$1500 Budget, Air-cooled 1080p Gaming

[Drathozark]

I'm designing and building a new PC for a friend and he has absolutely no idea what he's doing in the custom PC market. I haven't built a new system since early 2012 but recently water-cooled my own system and stared lovingly at the Titans.

Like the title says, the budget is $1,500. The caveat being that this includes every item that must go into the build from a new case to the very last bolt holding a new air-cooling tower in. I have next to no experience in the air-cooling towers. This will be a single GPU set up for daily computing, basic multimedia, and running two monitors for normal operation but a single 1080p screen while gaming. The monitors are not part of this budget but suggestions are welcome. If you see a problem or have a better idea, please say so but don't forget to say your reasoning. Comments of "that bit sucks, you suck." only hurt my feelings.

Case: Unknown
I dunno where to go with the case yet, as I wanted to pick out the motherboard at least before deciding on what size enclosure this will all be crammed into. I doubt I'd have any large form-factor GPUs in there but don't want something like the Bitfenix Prodigy. I personally build out of the CM Storm Stryker, but not many people want an obscenely large case.

CPU: Haswell i5 4670K
The CPU will not receive a major overclock, just something like 3.6-3.9Ghz will do it unless air is much better than my mind thinks.

Motherboard: Asus Z87-Pro LGA 1150
The Asus board above seems to be something reasonably priced without the silly Sabertooth gimmicks but still able to handle some mild overclocking and the Wi-Fi/dual-SLI requirements I have.

I don't need much in this department other than a single PCIe x16 lane and stable power throughout. Full 6Gb/s support would be nice as I'd like to look at a system SSD and data HDD with nice rates. Onboard wifi would be nice. ATX or smaller is sizing. I have no idea what is in this area anymore as the last time I looked I'd settled on an ASRock board for a theory 3770K build I'd done, but no frills and no gimmicks needed. Sabertooth need not apply.

PSU: Corsair HX650 80 Plus Gold
I have the most experience with Corsair units in the PSU space and have never had an issue with them even while overclocking, which is why I settled on this unit. I'm a bit fuzzy on whether or not I'll even need more than a 500W PSU for this system as it won't be particularly intense, so please just smack my hand if 650W is way overkill.

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8Gb
Picked out this memory because it's a low-profile dual-channel kit of 1600 with relatively tight stock timings. I don't know much or have much experience OC'ing RAM or tightening the timings, so I picked something that will be stable and can be expanded to twice the space along with matching the motherboard.

Hard Drives: Samsung 840 120Gb and WD 1TB
I have the 256Gb Samsung SSD and absolutely love it, and that WD just seems to be a decent enough 2TB drive. The WD drive I am willing to consider other options but it needs to be between a 1TB and a 2TB.

GPU: EVGA 770 SC w/ACX
The EVGA 770 in this case is a bit more expensive than something like the Gigabyte 770 Knufire outlines on page 2 but I have a personal preference for EVGA in their customer service and quality of product.

Cooling Tower: Evo 212 or NH-D14
I have no experience whatsoever in the higher-ends of air cooling a CPU and will take any and all suggestions or links to read up on. I checked the cooling forum but it availed me of little. These two are simply the ones I've seen suggested most and appear quite reasonable on paper.
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I realize now that I don't really have as much to go on here as I thought... If anyone's willing to fill in the blanks, that'd be great. I have no problem going and reading up on any of the topics, but I'm like a fish out of water in air-cooling and motherboard choices. The GPU I can do better with once I've got a price range, but that comes after I find out how much money is left in the piggy bank.

 

[Hippogriff]

Only Newegg? Do you live near a Microcenter?

In any case, for gaming I'd buy an i5 and not an i7 and those ram sticks are too high for bigger air coolers...

 

[anhikilator]

It's a long post, damn! but what it called my attention from a quick read was the green drives. Get blue or black. Green spin at lower rpm and you don't want that in a gaming/performance pc.

 

[Knufire]

How techologically capable is your friend?

Put it this way...overclocking greatly increases the chance of having problems. I'm not talking major problems, things we could fix just by a small bump of the vCore or some tweaking in the BIOS. But these small issues to us are major issues to someone else. If he wants to overclock, than I would recommend getting him overclockable parts and helping/teaching him to overclock, but definitely not doing it for him. He has to be able to fix things himself if things go wrong, because being constant tech support is more headache than you think. If he wants you to overclock it for him...I'd just get a non-K CPU and a cheapo board and leave everything at stock.

 

[Drathozark]

Only Newegg? Do you live near a Microcenter?

In any case, for gaming I'd buy an i5 and not an i7 and those ram sticks are too high for bigger air coolers...

