Hardware Rate My Build / Give Suggestions.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 5, 2015

So im going to be making a gaming rig and want the opinion of others. Am I going over board with my build what can be improved what is not good enough? Also I can't decide on a proper case to fit all this and have no idea what would be a good motherboard to fit this all in (it needs to have at least USB 3.0 and 5 USB ports on the back).

My budget is roughly 2k BTW

Edit - Here is my revised list
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.79 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($148.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 730 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($132.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($688.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Rosewill 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $0.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (Purchased For $0.00)
Wireless Network Adapter: SIIG CN-WR0811-S1 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($26.99 @ Newegg)
External Storage: Seagate Backup Plus 3TB External Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Intel Core i5 650 (Purchased For $229.89)
Other: Dell DIMM 4G 1333 P382H - X2 (Purchased For $68.75)
Other: Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower - White ($120.00)
Total: $1436.36

endoverend · Jul 5, 2015

I think this motherboard would be a good choice. Also, you might want to consider bumping your RAM up to 16GB with a budget like that.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 5, 2015

endoverend said:
I think this motherboard would be a good choice. Also, you might want to consider bumping your RAM up to 16GB with a budget like that.

Looks like a good board for the price and uses intel so I might just pick this one, thanks for the suggestion and yeah I can Do 16GB but isn't that a little over kill?

GreatCrippler · Jul 5, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
Looks like a good board for the price and uses intel so I might just pick this one, thanks for the suggestion and yeah I can Do 16GB but isn't that a little over kill?

Not if you're gaming at all. I am staring to think of 16GB as the new minimum for gaming builds.

endoverend · Jul 5, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
Looks like a good board for the price and uses intel so I might just pick this one, thanks for the suggestion and yeah I can Do 16GB but isn't that a little over kill?

It may be a little overkill but with a 2K budget you might as well.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 5, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
Looks like a good board for the price and uses intel so I might just pick this one, thanks for the suggestion and yeah I can Do 16GB but isn't that a little over kill?

endoverend said:
It may be a little overkill but with a 2K budget you might as well.

But 360 seems a bit drastic for just ram. that would leave me only 20 dollars for a case

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Now I just need a case that will fit the motherboard and allow for both fans and that power supply

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Do you guys think I can pull off 4k gaming with the way things are (I added 16GB RAM BTW)?

endoverend · Jul 5, 2015

With a 980 Ti you should be able to game in 4K easily.

james50a · Jul 5, 2015

couple of things,
1. ram is the least important part of your build. difference between 2340 ram and 1866 will make a 0 fps difference in any games now or in the next 4 years.
2. dont bother buying an antistatic thing u can literaly get a coat hanger and just ground urself that way.
3. your gaming, so your priority should be on the gpu so it might be worth waiting for the fury x (also 650)
4. your not running a dual gpu so u dont really need a ton of power. you would be fine with a 750

my recomended build for you
-whatever case you feel like (its just looks doesnt matter) $50-100

-fan whatever (again doesent matter to much as long as your not using stock cooler) *$30

-gpu fury x $650

-2x hyper x fury ssd $67 each (put them in raid 1 for stupid speeds)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-120gb-ssd-6a-100151-1283.htm

-2-3 segate baracuda 1tb $60 each(again raid 1 or raid 5 if you get 3)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/seagate-barracuda-1tb-7200rpm-64mb-ba-65701-1283.htm

-x2 gskil ripjaw ddr3 1866 8gb $70 each

-power supply (whatevers onsale, shouldnt spend more than 70, go for around 750 or 850 if its cheap)*$70

- cpu is kinda hard to recoment atm since new intel chips will be coming out in the next few months so nows a pretty bad time to buy. that being said you shouldnt be spending more than 250 on the cpu as it will probably never be under full load, especially with dx12 on the horizon which one of the main features is to offload some of the current tasks the cpu performs to the gpu with gaming. also yes this would do 4k easily

Xenon Hacks · Jul 5, 2015

james50a said:
couple of things,
1. ram is the least important part of your build. difference between 2340 ram and 1866 will make a 0 fps difference in any games now or in the next 4 years.
2. dont bother buying an antistatic thing u can literaly get a coat hanger and just ground urself that way.
3. your gaming, so your priority should be on the gpu so it might be worth waiting for the fury x (also 650)
4. your not running a dual gpu so u dont really need a ton of power. you would be fine with a 750

my recomended build for you
-whatever case you feel like (its just looks doesnt matter) $50-100

-fan whatever (again doesent matter to much as long as your not using stock cooler) *$30

