First build plan: "No compromises" gaming rig

[Avalen]

So I'm planning to build my first own computer and I'm going for a sort of all-out-yet-not-making-a-bonfire-of-money kind of thing. I intend to get top of the line performance yet somewhat follow the major drop-off points for diminishing returns. I felt that now was a good time to upgrade as my own rig is about four years old, I'm getting a decent price from selling it to my friend and my knowledge of computers and computer building has increased significantly since I got my current PC(I was too scared to build my own back then). I did get some doubts after reading about Pascal though, but usually there's something better coming down the road at any given time anyway.

 

The OS, CPU and mobo are placeholders for now since I intended to go Skylake & Windows 10 with this build. The hardware does correspond to the CPU and mobo I intended to get(6700K & MSI Z170A Gaming M5). As a half-afterthought I thought to follow a white/red/black colour theme, though not so much that it compromises value too much.

 

Also a note on the PSU, I'm aware of its overpriced nature, but there are some availability issues on alternatives where I live and it might be replaced with something else if available.

 

Any tips, thoughts and ideas are appreciated, thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($97.95 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($679.95 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.69 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  ($717.04 @ Amazon)
Total: $2582.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-27 17:30 EDT-0400

 

[RuLeZ]

What do you want to do with the PC?

[grayblizzard]

What do you want to do with the PC?

ummmmm he said gaming

[RuLeZ]

ummmmm he said gaming

Where?

[grayblizzard]

So I'm planning to build my first own computer and I'm going for a sort of all-out-yet-not-making-a-bonfire-of-money kind of thing. I intend to get top of the line performance yet somewhat follow the major drop-off points for diminishing returns. I felt that now was a good time to upgrade as my own rig is about four years old, I'm getting a decent price from selling it to my friend and my knowledge of computers and computer building has increased significantly since I got my current PC(I was too scared to build my own back then). I did get some doubts after reading about Pascal though, but usually there's something better coming down the road at any given time anyway.

 

The OS, CPU and mobo are placeholders for now since I intended to go Skylake & Windows 10 with this build. The hardware does correspond to the CPU and mobo I intended to get(6700K & MSI Z170A Gaming M5). As a half-afterthought I thought to follow a white/red/black colour theme, though not so much that it compromises value too much.

 

Also a note on the PSU, I'm aware of its overpriced nature, but there are some availability issues on alternatives where I live and it might be replaced with something else if available.

 

Any tips, thoughts and ideas are appreciated, thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($26.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($88.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($97.95 @ OutletPC)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Micro Center)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($679.95 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair 750W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($144.99 @ Amazon)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  ($86.98 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.69 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)

Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  ($717.04 @ Amazon)

Total: $2582.72

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-27 17:30 EDT-0400

all i would do is change to a seasonic psu or an xfx or evga g2

[grayblizzard]

Where?

IN THE TITLE

[RuLeZ]

IN THE TITLE

Damn, I never read the title, why does he game such large text without saying why he wants to use. Anyway, if is for gaming, the CPU is wrong.

[grayblizzard]

Damn, I never read the title, why does he game such large text without saying why he wants to use. Anyway, if is for gaming, the CPU is wrong.

well i dont know cities skylines and some other games really love cpu

 

besides future "smartness"

[RuLeZ]

well i dont know cities skylines and some other games really love cpu

 

besides future "smartness"

Yes, but he is already using 1440p, unless he wants to keep the PC for really long and changing the GPU every 2 year or so, it makes more sense to buy an i5.

[vSyNd1c4t3]

So I'm planning to build my first own computer and I'm going for a sort of all-out-yet-not-making-a-bonfire-of-money kind of thing. I intend to get top of the line performance yet somewhat follow the major drop-off points for diminishing returns. I felt that now was a good time to upgrade as my own rig is about four years old, I'm getting a decent price from selling it to my friend and my knowledge of computers and computer building has increased significantly since I got my current PC(I was too scared to build my own back then). I did get some doubts after reading about Pascal though, but usually there's something better coming down the road at any given time anyway.

 

The OS, CPU and mobo are placeholders for now since I intended to go Skylake & Windows 10 with this build. The hardware does correspond to the CPU and mobo I intended to get(6700K & MSI Z170A Gaming M5). As a half-afterthought I thought to follow a white/red/black colour theme, though not so much that it compromises value too much.

 

Also a note on the PSU, I'm aware of its overpriced nature, but there are some availability issues on alternatives where I live and it might be replaced with something else if available.

