First Time Build ($3,000+ Budget)

[SomeAngryNerd]

So Faithh, would you go with the 780's the first build suggested or the sapphire TRI-X R9 290X (that seem to be launching early January?) that tielknight suggested in his comments? Would it be possible for you to suggest a build (you seem to have the knowledge on it) that is compatible part wise?

[tielknight]

So Faithh, would you go with the 780's the first build suggested or the sapphire TRI-X R9 290X (that seem to be launching early January?) that tielknight suggested in his comments? Would it be possible for you to suggest a build (you seem to have the knowledge on it) that is compatible part wise?

The sapphire is a 290, just to clear that up, and if the benchmarks are correct, it outperforms the GTX 780 and, when overclocked by about 12%, even the 780ti and the 290X in some instances.

[SomeAngryNerd]

The sapphire is a 290, just to clear that up, and if the benchmarks are correct, it outperforms the GTX 780 and, when overclocked by about 12%, even the 780ti and the 290X in some instances.

Psssh I knew that... Would it be the same one that theangrychicken linked then?

>Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)?

If that is the one, does it have SLI? I was told to make sure the card / cards I get have it.

Once again, I apologize if any of this is common knowledge, I just want to make sure ive crossed all my t's and dotted all of my i's.

[smegmage]

I think this is actually one of the few times you should look at the 2011 socket for primarily multiboxing:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($568.98 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme 99.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($109.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme6 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($224.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($283.41 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($505.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($505.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($139.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD Writer ($25.65 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM (64-bit) ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($584.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($71.01 @ NCIX US)
Total: $3499.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-27 03:19 EST-0500)

It's at the extreme high-end of your budget, and the GPUs are placeholders, but that should give you as close to stable 60 FPS with all the bells and whistles on as possible. Gone for a single 1440p rather than two 1080p monitors, but that can easily be changed, and then you can get some killer 7.1 speakers.

This is a very solid build, the first one in this thread had a CPU that wasn't up to par and he suggested shit monitors. I don't understand why people are willing to shell out thousands of dollars, and then skimp on the single most important item when it comes to experiencing your investment. Especially when you spend more on GPU's than your monitors can even fully utilize.

Only suggestion I could make is if you want to save a bit of money, a Noctua air cooled heat sink will be sufficient for your application.

- - - Updated - - -

If that is the one, does it have SLI?

SLI is Nvidia's term for running multiple cards, same with Crossfire and AMD cards. Yes all of the major big cards support sli/crossfire

[SomeAngryNerd]

Thanks for the clarification on the SLI thing. I was not aware it was a brand specific term.

[tielknight]

This is a very solid build, the first one in this thread had a CPU that wasn't up to par

Agreed, a 4930k is pretty much the top of the mark or even a 4820k would work well and still give you access to a 2011 socket.

and he suggested shit monitors

I'm not finding anything review-wise that says they are shit so feel free to post some that do.

Would a Asus vs238hp be better?

[Pariah]

These builds are a colossal waste of cash. I figured someone needed to chime in and say that.

With that said, I have zero issues with people spending their own money on whatever they damn well please. But do know that you could build a very solid computer now and a very solid computer in 3 years with the $3,000 you have now.

[SomeAngryNerd]

These builds are a colossal waste of cash. I figured someone needed to chime in and say that.

With that said, I have zero issues with people spending their own money on whatever they damn well please. But do know that you could build a very solid computer now and a very solid computer in 3 years with the $3,000 you have now.

Everyone has their own opinion, and its fair that you have yours, I however have my own reasons for spending what I am on it and my opinion is that i'm willing to spend that money on something I use frequently.

Have a good day.

[Xabris]

Everyone has their own opinion, and its fair that you have yours, I however have my own reasons for spending what I am on it and my opinion is that i'm willing to spend that money on something I use frequently.

Have a good day.

Spent a 1/3 of what you did and can run 2 WoW clients on max settings at over 60 frames a piece, but I mean do what you want if you plan on just spending another 3,000 in 2-3 years anyway. Also for someone who doesn't know much about building the computer I wouldn't start off with a liquid cooling PC.

[SomeAngryNerd]

Spent a 1/3 of what you did and can run 2 WoW clients on max settings at over 60 frames a piece, but I mean do what you want if you plan on just spending another 3,000 in 2-3 years anyway. Also for someone who doesn't know much about building the computer I wouldn't start off with a liquid cooling PC.

If you have an opinion on it, by all means have one, but in the end this is a matter of me posting here asking for advice picking parts to make a computer. I do not want / need to be judged for my personal opinion on what the right budget for me is, and I hope that anyone reading this thread would / will respect my personal views on it.

I apologize if i'm reading what you said incorrectly, but I can't help but see that as a snarky comment. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

On that note, if you don't mind me asking, why do you feel that I should not get liquid cooling? Is there something I should know about it prior to investing the money in it? Is it extra work or does it require maintenance?

