Planning for $3k pc

[CptGopher]

Hey guys and gals

A friend of mine from canada asked me to help him build a beast of a pc. His budget seems to be around $3500 canadian. I have a pretty good idea of what the main parts will be, but I am open to suggestions. Any input would be appreciated (especially around the SSD and HDD parts as I haven't been paying any real attention to recent releases and benchmarks)

Here is the parts list
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($564.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220-X 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($137.75 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: EVGA Micro Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($249.99 @ NCIX US) 

Memory: Corsair DOMINATOR Platinum 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($999.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($109.99 @ NCIX US) 

Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($179.99 @ NCIX US) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm  Fans

Other: Corsair Professional Individually Sleeved DC Cable Kit Type 3 (Generation 2) Red ($89.99)

Other: Bitfenix BFA-ACL-30RK15-RP Alchemy LED Connect Lit 30CM 15 LEDs - Red ($19.99)

Total: $2457.67

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-20 12:14 EDT-0400

As you can see there is still a bit of room for more or better stuff. Also note, this is a tower only upgrade. No input devices or screens or anything.

Thanks for the help

[Enderman]

1) please just DONT use x99 for a gaming PC

 

2) the 980 does not cost $1000

 

3) put more than one graphics card in that PC with that budget

 

Also, why such a small case? Get a proper ATX case and ATX motherboard.

[rambi36]

$1000 for a GTX 980!? That doesn't seem right... I would grab maybe dual GTX 970s instead. Are you planning to run the 840 evos in raid 0? Because I've heard that those drives die really quickly when you run them in raid 0.

[Paralectic]

I don't see why not go ATX, dual GPU and a less expensive CPU/mobo and go with 1150 and DDR3 because DDR4 and extreme cpus in 90% of the time won't justify it's price.

i7 4790K with a decent Z97 board, SLI 980's on a AX860 would be so much better ( with a custom loop or the AIO you've chosen ).

And why Dominator Plats, you see these overpriced kits everywhere and they are a money waste.

[Nico123473]

1) please just DONT use x99 for a gaming PC

 

2) the 980 does not cost $1000

 

3) put more than one graphics card in that PC with that budget

 

Also, why such a small case? Get a proper ATX case and ATX motherboard.

Yeah I don't know from where you're buying that card, but they're ripping you off

[CptGopher]

1) please just DONT use x99 for a gaming PC

 

2) the 980 does not cost $1000

 

3) put more than one graphics card in that PC with that budget

 

Also, why such a small case? Get a proper ATX case and ATX motherboard.

 

1) Any reason why not to use an x99 for gaming?

 

2) Missed that little mistake

 

3) I'm not the biggest fan of dual gpu's and all the driver issues that they seem to cause and my friend isn't the most clued up on that type of thing. Kind of hard also to give tech support when I in South Africa and he is in Canada

 

$1000 for a GTX 980!? That doesn't seem right... I would grab maybe dual GTX 970s instead. Are you planning to run the 840 evos in raid 0? Because I've heard that those drives die really quickly when you run them in raid 0.

That mistake though It's listed for $629.99 on newegg.

EDIT LIST: fixed quotes and spelling

[rambi36]

 

 

1) Any reason why not to use an x99 for gaming?

 

It's not worth it for gaming because most games don't utilize more than 4 cores and DDR4 memory is bloody expensive and doesn't offer too much performance games. I would go with z97 instead. The 4790k is a great chip for gaming at your budget and Grabbing a decent motherboard like the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 or 7 will allow you to spend more money on your setup so you can take full advantage of your beast PC

[dizmo]

If he's in Canada, why are you using the US PCPartPicker? The prices are a lot different north of the border unless he's able to travel down to pick up the parts.

Does he upgrade often? The only reason I'd go LGA2011 is if he doesn't upgrade his CPU often.

As others have said the 980 doesn't cost that much.

Don't run SSD's in RAID0, just buy the next one up. Less issues.

I'm pretty sure that motherboard had built in wireless, the wireless card is useless. With a budget like that there are also much, much better options.

[Enderman]

 

1) Any reason why not to use an x99 for gaming?

 

2) Missed that little mistake

 

3) I'm not the biggest fan of dual gpu's and all the driver issues that they seem to cause and my friend isn't the most clued up on that type of thing. Kind of hard also to give tech support when I in South Africa and he is in Canada

Dat mistake though

 

1) it is extremely expensive for 0 improvement (and in some cases worse performance) in games. It is a gaming PC right? Not a workstation editing rig. All that money being wasted on x99 could go to something that would actually improve your fps.

