I need some help with my first build. I've been researching for hours and still don't have much figured out, so I thought to ask the experts. I need a powerful gaming rig that will serve me well for the next 3 years (at least). I want to be able to play all new games on ultra (BF of 2016, Far Cry 5, GTA, etc.). I don't know if that's possible with a $1500 budget. And I want it to be as quiet as possible.
But so far what I was thinking is:
RAM Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB 1866 ~$150
CPU Intel i7-4790K ~$310
Which leaves me with about a grand for the rest. I have this case (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129074) so tell me first if that will work and if I can fit everything in there or if I need a new case. And I don't need HDD.
So I was thinking around $400-$450 for a GPU and the rest whatever.
About $1450, shipped, not counting mail in rebates and other nonsense that bring it down to just over $1300.
You don't need to spend more than $300 and change on a GPU right now thanks to the new GTX 970, which is the bang for buck deal of the year as far as GPUs go.
I added an H80i. H100i or H110 would have been better but AFAIK your case does not support those.
You can do some tweaks to this build- ditch the SSD and grab a GTX 980 for example. I'd advise against that though, since you can overclock a 970 to near or even-with a 980 with some in home tweaking.
The motherboard is the board we most recommend on this forum due to the feature set it delivers for the money. Great power delivery, and it has dual full length M.2 slots. Unmatched at this price.
With this build you can play everything on ultra at 1080P. For 1440P you will need to turn some settings down.
Also I was told that I don't really need a CPU cooler unless I plan on overclocking! Is that true? But I read that 5+ hours of BF4 on ultra could heat up the CPU pretty high! So I'm not sure if I need it or not?
When it comes to PSU, somebody said that the one I have (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016) would be good enough for this build! Although I am skeptical! Do I need more W? Also the fan on the PSU I have now isn't spinning, is that normal?
That PSU isn't even 80+ bronze certified. On some PSU's the fan doesn't spin up until they hit a certain level of load. If you're pulling a significant load on the PSU and the fan isn't spinning odds are the fan is dead. You can get a much better PSU for not a lot more money.
The Sabretooth board you linked to is an inferior board in terms of feature set. You lose nothing going to the extreme 6. You save $25 and gain some features.
Get an aftermarket CPU cooler. 4790K is designed for overclocking. You can get the plain old 4790 and not overclock if you prefer, in which case I would point you to the Gigabyte H97 G1 Sniper ($90) instead of the Extreme 6. Overclocking on these CPUs is easy enough for a 6 year old to do in my opinion so don't be concerned.
Yes the fan positions in that case are fine for an H80i.
I dont know where you read that the particular ASRock board I suggested has issues. ASRock Extreme X boards are typically highly reliable. We've recommended this board to like 50 million people and nobody has even complained that it was DOA so far.
The wattage is fine. It is a bit old though and not as efficient as modern PSU's. Personally, with it being a few years old, I would get another one... Corsair RM650 comes to mind... or pay $10 more for a better and modular PSU, EVGA 750W Supernova G2.
I think I will go with that EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W PSU.
And for the CPU Cooler, how about Noctua NH-D15? I don't like that water coolers can be loud and this thing is supposed to be pretty quiet! I also read that it's ok for overclocking if I decide to do so in the future!
When it comes to MOBO that Deluxe6 is a bit too expensive, I can't get it for under $215 in Canada! Should I go back to that Sabertooth Mark 2 or go for the Deluxe4 or something else entirely?
And I might as well get a new case since I'm going all out!
I think I will go with that EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W PSU.
And for the CPU Cooler, how about Noctua NH-D15? I don't like that water coolers can be loud and this thing is supposed to be pretty quiet! I also read that it's ok for overclocking if I decide to do so in the future!
When it comes to MOBO that Deluxe6 is a bit too expensive, I can't get it for under $215 in Canada! Should I go back to that Sabertooth Mark 2 or go for the Deluxe4 or something else entirely?
And I might as well get a new case since I'm going all out!
If you get an NHD15, verify that it'll fit in your case. Also make sure the board you choose has a PCIE X1 or X4 slot that you will not be using as the first slot. If it has a PCIEX16 as the first slot you will get interference between the tower of the heatsink and your GPU. Honestly, I think you should go with the H80i. It really isn't loud. Put a good silent fan on it if you're concerned. Matches NHD14 performance and takes up way less space.
