New Build - Gaming + Slight Graghic Design Work

[HiDDeNMisT]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am a Jr. Network Admin and I am having trouble picking out the parts I need to replace my current desktop. Here is a little history, I have custom built a gaming rig for myself about 6 years ago. Two years after the motherboard kind of died so I traded my graphics card for a dell XPS machine that I have been running since then. I maxed it out and I am pushing it as far as I can. Its time for a upgrade.

 

The type of games that I am going to be playing, just to name a few, Far Cry 3, WoW, Assassins Creed, Startcraft 2, etc.

 

Here is my list of parts that I have right now. BTW i am in the US .

 

CPU: Intel I7 - 4790K

Motherboard: Asrock Z97 Extreme9

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3-2400

GFX : GeForce GTX 780i SLI

Sound: Asus Xonar Essence STX

PSU: Silverstone Strider Gold S 850W

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Storage: I forgot the models of the SSD's but there going to be 2x 240-250 GB Samsung SSD's in Raid 0 and 2x 2TB WD Black in Raid 1

 

This is what I have so far. I am going to be saving money and buying one to two parts at a time as my budget allows. I am going to be needed your recommendations on a mouse, keyboards, and monitors. I also want to be able to go multi display as well.

 

Give me your thoughts. Is this build ok, perfect, what would you change? Don't hold back, let me know how you feel about this build.

 

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

[Cakebomb123]

This Is not a bad PC For peripherals from past experinces my favourites would have to be:

 

Keyboard: Corsair K70 Mechanical Keyboard

Mouse: Razer Deathadder Gaming Mouse

Headset: Razer Kraken 7.1 Surround Sound

Monitors: I Dont know

 

Hope this helps.

[HiDDeNMisT]

Everybody is recomending the death adder. I never used it. Is it really all that good.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Everybody is recomending the death adder. I never used it. Is it really all that good.

i own one and i love it! i would recommend it as well.

[HiDDeNMisT]

i own one and i love it! i would recommend it as well.

 

Okay I will look in to it.

 

Is there anything else you guys would change about my system?

[i_build_nanosuits]

Okay I will look in to it.

 

Is there anything else you guys would change about my system?

what resolution are you going to play your games? personaly i would go with R9 290 4GB crossfire instead of the TI's that way you save a bunch and you get and extra GB of VRAM on a wider memory bus...better for ultra HD gaming or triple display.

if you play 1080P get a single card.

For gaming an 8GB of DDR3 (2x4GB) is all you ever gonna need.

Also for gaming you won't need a soundcard and the one on this motherboard is already very good, unless you are a melanomaniac you don't need one (useless for gaming as the sound quality for games is mostly low quality, at least low enough that you won't notice the better sound card anyway)

 

Basicaly you could cut the price of this build by going with more mainstream components, a gaming motherboard of MSI gaming series for example would be a better pick IMHO, also the case is overkill...some air coolers perform nearly as good as the H100i while being virtualy silent and much more reliable (noctua NH-D15 for example..)

basicaly you could build a rig that perform the same as this one for much less $$..

[HiDDeNMisT]

what resolution are you going to play your games? personaly i would go with R9 290 4GB crossfire instead of the TI's that way you save a bunch and you get and extra GB of VRAM on a wider memory bus...better for ultra HD gaming or triple display.

if you play 1080P get a single card.

I want to go ultra hd when I game. I like Nvidia. I never really bought a AMD GPU before.

 

I was actually thinking about it. switching to AMD. I just might do that. My future plans is to definetly go for triple display.

[i_build_nanosuits]

I want to go ultra hd when I game. I like Nvidia. I never really bought a AMD GPU before.

 

I was actually thinking about it. switching to AMD. I just might do that. My future plans is to definetly go for triple display.

That would be my crack at the best performance gaming PC while not overspending on anything...this will handle Ultra HD gaming while still being a good value:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($71.98 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($69.30 @ Newegg)

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.91 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($349.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($349.99 @ NCIX US)

Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1674.12

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 11:05 EDT-0400

[brob]

...

CPU: Intel I7 - 4790K

Motherboard: Asrock Z97 Extreme9

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3-2400

GFX : GeForce GTX 780i SLI

Sound: Asus Xonar Essence STX

PSU: Silverstone Strider Gold S 850W

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Storage: I forgot the models of the SSD's but there going to be 2x 240-250 GB Samsung SSD's in Raid 0 and 2x 2TB WD Black in Raid 1

...

