Gaming PC build, what do you think ?

Intel Core i7 4790 3.6Ghz
Noctua NH-L9i
Gigabyte GA-H81M-D2V
G.Skill Ripjaws-X 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
MSI GTX970 GAMING 4GB OC
Western Digital Caviar Black
Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
LG DVD Burner 24X
Corsair 600W Active
Antec GX500

What do you guys think ? I'm planning on buying this soon.​

Some questions :

- Is the motherboard compatible with the CPU ?
- Should i pick another RAM ? corsair / Kingston ?
- Which one is better the MSI GTX 970 OC or the Gigabyte GTX 970 ?
- Should i go with a core i5 4960 and improve the RAM / Case , etc.. ?
- Which OS do you guys recommend for gaming ? ( ubuntu , win 7, win 8.1 )

 

Is this your maximum price out tap out or do you have a little room? What do you plan on doing with this computer? Do you plan on overclocking at some point? A little more detail on what the computer is for could help us out.

I personally would get a better motherboard so you have room for expansion later - AND so you have more room for SATA 6.0 expansion.

That 120GB SSD is going to get filled very quick - you'll realize that soon. So you would either be wanting another for expansion or extra stuff.

Case is a matter of personal opinion and everyone has their own. I personally love a full dark case that is heavy, and almost dead-silent. I have a Fractal Design XL R2 (although the R4 is more than adequate - the R2 is MASSIVE). They tend to be more expensive, but they are quiet.

 

Shits all over my pc.

Depends what you want to do with it thought, thats a hardcore gaming machine. i dont really progress any further into gaming than DayZ.

Still that will be a naise machine.

 

Fantastic fantastic build. I personally prefer the MSI cards due to the brand, but the windforce coolers are top of the line with the gigabyte brand.
Ram is good, g skill is a great brand with great reliability and stability.
If you're willing to step down to an i5, then you may as well. Even an i5 4960 is overkill for gaming.
Definitely go with windows 8.1. The performance benefits are so great its simply not worth looking elsewhere. Install classic shell, and it will be no different than the windows 7 layout, just with the added performance of 8.1's drive and RAM usage optimization that makes it so much faster.

If you're set on building with somewhat higher end hardware, my recommendation would be to ditch the mobo, ram, and CPU and go to the x99 platform, and then pick up some ddr4 ram instead. Slightly higher in price overall, but this is the most current technology. Z87/97 is still very potet stuff though, and for the cost, the performance gains are still not incredible yet. As things develop and utilize the added bandwidth capabilities that the x99 platform offers though, that gap in performance will widen measurably.

 

Great build overall, i'd change the motherboard with only 4 dimms that's outdated in itself.

I'd also change the CPU fan, Hyper 212's are much cheaper and you can better spend the $30 difference elsewhere.

 

I do not plan on overclocking the PC , that's about as high as i can go unfortunately , this PC is mainly for gaming and i would want it to last for the next 4 + years ^_^

I don't think i will be using the SSD for anything else other than windows itself so i don't think that would be a problem .

I picked this case because it's cheap and it has plenty of room for more fans and for the huge GPU .

x99 and the ddr4 are way out of my league .
I might step down to the i5 if the difference is not that huge .

Could you recommend another motherboard ? and also link me the cooler you're talking about , i've seen some coolers that are huge and sometimes touch your RAM sticks and etc..

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...STMATCH&Description=hyper+212&N=-1&isNodeId=1

those are the hyper 212's, you can find them elsewhere online for $15-20, i have the hyper212 in my case and it fits fine nowhere near my ram or GPU. If you don't plan on OC'ing that cooler is probably fine, intel's tend to run cooler anyway.

As for motherboards in that price range i'd always go for Asus thats my personal preference.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132076

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130695

 

Ok , i took some of your guys suggestions and i came up with this build :




Either this one or i'm going to switch to the i5 4960 , can't decide =[
Which one do you think will preform better ?

 

Umm... Are you buying both of those graphics cards or only one? I'm assuming only one, but I see both there. ^^ If both, you'll need to jump that PSU I think.

