4K Gaming PC New Build - Advice Request

[AJ847.63]

@AJ847.63,

 

It is a power hungry expensive beast but the R9 295X2 makes the most sense to me.

 

You may want to consider going with an i7-4790K cpu. My logic is as follows, since games are not highly multi-threaded, (and not likely to become so in the next few years), what really counts is more powerful cores. Given the same basic architecture, Haswell, speed is the only way to improve core performance. i7-4790K has a higher base clock and should oc higher than i7-5930K. Couple the cpu with a motherboard like the Asus Z97-WS for optimal dual gpu performance.

 

If not going with a custom cooling loop, consider a better cpu cooler. Something like the Kraken X61 or Swiftech H220-X.

I'm Not so sure about the not highly multi thredded part. PCs have not been so in the past because consoles have had significantly more beefy clock speeds, they were based on the old adage of faster not more. Now with the PS4 and Xbox One there just like PCs, much lower clock speeds but 8 cores. Developers are going to have no choice but to make their engines heavily reliant on all those cores because the speed just is not there. Another thing making me a bit weary going with nvidia, I can see developers taking sides with AMD and putting in AMD specific features, making sure their games run perfectly on AMD, and leaving the green team to the beach, just because they already have 2 other AMD platforms there. 3 if you count the dying Wii U.

 

I think I'm going to wait till maxwell releases see what that brings us. Hopefully both teams will be bringing out high powered 6GB cards by November, if not I will have to stick to 2 Asus 780 STRIX. Either that or grab 2 Asus Matrix R9290X cards. I'm worried 4GB just won't be enough though. Power wise the AMD matrix would give me much higher FPS than the STRIX wouldn't it? Why ASUS went with the 780 for the STRIX, and not the ti, who knows such a stupid decision! Ok they did not want to steal away from matrixs sales, but hello the whole point of such a powerful card is 4K and for 4K 3GB is just not enough! Taking the 780 and putting 6GB of VRAM on it is like taking the polo GTI and putting super expensive racing slicks on it. Whats the point?! Does not have the hardware to make use of those slicks, just like the STRIX does not have enough power to make good use of that 6GB VRAM., Sigh.

[AJ847.63]

Which water cooling equipment would you guys recommend? I was thinking of something like the Corsair H110 for the CPU, and custom blocks for both GPUs. Any specific parts you would recommend?

[brob]

Which water cooling equipment would you guys recommend? I was thinking of something like the Corsair H110 for the CPU, and custom blocks for both GPUs. Any specific parts you would recommend?

 

If you are thinking of liquid cooling the gpu you may want to look at the Swiftech H220-X as it is designed so that it can have additional blocks and radiators incorporated into a loop.

[AJ847.63]

If you are thinking of liquid cooling the gpu you may want to look at the Swiftech H220-X as it is designed so that it can have additional blocks and radiators incorporated into a loop.

Thanks. Is there custom loops you can get which do the CPU and GPUs as well eliminating the need for the H110? Also with the  Swiftech H220-X how does that work if I decide to remove the cards and upgrade to 980s? Do I need to rip the whole water cooling system out and buy another one? Or is it plug and play? Definitely will be upgrading cards in a few months, 780s should be enough for this year but there's no way in hell there going to run the witcher 3, the division, and co from next year on.

Would water cooling allow me to OC the cards higher than air cooling? I remember the DCUII 780 I had in my previous build, highest temp it would hit was like 70c so I tried to OC it more than I had done & all my games would freeze and crash, or even the whole PC would crash when I apply the OC. Doesn't the SC and STRIX have the same voltage locks as the DCUII 780? So water cooling is not really going to help much. Is that accurate?

 

As for the cards themselves, which is the better overclocker? The EVGA 780 SC, or the STRIX 780? ASUS always do that with their OC cards, lowest boost clock of the competition and also the most expensive! What the?!

[AJ847.63]

Would the 5820K 28 PCI lanes cause problems for me over the 5930Ks 40? How many lanes does each GPU normally use? I'll probably only ever use 2 GPUs max, seeing tri SLI scaling is pretty crap. Would 28 of the 5820K be plenty for 2 SLI 880s when they eventually release, and in future for future cards?

[Mao_Zedong]

custom loops are mostly for looks and bragging rights, they are not worth it for most people (though i am putting one in the build I am making in 3.5 years)

[Guest]

Would the 5820K 28 PCI lanes cause problems for me over the 5930Ks 40? How many lanes does each GPU normally use? I'll probably only ever use 2 GPUs max, seeing tri SLI scaling is pretty crap. Would 28 of the 5820K be plenty for 2 SLI 880s when they eventually release, and in future for future cards?

Not worth the extra money imo. I would stick with the 5820K.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested/6

[AJ847.63]

custom loops are mostly for looks and bragging rights, they are not worth it for most people (though i am putting one in the build I am making in 3.5 years

Yeah think I'll leave it for now and when the 980s release I'll probably do it for them as the blocks that fit the EVGA SC 780 probably wont fit the 980. Hope the 980s are like the KINGPIN edition, ie voltage unlocked only thing stopping you from OC higher is temps. How it should be, only point of water cooling is to get the temps down so you can push harder! 

