Second Ever Build, Need Feedback

[PendulumEffect]

Hello,

 

This is my first post with Linus Tech Tips and I'm looking for some feedback on a build that I have been planning for a couple of weeks now. I know that this a relatively long post, but I have tendencies that make me as thorough as possible. So, for TL;DR purposes, I bolded out system specs for my current build and my planned build. Just scroll on through. Besides, building computers is quite interesting to me and any suggestions or feedback from people who are obviously more advanced, would be a humbling experience for me.

 

To start, I am a relatively novice builder having built one mid-ranged gaming computer for myself back in 2012 and a relatively mid-ranged all-purpose computer for my dad the same year (i5-2500k, HD6650, 450W PSU, etc).

 

-I am in the United States.

-I only plan on using one monitor, for now.

-I do not need peripherals or an OS included in the price range.

-Price Range: $1500-$1800

-Upgrading due to system failure, limited upgrade options due to bottleneck and in preparation for anticipated future games. 

 

The current specs of my computer are as follows:

 

CPU: Core i5-2500k Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 95W (Factory clock)

CPU Cooler: Stock.

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z68M-D2H (Micro ATX)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB (8GB Total) 1600mHz (Clocked at 1333mHz due to mobo being finicky)

PSU: Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 600W

GPU: Asus EAH6850 (AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB)

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache OEM + Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache OEM

SSD: Kingston SSDNow 300 240GB

Case: NZXT Guardian Black ATX Mid Tower

Pressure System: Who knows? I saw fan slots and put fans there. I was an idiot.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6-Inch (2ms, 50,000,000:1, 16.7m colors, LED, 1080p, 75Hz)

 

Now, for my first ever desktop computer and the first attempt at building one by myself, I have to say that I'm proud for the most part. It is certainly not perfect and over the course of the last 2 years, I have been educating myself more and more on the proper compatibility, building techniques and other miscellaneous tidbits.

 

I have been thinking about building another computer in both anticipation of Star Citizen and because lately my computer has been showing signs of hardware failure. These symptoms often point to a motherboard defect, HD failure or a problem with the RAM.

 

I screwed up royally when picking the power supply and forwent the typical 80plus certification, so it's likely that I have premature system aging. I have RAM that is under performing due to improper system settings. I have had a hard drive failure and back then I didn't know what cable management was.

 

In a sense, I feel like I have gathered enough knowledge to try my hand at a much more powerful system and not cut corners and costs where it is unwise to do so. So while my computer handles 1080p gaming rather well with some settings sacrificed, I want to upgrade my experience that my current system just cannot handle due to aging components (1x PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot simply doesn't cut it).

 

Therefore, I came up with a system that will meet my needs now, but also leave room for improvement down the road when I wish to upgrade:

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670k Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W

CPU Cooler: Cosair H100i 240mm

Mobo: Asus SABERTOOTH z87 LGA 1150 ATX

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8GB) 1866 Clock. Alternate: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB 2400 Clock.

PSU: Corsair HX Series HX750W ATX12V (SLI/CrossFire Ready) 80PLUS GOLD [Modulular]

GPU: MSI R9 290X LIGHTNING 4GB Alternate: EVGA GTX 780ti

HDD: Western Digital WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 6.0Gb/s

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB

Case: Corsair Vengeance C70

Pressure System: Positive

OS: I hate Windows 8, but I feel like it's time for me to get with the times and actually learn..

Monitor: (Upgrade Later) Asus VG258QE? Or that one BenQ gaming monitor. Both are 144Hz.

 

As you can see from above, I have a reasonably powerful computer. It will put me at around $1500-$1700 depending on if I buy it all at once or buy it piece by piece. Of course, if I buy it piece by piece, with my luck I'll have a part that needs to be RMA'd and will be out of the time frame in which I could do so. But I digress.

 

My justifications for the systems Core i5 is that due to diminishing returns and what my computer will be used for, I just simply won't be utilizing Hyper-Threading or any of the bells and whistles that the i7 offers. Cutting the extra $75-$150 is just plain economical, all things considered.  I also went with a slightly over-powered power supply to offer me more wattage to upgrade in the future. I will want to either SLI or CrossFire at some point and possible add more HDD and RAM later on. I went with a water cooling system with a dual radiator because this time I want to be more proactive with tweaking settings for my computer, including overclocking the CPU. Haswell runs very hot compared to Sandy Bridge and I also want to make sure the summer months aren't going to involve me losing every ounce of water in my body (I don't have air conditioning in my college apartment). Also, I want to keep a Positive pressure system in my case because I'd like to keep my system as dust free as possible.

 

Now here is where I need the feedback: There are some things that I'm just not sure of. Do I go with the R9 290x or do I go with the 780ti? Keep in mind I want to eventually SLI/XFire. Do I go with the Vengeance RAM or the G.Skill ones? I don't really care about the case, but I'm not into the whole LED flashy nonsense anymore. I would really like a case that offers magnetic dust filters, that sits off the ground a bit, has tons of cable management and has fans on the bottom. It also makes me nervous not having fans on the side panels, as I feel that GPU needs ventilation/cooling from those side panels. Should I scrap the positive pressure system in favor of the dirtier, yet cooler negative pressure approach?

 

In terms of monitors, I don't know what I should get: IPS or TN? My GPU currently caps out at 60Hz for 1080p but my monitor is rated at 75Hz, so I've never gotten the smooth factor. I kind of want to get a IPS monitor, but I feel as though I'd enjoy the smoothness over the colors. Besides the BenQ monitor and the Asus one I listed aren't too shabby and offer more contrast ratio than my current monitor. In an ideal world, there would be a 27inch, 144Hz, 1ms, IPS monitor.. I'd love the responsiveness and the beauty.

