A Noob's PC - Suggestions Wanted

[ColdAtrophy]

Hey all! I am brand new here, but I've been watching LinusTechTips quite often in the last few months while learning what I needed to know to formulate this build. I would greatly appreciate some feedback from more seasoned builders if you all find yourselves willing.

 

Just looking for some final suggestions on my build. It is going to be my all-in-one solution for Battlefield 4 and next-gen gaming, running Autodesk Maya, Unreal Development Kit, Unity SDK, light programming in Java and C++, internet usage, and the occasional movie. I will attempt to explain why I chose what I chose and let you all decide if I need to make some changes. My total budget is about $1500 and, since I live in a state where I get charged ~10% sales tax for online purchases, one must take that into consideration. I also have an Amazon Prime membership which is nice because I get free 2-day shipping, allowing everything to show up at about the same time, and this quick and free shipping option generally overrides the slightly lower prices sometimes found at some other PC part sites.

 

My college provided me with a Macbook Pro and this build is meant to replace that. This means that at a minimum I must meet or exceed the following specs:

 

CPU: Intel i7-4850HQ @ 2.3Ghz (3.4Ghz Turbo)

RAM: 16GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1600mhz

GPU: Nvidia GT 750m w/ 2 GB GDDR5

Storage: 512GB PCIe Flash

 

This is the build that I have put together to replace it:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ColdAtrophy/saved/hsyQzy

 

CPU: Intel i7-4790k

I need Hyperthreading. If I didn't, I'd probably just go with an i5 but my non-gaming needs require it. My only other option here is to buy a Xeon. From what I gather, the Haswell and Haswell Refresh e3's are all basically better binned i7's without the iGPU. They are cheaper than equivalent i7's but they are also locked. If anyone has an opinion here, I'd absolutely love to hear it. 

 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Liquid Cooling

Since I'm going with a Micro-ATX build, I thought it a good idea to liquid cool this beast of a CPU.

 

Motherboard: Asus GRYPHON Z97 Micro ATX LGA1150

This is a well reviewed board with a decent amount of features. It's SLI ready (x8/x8), has the Z97 chipset, and is the form factor that I desire. 

 

Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600

From what I gather, PNY is pretty decent company. I plan to buy another of the same RAM stick, upping me to 16GB, within the next month or two outside of the constraints of my immediate budget for the base build. I won't need any more than that as far as I can tell.

 

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" SSD

It has good reviews. I am currently using a 512GB SSD, but I was told to partition half of it for OS X and the other half for Windows. As it stands, I almost never boot into OS X, so I end up really only using ~250 GB of my available space anyway. I will fill this up to about 200GB almost right away, but this is the minimum I need to get going. I can buy a 1TB HDD for about $60 and perhaps get another of this same SSD and run it in a RAID configuration.

 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0

I toyed with the idea of getting something like a GTX 760 or perhaps a cheaper AMD card, but I really can't get that to make sense in my head even though I probably could get away with it since I'm only replacing that measly GT 750M (which throttles constantly btw, lol). This version of the GTX 970 has great reviews, is from a company with good customer service (or so I read), and has a better cooler, better clocks. It is also priced pretty decently too.

 

Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower

I absolutely love the look of this case. I also don't have a ton of room to work with where this system will be going so the smaller form factor is a good idea for me. It has a good price, good reviews, comes with 3 120mm fans, will fit my eventual goal of being able to SLI, and has above average options for cable management which will be absolutely essential in a case this size for good air flow. Also, there are built in filters for the fans which seems like a good idea considering I have two dogs.

 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

This PSU will not be the final solution for this case. I won't be able to SLI GTX 970's with this power supply (someone please correct me if I am wrong). It is the best PSU I can afford for this build though. It is semi-modular which will again help with cable management and therefore air flow. I looked up a review for it on Guru3d.com and it was pretty highly praised. I admit that I trust other people to tell me what PSU's are good quality because I don't fully understand all of the ways in which a PSU can be measured. When/If I do SLI, I will then purchase a new PSU at the same time.

