Upgradable, future-proof gaming system

[WarpCow]

Once every six or seven years (yeah I'm old) I set up new gaming PCs for everyone in my household (three), we then upgrade video cards as we go along later on, or put more RAM in. As such we already have cases (I added the case for completionists's sake) as well as video cards. The rest of the PCs will be completely new, embedded in the existing cases and with the existing video cards. But I'd like your opinion on the rest of the setup. I know the power supply might be a bit strong for the current setup, but we're waiting for the DX12 cards to come out and want to be ready. Any suggestions or ideas are greatly welcomed!

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4jD7cf

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($84.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card  ($234.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Core X9 ATX Desktop Case  ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Zx 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card  ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1334.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 05:14 EDT-0400

 

 

Edited March 18, 2016 by WarpCow
Edited PSU

[WereCat]

That PSU is shit .. get soemthing like EVGA G2, B2 or GS. Or something from SuperFlower/Seasonic. Also if you dont plan to have more than one GPU in your system then any PSU above 550W is overkill and unnecessary.

Also I dont recommend buying PC now when new GPUs are to be released soon + GTX 960 paired with i7 isnt a good idea either. R9 380/380x are better cards for the same price or cheaper.

If you dont plan to OC your CPU and want something like i7 better pick Xeon E3 1231 V3 (it doesent have integrated graphics but performance is more or less the same as i7 4770 + it is cheaper).

Since you entered non K CPU in your build and you wont be able to OC it much then why throw Liquid Cooler in there? Just pick up something cheap like 212 EVO and it will do the same job while being a lot cheaper. Dont sacrifice performance just because of looks.

[SaladFingers]

As I often suggest to others, at this point you might want to look at the newer platform (Z170). The prices are pretty close and since you want to "future-proof" them you might as well go with the new generation and DDR4. 

 

Otherwise, I will agree with @WereCat above, you might want to look into better quality PSUs. Go for Gold rating and you can't go wrong.

 

Also, if those PCs are just meant for gaming then perhaps that CPU is a bit overkill, especially combined with the GTX 960. A 4690 would do perfectly fine. Unless of course you plan to upgrade to beefier cards in the future, but an i5 would still be plenty enough.

 

Finally, that motherboard has good on-board sound, as with most motherboards these days. Especially if you just want it for games. You shouldn't go for a discreet soundcard unless you really want top sound quality and for that you would probably need to go after much more expensive cards in the first place. 

 

My personal advice would be to go for an i5 on Z170 (6600K), pick Gold rated PSUs and ditch the soundcards.

[Megazero]

5 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

-snip-

There's alot of thing I want to change with what you are building. Let's start with the basic:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($369.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($138.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($87.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  ($332.45 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1131.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 05:14 EDT-0400

-There's nearly no reason to go back to older generation when you have newer CPU generation available. 
-If you want to do AIO Water cooler, get a 240mm radiator or bigger one, a 120mm radiator will perform about the same as a good air cooler like 212 Evo. Also you choose a non-overclock-able CPU, there's no reason to get a better cooler. In my build I use an overclockable CPU, and even then a 212 Evo is still good enough.
-Why a 500GB SSD? You do realized that games have very little benefit from running on a SSD compare to running on HDD right? Especially if you play online game, since you have to wait for other people anyway so faster load time mean nothing.
-At that budget it's super easy to even get a GTX 970, though I do agree that since newer gen are coming out soon so a 960 for the time being isnt a bad idea. Just put a 970 here so you can see it's easy to put something like that in the build with this budget.
-People hate the CX series of PSU. I personally never use one, but with so many people telling story about it, better safe than sorry and go with a SuperNOVA NEX.

-I'm in no way an audiophile, so I'm not sure about ur audio card's choice. You can ask more about it in the other sub forum, eitherway with 100$ more mine build still fit nicely in your budget.

 

[stealth80]

14 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

Once every six or seven years (yeah I'm old) I set up new gaming PCs for everyone in my household (three), we then upgrade video cards as we go along later on, or put more RAM in. As such we already have cases (I added the case for completionists's sake) as well as video cards. The rest of the PCs will be completely new, embedded in the existing cases and with the existing video cards. But I'd like your opinion on the rest of the setup. I know the power supply might be a bit strong for the current setup, but we're waiting for the DX12 cards to come out and want to be ready. Any suggestions or ideas are greatly welcomed!

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4jD7cf

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($299.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($84.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card  ($234.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Core X9 ATX Desktop Case  ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Zx 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card  ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1334.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 05:14 EDT-0400

 

 

That CPU is already out dated as a newer platform is out as is DDR4. I would try and save a little more $$$ and grab one of the new Broadwell-E cpu's when theyre released later this year along with a stronger card in the Pascal/Polaris range

[WarpCow]

14 minutes ago, Megazero said:

There's alot of thing I want to change with what you are building. Let's start with the basic:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($369.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($138.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($87.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  ($332.45 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1131.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-18 05:14 EDT-0400

-There's nearly no reason to go back to older generation when you have newer CPU generation available. 
-If you want to do AIO Water cooler, get a 240mm radiator or bigger one, a 120mm radiator will perform about the same as a good air cooler like 212 Evo. Also you choose a non-overclock-able CPU, there's no reason to get a better cooler. In my build I use an overclockable CPU, and even then a 212 Evo is still good enough.
-Why a 500GB SSD? You do realized that games have very little benefit from running on a SSD compare to running on HDD right? Especially if you play online game, since you have to wait for other people anyway so faster load time mean nothing.
-At that budget it's super easy to even get a GTX 970, though I do agree that since newer gen are coming out soon so a 960 for the time being isnt a bad idea. Just put a 970 here so you can see it's easy to put something like that in the build with this budget.
-People hate the CX series of PSU. I personally never use one, but with so many people telling story about it, better safe than sorry and go with a SuperNOVA NEX.

