Planning my future build

[Muddy Muxx]

Hello all,

 

Have been making a list of my future build, and altho i think i have thought about everything there is always those little things you miss.

So the reason for upgrading is my current system was more a comeback to building system after several years with laptops, so have been a testing platform for OC, watercooling and building in general, and now i want to go pro.

So the system will be used for gaming (go Star Citizen and Oculus!) and work mostly (IT infrastructure and support, so a lot of testing), also i hear a lot of music, as i do some DJ'ing in my sparetime.

As of budget i don't have much of it, not that i want to spend a million bucks on stuff i don't really need, but i want to be satisfied. So that's why my planning is starting now, since i have started putting money aside already, and the parts will be bought probably middle or late part of 2014ish.

 

As said there will be watercooling, but will not be bought at first, after following Linus great advice about making sure everything works before throwing in watercooling.

 

So the list, and after some questions:

 

Motherboard - ASUS MAXIMUS VI FORMULA

CPU - Intel i7-4770K

RAM - 32GB  Dominator Platinum CL9 1833Mhz ish

Graphics - Galaxy HOF or Asus DC2OC GTX 780Ti (maybe SLI?)

Sound - ??

SSD - 500GB Samsung Evo 840 (atleast 2, one for games on for system and misc)

HDD - 4TB HDD (storage)

PSU - SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution (ST75F-G Evolution) 750W

Case - Phanteks Enthoo Primo (for the ability to go dual 480 rads top/bottom)

 

So, for the questions:

1. I will watercool the Formula board, how much would this actually do for my OC by cooling the VRM? I'm not a great OC'er atm but i would really like to get more into it, i have also chosen this board because of the bells and whistles and the looks, because looks matters

2. Is there much reason to go above 1833Mhz on RAM? Have seen very different opinions on this matter, i would probably use some of the ram as a RAM disk, therefore 32GB.

3. I have thought about getting 4 SSD's total to setup some raid, mostly i would go for RAID1 for the security, but how big of a problem have people had with stuff failing? Because else i would probably go for some RAID0 for the speed. But this is a maybe, can always go for extra SSD's down the line.

4. As for the chosen CPU and graphics atm, since Maxwell should come later this year i would probably wait for the release to see the performance, have also been keeping an eye on waiting for Haswell refresh and Z97, have seen last part of 2014 for release? So maybe i would wait until then, if it would be worth it for the features? Can't seem to find a complete list of what we are actually getting?

5. For sound, i'm thinking using the integrated on the Formula, but i was wondering how it is for listening to music? It's only listening since i use my laptop when actually mixing, just want as clean of a sound as possible.

But the gaming features of the Formula is also something, seeing that enhancing footsteps and such in games like BF4 would be a great little feature. 

Have seen a lot about people going for DAC's and such, would that be worth anything when i go directly too my hifi amplifier and speakers anyways?

6. Screens, i will probably go for something like 1440p, and when i get a new workspace i would like to go for 3 of them, don't know yet about surround gaming, but for that i would probably go for an SLI setup.

 

Well that's what i have been thinking of atm, but if i know myself i have overlooked something, and that's why i ask for your opinion about the whole setup in general.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SAV1OUR]

if the rig is for gaming rather then editing i would recommend switching to an i5 4670k. the i7 4770k is a better cpu for editing and such and also on the note of editing the 32gb is overkill if your not editing you can save money and get 16gb (still overkill if your not editing) or 8gb best for gaming, as far as ram speeds they only effect editing yet again and not gaming. but the rest of the rig checks out 

[thedigitalmilk]

Well... this makes me very jelous of you...

[dizmo]

if the rig is for gaming rather then editing i would recommend switching to an i5 4670k. the i7 4770k is a better cpu for editing and such and also on the note of editing the 32gb is overkill if your not editing you can save money and get 16gb (still overkill if your not editing) or 8gb best for gaming, as far as ram speeds they only effect editing yet again and not gaming. but the rest of the rig checks out 

BF4 makes better use of higher speed ram, and other games that follow may as well.

 

 

I'd reconsider the two 500gb SSD's. I'm planning a future build as well, and after a lot of thinking I'm going to go with a 128gb for the OS, and 500gb or 1tb for games depending on pricing/sales.

500gb for the OS sounds awesome, but it's not really needed. I have a "120gb" (93gb shows as usable, minus programs Windows and such) and I rarely run out of room. Since it'd just be for programs, it doesn't need to be huge.

Unless of course you don't want your porn on your gaming hard drive and you have a large supply.

[SAV1OUR]

BF4 makes better use of higher speed ram, and other games that follow may as well.

 

 

I'd reconsider the two 500gb SSD's. I'm planning a future build as well, and after a lot of thinking I'm going to go with a 128gb for the OS, and 500gb or 1tb for games depending on pricing/sales.

500gb for the OS sounds awesome, but it's not really needed. I have a "120gb" (93gb shows as usable, minus programs Windows and such) and I rarely run out of room. Since it'd just be for programs, it doesn't need to be huge.