-gpu fury x $650

-2x hyper x fury ssd $67 each (put them in raid 1 for stupid speeds)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-120gb-ssd-6a-100151-1283.htm

-2-3 segate baracuda 1tb $60 each(again raid 1 or raid 5 if you get 3)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/seagate-barracuda-1tb-7200rpm-64mb-ba-65701-1283.htm

-x2 gskil ripjaw ddr3 1866 8gb $70 each

-power supply (whatevers onsale, shouldnt spend more than 70, go for around 750 or 850 if its cheap)*$70

- cpu is kinda hard to recoment atm since new intel chips will be coming out in the next few months so nows a pretty bad time to buy. that being said you shouldnt be spending more than 250 on the cpu as it will probably never be under full load, especially with dx12 on the horizon which one of the main features is to offload some of the current tasks the cpu performs to the gpu with gaming. also yes this would do 4k easily

Dont like AMD + it has bad game support.
Also I have a 1TB (mechanical) black drive already I just need an SSD for game installs.

guitarheroknight · Jul 5, 2015

An i7 for gaming is a fairly noob mistake. An i5 will do exactly the same job. As for the case I would suggest the Cooler Master Storm Trooper, best damn case there is - I should know because I use it. All in all stay away from the i7 it's just a waste of money.

The Real Jdbye · Jul 5, 2015

That looks like a pretty great build, maybe a bit overboard but it depends on your needs. You can't go wrong with it if you have that much expendable cash though.
You would probably be fine with an i5, but I suggest getting a high-end cooler for it like a Noctua, you will have more room to overclock in a few years time when the CPU starts to show its age.

james50a said:
couple of things,
1. ram is the least important part of your build. difference between 2340 ram and 1866 will make a 0 fps difference in any games now or in the next 4 years.
2. dont bother buying an antistatic thing u can literaly get a coat hanger and just ground urself that way.
3. your gaming, so your priority should be on the gpu so it might be worth waiting for the fury x (also 650)
4. your not running a dual gpu so u dont really need a ton of power. you would be fine with a 750

my recomended build for you
-whatever case you feel like (its just looks doesnt matter) $50-100

-fan whatever (again doesent matter to much as long as your not using stock cooler) *$30

-gpu fury x $650

-2x hyper x fury ssd $67 each (put them in raid 1 for stupid speeds)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-120gb-ssd-6a-100151-1283.htm

-2-3 segate baracuda 1tb $60 each(again raid 1 or raid 5 if you get 3)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/seagate-barracuda-1tb-7200rpm-64mb-ba-65701-1283.htm

-x2 gskil ripjaw ddr3 1866 8gb $70 each

-power supply (whatevers onsale, shouldnt spend more than 70, go for around 750 or 850 if its cheap)*$70

- cpu is kinda hard to recoment atm since new intel chips will be coming out in the next few months so nows a pretty bad time to buy. that being said you shouldnt be spending more than 250 on the cpu as it will probably never be under full load, especially with dx12 on the horizon which one of the main features is to offload some of the current tasks the cpu performs to the gpu with gaming. also yes this would do 4k easily

Seagate is best avoided. Their failure rate is far higher than that of any other manufacturer, especially if used for torrenting which is particularly destructive to HDDs. They won't last as long and he'll have a bad time getting them replaced and possibly losing data in the process.
HGST drives cost about the same and they're the most reliable on the market.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 5, 2015

guitarheroknight said:
An i7 for gaming is a fairly noob mistake. An i5 will do exactly the same job. As for the case I would suggest the Cooler Master Storm Trooper, best damn case there is - I should know because I use it. All in all stay away from the i7 it's just a waste of money.

I want to future proof my PC so I don't have to keep upgrading when "the next best thing" drops know what I mean. Ill look into that case my only concern is making sure everything fits and no ports on the motherboard get blocked. My current PC has an i5 650 in it @3.20 GHz which wont do ill just sell it. The PC im on now is not bad its just not made for HD gaming.

guitarheroknight · Jul 5, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
I want to future proof my PC so I don't have to keep upgrading when "the next best thing" drops know what I mean. Ill look into that case my only concern is making sure everything fits and no ports on the motherboard get blocked

If an i5 2500k can run everything you throw at it in today's Gaming a i5 4690k can do so too for the next 4 or 5 years. Intel processor's are extremely potent and they are worth every single extra penny. Trust me, it doesn't matter if you buy an i7 or an i5 they will do exactly the same Gaming wise.

