Building My First Gaming PC

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

Hey i am planning on building my first gaming pc and was wondering if these are good parts and if they are compatible with each other

Case: Corsair Carbide 500R White
CPU: Intel i5 4690k Quard Core or the i5 4690
Mother Board: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER Intel Z97
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz 8GB (2x4)
GPU: 4GB EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked ACX 7010MHz
Power Supply: Corsair CX600 Builder Series 600W (80 plus)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i
SSD: Samsung Evo 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB

Thanks for helping

GarnetDevil · January 29, 2015

Get the K, rest are good except the overpriced mobo

stconquest · January 29, 2015

Looks like a fine build.

@MrFrickingAwesome Don't forget you have LTT's arsenal of professional tech shoppers. Give us your current budget, and location. Also what the duties for this PC will be, just gaming?

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

Looks like a fine build.

@MrFrickingAwesome Don't forget you have LTT's arsenal of professional tech shoppers. Give us your current budget, and location. Also what the duties for this PC will be, just gaming?

thanks, do you just want me to send you a private message?

stconquest · January 29, 2015

thanks, do you just want me to send you a private message?

Oh hell no. It is good to get competition regarding how to pick the best parts. Just post here. Every now and then you get people arguing over what is better, but it can be ignored if it is not beneficial to the person trying to buy a PC.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

Oh hell no. It is good to get competition regarding how to pick the best parts. Just post here. Every now and then you get people arguing over what is better, but it can be ignored if it is not beneficial to the person trying to buy a PC.

haha thanks, are they all compatible with each other then?

Jaff · January 29, 2015

They're definitely all compatible, but I agree with GarnetDevil, you can get a much cheaper Mobo and it'll be just fine, a lot of the fancy gimmicks they put on the expensive ones are just that, gimmicks.

stconquest · January 29, 2015

haha thanks, are they all compatible with each other then?

Yeah.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

They're definitely all compatible, but I agree with GarnetDevil, you can get a much cheaper Mobo and it'll be just fine, a lot of the fancy gimmicks they put on the expensive ones are just that, gimmicks.

by mobo im guessing you mean motherboard and what mobo would you recommend?

Jaff · January 29, 2015

well you'll want a z97 so you can overclock that K processor nicely, and I'd recommend sticking with Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI (personal opinion).

Here's a good selection, I don't know the specifics of each board here, but I'm sure that most of them are quite similar, and enough for what you need.

~~The Maximus VII Ranger is about halfway down that list if sorted by price.~~

~~http://au.pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=24&f=2&c=99&qq=1&sort=a7&m=8,18,27~~

EDIT, that's the australian link, here's one without the 'au':

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=24&f=2&c=99&qq=1&sort=a8&m=8,18,27&R=5,4,3

remember, there are a bunch of tweakable settings on the right hand side, just scroll down.

I recommend ticking "2-way SLI capable" if that's in your future plans.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

well you'll want a z97 so you can overclock that K processor nicely, and I'd recommend sticking with Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI (personal opinion).

Here's a good selection, I don't know the specifics of each board here, but I'm sure that most of them are quite similar, and enough for what you need.

~~The Maximus VII Ranger is about halfway down that list if sorted by price.~~

~~http://au.pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=24&f=2&c=99&qq=1&sort=a7&m=8,18,27~~

EDIT, that's the australian link, here's one without the 'au':

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#s=24&f=2&c=99&qq=1&sort=a8&m=8,18,27&R=5,4,3

remember, there are a bunch of tweakable settings on the right hand side, just scroll down.

I recommend ticking "2-way SLI capable" if that's in your future plans.

what about the MSI Gaming 5 or 7

Jaff · January 29, 2015

that'd be about $140 vs $170, so not too much of a difference, though they're both still a bit above what's necessary. if you really want to get a high-end motherboard like these two, have a look at the differences.

http://game.msi.com/product/motherboard/z97-gaming/models

main differences are:

Gaming 7 has 8 SATA ports instead of 6, so 2 extra hardrive spaces (still have to have 8 ports in your case though, so not likely to be useful)

Gaming 7 has more usb3.0 ports (total of 10 vs 6) and less usb2 ports (6 vs 8)

Gaming 7 has automatic Overclocking buttons and aids to help you, so that's a bonus.

pretty much nothing else is different.

