Advise needed to build my first modern gaming PC.

[foreign]

Hi,

I just went through scan's pc builder (scan.co.uk) and came up with this build:

It turns out that the price is slightly lower if I buy all the parts separately on scan.co.uk and build PC myself which will cost me £1712.89 but not £1883.58 as on the quote above and a way cheaper if I buy all the parts elsewhere. I used http://skinflint.co.uk to compare prices and posting my results below.

2 x 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD - £97.01 each (scan) £79.99 each (elsewhere)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3TB, SATA 6Gb/s - £76.78 (scan) £71.94 (elsewhere)
Corsair RM Series RM1000 1000W ATX 2.31 - £129.72 (scan) £124.78 (elsewhere)
Corsair Vengeance Pro red DIMM kit 16GB, DDR3-2133, CL11-11-11-27 - £133.39 (scan) £132.77 (elsewhere)
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SuperClocked ACX 1.0, 4GB GDDR5 - £286.76 each (scan) £265.68 each (elsewhere)
Akasa Flexa PWM fan splitter, 15cm - £2.38 (scan) £2.38 (scan)
ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero - £159.56 (scan) £143.00 (elsewhere)
Corsair hydro Series H100i - £84.12 (scan) £79.99 (elsewhere)
Corsair Obsidian Series 650D with side panel window - £100.00 (scan) £99.95 (elsewhere)
Intel Core i7-4790K, 4x 4.00GHz, boxed - £259.40 (scan) £248.34 (elsewhere)
--------------------------------------------

Total: £1712.89 (scan.co.uk) £1594.49 (elsewhere)


So, I have few questions regarding above build:

1. Is there anything I can change to reduce the price without noticeable difference in overall performance?
2. Is there anything I can change for better performance without huge difference in price?
3. Would you suggest going for Samsung 850 PRO SSD or 840 EVO will perform about the same?
4. I'm totally unsure what RAM will be the best to pick. Any advises?
5. Is it worth buying this expensive PSU?

Any finally would you buy all the parts from scan at the prices above or would you go for cheaper choices from multiple sources (some not even recognized by me)?

Any advises will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[LukaBoki]

You forgot to mention what will the PC be used for.
Gaming,editing,rendering...

 

[prit87]

Yes you can get this PSU instead EVGA G2 750 watt http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-SuperNOVA-750W-Power-Supply/dp/B00J01K3E8/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412100327&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=evga+g2+750+watt
Much better in quality than RM.
Its a tTier 1 with 10 years of warranty for gtx 970 SLI will draw about 300 watt of power at full load which you will barely reach with SLI so a 750 watt is more than enough for 2x gtx 970 .

There is no meaning of getting 2x 250 gb ssd when you already getting a 3 tb HDD.

I hope this build is for gaming plus animation purpouse or else the i7 and 16 GB ram is a big waste of money.

 

[foreign]

You forgot to mention what will the PC be used for.
Gaming,editing,rendering...

As a title says it will be for gaming the most (well, I'm not sure if I will record and render anything yet as I could never do it with my current and previous PCs).

 

[foreign]

Yes you can this PSU instead much better in quality Tier 1 with 10 years of warranty for gtx 970 SLI will draw about 300 watt of power at full load which you will barely reach with SLI so a 750 watt is more than enough for 2x gtx 970 .

There is no meaning of getting 2x 250 gb ssd when you already getting a 3 tb HDD.

I am planning to use 1 SSD for OS and application and the other one for games but HDD for storage (music, pictures, movies in general). They are not that expensive compared to other parts anyway.

Thank you very much for quick responses guys.

 

[prit87]

You forgot to mention what will the PC be used for.
Gaming,editing,rendering...

As a title says it will be for gaming the most (well, I'm not sure if I will record and render anything yet as I could never do it with my current and previous PCs).

If its mainly for gaming then get a i5 4690k with 8 gb of Ram and spent the extra cash on 2x gtx 980 that will give you more boost in performance in gaming .

 

[prit87]

Yes you can this PSU instead much better in quality Tier 1 with 10 years of warranty for gtx 970 SLI will draw about 300 watt of power at full load which you will barely reach with SLI so a 750 watt is more than enough for 2x gtx 970 .

There is no meaning of getting 2x 250 gb ssd when you already getting a 3 tb HDD.

I am planning to use 1 SSD for OS and application and the other one for games but HDD for storage (music, pictures, movies in general). They are not that expensive compared to other parts anyway.

Thank you very much for quick responses guys.

For storage Using an SSD has no meaning the HDD is sufficient for that.

 

[LukaBoki]

This would be a better build for gaming:
CPU: i5 4690K
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A
CPU Cooler: CM 212 EVO
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 1600 MHz 2x4GB CL9
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 2x
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
Case: Corsair 650D or if you want the cheaper version,Corsair 300R Windowed
PSU: EVGA G2 850W

 

[foreign]

You forgot to mention what will the PC be used for.
Gaming,editing,rendering...

