Early 2014 build plan

[AlwaysFSX]

Seeing as LTT forums has a lot of people, I like a lot of opinions. Somebody is probably going to point out something that I have looked over and completely change my entire build, hopefully for the better. I will do my best to highlight the important things in case you just want to glaze over the post, it's fairly long.

 

First off, this should be set in motion for building in mid-January to early February. I don't have a specific time to give because everything is up in the air so I'll give you what I know. The total cost of this can not be higher than $2,000 USD, going to see if I can get it higher though just to make sure I have everything covered, I'm starting completely from scratch this time. I'd prefer three monitors simply because of the fact that I need more desktop space, I'm sick of having to minimize and maximize windows just to do several things at once, it's frustrating. Being that it's a gaming oriented build I only plan to use one of the monitors for serious gaming, all three if the game is not crippling to performance and/or graphics.

 

With all this in mind, here's my build list:

 

To house everything I've chosen the NZXT Source 210 Window. It's perfect for what I want to put inside of it without having unnecessary features like insane amounts of spots for radiators (*cough* 900D *cough*). I'm happy with my Phantom 410 and love NZXT cases (one experience works, right? ) from what I've done inside my own and seeing the rest that they have. I prefer the window because I can see the work that's gone into the build and I want it to look nice and show it off too. Clean looking case, doesn't cost an arm and a leg to house a computer, I like it.

 

For the processor it's the Intel i5-4670k. As a gaming build I see no need to spend $100 more on an i7 because I'm not going to be doing a lot that'll take advantage of all of its features. I would probably feel bad for not being able to use it to it's full potential, letting it sit there partly unused because I'm not an insane video editor D: I've had terrible experiences with AMD processors in the past and would like to stay away from them as best that I can, I honestly think their motherboard lineup is bad too for what you get for the price.

 

The motherboard is the MSI Z87-G45. Has everything I need without being over the top, and it's not $300 either. Red/black color scheme would look nice from my current black/orange/blue/silver/red/pudding brown mess that I've got going on right now. Only complaint is that there isn't a second NIC for future use, but I can always throw in a PCIe card and do that too.

 

Memory is the Kingston HyperX Black series, four sticks of 4 GB at 1600MHz. It matches, I see no need for 1866, and I could always use more ram, I've surprisingly been limited before with my current 8 GB of ram.

I knew something like this would happen. Thank you KieranThePCGuy, 2x8GB sticks would be better. (still Kingston HyperX Black though, looks so nice..)

 

If I'm putting in a 4670k and using it for gaming, what's the point of not overclocking the thing? With that in mind there's the XIGMATEK Dark Knight II cooler. A badass looking air cooler that performs as well as an H100, for half the price. What's there to not love about it?

 

To power everything I've picked the SeaSonic G-750 power supply. It's fully modular, because I despise my cable mess I've got going on. And it's 80 plus gold rated. Enough power for whatever I throw into this computer for now.

 

I need to store things and I like Windows to be fast, very fast. I'm pretty sure that a Samsung EVO 840 120GB ssd can do that for me. So I think there's not much else to be said about it? I have two 1 TB drives I'll be salvaging and I can throw them in a raid and they'll do the job just fine for my purposes.

 

What's there to say about raw horse power other than "Damn" when you've never had it before? Damn. As a graphicsphile I like games to look their best because I want to see what developers can do to make their games look good, and graphics card to show their potential. An ASUS DirectCU II GTX 780 should satisfy my love for insane graphics without need my own nuclear reactor to power it. But this is where I get a little bit iffy. Would it be better to get the 780 now, and pair it up later or wait for Maxwell to come out (with their supposed 6144 CUDA cores on a single GM-110 chip, dear God that would be a monster) and just grab something like a GTX 760 now? I suppose by January well have more solid leaks about Maxwell, or a full blown announcement so there's time to decide. *note* I only plan to game on a single monitor unless the game is not very demanding because this build is expensive enough already, and I really don't care *too* much about triple monitor gaming so I would prefer not to get more graphics horsepower. I know the 780 is very good at 1080p though.

 

Monitors, monitors, monitors. More supported than developers from what I can tell. ASUS VS229H-P. I think the most I can say about this would be "damn" too because colors look so good on it I want to just sit there and stare at it. Desktop real estate is nice, and so are colors. It's an inch and a half smaller than my current monitor but I doubt I could complain if there's three of them. Only problem is that it doesn't support DisplayPort and there's a snowflakes chance in hell I'll use HDMI. Thankfully there's a company called Nippon Labs that makes a DisplayPort to DVI adapter. And it's 10 feet to match my 10 feet DVI cables. Oh the distance I can put my desktop.

 

Since the only thing other than my hard drives I can salvage is my mouse, I need a keyboard. I like the K70 from Corsair but not at $130. I don't like clicky Cherry switches or how awkward they feel either, I've never been an advocate of them before, so I probably won't like them very much now. I do like the look of the K70 however, and for $60 there's the Corsair K30! Yay, a keyboard that does everything I need it to do, has LEDs, macro keys, and types. If only it would make me tea.

