4790k + 980 gaming rig for $2000

[Arbiter]

Alright, it is finally done, I've ordered all the parts! Turned out to be a little above the budget (considering shipping costs and such). Here is the final list:



After long consideration I decided to follow your guys advice and change SSD from Samsung Pro 850 to Crucial MX100; I used saved money to buy Windows 8.1. Also, I had to change the specific 980 card since EVGA one was in strong deficit and could be delivered only in almost a month - I wasn't willing to wait that long just because of potential 5% or less FPS growth due to safer overclocking; the one I picked is still one of the top non-reference cards. Finally, I decided to buy 1TB HDD for data right away.

Now, the plans are as follows. In the second half of November I am going to add one more 980. In December I will focus on audio equipment and will buy a decent external AMP and good headphones (mine bought a year ago for $100 are a shame), maybe sound card if I really need it (probably won't be the case). After that I will be, pretty much, done with buying/upgrading PC for, at least, a year and will try to save money for that summer trip to Australia which I delayed like forever.

Thanks a lot guys, you really helped me out with this list and without suggestions here I would, probably, have bought most components wrong. I will let you know how well it all works once assembled (should be done on Monday or Tuesday when Amazon promises to deliver the last part), provided I don't break or fry something - never assembled a desktop from scratch.

Make sure you take some pictures and post it up in the gaming setup thread:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...r-gaming-setup!

Good luck!

[May90]

Make sure you take some pictures and post it up in the gaming setup thread:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...r-gaming-setup!

Good luck!

I don't have any means of taking picture currently, unfortunately, as I just recently moved to the US and haven't brought a camera with me. I will make a photo with my laptop's camera, although the quality is going to be quite low.

Anyway, it begins! I've received all the parts except for the video card which is arriving tomorrow, so I decided to assemble everything else. To say I am anxious would be a huge underestimation, especially regarding the thermal paste - I don't really know how I am going to do it, that is, I've watched and read a lot of guides and know quite a lot about it, but I've never done it before and had a lot of overheating issues with old low budget computers, so it is a very sensitive operation for me. I guess, I just better get started right now and get done with it. If it launches tomorrow with the new GPU without issues, I will be more happy than when learning that I got into my #1 choice PhD program.

So, as Tychus would say, "Here I go"! *departs and starts unpacking components with shaking hands*

- - - Updated - - -

OK guys, sorry for posting it in this thread, but I just don't want to open a new one.

After almost 5 hours of assembling nightmare I am finally done with almost everything, just need to figure out the wiring and add the GPU. It was about as good/bad as I thought: mostly everything was fine, but there were a couple of difficulties I had to figure out by reading manuals in the Internet, and I am a bit scared about two things.

1) I didn't manage to secure the CPU cooler right away and, as I was struggling trying to match the screw, it was going all around. Could this be a reason for thermal paste to become messed up? Should I reapply it from scratch (I really wouldn't like to do that since it was quite hard in the first place, but if it means I could get better temperatures, I would do it)?

2) RAM somehow went in very easily. I have a suspicion that it is not all the way in, but I tried to push it with a medium force and it didn't more, and the fixers on the side also closed easily. Is it a thing specific to DDR3? As far as I remember, when I was dealing with DDR2, it required quite a bit of brute force to get installed.

3) This is not really an issue, more like a doubt. I had a hard time trying to figure out in what regime should two fans on top be working. I've got two fans on the front on intake, one on the rear on exhaust and two fans on top, all 140mm. I decided to install the top ones in intake mode, so I have 4 fans blowing the air in and 2 (including the PSU one) blowing it out, which creates a positive pressure inside. My concern is: isn't 4x1.5, essentially, too much? Could this increase pressure result in some damaged components or, at least, in worse air flow?

[TaintedOne]

1) I didn't manage to secure the CPU cooler right away and, as I was struggling trying to match the screw, it was going all around. Could this be a reason for thermal paste to become messed up? Should I reapply it from scratch (I really wouldn't like to do that since it was quite hard in the first place, but if it means I could get better temperatures, I would do it)?

2) RAM somehow went in very easily. I have a suspicion that it is not all the way in, but I tried to push it with a medium force and it didn't more, and the fixers on the side also closed easily. Is it a thing specific to DDR3? As far as I remember, when I was dealing with DDR2, it required quite a bit of brute force to get installed.

3) This is not really an issue, more like a doubt. I had a hard time trying to figure out in what regime should two fans on top be working. I've got two fans on the front on intake, one on the rear on exhaust and two fans on top, all 140mm. I decided to install the top ones in intake mode, so I have 4 fans blowing the air in and 2 (including the PSU one) blowing it out, which creates a positive pressure inside. My concern is: isn't 4x1.5, essentially, too much? Could this increase pressure result in some damaged components or, at least, in worse air flow?