[Faithh]

So Faithh, would you go with the 780's the first build suggested or the sapphire TRI-X R9 290X (that seem to be launching early January?) that tielknight suggested in his comments? Would it be possible for you to suggest a build (you seem to have the knowledge on it) that is compatible part wise?

You're streaming so obviously Nvidia.

I don't think you fully understand what SLI or crossfire is. For instance if you have 50 fps with a single 780, then you would have with 2x 780's 100 fps, 3x 780's 150 fps and 4x 780's 200 fps but in reality the scaling is so crap after 2way sli that 3 or 4way sli is literally pointless.

I recommended you to stay away from SLI or either CF because your games are barely GPU intensive meaning it won't even max out a single card like a 780 so obviously a 2nd card would be money waste. We still forgot about the issues you have with SLI/CF: loads of noise, microstutter, games running awful with SLI enabled and so on. Just stay away from SLI/CF and stick to 1 card.

Instead of a 2nd 780 just get a 2nd Dell u2713hm (1440p) monitor they suggested and get a 650w psu to save some money because 850w is just brainless overkill for a single gpu rig.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($568.98 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($65.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 LE ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($229.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: PNY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($127.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($86.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($507.27 @ TigerDirect)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD Writer ($25.65 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM (64-bit) ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($584.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($584.99 @ B&H)
Total: $3217.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-27 21:12 EST-0500)

I removed the Liquid cooler because there's just no point in it especially with all their issues and terrible noise/performance ratio so I just replaced it with a extremely quiet aircooler the noctua nh-u12s. I switched that Seagate HDD with a WD 2TB Green because it's a quieter drive and a little bit slower but I assume it's just going to be used as a storage drive so it doesn't matter. Switched that Asrock board with an Asus that has the flashback feature so you can update the bios without needing a CPU and you can recover the bios with that feature.

Changed the Corsair 750D for a Fractal design R4 because it's just the most suitable case for single card setups in terms of noise and size. The 750D is more of a watercooling case imo the airflow isn't that great as advertized. If you prefer the 750D over the fractal design, go ahead. I removed on purpose the keyboard because the switches should be a personal choice, the one they recommended was a cherry mx red which is awful for typing. Just google a mechanical keyboard guide and decide which switch is the best for you.

You might be wondering why the monitors are so expensive thats because it's a 1440p monitor with an IPS panel, superior picture quality compared to 1080p. Another advantage of having a 1440p monitor is that you don't have to use so high anti-aliasing settings because of all those pixels you will barely notice jagged edges, like 1x is enough imo

[SomeAngryNerd]

You're streaming so obviously Nvidia.

I don't think you fully understand what SLI or crossfire is. For instance if you have 50 fps with a single 780, then you would have with 2x 780's 100 fps, 3x 780's 150 fps and 4x 780's 200 fps but in reality the scaling is so crap after 2way sli that 3 or 4way sli is literally pointless.

I recommended you to stay away from SLI or either CF because your games are barely GPU intensive meaning it won't even max out a single card like a 780 so obviously a 2nd card would be money waste. We still forgot about the issues you have with SLI/CF: loads of noise, microstutter, games running awful with SLI enabled and so on. Just stay away from SLI/CF and stick to 1 card.

Instead of a 2nd 780 just get a 2nd Dell u2713hm (1440p) monitor they suggested and get a 650w psu to save some money because 850w is just brainless overkill for a single gpu rig.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($568.98 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($65.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 LE ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($229.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: PNY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($127.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($86.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($507.27 @ TigerDirect)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD Writer ($25.65 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM (64-bit) ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($584.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($584.99 @ B&H)
Total: $3217.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-27 21:12 EST-0500)

I removed the Liquid cooler because there's just no point in it especially with all their issues and terrible noise/performance ratio so I just replaced it with a extremely quiet aircooler the noctua nh-u12s. I switched that Seagate HDD with a WD 2TB Green because it's a quieter drive and a little bit slower but I assume it's just going to be used as a storage drive so it doesn't matter. Switched that Asrock board with an Asus that has the flashback feature so you can update the bios without needing a CPU and you can recover the bios with that feature.

Changed the Corsair 750D for a Fractal design R4 because it's just the most suitable case for single card setups in terms of noise and size. The 750D is more of a watercooling case imo the airflow isn't that great as advertized. If you prefer the 750D over the fractal design, go ahead. I removed on purpose the keyboard because the switches should be a personal choice, the one they recommended was a cherry mx red which is awful for typing. Just google a mechanical keyboard guide and decide which switch is the best for you.

