First Time Builder - Gaming PC

[Antenae]

First time PC Builder, but interested and fascinated by PC's and the way you can mod, design, and overclock the cr@p out of it. 

Idea behind the PC; upgrading my current PC ( 8GB DDR3, i5 - 3570k, GTX 650Ti ), to something that could contend with the heavyweight AAA titles that are coming out for the next 3-4 years, before needing to upgrade. Moreover, im thinking of putting my toe in the water and indulge into CPU overclocking, while trying to get something that stays relatively quiet. 

 

What I'm thinking of, in terms of specs, all fitting inside of a Fractal Designs R5 (with or without the window) chassis;

 

Asus Z97 Maximus VII Ranger - w/ i7 - 4970k - w/ Corsair H75,

2 x Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1600 16GB Kits - w/ Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX980Ti

Samsung 850 Evo 128 / 500 GB SSD + WD Red 3TB HDD

All being powered by an EVGA Supernova 1000 P2 ATX PSU.

 

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/XTmB6h - Forgot I could do that. All of which, is open to suggestion, of course. Anyway, to why I'm here, a couple questions;

 

Q1) Major one, which would add another $300 or so; Z97 or X99? This is a primary GAMING pc; not productivity, in terms of rendering or production.

Q2) I know the R5 case comes with two fans, but would you suggest any fans, or cpu coolers, that would help in maintenance of safe operating temperatures of the PC? If the CPU cooler is fine, and the stock FD fans aren't that great (heard they're ok), what would you suggest instead? 

Q3) I have two SSD's - One for the OS (128), and another for games - is that suggested, or should i boot it all onto one SSD?

Q4) Should I go SLI with another G1 Gaming 980ti? Money aside, of course, cause i know 1000W should be able to handle two in SLI.

Q5) Suggested 4K Gaming monitor, or wait for a decently priced 4k IPS panel?

 

Any help you could throw my way would be GREATLY appreciated.

[BoredErica]

Stick with z97.

 

Any half-decent fans out there will work. Pretty much any non-sketchy fan on Newegg. Noctuas are good but they are too pricey. Any dollar you spend on fans could have been spent on the GPU so there's an opportunity cost here. Some NZXT fans will be white and work fine on the cheap. I dunno about that particular case though.

 

One SSD will typically be slightly cheaper. Unless you're recording and loading the game at the same time, one drive would be slightly faster I think (although not noticeable in normal usage). Differences are typically minimal either way. I would pick a single larger drive because in the future if you decide to grab another SSD as your storage needs expand, you have less drives to deal with.

 

Next gen Pascal has a die shrink (finally) and HBM gen 2. Maybe wait for that and SLI those? If you want 4k and a good experience you really need SLI 980ti or else, fall back to 1440p. 4k still has some scaling issues outside of gaming. There are good 1440p IPS 144hz displays with Gsync. I don't think there's a single 4k IPS 144hz w/ Gsync monitor out there today. If you go 1440p, 1 980ti is good for 60fps, and grab 2 to try to get 144fps for 144hz.

 

It's possible that dropping the i7 in favor of the i5 Devil's Canyon part would be good because that $100 can go towards the GPU. It's eh. Can go either way I guess.

 

Skylake is in like 2 months? That's another thing to consider. New chipset, dunno about how it overclocks/performance yet.

 

 

Hope I've helped in some way, GL with build.

[SeanAngelo]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($462.00 @ Centre Com) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($165.00 @ Centre Com) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($189.00 @ Umart) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($149.00 @ Umart) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($104.00 @ Centre Com) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($268.00 @ IJK) 

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($97.00 @ Centre Com) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($1099.00 @ CPL Online) 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($159.00 @ CPL Online) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($185.00 @ CPL Online) 

Optical Drive: LG BH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($89.00 @ CPL Online) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM (64-bit)  ($189.00 @ Mwave Australia) 

Total: $3155.00

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 21:06 AEST+1000

[TheCaptain53]

@Antenae, if it's primarily a gaming PC, there's no real need to upgrade to an i7 (and definitely not LGA 2011-3). An i5 will do the job just fine. Also, if you have an i5-3570K, why upgrade the CPU at all? Chuck a watercooler on it and overclock the nuts off of it. If you must have the latest and greatest, I'd say wait for Skylake. You've already got a decent CPU, might as well make two generation jumps as opposed to one.

4K is pretty hard to drive right now at Ultra settings in the latest AAA titles (and for those coming out soon) at 60 fps WITHOUT going SLI, which brings its own drawbacks.
Might I suggest 1440p instead? It's much easier to drive, even I can drive it with a GTX 970, so a GTX 980 Ti won't break a sweat. Pair a GTX 980 Ti with your i5 and you are golden.

If you decide to upgrade to the Devil's Canyon range, there's no real need to go for the top end Maximus boards. Unless it has features that you specifically want, get any old Z97 motherboard. They all support overclocking, they all overclock to more or less the same degree. Those top end boards are really only for REALLY experienced people who want to change VERY FINE details about their overclock to push their chip to the limit. They also support stuff like liquid nitrogen overclock.
An MSI or low end ASUS board will do you just fine.

I would say stick to having the OS on a separate drive. It can make installing programs on different drives a bit of a ballache, but there are a number of benefits to keeping your programs on separate drives. For example, you could wipe the OS drive and just carry over the storage drive to a new PC. Hey presto, your games are already installed (most of the time, your mileage may vary).

You've probably also heard this, but that PSU is pretty overkill. 850W should be enough (don't quote me on this) for two GTX 980 Ti's. A smaller PSU will also give you better efficiency at idle, and be cheaper. An EVGA 750/850 G2 (or the newly released P2) might be a better shout.

Other than that, have fun.

[Solster]

32gb is i bit overkill with current games! Maybe if you have to remder long videos!