1) As long as there is not paste running of the sides is should be good but no harm in starting over. Practice makes perfect. You'll need to remove the paste with remover and a lint free cloth. If you dont have those alcohol from the pharmacy and coffee filters will work.

2) If you look at the ram stick it has that notch so it only goes in one way. If the side tabs are locked in you are good to go

3) back/top as exhaust , front as intake. switch the top around to exhaust , heat rises and we want to get rid of it not blow it back down onto our components.

[May90]

1) As long as there is not paste running of the sides is should be good but no harm in starting over. Practice makes perfect. You'll need to remove the paste with remover and a lint free cloth. If you dont have those alcohol from the pharmacy and coffee filters will work.

2) If you look at the ram stick it has that notch so it only goes in one way. If the side tabs are locked in you are good to go

3) back/top as exhaust , front as intake. switch the top around to exhaust , heat rises and we want to get rid of it not blow it back down onto our components.

Thank you for the tips! I have already assembled and tested the PC and everything works fine, but I will keep them in mind if something goes awry.

So far everything seems too good to be true. I haven't actually expected PC to run perfectly on the second try (on the first try one of the power connectors for GPU was not all the way in and the screen was blank). The cooling is insane: CPU is at 35C under low load and with the fan spinning at only 20% of its maximal speed (haven't tested it under full load though, downloading Starcraft 2 right now for it). Everything works so fast, I've never seen anything like it. Windows 8 also, despite my suspicions and initial repulsion towards the new UI, proved to be very convenient to use and, again, fast (although I wish they left the option to use classical Start menu...). A side benefit is that I now use HDMI (it didn't work on my laptop for some reason and I had to resort to D-Sub), and the picture quality is magnificent (before all the text was blurry, now it is crisp), and also I can finally listen to some music without putting my headphones on.

In terms of temperatures, apparently these components are intended to be overclocked. I haven't really planned it, but with such a huge cooling overkill it would be a waste not to. Will read some guides and try to go for some tiny steps, like 4->4.1->4.2->4.25 GHz and see how it works out.

Now, some concerns. I am not exactly sure how the second GPU is going to fit in there. The first one closed two of the slots completely, and the third is very close to the cooler and I'm not sure it will have enough room to operate there. At least not the same Zotac GPU I already have. Reference 980 GTX should fit in, but I am not sure it is a good idea to use two different 980 GTX in SLI. If I push the cooler to the side a bit, it should come in quite tight, and that can't be good either. Maybe I should resort to one single 980 GTX, not that it is not enough in 99% cases.
Also, since the mobo had only 4 general fan slots, I plugged the 5th fan into "CPU_OPT" slot. People on forums say it is fine to do so as long as you don't need to install a second CPU fan, which I don't, but I'm not sure how it is going to behave at high temperatures.
Finally, I managed to break one of the motherboard USB 3.0 connector "fixers", that is the slot is totally fine, but it won't hold whatever is plugged in. Luckily it has another slot so I just switched to using it - but it still soared the assembly experience quite a bit.

Again, thank you guys so much for your help! This PC would cost one more fortune if I decided to go with my initial list.

[Remilia]

For HDMI, read this.
https://pcmonitors.info/articles/cor...-and-amd-gpus/

[TaintedOne]

Will read some guides and try to go for some tiny steps, like 4->4.1->4.2->4.25 GHz and see how it works out.

Take note that your cpu turbo boost up to 4.4 right out of the box under load at stock settings. I personally would aim for 4.5 then try for 4.6 and disable turbo and run it at those clocks 24/7 but lots of people dont like to do that for various reasons, wasting electricity etc..

[May90]

For HDMI, read this.
https://pcmonitors.info/articles/cor...-and-amd-gpus/

Interesting. This might be related to the problem I have with Starcraft 2 on this machine: whenever I alt-tab out of the game and back into it, it crashes, which never happened on the previous laptop. It seems that it is not safe to alt-tab from Starcraft 2 if the resolution of desktop differs from the one of Starcraft. I thought that in my case they were equal so I had no idea how this could be the case, but now I see that the problem might be because of the way Windows detects resolution via HDMI.

Take note that your cpu turbo boost up to 4.4 right out of the box under load at stock settings. I personally would aim for 4.5 then try for 4.6 and disable turbo and run it at those clocks 24/7 but lots of people dont like to do that for various reasons, wasting electricity etc..

Interesting, I didn't know that. Then, I guess, I will leave it as it is for now.

