76 replies to this topic

[Musashi IX]

Hey folks, I'm building my first gaming pc. It will be used for mostly gaming and a bit of sound design. I've got my pcpartpicker list ready to buy and have been trying to do some research to make sure i'll be good and i'm not buying something excessive. I do have help on the build process i'm just trying to make sure i get the right parts for me. I'm pretty brand stupid in this department so don't flame me for any "F THAT BRAND" decisions I picked most of the parts from price range and available functions and what i assume is not some janky parts from reviews and such.


My budget is around 1,500usd. My main focus is for a killer cpu and video card that i can keep around for a few years, and keeping the sucker cold through long play times (dont plan on immediately OCing stuff, and when i do can upgrade the cooling)

Immediate upgrades in a few months would be an SSD, and another video card to SLI.

My biggest questions are how much headroom should i give my system for its power supply? I don't want to buy a 1200 pw if im using a quarter of it lol. I've got a EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply on there now and the build states 372w. Keep in account the addition of another video card as well as an ssd(500gb) and maybe another hdd (2tb) to my power supply needs, but again here im pretty clueless.

And the Motherboard? I want something solid and expandable (sli capable with spare slot or two) but i don't need a bunch of extra frills whatever they may be (unless i do!) I also want the option of being able to OC it in the future. I have a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard selected.

For my card I chose the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card. I do plan on running 2 cards in the future. I picked this card from checking out furmark scores and It seemed to be a pretty strong contender. I want something that's going to make new graphically demanding games its *****. I'm willing to spend around $500-600 here and i want a powerhouse!

Case wise I just wanted something roomy with some feet to keep it off of the ground for some under airflow. Not looking to spend a lot here but I don't want to buy a brand with janky production value. NZXT H630 (White) ATX Full Tower Case is what i grabbed for it look and price range.Is NZXT a decent build quality?

Also had a question on Ram, ddr3 1600 vs 1866. Worth it to just go for 1866 for a bit of future proofing (if there even is a thing in the pc world) or no.. G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

And for the cpu cooler I plan on upgrading to liquid (H100ti) once it's oc'd and sli'd and all that jazz in the future I just want something that's definitely going to keep me frosty.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KNKR8d

I also had a question about cable, Do most of these components generally come with the needed hardware/cabling to connect them where they need to go? I've also got a lot of thin strip velcro I plan to use for cable and keeping things as tidy as a rookie can. Are their any other pieces of hardware or clips, ties or tips that help with the process?

Thanks in advance and I apologize for my pc derpness.

[Flapdrol]

Musashi IX, on 13 May 2015 - 10:27 PM, said:

I picked this card from checking out furmark scores

Furmark is meaningless. I'd look at game tests.

I find the price of the 980 hard to justify considering it's only 20% faster than a 970, but costs 60% more.

Also, amd will probably launch a new powerhouse soon, and nvidia will launch a cheaper version of the titan X, so maybe you want one of those.

If you want to do liquid cooling eventually, why not do it now?

[Xeraphale]

If you're looking to keep your PC for a (relatively) long time then I'd suggest the ASUS Sabretooth Mark 1. It's marketed as a hard wearing Mobo and it has a plastic sheathe over it to protect it from dust build up. It has space for up to two graphics cards (well, three technically but the performance drop off on the third doesn't make it worth doing).

As for the graphics card, a GTX970 will do and save you a lot of money and if you're 2-way SLI'ing it then two 970s blows away a single 980. I recently upgraded to a GTX 970 and get frame rates of well over 100fps when idle, dropping to the mid 70s in action. All settings are at their highest levels.

Lastly, the case. If all you're fitting in is one or two graphics cards, you're probably not going to need a full tower case. A mid tower case should be airy and large enough. Get one with a metric ton of fans if you're hell bent on keeping everything cool. I have an old Antec Nine Hundred and while it is a little loud, it keeps everything nice and frosty. I play mostly with a headset, so the extra noise doesn't bother me. Additionally, the Sabretooth Mark 1 Mobo also has an extra two fans on it, if you wish to install them to keep the CPU cooler.


