[Build Help] Just wanted to know how I was doing

[Mundayz]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($174.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($199.49 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($20.00)
Total: $929.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-27 05:43 EDT-0400


I'm going to raid-0 the SSD's and possibly SLI the 960 in the future.

Mainly just gaming, streaming, possibly light video editing later on.

[Noctifer616]

Noting wrong with the 960, but I would recommend avoiding multy GPU. There is just a lot of issues with mGPU compared to single cards, so if you can get a 970 or 980 I would say get that. Also, I suggest you wait till June since new AMD cards are coming out, so there is a good change for price drops.

[Mundayz]

Noting wrong with the 960, but I would recommend avoiding multy GPU. There is just a lot of issues with mGPU compared to single cards, so if you can get a 970 or 980 I would say get that. Also, I suggest you wait till June since new AMD cards are coming out, so there is a good change for price drops.

Yeah, in retrospect getting the 960 first was a bad idea. That's one of the only things I bought and I actually got it for $170. What kind of issues do you get with mGPU?

[Noctifer616]

Yeah, in retrospect getting the 960 first was a bad idea. That's one of the only things I bought and I actually got it for $170. What kind of issues do you get with mGPU?

There can be mircrostutter, bad scaling, lacking SLI profiles on launch so games don't work on day one with it. Then there is the fact that memory doesn't stack in SLI/Crossfire, so if you add another card your raw power can double, but you still have the same amount of VRAM as if you had just one card which might be an issue in certain games (you might have enough power to run a game at higher resolutions but memory might be an issue).

The only time SLI and Crossfire should be an option is if you want more performance but already own a high end card and there is really not other option.

[Mundayz]

There can be mircrostutter, bad scaling, lacking SLI profiles on launch so games don't work on day one with it. Then there is the fact that memory doesn't stack in SLI/Crossfire, so if you add another card your raw power can double, but you still have the same amount of VRAM as if you had just one card which might be an issue in certain games (you might have enough power to run a game at higher resolutions but memory might be an issue).

The only time SLI and Crossfire should be an option is if you want more performance but already own a high end card and there is really not other option.

So, really I should try to sell the 960 and up it to a 970/980 later on.
Thanks for the heads up.

Anything else in that build questionable?

[Lathais]

Noting wrong with the 960, but I would recommend avoiding multy GPU. There is just a lot of issues with mGPU compared to single cards, so if you can get a 970 or 980 I would say get that. Also, I suggest you wait till June since new AMD cards are coming out, so there is a good change for price drops.

I wouldn't recommend a 980. The gains over the 970 are not that great. If you are going for 4k, then yeah, dual 980s is likely the way to go. For anything less, a 970 is sufficient.

[Mundayz]

I wouldn't recommend a 980. The gains over the 970 are not that great. If you are going for 4k, then yeah, dual 980s is likely the way to go. For anything less, a 970 is sufficient.

The gains between a 960 and 970 that significant? I recently bought a 960.

[Lathais]

The gains between a 960 and 970 that significant? I recently bought a 960.

Yes, the 970 is worth it.

http://www.sweclockers.com/test/2019...-x/18#pagehead

The 960 has a score of 61 and the 970 is at 96. pretty big difference. the 980 however, is at 114, not that far above the 970. That's at 1080p. Even at 4K though, the 970 has a score of 89 and the 980 got 106. Bigger difference, but is it really worth it?

If you look at some individual games you'll see the difference. In Bioshock infinite at 1080p:

960: 62-73
970: 94-111
980: 110-128

The 960 gets over 60 FPS so is actually fine for this game, neither the 970 or the 980 gets you over 144 which is the next step for 144hz monitors


At 4K:
960: 12-19
970: 27-35
980:32-41

BF4@1080

960: 40-48
970: 62-76
980: 74-90

Here the 960 does not get you over the 60FPS mark, the 970 does, but the 980 does not do much better and does ot get you to the 144 mark.

[fixx]

Anything else in that build questionable?

RAID0 of small SSDs is totally unnecessary. Yes it's faster than single drive, but more trouble than it's worth.

[Mundayz]

RAID0 of small SSDs is totally unnecessary. Yes it's faster than single drive, but more trouble than it's worth.

trouble as in what? I'm aware that if one drive fails, they both do. Is there anything other than that?

[fixx]

trouble as in what? I'm aware that if one drive fails, they both do. Is there anything other than that?

Few additional reasons from the top of my head

-Additional steps in setup
-Unable to transfer the drives to different motherboard without reformatting unless using dedicated RAID card
-Smaller SSDs are slower and more unreliable than bigger ones
-Transfer rates of SSDs isn't as relevant as latency or IOPS and RAID0 only affects transfer rates

[Master Guns]

It's a solid build. I have two issues:

Why the heck put that in raid 0? It's not worth it at all hah.

Get a 970.

[chazus]

Moving to the build/upgrade subforum