Need to build a new gaming PC

Danger_Noodle

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This is a repost from the components forum, so I can get as many opinions as possible. Realized maybe not the best place to post it over there.

Okay, so I have to preface this with a story of what happened exactly so you'll know where I'm at.

I built a top of the line gaming PC two years ago, the components of which I will list below. It was still trucking along doing great aceing specs on most new AAA games. I went on vacation two weeks ago and while I was gone a hot water pipe burst in my house. My PC was downstairs and got really soaked in water, ultimately it is completely destroyed. Examining it shows signs of both rust and corrosion. Thankfully I have renters insurance so they should pay out to replace everything because my adjuster called the home a total loss and said everything I had was destroyed. (it sat in 100% humidity for 4 days before someone noticed). I parted the PC in my claim and noticed that despite being old parts, the prices didn't drop much. So I believe that I can build a new and better PC for less today. I'm just looking for suggestions to have comparable or improved specs over my old rig, this is mostly because I haven't been keeping up with component news lately due to my busy work schedule. The one part I pulled from my old rig is my Samsung EVO 500GB SSD, it may or may not work, I have no way of knowing at this point, but it looks fine due to where it was placed in my PC case (a Corsair 600C). Anyways, I'm going to list my old rig below and I'd appreciate some feedback on what I could replace components with to have a similar (or improved) rig. Money isn't really a factor, but I figured I'd keep the budget at $5,000 since that's about what my old rig parted out at in total. The primary function of the PC is gaming. I play most of my games on the PC. The only work I typically do on it is writing. Although it's possible that I might use it for audio mixing in the near future.

Case: Corsair 600C
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark S (This dumb limited edition motherboard is only available new for $1,000+ dollars)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 16GB
CPU: Intel i7 4790k Devil's Canyon
GPU: Asus Strix 980ti
PSU: EVGA Supernova 750w
Cooling: Corsair H100i
Fans: Corsair SP fans, 3x140mm 2x120mm
Drive: Samsung Evo 850 500GB SSD
Optical: Asus disc drive
Wireless card: Asus AC-19000 dual band (I know, not practical, but I needed it at one point)
OS: Windows 10
Mouse: Razer Mamba TE (I like simple, but quality mice)
Keys: Corsair K70
Montior: An old Sony Bravia TV, really hope to improve this part a lot.
Cables: Cablemod custom cables


So that WAS my rig. Now I need something new, I feel like for the price of some of these old components I can build something better at this point.

Thanks for any an all help.
 
Solution


The buttons on the MoBo are always nice, and sometimes even helpful. I went and modified the previous...

WildCard999

Titan
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($399.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($153.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING (WI-FI AC) Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($184.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($156.34 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($149.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($118.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 HYBRID GAMING Video Card ($799.99 @ B&H)
Case: NZXT - H440 (Matte Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer - Predator X34 34.0" 3440x1440 100Hz Monitor ($999.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Mouse: Corsair - M65 PRO RGB FPS Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Headphones: Kingston - HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Channel Headset ($94.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Total: $3489.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-26 13:55 EDT-0400
 

Danger_Noodle

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That's a really cool GPU and Case. I probably wouldn't use that keyboard though. Will probably get a ducky or something. I've never used an M.2 drive before. Is there a performance increase over regular SSDs?
 

Danger_Noodle

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I was looking at the cloud II already. It looks pretty nice.
 
Do you have any preferences?

This is a complete replacement build that could be an option.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($399.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design - Celsius S36 87.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($118.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 GODLIKE GAMING EATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($499.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-4133 Memory ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - PM961 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($244.01 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K4000 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AMP Extreme Video Card ($759.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - 760T Black ATX Full Tower Case ($145.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 850W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($192.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus - BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($109.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($117.00 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair - ML120 Pro 75.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($24.77 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer - XB271HU bmiprz 27.0" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor ($799.00 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Keyboard: Corsair - K70 LUX RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Corsair - M65 PRO RGB FPS Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $4007.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-26 14:18 EDT-0400

Note that this is in USD.... you can select country of origin for parts in the upper right hand corner if you follow the link to where the list is compiled. You can also play around with the build as well, adding/changing/removing items as you wish.

[EDIT] The 850W PSU is about 50W shy for a bare minimum PSU power rating if you SLI this specific GPU in this build.
 


There is no benefit to a M.2-SATA SSD vs a standard 2.5" SATA SSD other than no cables to mess with. A M.2-NVMe or U.2-NVMe SSD is considerably faster, but for average use, the speed increase is insignificant to your perception.
 

Danger_Noodle

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I don't really have any strong preferences. I had a lot of ASUS parts in that build but that was just because. MSI and EVGA parts have served me well in the past. I do like that M.2 drives have fewer cables to worry about. I'd prefer to not SLI, because support for SLI is hit or miss with titles. I'm basically just gathering opinions on what people think about various parts. So far every single person has recommended the same CPU and RAM.

I don't really want or need any RGB specific stuff. Not really into it. So in your build I'd say that Mobo seems excessive. Although I do like those on-board buttons for convenience.
 


The buttons on the MoBo are always nice, and sometimes even helpful. I went and modified the previous offering (see below) with a less expensive MoBo and RAM, giving up a little speed in the RAM. From what I've noticed the RAM isn't all the same brand, model, and specs in the various offerings, although the amount of RAM is the same. I went and added a headset to the build as well. As to the CPU, well, for just gaming, we can always drop to an i5-8600K and if the price is still too high we can drop the speed of the RAM down to around 3000-3200.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($399.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design - Celsius S36 87.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($118.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG MAXIMUS X HERO (WI-FI AC) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($259.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team - T-Force XTREEM 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-4000 Memory ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - PM961 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($244.01 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K4000 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AMP Extreme Video Card ($759.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - 760T Black ATX Full Tower Case ($145.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA T2 750W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.89 @ B&H)
Optical Drive: Asus - BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($109.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($117.00 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair - ML120 Pro 75.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($24.77 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer - XB271HU bmiprz 27.0" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor ($774.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Das Keyboard - 4 Professional Wired Standard Keyboard ($149.00 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Corsair - M65 PRO RGB FPS Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Headphones: Sennheiser - PC 310 Headset ($37.89 @ Amazon)
Total: $3717.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-26 17:11 EDT-0400
 
Solution