As for RAM, it's all about speed vs cost. 1600 is probably at the best performance for price and I have that, but if you're intending doing anything other than gaming it is probably worth getting whatever you can afford. That said, if you're finding that your PC doesn't run fast enough, it's always better to get more RAM rather than upping the speed of it. The amount of money you save buying a GTX970 rather than a 980 would mean you can double your RAM.

Hope that all helps

EDIT: Forgot to comment on the power supply... The current Nvidia cards aren't a massive power hog but I would advocate getting a nice, large power supply in case of expanding the PC and ensuring against future Overclocks and power spikes. Also, you may want to use it on another build in the future and you never know how much power a new build will need!
You will get all of the cables you will need with the motherboard and the power supply, or at least you should.

Also, I don't want to scare you but if a liquid cooler leaks, it will wreck your CPU and Mobo. I've had this happen to me and it was a nightmare! I will be steering well clear from them in the future. The extra cooling it not worth the risk as far as I am concerned.

Edited by Xeraphale, 14 May 2015 - 04:00 AM.

[xWiredx]

AMD's new 390X card will be launched on June 24. Will it actually be available to purchase then? We don't know. Something to consider, though.

Since SLI support is not quite up to par in MWO (though it does TECHNICALLY work) and other recent games are also showing lacking SLI support in one way or another (and I mean some AAA titles even), it is hard to recommend SLI for near-future gaming. I have a GTX 980 and I love it so if it's in your budget now then go for it. If you can think of other places to spend that money, just get a GTX 970 and wait to upgrade when a newer generation with a significant performance leap forward comes out.

Water cooling? Do it during your initial build. It's a pain in the ass to have to half tear apart your system to install and leak test after it's already been built and running for months. If that's an AIO you mentioned, you're still going to have to take everything out to affix the backplate and all that so they're not that much easier to deal with.

Gigabyte motherboard? Go somewhere else. I have one of their higher-end X99 launch boards. The UEFI interface they use kind of sucks, their BIOSes are generally more unstable until several iterations later, if you have any trouble their customer support/technical support is god-awful, the list just keeps going. Cannot unrecommend them enough when it comes to motherboards. Get an ASUS board. I wish I would have stuck with them this time around, but the cost and availability dictated my poor choice.

RAM speed/amount: once you hit 8GB you're probably fine. You can go with 16GB to be safe since DDR3 is cheap if you can find the extra money. If not, easy future add-on. Upping the speed isn't really necessary beyond 1866 for gaming or audio production. Trust me, quad-channel DDR4 performs no better than dual-channel DDR3 in these areas.

Edited by xWiredx, 14 May 2015 - 05:14 AM.

[Lord Letto]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($316.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($5.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($197.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($544.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($106.48 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair CO-9050014-WW 62.7 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1541.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 11:35 EDT-0400

[Musashi IX]

Flapdrol, on 14 May 2015 - 01:16 AM, said:

Also, amd will probably launch a new powerhouse soon, and nvidia will launch a cheaper version of the titan X, so maybe you want one of those.

If you want to do liquid cooling eventually, why not do it now?

Any idea on an estimated price range for the cheap titan X? If it comes down to like $700~ ish I may just go that route.
As for the liquid cooling, It just makes me nervous being a pc building noob lol,

Xeraphale, on 14 May 2015 - 03:55 AM, said:

If you're looking to keep your PC for a (relatively) long time then I'd suggest the ASUS Sabretooth Mark 1. It's marketed as a hard wearing Mobo and it has a plastic sheathe over it to protect it from dust build up.

As for the graphics card, a GTX970 will do and save you a lot of money and if you're 2-way SLI'ing it then two 970s blows away a single 980.

Thanks for the mobo suggestion! That Sabertooth looks great and I do like all the cooling features its got, looks like this will be the one I also had the Idea for going 970 SLI vs a 980, but I've got the budget to grab another 980 in a month or three down the road, and wouldn't twin 980's be sexy?

xWiredx, on 14 May 2015 - 05:09 AM, said:

AMD's new 390X card will be launched on June 24. Will it actually be available to purchase then? We don't know. Something to consider, though.