Can you explain why the i5 instead of an i7? It'll be used for some multimedia and programming on the two daily use screens. How low of a RAM stick do I need, slash could you suggest examples of lower sticks and a 'bigger air cooler'...?

I really do appreciate feedback but the devil is in the details. I am near a Microcenter but will order from whichever online or brick & mortar store I need to for the best deals. I will be price shopping this list and knocking down whatever I can. Just cause it's a budget doesn't mean I have to max it necessarily... I would, but saving a friend money is nice.

It's a long post, damn! but what it called my attention from a quick read was the green drives. Get blue or black. Green spin at lower rpm and you don't want that in a gaming/performance pc.

Didn't even think to check the RPM on the data drive, just snagged a WD 2TB one. Will reevaluate that and find a faster spinning drive.

How techologically capable is your friend?

Put it this way...overclocking greatly increases the chance of having problems. I'm not talking major problems, things we could fix just by a small bump of the vCore or some tweaking in the BIOS. But these small issues to us are major issues to someone else. If he wants to overclock, than I would recommend getting him overclockable parts and helping/teaching him to overclock, but definitely not doing it for him. He has to be able to fix things himself if things go wrong, because being constant tech support is more headache than you think. If he wants you to overclock it for him...I'd just get a non-K CPU and a cheapo board and leave everything at stock.

My friend isn't a total idiot; I'll be teaching him the assembly and why certain parts are picked and what is what. I'm hoping he'll be interested enough from there to allow me to teach overclocking as I don't have any friends around here that share the hobby. I was considering taking it up a few notches on air just to show him the ropes of it, as I was under the impression that taking a 3.2Ghz CPU to 3.6Ghz as a 24/7 overclock was safe and I don't mind being tech support as long as he's learning.

I've brought my i7 920 from a 2.6Ghz to a 4.2Ghz stable 24/7 OC and tweaked my aging GTX560 by about 20% but I put it under water. I enjoy the fiddling.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

If you have 1500$, spend some cash on a AIO cooler instead of a heat sink.

If your going 3770K cause it's cheaper and not really much slower than a 4770K as terms of daily performance, AsRock Z77 Extreme 4 or 6 pro. Great boards, decent price, nice layout all the OC bells and whistles.

GTX 760 is great for 1080p. You can't go wrong and add another later for SLI.

A really fast gaming system will sport SSD's raid 0 for the OS and then have some storage. You'd be amazed how fast a system can get with full potential to max Sata bandwidth. But do a lot of research before making a purchase. There are things you need to know first.....

 

[||Console||]

No need for the R0's ssd just get one 120 or 256 gig ssd .

 

[Conumdrum]

If you have 1500$, spend some cash on a AIO cooler instead of a heat sink. But do a lot of research before making a purchase. There are things you need to know first.....

I cut out the part of the quote I feel won't suit what I need to say. I DO like the part about research.

An AIO cooler? Yes, but it has to be a 120x2/140x2 rad size. There is absolute CRAP AIO units. Get a good one.

My suggestion is the NXZT Havok 140x 2. My best suggestion is ONLY the Swiftech H220. It's expandable and quality.

When we talk AIO watercoolers, few are worth the money, and ALL of them cost more than a TOP aircooling heatsink.

Depending on your aircooled overclocking (since it's for a friend you don't want to have to be at his house resetting the BIOS etc), get a EVO 212 and go for a decent OC no more than 75C under IBT testing loads. Under normal gaming etc use temps will be good and it will be just above a whisper.

 

[Knufire]

Which Microcenter do you live nearby?

Sticking to single GPU?

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I cut out the part of the quote I feel won't suit what I need to say. I DO like the part about research.

An AIO cooler? Yes, but it has to be a 120x2/140x2 rad size. There is absolute CRAP AIO units. Get a good one.

My suggestion is the NXZT Havok 140x 2. My best suggestion is ONLY the Swiftech H220. It's expandable and quality.

When we talk AIO watercoolers, few are worth the money, and ALL of them cost more than a TOP aircooling heatsink.

Depending on your aircooled overclocking (since it's for a friend you don't want to have to be at his house resetting the BIOS etc), get a EVO 212 and go for a decent OC no more than 75C under IBT testing loads. Under normal gaming etc use temps will be good and it will be just above a whisper.

Thanks for the clarification on the AIO. I'll remember that for future suggestions about AIO.... Myself run custom loops. No sense buying an air cooler the Cpu comes with one....

 

[Knufire]

IMO the high end single rad ones are worth it, they're usually not much more than the high end air coolers. A new H80i is maybe $10 more than a new NH-D14, performs the same/slightly better, and has a few added benefits like a cleaner look and tall RAM compatibility. On the flip side, higher DOA rate.

Only single rads I'd consider are the H80i/H90/NZXT Kraken X40. Latter two are 140mm rads.

