3400$ Gaming PC

[Nelkstar]

So my friend has been saving for a long time and has finally decided to build a computer for, yes you read right, 3400$ (USD).

I know this is a heck of a lot of money and he is only 14 years old but hopefully this budget will result in something to play Minesweeper on (Preferably in 3D and ultra settings). 

 

Okay yeah, obviously just kidding but here's what I have so far, please edit, comment, whatever =)

 

Motherboard

MSI Z97-S02 INET EDITION ATX

 

SSD

Samsung SSD EVO Basic 840-Series 120GB

 

HDD

2TB Toshiba 7200rpm 64MB

 

CPU

Intel Core i7 4790K 4GHz, 8MB

 

RAM

ADATA 8GB (2x4GB) CL9 1600MHz XPG INET EDITION

 

GPU

3x MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB OC TwinFrozr Gaming-series

 

Case

Fractal Design Define R4 Titanium

 

PSU

be quiet! Power Zone 1000W Bronze

 

Disc Rom

Buffalo Portable DVD±RW 8x USB 2.0

 

OS

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Svensk OEM, SP1

 

Price: ~3400 USD (22699kr för alla svenska)

 

 

So my questions are:

- Can this be improved any further what so ever?!

- Should I switch the tri sli gtx 780's for a r9 295x2?

- Is the motherboard compatable of running tri sli?

- Is the CPU the fastest for the price?

- Is the PSU enough for this system? With three beast gpu's I doubt it is.

- Is the whole system compatable together?

 

PS. I live in Sweden if you wonder about prices. I'm going to buy all of the parts from the same store which is Inet so that's where you're going to have to look if you wan't to help me.

To access the store, goto http://inet.se/ and check the "Remember my choice" (something like that) and press on "Hötorget".

 

Thank you in advance!

[Geekazoid]

Is that $34.00 or $3,400?

[Coombzy]

Tell him all he needs is one 780 for a smooth experience and for gaming he should switch to an i5 I also don't see anything about 4K or even 1440P 3 780's would be ludicrous at 1080p.

[SSOB]

Wait for:

 

Haswell-E is around the cornah

[Mildphil]

I think that is quite a bit for what you are actually going to gain in performance. If he REALLY wanted good performance, go titan z or two 780ti's, the 3 780s won't be as good as a single card, or 2 cards in crossfire/sli. If I was him I would just buy a 780ti and then save the rest to upgrade when you need it. This is overkill IMO for most if not all games. And in terms of the CPU, since he is obviously gaming, don't get an i7, i5s are better for gaming. 

[sharki]

Why buy three GPU's? I think you're better of with two in sli. Once you saved the money of that GPU I would go for a bigger ssd. 120 GBis a bit small I think. If you want to install some games on there too buy the 250 GB or even 500 GB version.

[Nelkstar]

I think that is quite a bit for what you are actually going to gain in performance. If he REALLY wanted good performance, go titan z or two 780ti's, the 3 780s won't be as good as a single card, or 2 cards in crossfire/sli. If I was him I would just buy a 780ti and then save the rest to upgrade when you need it. This is overkill IMO for most if not all games. And in terms of the CPU, since he is obviously gaming, don't get an i7, i5s are better for gaming. 

Only good answer yet. Well the thing is he WANT'S an expensive build that will have enough graphics "power" for pretty much all future games, as well as the cpu. And he is also recording videos, therefore the i7. And what do you mean, that 2 780's will perform better than 3 780's? I think not... Please reply

[Nelkstar]

Why buy three GPU's? I think you're better of with two in sli. Once you saved the money of that GPU I would go for a bigger ssd. 120 GBis a bit small I think. If you want to install some games on there too buy the 250 GB or even 500 GB version.

Actually, we're only gonna run windows on it. And you said the same thing as the other guy about the GPU's, I don't get it

[sharki]

Actually, we're only gonna run windows on it. And you said the same thing as the other guy about the GPU's, I don't get it

What other operating system would you use? 