Since SLI support is not quite up to par in MWO (though it does TECHNICALLY work) and other recent games are also showing lacking SLI support in one way or another (and I mean some AAA titles even), it is hard to recommend SLI for near-future gaming. I have a GTX 980 and I love it so if it's in your budget now then go for it. If you can think of other places to spend that money, just get a GTX 970 and wait to upgrade when a newer generation with a significant performance leap forward comes out.

Well damn....That 390x looks to be pretty impressive! Available with its own built in liquid cooler, and some pretty gnarly looking benchmarks, (taken with a grain of salt as always) this may force me to wait a bit to get this sucker built. Or maybe the new gtx980ti 8gb? I read that the 980ti is stated to have 90% of performance of a Titan X at 66% of cost. Decisions, decisions. With these new titled powerhouses coming out very soon I may just go a single 970 to get my game on now and to give me some budget room for some new gen stuff perhaps twin 390x or 980ti action down the road.

xWiredx, on 14 May 2015 - 05:09 AM, said:

Water cooling? Do it during your initial build. It's a pain in the ass to have to half tear apart your system to install and leak test after it's already been built and running for months. If that's an AIO you mentioned, you're still going to have to take everything out to affix the backplate and all that so they're not that much easier to deal with.

Ya i was just thinking about the process of making the switch from air to liquid and not to excited about it, I just don't want to **** anything up being my first time, but it seems I should just grow a pair and go liquid of the bat.

xWiredx, on 14 May 2015 - 05:09 AM, said:

Gigabyte motherboard? Go somewhere else. I have one of their higher-end X99 launch boards. The UEFI interface they use kind of sucks, their BIOSes are generally more unstable until several iterations later, if you have any trouble their customer support/technical support is god-awful, the list just keeps going. Cannot unrecommend them enough when it comes to motherboards. Get an ASUS board. I wish I would have stuck with them this time around, but the cost and availability dictated my poor choice.

Hey thanks for the heads up on Gigabyte, I'm aiming for the Asus Sabertooth mk1 for now, Asus seems to have a pretty good reputation.

As for the RAM point I think ill aim for 8gb of 1866 ddr3 and grab another 8 of it later.

Awesome, I appreciate the input guys keep it comin!

As for now here's an updated build, I think I've decided on grabbing a 970 for now, and grabbing a 390x, 980ti or perhaps some Titan variant if it manages to be in the same price range in the future ($700 or so) and of course 2 way Sli in the future.

I upgraded the mobo, swapped to liquid cooling, dropped down to a 970 and swapped to a mid tower and shaved some fat off the power supply, kept my price range around 1500. Still tempted to just say F it drop another 200 and grab a 980....Decisions decisions.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bBGzxr

Thanks again!

Edited by Musashi IX, 14 May 2015 - 09:09 AM.

[Roaxis Stalomainis]

Lord Letto, on 14 May 2015 - 07:35 AM, said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($316.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($5.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($197.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($544.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($106.48 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair CO-9050014-WW 62.7 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1541.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 11:35 EDT-0400

Ok, I would like to point this out here and now about this build. It's going to have overheating issues, especially if it's running during summer weather. If you would like to overclock your i7-4790k for optimal efficiency, you will need a 240mm water cooler for your desktop for sure. I am running a 120mm water cooler with a GTX 980 all in a mid-size tower and it hits about 60c while playing games at 4.4GHz with proper airflow and ventilation. While a good motherboard and CPU were chosen for this build, I would actually lower the ram to PC1866 G.Skill Sniper or RipjawsX series ram instead due to the fact that anything over PC1866 is for more professional use such as programming and rendering graphics via Maya or 3DS Max. The power supply really doesn't matter too much, but stick with a fully modular power supply so long as your PC has extra power to Overclock with (so having extra is actually better). As for storage, stay away from Western Digital blues and get a WD Black Series 7200rpm HDD. The performance will be better overall and you get a longer warranty in addition (WD Blue has a 3 year warranty, WD Black has a 5 year Warranty). Although Seagate makes excellent Hard Drives as well, so the option is yours when it comes down to storage. If you would like, you could combine all of this with a SSD and setup a Raid 0 configuration for your SSD so a mirror backup is always readily available if your SSD Fails and keep the rest of the hard drive space on a separate volume for storing games and high read/write programs that are non-essential to your Operating System. Also, I would look at getting a Rosewill Thor V2 case instead of that Corsair Case, while it's higher in price, it has superior cooling efficiency in comparison and gives your that "classy" feel. The only other thing I would do is change Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional instead so that your RAM cap is lifted to 128TB and you can exceed 16GB if you feel the need to do so.

