Ultimate (not that ultimate) Gaming PC project

[JR1409]

Warning: TL;DR at the end.

 

Hi guys! First of all I want to tank everyone for helping me these weeks with my component selection for my next build. After a lot of work and almost burning my brain to ashes I have come across the next 3 possible builds, all of them are around 1500-1600 dollars. I will give a brief preambule of each build and ask for your opinion in which would be the best one. Note: This is only the Core PC, other things such as HDD, fans, keyboard, monitor, etc I will add later. So let's get started!

 

First of all the propuse of my PC is JUST GAMING, pure gaming, nothing more than gaming, I'm a frecuent player of games like WoW and LoL (my favorites in the world)  BUT I'm planning on leaving my console rutine and start playing serious graphic demanding PC games. I like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Batman, and intend on playing games like Tom Raider and Shadow of Mordor.

About the monitor, my intention is to buy a 4K one with Free-Sync or G-Sync, whichever is cheaper (so take that into account when looking at the GPU's), I have always had a standard 1680x1050 21" Samsung monitor so I don't know what things like 144hz, IPS panels, etc feel like, I'm blinded on that side (you know, like Blind Side, blinded on a side, get it? ok ... ) Oh! Another thing I want for my PC is to be enthusiast grade, you know, like powerful components and gaming finishes, etc.

 

First of all, things that all builds share:

 

PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 1000W PSU 80+ gold.- Ok so this might look like a little bit overkill in 2 of the builds but the reasons I went with this is because it only costs 140 dollars and is jonnyGURU certified, which makes it a great deal, I have heard from you a lot of good things about EVGA PSU's, so this seems a good choice, also I want growing room to do 2-way SLI and with the 10 year warranty, it will last through several system upgrades.

 

CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX.- The previous H100i has gotten tons of good reviews and thumbs up from all the PC enthusiast comunity around the world, so its succesor, the GTX version makes a lot of sense to me, still have to wait for serious reviews about the cuality and shipping conditions of the unit but I already have my eye on it. Also I'm not going with the H110i GT Because I don't know if it will fit my case (I have a brand new Corsair C70) also, it is out of the market and a lot more expensive, I wanted to keep this build under 1600 dollars.

 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO Series 250gb.- This SSD has speed and great performance on its side and it is not THAT expensive, for 115 dollars this makes a lot of sense to me and promises to keep my PC fed with storage for the first 1 or 2 months. I'm not adding a HDD now becuase of the 1600 budget limit I self-imposed.

 

Now for each Build!

 

 

Intel z97 gtx980 - 1,595 dollars

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KPbzsY

 

This z97 build focuses on powerful gaming, the i7 4790k promises to keep competitive in gaming for the next few generations and overclocks like mad (as far as I have read). i5 is not an option for me, though it will be perfect for today, it won't last for tomorrow, saving 100 dollars is not worth having to change processor in the next 2 years...

The MOBO is overkill, absolutely, but it is ASUS, it is ROG and it is pretty, nuff said, also the great sound and overclocking features make it worth the 210 dollar premium price (In my humble opinion). The RAM... well it is RAM and it is cheap, end of the story. 16gb is also future proveness and stays within my budget.

Now the most important part, the GPU.- well, as far as Nvidia Single GPU Cards, it doesn't get much better than this, This baby will run every game I can hope for and if in the future it stops being enough I can just throw another one in and... What dooes Linus says? Call it a day? I think so...

 

Intel z97 r9 295x2 - 1,670 dollars

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/v6czsY

Exact same build as the previous one, z97-i7 based. But the big difference here:

GPU: AMD Radeon r9 295x2.-As far as reviews, benchmarks and specs tell, this is the most powerful gaming video card on the market. I just freaking love it and the best part: it only costs 630 dollars on newegg!! 

Price is only 15% higher than the 980 but it will absolutely destroy it in any games that scale with SLI. The thing I like most about this GPU is how exotic it is, a truly enthusiast grade product. What do you think guys? Should I go full overkill and get a beautiful and powerful card just for the sake of PC enthusiast gaming?

 

Intel x99 gtx 970 - 1,542 dollars

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FzmpJx

Now things change quite a bit. This build features the brand new x99 Intel platform. I went with the i7 5820k because it is all you can get for less than 400 dollars on this platform. The reasoning behind this is pure future proveness, a 6core-12thread CPU promises to stay within the game for at least 5years (which is the period of time I intend this build to last without any strong modifications or upgrades), It overclocks well as the reviews say but the horrible downside is that it only features 28 pci-e lanes, so no dual x16 SLI or CrossFire. The motherboard is the least expensive x99 from Asus (I'm only choosing ASUS MOBO's because I'm married with the new BIOS). RAM is still RAM even though it is DDR4 so 16gb will be enough for now.

And now the GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970.- All the budget when to the CPU upgrade so little was left for the graphics card (which doesn't make a lot of sense since a gaming PC should take focus on the GPU). But still, the 970 offers great performance for its price and even after the whole wrong specification thing from Nvidia it is still a great card for a great price, also 2 of them in the future promise several FPS increase in games... yes? YES?!?!

 

So that is all folks, I will stop writing before you get tired and close this tab. Thanks for reading and helping! Remember the whole thing about this post is which PC project you like more and why!

 

TL;DR:

Build 1:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KPbzsY

Build 2:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/v6czsY

Build 3:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FzmpJx

Which one you like most and why? Thanks!

 

P.S. Sorry for bad english, it is not my main language.

[lukky211111]

the third one i didnt even bother too look at cuz for gaming you wont see any performance advantage with x99 whats so ever unless your a streamer or doing video editing etc. the first two though with teh 4790k look amazing dude! honestly id pick either the first two and i dont think you can guarantee a system to last for five years can you?

[1Scotty1]

If it is purely for gaming, stick with the Z97 motherboard and add two 970s in SLI if that is an option. The X99 is more for professional work. The 980 is overpriced, you will be far better off with two 970s, like I am, they offer 70-80% more performance over a single 980 just my thoughts

[Castdeath97]

Don't spend on expensive ram and motherboard and get another 970 or 980 in SLI. Forget the r9 295 X2.

[JR1409]

If it is purely for gaming, stick with the Z97 motherboard and add two 970s in SLI if that is an option. The X99 is more for professional work. The 980 is overpriced, you will be far better off with two 970s, like I am, they offer 70-80% more performance over a single 980 just my thoughts

 

Yeah, my original plan was to buy 2x970 and SLI them, but will the outperform the r9 295x2? I mean, I don't know that's why I'm asking About the 980 you are right, it is quite overpriced. Thanks!

[1Scotty1]

Yeah, my original plan was to buy 2x970 and SLI them, but will the outperform the r9 295x2? I mean, I don't know that's why I'm asking About the 980 you are right, it is quite overpriced. Thanks!

As @Castdeath97 stated - forget the r9 295x2... and if you want to go 4K, a single GPU is not going to be enough, hence the 970 SLI