As for the case it can hold ANY GPU there is and everything will fit perfectly, not to mention the airflow and all the fans and fan controls it has. It's better to invest in a full tower than buy some $50 piece of shit that doesn't properly ventilate your components.

Zerousen · Jul 5, 2015

If you live near a Microcenter, definitely try to grab some stuff there. They often do bundles and open box deals. Saved myself 30 bucks by grabbing an open boxed motherboard that was already inspected, and they sell CPUs for alot cheaper than most other places. You can save yourself 60 bucks by grabbing a CPU there. Also got my Define R4 case there for 40 bucks, although I just got plain lucky at that point.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 7, 2015

So here my revised list if any one cares to criticize it.

Computer Case - Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower $120.00
CPU Fan - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO $35.00
Motherboard - ASUS Z97 ATX Intel Motherboard $148.99
Power Supply - Rosewill Photon-850 - 104.99
Graphics Card - GeForce GTX 980 Ti $649.99
SSD - Intel 730 Series $149.99
Thermal Paste - Arctic Silver 5 $7

I scrapped the RAM and decided to use my current 8 Gigs of stock ram since the GPU has 6 Gigs of VRAM, I also decided not to buy a new CPU after having a very long "discussion" with 2 of my friends and we concluded that my Current i5 is fine since i'm not going be doing any hard video editing, I've also decided on a better motherboard and a new case (white

) that also takes all my parts with nice cable management that has 4 larger fans pre installed. The only thing that concerns me at this point is the thermal paste
this is the paste I use on PS3 and 360 repairs but i'm not sure if it would be suitable for a PC build any suggestions?

guitarheroknight · Jul 7, 2015

Bottleneck should be your greatest concern since you don't have the greatest cpu

everything else looks fine except those rosewill mumbo Jumbo parts.

Xenon Hacks · Jul 7, 2015

guitarheroknight said:
Bottleneck should be your greatest concern since you don't have the greatest cpu everything else looks fine except those rosewill mumbo Jumbo parts.

then what would you change then or you just don't like roswell parts?
according to my two friends who are hard core pc gamers and make builds all the time they said with my GPU it wont bottleneck at all take this video as an example

To me 5-10 frames is not worth the extra 300+ dollars

guitarheroknight · Jul 7, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
then what would you change then or you just don't like roswell parts?
according to my two friends who are hard core pc gamers and make builds all the time they said with my GPU it wont bottleneck at all take this video as an example

To me 5-10 frames is not worth the extra 300+ dollars

You have the very first generation of i5 processors so while they might pull their weight barely now, they sure as hell wont in the future. This is what I was thinking of, its a great build with top quality components which will last you for the next 5 or more years on ultra! Keep in mind that most of the parts that are mentioned I own personally so I know what Im talking about - especially about the Samsung SSD with its Magician software

Xenon Hacks · Jul 7, 2015

guitarheroknight said:
You have the very first generation of i5 processors so while they might pull their weight barely now, they sure as hell wont in the future. This is what I was thinking of, its a great build with top quality components which will last you for the next 5 or more years on ultra! Keep in mind that most of the parts that are mentioned I own personally so I know what Im talking about - especially about the Samsung SSD with its Magician software

ill stick with the intel hdd since it specifically made for gaming I have a 1tb black drive already and my CPU is only.3GHz slower and is also quad core. Also I plan on buying straight from Nvidia since I also get 3 free AAA games and has Nvidia software support. The case you suggested is nice but I like the Roswell case better.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Are part choices are similar only difference being brands but remember I wont be broke if something needs to be upgraded or exchanged I can do so.

Also thanks alot for that site it is very helpful

guitarheroknight · Jul 7, 2015

Xenon Hacks said:
ill stick with the intel hdd since it specifically made for gaming I have a 1tb black drive already and my CPU is only.3GHz slower and is also quad core. Also the card I plan on buying straight from Nvidia since I also get 3 free AAA games and has Nvidia software support. The case you suggested is nice but I like the Roswell case better.

Straight from NVIDIA like a reference card?? Dude, stay away from that! Intel SSDs are quite nice too, as for the CPU, again youre making some fairly understandable noob mistakes, the frequency of the processor has nothing to do with how good it can perform in your case. Take for example an i5 2500k and compare it to a AMD processor that went head to head with it at that time ( I think it was 4 or so years ago ), the i5 can run an 970 with no problems whatsoever to date while the AMD counterpart is absolutely replaced with newer models which have more "cores" or whatnot :rolleyes:

. My point is that you dont measure processors by their frequency but rather by how much data they can milk out of a mhZ.

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