 

The last 3 parts on the list are a DVI-D cable that I will need, some hardware for putting together a used (but awesome!) desk I bought, and some better thermal paste. My fiancee's laptop needs a repaste anyway so I thought I would use it on my new PC too. I already have a mouse and keyboard that I will use with this system, and, although they aren't the best by any means, I'd rather save up and buy those when I need to rather than sacrifice performance to buy them now.

 

So what do you guys think? Comments? Suggestions? Tell me I suck and should go back to consoles? All thoughts are welcome!

[WoodenMarker]

Aftermarket thermal paste isn't needed. The H60 comes with preapplied paste.

The display comes with an included dvi cable.

Are you sure you need HT? From what you've listed, it seems like you're more into game development than things than heavy renders.

[ColdAtrophy]

Aftermarket thermal paste isn't needed. The H60 comes with preapplied paste.

The display comes with an included dvi cable.

Are you sure you need HT? From what you've listed, it seems like you're more into game development than things than heavy renders.

 

I keep reading that Arctic Silver 5 provides better temps over stock but I didn't think about it in the context of buying a liquid cooler as I only decided to get the H60. I have to buy it regardless though for my fiancee's laptop.

 

Are you sure the display comes with a DVI cable? I didn't see that it did. If it does, that would be great. EDIT: Nevermind. I looked at the manufacturer's website and saw that it comes with a VGA and a DVI. Thank you for saving me some money!

 

I am in college for game design. I thought it best to go with HT because games are moving in that direction (albeit slowly) and the CPU I am replacing with this build has HT. If you think I don't need it, can you tell me why or how it would affect the usage of the programs I listed? As far as I can tell, it might be something as simple as having to wait a little longer for certain things to compile or render but if it won't make that much of a difference, then maybe I would be better off spending $100 less on the CPU.

[ForsakenLive]

Seems pretty good all around. I'm not a fan of the lower end of the AiO spectrum but I get why you picked the H60 (get at least some cooling on that case that doesn't support many air coolers + aesthetics; however also consider that 'liquid cooling' is not a synonym of low temperatures).

[WoodenMarker]

I keep reading that Arctic Silver 5 provides better temps over stock but I didn't think about it in the context of buying a liquid cooler as I only decided to get the H60. I have to buy it regardless though for my fiancee's laptop.

Are you sure the display comes with a DVI cable? I didn't see that it did. If it does, that would be great.

I am in college for game design. I thought it best to go with HT because games are moving in that direction (albeit slowly) and the CPU I am replacing with this build has HT. If you think I don't need it, can you tell me why or how it would affect the usage of the programs I listed? As far as I can tell, it might be something as simple as having to wait a little longer for certain things to compile or render but if it won't make that much of a difference, then maybe I would be better off spending $100 less on the CPU.

The difference between decent and the best paste isn't much. 

Yes, it comes with the cable but I'd suggest going with a better looking IPS panel anyway. Most displays nowadays come with the necessary cables.

From what I've seen in college game design courses, you wouldn't need much more than a modern i3. Getting an i7 may be more appropriate if you were doing heavier renders for 3d animation or the like.

Recommended edits: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/stdVZL

As for the displays, they're on sale but the prices haven't been updated on pcpartpicker: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260104&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL010215&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL010215&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL010215-_-EMC-010215-Index-_-LCDLEDMonitors-_-24260104-S1A2B

[ColdAtrophy]

The difference between decent and the best paste isn't much. 

Yes, it comes with the cable but I'd suggest going with a better looking IPS panel anyway. Most displays nowadays come with the necessary cables.

From what I've seen in college game design courses, you wouldn't need much more than a modern i3. Getting an i7 may be more appropriate if you were doing heavier renders for 3d animation or the like.

Recommended edits: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/stdVZL

As for the displays, they're on sale but the prices haven't been updated on pcpartpicker: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260104&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL010215&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL010215&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL010215-_-EMC-010215-Index-_-LCDLEDMonitors-_-24260104-S1A2B

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I will look it over in detail. 

 

EDIT: I looked over your recommendations.

 

I get the switch to the i5. That does make sense, especially if I really don't need HT.

 

I really want to stick with the Micro ATX build though so I'm not sure I can get behind the mobo and case switch.

 

I'm not sure about that PSU either. I hear that the lower end EVGA PSUs aren't all that great. Am I totally wrong?