Gaming build (Bdgt: £2500-3000)

[thecoolshaz]

Hey there,

I want to start on a new build soon. I'm planning on making a solid build which will last for years to come. Below is what I've come up with after much discussion with my friend and review of other opinions.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£224.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£64.90 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£120.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£212.10 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£212.10 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£527.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£527.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£99.98 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor (£415.00~ @ Amazon US)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Wired Gaming Keyboard (£119.00 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Razer Taipan Wired Laser Mouse (£69.73 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £2873.22

What we're currently having trouble with in deciding is if we should stick with the paied 780Ti SLI or switch to Radeon R9 295X2 8GB. However we like pairing Intel's i7-4770K with the 780Ti cards. Therefore we don't really want an AMD FX-9590 which is an option to couple with the R9 275x2 card. Our question is how well would it work to use the Intel CPU (i7-4770K) however use the AMD GPU (295X2).

Another possible option is also the GTX Titan 6GB.

I'm not extremely experienced in all this, as this is my second build, so if it wouldn't be too bothersome, I hope you guys can provide a bit of detail as to why you suggest certain things.

A few things to note:
- I will be gaming in 4K, if not immediately, in the near future.
- I may or may not be over-clocking, as if it runs all the modern games for years to come, I may not have to.
- I will be using it for other things, but it will primarily be a gaming build, which is why I went for 4770K.
- Will the H100i be good, if I go for water cooling instead?


Thank you in advance, I appreciate it!

 

[sora]

Hey there,

I want to start on a new build soon. I'm planning on making a solid build which will last for years to come. Below is what I've come up with after much discussion with my friend and review of other opinions.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£224.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£64.90 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£120.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£212.10 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£212.10 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£527.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£527.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£99.98 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor (£415.00~ @ Amazon US)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Wired Gaming Keyboard (£119.00 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Razer Taipan Wired Laser Mouse (£69.73 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £2873.22

What we're currently having trouble with in deciding is if we should stick with the paied 780Ti SLI or switch to Radeon R9 295X2 8GB. However we like pairing Intel's i7-4770K with the 780Ti cards. Therefore we don't really want an AMD FX-9590 which is an option to couple with the R9 275x2 card. Our question is how well would it work to use the Intel CPU (i7-4770K) however use the AMD GPU (295X2).

Another possible option is also the GTX Titan 6GB.

I'm not extremely experienced in all this, as this is my second build, so if it wouldn't be too bothersome, I hope you guys can provide a bit of detail as to why you suggest certain things.

A few things to note:
- I will be gaming in 4K, if not immediately, in the near future.
- I may or may not be over-clocking, as if it runs all the modern games for years to come, I may not have to.
- I will be using it for other things, but it will primarily be a gaming build, which is why I went for 4770K.
- Will the H100i be good, if I go for water cooling instead?


Thank you in advance, I appreciate it!

Seems like a great build! Which other things are you going to do with it?

The H100i is great if you wish to go for water cooling.

 

[g-unit1111]

While I generally don't suggest peripherals on builds, I will say that I am not a fan of Razer and I think their products are incredibly overrated. One of my coworkers told me his son had a Razer mouse and hated it, and ditched it for a Mad Catz R.A.T. 5 (which I also have and it's a great mouse). The H100i is a decent cooler but there's far better ones you can get that are based on much newer radiator designs. You don't need 16GB of RAM for gaming or the i7, either. And putting two SSDs in RAID mode is pointless, you'll just shorten their life span.

Try something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme 99.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£103.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£127.23 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£62.90 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£122.70 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.09 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£509.98 @ Dabs)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£509.98 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case (£88.39 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£99.38 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.79 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Gigabyte GK-OSMIUM Wired Gaming Keyboard (£94.99 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Mad Catz R.A.T. 5 Wired Laser Mouse (£44.98 @ Dabs)
Total: £2055.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-04 08:12 BST+0100)

 

[thecoolshaz]

Do you think it would be worth getting 780Ti in SLI, R9 295x2 or waiting for the GTX 800 series?

 

[thecoolshaz]

Okay thanks your input.

I'm going to go with the 780Ti, I don't think I can go wrong, and I generally quite like the idea of Intel coupled with NVIDIA based GPU.

With the SSD. After much review, I will still go with all out SSD, as I don't think there will be wasted space. I'll use NAS for other files that I won't use on a day to day basis and look towards an extension to space if I need to in future.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Shazaib/saved/4zD2 - REVISED BUILD.

Lastly, as I will go down the SLI route, do you think any more cooling would be required? Case fans etc.

 

[g-unit1111]

Okay thanks your input.

I'm going to go with the 780Ti, I don't think I can go wrong, and I generally quite like the idea of Intel coupled with NVIDIA based GPU.

With the SSD. After much review, I will still go with all out SSD, as I don't think there will be wasted space. I'll use NAS for other files that I won't use on a day to day basis and look towards an extension to space if I need to in future.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Shazaib/saved/4zD2 - REVISED BUILD.

Lastly, as I will go down the SLI route, do you think any more cooling would be required? Case fans etc.

That looks a lot better and yes you definitely can't go wrong with the 780TI. I wish I had the money to be able to afford that setup. :lol:

However I will say that putting two 500GB SSDs in RAID mode is incredibly pointless - it will do nothing to speed up your system's performance and will actually shorten your drives' lifespan. Plus the cost per GB ratio is ridiculously high and you don't come out ahead in that matter no matter what your budget is. Get a 250GB SSD and a 2TB mass storage drive instead.

As far as things like case fans go don't worry about that until you get your rig setup because the size of fans and number of fans you can have is determined by the amount of mounts your case has, and the position of them is determined by the way your PSU and heat sink are setup. And I also still say that Razer peripherals are incredibly overrated - you can get way better for less money if you look elsewhere.

 

[thecoolshaz]

I think two 500GB SSDs should do fine. I won't be running them in RAID as I think they'll perform fast enough as one. Other than that, I do think I will make full use of 1TB combined SSDs. Later on in a few months I will get NAS storing to be able to access things across different machines with ease, therefore ensuring I don't fill my SSDs up too much.

With case fans, I'm mostly concerned about temperatures of the Graphics cards. Although due to the design of the Define R4 case, I think my airflow will be good.

 

[g-unit1111]

I think two 500GB SSDs should do fine. I won't be running them in RAID as I think they'll perform fast enough as one. Other than that, I do think I will make full use of 1TB combined SSDs. Later on in a few months I will get NAS storing to be able to access things across different machines with ease, therefore ensuring I don't fill my SSDs up too much.

With case fans, I'm mostly concerned about temperatures of the Graphics cards. Although due to the design of the Define R4 case, I think my airflow will be good.

I'm definitely getting a Define R4 for my AMD rig in the next couple weeks depending on when I get my tax refund. I like the black windowed version.