Still in the planning stages could use some thoughts.

[Major_JF]

I am posting to see if I am missing anything for the computer that I am planning on building and looking for any suggestions on the parts.

 

Usage goals:

Triple A gaming to the likes of The Witcher 3, Batman whatever, and so forth.  Not much planned in terms of online FPS’s at the moment.

Mathamatica and/or Mathcad and a few other physics data analysis programs.

General media like music and video.  Mostly the media is going to be local.

 

Budget:  I am projecting that I will have $1200-1300US and am aiming for a June/July 2015 buy.   I am asking now so I have a chance to save more if needed.

 

Location: USA, midwest.

 

Parts that are going to be repurposed from my current system:

700 watt, 90+gold, cool max power supply that is currently ~2 months old

Gaming mouse and Keyboard

5.1 3-minijack connection speaker system and separate headphones

2 1080p 23-24inch monitors.  Plans for upgrading one or both, to a higher resolution, if I find a good sale after I get my system.

A 1 TB hdd for a media drive

And a GTX 280

 

Parts I plan to buy with reasoning: part picker link (I just sort of put stuff in there) http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vZsv23

A i7 4770k.  I know it is overkill for gaming but I am hoping to keep the math compute times down.

An aftermarket air cooler so that I have more thermal head room for boost clocks and light over-clocking.  Thoughts on nice coolers would be helpful.

A motherboard that supports SLI, has 4 slots for ddr3 ram, allows for overclocking and has a gigabit lan port. 

The ram would be a 2 stick kit of 1600MHz 16MB(2x8MB) ddr3 that didn’t interfere with the heatsink. Getting 2 sticks instead of 4 so that if I need the extra ram for my math computations I can upgrade without tossing away any of the existing ram.  I am not really caring about the speed of the ram because the higher latency of faster ram tends to even out the performance.

 I am looking at an Intel 730 Series SSDSC2BP480G4R5 480GB SATA drive as my main boot drive.  Going with a 480GB because I want enough room for windows and whatever games/programs I decide and I don’t want to have to think about it for a while.  I don’t want multiple ssds because I am tired of messing around with is there enough space on this drive for this program.

I will also be getting a BD drive because I still need a DVD drive for work and the BD drive only costs $10 more.

I am open to suggestion on the case.  Right now most of my extras are a nice red color and would like to keep that theme.

 

Why am I upgrading?  Barring tech failures I have had mostly the same system for 9 years and I would like to not have to care about the min specs of games for another 5-7 years.

 

Other thoughts:

I intend to build the system around the time Win10 comes out and just skip Vista, 7 and 8.1.

I will start out using the GTX 280 until I can save enough to get a 980 (or future equivalent) and then save again for a second 980 to put in SLI.

[Demons Wrath]

I'll do what I can to improve the build, but not increase the price.

[Demons Wrath]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($279.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14CS 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler  ($41.01 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: PNY XLR8 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($137.69 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($208.97 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $889.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 11:32 EDT-0400

[Guest]

I am not sure I would reuse that Coolmax psu. I would seriously consider changing it for a decent branded unit.

 

The i7 4790K is slightly newer than the i7 4770K. Get a Z97 board to go with it.

[Major_JF]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($279.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14CS 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler  ($41.01 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: PNY XLR8 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($137.69 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($208.97 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $889.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 11:32 EDT-0400

 

Wow, that was fast!  I will definately look into those parts.  Thank you.

 

 

 

I am not sure I would reuse that Coolmax psu. I would seriously consider changing it for a decent branded unit.

 

The i7 4790K is slightly newer than the i7 4770K. Get a Z97 board to go with it.

It was a stop-gap part to begin with.  That said I might look into swapping it out sooner than the 2 years from now that I was thinking about.

[Demons Wrath]

I am not sure I would reuse that Coolmax psu. I would seriously consider changing it for a decent branded unit.

I did ponder this, I'd use it but I'd want a better one. Going to look up the OEM.

[Demons Wrath]

It was a stop-gap part to begin with.  That said I might look into swapping it out sooner than the 2 years from now that I was thinking about.

 

Can you tell me the precise model of PSU that coolmax is?

[Major_JF]

Can you tell me the precise model of PSU that coolmax is?

Model: ZPG-700B

[Vital1ty]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($279.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14CS 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler  ($41.01 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: PNY XLR8 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($137.69 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($208.97 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case Fan: LEPA Vortex 12 PWM 63.9 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($1.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $889.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 11:32 EDT-0400

 

Good enough build, but I would recommend a water cooler. Would help you with the overclocking more than a air cooler would.