[AJ847.63]

Not worth the extra money imo. I would stick with the 5820K.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested/6

Thanks. Funny to see every game there besides BF4 only 1FPS difference, BF4 walks in and suddenly 6FPS difference! Just goes to show how CPU demanding BF4 really is.

Seeing I'm going the 780s I'm going to need every extra frame I can get so I think I'll stick with the 5930K. 

[Guest]

Thanks. Funny to see every game there besides BF4 only 1FPS difference, BF4 walks in and suddenly 6FPS difference! Just goes to show how CPU demanding BF4 really is.

Seeing I'm going the 780s I'm going to need every extra frame I can get so I think I'll stick with the 5930K. 

Both of those cpu's have the same amount of cores/threads so I can only assume that it has something to do with the pci-e lanes. Also when you are already at 100+ FPS are you really going to notice a difference ? It is your money so spend it as you see fit. I personally don't think it is worth the extra $230 just for a few extra FPS.

[brob]

Thanks. Is there custom loops you can get which do the CPU and GPUs as well eliminating the need for the H110? Also with the  Swiftech H220-X how does that work if I decide to remove the cards and upgrade to 980s? Do I need to rip the whole water cooling system out and buy another one? Or is it plug and play? Definitely will be upgrading cards in a few months, 780s should be enough for this year but there's no way in hell there going to run the witcher 3, the division, and co from next year on.

Would water cooling allow me to OC the cards higher than air cooling? I remember the DCUII 780 I had in my previous build, highest temp it would hit was like 70c so I tried to OC it more than I had done & all my games would freeze and crash, or even the whole PC would crash when I apply the OC. Doesn't the SC and STRIX have the same voltage locks as the DCUII 780? So water cooling is not really going to help much. Is that accurate?

 

As for the cards themselves, which is the better overclocker? The EVGA 780 SC, or the STRIX 780? ASUS always do that with their OC cards, lowest boost clock of the competition and also the most expensive! What the?!

 

Knowing the you would be upgrading the gpu fairly soon, you could elect not to extend the H220-X loop until you have the new gpu. There are videos at the Swiftech site that deal with extending h220 loops.

 

Liquid cooled gpu can usually be oc'd higher since they do a better job cooling.

 

Personally I would pick inexpensive reference design gpu to overclock. Reference design because there should be no trouble finding a full-cover waterblock for the card and the cooler is going to be discarded anyways. There are some articles out there that talk about liquid cooling various higher-end gpu.

[brob]

Both of those cpu's have the same amount of cores/threads so I can only assume that it has something to do with the pci-e lanes. Also when you are already at 100+ FPS are you really going to notice a difference ? It is your money so spend it as you see fit. I personally don't think it is worth the extra $230 just for a few extra FPS.

 

+1

 

Other than a small speed difference the i7-5820K supports 28 PCIe lanes to the 40 of the i7-5930K.

 

It seems that the 5820K is a much better value for gaming systems. One would need to check the specs on motherboard options if one intends SLI/CF as there are some interesting notes on PCIe x16 support with a 28 lane processor.

[AJ847.63]

Knowing the you would be upgrading the gpu fairly soon, you could elect not to extend the H220-X loop until you have the new gpu. There are videos at the Swiftech site that deal with extending h220 loops.

 

Liquid cooled gpu can usually be oc'd higher since they do a better job cooling.

 

Personally I would pick inexpensive reference design gpu to overclock. Reference design because there should be no trouble finding a full-cover waterblock for the card and the cooler is going to be discarded anyways. There are some articles out there that talk about liquid cooling various higher-end gpu.

Would it be worth going the H220-X loop just for the CPU initially? I was thinking of going the corsair H110 for the CPU as a closed loop, then I'll add a extra custom loop just for the GPUs so I can swap and change once the 980s are out. Or hopefully 990, nvidia just has to respond to AMDs R9295X2 I'm surprised they haven't yet. Well they did, the Z, but come on THREE AND A HALF GRAND?! And people complain the X2 is overpriced! 

[brob]

Would it be worth going the H220-X loop just for the CPU initially? I was thinking of going the corsair H110 for the CPU as a closed loop, then I'll add a extra custom loop just for the GPUs so I can swap and change once the 980s are out. Or hopefully 990, nvidia just has to respond to AMDs R9295X2 I'm surprised they haven't yet. Well they did, the Z, but come on THREE AND A HALF GRAND?! And people complain the X2 is overpriced! 

 

Only you can decide if it is worth the added initial cost. It would save money and complexity if/when you decide to expand the loop to the gpu.

[AJ847.63]

Only you can decide if it is worth the added initial cost. It would save money and complexity if/when you decide to expand the loop to the gpu.

Yeah that's what I meant. Performance wise would it be roughly the same? Also complexity wise. Also anyone know of any stores in AU which stock the H200-X? Had a quick look last night couldn't find any. Only US stores.

