Feedback on my planned build?

[Araborum]

Hello everyone,

As my first post here on the forums, i was wondering if anyone could give me some constructive feedback on my planned build. I've been tinkering with PC's for a bit now, but due to being utterly bussy, i'm a bit out of the loop with the current state of hardware.

I am aiming to build a reasonable rig that can deal with a good amount of gaming. I have no need for every setting in a game to be cranked up to its highest value, but I was wondering if the below setup will serve me well.

• 
  Cooler Master HAF XB EVO Case
  Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX
  GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-GAMING-5
  Intel Core i5 4590 (Previously 4690K)
  Noctua D15 (previously Corsair H80i GT Hydro Cooler)
  Corsair Memory Vengeance Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP
  Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 (4 GB)
  Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB + 2TB WD Green WD20EZRX 3.5"
  Dell UltraSharp U2414H £186.00

NOTE:

1) I know i picked a Z97 board, but i want to have the option to get a K processor for overclocking in the future and prolong the the life of the build.

2) I picked H80i for cooling before i downgraded the CPU from 4690K so its likely an overkill now. Suggestions of alternatives are welcome.


I am at my budgets limit, so additional upgrades to the system are not really an option. if nothing else, i might be looking to cut a corner or two.

 

[Hawkshot]

get rid of that PSU its not suitable for that build as the quality is not high enough for a gaming PC, you want to look at something from the brand XFX or get the EVGA 550W G2 power supply, getting a low end PSU can cause series damage to the rest of your build. also I hate liquid cooling I think its noisy and not worth the money, I would say go for the 212 evo for medium OC or the Nocta D14 for larger overclocks apart from that its a nice mid end gaming pc

 

[Araborum]

Well, it seems slamming on Noctua D15 will not only save me some money, but will also give better cooling as well! Thanks for the tip, Hawkshot. The swap is totaly worth it.

I also opted out for swapping 960 G1 for the Gigabyte GTX 960 Windforce X2. its cheaper and only with a tiny bit of overclocking i am looking at gains sthat will outdo G1.

Ar there any suggestions for alternative cases? I like Haf Xb EVo, but it is around £80 in my case and i am not entirely sure it is justified. I'm interested in setups that mount motherboards both vertically and horizontaly, as long as the cooler's weight won't be an issue when the MB is mounted vertically.

 

[Hawkshot]

no problem most people think that the more expensive means that its better when that's not always the case

yeah that's fine with a little bit of tuning the cheaper 960's can become just as good as the more expensive ones.

the NoctuaD14 is fairly heavy but if you use all the screws on the motherboard you should be ok to mount it vertically, and spending £100+ isn't too uncommon for proper gaming computers that offer better cooling and cable management and the Haf Xb EVo is a very nice case, if it was my money ide rather spend £80 on a very solid case than spend £25-40 on a flimsy badly made case from China.

 

[Araborum]

One last question in regards to my build. Obviously i am trying to squeeze out every bit out of this set, and i think i hit a brick wall in most instances - all the bits are as good of a value as one might expect.

One question is in regards to the GPU. I planned to slip in a Gigabyte GTX 960, but i found this little gem - Sapphire AMD R9 290 TRI-X OC. It is a massive power hog, relatively to 960, but it blows 960 out of the water, while costing similar. If bought used, i even found it a bit cheapaer.

Any ideas on this? Aftermarket cooling seems to have taken care of the high temperatures, though it still hovers around 70-75 under load. has anyone had any experience with the card?

 

[Hawkshot]

Well I can say from experience as a current owner of a Sapphire R9 290x that while it dose run hot and the Drivers aren't optimised with a couple of games it still runs very well I've never had any major problem with it what so ever. If you're interested I run every game on a 1080P screen at way over 60+FPS even the Newest AAA titles on Ultra

 

[Araborum]

That is what i read. Price is near identical, but, temperatures aside, it seems to have 8-10fps over 960 in all games. I'll just get a difference case with better airflow and that should help keep the card nice and cool...ish.

 

[Hawkshot]

yeah you will be fine with that card, its a nice card but its fairly old...ish now but it is a very decent GPU so if your power supply can handle it would go for it I would say get a good 650W power supply as these card are power hogs