As a title says it will be for gaming the most (well, I'm not sure if I will record and render anything yet as I could never do it with my current and previous PCs).

If its mainly for gaming then get a i5 4690k with 8 gb of Ram and spent the extra cash on 2x gtx 980 that will give you more boost in performance in gaming .

gtx 980 are too expensive atm this is why I decided to go for gtx 970 in sli. It should be enough to run just about any game at ultra for only £100 extra than single gtx 980

However, I might change my mind. This is why I'm here, to listen to your advises as I have never built high end gaming PC in my life.

 

[LukaBoki]

Look above you.

 

[foreign]

This would be a better build for gaming:
CPU: i5 4690K
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A
CPU Cooler: CM 212 EVO
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 1600 MHz 2x4GB CL9
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming 2x
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
Case: Corsair 650D or if you want the cheaper version,Corsair 300R Windowed
PSU: EVGA G2 850W

Thank you for your input. Can't wait to check the prices for your suggested build How it will perform with gtx 970 in sli compared to the build I came up with, what do you think?

BTW, can someone explain what's the difference in performance between 1600 mhz and 2133 or 2400? I have zero knowledge in this and not sure if higher frequencies worth extra money.

 

[LukaBoki]

I edited it,GTX 970 will be enough.
1333 MHz RAM is NO different than 2400 MHz RAM.
1600 or 1866 MHz is the best IMO.

 

[prit87]

if you get the i5 4690k instead of i7 4790k then you save around £80 and if you get the 2x4 gb ram then you save around £ 60 ditching one ssd would save you around £100 .......h100i you actually dont need a CMhyper 212 evo is capable enough to cool the CPU at moderate OC and that will save you around £50 .

So overall you save about £300 for the gtx 980.

 

[foreign]

if you get the i5 4690k instead of i7 4790k then you save around £80 and if you get the 2x4 gb ram then you save around £ 60 ditching one ssd would save you around £100 .......h100i you actually dont need a CMhyper 212 evo is capable enough to cool the CPU at moderate OC and that will save you around £50 .

So overall you save about £300 for the gtx 980.

Yeah, I have just checked the prices for Luka's build and it's just over £1400 in total which is exactly £300 less. Anyway, sticking to gtx 970 in sli I think will be a better option, I know they won't be able to run let's say Battlefield 4 on ultra with resolution scale set at 200% but gtx 980 in sli won't either. If gtx 970 in sli will be able to run any game for the next 3 years I will consider it a better option for the money.

 

[foreign]

I edited it,GTX 970 will be enough.
1333 MHz RAM is NO different than 2400 MHz RAM.
1600 or 1866 MHz is the best IMO.

So, there is no difference in speed and if so why the price is so much higher for the ram with higher frequencies?

 

[prit87]

gtx 970 it self can run any game for 3 years at max settings and you will not see any difference between higher mhz of ram the difference can only be seen if you are using an APU or when you are doing rendering work or animation work etc.

 

[LukaBoki]

I edited it,GTX 970 will be enough.
1333 MHz RAM is NO different than 2400 MHz RAM.
1600 or 1866 MHz is the best IMO.

So, there is no difference in speed and if so why the price is so much higher for the ram with higher frequencies?

RAM manufacturers logic.

 

[foreign]

This would be a better build for gaming:
CPU: i5 4690K
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A
CPU Cooler: CM 212 EVO
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 1600 MHz 2x4GB CL9
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 2x
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
Case: Corsair 650D or if you want the cheaper version,Corsair 300R Windowed
PSU: EVGA G2 850W

I'm sorry to bother you guys with my most likely stupid questions but I don't have much knowledge about high end tech

CPU: i5 4690K
- In what cases i7-4790K will be a better choice over i5 4690K? I don't want to hit 100% cpu load ever again after PC upgrade, it annoys me so much
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A
- why above motherboard over ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero? Is there any reason other than price? If not why not to go for asus hero for about £40 extra?
CPU Cooler: CM 212 EVO
- will be the above cooler capable to quietly cool overclocked CPU at max load? I had 2 reasons in my mind to go for watercooled cooler which are silent and efficient cooling overclocked CPU and the dust I hate to clean off the CPU cooler
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 1600 MHz 2x4GB CL9
- Is there any noticeable or any difference between GSkill or Crosair of same class (same frequency and CL)? scan guys don't have any GSkill ram in stock. Also, is there a noticeable difference between CL9 and CL11 ram?
Graphics card: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming 2x
- why gigabyte over evga superclocked? Is there any reason behind?
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
- I still have a question regarding EVO and PRO series of samsung SSDs. Is there a huge noticeable difference between 840 EVO and 850 PRO? I mean boot up times, game and application loading. I would appreciate if someone who have tried both drives answers this question.
PSU: EVGA G2 850W
- I really like the PSU you suggested, it's cool and a bit cheaper than the one I originally wanted to get

 

[prit87]

i7 is generally better than i5 in every way but for gaming i5 is enough i7 is needed while doing rendering and animation work.
actually hyper 212 evo is quieter than h100i.
No reasons for gigabyte over evga get what you want i will recommend the MSi twin frozer dont go with evga because there are some heating issues reported from evga 970 users.

