pretty much bought everything you listed up there though, so hopefully it works out nicely haha.
 
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