 

Money is kind of an issue, but I have a lot of patience and if it means I don't cut corners on this build, I will save the additional money to make sure I don't bottleneck myself like I did in the past.

 

That really concludes my really long-winded explanation of everything. I'll add more in future posts, but I sincerely appreciate anyone who's made it this far. You deserve a medal. As always, thanks for any feedback!

 

Regards,

Corey

[Freaky_spider]

TL;DR

 

looks like you have a very balanced build, except, for gaming purposes id go with 8 gigs of 1600Mhz Ram, no need for 16gigs and def no need for that 2400MHz ram you put as alternative

 

After TL;DR i read it

 

dont bother to go with negative pressure to have 'beter cooling' it wont really increase temps, maybe 0.5°C, also if you want to go with a 290X you def have to go with the lightning you put in there, its by far the best one. what is the price difference between the 290x and the 780ti? because if it isnt to big, id go with the 780ti

[toggleguy]

go with corsair vengence pro ram.

[toggleguy]

personally i would go with the 780ti, so i could get a g-sync moniter later on even though its more expencive

[antoainb]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

 

I read the entire post and here is what I think. IMO you could save some money on the CPU cooler and get maybe a NH-D14 or the new NH-D15 (I'm not sure about the D15 but the D14 is cheaper than the H100i and offers very similar performance). I'm not sure on the GPU, since they perform so similarly in games you should see if you'd rather have the bigger OpenGL performance of AMD or the cooler/lower power consumption of Nvdia, also G-sync might be something of interest. Just get the cheapest RAM, Corsair and Gskill are both very good brands and the difference between 1866Mhz and 2400Mhz for gaming is very small. About the pressure system, I'd go with positive pressure because of the dust and since the difference isn't that big.

[ItsRetorical]

Hey nice choices personally I would definently prefer the 290 also I thought I wouldn't but im actually loving windows 8 also have you considered amd processors? for now at least less powerful but more cores seems to be dominating. Like the 8350 is a tank just suggesting but anyways really solid build.

[PendulumEffect]

TL;DR

 

looks like you have a very balanced build, except, for gaming purposes id go with 8 gigs of 1600Mhz Ram, no need for 16gigs and def no need for that 2400MHz ram you put as alternative

 

After TL;DR i read it

 

dont bother to go with negative pressure to have 'beter cooling' it wont really increase temps, maybe 0.5°C, also if you want to go with a 290X you def have to go with the lightning you put in there, its by far the best one. what is the price difference between the 290x and the 780ti? because if it isnt to big, id go with the 780ti

The price difference between the 290x and the 780ti fluctuates depending on the market, but I've seen the 780ti in the $700-$750 range most commonly. The 290x has most commonly been in the $700 range, at least for the aftermarket MSI LIGHTNING version. So the price is negligible. The thing that sways me towards the 290x is the fact that it has a newer architecture, but the 780ti has reliable and higher performance on older hardware so for the moment it seems the most stable and tried-and-true choice.

 

Hey nice choices personally I would definently prefer the 290 also I thought I wouldn't but im actually loving windows 8 also have you considered amd processors? for now at least less powerful but more cores seems to be dominating. Like the 8350 is a tank just suggesting but anyways really solid build.

I have considered AMD processors in the past, but the architecture seems rather odd. In my understanding of the way AMD chips are built (and this is off the top of my head since I'm at work and can't fact check), they pack more cores into the CPU but at a much lower size and power. So while a 6-Core/8-Core AMD with a higher clock speed may look attractive based on the numbers, it doesn't perform as well as intel 4-Core/6-Core systems at a lower clock speed. In that case, I believe that gaming performance fluctuates more than the intel brand, depending on the individual game's CPU optimization and management. AMD is cost efficient, though.

[Freaky_spider]

The price difference between the 290x and the 780ti fluctuates depending on the market, but I've seen the 780ti in the $700-$750 range most commonly. The 290x has most commonly been in the $700 range, at least for the aftermarket MSI LIGHTNING version. So the price is negligible. The thing that sways me towards the 290x is the fact that it has a newer architecture, but the 780ti has reliable and higher performance on older hardware so for the moment it seems the most stable and tried-and-true choice.

 

I have considered AMD processors in the past, but the architecture seems rather odd. In my understanding of the way AMD chips are built (and this is off the top of my head since I'm at work and can't fact check), they pack more cores into the CPU but at a much lower size and power. So while a 6-Core/8-Core AMD with a higher clock speed may look attractive based on the numbers, it doesn't perform as well as intel 4-Core/6-Core systems at a lower clock speed. In that case, I believe that gaming performance fluctuates more than the intel brand, depending on the individual game's CPU optimization and management. AMD is cost efficient, though.

If there really is only that much of a difference between the 780ti and the lightning 290X, id suggest looking at a 780ti as it does have a bit more performance and doesnt look like you'll use the extra vram.

 

About the AMD chips, youre right, another reason is that AMD's cores are more like hyperthreading, they share memory chips per 2 cores, so you can see it like it has 2 physical cores per memory chip, instead of intells 1 core but 2 threads per memory chip 

 

(its a long time i equally read into AMD's architecture and i could be wrong)

 

that comparison is the most basic way i can explain and should only be seen as a comparison, 

[PendulumEffect]

Is there any more suggestions before I go with the 780ti build with some suggestions made by antoainb?