You might be wondering why the monitors are so expensive thats because it's a 1440p monitor with an IPS panel, superior picture quality compared to 1080p. Another advantage of having a 1440p monitor is that you don't have to use so high anti-aliasing settings because of all those pixels you will barely notice jagged edges, like 1x is enough imo

Will the air cooling (instead of water cooling) still allow for overclocking if I wanted to do it? With the ram is there any advantage to have 4 x 4gb instead of 2 x 8gb or does that not matter? As for the monitor situation at most id get one of the 1440 monitors as there doesn't feel like there is a point in getting more than one to me (at least for now). Having said that, it would free up hundred dollars to buy higher quality versions of some of the other parts, so if you feel like any of the others could be improved let me know.

[Deleted]

Will the air cooling (instead of water cooling) still allow for overclocking if I wanted to do it? With the ram is there any advantage to have 4 x 4gb instead of 2 x 8gb or does that not matter? As for the monitor situation at most id get one of the 1440 monitors as there doesn't feel like there is a point in getting more than one to me (at least for now). Having said that, it would free up hundred dollars to buy higher quality versions of some of the other parts, so if you feel like any of the others could be improved let me know.

1) the air cooler is quieter, but has limited overclocking headroom;
2) the X79 and upcoming X99 chipsets are designed with Quad-channel RAM capabilities. This means that all four sticks in that setup will be used and are guaranteed to work outside of the box other than RMAs etc.
3) you won't need two 1440p monitors for multi-boxing WoW, but you might like the details on it - If you do go for dual-monitor 1080p, then you can upgrade the RAM to an 8*4GB setup, which is much more expensive, but will give you a lot of spare RAM for the multi-box.
4) the Fractal dEsign R4 is a fantastic case - I went for the 750D for the extra room, in case you wanted to risk a custom watercooling loop, and for added airflow potential.

[Sturmbringe]

There's no point in getting an i7 for gaming, like none.

Actually, Tom's Hardware disagree with you:

Premium Gaming, Overclocking, And Application Performance

The Core i7-4770K only enjoys a 100 MHz-higher clock rate than the Core i5-4670K. Its real advantage is an extra 2 MB of L3 cache and Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Neither of those extras have a big impact on gaming, but there is a small number of titles (like Crysis 3) that take advantage of extra resources, translating to a performance increase. Having said that, this is still rare, and the Core i7-4770K will be more useful to power users who want better performance in threaded apps, in addition to the best frame rates in games.

Tom's Hardware recommend gamers with a budget of abt $320 to spend on a CPU to buy a Core i7-4770k for gaming, and I recommend to the OP to follow their advice rather some random kid's advice on the internet who uses masked language in his user's handle to mock a religious figure.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ck,3106-4.html

We have seen a small handful of games benefit from Hyper-Threaded Core i7 processors, though. Because we believe this is a trend that will continue as developers optimize their titles, we're including the Core i7-4770K as an honorable mention, now selling for $325. In a vast majority of games, the Core i7 won't demonstrate much advantage over the Core i5. But if you're a serious enthusiast who wants some future-proofing and values highly-threaded application performance, this processor may be worth the extra money.

[Toffie]

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($507.27 @ TigerDirect)

Change GPU to this instead.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-vi...rd-03gp42784kr

[Faithh]

Will the air cooling (instead of water cooling) still allow for overclocking if I wanted to do it? With the ram is there any advantage to have 4 x 4gb instead of 2 x 8gb or does that not matter? As for the monitor situation at most id get one of the 1440 monitors as there doesn't feel like there is a point in getting more than one to me (at least for now). Having said that, it would free up hundred dollars to buy higher quality versions of some of the other parts, so if you feel like any of the others could be improved let me know.

You should get easily 4.4GHz with a nh-u12s. Although I would recommend a PSU with a semi passive fan that only starts kicking in when it's needed. This one is just the best 650W PSU available quality/noise & reliability wise: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasoni...upply-ss660xp2

I would take this 780 it costs a bit more but it's totally worth it: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-vi...tx780dc2oc3gd5 - That card comes with a pre-installed backplate and is made of metal complety & most quietest 780 atm.

- - - Updated - - -

Actually, Tom's Hardware disagree with you:

Premium Gaming, Overclocking, And Application Performance

They didn't disagree; learn to read.

Tom's Hardware recommend gamers with a budget of abt $320 to spend on a CPU to buy a Core i7-4770k for gaming, and I recommend to the OP to follow their advice rather some random kid's advice on the internet who uses masked language in his user's handle to mock a religious figure.

There's no other 300$ priced cpu so no wonder they would recommend an i7 4770k for someone who wants to spend 300$ on a cpu.

[smegmage]

Agreed, a 4930k is pretty much the top of the mark or even a 4820k would work well and still give you access to a 2011 socket.


I'm not finding anything review-wise that says they are shit so feel free to post some that do.

Would a Asus vs238hp be better?

They're 60hz 1080p monitors, they can be fully utilized with much lower performing gpu/s than dual 780's, you're wasting money with them.