skimo

Alright. I guess I've made up my mind. If there's no major flaw in that system, then this is what I'd like to buy: Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro white with side window PSU: XFX XTR Series Modular 80 Gold 550W Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait edition CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k LGA 1150 4x3.50GHz CPU cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 tower cooler GPU: Gigabite GeForce GTX 970 Gaming G1 4GB GDDR5 RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP white 2x4GB 1600MHz HD: Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB 3.5" Hard Drive SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB 2.5" SSD Drive: LG GH24NS DVD RW SATA drive (decided not to take a Blu-Ray drive.) Now, I just want to make absolutely sure, because I'm very insecure about these things and rather have it confirmed 5 times before I go and buy something. I'm really, really sorry. Will this system be compatible? Will everything run with each other without any conflicts? If that would be the case, then there's only one thing left to do. Wait for the motherboard to be released and be able to be purchased.

.... Now that I almost had all the components, MSI comes with the Krait motherboard just to stall my purchase again. Ugh! Thank you for bringing it up though! Anyway. I'll probably not go SLI anytime soon. Especially since I won't go above 1080p resolution (lack of space for bigger screens). So.... the XFX XTR 550W it is. Which cooler between the NZXT and the be quiet! is better? I've read alot about the be quiet! one to be a hassle to install. I'm seriously considering going for liquid cooling, though I'd rather not as I have no experience with it. Gah, I'm torn between all these decisions!

@Faceman Thank you for your elaborated post! Would the RAM give me a noticable performance boost? I chose the Corsair Vengeance because they were low profile, so that I don't have any problems with the Noctua NH-D15. Alright, you guys have convinced me. I'll buy the EVGA SuperNOVA G2. Would the 750W version suffice, though? Otherwise, I'd go with the Corsair RM550 or the XFX XTR 550W. When it comes to color, I'm a sucker for white/black combinations. If there are accents of other colors in there, I don't mind that, but I do want to keep that to a minimum if possible. I don't really need a Blu-Ray player, it would be just nice to have. The price difference between a Blu-Ray player and a DVD player is not that great, when you take into consideration that the whole system is about 1200-1400 €.

Thank you. I was a bit unsure, but even the noctua.at page confirms that the NH-D15 fits on the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard. I guess that's it then? Now that I know that everything fits, and that there are no compatibility issues to my knowledge, my new PC would look like this (forgive me for the German pages): Case: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Phanteks-Enthoo-Pro-mit-Sichtfenster-Midi-Tower-ohne-Netzteil-weiss_976537.html PSU: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/650-Watt-XFX-XTR-Series-Modular-80--Gold_969687.html (decided to go with the 650W version... a gut feeling again >.>) Motherboard: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/MSI-Z97-GAMING-5-Intel-Z97-So-1150-Dual-Channel-DDR3-ATX-Retail_961275.html CPU: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Intel-Core-i5-4690K-4x-3-50GHz-So-1150-TRAY_962957.html CPU cooler: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Noctua-NH-D15-Tower-Kuehler_958701.html GPU: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/4096MB-Gigabyte-GeForce-GTX-970-Gaming-G1-Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retail-_976945.html RAM: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/8GB-Corsair-Vengeance-LP-weiss-DDR3L-1600-DIMM-CL9-Dual-Kit_749994.html HD: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/1000GB-Seagate-Desktop-HDD-ST1000DM003-64MB-3-5Zoll--8-9cm--SATA-6Gb-s_775365.html SSD: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/256GB-Samsung-850-PRO-2-5Zoll--6-4cm--SATA-6Gb-s-MLC-Toggle--MZ-7KE256BW-_968279.html Drive: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/LG-Electronics-BH16NS40-Blu-ray-Disc-Writer-SATA-1-5Gb-s-intern-schwarz-R_826532.html Would go anything against buying this setup? Any last objections or recommendations? Total price would be ~1350 €. Thank you very much for your help, everyone! (@Faceman, @athesean1, @Str_Mape, and last but not least @i_build_nanosuits)

After some consideration, I've decided on the XFX XTR 550. Thanks for your suggestion! Now I've looked at the Noctua NH-D15 cooler, and performance wise it's great, though I don't know if it's not too big for my Gigabyte GTX 970. Would there still be enough space on a MSI Z97 / Asus Z97 motherboard for the NH-D15?

Then I'll get the 1600mhz one, thank you. Are there any alternatives to the EVGA psu? I'm really sorry, but I'm still not convinced of it. I don't know why, but it's a gut feeling, and I can't switch it off -.- I'd rather have something along the lines of a 650W 80 Plus Gold psu.