It's extreme 6 not deluxe 6. You can go to the Extreme 4, the Fatal1ty or Fatal1ty killer, the Z97-A, the Sabretooth Mark 1 or 2, the Gigabyte Z97XUD4H, or the Extreme 6.
My next choice after the Extreme 6 would be the Z97-A, assuming you can find it for a price significantly lower than the Sabretooth. If not, get the Sabretooth.
Out of those 5 the PRO is the most full featured board. Odds are you won't need those features though. I think you will be fine with the Z97-A. It's the successor to the Z87-A which was our most recommended Z87 board. The only reason we suggest the Extreme 6 over the A now for US customers is the negligable price difference. Since the Ex6 costs more in Canada, for a Canadian budget minded consumer, the A is a smarter choice.
Don't be afriad of other OEMs. ASUS is not the emperor of motherboards. ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, even MSi make good boards. The ASRock Extreme 4 is a good choice, as is the Fatal1ty and Fatal1ty Killer, The Z97XUD4H, Z97-A, MSi Gaming 5, etc.
If you feel most comfortable with ASUS for some reason, the Z97-A is a good choice. Odds are the Extreme 4 is a few bucks cheaper and will deliver the same experience.
My suggestion to you, since this is your computer we're talking about, is to go to the manufacturer websites of all these boards, look the boards up, and go over the feature sets of each board. What features do you get? What chips are on the board? Extra USB3? Extra SATA? ESATA? Who makes the audio chip? Is there a seperated audio path? Using good audio caps? Good OPamp? Good headphone amp? Who makes the NIC? Intel? Realtek? Qualcomm? Does it have dual LAN? Does it support teaming? What's the slot layout like? Will it accomodate an NHD15? Do I have any legacy (ie, PCI) expansion cards I want to use on this board? Does the board support them? Are the audio contacts on the I/O portion of the board gold plated (doesn't matter much but is a nice feature). How much copper is used in the board? (Affects board temps), etc etc. Dare to compare. Only you can pick your motherboard. All we can do is suggest.
1 option you may not have considered is build this:
Now all I need is a nice case! Do you have any recommendations in mind? Under $130, $150 tops! I would like something sound isolated, I don't know if that actually makes any difference?
Was warming up to HZXT H440 but damn think has no DVD-ROM slots, which is a bummer! Now looking at Corsair Obsidian 450D but it is kind of too minimalistic, doesn't look too impressive! Phanteks Enthoo Luxe is very very nice though, but kind of too much - would like something like that!
Consider the interior of the case as well as the exterior. Cable routing, fan mounts, air flow, dust filters, sound dampening, etc. You have to pick a case that you like the looks of just as much as you have to pick a case that has the sort of interior layout you're looking for. My fav case atm is Corsair's 760T but it is out of your price range at $200 CDN.
To reply to your edit: The reason I was considering Asus the most is cause my current Asus MOBO serves me well for close to 6 years now. And as I said before I read some posts online people not trusting reliability of ASRock (which was admittedly rare), not related to Extreme series but past boards. Saying Chinese manufactures, might use inferior parts, yadda, yadda. Although I would imagine they would take extra care with Extreme boards, and I do trust you saying nobody complained about the Extreme series. And besides, Asus should be right there with ASRock with quality and reliability.
When it comes to visiting their websites and figuring out what's best for me, only problem is I don't know what most of those components mean. So I would have to spend additional hours upon hours researching what each individual feature means. Would rather ask the experts.
And when it comes to your original build suggestion, I was originally building on that. Making minor tweaks and changes that I mentioned earlier.
Lastly Extreme4 is same price as Sabertooth - $190, so the Z97-A makes the most sense for $155.
Oh my god... I'm so p*ssed off right now... I just wrote you like a 9000 word post explaining every single feature of the board that's outlined on ASUS' site and my browser crashed. So, so so P*ssed off.....
I'm not going to write it again. Sorry. Hop on this page
Have a read and let me know what you don't understand and I'll translate it to English for you.