 

[foreign]

gtx 970 it self can run any game for 3 years at max settings and you will not see any difference between higher mhz of ram the difference can only be seen if you are using an APU or when you are doing rendering work or animation work etc.

I've checked some benchmarks for gtx 970 on it's own and I don't think that FPS output of around 30-40 for modern games like watch dogs, Metro: Last Night, Battlefield 4 might be considered as a good result, even gtx 780 ti on it's own outperforms it for a tiny bit in most cases according to this review: http://www.techspot.com/review/885-nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-gtx-980/page5.html

This is why I think gtx 970 in sli should be just enough for now and upcoming few years but I might be wrong. I'm trying to catch up with todays technology very quickly.

 

[LukaBoki]

i7 is better for editing,it won't give you any performance boost in gaming.
The Maximus is made for extreme OCing.You can still OC on the Z97-A,but not as high as on the Maximus.
CM 212 EVO is a great CPU cooler.So quiet,I can't hear it in my build.
No difference between Corsair and G.Skill RAM,just make sure you don't get Corsair RAM with tall heatsinks.
EVGA has some issues,like one of the three copper heatpipes not covering the GPU AT ALL.Gigabyte is also good.MSI too.
No real difference between EVO and the PRO,just the price.

 

[prit87]

gtx 970 it self can run any game for 3 years at max settings and you will not see any difference between higher mhz of ram the difference can only be seen if you are using an APU or when you are doing rendering work or animation work etc.

I've checked some benchmarks for gtx 970 on it's own and I don't think that FPS output of around 30-40 for modern games like watch dogs, Metro: Last Night, Battlefield 4 might be considered as a good result, even gtx 780 ti on it's own outperforms it for a tiny bit in most cases according to this review: http://www.techspot.com/review/885-nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-gtx-980/page5.html

This is why I think gtx 970 in sli should be just enough for now and upcoming few years but I might be wrong. I'm trying to catch up with todays technology very quickly.

gtx 780 ti is better than gtx 970 but gtx 980 beats the gxt 780 ti .
but its not all about the benchmarks watch this video .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNJOqmddoPU

 

[logainofhades]

If you really want a water cooled i7, I would go with this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.95 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£88.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£68.09 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£146.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.60 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.80 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.65 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1516.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-30 21:10 BST+0100

Otherwise, just go with a 4690k.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£88.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£68.09 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£146.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.60 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.80 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.65 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1438.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-30 21:11 BST+0100

 

[LukaBoki]

Nice builds,logain.

 

[foreign]

If you really want a water cooled i7, I would go with this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.95 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£88.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£68.09 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£146.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.60 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.80 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.65 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1516.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-30 21:10 BST+0100

Otherwise, just go with a 4690k.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£171.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£88.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£68.09 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£146.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£274.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.60 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.80 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.65 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1438.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-30 21:11 BST+0100

Thank you for your suggestions.

Based on some suggestions in this thread and reading few more other threads on this forum I came up with this build and will appreciate if you guys highlight ANY downsides:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.95 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£88.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£155.00 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£131.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£87.84 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£87.84 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£299.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£299.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.90 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1647.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-01 20:22 BST+0100

I'm still confused about picking i7 or i5 CPU. What I definitely don't want to happen is worrying about running many processes and applications in the background while gaming and I want my new PC to last for at least 3 years up to date with any upcoming modern game as well as applications if I wish to use any. BTW, I'm planning to overclock CPU to max (I didn't mention this earlier).

Pretty much the same stands for 16 GB ram instead of 8 GB. I'm not planning to upgrade my PC every year or two like most of gamers does. Actually, I'm not really a gamer, I only play 1-2 games a year and not really much but when it comes to gaming I want to fully enjoy the game I'm playing.

ROG motherboard I think worth an extra ££ for all great OC capabilities and gaming features it comes with or am I missing something?

The reason I have 2 x 250 GB SSD instead of 1 x 500 GB is that I'm planning to use one for OS and applications and the other one for games for a performance boost when it comes to loading games but again, I have never had SSD drives in the past and I might be missing something

The reason for EVGA gpu is simple, they are the fastest 970's on the market atm and heating issues are claimed to be gone with ACX 2.0

I've picked a bit more recent evga PSU over suggested above mainly for a better look of cables

I will appreciate all the suggestions and further discussion

P.S. if you are going to suggest replacing something in my build please note what is your reason behind.

Also, do you think I need to buy any additional coolers or cables or anything?