 

Also, how many screens do you want to use? You can't use two GPU's with one screen just to make the quality better.

[Nelkstar]

What other operating system would you use? 

 

Also, how many screens do you want to use? You can't use two GPU's with one screen just to make the quality better.

No, I mean we're not gonna install anything else than Windows on it. We're going to use 1 widedisplay monitor thing from AOC, the res. is like ~5000x1080 and then we're also gonna use an alienware display to watch movies on at the same time.

 

Let's put it like this: My friend want's a really really really really x10000 really really future proof pc. That's all.

[sharki]

If he wants such a futureproof pc then he might wants to consider buying a bigger ssd. In that way he can also install his games on the ssd and have those start up in no-time 

[Nelkstar]

If he wants such a futureproof pc then he might wants to consider buying a bigger ssd. In that way he can also install his games on the ssd and have those start up in no-time 

Alright then. Well, for now the main question is:

Will this run any game at UItra 5k1k res? (Including Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light)

[sharki]

Alright then. Well, for now the main question is:

Will this run any game at UItra 5k1k res? (Including Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light)

I'm not really sure what you mean with 5k1k res. If you google the requirements of a game you will often also see Hi performance requirements of that game. With a decent i7 and the gforce 780 i'm pretty sure you can play any game there now is in the ultimate settings.

[Nelkstar]

I'm not really sure what you mean with 5k1k res. If you google the requirements of a game you will often also see Hi performance requirements of that game. With a decent i7 and the gforce 780 i'm pretty sure you can play any game there now is in the ultimate settings.

okay i've picked another screen. 2560x1080 resolution. Will those three gtx 780's plus that i7 run Metro Last Light on Ultra settings? AA and everything max?

[WillFromGA]

What other operating system would you use? 

 

Also, how many screens do you want to use? You can't use two GPU's with one screen just to make the quality better.

He could use hundreds of other OS's...

[Guest andyysplash]

Those 780s would be better off as one or two 780Ti's or a couple Titans for futureproofing, and for a PSU I'd recommend something with a higher efficiency (Gold or Platinum) if you're powering multiple cards - maybe something like a Corsair RM or HX series. 1000W is a good wattage I'd say.

 

Other than getting a larger SSD (chucking his favourite games on there for a performance increase is what I'd do - leaving the 2TB HDD for other games and files) I can't think of much else to change. Though I ask the question - is it really worth spending $3400 when we're moving towards newer technologies like 4K and DDR4 etc in order to try and be 'futureproof'? At that price he should either consider a build that will do well for a few years and maybe watercool it or something, or just wait until the new tech comes out so that you can futureproof properly.

[WillFromGA]

okay i've picked another screen. 2560x1080 resolution. Will those three gtx 780's plus that i7 run Metro Last Light on Ultra settings? AA and everything max?

Listen, the reason people are saying not to get 3 way SLI is because after 2 way SLI, the performance increase really starts to take a hit. For me, it would be an extra $500 for just couple of extra Frames per second. 

 

For a graphics card, I would suggest two 780 ti's or maybe even a R9 295X2.

You are only 14 years old, here is a life tip. Just because you have $3400, does NOT mean you have to spend $3400.

[Nelkstar]

Listen, the reason people are saying not to get 3 way SLI is because after 2 way SLI, the performance increase really starts to take a hit. For me, it would be an extra $500 for just couple of extra Frames per second. 

 

For a graphics card, I would suggest two 780 ti's or maybe even a R9 295X2.

You are only 14 years old, here is a life tip. Just because you have $3400, does NOT mean you have to spend $3400.

The thing is he has LOADS of money, not 3400$. He has all his life savings left and so yeah... So then next question: What will perform best, 2 780 ti's or 1 r9 295x2?

[Nelkstar]

Those 780s would be better off as one or two 780Ti's or a couple Titans for futureproofing, and for a PSU I'd recommend something with a higher efficiency (Gold or Platinum) if you're powering multiple cards - maybe something like a Corsair RM or HX series. 1000W is a good wattage I'd say.