Okay, makes sense. I don't know if I need Audio Boost 2, since I use a Logitech G35 headset and that uses its own soundcard. The price is about the same, however, so I guess I'll go with the MSI one. Thank you! I'll probably get the Phanteks Enthoo Pro without the side window after some consideration, however, since inside-looks barely matter to me. I just want a stable and fast system with a plain case. I don't need to be able to look inside. About CPU cooling... I'd rather go with an air cooler to be honest. "Never touch a running system", so since there is no need for me to switch to liquid cooling yet, I want to stay with air cooling. Thus, as the air coolers are very large, I've considered buying the Corsair DIMM 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 9-9-24 LP (low profile) memory, so that I don't have to worry about air coolers being too big to fit. Would there be much of a performance difference to a 2400 MHz memory, though? Thank you for your time, everyone.

Okay, thank you. Will probably go with the liquid cooling solution then. I'll sleep over it. What other features do the MSI motherboards have? Generally I don't care that much about too fancy stuff... but if it's something worth getting I'll gladly change my opinion.

@Faceman Ah, I see. Yeah, you're right, the AR one looks a tad better. One question regarding motherboards though in general. The RAM slots are all colored like this (1-2-1-2). If I have 2 RAM bars, should I put them into the equally colored ones (so "RAM - no ram - RAM - no ram") or does it not matter? The current motherboard I'm using has a (1-1-2-2) color scheme, so I just put them next to each other. Would the G.Skill TridentX memory even fit beneath/beside a Noctua NH-D14 cooler?

@Faceman - wow, that case looks amazing! Definitely prefer it over the 300R. I have absolutely no experience with liquid cooling, so I tried to stay on the safe side with the air cooler... but I'm tempted to try it. Would that water cooler make much of a difference performance or noise wise? Also considering buying the G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory, though I'm a bit hesitant about that. Also, what's the difference between a Z97-A and a Z97-AR motherboard? Sorry for being so clueless >.> @athesean1 - I don't know why, I just like having much RAM, since once I open something, I rarely close it again. With PhotoShop, WoW (or any other game), tens of tabs in Chrome, then all the Ts³, Steam, Skype, Winamp stuff open, I just feel save having 16GB of RAM, even if I'll hardly need it. @Str_Mape - I decided to go with the Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD with 256GB storage (Link) and the Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB HD (Link) since that is completely enough for me, but thank you for your input! You listed the Noctua NH-U14S cooler - would you mind explaining why not the NH-D14? To the topic of PSUs: I'd rather not go over 650W, since electricity doesn't pay itself (unfortunately^^) and I don't plan on going SLI anytime soon. Would you have any recommendations? Thank you all for your responses! It really helps alot. Edit: Somehow "@Str_Mape" doesn't want to work...

Hello everybody. Forgive me, this is my first post here on the LTT forums, and I didn't know where to post this thread exactly. I'm currently building a new rig, though I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to compatibility, so I've come here to ask for help. First off, let me list what I currently have in mind: Case: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Carbide-Series-CC-9011014-WW-Mid-Tower/dp/B006I2H0YS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415147291&sr=8-1&keywords=300r Drive: http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-BH16NS40-AUAR10B-Internal-BD-RW-Retail/dp/B00AK29B26/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415147646&sr=8-1&keywords=LG+BH16NS40 HD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/1TB-inch-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359539&sr=8-2&keywords=Western+Digital+WD10EZEX+Blue+1TB SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT256MX100SSD1-256GB-Includes-Spacer/dp/B00KFAGCWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415147318&sr=8-1&keywords=crucial+mx100 PSU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CS650M-PLUS-Power-supply-internal/dp/B00IMN44NG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359680&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+CP-9020077-EU+CS650M RAM: http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-Series-1600MHz-Memory-Module/dp/B00J8E8YES/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359732&sr=8-5&keywords=kingston+hyper+16gb Motherboard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mod-1150-ASUS-Z97-A-Motherboard/dp/B00K80MMJ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359807&sr=8-1&keywords=+Asus+Z97-A CPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i5-4690K-Processor-Graphics-LGA-1150/dp/B00KPRWB9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359862&sr=8-1&keywords=i5+4690k CPU cooler: http://www.amazon.co.uk/NH-D14-Processor-LGA1366-LGA1156-LGA1155/dp/B002VKVZ1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415147552&sr=8-1&keywords=noctua+nhd14 GPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-Gaming-Graphics-Express/dp/B00NQ862GY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414359890&sr=8-1&keywords=gigabyte+gtx+970 Now I have a few questions: The price for this setup here in Germany would be about 1300 € and that is pretty much my limit. (I've listed the amazon.co.uk pages just for language reasons) 1. Are all these parts compatible with each other? The RAM for example wasn't listed on the list from the Asus Z97-A motherboard. 2. Is the PSU okay? I've heard I should rather get the Corsair RM650 (or 550 for that matter) - what's the difference between a RM and a CS psu? Should I get a completely different psu, perhaps? 3. I'm still not too sure about the case. I've heard, the 300R gather dust really easily, and the psu creates noise since it sits directly on the metal instead of a rubber material. Are those true? Those are the questions I have for now. I'm sure I'll remember some more when I get home. But for starters, that's it. Thank you very much for your time! Hopefully you can help me. ~skimo