If you want a quick and cheap computer, you can go with this build and have no worries about cooling, power, and expansion space. It uses a Mid-Size tower and sports an ASUS Mobo and GTX 960 GPU for cost efficency, for about $400 more you can go up to an i7-4790k with a GTX 970 in addition to an Endermax 240mm water cooling system (it will have to be top mounted). Also, the extra fans are necessary, these fans are amazing and keep your system under a constant high pressure airflow (do your math before ordering any equipment, this was a pre-build template that needs customization). Everyone has their own unique style, just make sure you don't feel like your lacking anything when your build your PC.

My public wishlist
http://secure.newegg...Number=24236611

[xWiredx]

For cooling reference, I use a Corsair H105 with MX-4 thermal compound. Temps are great. This exact setup would be an easy initial install, too.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Eh i think your overspending in areas you don't need to be.

Any mid range board that supports SLI/Crossfire will be fine, there's no reason to waste money on top end for features you won't notice or use.
As to CPU's there isn't much more to squeeze out of per core performance CPU's and for what you going to do an I7 isn't worth the added cost at this price level.

Your 750W Gold power supply is plenty for an Nvidia SLI based system

As to the water cooler, don't but a corsair AIO too restrictive and you can't see the fluid level.



Edited - I misread the OP

Edited by DV McKenna, 14 May 2015 - 09:42 AM.

[Musashi IX]

Thanks for the HDD tips Roaxis! Swapped over to a black series HDD for the warranty (i tend to need them with my luck) I'm not sure what intention Lord Letto had in posting that build its not mine, probably just his suggestion, but i'm aiming for 8gb 1866 ddr3 ram. And on the fans, once i've got the thing put together I plan on cramming in as many fans as i can fit/power.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($91.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK 1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($231.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.75 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($343.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case ($117.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($106.48 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 39.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($24.15 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1466.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 13:30 EDT-0400

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Musashi IX, on 14 May 2015 - 09:32 AM, said:

Thanks for the HDD tips Roaxis! Swapped over to a black series HDD for the warranty (i tend to need them with my luck) I'm not sure what intention Lord Letto had in posting that build its not mine, probably just his suggestion, but i'm aiming for 8gb 1866 ddr3 ram. And on the fans, once i've got the thing put together I plan on cramming in as many fans as i can fit/power.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($91.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK 1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($231.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.75 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($343.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case ($117.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($106.48 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 39.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($24.15 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1466.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 13:30 EDT-0400

Again, your overspending on the board, buying a more expensive PSU that you don't need that could go towards shooting higher than the 970 that's going to actually effect your FPS in games where as that extra $100 on the board isn't.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($316.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($83.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($112.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($68.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($532.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1492.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 13:48 EDT-0400

If you can go slightly above $1500 or if prices drop/rebates whatever, i would replace the Corsair 100I with the swiftech 240X

Edited by DV McKenna, 14 May 2015 - 09:48 AM.

[Musashi IX]

DV McKenna, on 14 May 2015 - 09:26 AM, said:

Eh i think your overspending in areas you don't need to be.

Any mid range board that supports SLI/Crossfire will be fine, there's no reason to waste money on top end for features you won't notice or use.
As to CPU's there isn't much more to squeeze out of per core performance CPU's and for what you going to do an I7 isn't worth the added cost at this price level.

Your 750W Gold power supply is plenty for an Nvidia SLI based system

As to the water cooler, don't but a corsair AIO too restrictive and you can't see the fluid level.

for $1500 i would go for something like either of these

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yzpYBm

Reasoning, it'll play any game today and in the up coming future it'll work for your sound work as well, the Swiftech unit is miles ahead of corsair and allows upgrades and expansions, you can expand this unit into a full water setup adding GPU loops etc etc.
The board will allow you upgrade paths into Broadwell (probably not worth it based on initial benches)

Or

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B9RXBm

Gives you the I7 you want (albeit not necessary) and a single GTX 980 with room for a second later, you have $90 to pick any case you wish and would keep your existing perfectly fine PSU.

