First build, HALP.

[Naplam]

Hey all, I'm finally at the point where I'm able to upgrade from my ~7 year old "Gaming" laptop to a fully fledged system. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. If there's anything that needs clarification, just let me know.


Budget - $2200 CAD (incl shipping/taxes)
Resolution - 1980x1080

Games / Settings Desired - Pretty much everything from WoW (High pop, 25-man raiding, high-ultra) to games like Witcher 3, Titanfall, ESO, Watch Dogs etc. Ideally, I'd like to play these games on atleast high settings.

Any other intensive software or special things you do - Level/Game design, things like Unity/UDK etc.
Country - Canada
Parts that can be reused - None.
Do you need an OS? - Yes.
Do you need peripherals - Monitor, Keyboard.

EDIT: Current build candidate.

PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.99 @ NCIX) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($84.99 @ Memory Express) 
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($150.06 @ DirectCanada) 
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($193.00 @ Vuugo) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.79 @ DirectCanada) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($394.50 @ Vuugo) 
Case: Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case ($179.99 @ Memory Express) 
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX) 
Total: $1453.30

[Dominico]

Prices are dated, & a little extreme. go to www.pcpartpicker.com and you can easily pick parts with those specs and shows history of prices over past 30 days or more and shows in depth vendors and sites that you can purchase said parts from.

/praise & Goodluck sir I'm currently in the same process! but you'll get a lot more with that budget now!

[chazus]

Shaved about $350 off that.

PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.99 @ NCIX)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($84.99 @ Memory Express)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($150.06 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($193.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.79 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($394.50 @ Vuugo)
Case: Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case ($179.99 @ Memory Express)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $1453.30

[Naplam]

Yeah, I figured they'd be a little dated. When I plugged the parts in, I was getting $1770 or so. I think I can upgrade the CPU and maybe GPU a notch, but that's my totally uneducated guess and am not sure if the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Edit: Thanks chazus, any thoughts on a decent monitor/keyboard?

[Dominico]

Yeah, I figured they'd be a little dated. When I plugged the parts in, I was getting $1770 or so. I think I can upgrade the CPU and maybe GPU a notch, but that's my totally uneducated guess and am not sure if the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Edit: Thanks chazus, any thoughts on a decent monitor/keyboard?

Keyboard has to be personal preference. The way it feels/ what type of mechanical keys you want/ Cherry Blue/Red/Black/Brown etc. Personally I've had a Razer products and never had problems with them. For your monitor you have to decide how much you are willing to spend and how fast you want your refresh rate to be.

[chazus]

I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and I'm super happy with my viewsonic 60hz TN panel monitors I got for like $120. I think they're great, but not everyone feels the same. Id opt for an IPS before 120hz personally.

[Naplam]

Alright, I'm currently looking at the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth (longest keyboard name?) because I'm interested in making the switch to a mechanical keyboard and this one claims to be one of the quieter ones, which I need since I'm always on Skype pretty much. As for the monitor, I'm totally clueless. Basically just want one at around 24" with a low response time, seems to be quite a few of these out there.

[ocis]

Quiet is a relative term when it comes to mechanical keyboards. The Ultimate Stealth uses cherry mx brown switches instead of mx blues so the "bump" you get from pressing the keys isn't as audible, but any mechanical keyboard you get will be louder than a dome keyboard because people tend to bottom out the keys on a mechanical, and there's really nothing to dampen the sound of that. You can get key switch condoms that will reduce this sound even further, but be prepared for the keys to sound louder than silicon dome keys still. You may or may not like the tactile feedback, and in the case that you don't you should look into keyboards that use mx black or red switches.

[Naplam]

Thanks ocis, I guess I won't really know what's too loud until I test them out myself. Any second opinion's on chazus' build above and possibly a monitor? I most likely won't be purchasing for a few weeks, possibly even early April. Are there any hardware advancements in the next few months that may change current prices?

[ocis]

I'm personally not a fan of the exterior looks of the case, but that's not a critique on the functionality of it or anything. For a monitor you have a big enough gap in savings that you might consider getting a 1440p monitor like:
Samsung Series 8 High Res S27A850D 27in PLS
Nixeus 30IN WQXGA IPS
ASUS PB278Q 27in LED

These are just a couple of examples. Since you do live in Canada, keep in mind companies like NCIX and Memory Express do price matches (and in the case of Memory Express, price beats) of their competitors so you can save a lot of money doing some price matching and getting all of your shipping to come from the same company.

[Naplam]

I assume most ATX Mid Tower cases are pretty interchangeable, just incase I decide to go with a different one? As for the monitor, how would something like: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16824236313 compare to those above? I really don't need something all too flashy for a monitor, just something that doesn't hold my system back and looks decent.