Falcon NW PC Build

[ViktorStagnetti]

Finally time to say goodbye to my current 4 year old PC and the ol' non-DX11 GTS 250. Time to step into the next gen.

Will the following build be good enough to get by for a couple years? Should I pull the trigger?

System Details

PSU - SilverStone® 750 Watt Modular

Motherboard - Asus® Z87 Plus

Processor - Intel® Core™ i5 4570 3.2GHz

Processor Cooler - Asetek® Liquid Cooling

Memory - 1866MHz 2x8GB (16GB)

Video Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760 2GB

Sound Card - On-Board Audio (Not concerned with sound quality)

Networking - On-Board Ethernet (Don't need wireless)

Hard Drive - Western Digital® Black™ 1TB

Optical Drive - Asus® 16x DVD Writer

64-Bit Operating System - Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium

USB Rescue Drive

1 Year Warranty - Talon

 

[James Mason]

It's a good PC, but falcon NW are kinda insanely overpriced...

 

[ViktorStagnetti]

It's a good PC, but falcon NW are kinda insanely overpriced...

Isn't that the case for all of the custom builders out there? I was looking at Maingear too and I customized one that was only about $150 cheaper. Although Maingear has better incentives such as 4 free games and a T-Shirt which is cool.

Maingear Build

Chassis: F131 with VRTX Cooling Technology

Motherboard: Gigabyte® Z87MX-D3H 2x SLI/CrossFire

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 4670K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4600 + Overclocking

Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

Enhanced Thermal Interface Material: MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 Rev2 Metal Alloy Thermal Interface Material

Memory: 16GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x8GB)

Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 760 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

Hard Drive:: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

Power Supply: 600W Corsair® Builder Series 80 Plus Certified PSU

Optical Drive One: 8X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Slot Loading SATA

Audio: Asus® SupremeFX III X-Fi THX TrueStudio Pro Premium Audio

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

Angelic Service Warranty: Lifetime Angelic Service Labor and Phone Support with 1 Year Comprehensive Warranty


FREEBIES - Assassins Creed 4, Batman Arkham Origins, COD Ghosts, & Splintercell Blacklist

 

[James Mason]

Hence why building it yourself saves you like 30-40% of the costs.

 

[ViktorStagnetti]

Let's not go there. I can't stand when people just assume everyone should know how to build a computer. I'm sure I probably could but I want it done correctly and in a manner that is optimal. I tried to fix my 60" TV by replacing the DLP chip and ended up damaging it beyond repair. So thanks but no thanks. I don't trust myself with hardware.

 

[James Mason]

A TV is different from a computer.
Computers are designed to be easy to fix (relatively)
TVs aren't.

 

[ViktorStagnetti]

Oh well I'll gladly pay the extra cost just to get it done and over with. Tax money is coming in so I won't exactly be strapped for cash. Which of those 2 builds would you say is the better deal or better PC?

 

[James Mason]

The maingear one looks to be the better of the two based on value of what you get for what you pay for, it has slightly slower ram, but 1600 is the standard speed of ram you should have for gaming, so that's fine.

(sidenote: i've never bought a prebuilt PC (excluding laptops) so I can't speak to either of the manufacturers quality/support, which is the main reason you might want to buy a prebuilt, so it's someone else's problem when something goes wrong (until the warranty dries up anyways)

 

[ViktorStagnetti]

Decided to go with Maingear based on all the good reviews I've seen especially customer service. I've narrowed my choice down to 2 and just wanted to get some input on which is the better machine or the better value. They are essentially the same except for size, GPU, PSU, and networking.

Option A - $2,270

Chassis: F131 with VRTX Cooling Technology (19")

Chassis Modification: SilenX 15dB Fan Package (2x120mm, 2x80mm)

Motherboard: Asus® Gryphon Z87 2x SLI/CrossFire

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 4670K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4600

Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

Enhanced Thermal Interface Material: MAINGEAR EPIC T1000 Rev2 Metal Alloy Thermal Interface Material

MAINGEAR Redline Overclocking

Memory: 16GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x8GB)

Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770 2GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

Hard Drive Bay One: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

Hard Drive Bay Two: 250GB Samsung® 840 EVO SSD (w/TRIM) [540MB/s Sequential Reads]

Power Supply: 600W Corsair® Builder Series 80 Plus Certified PSU

Optical Drive One: 8X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Slot Loading SATA

Audio: Asus® Xonar DGX PCI-Express 5.1 Audio Featuring Dolby Technology

Ethernet Adapter: On-board Gigabit Ethernet

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Angelic Service Warranty: Lifetime Angelic Service Labor and Phone Support with 1 Year Comprehensive Warranty

Special Promotions: FREE! Batman Arkham Origins
Special Promotions: FREE! Call of Duty: Ghosts
Special Promotions: FREE! Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag AND Splinter Cell: Blacklist!


Option B - $2,150

Chassis: Potenza with VRTX Cooling Technology (14.75")

Motherboard: Gigabyte® Z87N-WIFI Featuring 8011.11N Wireless

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 4670K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 6MB L3 Cache HD 4600

Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 120 Supercooler

MAINGEAR Redline Overclocking

Memory: 16GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3-1600 1.5V (2x8GB)

Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780 3GB GDDR5 w/PhysX

Hard Drive Bay One: 1TB Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200rpm 64MB Cache SATA 6G

Hard Drive Bay Two: 250GB Samsung® 840 EVO SSD (w/TRIM) [540MB/s Sequential Reads]

Power Supply: 450W Silverstone ST45SF 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU - GeForce GTX TITAN Approved

Optical Drive One: 8X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Slot Loading SATA

Ethernet Adapter: On-board Gigabit Ethernet

Wireless Network Adapter: Integrated 802.11b/g/n Wireless - up to 300Mbps!

Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth Technology Module

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Angelic Service Warranty: Lifetime Angelic Service Labor and Phone Support with 3 Year Comprehensive Warranty

Special Promotions: FREE! Batman Arkham Origins
Special Promotions: FREE! Call of Duty: Ghosts

 

[James Mason]

Well the first one allows you to add in a 2nd graphics card down the line if you wanted.
And the second one gives you wifi, if you wanted that, but doesnt allow you to add a 2nd graphics card, and only allows 2 sticks of ram, which may not be an issue since they give you 16 gbs, which is probably more than you need anyways.

1st: more expansion options in the future.
2nd: no expansion options, only upgrades of existing hardware.