And a better GPU. Maybe a GeForce 760? Or a R9 290? Would help you with the games. Will give you better FPS also.

 

Edit : It would still be in your budget.

[Demons Wrath]

Good enough build, but I would recommend a water cooler. Would help you with the overclocking more than a air cooler would.

And a better GPU. Maybe a GeForce 760? Or a R9 290? Would help you with the games. Will give you better FPS also.

 

Edit : It would still be in your budget.

 

Depending on the watercooler, it wouldn't perform better. The only thing Watercoolers are better are doing on the whole is returning the CPU to it's normal operating temperature quicker. Towards the higher end, the best air coolers are just as good as the best water coolers. But the best air coolers are quieter.

[Demons Wrath]

Model: ZPG-700B

 

I fear that model is a Sirtec OEM, which means it's a timebomb. Before it explodes, it's going to be rather inefficient. Definitely worth looking up a replacement.

[Vital1ty]

Depending on the watercooler, it wouldn't perform better. The only thing Watercoolers are better are doing on the whole is returning the CPU to it's normal operating temperature quicker. Towards the higher end, the best air coolers are just as good as the best water coolers. But the best air coolers are quieter.

Well, I'm not a Cooling expert, but logically, Water coolers should be quieter than the air coolers. And I never said that it would increase performance directly. It helps overclocking, by cooling the CPU, thus increasing the CPU's performance indirectly.

[Major_JF]

Good enough build, but I would recommend a water cooler. Would help you with the overclocking more than a air cooler would.

And a better GPU. Maybe a GeForce 760? Or a R9 290? Would help you with the games. Will give you better FPS also.

 

Edit : It would still be in your budget.

Yeah, looking at that I should be able to fit a nice video card in there.  I am just trying to not spend too much on parts that I will replace in 6 monthes.

 

 

 

Depending on the watercooler, it wouldn't perform better. The only thing Watercoolers are better are doing on the whole is returning the CPU to it's normal operating temperature quicker. Towards the higher end, the best air coolers are just as good as the best water coolers. But the best air coolers are quieter.

 

I was looking at water cooling and then I found Linus'

Push vs Pull vs Push Pull for Radiators and Heatsinks.  And desided that the air cooler would be good enouigh.

 

I fear that model is a Sirtec OEM, which means it's a timebomb. Before it explodes, it's going to be rather inefficient. Definitely worth looking up a replacement.

Is that Explode-explode or fail-explode?

[Demons Wrath]

Well, I'm not a Cooling expert, but logically, Water coolers should be quieter than the air coolers. And I never said that it would increase performance directly. It helps overclocking, by cooling the CPU, thus increasing the CPU's performance indirectly.

 

Water coolers have pumps, which are almost entirely louder than large fans. The larger a fan the quieter the airflow, at least typically. But the pumps can make a quite noticeable buzzing or dull droning sound.

[Demons Wrath]

Is that Explode-explode or fail-explode?

 

I saw a Corsair video where they were testing a PSU and it had a minor explosion inside. They were testing it to the max of it's possible capasity and *POP*, something exploded inside. Sirtec are to be treated with extreme suspicion.

 

This is a Sirtec OEM PSU as well:

[Major_JF]

Then yeah, I should add a new power suply to the future build.

[Vital1ty]

Yeah, looking at that I should be able to fit a nice video card in there.  I am just trying to not spend too much on parts that I will replace in 6 monthes.

 

Well, with a GTX 760/R9 290, I don't think you need to upgrade/replace it for like around 2 years. It should give you great performance till then.

And I don't know that much of watercooling because I've never done it. But that video was more of the configuration rather than the Water Cooling vs Air Cooling. But finally up to you. 

 

But I would recommend a GPU upgrade.

[Guest]

Well, with a GTX 760/R9 290, I don't think you need to upgrade/replace it for like around 2 years. It should give you great performance till then.

And I don't know that much of watercooling because I've never done it. But that video was more of the configuration rather than the Water Cooling vs Air Cooling. But finally up to you. 

 

But I would recommend a GPU upgrade.

You can't really compare a GTX 760 with an R9 290 though. The GTX 780 is a better comparison.

[Vital1ty]

You can't really compare a GTX 760 with an R9 290 though. The GTX 780 is a better comparison.

Well, correct. But I wasn't comparing. I was just suggesting that it would be better if he upgrades his GPU. Well, it should be within his budget too. So I suggested these two.

 

Edit : For the Comparisons. GTX 780 vs R9 290 : http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1036

R9 290 walks away as a winner after a close call.

[Major_JF]

I am looking at getting a better video card.  I just wanted to get the main box build first so that I could get my work done.  And worry about the shinies 3,6,9 monthes down the road.