Thanks for the builds man! I like the 2nd one a lot my reason being I really want an I7, I run a lot of programs outside of gaming that benefit from the extra cores of an I7

As for the Mobo, this is an area where i'm pretty ignorant, I'm not sure what range our quality would fit me, I want something i can sink upgrades into for the next few years but dont want to be putting a Ferrari engine in a Honda.

[Roaxis Stalomainis]

DV McKenna, on 14 May 2015 - 09:26 AM, said:

Eh i think your overspending in areas you don't need to be.

Any mid range board that supports SLI/Crossfire will be fine, there's no reason to waste money on top end for features you won't notice or use.
As to CPU's there isn't much more to squeeze out of per core performance CPU's and for what you going to do an I7 isn't worth the added cost at this price level.

Your 750W Gold power supply is plenty for an Nvidia SLI based system

As to the water cooler, don't but a corsair AIO too restrictive and you can't see the fluid level.

for $1500 i would go for something like either of these

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yzpYBm

Reasoning, it'll play any game today and in the up coming future it'll work for your sound work as well, the Swiftech unit is miles ahead of corsair and allows upgrades and expansions, you can expand this unit into a full water setup adding GPU loops etc etc.
The board will allow you upgrade paths into Broadwell (probably not worth it based on initial benches)

Or

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B9RXBm

Gives you the I7 you want (albeit not necessary) and a single GTX 980 with room for a second later, you have $90 to pick any case you wish and would keep your existing perfectly fine PSU.

I know about the water cooler, but keep in mind that I mentioned it's a pre-built template for others to use. There is actually a high air pressure version of my current build that I can implement easily and ultimately lower the overall cost for cooling and circumvent using water cooling at all. Also, this Mobo does the job for gaming, so it works alright. I've also been doing my homework on broadwell and it's actually geared towards more mobile/tablet performance than desktop performance, my concern is going to be the TMI of the broadwell series. I will also recommend avoiding a GTX 980 for now, they're having issues with games such as MWO for unknown reasons that even PGI has yet to figure out (although the stability of the client has improved, the performance can drop significantly in certain situations). The 970 I've heard have less problems on the firmware and api side of gameplay.

Edit: Whoops, thought that was directed at me, but with my case you will actually loose 2 to 3 HDD Slots if you install a GTX 980, I can take a pic of mine for you if you'd like so you can see what I'm talking about and recommended going with a full size Thor v2.

Edited by Roaxis Stalomainis, 14 May 2015 - 09:44 AM.

[Musashi IX]

DV McKenna, on 14 May 2015 - 09:38 AM, said:

Again, your overspending on the board, buying a more expensive PSU that you don't need that could go towards shooting higher than the 970 that's going to actually effect your FPS in games where as that extra $100 on the board isn't.

So what price range would you suggest aiming for a mobo? (Didn't notice your listed $110 ish mobo) And i don't understand are you saying buy a stronger PSU since im planing on another card in the future? like a 1000w or?

Thanks again for the help!

And I think after all this I'm going for a EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card for now and aim to grab a x390 or 980ti or something of the sort once its been released and some worms worked out of it.

Edited by Musashi IX, 14 May 2015 - 09:52 AM.

[Roaxis Stalomainis]

DV McKenna, on 14 May 2015 - 09:38 AM, said:

Again, your overspending on the board, buying a more expensive PSU that you don't need that could go towards shooting higher than the 970 that's going to actually effect your FPS in games where as that extra $100 on the board isn't.

Trust me, I own a 980 and can say that if you OC a 970 from ether EVGA or Zotac you will get similar performance for only a fraction of the price. I went with an 850w Power Supply myself because I do a lot of VMware work, so that's why there was PC 2400 ram on the build list... which is still cheaper than the 1866 Sniper series ram believe it or not.