 

Any tips, thoughts and ideas are appreciated, thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($26.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($88.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($97.95 @ OutletPC)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Micro Center)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($679.95 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair 750W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($144.99 @ Amazon)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  ($86.98 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Red 66.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.69 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair SP140 49.5 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($15.59 @ OutletPC)

Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  ($717.04 @ Amazon)

Total: $2582.72

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-27 17:30 EDT-0400

 

I saw a few compromises, don't worry I fixed em.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($89.90 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($84.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($134.99 @ Best Buy)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($119.99 @ Micro Center)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($679.95 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($125.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($199.99 @ Amazon)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  ($88.88 @ NCIX US)

Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($24.90 @ Newegg)

Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  ($717.04 @ Amazon)

Total: $2731.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-27 20:08 EDT-0400

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey Avalen,

 

This plan is a bit overkill if you are going to use the computer just for gaming. the amount of RAM and the CPU can be lowered (especially since you are planning on upgrading the motherboard and the CPU later on). I would consider a larger SSD with that budget since 250GB seem quite a lot but if you are going for good AAA games they tend to take a lot of space. Even though gaming relies on the storage's performance only for the loading times and autosaves, some games do need to load huge texture packs (mostly open-world games) and having larger faster storage might enable you to store more of these games on the SSD and actually benefit from its speeds. WD Black is a great drive for performance and durability so I'd keep it if you need the good performance. Otherwise I would consider WD Green for simple massive storage and backups: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=

 

Captain_WD.

[Avalen]

Thank you for the replies!

 

Yes, but he is already using 1440p, unless he wants to keep the PC for really long and changing the GPU every 2 year or so, it makes more sense to buy an i5.

 

I am considering swapping the 6700K for a 6600K, it'll depend a bit on where the prices settle after the launch. For gaming the i7 won't really make a difference, it's mostly a component I want, but I also want to be absolutely sure the CPU-hungriest games will perform great while not upgrading the CPU for a long time.

 

-snip-

 

I appreciate fixing the compromises there but some of those go a bit against the no bonfires of money thing.

 

 

Hey Avalen,

 

This plan is a bit overkill if you are going to use the computer just for gaming. the amount of RAM and the CPU can be lowered (especially since you are planning on upgrading the motherboard and the CPU later on). I would consider a larger SSD with that budget since 250GB seem quite a lot but if you are going for good AAA games they tend to take a lot of space. Even though gaming relies on the storage's performance only for the loading times and autosaves, some games do need to load huge texture packs (mostly open-world games) and having larger faster storage might enable you to store more of these games on the SSD and actually benefit from its speeds. WD Black is a great drive for performance and durability so I'd keep it if you need the good performance. Otherwise I would consider WD Green for simple massive storage and backups: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=

 

Captain_WD.

 

 

I didn't intend to build the PC with this CPU, I was going to build it with Skylake and Z170 straight away, what I meant with the placeholder components is that they're in the Pcpartpicker build to outline the build since neither of my actual planned components are available yet. My apologies if I didn't word it clearly

 

But yes, the i7 could be swapped for an i5 easily, though as I said, it's a "want" and some extra future proofing(even though you're not allowed to say that anymore), the RAM is overkill, 8GB would be fine but I'd have to go for a dual 4GB kit and I kinda don't want to do that because it limits RAM upgrades to 16GB. I don't really know why since 16GB is as much as I could ever need memory so I might end up springing for the 8GB anyway.

 

The storage one is a good point, it'd make sense to go cheaper on the HDD for a bigger SSD. I was thinking of making a cache on the SSD for faster HDD performance though.

[Avalen]

all i would do is change to a seasonic psu or an xfx or evga g2

I will if something becomes available here once I start getting parts.

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

I didn't intend to build the PC with this CPU, I was going to build it with Skylake and Z170 straight away, what I meant with the placeholder components is that they're in the Pcpartpicker build to outline the build since neither of my actual planned components are available yet. My apologies if I didn't word it clearly

 

But yes, the i7 could be swapped for an i5 easily, though as I said, it's a "want" and some extra future proofing(even though you're not allowed to say that anymore), the RAM is overkill, 8GB would be fine but I'd have to go for a dual 4GB kit and I kinda don't want to do that because it limits RAM upgrades to 16GB. I don't really know why since 16GB is as much as I could ever need memory so I might end up springing for the 8GB anyway.

 

The storage one is a good point, it'd make sense to go cheaper on the HDD for a bigger SSD. I was thinking of making a cache on the SSD for faster HDD performance though.

 

In that case you should be fine.

 

Regarding the storage, it always depends on what each person wants and needs from their storage. If you are using your secondary storage only to store your data and files and occasionally access it for media with no need for fast access times or high transfer speeds, WD Green should be the more appropriate and more inexpensive choice. If you are planning on running heavier applications off the secondary drive or need faster access times then WD Black would me more appropriate. 

 

About the memory, current games rarely need more than 8GB to run properly. Having 16GB might be a better option in the long run, but for now I doubt that you'll need it. My suggestion would be, in order to both not spend too much now and to have the opportunity to upgrade down the road, simply go with a single 8GB stick now and leave yourself some space so later you can add a second one. The performance difference between two 4GB stick and one single 8GB stick shouldn't affect your gaming performance much (I doubt you'll even notice it).

 

Captain_WD.