New build advice please

[Shpongle]

Hi all,

I am in the process of building a gaming machine for the first time in years and could use some help, could you guys cast your eyes over the following list and give me your suggestions or alternatives for the parts listed? My plan is to build a system which would be capable of SLI if I find myself unsatisfied with the performance of a single GTX 970.

Motherboards - MSI Z97A Gaming 7, (I'm leaning towards the MSI as I have only had good experiences with them in the past)
ASRock Z97M OC Formula Series Intel Z97,
MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Intel Z97

PSU: RAIDMAX Thunder Pro, 850w, 80 PLUS Gold, Modular(No real preference, whatever offers the smoothest power delivery)
Corsair 850W RM Series Modular Power Supply
Seasonic 80 Plus Bronze Certified - 850 Watt Power Supply

GPU: GALAX GeForce GTX 970 HOF Edition

CPU: Intel i7-4790K 4 GHz BX80646I74790K Quad Core

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX CW-9060021-WW Hydro Series

RAM: G.Skill F3-2400C10D-8GTX Trident X 8GB

Primary HDD: Crucial CT250BX100SSD1 BX100 250GB

Secondary HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200RPM SATA III

Chassis: Fractal Design FD-CA-DEF-R5-TI-W Define R5 Titanium Window ATX Desktop Chassis


Thanks for any input guys.

 

[Blazzok]

Hi all,

I am in the process of building a gaming machine for the first time in years and could use some help, could you guys cast your eyes over the following list and give me your suggestions or alternatives for the parts listed? My plan is to build a system which would be capable of SLI if I find myself unsatisfied with the performance of a single GTX 970.

Motherboards - MSI Z97A Gaming 7, (I'm leaning towards the MSI as I have only had good experiences with them in the past)
ASRock Z97M OC Formula Series Intel Z97,
MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Intel Z97

PSU: RAIDMAX Thunder Pro, 850w, 80 PLUS Gold, Modular(No real preference, whatever offers the smoothest power delivery)
Corsair 850W RM Series Modular Power Supply
Seasonic 80 Plus Bronze Certified - 850 Watt Power Supply

GPU: GALAX GeForce GTX 970 HOF Edition

CPU: Intel i7-4790K 4 GHz BX80646I74790K Quad Core

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX CW-9060021-WW Hydro Series

RAM: G.Skill F3-2400C10D-8GTX Trident X 8GB

Primary HDD: Crucial CT250BX100SSD1 BX100 250GB

Secondary HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200RPM SATA III

Chassis: Fractal Design FD-CA-DEF-R5-TI-W Define R5 Titanium Window ATX Desktop Chassis


Thanks for any input guys.

At what resolution are you planning on gaming at? 1080p or 1440p?

From the PSU list I would suggest the Seasonic, although only go for the 850W if you know you will SLI, otherwise you can save some money there.

Also if this rig is for gaming, save yourself R1k and go for the i5 4690K; for gaming the difference between the two is not worth the extra 1k in my opinion. You could also always go with the new Skylake processors, the CPU costs the same and a similarly spec'd motherboard is also the same, however the DDR4 RAM will cost you more. Just something to consider.

The SSD you're picking is also a more budget orientated SSD, ie not the fastest. Spend R200 more and get the MX200 or R400 more and get the Samsung 850 EVO.

I will also summon [MENTION=21]The Joker[/MENTION] as he is the resident hardware guy and will be able to help you out the best

 

[Shpongle]

At what resolution are you planning on gaming at? 1080p or 1440p?

From the PSU list I would suggest the Seasonic, although only go for the 850W if you know you will SLI, otherwise you can save some money there.

Also if this rig is for gaming, save yourself R1k and go for the i5 4690K; for gaming the difference between the two is not worth the extra 1k in my opinion. You could also always go with the new Skylake processors, the CPU costs the same and a similarly spec'd motherboard is also the same, however the DDR4 RAM will cost you more. Just something to consider.

The SSD you're picking is also a more budget orientated SSD, ie not the fastest. Spend R200 more and get the MX200 or R400 more and get the Samsung 850 EVO.

I will also summon [MENTION=21]The Joker[/MENTION] as he is the resident hardware guy and will be able to help you out the best

Hi Blazzok,

Thanks for your input.

I will be gaming at 1080p, still quite satisfied with my monitor at the moment.

I'm not 100% sure I'll end up going for SLI but would rather have the headroom just in case the bug bites me.

The system will be used as my main driver and I'll be doing quite a bit of video encoding so the extra processing power won't go to waste.

Thanks for the info re Skylake, I was aware that a new architecture was on it's way but didn't realize that one could buy them in SA just yet"whistling:, as I'm spending the loot on new components I might as well get the latest tech!

I already have the budget SSD lying around from another build.

Thanks.

 

[Mash]

Hi Blazzok,

Thanks for your input.

I will be gaming at 1080p, still quite satisfied with my monitor at the moment.

I'm not 100% sure I'll end up going for SLI but would rather have the headroom just in case the bug bites me.

The system will be used as my main driver and I'll be doing quite a bit of video encoding so the extra processing power won't go to waste.

Thanks for the info re Skylake, I was aware that a new architecture was on it's way but didn't realize that one could buy them in SA just yet"whistling:, as I'm spending the loot on new components I might as well get the latest tech!

I already have the budget SSD lying around from another build.

Thanks.

how much did you spend on that build? its quite impressive and where are you buying it from?

