New PC Build Advice

[tavalus]

Hey, looking at taking advantage of the Black Friday sales to build a new PC, mainly will be general use/WoW use but I play SC2/D3 as well + might start adding in some other games as well (Wildstar/ESO). Looking for some advice on the build. So far I have


Motherboard: ASUS Z87-PLUS LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770K

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

Graphics Card: EVGA 03G-P4-3784-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Dual FTW w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card

PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

SSD: OCZ Vertex 450 Series VTX450-25SAT3-256G 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5

CD/DVD: ASUS DVD-Writer Black SATA Model DRW-24F1ST


I'm having trouble deciding on a few things: Is the graphics card overkill? Would money be better spent dropping the CPU down to the i5-4670K? and as far as memory I'm trying to decide between the following two without much success:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX

So the first is 1600 and has 10-10-10-30 timing while the 2nd is 2400 but has 10-12-12-31 timing. Does the 2400 make up for the slightly slower CAS timings, does it even matter? The 1600 is about ~25$ cheaper.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Deleted]

Get the 1600MHz for gaming, the 2400MHz for rendering/streams.

[Deleted]

Well if it's for gaming only, the i5 performs equally to the i7 equivalent. If you plan on video editing or rendering than the i7 is justified.
Otherwise it's a killer build for the game's you mentioned. But it is a future proof build.

[tavalus]

Alright, it's getting close to buy-time. Any other opinions before I go with this?

Decided on G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GSR for the RAM as well, same price as the 1600 Ripjaw but better timings at 9-9-9-24

Oh, and took advice and dropped the CPU down to Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor since the i7 4770k just wasn't needed.

[Deleted]

Get these instead if you can tomorrow. $25 cheaper for better processing, at the cost of the lower latency in the 1600MHz you've linked. However, the offer I have is only until Saturday.

[tavalus]

Ok, back again for suggestions from people willing to help. I got pretty much what's listed in the first post (swapped down the the i5-4670k, changed to a different SSD after some advice due to OCZ's company troubles, and I believe I went with the Sniper 16Gig ram).

So next I need to get a case/monitor. My old PC has an Coolermaster HAF 932, not sure I'm as pleased with it as I could be so open to suggestions on a different case for the new build (actually finding cases a little frustrating b/c single companies offer so many models making it hard to decide). Also monitors, where to even start?

[Fascinate]

Not sure how much you are looking to spend but for 80 bucks i find this case has a lot of features:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133212


Monitors are harder to recommend, and we also need a budget.

[tavalus]

Sorry forgot about budget, 100-150ish for a case, and monitor, 100-300? I know it's a bit broad but I'm not sure where a decent monitor falls price wise.

[Fascinate]

This is my favorite case on the market right now at any price. The windows in these things are absolutely gorgeous. They have SSD mounts that show off your ssd rather than hiding them as well as usualy corsair stuff like full fan filters, great cable management etc. Did you buy your CPU cooler yet? This case begs for a AIO water cooler to be mounted in the top.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139024

Again not sure what you purchased above but if you got a 780 you really need to go with a 144hz monitor or a 1440p monitor. Most people will suggest 1440p (2560x1440) for MMO's but i think 144hz is also a really good choice for MMO as well, it just makes everything feel faster and smoother including just normal desktop/web usage.

144hz monitors:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236313
http://www.amazon.com/BenQ-XL2420TE-.../dp/B00D7IG556

Some people say the benq has better colors but honestly they are both good choices. I would buy the asus because i like the stand better plus it has a better warranty.

1440p Monitor:
http://www.amazon.com/QNIX-QX2710-Ev.../dp/B00BUI44US

This is a korean monitor that is a samsung screen that they rejected for some reason or another (most come perfect, maybe a little backlight bleed or a stuck pixel), the actual samsung monitors cost at least double what this thing does.

I cant really suggest either way because its personal preference. I am making the same decision right now as well and im currently leaning toward 144hz asus because i used to play on a CRT and i miss the smoothness they provided.

If you bought that gtx780 you really need to consider one of these three monitors, it would be a disservice to your PC to use anything else lol.

[tavalus]

Thanks Fascinate for your very helpful opinions. I still haven't decided yet and am finding myself more stuck on the monitor than the case. When I was at a few PC shops I mentioned 120hz ones (having forgotten that you said 144hz) and they said that unless I was doing 3D stuff there was no reason to go above 60hz, is that true?

In terms of actual brands, it might be different in other countries, but here in Aus they were steering me away from LG/Benq because they said that both companies had dropped their dead pixel warranty and that only Samsung and Dell were offering it now. If that is in fact true, how big of an issue is it? My current PC has a Samsung Syncmaster PX2370 and I've had no problems with it, so I'm not too offput by the idea of sticking with Samsung if they're going to have the better after-market service, but are dead pixels a big enough issue to worry about it?

