First build, X99 base

[f-ma]

Hi, I'm planning a new build!

 

A few things: I live in the UK, and am willing to spend a hefty sum for this new computer. Up until now, I've only ever used pre-built systems (2 in fact, a 2005 HP Pavilion and a Lenovo Y580 laptop which died recently - RIP Lenny 2012-2015).

 

Budget: Technically has no upper limit, but I'm not looking to waste my money.

Used for: The new build will be used primarily for gaming (CSGO, BF4, Assetto Corsa and other lovely stuff), but I do intend to move onto design with 3ds Max and Photoshop to create community content for both CSGO and Assetto Corsa, as well as my own creative projects.

Monitors: I have one BenQ G2420HD, but I plan on getting another 144hz BenQ (see below).

Peripherals: I already own a decent keyboard, mouse, speakers and headset.

Why am I upgrading/building anew?: Because an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and a GT 610 just aren't enough!

 

After consulting various resources including the Linus YouTube channel, I've come upon this list.

Case:

BitFenix Shinobi XL White £125 Overclockers

I really like the look of this case. My first thought was the Phanteks Enthoo Primo White, but decided the Shinobi was smaller and less costly. I'd take any suggestions for a fairly large, clean looking case, without any bells and whistles in terms of windows and LEDs. (Piano) White cases like the two mentioned are my ideal in terms of a conservative to radical design ratio.

Motherboard:

MSI X99S Sli Plus £170 Amazon

A fairly cheap x99 motherboard. Other options I looked into included the Asus x99 models, but they were much more expensive. Advice here would be much appreciated!

PSU:

Corsair AX Series AX860 £155 Amazon

I calculated this wattage should be enough; it's an all round decent PSU.

CPU:

Intel i7-5820K £315 Amazon

It may seem overkill for now; I understand gaming will not benefit from its extra cores, but as stated above, future modelling and rendering work will use them. I may eventually overclock the CPU when the need arises, but for now I will not do so. This explains the choice in CPU fan below.

CPUFan:

Noctua NH-D15 £70 Amazon

Considering I'm not going to be overclocking for some time to come, I can't justify opting for a liquid cooling solution, especially since this is my first build.

GPU:

Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX 980 G1 £480 Scan

High performance and low power of this GPU made my decision for me. I looked into (dual) R9 295X2s, but decided that I preferred the support and drivers of Nvidia (had a GTX 660m in the Lenovo and a GT 610 in the HP) as well as the much, much lower power requirements. The reason for a high-end GPU in the first place is to be able to play games such as BF4 and Assetto Corsa at 144hz at 1080p. 1440p or higher is not on my radar for the moment and I'm more than happy with 1080p on a 24" monitor (see below), but I welcome the option to move onto 1440p or higher in the future.

RAM:

Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 8GB £70 Amazon

8GB RAM I think will suffice for now, since there will be a few months before I begin any work that will demand more. Also, the price may drop and I'll be able to save some money!

HDD/SDD:

SanDisk SDSSDXPS-480G-G25 £190 Amazon

  (+Samsung 450 EVO SSD 120GB already owned)

    (+Samsung M3 Portable 2TB already owned)

I fear the 120GB that I already own may not be enough to store all of my programs, so I've opted for an adequate SanDisk 480GB addition. The M3 Portable with USB 3.0 connection I find is perfectly capable of storing music, videos and other files with fairly quick and reliable access.

Monitor:

BenQ XL2420G £439 Amazon

This choice was most influenced by Linus' review on the YouTube channel. Although it will not match an IPS for image/colour quality, the extra Hz and GSync will definitely be appreciated. The LG 34UC97 reviewed by Linus definitely takes my fancy, but by the time I'm ready to buy a beautiful IPS display there may be better ones on the market.

 

What I'm looking for here is advice on my build. I want to see if my logic in choosing these components is rational, or whether I've completely lost the plot and am about to blow £2000 on something that I will never even dream of using to its potential.

 

1. Are there any recommended changes to my build?

2. Considering I have no experience of Win8 and find its UI revolting, which is the better option - Win7 or 8? (Are there any real advantages to the latter?)

