Gaming Build QC please.

[gravitywell]

Color matched systems are for kids in my opinion. It's just not necessary to go all red and black or all blue and white in a build. I've never had a color matched build and I probably never will. I just don't see the point. As long as you are using quality components that best serve your needs that's all that matters.

But...

but...

Well. I won't be asking you about sleeved PSU cables then

Corsair offers sleeved cables, I see a lot of different kits, most are for specific PSU's. Is that for "compatibility?" or just which cables they come with? The only options for my PSU is red or blue. I was thinking White or blue. But, the kit for mine doesn't come with a 24pin, and their 24pin doesn't list my PSU? Is there that much difference in connectors?

Ignore that 24 pin question. My 24pin isn't modular

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Color matched systems are for kids in my opinion. It's just not necessary to go all red and black or all blue and white in a build. I've never had a color matched build and I probably never will. I just don't see the point. As long as you are using quality components that best serve your needs that's all that matters.

Its all personal preference. If you like a rainbow in your PC than so be it. Color matching is not childish by far. Most builds will look "nice" whether its cable management, LED lighting to color matching is all a work of art or as some call it "eye candy". Its what appeases the user. If you're happy with yours the way it is, well than that is all that matters in the end.

But...

but...

Well. I won't be asking you about sleeved PSU cables then

Corsair offers sleeved cables, I see a lot of different kits, most are for specific PSU's. Is that for "compatibility?" or just which cables they come with? The only options for my PSU is red or blue. I was thinking White or blue. But, the kit for mine doesn't come with a 24pin, and their 24pin doesn't list my PSU? Is there that much difference in connectors?

Ignore that 24 pin question. My 24pin isn't modular

Go with what you want. There's good enough stuff out there that can make your rig look "slick" if you will. Have a balance in contrast so its not too much for your eyes.

What colors are you looking to match and which one is your contrast color? My guess is the white since its very busy with the case. A black/blue internal with white cables to match the external of the case? I personally don't like the white cables because they can very easily get dirty and have from personal experience. I decided to get the Corsair Gen2 Black PSU cables. Make sure your PSU is compatible if you go down that route.

LEDs in mind?

Didn't know you were going for a theme. I enjoy seeing other peoples idea on theme'd builds whether its colors, LEDs and or graphic design/mods. Let us know where you stand with this. We can change things up a bit to match the whole build and give it a "bling" effect. That even includes the CPU cooler.

 

[gravitywell]

Well. Originally I was thinking primarily black/white with either green or blue as an accent color. I inadvertantly picked blue as the accent, because of the heatsinks on the RAM.

The http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/143-h440-performance-mid-tower.html case is white and black, with white-fan blades. It's high contrast all by itself.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97a The MOBO I think is okay, the brushed gold isn't that stand-offish, and I doubt it'll be noticable under the HSF anyway. Fortunately, the slots are black and charcoal gray, nothing to effect a color scheme there.

The GPU is black and gray, from the looks of it. I haven't seen too many pics of the 6gb version, but it looks like the 3gb from what I can reasonably tell.

Maybe, I'm just over-thinking this. It doesn't need to be a prize-winning piece of art, but, for the money I'm putting in, I'd like it to be a little coordinated

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/OFv Is a good example of roughly what I had in my head. I dont have anyone to do custom sleeving for my PSU though Is there anyway to do this in Blue? Without sacrificing or falling behind somewhere? I dont see many Blue-accented mainboards.

And, while it's not important, I did notice that my Naga Razer Mouse glows Green

As far as LEDs. I saw a build somewhere that had a strand (braided or sleeved wire) with LEDs spaced maybe every 6" or so? I was thinking something modest, white just for illumination.

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/PEe is a build with all Noctua fans in the case (except the cooler, a lot of these builds in this case use AIO water coolers.)

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/PlK is the only case on pcpartpicker with a Noctua HSF, and not even the right one. Maybe the tan isn't -that- bad.This makes me wonder if the Noctua is compatible with this case? Their website only lists mainboards that it's compatible with.

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/N3W Is as close to what my current build would look like. Less gold on the mainboard though. The fans would be tan/brown, ram heatsinks are blue, mainboard has the brushed gold and then the gpu. I dont think mine would have the green lighting on the side.

 

[gravitywell]

I dont know the difference in any of these motherboards, but, Looking at z97 boards, appearance-wise, ASrock Z97 Extreme 6 is black/blue, would fit well. And the EVGA Classified is gorgeous, but almost $400 bucks.

I dont know anything about ASRock as a brand, or the difference in their board and Asus around the same price-point. I've had two Asus ROG laptops and they've both been champs. I'm not brand-loyal, but I know I can trust Asus.

I'm not sure I can justify spending $400 on a mainboard, just for appearance. I'm sure its specs are amazing, but is it something I would ever truly take advantage of?

