Switching to PC!! First Build

[Kernal_SS]

Hey fellas,

So I've made the switch over to the dark side and I'm just looking on advice for my first build. Here is what i have in mind

Case;
Cosmos II or 900D, 900D has more space in it but Cosmos II has the curves

Motherboard;
ASUS Maximus VII Formula

CPU;
Intel Core i7 4790K (is it really needed? Should i go for the i5 4690k?)

Memory;
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 2133MHz

HDDs;
WD WD30EZRX 3TB
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

PSU;
Corsair RM-1000 1000W 80 PLUS (With red cables from Cablemod, but i dont think it comes with the whole set? http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=30208&cPath=1424)

GPU;
Not sure if i should go with single ASUS GeForce GTX 980 POSEIDON
or
2 SLI ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX

Cooling;
EK Supremacy EVO CPU Waterblock
EK D5 Vario X-RES 140
XSPC EX240 Radiator
XSPC EX360 Radiator
980 Poseidon as built in water cooling
or
EK waterblocks for the 970 Strix
EK Compression fittings
Hard acrylic tubing
SP120 Fans

I want it to look something like this

 

[Zylith]

That will look great. Post pics after you complete it.

 

[Janus67]

That is a great parts list that you have there.

I would go in with caution on your very first computer build also involving water cooling, there's a lot of work and research involved in doing that with some risk attached to it as well.

If you feel confident in doing it, it would be excellent, but it isn't as plug-and-play that way.

 

[EarthDog]

Looks good to me. Outside of what Janus said (which I agree with), you can save some money if you so chose...

1. The motherboard. The one you chose, while great, is really made with the extreme overclocker (read sub ambient) in mind. With that said, there are a lot of features made for those looking to squeeze every ounce out of their PC. To be frank, there is no need for such a board. A great bang for the buck board that will take your CPU to its limits is the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6.
2. 1KW PSU. For 2 970's a quality 750W would be PLENTY including overclocking both the GPUs and CPU to its ambient cooled limits. I suggest the EVGA Supernova G2 750W for 2 970s/980s...
2a. If you are gaming on a single monitor 2560x1440/1600 or less, grab a single 980.

 

[Kernal_SS]

Thanks for the input guys, i will tone down the psu, i just thought i would be good for the future when i add things to the build. The motherboard, i think looks badass haha so i dont really want to give that up. I want to be able to game on high settings at 4k. So while im spending money ill do it properly. If i could afford it id go 2x 980s but 2x watercooled 970 are only $200 more than a single 980.

Im pretty confident with the build and water cooling. Im always working on my own card and stuff and i always do a **** load of research before undertaking a big project.

 

[EarthDog]

If you are gaming on 4K, you will likely want a 980, actually, 2 of them. I say this because the 970 has 3.5GB of high speed vram while the rest is slow. The 980 does not have this limitation. Gaming at 4K res, you want all the vram you can get unless you would like to not use a lot of AA (which is possible due to the high pixel density). A different choice, albeit a more power hungry one, is getting 2 R9 290/290x cards. That is when you would want the 1KW PSU, for record.

If you want a black and red motherboard for your theme, you can grab the Asrock X99 Pro or Killer and still save your money.

 

[Janus67]

If you are planning to be going with 4K you really may want to be looking at 980s, the 970s only have a truly usable 3.5gb of VRAM whereas a 980 has 4GB of VRAM (check the nVidia subforum for more information on the 970 3.5GB issues if you were unaware of them).

 

[Kernal_SS]

Yeh i did see that in one of the reviews, but thought it would be ok in 2x sli, no? If thats the case i can always buy one 980 now and another one when the price drops a bit.

 

[Janus67]

Even having 4 of them in SLI wouldn't fix the VRAM issue. SLI doesn't add the memory together, so 1 3.5GB card has the same VRAM as 4 3.5GB cards, it is just shared/split between them all.

 

[Kernal_SS]

Yah what i was going on is that it would be able to handle more load no?

 

[Dlaw]

As it has been said, 2 980s are definitely recommended for 4k gaming. Even though the pixel density is extreme at that resolution, you still want to use some AA (FXAA if possible), because you can still get some jagged edges. For example, running Crysis 3 on my system at ultra settings at 4K with no AA results in railings and other strait and narrow objects showing obvious aliasing. FXAA takes care of that, but adds about 400MB to the memory footprint, thus putting it over the 3.5GB mark that starts to cause slowdowns and other issues on the 970s.

 

[EarthDog]

Yah what i was going on is that it would be able to handle more load no?

Horsepower is one thing, the amount of (fast)memory available for the textures is another.

 

[Kernal_SS]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is AA and FXAA?

 

[Janus67]

Forms of Anti Aliasing

http://www.overclock.net/t/1329979/anti-aliasing-the-basics

 

[Kernal_SS]

Ahh i see. So 980 it is then.

 

[Kernal_SS]

For the memory, is it better to go 2x 8G sticks or 4x 4G?

 

[EarthDog]

It won't make a huge difference, but I would go 2x8GB for a couple of reasons.

1. Less stress on the IMC
2. You have an upgrade path without tossing away all 4 sticks (just in case, 16GB for a gamer is a lot!)

 

[Kernal_SS]

Ok cool. My thinking was that 4 4G sticks would share the load so they wont heat up as much.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Ok cool. My thinking was that 4 4G sticks would share the load so they wont heat up as much.

Heat is a non-issue with DDR3 at the voltages you'll be using.

 

[Kernal_SS]

How much would a build like this cost in the US?