 

Other than getting a larger SSD (chucking his favourite games on there for a performance increase is what I'd do - leaving the 2TB HDD for other games and files) I can't think of much else to change. Though I ask the question - is it really worth spending $3400 when we're moving towards newer technologies like 4K and DDR4 etc in order to try and be 'futureproof'? At that price he should either consider a build that will do well for a few years and maybe watercool it or something, or just wait until the new tech comes out so that you can futureproof properly.

Hmm I get what you mean...

[Coombzy]

The thing is he has LOADS of money, not 3400$. He has all his life savings left and so yeah... So then next question: What will perform best, 2 780 ti's or 1 r9 295x2?

So you say he is 14 and is spending his life savings on this yeah... tell him to just stop and think about this...

[WillFromGA]

The thing is he has LOADS of money, not 3400$. He has all his life savings left and so yeah... So then next question: What will perform best, 2 780 ti's or 1 r9 295x2?

What @Coombzy said, make sure he wants this because he is spending his LIFE savings. Seeing that he is only 14, it is not much. 

 

It may seem like it is a lot because he is only 14 and he has no bills to pay, doesn't need a car to buy or a house to live in but as soon as he turns 18, there is a lot of things that just $3400 would help out on.

 

I'm sorry but under these circumstances, I truly believe that your friend is doing the wrong thing here. With that being said, I'm not going to help any more.

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

$3400 on a gaming specific PC is dumb.  Straight up.

 

He's not in it for the gaming, he's in it for the bragging rights.  If that's the case, go wild...but for gaming, it's not needed by any means.

 

$1500 now, and $1500 in two years, and 4 years down the road he will be in far better shape than spending $3400 now.

[Mildphil]

Only good answer yet. Well the thing is he WANT'S an expensive build that will have enough graphics "power" for pretty much all future games, as well as the cpu. And he is also recording videos, therefore the i7. And what do you mean, that 2 780's will perform better than 3 780's? I think not... Please reply

I don't mean 2 card will run better than three, i mean 2 cards in general will run better than 3. Less heat, less latency, less power consumption, and better performance. Remember, When you have more than 1 card, the other cards are not running at 100% performance efficiency, you may get 100% from one card, 80% from another, and 60% from the other (just a crude example) where 2 higher end card will cost the same and run better. even if spec wise, three 780s are better than two 780 ti's on paper, in the real world, the efficiency issue and latency as i mentioned will make it less, you never get 100% performance from each card, and the more cards you have equals more failure points, and a lot of games can't run 3 card effectively, many problems with sli/crossfire which Is why I run 1 highend card, and upgrade when needed. There is absolutely no reason to get way more performance than you will need, it is wasted. like getting a sports car and the speed limit is 20 everywhere. He also does not need the i7. i7 is better for coding than the i5, because it has hyper threading, but games don't use it so it actually hinders it compared to the i5 in gaming. and an i5 is more than enough for recording videos, i3 would be fine for that. Overall his idea is too much overkill...he can't use all the performance at all or efficiently, in a few yars the power of three 780s will be the same as one highend card...why not just buy one high end now and one later on? way better performance efficiency and WAY more cost efficient, like maybe $1000-1200 over a few years versus 1500 now for a setup that isn't going to give him the performance he expects. 

[Nelkstar]

So you say he is 14 and is spending his life savings on this yeah... tell him to just stop and think about this...

 

So you say he is 14 and is spending his life savings on this yeah... tell him to just stop and think about this...

Oh forgot to say that 3400$ isn't his life savings, it's a part of his lifes savings He's kinda rich to be honest. (No he's not spoiled, they're regular people)

[Coombzy]

Oh forgot to say that 3400$ isn't his life savings, it's a part of his lifes savings He's kinda rich to be honest. (No he's not spoiled, they're regular people)

Then tell him his idea is ridiculous for a 14 year old and he should seriously consider something else and a less expensive machine.