 

[Shpongle]

how much did you spend on that build? its quite impressive and where are you buying it from?

Hi Mash,

The system hasn't been built yet, this was just a pricing exercise but the totals would be around 17 to 20 grand with a single card.

I have used the usual suspects for pricing online, Wootware, rebeltech, takeallot, evetech.

 

[mottamort]

A budget SSD is still an ssd, difference between ssd's are barely noticeable compared to mechanical vs ssd, so no worries there.

Something to bear in mind with the Galax 970. If you buy it from Wootware you forfeit the free batman key, so take that into consideration with the price

Wootware are also selling 2x8gb G.Skill sniper RAM kits at nice prices. If you doing video encoding as you say, it might not be a bad time to just from 8 to 16 (if you can argue the need to go better than i5 (ceiling for cpu bottleneck in gaming)).

Just my thoughts

 

[HavocXphere]

Do not plan SLI - everyone plans for it but doesn't do it (me included) which leads me to the next point

PSU is unnecessarily big

Do 16 gb cheaper ram instead of 8 gb fancy...unless you overclock in which case you need to tell us

Asrock is solid too - up to you.

I'd push hard for a 512 SSD. We're expecting multi TB SSDs fairly soon so I'd be surprised if you can't pick up a 500 for a decent price. As mort says...the emphasis here is on it being SSD and it being big. The perceived diff between a name brand SSD and a cheaper one is minimal compared to a hdd

I don't see any $$$ for mouse & keyboard etc. Don't spend millions, but recognise that you need peripherals to go with your new box. Can't jam well with a 20k box connected to a 100 buck mouse.

I'm spending the loot on new components I might as well get the latest tech!

Kinda. I find that the absolute cutting edge stuff has a hefty premium on it though - a premium not justified by the performance increase...purely because there are people out there willing to drop *any* amount of money to get the latest. So personally I find it best to be half a step behind that crowd. Naturally if you can get latest tech for a minimal price premium then go for it.

 

[Shpongle]

A budget SSD is still an ssd, difference between ssd's are barely noticeable compared to mechanical vs ssd, so no worries there.

Something to bear in mind with the Galax 970. If you buy it from Wootware you forfeit the free batman key, so take that into consideration with the price

Wootware are also selling 2x8gb G.Skill sniper RAM kits at nice prices. If you doing video encoding as you say, it might not be a bad time to just from 8 to 16 (if you can argue the need to go better than i5 (ceiling for cpu bottleneck in gaming)).

Just my thoughts

True about the SSD, it's only a few percentage points slower than the MX200 and as it's my first SSD it seems pathetically fast in comparison to a spinning HDD.

 

[Shpongle]

Do not plan SLI - everyone plans for it but doesn't do it (me included) which leads me to the next point

PSU is unnecessarily big

Do 16 gb cheaper ram instead of 8 gb fancy...unless you overclock in which case you need to tell us

Asrock is solid too - up to you.

I'd push hard for a 512 SSD. We're expecting multi TB SSDs fairly soon so I'd be surprised if you can't pick up a 500 for a decent price. As mort says...the emphasis here is on it being SSD and it being big. The perceived diff between a name brand SSD and a cheaper one is minimal compared to a hdd

I don't see any $$$ for mouse & keyboard etc. Don't spend millions, but recognise that you need peripherals to go with your new box. Can't jam well with a 20k box connected to a 100 buck mouse.


Kinda. I find that the absolute cutting edge stuff has a hefty premium on it though - a premium not justified by the performance increase...purely because there are people out there willing to drop *any* amount of money to get the latest. So personally I find it best to be half a step behind that crowd. Naturally if you can get latest tech for a minimal price premium then go for it.

Thanks for your input,

I had come to that conclusion after some marathon research sessions, the general consensus on the web seems to be that SLI isn't worth the hassle due to the Driver and optimization issue still plaguing it so my new plan is to go for a nice fast single GPU (GTX 970,980).

What size PSU do you think for a single fast GPU and a bit of overclocking? 750Watt?

I already own the 250GIG ssd from a buyers remorse purchase I made a few months back so I'm going to use it for the OS and programs and get a 2TB for media etc.

I have a few keyboards that I am quite satisfied with but ya the mouse(Microsoft mobile mouse 3500) need to be replaced!

I did some pricing exercises over the weekend and the price premium when going to Skylake isn't that excessive, the difference came to roughly R1,500.00 more for an I7 build and R1,000.00 for the I5 build.

 

[Blazzok]

Thanks for your input,

I had come to that conclusion after some marathon research sessions, the general consensus on the web seems to be that SLI isn't worth the hassle due to the Driver and optimization issue still plaguing it so my new plan is to go for a nice fast single GPU (GTX 970,980).

What size PSU do you think for a single fast GPU and a bit of overclocking? 750Watt?

I already own the 250GIG ssd from a buyers remorse purchase I made a few months back so I'm going to use it for the OS and programs and get a 2TB for media etc.

I have a few keyboards that I am quite satisfied with but ya the mouse(Microsoft mobile mouse 3500) need to be replaced!

I did some pricing exercises over the weekend and the price premium when going to Skylake isn't that excessive, the difference came to roughly R1,500.00 more for an I7 build and R1,000.00 for the I5 build.

600W PSU would be more than big enough I'd say. I have an i5-2500K overclocked to 4.5GHz, 4 HDD's, 1 SSD and a GTX980 and 2 24" LED's; my system draws 420W under full load. So a 600 or 650W PSU should be sufficient.