In short, it's not a bad board. It has a very good NIC (Lan/Ethernet controller. The thingy that you connect to for your cable modem/router). It has decent (ALC892) audio. ALC1150 is much better but you probably aren't going to get it at this price. You don't want to know what I had to go through in Google just to find out what god darn audio chip the board was using because ASUS wants to call it "Crystal Sound 2"... The chip is shielded, it is a seperated portion of the board to reduce noise, and they are using decent audio capacitors. It's a solid choice.
Yes, the Z97-A is the way to go (in Canada at least). The Extreme 4 is no better and if it costs that much forget it. Same goes for the Sabretooth. It brings nothing new to the table that you're going to notice and just costs more.
Try not to get locked into any one brand with technology. ASUS boards are good but they aren't necessarily the best. It could be argued that different manufacturers make the best boards at different times. Gigabyte will be the best for 5 years, then ASUS, etc. Different manufacturers might offer very different feature sets at the same price, and you pick based on that, lots of other examples I could give. Basically, it's just like buying drugs. You buy from whoever has the best stuff at the best price at the given time. Only difference is if you get caught buying a video card you don't go to jail. Same thing goes for CPUs. Intel is better for some things, AMD is better for others (like ultra low cost systems). Go with what's good for the job. Don't get hooked on Jif and ignore the other peanut butter.
Sorry this isn't that 9000+ word book I wrote you an hour ago... I just don't have it in me to write it twice.
I highly suggest you watch this, and other OC3D videos
They are highly informative and cover pretty much everything you need to know.
Also very much worth watching is this:
It goes over what sort of framerates you should expect from your 970, as well as comparing that to several other cards, as well as dual 970s. In other words, you can see what performance you'll have on day 1 of owning the machine, and what performance you could have if you later added a second GTX 970. Keep in mind that if you DO add a second 970, you will need a more powerful power supply than 650W.
It might not be such a bad idea to do some research and get to know how all this stuff works, if you're interested that is. There's nothing wrong with just asking "does this part fit this part? I want to play WoW and LoL and eat Doritos."
As far as the case is concerned, I wasn't going to suggest it earlier because it's $50 over budget, but this is possibly the best looking case ever made.
Corsair 760T. Also comes in all black. Most b@d @SS side panel window in the history of anything. $199 CDN. If you do get this case, upgrade your CPU cooler to the ever so slightly more expensive Corsair H100i as this case will support it. If you want to hold onto your cash consider the 730T. Essentially the same case without the fancy window. That's in your budget range.
^Thanks for all that info, it sure helped. That case does look badass, but man I cringe at the price. I have decided to go with the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, which everyone is praising ATM.
So here is my final build:
CPU - Intel i7-4790K ~310
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D15 ~90
GPU - MSI GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 ~400
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB 1866 Mhz ~150
MOBO - Asus Z97-A ~190
PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W ~130
Case - Phanteks Enthoo Pro ~110
Solid enough? Will it all fit in the case? Especially the cooler?
^Thanks for all that info, it sure helped. That case does look badass, but man I cringe at the price. I have decided to go with the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, which everyone is praising ATM.
So here is my final build:
CPU - Intel i7-4790K ~310
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D15 ~90
GPU - MSI GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 ~400
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB 1866 Mhz ~150
MOBO - Asus Z97-A ~190
PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W ~130
Case - Phanteks Enthoo Pro ~110
Solid enough? Will it all fit in the case? Especially the cooler?
That case is uglier than the girl I lost my virginity with, but it'll do the job at hand. Yes the cooler will fit. I would urge you to look at 2133Mhz RAM. Cost difference is a few bucks. Performance difference is teeny tiny but it's there, and for a few bucks, I say why not?
Corsair Air 540. Stupidly easy to build in, amazing air flow, lots of space. No dust filter for the power supply is my only knock against it. And you have to put your optical drive in sideways. Also supports the H100i.
One thing I would nitpick is that 750W is a bit of a no-man's-land power supply rating. On the one hand it's too much power for a single GPU setup, on the other, it may not be enough for dual high end GPUs, like dual overclocked R9 295 X2's. It would be enough for dual GTX 970s, but even still, you're locking yourself down to GPUs that have "non ridiculous" power consumption if you get a 750W unit. I'd go 850-1000W personally, just for future proofing.
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