Those are the sorts of minor changes you'll see between all high-end motherboards, and its up to you whether it justifies the higher cost.

EDIT: its about 5:40am here, I'll be back in about 9 hours.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 29, 2015

that'd be about $140 vs $170, so not too much of a difference, though they're both still a bit above what's necessary. if you really want to get a high-end motherboard like these two, have a look at the differences.

http://game.msi.com/product/motherboard/z97-gaming/models

main differences are:

Gaming 7 has 8 SATA ports instead of 6, so 2 extra hardrive spaces (still have to have 8 ports in your case though, so not likely to be useful)

Gaming 7 has more usb3.0 ports (total of 10 vs 6) and less usb2 ports (6 vs 8)

Gaming 7 has automatic Overclocking buttons and aids to help you, so that's a bonus.

pretty much nothing else is different.

Those are the sorts of minor changes you'll see between all high-end motherboards, and its up to you whether it justifies the higher cost.

EDIT: its about 5:40am here, I'll be back in about 9 hours.

so whats the difference between the gaming 7 and the ranger? also i want this computer to last me a couple of years

brob · January 29, 2015

Overclocking is a hobby. It if fun for those of use who enjoy it. However, the performance improvement overclocking an i5-4690K is not likely to make a significant different in gaming. Understanding that, do you wish to be able to overclock or not?

Jaff · January 30, 2015

Between an MSI Gaming 7 and an Asus Maximus VII Ranger, the ranger is about $100 more from what I can see.

The Ranger comes with a "network monitor" which supposedly lets you give different applications specific maximum download rates. (I doubt how useful it is)

It also claims to have very good audio, which is possible, but I'm skeptical as to exactly how much "better" it is.

it also has a "gimmick" that I mentioned before, which lets you bring up a radar in games based of what direction the sound is coming from (kinda cool but also cheating)

It lets you assign macros to keyboard buttons, which is useful.

Those are pretty much all the main differences. Is that worth $290 instead of $170?

EDIT: I understand I may seem very negative about these expensive boards, but its just because I personally don't see how the minor changes in features justifies the huge jump in cost. Sure, some of them seem cool, and if you have the budget to spare, go for it if you really want one. I hope my advice helped you decide.

stconquest · January 30, 2015

-snip- The ranger is not expensive. You might be looking at the HERO. 120 pounds for the Ranger.

I did this for fun. Is this over you budget?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£221.97 @ PC World Business)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£82.84 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£116.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£111.10 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£90.00 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£260.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£76.78 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: Cooler Master SickleFlow 69.7 CFM 120mm Fan (£4.81 @ CCL Computers) <<<To replace the H105 fans
Case Fan: Cooler Master SickleFlow 69.7 CFM 120mm Fan (£4.81 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1096.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-30 07:50 GMT+0000

Jaff · January 30, 2015

if this helps at all, here's some reputable guys with an interesting channel I think you should check out

This vid's a little old, but the principles are still the same.

you're welcome.

brob · January 30, 2015

-snip- The ranger is not expensive. You might be looking at the HERO. 120 pounds for the Ranger.

. . .

From what I have seen pricing of the Hero & Ranger differ remarkably depending on the market. In the US, Ranger is US$80 more than Hero. In the UK, Ranger is £35 less than Hero. In Australia, Ranger is AU$60 less than Hero.

stconquest · January 30, 2015

From what I have seen pricing of the Hero & Ranger differ remarkably depending on the market. In the US, Ranger is US$80 more than Hero. In the UK, Ranger is £35 less than Hero. In Australia, Ranger is AU$60 less than Hero.

Oh geez. I thought the Ranger was strickly in the Euro market. As you can see my build is in pounds. I did not know you could buy it here in North America. I guess I never scroll that far into the expensive boards