 

Since the Source 210 only comes with a single fan, I'm going to need more to get the airflow going and cool everything off. Another nice product Corsair has is their AF140 red LED fans. Matches the build, moves air. I'll take two please.

 

Final price at the time of posting is $1,957 USD.

 

All comments, thoughts, concerns, or ideas are welcome and greatly appreciated. This is likely to be an on-going, ever changing list so this is not finalized up until I hit the purchase button and have everything ordered.

I plan to make a log of my build too, just because I want to be proud of what I've accomplished with it, more than the black/orange/red/silver/pudding brown thing I have right now.

 

tl;dr

(cannot figure out why this is spaced so weird on the preview, hopefully it doesn't do that in the full post) Damn it, it is spaced weird.

• Source 210
• i5 4670k
• 4x4GB Kingston HyperX Black 1600MHz
• MSI Z87-G45
• XIGMATEK Dark Knight II
• SeaSonic G-750
• Samsung EVO 840 120GB
• ASUS DirectCU II GTX 780
• 3x ASUS VS229H-P
• Nippon Labs DisplayPort to DVI cable
• Corsair Raptor K30
• 2x Corsair AF140 red LED

[Altecice]

swap the SSD from an EVO to a PRO.

 

if you plan to play games on all 3 of thoose monitors at 5780x1080p you will be wanting to pick up another 780 (or perhaps swap to AMD 290x's) so you can ultra things with decent FPS. or hang out for 780ti/maxwell its really up to you.

 

except from that it looks great

[AlwaysFSX]

swap the SSD from an EVO to a PRO.

 

if you plan to play games on all 3 of thoose monitors at 5780x1080p you will be wanting to pick up another 780 (or perhaps swap to AMD 290x's) so you can ultra things with decent FPS. or hang out for 780ti/maxwell its really up to you.

 

except from that it looks great

I could swear I put in there that I only plan on gaming on one of the monitors, maybe I'm losing it because I'm sick.

[KieranThePCGuy]

Everything looks good to me, though I would get 2x8GB sticks, this allows for expandability, plus if I'm correct; Put's less strain on the memory controller as you're only using 2 DIMM's.

[KieranThePCGuy]

swap the SSD from an EVO to a PRO.

 

if you plan to play games on all 3 of thoose monitors at 5780x1080p you will be wanting to pick up another 780 (or perhaps swap to AMD 290x's) so you can ultra things with decent FPS. or hang out for 780ti/maxwell its really up to you.

 

except from that it looks great

I personally don't think you will notice a real-world difference between the EVO and PRO. I would say EVO, so you can save a bit of money.

[AlwaysFSX]

I personally don't think you will notice a real-world difference between the EVO and PRO. I would say EVO, so you can save a bit of money.

Considering I'm used to 5400rpm drives and the EVO 120GB is only $100, I won't be too sad from an extra few megabytes of performance. It's really just going to be a boot drive only, with the most used programs loaded onto it which isn't that long of a list in the first place. Steam is going on my two 1 TB drives and I'm perfectly happy with loading times on games if it means I can actually have them all downloaded at once.

[AlwaysFSX]

Everything looks good to me, though I would get 2x8GB sticks, this allows for expandability, plus if I'm correct; Put's less strain on the memory controller as you're only using 2 DIMM's.

Saves like $3 to do that, expand-ability probably isn't too much of a concern so strain on the memory controller would be the most important thing I'd think about. Better idea all around.

[KieranThePCGuy]

Considering I'm used to 5400rpm drives and the EVO 120GB is only $100, I won't be too sad from an extra few megabytes of performance. It's really just going to be a boot drive only, with the most used programs loaded onto it which isn't that long of a list in the first place. Steam is going on my two 1 TB drives and I'm perfectly happy with loading times on games if it means I can actually have them all downloaded at once.

You probably won't notice the difference though, on Benchmarks yes, but real-world no. That is just my opinion. By all means, go for it if you want, but trying to save you money!

[AlwaysFSX]

You probably won't notice the difference though, on Benchmarks yes, but real-world no. That is just my opinion. By all means, go for it if you want, but trying to save you money!

I think I'd be perfectly happen just having an ssd to boot off of, I don't care if it's a dozen megabytes slower or 200, still faster than what I've ever used

[KieranThePCGuy]

Saves like $3 to do that, expand-ability probably isn't too much of a concern so strain on the memory controller would be the most important thing I'd think about. Better idea all around.