 

[gravitywell]

I found this review of the Asus Z97-Pro:

Cons: The ASUS round gold badge looked like it was found on the freeway it has so many scratches.But the video card covers it

So, apparantly, most of the "Brushed gold" will be hidden from view if I stick with that board. I could squeeze a little more from the bank account and get the Sabertooth Mark 1 with the TUF armor.

I also found a review of the Asus Z97 Deluxe: "Lower motherboards in the product stack have a pewter / silver sort of color scheme instead of the gold just for reference." But even the pics of the Z97-A look gold-toned to me.

 

[wingman99]

Boards like the one your looking at for $400 are for LN2 and DICE. You should be looking for boards in the $130-$160 range.

 

[gravitywell]

Boards like the one your looking at for $400 are for LN2 and DICE. You should be looking for boards in the $130-$160 range.

That's what I figured. Ha. I can't justify spending that much on the evga, just because it's "pretty" or "Cool" looking.

 

[Theocnoob]

ASUA Z97A has everything you need for $150. Anything else will be overkill for you.

 

[gravitywell]

I'm really thinking about taking your philosophy and saying "screw aesthetics."

Also, in looking at the ASUS boards, the audio codec on the Z97 Pro is better (1150 vs 892) So, I may go that route.

 

[Theocnoob]

I'm really thinking about taking your philosophy and saying "screw aesthetics."

Also, in looking at the ASUS boards, the audio codec on the Z97 Pro is better (1150 vs 892) So, I may go that route.

What audio hardware do you have?

If you didn't pay $300+ for your speakers you won't notice.

Also if you're really after higher quality audio, why not ditch onboard altogether and go with a $200 discrete sound card?

 

[gravitywell]

What audio hardware do you have?

If you didn't pay $300+ for your speakers you won't notice.

Also if you're really after higher quality audio, why not ditch onboard altogether and go with a $200 discrete sound card?

Roger That. I'm not sure why I didn't think about stand-alone sound-cards. I guess it makes me feel like I'm back in the days of the Audigy.

 

[Theocnoob]

Roger That. I'm not sure why I didn't think about stand-alone sound-cards. I guess it makes me feel like I'm back in the days of the Audigy.

No, but seriously though, please, what specific audio hardware do you intend to use with this PC? I can tell you whether it's worth spending extra for better audio.

Honestly, onboard, even cheap onboard, has gotten SO good lately that you'd be so hard pressed to hear the difference with anything but $300+ speakers.

I had Klipsch Ifi speakers with Kimber 16AWG cable and a monster cable $100 minijack to minijack cable (450+ total cost) hooked up to a $60 ASRock Pentium 4 mother board and then hooked up to a $200 ASUS Xonar card and the difference was there, certainly, but I would hardly call that difference worth $200. With cheaper speakers, I wouldn't have even noticed it.

That's 10 year old onboard. Modern onboard is so close to what you get out of a costly soundcard that it's very hard to tell the difference.

If you were still into discrete sound, something like this HT Omega Claro II would be a good buy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271007

 

[gravitywell]

The buddy that gave me the monitor, has a set of Logitech surrounds, I think Z5500? (Maybe 550?) He paid about $400 for them about a year ago, and he's offering them for a pretty killer deal. Clearly, nothing custom or audiophile that you're suggesting. I have a 3-4 year old Sony HT receiver and home-theater system that I custom build, sitting in storage that hasn't seen the light of day in a while either. Would be interesting to get some tower-speakers going on this thing.

 

[gravitywell]

Hmm. I just send him a text. If the system that I found is the one he's offering, that thing could be close to 10 years old! Although, reviews say its awesome.

 

[Theocnoob]

Hmm. I just send him a text. If the system that I found is the one he's offering, that thing could be close to 10 years old! Although, reviews say its awesome.

Z560, 5500, etc are high excursion driver designs with no tweeters. Definitely not audiophile quality. Honestly, you won't really notice a decent soundcard with speakers like that. You might notice with the cheaper, but more refined, Klipsch promedia 2.1 though. Stick with onboard if you're looking at Logitech speakers dude. Seriously. Take that $200 from the soundcard and improve your GPU or your SSD situation.

 

[gravitywell]

10-4, thank you, as always for the advice.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For $139.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($148.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $96.83)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $89.99)
Total: $1405.74

Red = Purchased.

As it stands right now. What would you change about the SSD and GPU exactly?

 

[Theocnoob]

10-4, thank you, as always for the advice.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For $139.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($148.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $96.83)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $89.99)
Total: $1405.74

Red = Purchased.

As it stands right now. What would you change about the SSD and GPU exactly?

That looks pretty perfect to me. I wouldn't change anything at all.

 

[gravitywell]

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For $59.99)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For $139.99)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($148.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($579.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $96.83)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $89.99)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $17.99)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan (Purchased For $14.99)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan (Purchased For $14.99)

 

[Bobnova]

I think you'd going to want a CPU

 

[Theocnoob]

I think you'd going to want a CPU

Having a CPU is so overrated.