---

The performance is way better than anything I've expected. Well, I have only tested it in Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm so far, but in these games it is just beyond my darest dreams. In Starcraft 2 I use DSR (downscaling) from 4K and all settings on Ultra/Extreme - on Desert Strike HotS map my FPS never went below 60 FPS (it is actually probably way higher than that, but with V-Sync on I cannot know for sure), even at those later stages of the game putting even strongest computers on their knees. On Squadron TD map 3x mode, probably the most laggy map ever done for Starcraft 2, I never seen FPS go below 40 until the latest 3-4 waves when hundreds units simultaneously cast abilities with complex graphical effects and when, probably, complex pathing and physics are calculated for over a thousand units - on my previous laptop on Medium it would just freeze at that stage altogether, unfreezing at the end of each wave.
In Heroes of the Storm, again on highest settings and 4K downsampling, never went below 60 FPS, even in active hero battles. I feel like I can still pump up some "hardcore" anti aliasing, but the games already look so stunning that I will probably not be able to see any difference beyond this point.
Some people claim that downsampling doesn't make much difference since essentially you still see 1080p on your screen. Oh, trust me, it does, it really does! Not just lack of jaggies, shimmering in motion and more detailed textures, but also better color gradients and visually smoother motion. There is just no coming back to "native" 1080p for me now.

Really, I didn't expect anything close to this performance. Perhaps I really don't need a second 980, I already have a hard time using my system at a level close to 100%.

Now off to installing Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR - GW2 is actually quite demanding in terms of graphics, so rendering it on 4K with all highest settings might make even this card struggle.

- - - Updated - - -

SWTOR running on maximum settings at 4K without even a hint of below 60 FPS... This game used to just fry my previous laptop even on medium settings at 1080p. I guess I really don't need a second 980 after all - this one card performs better than I thought two of them would perform.

[Doakes]

Can I recommend a better PSU, as in a better brand I like silverstone tbh.
Also air cooling is pretty good now, i use a NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler on my 2700k overclocked to 4.6ghz with only 1 fan and in games it mostly at about 60C.

As for the Video card its way more then fine. The 970 which are cheaper are equal to 780/780Ti which is still very good. I've just got a 780 overclock which is running at almost Ti levels and its more then fine for every game even with max settings. An as stated by others if your only running 1080 then 970 would be more then fine.

[May90]

Can I recommend a better PSU, as in a better brand I like silverstone tbh.
Also air cooling is pretty good now, i use a NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler on my 2700k overclocked to 4.6ghz with only 1 fan and in games it mostly at about 60C.

As for the Video card its way more then fine. The 970 which are cheaper are equal to 780/780Ti which is still very good. I've just got a 780 overclock which is running at almost Ti levels and its more then fine for every game even with max settings. An as stated by others if your only running 1080 then 970 would be more then fine.

Thank you, but I've already bought the config posted on top of page 6. Also, I'm essentially running 4K downscaled to 1080p, so there is some benefit in using 980 - although so far I haven't managed to find any game among those I play that wouldn't run at constant 60 FPS at 4K with it. Let's see if Guild Wars 2 (likely) or Dragon Age 2 (unlikely) really challenges the card. If not, then I guess I have to wait until Dragon Age 3 release.

[Deleted]

Thank you, but I've already bought the config posted on top of page 6. Also, I'm essentially running 4K downscaled to 1080p, so there is some benefit in using 980 - although so far I haven't managed to find any game among those I play that wouldn't run at constant 60 FPS at 4K with it. Let's see if Guild Wars 2 (likely) or Dragon Age 2 (unlikely) really challenges the card. If not, then I guess I have to wait until Dragon Age 3 release.

You know, the only PSU better than Seasonic is Seasonic. Just a thought. Other "best" psu are just seasonics in different brand. So yeah seasonic is good. One more thing, silverstone is not better it's still seasonic inside.

[BicycleMafioso]

You know, the only PSU better than Seasonic is Seasonic. Just a thought. Other "best" psu are just seasonics in different brand. So yeah seasonic is good. One more thing, silverstone is not better it's still seasonic inside.

There are other OEMs that basically are on Seasonic's level and some single platforms that are beyond.

[Remilia]

There's SeaSonic and Super Flower which are really good. CWT and Enhance's top line are good afaik. Then there's server PSU providers like Delta which is a bit different.

[Deleted]

I consider Antec to be as good as seasonic.

[Remilia]

That's probably cause Antec started cooperating with SeaSonic and Delta a few years back.

[Deleted]

Dunno how long those years back are but i got some old pentiums at basement with antec psu's that still power up lol. Also have read that in el cheapo seasonic they use old crap parts so they can go cheap. So as per usual, even if best brand if you go for their cheap stuff, your screwed, better off with a lesser brand from their medium quality series.

[Remilia]

S12II is their cheap stuff, however they still use some very good components for their build.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/954
(I read random things when I get really bored).

[Arbiter]

There's SeaSonic and Super Flower which are really good. CWT and Enhance's top line are good afaik. Then there's server PSU providers like Delta which is a bit different.

The original PSU of my current build was Enhance and it still works to this day. Not really a fan of the cable options though. I replaced it because you needed 2 separate 6pin connectors with an adapter just for a single 8pin, and I needed 4 8pin connectors >.<. Went through two Channel Wells PSUs and they were completely garbage. Powered fine but the fan was loud as hell the second I did anything past sit on the desktop screen. Never again.