Musashi IX, on 14 May 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

So what price range would you suggest aiming for a mobo? And i don't understand are you saying buy a stronger PSU since im planing on another card in the future? like a 1000w or?

Thanks again for the help!

And I think after all this I'm going for a EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card for now and aim to grab a x390 or 980ti or something of the sort once its been released and some worms worked out of it.

You can go either 750w or 850w no problem, but I would recommend either buying a gold or platinum efficiency modular power supply. Corsair and XFX make excellent PSU's and are worth the investment because when you're ready for a system upgrade the PSU will still be valid, unless there is a major change in the form factor of the motherboard itself. Not to mention that you can shave a few bucks off the power bill in the long run per year in comparison to a cheaper PSU. Also, for your video card power you need to automatically multiply your power consumption by 2 for your GPU's, while they may not run that high, it gives you a good idea as to where your threshold for power tolerance is going to be at.

As for the GPU, go for it! That's actually a pretty good deal if you ask me. While the price is on the higher end of the spectrum you will have more than enough clerance to install a GPU in the Cougar Mid Size tower that I mentioned. If I could fit this beast in it, then you can easily fit that 970 in here to boot.

*link to my GPU*
http://pcpartpicker....card-zt9020310p

Edited by Roaxis Stalomainis, 14 May 2015 - 10:01 AM.

[xWiredx]

DV McKenna, on 14 May 2015 - 09:26 AM, said:

Eh i think your overspending in areas you don't need to be.

Any mid range board that supports SLI/Crossfire will be fine, there's no reason to waste money on top end for features you won't notice or use.
As to CPU's there isn't much more to squeeze out of per core performance CPU's and for what you going to do an I7 isn't worth the added cost at this price level.

Your 750W Gold power supply is plenty for an Nvidia SLI based system

As to the water cooler, don't but a corsair AIO too restrictive and you can't see the fluid level.

for $1500 i would go for something like either of these

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yzpYBm

Reasoning, it'll play any game today and in the up coming future it'll work for your sound work as well, the Swiftech unit is miles ahead of corsair and allows upgrades and expansions, you can expand this unit into a full water setup adding GPU loops etc etc.
The board will allow you upgrade paths into Broadwell (probably not worth it based on initial benches)

Or

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B9RXBm

Gives you the I7 you want (albeit not necessary) and a single GTX 980 with room for a second later, you have $90 to pick any case you wish and would keep your existing perfectly fine PSU.

I disagree with most of this.

A top-end board may have features OP may not use, but has OP said he cannot and will not? No. It wasn't in his original approach, but that doesn't mean he won't be taking those features into account now. Higher-end boards also have other advantages to think about, like better placement of certain items, easier use of similar/same utilities found on other boards but are difficult to use/access, better quality components, etc.

Not much to add to per-core CPU performance? Um, overclocking does exactly that. A 10% OC is a 10% theoretical performance boost. It probably really equals about 7-8%. Having 4 cores running at 4.6GhZ, though, instead of having turbo dictate that one core can go to 4.4GhZ while the rest stay stock is a pretty big advantage, though. OP's final overclock will dictate how much he actually adds.

A full custom loop is always the best option here. A Corsair AIO (or any AIO) is not a bad thing, though. Their effectiveness has been well-proven by now. For users that are too skiddish to build a full custom loop, don't have the know-how, or simply don't want to deal with the maintenance (that's me!), they're a good alternative. AIOs are closed-loop and use propylene glycol, do not require the cleaning of gunk or fluid replacement. Knowing the fluid level is not much of a concern here.

Broadwell may be worth it as an initial purchase (by that, I mean wait to build until it arrives, but dont buy a Haswell chip now and then crossgrade to a Broadwell one in a few months). if OP doesn't feel like waiting what could be at least a couple of months if not more, then no need to even think about Broadwell.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Musashi IX, on 14 May 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

So what price range would you suggest aiming for a mobo? And i don't understand are you saying buy a stronger PSU since im planing on another card in the future? like a 1000w or?

Thanks again for the help!

And I think after all this I'm going for a EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card for now and aim to grab a x390 or 980ti or something of the sort once its been released and some worms worked out of it.