Unless of course you don't want your porn on your gaming hard drive and you have a large supply.

oh wow i didnt know that the only interesting thing i knew about bf4 was the it used the most it could get out of your cpus the more your know   

[brob]

@Muddy Muxx,

• Haswell refresh is rumored to be making its debut in May. CPU will apparently be about 100MHz faster than current models.
• New H97 and Z97 chipsets are rumored to start shipping in April. Haswelll refresh cpu will apparently work on both 8x and 9x boards.
• With SSD I'm not sure it's worth it to set up RAM disk.
• I suggest a single larger SSD rather than two smaller ones. You can always split the unit into two volumes. Because of the way SSD work the larger the drive the more efficient it is and the better the wear leveling.
• RAID 0 for SSD only provides noticeable performance improvements with workloads that involve a large amount of serial reads and/or writes. In fact RAID 0 can produce worse performance compared to a single larger drive in some circumstances.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Well... this makes me very jelous of you...

Why?

 

Anybody can post threads about hardware they havent bought.

[thedigitalmilk]

Why?

 

Anybody can post threads about hardware they havent bought.

I would like to assume that he wouldn't lie to people about specs he may get and that he is asking help from?

[Muddy Muxx]

Well always nice to know i can save a bit of money, so glad i asked. So i can go down on CPU and RAM. For the SSD's, have a 128gb current and it's running low on space, since i install all my work applications on it together with my OS, and now i have even installed most of my applications on my HDD, so would like to get it all on an SSD, thats the reason for a 500gb, just easier. Also the reason for having two was the thought about if one fails i wouldn't be as bad as if i have a partitioned disk failing on me. Also with the prices here in Denmark it would be the same for buying two 500gb or 1tb.

Also thought the RAM disk would actually be faster than an SSD? But guessed i misunderstood how i worked precisely.

Well if the refresh is only around 100Mhz faster i can't see the reason to wait for that, won't do much of a different in my eyes, so good to know.

Then it's the question about waiting for z97, the only thing i have found was that, according to rumors, it won't feature sata-express, but then again asus has already shown a mobo with that, so dunno. Guess i would have to wait for more information on that one.

But glad to get a lot of useful information from you guys

[Kiwiandapple]

Plan later!!! 

 

You want to plan 3/5 days before you are buying. 

New parts will come out, Nvidia Maxwell. DDR4, new boards, new CPUs, new SSDs/HDDs. You can not plan now and stay with this. There will be much better hardware avaible by mid/end 2014. 

 

As well when you come back here, you have to really give us specifics of what programs you use for work.

And something I do wonder is, if you need a beast system for your work. Why don't you get a work PC from your job? They can't hire people and then be like, yup - you need to use this program wich uses a lot of RAM so.. yeah, make sure you buy a PC that can handle it? 

You can make a great game/music PC for not to much money. But if you have to use heavy programs etc, you will be spending SOOO much money, that isn't really worth it. 

 

For details about everything, I won't go into it now but. You are just currently planning to spend money completely wrong. 

[Muddy Muxx]

I think you got me wrong Kiwi, if you read i have already mentioned Maxwell and that i want to wait and see how that performes. Also Haswell refresh have been mentioned earlier. And i don't think they will release tons of mobo's before there is a concrete reason for it, like Haswell refresh and Z97 chipset. Also i won't jump right on DDR4 at release, don't think i would get anything from that other than cashing out money.

For the work part, it's just that i work on my PC, i have a laptop from work, but why use that when i have a PC with a nice screen setup and a proper keyboard and mouse setup? My laptop is for when i travel won't use that when i'm working from home. Also it's not that i need a killer PC for that work, that's for my own pleasure, which will be stuff like Star Citizen and Oculus, which from my understanding will require some serious hardware?

So can't see why it's wrong that i have a plan that i am working towards and therefore is saving for?

[WoodenMarker]

I think you got me wrong Kiwi, if you read i have already mentioned Maxwell and that i want to wait and see how that performes. Also Haswell refresh have been mentioned earlier. And i don't think they will release tons of mobo's before there is a concrete reason for it, like Haswell refresh and Z97 chipset. Also i won't jump right on DDR4 at release, don't think i would get anything from that other than cashing out money.

For the work part, it's just that i work on my PC, i have a laptop from work, but why use that when i have a PC with a nice screen setup and a proper keyboard and mouse setup? My laptop is for when i travel won't use that when i'm working from home. Also it's not that i need a killer PC for that work, that's for my own pleasure, which will be stuff like Star Citizen and Oculus, which from my understanding will require some serious hardware?

So can't see why it's wrong that i have a plan that i am working towards and therefore is saving for?

You need to quote a post or tag a member or else they won't get a notification you replied to them.

 

Like Kiwi, I'd suggest planning later. Parts and prices change frequently so any parts list you come up with will likely be quite obsolete.

Regarding your current parts list: Pretty much every actual part you named and many things you mentioned are overkill and/or are bad values.