[AJ847.63]

Also clear tubing can you change the stock black tubing to clear? Whole point of water cooling is partly looks so I was thinking of getting clear tubing with green coolant to match my green LED strips.

[AJ847.63]

One other thing, since I have to return my p376sm is there a backup program that's free which will let me backup everything especially my Outlook emails and let me install it on my N750?

[brob]

Yeah that's what I meant. Performance wise would it be roughly the same? Also complexity wise. Also anyone know of any stores in AU which stock the H200-X? Had a quick look last night couldn't find any. Only US stores.

 

PCCaseGear carries the precursor H220. You may wish to contact them to see if they plan to stock the H220-X (it was just introduced). You can find numerous reviews of both the H220-X and H220 with benchmark data.

 

Also clear tubing can you change the stock black tubing to clear? Whole point of water cooling is partly looks so I was thinking of getting clear tubing with green coolant to match my green LED strips.

 

That is the big advantage of the H220 & H220-X, they are fully customizable. Rather than colored coolant, why not use colored tubing?

 

One other thing, since I have to return my p376sm is there a backup program that's free which will let me backup everything especially my Outlook emails and let me install it on my N750?

 

No idea what a p376sm or N750 are. To move Outlook emails & accounts from one system to another check out Windows Easy Transfer.

[AJ847.63]

PCCaseGear carries the precursor H220. You may wish to contact them to see if they plan to stock the H220-X (it was just introduced). You can find numerous reviews of both the H220-X and H220 with benchmark data.

 

 

That is the big advantage of the H220 & H220-X, they are fully customizable. Rather than colored coolant, why not use colored tubing?

 

 

No idea what a p376sm or N750 are. To move Outlook emails & accounts from one system to another check out Windows Easy Transfer.

Thanks. P375SM is the Clevo notebook I have. Only had it for a few days and it's already having a few issues constantly dropping off my network and the USB ports for some reason do not detect my oculus rift DK2. N750 was the laptop I was looking to grab. I'll look into windows easy transfer. Does that let you copy accross everything, so OS, emails, web links? Thanks!

[brob]

Thanks. P375SM is the Clevo notebook I have. Only had it for a few days and it's already having a few issues constantly dropping off my network and the USB ports for some reason do not detect my oculus rift DK2. N750 was the laptop I was looking to grab. I'll look into windows easy transfer. Does that let you copy accross everything, so OS, emails, web links? Thanks!

 

It will not copy the o/s or programs. It will, if you instruct it properly (not the most intuitive thing), transfer most program settings (depends on how the program stores them), documents, etc. It will certainly take across IE settings, Outlook email and anything in your documents folder.

[AJ847.63]

Hey guys anyone know what size fans would fit in the 900D? Only part I forgot to get advice on. I was thinking of putting 2 200mm fans up the top which will be replaced by the radiator when I upgrade to the 980s and grab a water cooler for them. I was thinking of front mounting the H110 so the fans for that will be at the front. Where else could I chuck a few fans to help cool those cards?

[brob]

Hey guys anyone know what size fans would fit in the 900D? Only part I forgot to get advice on. I was thinking of putting 2 200mm fans up the top which will be replaced by the radiator when I upgrade to the 980s and grab a water cooler for them. I was thinking of front mounting the H110 so the fans for that will be at the front. Where else could I chuck a few fans to help cool those cards?

 

900D web page indicates that it can take 4x120mm or 3x140mm fans in the top, 3x120mm in the front, 8x120mm or 6x140 on the side, and 1x140mm on the rear.

[AJ847.63]

Thanks. Got most of the parts today, running around like a headless chook trying to find the motherboard, DDR4 RAM, and GPU now. Decided to go with the matrix, I doubt I'll need the 6GB VRAM too often. No one seems to stock the RAM or motherboard though, some places i ask say they have not been released yet which is rubbish as plenty of stores had them on sale last week and have since sold out. Knew I should of bought the V extreme last week when i saw it, now everyones sold out and dont know when the next batch is coming! even the X99 deluxe is sold out! Same for the DDR4 RAM.

 

Onto what I do have though how the blazes do you secure the HDD cady to the front drive bay slot? I removed the bays from the botom of the case as I want to install other fans there, and I will probably put a radiator for the GPUs there in future. I wanted to have my SSD and HDD underneath my ODD at the top of the case underneath the IO ports, but cant for the life of me figure out how to secure the bays in there. Theres no holes or anything to screw it in.

[AJ847.63]

What are the gigabyte motherboards like? or asrock? stores seem to have a few of those in stock, signifficantly cheaper too 300 or so compared to 700 for the asus deluxe or rampage V

[Bloodyvalley]

@AJ847.63

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($1199.00 @ CPL Online)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($149.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($299.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($325.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($92.00 @ Centre Com)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 295X2 8GB Core Edition Video Card  ($1399.00 @ PLE Computers)
Case: Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case  ($219.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($199.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer  ($20.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($20.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $3921.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-07 01:55 EST+1000