 

I would suggest a better psu, something like EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR. But if you are thinking of going with more than two gpu, you will want something larger.

 

The motherboard has a pretty decent sound sub-system. Is there some reason for adding a sound card?

 

SSD in RAID 0 will not give you a noticeable performance boost, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html. It makes much more sense to get a single larger ssd.

 

In my opinion WD Black are not worth the premium price, especially when the primary drive is an ssd. WD Red are designed for small RAID arrays and I think would be more appropriate in this application. WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda would also be good choices.

 

Did you consider the Phanteks Enthoo Series Primo Aluminum case?

[HiDDeNMisT]

I would suggest a better psu, something like EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR. But if you are thinking of going with more than two gpu, you will want something larger.

 

The motherboard has a pretty decent sound sub-system. Is there some reason for adding a sound card?

 

SSD in RAID 0 will not give you a noticeable performance boost, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html. It makes much more sense to get a single larger ssd.

 

In my opinion WD Black are not worth the premium price, especially when the primary drive is an ssd. WD Red are designed for small RAID arrays and I think would be more appropriate in this application. WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda would also be good choices.

 

Did you consider the Phanteks Enthoo Series Primo Aluminum case?

Never seen this one. Do you think it is better then the Corsair Obsidian Series 900D? If you do in what way.

 

That would be my crack at the best performance gaming PC while not overspending on anything...this will handle Ultra HD gaming while still being a good value:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($71.98 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($69.30 @ Newegg)

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.91 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($349.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($349.99 @ NCIX US)

Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1674.12

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-25 11:05 EDT-0400

I am def going to look into those cards vs the nvidia ones.

[brob]

Never seen this one. Do you think it is better then the Corsair Obsidian Series 900D? If you do in what way.

 

...

 

I don't think one case is better than the other.

 

I prefer the aesthetics of the Enthoo Primo. The case comes with a PWM hub that can handle up to 11 fans. Some led lighting and support for additional led fans and strips is also provided.

[HiDDeNMisT]

I don't think one case is better than the other.

 

I prefer the aesthetics of the Enthoo Primo. The case comes with a PWM hub that can handle up to 11 fans. Some led lighting and support for additional led fans and strips is also provided.

Very interesting. I will look into it. Thanks for all the help.

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey, HiDDeNMisT!

 

If you are really planning to use your HDD storage in a RAID array, then I'd also recommend to check out the WD Red drives.

They are tested and recommended for RAID environments because they are TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) enabled drives and due to this feature the potential for drive errors causing death of the whole RAID configuration is significantly lower. Check out more of their specs and features here: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

 

If you, however, decide to have the storage in a non-RAID configuration then you've surely made a good choice on the WD Black drives as they are specifically designed for demanding applications (such as those used for graphic design) and gaming. They also deliver better system performance. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760 

 

I hope you find this helpful.

[HiDDeNMisT]

Thanks for the info. I am just not sure if raiding the drives is worth it or not.i am leaning more towards raiding it so I have that redundancy thay I want. I wonder how much system performance I will lose with buying wd red drives instead of black.

[brob]

Thanks for the info. I am just not sure if raiding the drives is worth it or not.i am leaning more towards raiding it so I have that redundancy thay I want. I wonder how much system performance I will lose with buying wd red drives instead of black.

 

The performance difference between red & black will be unnoticeable in most instances.

 

RAID levels above 0 are not intended to provide backup. They simply allow a system to continue immediate operations when hdd units fail. RAID 0 introduces vulnerability, not redundancy.

 

Presuming daily backups, the determination of the need for a redundant array is simply the cost of regenerating one day's new data vs the cost of the array and its maintenance. For most enthusiasts, gamers, and general purpose users RAID arrays are rarely worth the effort.

[HiDDeNMisT]

The performance difference between red & black will be unnoticeable in most instances.

 

RAID levels above 0 are not intended to provide backup. They simply allow a system to continue immediate operations when hdd units fail. RAID 0 introduces vulnerability, not redundancy.

 

Presuming daily backups, the determination of the need for a redundant array is simply the cost of regenerating one day's new data vs the cost of the array and its maintenance. For most enthusiasts, gamers, and general purpose users RAID arrays are rarely worth the effort.

you know what your right. Ill get a WD black and take an image of the drive every week so if it does fail I don't lose to much.

 

What routers are you guys using for gaming. Do you recommend any routers?