Build Tips

[Gaesesagai]

Hi there, first post here. Just discovered this forum, from the YouTube channel and I think it's great, especially since I had a hard time finding good advice otherwise (have been trying to put together a build for a while now). Anyway, gonna first paste the 5 questions recommended in the sticky:

 

 

1. Budget & Location
I’d prefer keeping it around 3k euros, but I won’t have a problem with spending 4k if it’s worth it. Location, Romania for the time being.

2. Aim
Gaming. I pretty much play RPGs only (like Guild Wars 2 at the moment), but I do occasionally try some shooters as well.

3. Monitors
Will only use one.

4. Peripherals
Yes I’ll get mouse and keyboard, and an OS (I wanted Win 8, but it’s not ready yet? At least I can’t find it here as FPP license, so going for Win 7 Ultimate).

5. Why are you upgrading?
Because my old PC is just too old. And is about to die.

 

So, the build I had in mind would be:

 

HDD: Western Digital Enterprise RE 4TB, 7200 RPM, 64MB, SATA 3 (this or Black? version, not really sure what's the difference)

MotherBoard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme

Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K BOX

Ram: Kingston DDR3 32GB (4 x 8GB) 2400Mhz CL11 HyperX Beast XMP

Graphic Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 690 4096MB DDR5 (what difference is there between this one and the EVGA? doesn't matter much since  this is the only GTX690 I can find, but still, I would like to know)

Power Supply: Corsair AX1200i Platinum 1200W

Case: CoolerMaster HAF X (also, should I get more coolers for proc, or graph card or something?)

 

As for monitor, not sure if it's worth going for the really expensive ones or not. Anyway, these are the parts I'm still not sure about, mouse and keyboard are easy to pick, as well as a sound card and stuff. The whole thing is 3900 euros or 5020 usd (at today's exchange rate). One of the things I'm trying to decide is whether I should downgrade it a bit, like a GTX 680, 16Gb ram, a cheaper motherboard, cheaper power supply... things like that. Don't really want to touch the proc, but oh well.

 

Thanks  :)

[algoat]

Hello, and welcome to the forums!  Pretty powerful build.  You wouldn't need to get an RE drive, at least not for what you are intending.  You could probably get a good SSD and mechanical drive for the price of a 4TB RE.  The PSU is a great, but 1200W is probably overkill unless you plan to add another 690 down the road.

[marcbodea]

I suggest you get a good CPU cooler, for overclocking(it does nice things) like an H100i from Corsair. And definetly get an SSD like a Kingston HyperX 3k or OCZ Vertex 4. Nice build :)

[wkronbaek]

Get a 780. 

Also, i'd recommend buying from amazon.co.uk

[iSuzak]

With that budget go for a swiftech h220 for your cpu cooler, it beats almost every pre done liquid cooler out there

[WoodenMarker]

Here you go: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Zry3

 

This build is one I made several minutes ago and since you have a similar plan, it should fit your needs. 

 

Just ignore the 2 23" monitors and case.

 

Along with the list, add in a gtx 780 for gpu, G710+ from keyboard, and G9x for mouse.

The gtx 780 is pretty much the same as the titan once overclocked at a significantly lower price.

The G710+ is a great mechanical keyboard. It has mx brown switches which is perfect if you don't like the loud clacks of blues but want a tactical feeling click. I have it and it's beautiful.

The G9x is a great mouse with good reputation and after all, it is made by Logitech who, if anything, know peripherals. I also have one and I can say it's great.

I chose the 3770k because it's performance is great without spending too much.

The Noctua NH-D14 is very easy to install, is very quiet, and great at cooling. The bonus is that it IS the king of air coolers.

The 32gigs of 1600 memory should be fast and great for whatever rendering/editing you might need to do.

With your budget you could get 2 3TB's. You could put them in raid 0 and whatnot.

[Gaesesagai]

Thanks all for the answers, advice and links  :) 

Since yesterday I indeed decided to go for the GTX 780, it's just too good not to. Proc cooler I also found the Noctua NH-D14 to be highly praised so switched to it in the "to get" list. The Swiftech H220... though it looks great, I decided to go for air cooling eventually, so eh.

As for mouse and keyboard, last ones I had on list where Roccat Kone XTD Mouse and Roccat Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard. Just checked the Logitech ones and yea both look good... I might rethink those (for the N-th time  :P )

2x3Tb HDDs huh? Ha! I haven't considered that possibility before, but it does seem like a great idea,

Oh, Win 7... does it matter if it's Ultimate or Home Premium for gaming? As far as I could find all the features Ultimate has are things I simply won't use at all, so unless there's more to it, dunno, thinking of just getting the Home edition.

Cheers

[WoodenMarker]

Thanks all for the answers, advice and links  :) 

Since yesterday I indeed decided to go for the GTX 780, it's just too good not to. Proc cooler I also found the Noctua NH-D14 to be highly praised so switched to it in the "to get" list. The Swiftech H220... though it looks great, I decided to go for air cooling eventually, so eh.

 

As for mouse and keyboard, last ones I had on list where Roccat Kone XTD Mouse and Roccat Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard. Just checked the Logitech ones and yea both look good... I might rethink those (for the N-th time  :P )

2x3Tb HDDs huh? Ha! I haven't considered that possibility before, but it does seem like a great idea,

 

Oh, Win 7... does it matter if it's Ultimate or Home Premium for gaming? As far as I could find all the features Ultimate has are things I simply won't use at all, so unless there's more to it, dunno, thinking of just getting the Home edition.

 

Cheers

Basically, the most useful part of ultimate is the ability to utilize more than 16gigs of ram.

[Ps_domingo]

1) wait for HASWELL. Cause it just around the corner. It could drive ivy bridge prices down and it may be more bang for your buck if you do decide to get it.

2) Get a 780. For the simple reason of GPU boost 2.0. Also if you are willing to fork out another $300 usd on the GPU ( instead of getting a 690 that costs 1k usd get 2 780 for 1.3k) I heard the 780 scales amazing in 2 way SLI almost being par with DUAL 690's

3) Get 16gb (8x2) ram instead. :) Games don't require much ram. 8gb is actually more than you need for gaming purposes. :)

4) Corsair 860i maybe? You can compute for your total power consumption on http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

5) are you planning to run a water cooling loop? Custom or pre-filled?

Hope this helps. :)

[Ps_domingo]

Oh oh oh! Get an SSD rather than an HHD.

Or make a cache of the HHD with a small SSD.

Better yet. Get a 60gb SSD as a booth drive and for drivers, 30gb for an HHD cache.

Try looking ram caches too. :) fancy cache is pretty cool. :)

[Nit3Rid3R]

For what you will be playing, you defiantly won't need an X79 platform. I would suggest getting the Haswell chips, and you don't need such a high end GPU for most RPGs, I would say something around a 760ti/770 would be just fine.