 

3) if you're only going with 1 GPU then all you need to spend is less than $2000 for a gaming PC that performs the same as the parts you listed. But honestly, it is not hard to get SLI working. You install drivers, enable SLI, and it works.

 

Also, get a single 500GB or 1TB 840 evo SSD and a 3TB seagate barracuda.

[CptGopher]

It's not worth it for gaming because most games don't utilize more than 4 cores and DDR4 memory is bloody expensive and doesn't offer too much performance games. I would go with z97 instead. The 4790k is a great chip for gaming at your budget and Grabbing a decent motherboard like the MSI Z97 Gaming 5 or 7 will allow you to spend more money on your setup so you can take full advantage of your beast PC

I'll take that into consideration when revising the build. The only thing that does bother me about that statement is that that system fits into his budget (even with the wrongly priced gtx980)

If he's in Canada, why are you using the US PCPartPicker? The prices are a lot different north of the border unless he's able to travel down to pick up the parts.

Does he upgrade often? The only reason I'd go LGA2011 is if he doesn't upgrade his CPU often.

As others have said the 980 doesn't cost that much.

Don't run SSD's in RAID0, just buy the next one up. Less issues.

I'm pretty sure that motherboard had built in wireless, the wireless card is useless. With a budget like that there are also much, much better options.

Did not know there is a CA part picker. Was mainly using it for easy reference to parts. And no he doesnt upgrade often. I think his last upgrade of any kind was 6 or more years back.

[dizmo]

I'll take that into consideration when revising the build. The only thing that does bother me about that statement is that that system fits into his budget (even with the wrongly priced gtx980)

Did not know there is a CA part picker. Was mainly using it for easy reference to parts. And no he doesnt upgrade often. I think his last upgrade of any kind was 6 or more years back.

I have a few friends who love gaming but know little of hardware. They too have massive budgets (several times that of your friend). However, it doesn't mean they have to spend to the top of it.

You can get the exact same performance from a much cheaper system. There's no point in spending the money just because he can.

 

I'd go with an i7, 16gb of RAM, and a 980. Games are still a ways off from fully utilizing the 8 cores. If DDR4 were cheaper, I'd say jump on the LGA2011 bandwagon.

 

For CA parts you just change the country at the top right side of the PCPP website. There are a lot of parts that simply aren't available in Canada.

 

What's your friends current system? Is he playing at 1080p?

I'm just upgrading a couple things in mine, and waiting for DDR4 to drop in price. I also upgrade every ~4 or 5 years.

[CptGopher]

I have a few friends who love gaming but know little of hardware. They too have massive budgets (several times that of your friend). However, it doesn't mean they have to spend to the top of it.

You can get the exact same performance from a much cheaper system. There's no point in spending the money just because he can.

 

I'd go with an i7, 16gb of RAM, and a 980. Games are still a ways off from fully utilizing the 8 cores. If DDR4 were cheaper, I'd say jump on the LGA2011 bandwagon.

 

For CA parts you just change the country at the top right side of the PCPP website. There are a lot of parts that simply aren't available in Canada.

 

What's your friends current system? Is he playing at 1080p?

I'm just upgrading a couple things in mine, and waiting for DDR4 to drop in price. I also upgrade every ~4 or 5 years.

Not sure what his current system is, he is AFK now. I do get that buying the extreme top end right now with 3 brand new series of parts (i7 5000 series, gtx900 series and DDR4 ram) is not the most economical way of doing it, but this build is probably still going to take some time before he buys it. A lot of the more visual parts are still up for debate (no colour choice has been made) so I stuck the 350D in there, mostly because I like it

More changes will come.

On a side note: Does anyone know how the gtx908 stacks up against a Titan Black?

[dizmo]

Not sure what his current system is, he is AFK now. I do get that buying the extreme top end right now with 3 brand new series of parts (i7 5000 series, gtx900 series and DDR4 ram) is not the most economical way of doing it, but this build is probably still going to take some time before he buys it. A lot of the more visual parts are still up for debate (no colour choice has been made) so I stuck the 350D in there, mostly because I like it

More changes will come.

On a side note: Does anyone know how the gtx908 stacks up against a Titan Black?

If he's not building for a while then this thread is rather pointless.

Prices fluctuate constantly, and new parts are released all the time. AMD has yet to release their next gen cards.

Just wait until he's ready to buy.