Good morning,
I built my last gaming rig about 5.5 years ago. I'm about to wrap up a computer science degree and want to get into security so I'll be building a hacking lab and figured I might as well redo most of the PC.
Current set up:
CoolerMaster HAF 922 (keeping this, just gotta dust it out thoroughly when I'm in there)
Sapphire Radeon 7970 (95% sure I'll replace this)
1TB Samsung Spinpoint HDD (works fine, will get an SSD)
OCZ ZS 750w PSU - Bronze (Should I replace this? Haven't had problems but it's in end of life)
ASROCK Z77 (replacing for new CPU)
Intel i5-2500k (replacing)
-Assorted peripherals that I'm keeping (1080p monitor)
Overall budget for new items (MOBO/CPU/memory cost me 450 already) is ~$1000 but I'm not super strict on it.
What I've looked at so far:
- what I am pretty sure about/have-
Case: HAF 922 (already have)
MOBO: MSI Z170A Gaming (Purchased a combo set in the spring and then didn't finish the build)
CPU: i7-6700k (purchased as part of the combo set)
Memory: 3x8gb Corsair DDR4 (8gb came as part of the combo, will get another 16 gb for hacking lab)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint (already have)
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 256gb (would purchase today on sale for ~$109 after promo code)
- what I'm not sure about-
PSU: Corsair 750w Gold RMx Series ($70 with promo code)
---Do I need to replace my old PSU? It's working fine, just gotta dust it out because it sits at the bottom of my case and I'm sure it's got some fur in there. That's a pretty sick price for a killer PSU though.
GPU: Either the EVGA GTX 1080 FTW or the Gigabyte G1 GTX 1080.
---- EVGA has excellent reviews, but the Gigabyte is $100 less today. Primary concern were the number of folks who had coil whine with the Gigabyte, seems like the odds aren't great there.
- MS Win 10 (Gah I don't want to do this. Tried using the free upgrade on current PC and got stuck in boot cycles every time I tried to download drivers.)
Total cost (including pre-purchased items): $1500 (EVGA card) or $1400 (Gigabyte card) - less $70 if I don't swap out PSU.
What are your thoughts on the EVGA vs. Gigabyte, and would you recommend anything different? I'll probably purchase the SSD and potentially the PSU today since they're on sale, can wait on the GPU/extra memory/OS since I won't have time to build this until Christmas.
I've also considered saving $300 and going for the gtx 1070. I'm not that avid of a PC gamer (partially because I have no time in school right now), but I do love me some eye candy. Current monitor is 1080p, though, so I'm really considering going for the little brother since the gtx 1080 will be overkill in the near term.
I built my last gaming rig about 5.5 years ago. I'm about to wrap up a computer science degree and want to get into security so I'll be building a hacking lab and figured I might as well redo most of the PC.
Current set up:
CoolerMaster HAF 922 (keeping this, just gotta dust it out thoroughly when I'm in there)
Sapphire Radeon 7970 (95% sure I'll replace this)
1TB Samsung Spinpoint HDD (works fine, will get an SSD)
OCZ ZS 750w PSU - Bronze (Should I replace this? Haven't had problems but it's in end of life)
ASROCK Z77 (replacing for new CPU)
Intel i5-2500k (replacing)
-Assorted peripherals that I'm keeping (1080p monitor)
Overall budget for new items (MOBO/CPU/memory cost me 450 already) is ~$1000 but I'm not super strict on it.
What I've looked at so far:
- what I am pretty sure about/have-
Case: HAF 922 (already have)
MOBO: MSI Z170A Gaming (Purchased a combo set in the spring and then didn't finish the build)
CPU: i7-6700k (purchased as part of the combo set)
Memory: 3x8gb Corsair DDR4 (8gb came as part of the combo, will get another 16 gb for hacking lab)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint (already have)
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 256gb (would purchase today on sale for ~$109 after promo code)
- what I'm not sure about-
PSU: Corsair 750w Gold RMx Series ($70 with promo code)
---Do I need to replace my old PSU? It's working fine, just gotta dust it out because it sits at the bottom of my case and I'm sure it's got some fur in there. That's a pretty sick price for a killer PSU though.
GPU: Either the EVGA GTX 1080 FTW or the Gigabyte G1 GTX 1080.
---- EVGA has excellent reviews, but the Gigabyte is $100 less today. Primary concern were the number of folks who had coil whine with the Gigabyte, seems like the odds aren't great there.
- MS Win 10 (Gah I don't want to do this. Tried using the free upgrade on current PC and got stuck in boot cycles every time I tried to download drivers.)
Total cost (including pre-purchased items): $1500 (EVGA card) or $1400 (Gigabyte card) - less $70 if I don't swap out PSU.
What are your thoughts on the EVGA vs. Gigabyte, and would you recommend anything different? I'll probably purchase the SSD and potentially the PSU today since they're on sale, can wait on the GPU/extra memory/OS since I won't have time to build this until Christmas.
I've also considered saving $300 and going for the gtx 1070. I'm not that avid of a PC gamer (partially because I have no time in school right now), but I do love me some eye candy. Current monitor is 1080p, though, so I'm really considering going for the little brother since the gtx 1080 will be overkill in the near term.
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