Gaming PC - Build check

[tomramsden]

Hi all,

 

I have put the following build together as a gaming PC (anything from Minecraft to Witcher 3). It will be used for some graphics work, but no 3D rendering. Just your usual Photoshop / Illustrator type stuff.

 

I'll be using two monitors on the setup. A 27" 1440p monitor (the XB270HU) and a 22" 1080p Samsung SyncMaster.

 

Case (£119.98 - Amazon): Corsair 750D

CPU (£308.60 - Scan): Intel i7 5820K (Socket 2011-3)

Mobo (£154.79 - Scan): MSI X99S (Socket 2011-3)

SSD (£153.55 - Amazon): Intel 730 240GB

HDD (£43.04 - Scan): WD Caviar Blue 1TB

GPU (£455.98 - Scan): MSI GTX 980 4GB

Cooler (£79.99 - Amazon): Corsair H100i

RAM (£191.90 - Amazon): Corsair Vengeance 16GB LPX DDR4-2666

Sound (£61.00 - Amazon): Creative Sound Blaster Z

Monitor (£689.99 - Overclockers): Acer Predator XB270HU

PSU: Corsair HX 850W (this is my current power supply)

 

Does that all look good? Or is there something glaringly obvious I'm missing?

 

Any help on the fans to use and in what configuration would be great too. I plan on replacing the fans on the H100i with the SP120 quiet ones. I assume it's best to upgrade the fan at the back of the 750D with the same? Do the fans at the front of the 750D also need to be replaced?

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

Tom

[SeanAngelo]

-snip-

whats your budget?

[tomramsden]

Sorry, forgot about that! My budget isn't much higher than what it's currently at really. So ~£2,300.

[SeanAngelo]

@tomramsden

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£258.00 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£99.95 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£86.02 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£42.00 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£273.59 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£273.59 @ Aria PC) 

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£119.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card  (£143.62 @ CCL Computers) 

Other: Acer Predator XB270HU (£689.99)

Total: £2171.09

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 19:32 GMT+0000

[SwaggMcSwaggySwag]

 

@tomramsden

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£258.00 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£99.95 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£86.02 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£42.00 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£273.59 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£273.59 @ Aria PC) 

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£119.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card  (£143.62 @ CCL Computers) 

Other: Acer Predator XB270HU (£689.99)

Total: £2171.09

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 19:32 GMT+0000

 

Agree really nice fix ow and btw WHO THE FUCK BUYS A 690£ monitor

[Starelementpoke]

Side note: DDR4 is a complete waste of money.

[tomramsden]

...

 

Thanks SeanAngelo! Sorry if I ask some really dumb questions here, but:

 

• Is the 4 core processor a better option over the 6 core processor? Is that something to do with games not using all cores or something I'm guessing?
• Motherboard / RAM: Please bare in mind I'm not technical at all here. Is DDR4 just not worth the extra money? Is there any chance of this changing in the next 5 years or so? (that's when I'll probably look to upgrade again)
• SLI 970's. Are games much better at managing SLI now, as I always thought that the majority still sucked with it? This was probably years ago knowing me
• Soundcard. Again, I don't have a clue what to look for in a sound card. Although it does need to have optical inputs for my Steelseries H wireless.

 

 

Agree really nice fix ow and btw WHO THE FUCK BUYS A 690£ monitor

 

haha, ask all the Rog Swift owners I've been after an IPS G-Sync panel for a while. The Acer one seems to fit the bill nicely. It's only like buying a new telly, only tv shows suck and games are awesome!

[Guest]

You shouldn't need a separate soundcard. The Gigabyte Sniper has very good onboard audio.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£258.00 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£83.13 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G1.SNIPER Z97 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£118.76 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (£95.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£76.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£42.97 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£279.98 @ Novatech) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)  (£279.98 @ Novatech) 

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£119.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Other: Acer Predator XB270HU (£689.99)

Total: £2045.76

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 20:23 GMT+0000

[SeanAngelo]

Thanks SeanAngelo! Sorry if I ask some really dumb questions here, but:

 

• Is the 4 core processor a better option over the 6 core processor? Is that something to do with games not using all cores or something I'm guessing?
• Motherboard / RAM: Please bare in mind I'm not technical at all here. Is DDR4 just not worth the extra money? Is there any chance of this changing in the next 5 years or so? (that's when I'll probably look to upgrade again)
• SLI 970's. Are games much better at managing SLI now, as I always thought that the majority still sucked with it? This was probably years ago knowing me
• Soundcard. Again, I don't have a clue what to look for in a sound card. Although it does need to have optical inputs for my Steelseries H wireless.

-in your case yes, a 4 core processor with 8 threads is more than enough for what you want to do.

-personally, going with x99/ddr4 isn't really necessary for what you want to do. if you mean changing as in adding more RAM, then yes, if changing to ddr4 with z97 then no as you need to change your platform completely to x99.

-most games perform decently well in SLI these days, you'll only start seeing issues if you add 3 or more cards due to scaling issues.

-do you have audiophile grade headphones? (for example Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO/DT990) if not, then you can ditch the sound card and spend it on something else, the motherboard has decent sound anyway. OR.. you can pick up a cheaper soundcard for around $40-50 (ASUS XONAR DGX/DSX) if you want a soundcard in your system for future use.

[tomramsden]

-in your case yes, a 4 core processor with 8 threads is more than enough for what you want to do.

 

Cool cool.

 

-personally, going with x99/ddr4 isn't really necessary for what you want to do. if you mean changing as in adding more RAM, then yes, if changing to ddr4 with z97 then no as you need to change your platform completely to x99.

 

Sorry, I meant will DDR4 not being very useful change within the next 5 years. Like, I don't want to go with a DDR3 mobo / RAM combination and regret it before it's time to upgrade again. 

 

-most games perform decently well in SLI these days, you'll only start seeing issues if you add 3 or more cards due to scaling issues.

 

Ah sweet. I wasn't sure if it was still the case or not. I'd never go 3 way SLI anyway and I've never actually gone SLI at all before. I've always opted for a more powerful single GPU.

 

-do you have audiophile grade headphones? (for example Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO/DT990) if not, then you can ditch the sound card and spend it on something else, the motherboard has decent sound anyway. OR.. you can pick up a cheaper soundcard for around $40-50 (ASUS XONAR DGX/DSX) if you want a soundcard in your system for future use.

 

I don't have audiophile grade headphones, no. I recently bought the Steelseries H Wireless headphones. They're decent, but they're wireless and are a "gaming headset". I was just wanting a soundcard for the optical inputs, as they're currently connected via USB.

[SeanAngelo]

Sorry, I meant will DDR4 not being very useful change within the next 5 years. Like, I don't want to go with a DDR3 mobo / RAM combination and regret it before it's time to upgrade again. 

 

 

I don't have audiophile grade headphones, no. I recently bought the Steelseries H Wireless headphones. They're decent, but they're wireless and are a "gaming headset". I was just wanting a soundcard for the optical inputs, as they're currently connected via USB.

-Again, for your usage, you don't really need DDR4, there isn't a noticeable difference between the two in terms of performance, it's just that the other one is newer.

 

-If you're sticking to your headset, then you don't need a soundcard. Having it USB connected is fine.