3. Considering the case and components, are there any modifications, extra fans or other advice to follow that I could be looking at to keep everything cool and dust-free?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aytex]

for OS either way you can upgrade to windows 10

[Cactu]

16GB of ram in my opinion and if you are going as far as to debate between two r95x2's just buy a Titan x

[salecar3]

16 gn of ram and dual 980 or titan X

[H4X3R]

Better:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£58.26 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: ASRock X99 Professional EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£211.21 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory: Crucial 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£124.32 @ More Computers) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£129.98 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Superclocked Video Card  (£883.84 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL Window (White) ATX Full Tower Case  (£124.90 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£89.99 @ Novatech) 

Monitor: AOC G2460PG 144Hz 24.0" Monitor  (£275.87 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £2206.71

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 19:06 BST+0100

[xQubeZx]

Well since the 5820K and the 980 i would go for 16gb of ram. And also harddrive space seems a bit small, or i mean the protable harddrive uses usb 3 and that means your speeds will be quite slow. So a bigger sata drive would be better in my opinion for games and such.

[Guest]

1440p G-Sync and a Titan X. There is also an Acer Predator IPS 1440p G-sync screen, although it is a bit more expensive than the ROG Swift.

 

A nice windowed case to show off the Black/White build. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro is nice and understated.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£196.79 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£150.65 @ Dabs) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£129.98 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card  (£840.79 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  (£83.50 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£99.98 @ Novatech) 

Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  (£572.34 @ Aria PC) 

Other: Alpenfohn Matterhorn White Cooler (£44.94)

Total: £2427.31

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 20:21 BST+0100

[f-ma]

Thanks for the advice.

 

So overall,

 

1. More RAM: 16Gb.

2. TitanX instead of 980.

3. I should be a bit more careful with the choice in Motherboard. Can you give me realistic advantages for going for either the ASRock X99 Professional EATX or the MSI X99S SLI Krait?

4. More storage. I'd never had a problem with storage on my Lenovo. With a maximum of 750Gb, I only ever used ~400Gb. However, perhaps investing in two SSDs would be appropriate?

5. Take more care in choosing where I buy the parts!

6. The impression I got from the Linus review of the BenQ XL2420G was that it had superior colour compared to other 144Hz TN monitors. Is this true? Or is the difference insufficient enough to warrant simply buying a cheaper 144Hz monitor?

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice.

 

So overall,

 

1. More RAM: 16Gb.

2. TitanX instead of 980.

3. I should be a bit more careful with the choice in Motherboard. Can you give me realistic advantages for going for either the ASRock X99 Professional EATX or the MSI X99S SLI Krait?

4. More storage. I'd never had a problem with storage on my Lenovo. With a maximum of 750Gb, I only ever used ~400Gb. However, perhaps investing in two SSDs would be appropriate?

5. Take more care in choosing where I buy the parts!

6. The impression I got from the Linus review of the BenQ XL2420G was that it had superior colour compared to other 144Hz TN monitors. Is this true? Or is the difference insufficient enough to warrant simply buying a cheaper 144Hz monitor?

1. More Ram will come in handy when you start using 3ds max and photoshop etc.

 

2. You could go either really. It all depends on what resolution you are happy with. If you want to stick with 1080p/144Hz for a while then you can go with a single GTX 980. The Titan X shines at higher resolutions/multi monitor setups due to the huge amount of vram.

 

3. I have never been a fan of ASRock. I tend to stick with Asus, Gigabyte and MSI Motherboards. 

 

4. A 500/512 SSD is a good starting point. You can use your current Samsung 120GB for Windows and then use the larger one for games etc. The external drive will be fine for mass storage, plus you can always add a 2nd SSD later on if needed.

 

5. I tend to stick with Overclockers, Aria, Amazon and Scan. That is not to say that other stores are bad. 

 

6. I haven't seen that review so I can't really comment on that.

[f-ma]

This is what I'm looking at now. 

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (£65.46 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£196.79 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£138.50 @ Dabs) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£293.61 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£473.45 @ Aria PC) 

Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL (White) ATX Full Tower Case  (£118.00 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£144.98 @ Novatech) 

Total: £1739.13

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 21:23 BST+0100

 

*plus the original BenQ XL2420G for £439 at Amazon.

 

 

1. I just cannot justify spending £800+ on a Titan X, when I'm not planning on going above 1080p any time soon, and I'm not a fan of multi-monitor gaming. Productivity maybe, but not gaming. For that, a humble GTX980 will be enough.