 

[Theocnoob]

I'm really bothered by the attitude on this forum towards people who want a 3rd generation Core i3/5/7 processor instead of a 4th. It's a terrible decision to make.

There will be replacement parts for Haswell for at least 2 years. There will be replacement parts for Ivy Bridge for maybe another 6 months, then they're going to get really hard to find new and you'll have to source a used board for any board replacements you might be forced to make due to equipment failure, which does happen. Not to mention that, your Mobo manufacturer may not HAVE a Z77 board to give you if you make a warranty claim.

Plus with Haswell you get 6 Sata 3 ports. And there'll be a drop in replacement CPU next year. Socket 1155 on the other hand is a dead end.

Let's stop telling people it's ok to go Ivybridge.

 

[Soverntear]

Since you want air cooled, im suprised no one has mentioned the noctua NHD14. I'm running one on my 965BE at 4.0 the highest I have ever seen it hit is 40 (it was 32 outside). AIO's have there place no doubt, but based on reviews the NHD14 is on par with them as far as cooling goes.

 

[||Console||]

Since you want air cooled, im suprised no one has mentioned the noctua NHD14. I'm running one on my 965BE at 4.0 the highest I have ever seen it hit is 40 (it was 32 outside). AIO's have there place no doubt, but based on reviews the NHD14 is on par with them as far as cooling goes.

Not that its bad but stick intel CPU ( ivy/haswell) and watch those temps skyrocket to 90+

 

[Knufire]

NH-D14 is a few Cs worse than the better AIOs. Expect 4.4ish out of a Haswell CPU with a NH-D14.

 

[Conumdrum]

Since you want air cooled, im suprised no one has mentioned the noctua NHD14. I'm running one on my 965BE at 4.0 the highest I have ever seen it hit is 40 (it was 32 outside). AIO's have there place no doubt, but based on reviews the NHD14 is on par with them as far as cooling goes.

\\

32 outside 32 C or F? Outside isn't where your PC is it? 40C load temps? What is your load program? What are you measuring temps with? What fans do you have? What case and fans do you have? Your data doesn't give us ANY baseline to go on.

That said, your cooler IS a good one and one of the best I think.

 

[Drathozark]

Sorry for the mega-responses, I know some people hate a wall of text but I'd rather ask the right questions for the right answers rather than screw it all up.

I don't need to spend double on SSDs just to make it marginally faster for someone who doesn't need it and won't notice it, although it is good info for my theory-upgrade on my personal PC.

I looked at the new 760's and 770's but haven't see anything other than the EVGA SC w/ACX that I like. Is there something out there I'm missing or is an AMD card worth pursuing for the bigger memory?

I cut out the part of the quote I feel won't suit what I need to say. I DO like the part about research.

My best suggestion is ONLY the Swiftech H220. It's expandable and quality.

Depending on your aircooled overclocking (since it's for a friend you don't want to have to be at his house resetting the BIOS etc), get a EVO 212 and go for a decent OC no more than 75C under IBT testing loads. Under normal gaming etc use temps will be good and it will be just above a whisper.

I want to stick to air on this one, purely because if I was going to water-cool it I would do a full custom loop and teach him everything I learned before, during, and after I installed my first loop. If I was to get an AIO, the only option would have been the Swiftech H220 since the data points to it as the single top performer in terms of quality, cash, and ease of use/expansion.

The Evo 212 and NH-D14 are the two towers that popped up in my searching but I still can't find anything like an air-cooling guide other than the "Fans 101: Going Scientific" which I read for my PC.

Which Microcenter do you live nearby? Sticking to single GPU?

The Boston/Cambridge store is the one I'd pick, as it's the only one in Massachusetts that I'm aware of and I'm within 45 minutes of Boston. Single GPU with at least dual-SLI is my preference unless someone makes an argument convincing me that a (mostly) PC hardware illiterate will be understanding in tweaking GPU settings.

NH-D14 is a few Cs worse than the better AIOs. Expect 4.4ish out of a Haswell CPU with a NH-D14.

I think I want to go with the Haswell 4770K (~$30 difference on the CPU and marginal on the new entry level boards as far as I see) on an entry-level OC'ing board, bringing it up to or near 4.0Ghz at the outside. Something 24/7 that won't require constant tech support. Call it a 'factory' overclock.

 

[Knufire]

Why the i7? The i5 will perform the same in most scenarios. Is your friend planning on doing any heavy media conversion or editing work?

 

[Drathozark]

Why the i7? The i5 will perform the same in most scenarios. Is your friend planning on doing any heavy media conversion or editing work?

Because I had no idea that the i5 was roughly equal in this instance. Which one is that, the 4670k?

 

[||Console||]

yes