I would recommend it. Allows you to expand upto 32GB if needed and if your planning to overclock, the strain on the memory controller using 4 DIMM's could unstablize your CPU reaching for that overclock you've always wanted

 

As you have stated it's a better idea all round, plus it saves you those $3

[KieranThePCGuy]

I think I'd be perfectly happen just having an ssd to boot off of, I don't care if it's a dozen megabytes slower or 200, still faster than what I've ever used

Exactly, my opinion is to go for the EVO, however, it's up to you! You wouldn't notice the real-world difference I don't think. Plus, money is saved.

[AlwaysFSX]

Exactly, my opinion is to go for the EVO, however, it's up to you! You wouldn't notice the real-world difference I don't think. Plus, money is saved.

$30 more for slightly better performance and 8 more gigabytes... Wow. Sticking with the EVO then.

[joppetie]

This is what I'd do if I were you: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Xkg7

You get some great quality components and TWO GTX 770's. For maximum performance.

This means that you'll be able to play almost all of your games in surround. 

[coen113]

swap the SSD from an EVO to a PRO.

 

if you plan to play games on all 3 of thoose monitors at 5780x1080p you will be wanting to pick up another 780 (or perhaps swap to AMD 290x's) so you can ultra things with decent FPS. or hang out for 780ti/maxwell its really up to you.

 

except from that it looks great

i would go 290x. it has great higher resolution horsepower, and is cheaper than a 780 is sli

[AlwaysFSX]

This is what I'd do if I were you: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Xkg7

You get some great quality components and TWO GTX 770's. For maximum performance.

This means that you'll be able to play almost all of your games in surround. 

 

I should note that the 780 is most likely temporary until uber Maxwell cards come out and then I'd be switching to those. I don't intend to game in surround either. Plus since there is a window I'd want the build to be matching, at least for the most part

i would go 290x. it has great higher resolution horsepower, and is cheaper than a 780 is sli

Current cards are about $575ish and I don't want to listen to the noise that card has, or the amount of heat it puts out. I don't plan to sli the 780 either (at least at the moment, maybe I would if the price gets dropped even more) if Maxwell is as insane as leaks are saying to to be (yes I know they need to be taken with a grain of salt too). And if it helps, AMD has really been bad to me with their products in the past, nothing has worked the way it should, guess that's just my luck with them.

[joppetie]

I should note that the 780 is most likely temporary until uber Maxwell cards come out and then I'd be switching to those. I don't intend to game in surround either. Plus since there is a window I'd want the build to be matching, at least for the most part

Current cards are about $575ish and I don't want to listen to the noise that card has, or the amount of heat it puts out. I don't plan to sli the 780 either (at least at the moment, maybe I would if the price gets dropped even more) if Maxwell is as insane as leaks are saying to to be (yes I know they need to be taken with a grain of salt too). And if it helps, AMD has really been bad to me with their products in the past, nothing has worked the way it should, guess that's just my luck with them.

Here you go then: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1XkAe

I've replaced the motherboard, RAM, GPU and heatsink. 

Now the entire build is black/red themed. It should look amazing.

I've replaced the GTX770's with an Asus GTX 780 DCU II card.

It's a bit cheaper too.

[kinkywink]

i would make the budget a few hundred more, drop one of the monitors for now and grab a pair of 780s.

[AlwaysFSX]

i would make the budget a few hundred more, drop one of the monitors for now and grab a pair of 780s.

I'm hoping I can get an extra few hundred dollars to use. 780 is temporary and I really like 3 monitors though. 2 monitors just looks off to me and I can't stand it.

 

Here you go then: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1XkAe

I've replaced the motherboard, RAM, GPU and heatsink. 

Now the entire build is black/red themed. It should look amazing.

I've replaced the GTX770's with an Asus GTX 780 DCU II card.

It's a bit cheaper too.

Maybe it's just me but something is off with that list. Fun thing though, is if you add the DisplayPort to DVI cable that I'll need and two more fans (single exhaust fan just won't cut it), the price is exactly the same.

[kinkywink]

I'm hoping I can get an extra few hundred dollars to use. 780 is temporary and I really like 3 monitors though. 2 monitors just looks off to me and I can't stand it.

 

fair enough,

id suggest single 780 for now and when you can you could get dual and even then if you want you could run a custom loop to keep everything running quite and cool

[AlwaysFSX]

fair enough,

id suggest single 780 for now and when you can you could get dual and even then if you want you could run a custom loop to keep everything running quite and cool

Going to have a massive headache figuring out where to put radiators, the pump, etc. I don't even know the first thing about water cooling either

[kinkywink]

Going to have a massive headache figuring out where to put radiators, the pump, etc. I don't even know the first thing about water cooling either

thats what i call fun  

[AlwaysFSX]

thats what i call fun

I call it fun when I actually know what I'm doing

[kinkywink]

I call it fun when I actually know what I'm doing

fair enough

[AlwaysFSX]

fair enough

Next thing you know I accidentally use gasoline instead of coolant and then my computer turns into napalm...

[WoodenMarker]

Parts and prices change frequently. Things will be quite different by January. Plan later. At most 2-3 days before you buy.