-I'm in no way an audiophile, so I'm not sure about ur audio card's choice. You can ask more about it in the other sub forum, eitherway with 100$ more mine build still fit nicely in your budget.

 

 

The main reason I wanted to go with the 500 GB SSD is that we love the bigger games which are quite infamous for loading times and would benefit from the SSD (Witcher, GTA, X-Com 2). Two of us also work from home and require big amounts of data being moved in regular amounts, usually 100-200 GB databases, so the SSD is kind of necessary for us. With the current generation of CPUs I have no experience, so I will gladly go with that suggestion. It does sound like a good setup to me.

 

For WereCat, the main reason I wanted the watercooled CPU was simply because I ran into issues with oversized air-coolers before, looks like they got a lot more efficient in the last few years though, wasn't quite aware of that.

 

Last but not least, the reason for the standalone soundcard was that our onboard soundcards, on all three, broke after 2-3 years. But I could just add one when that happens, so that's a money-saver. Just not certain if the 970 is worth it, when we plan to upgrade in under 12 months once the DX12 cards (the full ones at least) become stable.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions, gave me a lot to think about and plan!

 

Last note, if I'd go with the list as above, any suggestions for a bigger mainboard? Aesthetically I feel a bit irked putting a micro ATX into a case that has a weight of 45 pounds and will be visibly placed, anything with the same performance but a bigger build that's suggestible? In the end, the eye plays too.

[SaladFingers]

6 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

 

The main reason I wanted to go with the 500 GB SSD is that we love the bigger games which are quite infamous for loading times and would benefit from the SSD (Witcher, GTA, X-Com 2). Two of us also work from home and require big amounts of data being moved in regular amounts, usually 100-200 GB databases, so the SSD is kind of necessary for us. With the current generation of CPUs I have no experience, so I will gladly go with that suggestion. It does sound like a good setup to me.

You can't go wrong with that Evo. But if you could do with 256gb instead of 500, that model would be the best value for your money. But I see where you're coming from, I got my 500gb evo *filled* with games and I love it. About the current generation of CPUs, I'd say go for it. The DDR4 will be more expensive, but all the rest will be pretty much the same price, newer and better.

 

6 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

 

For WereCat, the main reason I wanted the watercooled CPU was simply because I ran into issues with oversized air-coolers before, looks like they got a lot more efficient in the last few years though, wasn't quite aware of that.

I would argue that if you want a watercooled solution you should better go after he 240/280mm range. That single radiator can actually be outperformed by good air coolers that will cost you about the same. In the end of the day, both will work.

 

6 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

 

Last but not least, the reason for the standalone soundcard was that our onboard soundcards, on all three, broke after 2-3 years. But I could just add one when that happens, so that's a money-saver. Just not certain if the 970 is worth it, when we plan to upgrade in under 12 months once the DX12 cards (the full ones at least) become stable.

MSI is known for having reliable on-board sound (This specific mobo you picked has the Realtek ALC892 chip that does up to 7.1). I see where you're coming from, but I think you should give it a chance. If it breaks you can always grab a soundcard then, right? Also maybe go for a cheaper card too since you aren't going after audiophile standards. The 970 would be much more fitting with your i7 choice and will definitely perform much better, but the price difference is a bit substantial so it's up to you to fit that int he build. If you don't absolutely want to go with Nvidia, check out the 390 instead. About same price, more memory to play with and a promising future with dx12. Or you could wait for the new generations that are not too far away.

 

6 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

 

Thank you all for your suggestions, gave me a lot to think about and plan!

Brainstorming your build is one of the best things! Have fun

[Megazero]

29 minutes ago, WarpCow said:

 

The main reason I wanted to go with the 500 GB SSD is that we love the bigger games which are quite infamous for loading times and would benefit from the SSD (Witcher, GTA, X-Com 2). Two of us also work from home and require big amounts of data being moved in regular amounts, usually 100-200 GB databases, so the SSD is kind of necessary for us. With the current generation of CPUs I have no experience, so I will gladly go with that suggestion. It does sound like a good setup to me.

 

For WereCat, the main reason I wanted the watercooled CPU was simply because I ran into issues with oversized air-coolers before, looks like they got a lot more efficient in the last few years though, wasn't quite aware of that.

 

Last but not least, the reason for the standalone soundcard was that our onboard soundcards, on all three, broke after 2-3 years. But I could just add one when that happens, so that's a money-saver. Just not certain if the 970 is worth it, when we plan to upgrade in under 12 months once the DX12 cards (the full ones at least) become stable.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions, gave me a lot to think about and plan!

 

Last note, if I'd go with the list as above, any suggestions for a bigger mainboard? Aesthetically I feel a bit irked putting a micro ATX into a case that has a weight of 45 pounds and will be visibly placed, anything with the same performance but a bigger build that's suggestible? In the end, the eye plays too.

AH SHIT! I didnt look too careful when I pick that board  I would never recommend a micro ATX board for most gaming build.I would recommend either of these 2: 
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170xgaming3
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z170agamingpro

The MSI board basically have 1 more SATA port, and they are different in term of on board sound card/Ethernet card etc but they are all minor detail. Both support SLI, not that I ever recommend it, but good to have anyway. Go with whichever you like.