The i7 will perform better overall, but I am not sure if it will make a significant difference with games... I haven't ever really maxed out my CPU (i5-3570K) yet over my GPU being limited - but I have a placeholder GPU (GTX 760). However, I also have the ability to overclock my CPU if I may need to in the future.

 

I would suggest the i7 4770k above the one you have chosen. The 4770k has higher benchmarks and is open for overclocking. Probably worth the $40-ish price increase.

Though, for strictly gaming terms, i5's do just fine. My i5 3570k is still running perfectly fine and if need be I can OC it any time

 

Your processor + GPU build looks solid for medium-high end gaming.

I would always prefer Corsair 4x2 over any 8 Gig ram.

Also go for Win 7 or 8.1 instead of Linux, Ubuntu.

 

Just one the Gigabyte ^_^
I'm still wondering if i should go with the 4770 ( non k ) because i don't have a motherboard which allows OC'ing.

I don't have a motherboard for OC'ing so i think i will go either with the i7 4770 or the i5 4960 .

It depends on which motherboard i'll take , 4x2 is faster but if i get the 1x8 i can upgrade in the future with no prob .

 

I would say use Windows 7 for os

 

Ok guys, i have decided to switch from the i7 to the i5 4690k and OC it .

This is the new build :



What do you guys think ? i hope i can get a stable 4.4 + Ghz and would be better than the i7 imo .

 

thats the EXACT build i JUST made YESTERDAY

Runs amazing. Only difference between mine and yours is that i got the Hyper 212 Evo because the Noctua was too big for my case, i also got the EVGA version of the gtx 970 because Micro center price matched newegg.

You probably wont even need to OC, most games are GPU intense and the 970 is amazing.

literally got the same Mobo, GPU, CPU, DVD drive, HDD, SSD

 

illuminati confirmed :laugh:

I took the MSI 970 because it would match the motherboard, i might even switch to the gigabyte because of better cooling .
I just now noticed that the Noctua is HUGE , but i don't think it would be a problem with my case, also which case did you get ? ^_^

 

Kept my old CM Storm Enforcer

the Noctua IS GINORMOUS reading reviews, the noctua nh dh14 will fit in it, a bit snug, but it'll fit.

 

I think i'm gonna go with the noctua nd-dh14 and the Corsair obsidian 350D case, one last question did you build the PC by yourself ? ( got the parts and built it at home ) or did you let the store do it ?
I'm thinking about getting the parts and building it at home , but it would be my first build so i'm pretty scared

 

Yes i built it myself, i've been building PC's since i was about 16.

It's really intimidating at first, my first build took about 2 days, the build i just did yesterday took roughly 30minutes. Just read the motherboard manual, watch youtube videos and you'll be fine, shoot me a PM if you want also.

It's really like playing with those big blocks when you're a kid trying to put the triangle in the triangle hole. Pieces will only fit where and how the belong.

Look up breadboarding, i feel this is a very important part when building a PC and it'll, help with troubleshooting if you run into problems later on.

(Breadboarding is the act of building your PC out of the case to help eliminate issues that may come up after putting your PC together inside of the case)

 

Building a computer isn't hard - building one with proper cable management is much more difficult.

Just like Jsand said, you should watch a couple of youtube videos on how to build a computer just to get a general idea and from there it's just a plug and chug - the most difficult part being putting a heatsink on properly.

Also - if this is your first build, I would highly advise against overclocking until you make sure it's a full stable build AND you are confident in building a stable overclock. Overclocking inherently voids your warranty unless you purchase a plan to "protect" against it. Intel has one: http://click.intel.com/tuningplan/ and Micro Center actually has a warranty that you can purchase while you are there that does actually cover EVERYTHING you do. If you fry your CPU (or any other component you purchase a warranty on) while overclocking you literally just bring it back and tell them - they replace it and you can repurchase a warranty for that new CPU. It's an awesome deal.

The i5-4670K can easily push that 4.4gHz mark on a standard air cooler [I think AIO Liquid could go out to 5.0gHz but I have yet to try]