 

2. Is there any advantage to using 2x 500Gb SSDs compared to 1x 1Tb SSD?

 

3. I think I will stick to the un-windowed Shinobi. I prefer the aesthetics to the Phanteks models and the price is agreeable.

 

4. Here is the review of the BenQ monitor if you can spare ten minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSinC_yIaT4. Ideally, I'm after a 144Hz monitor with minimal response time, but one that has superior colour quality compared to other TN displays. I'm also comfortable with 24" at 1080p and feel little temptation to go higher.

[brob]

A few suggestions:

• Definitely 16GB of memory if content creation is contemplated. On X99 use a 4x4GB kit to get the better performance of quad channel memory operation.
• An Asus X99-A motherboard. IMO more reliable with better BIOS & utilities.
• An excellent cpu cooler that has no memory issues on LGA2011-3.
• GTX 980 should be quite sufficient. A second can always be added if needed down the road.
• A 1TB ssd will perform as well or better in most real world situations than a RAID 0 array of two 500GB units.
• Have you seen the Fractal Design R5? Comes with or without a window.
• An arguably better psu with a lower price.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£48.12 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£191.76 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£153.35 @ Dabs)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5"; Solid State Drive  (£293.61 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£473.45 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£87.06 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£99.98 @ Novatech)
Monitor: BenQ XL2420G 24-Inch LCD Monitor (£439.00)
Total: £2094.67
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 21:36 BST+0100

[Guest]

 

This is what I'm looking at now. 

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (£65.46 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£196.79 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£138.50 @ Dabs) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£293.61 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£473.45 @ Aria PC) 

Case: BitFenix Shinobi XL (White) ATX Full Tower Case  (£118.00 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£144.98 @ Novatech) 

Total: £1739.13

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 21:23 BST+0100

 

*plus the original BenQ XL2420G for £439 at Amazon.

 

 

1. I just cannot justify spending £800+ on a Titan X, when I'm not planning on going above 1080p any time soon, and I'm not a fan of multi-monitor gaming. Productivity maybe, but not gaming. For that, a humble GTX980 will be enough.

 

2. Is there any advantage to using 2x 500Gb SSDs compared to 1x 1Tb SSD?

 

3. I think I will stick to the un-windowed Shinobi. I prefer the aesthetics to the Phanteks models and the price is agreeable.

 

4. Here is the review of the BenQ monitor if you can spare ten minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSinC_yIaT4. Ideally, I'm after a 144Hz monitor with minimal response time, but one that has superior colour quality compared to other TN displays. I'm also comfortable with 24" at 1080p and feel little temptation to go higher.

 

A 980 will be fine then for 1080p.

 

I would go with whatever is the cheapest option. Sometimes you can get 2 x 500GB drives for less than a 1TB drive.

 

If you prefer the shinobi then stick with that.

 

That Monitor looks fine from Linus's review. If you were doing colour critical work rather than gaming then an IPS would be a higher priority. 

 

And as mentioned by brob, stick with the EVGA psu as it is excellent. You can check out a review here - http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=377

[f-ma]

Thank you all.

 

The Define R5 is very tempting indeed. It's slightly smaller and has noise dampening, which, although not essential, is nice. I'm aware that if I end up needing a display with better colour, I'll have to go ahead and buy an IPS, but for now the TN will suffice.

 

I can't possibly choose just one reply as the best response, so I will post my latest build idea:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  (£308.34 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£48.12 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  (£196.79 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (£153.35 @ Dabs) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£293.61 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£473.45 @ Aria PC) 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£87.06 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£99.98 @ Novatech) 

Monitor: BenQ XL2420G 24-Inch LCD Monitor (£439 @ Amazon UK)*

Total: £2099.70*

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-07 22:22 BST+0100

 

*not through PCPartPicker

 

 

The thing I think is most likely to change between now and ordering the parts is the case, but I'd be very happy with either the Fractal Design or the BitFenix.

 

Thanks again for the help! I'll post a picture of the finished product soon!

[f-ma]

So, I'm back and my problem is not to do with the case, but the monitor. I've come across a 1440p Acer XB270HU, which is 144Hz with 4ms response time and, critically, an IPS panel.

 

I've read a few articles and reviews here and there but still haven't made my mind up if it will be considerably (or noticeably) slower than the BenQ XL2420G. Also, will the GTX 980 in my build deliver stable 144Hz in BF4 and Assetto Corsa at 1440p?

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-xb270hubprz