Sorry i should have phrased that better the PSU part was directed at buying the 750W XFX PSU which while a good unit, is over priced when the EVGA unit is just as well reviewed and liked at a lower price.

Roaxis Stalomainis, on 14 May 2015 - 09:49 AM, said:

Trust me, I own a 980 and can say that if you OC a 970 from ether EVGA or Zotac you will get similar performance for only a fraction of the price. I went with an 850w Power Supply myself because I do a lot of VMware work, so that's why there was PC 2400 ram on the build list... which is still cheaper than the 1866 Sniper series ram believe it or not.

The problem with the 970 is in his future plans to SLI (unless he replaces the 970 altogether) the 3.5GB 512Mb divide will be an issue at SLI level in later games that require more VRAM ( up until DX12 if the VRAM sharing works well)

The 980 if he continues to plan to SLI will have the full 4GB taking away an issue in the minefield that multi GPU can be.

(Personally i would wait for the 980TI if he can)

[Musashi IX]

Roaxis Stalomainis, on 14 May 2015 - 09:49 AM, said:

Trust me, I own a 980 and can say that if you OC a 970 from ether EVGA or Zotac you will get similar performance for only a fraction of the price.

That's what I'm thinking, Grab a clocked evga 970 to get 980 like performance for a good price to give me a better budget cushion down the road for one of the new bad boys coming out in june

[xWiredx]

As the resident PSU junkie, I recommend that you investigate whether a PSU you're looking to buy is OEMed from Seasonic or SuperFlower. If not, I'd probably skip it. Look on Jonnyguru's site for a review of a PSU if you're on the bench.

If you want to get hardcore with your overclock, a power conditioner and top-notch Seasonic PSU are my personal recommendations. Every little bit of ripple you can eliminate is worth it (my Yamaha monitors also agree that the power conditioner is a lovely addition to the circuit).

[Oderint dum Metuant]

xWiredx, on 14 May 2015 - 09:50 AM, said:

I disagree with most of this.

A top-end board may have features OP may not use, but has OP said he cannot and will not? No. It wasn't in his original approach, but that doesn't mean he won't be taking those features into account now. Higher-end boards also have other advantages to think about, like better placement of certain items, easier use of similar/same utilities found on other boards but are difficult to use/access, better quality components, etc.

It's great to justify personal purchases everyone does it, but this is a $1500 build not a DDR4 expensive setup, the more expensive board nets him no more notable performance in gaming or his work than a mid range board with the right feature setup his budget should towards the performance not the nicety spending $230 on a motherboard that isnt X99 or socket 2011 is...silly at best.

Quote

Not much to add to per-core CPU performance? Um, overclocking does exactly that. A 10% OC is a 10% theoretical performance boost. It probably really equals about 7-8%. Having 4 cores running at 4.6GhZ, though, instead of having turbo dictate that one core can go to 4.4GhZ while the rest stay stock is a pretty big advantage, though. OP's final overclock will dictate how much he actually adds.

Im talking in terms of updates to Intels arches, looking at the IPC change from Sandybridge to now isn't particularly impressive and until new processes for CPU's are used it isn't going to magically change, the difference between an I5 and I7 in gaming terms is minimal.

Quote

A full custom loop is always the best option here. A Corsair AIO (or any AIO) is not a bad thing, though. Their effectiveness has been well-proven by now. For users that are too skiddish to build a full custom loop, don't have the know-how, or simply don't want to deal with the maintenance (that's me!), they're a good alternative. AIOs are closed-loop and use propylene glycol, do not require the cleaning of gunk or fluid replacement. Knowing the fluid level is not much of a concern here.

Even the custom AIO's from Swifttech and Raijintek use glycol based cooling solutions, they still evaporate in the tubing over time and still require maintence difference here is with the corsair versions (and others) you'll never know.

Quote

Broadwell may be worth it as an initial purchase (by that, I mean wait to build until it arrives, but dont buy a Haswell chip now and then crossgrade to a Broadwell one in a few months). if OP doesn't feel like waiting what could be at least a couple of months if not more, then no need to even think about Broadwell.

Broadwell is an option later down the line (and unlikely to be worth it) but still an option. But he's unlikely to wait till skylake so still worth mentioning as an option.