I did get the gtx780 so yeah, I def want to make sure I have a monitor that's using the card as best it can. Do they make 1440p 144z monitors or is it just one or the other? With as much as I *do* know about pc's at times like this I find myself amazed with how little I actually know about monitors.

Oh also, how important is ms time? The guy at one shop said anything under 22 doesn't make a difference as you wont notice it anyway, and that the 1-2-3-5ms etc was just companies going for bragging rights and jokingly asked "How would you prove 1ms vs 2ms anyway?"

[Deleted]

Thanks Fascinate for your very helpful opinions. I still haven't decided yet and am finding myself more stuck on the monitor than the case. When I was at a few PC shops I mentioned 120hz ones (having forgotten that you said 144hz) and they said that unless I was doing 3D stuff there was no reason to go above 60hz, is that true?

In terms of actual brands, it might be different in other countries, but here in Aus they were steering me away from LG/Benq because they said that both companies had dropped their dead pixel warranty and that only Samsung and Dell were offering it now. If that is in fact true, how big of an issue is it? My current PC has a Samsung Syncmaster PX2370 and I've had no problems with it, so I'm not too offput by the idea of sticking with Samsung if they're going to have the better after-market service, but are dead pixels a big enough issue to worry about it?

I did get the gtx780 so yeah, I def want to make sure I have a monitor that's using the card as best it can. Do they make 1440p 144z monitors or is it just one or the other? With as much as I *do* know about pc's at times like this I find myself amazed with how little I actually know about monitors.

Oh also, how important is ms time? The guy at one shop said anything under 22 doesn't make a difference as you wont notice it anyway, and that the 1-2-3-5ms etc was just companies going for bragging rights and jokingly asked "How would you prove 1ms vs 2ms anyway?"

1) hrm, you might want to dig deeper on the 'dead pixel waranty' thing;
2) Yes - at the moment, it's either 1440p or 144Hz;
3) better response time means that the refreshes are faster from the GPU to the monitor - most people won't notice the difference, but for those who do, it's essential.

[tavalus]

Currently I'm looking at either

http://www.cnet.com.au/dell-ultrasha...-339341226.htm

or

http://www.cnet.com.au/asus-pb278q-339342332.htm

Reviews for both seem generally the same though http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/revie...hm-part10.html gave the Dell a bit better score than http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/revie...78q-part8.html.

At the same time I'm torn with going 1440p instead of 144hz, a lot of places say for gaming you should just go for 144hz for the speed but that the picture quality is going to be much worse than a 1440p in terms of color reproduction and saturation. Is a 144hz worth it then if I'm not a MLG player or something like that? 1440p sounds like it's a better rounded style of monitor which will look better for gaming, video playback etc.

[Cyrops]

Currently I'm looking at either

http://www.cnet.com.au/dell-ultrasha...-339341226.htm

or

http://www.cnet.com.au/asus-pb278q-339342332.htm

Reviews for both seem generally the same though http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/revie...hm-part10.html gave the Dell a bit better score than http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/revie...78q-part8.html.

At the same time I'm torn with going 1440p instead of 144hz, a lot of places say for gaming you should just go for 144hz for the speed but that the picture quality is going to be much worse than a 1440p in terms of color reproduction and saturation. Is a 144hz worth it then if I'm not a MLG player or something like that? 1440p sounds like it's a better rounded style of monitor which will look better for gaming, video playback etc.

I can tell you this: 1440p will require more from your GPU and 144hz is all in monitor itself. Old games won't support 1440p so you will have to play with black borders or with the picture stretched out.
The 144hz will give you performance at any resolution and 1440p only gives you nicer picture.


Some more info about those two exact models:

The U2713HM is a better monitor overall, as you know both do have issues with quality control though.

The U2713HM often has bad backlight bleed and noticeable crosshatching while the PB278Q often has bad backlight bleed too, as well as dead pixels. Dell have much better customer service, if you have an issue you can be sure that you will be given a replacement ASAP, while Asus has a track record for refusing warranty claims.

The reason they are so cheap vs a lot of other named monitors is because if these quality control issues. While it does still have issues, the Viewsonic VP2770 is a better monitor than both (arguably even has better image quality than the Dell) and has less quality control problems, it is a bit on the pricier side though.

If it has to be between the Asus and Dell then a vote for the Dell because of the superior image quality and customer service thumb.gif

Edit: The Dell also has much better calibration out of the box, which is great if you don't want to shell out for a colorimeter.

From http://www.overclock.net/t/1412699/d...vs-asus-pb278q