New gaming system

[nocturnus]

Dear ladies and gents,

a friend asked me to make a gaming setup and I was wondering what you thought of what I've done so far. It used to be a hobby, but I'm sure I'm a wee bit rusty, so all input is appreciated!

Here's the system:


CPU: Intel Core i5 4760k Boxed
€ 187,04

MOBO: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5
€ 139

GFX CARD: MSI GeForce GTX 770 Gaming
€ 272,95

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical BLT2C4G3D1608ET3LX0CEU
€ 63,-

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
€ 69,-

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST2000DM001, 2TB
€ 69,50

PSU: Corsair CX600M
€ 60,70

CASE: Corsair Obsidian 350D Window
€ 79,90

TOTAL: € ~940

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Changed the MOBO
EDIT 2: Change the MOBO again
EDIT 2: Changed the CPU

[Tehterokkar]

Swap CPU to the i5-4670k and get Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for cooling. Allows overclocking of the CPU easily and is worth the money.

[tempis]

Swap CPU to the i5-4670k and get Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for cooling. Allows overclocking of the CPU easily and is worth the money.

he would need to swap to a z87 board too. Why does everyone assume everyone else wants to OC stuff :P

[Str8Tripa]

To be honest I would hold off for the z97 boards and pair that with a I5 4670/K but good choice with the GTX770 they are better bang for buck than the GTX780!

Have patience you will be rewarded or ask your friend if he desires latest tech or cheaper parts!

[chazus]

he would need to swap to a z87 board too. Why does everyone assume everyone else wants to OC stuff :P

Because at a certain price point, overclocking is necessary. Effectively mandatory. With parts designed for it... Why does everyone assume you shouldn't?

Also moving this to the build/upgrade subforum

[godgunner]

not going to say which cpu/mobo to get since that up to you on overclocking.
but i would recommend a different Power supply. the corsair CX series model are not reliable.
id look for a Corsair HX series 650w or Seasonic or XFX psu.

[Majesticii]

That memory has a high failure rate. Get something reliable like Kingston..
Also, you placed a ITX board in an u-ATX case.

However, why does he have to overclock his CPU? It's not like it becomes uncompetitive if he doesn't. Haswell is still miles ahead of the competition.
Getting a K-CPU and a Z87 board will get you some extra milage, but it comes at a hefty premium.

[Deleted]

This is approximately what I'd be looking at:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler (€34.99 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€117.42 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€70.58 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€101.96 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€50.17 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Tri-X Toxic Video Card (€188.09 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (€71.04 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€84.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Other: Intel Core i5-4670k Retail 3.4GHz (€212.13)
Total: €930.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 11:29 CEST+0200)

€100 more than your initial setup, but it has improved overall performance in overclocking, and it comes with a much better PSU.

EDIT: you can knock €50 off by getting the 840 EVO you put in, but it's a smaller disk size - it should be fine for the OS and one or two key games.

[nocturnus]

Hey guys, thanks for all your feedback!

I've discussed some changes with my friend. I'll explain my choices;

- He doesn't want an AMD card and I can't really blame him, considering both our experiences.
- He wants an µATX case, which probably means I could change the MOBO to Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 which is quite expensive, but a very good bord (according to reviews)
- I wasn't aware of the RAM's high faillure rate, nor of the lack of reliability of the PSU. I'll do some research on the matter. That said, the RAM modules have had extremely good reviews on various sites.
- As for the CPU, he doesn't know anything about computers or OCing and he doesn't intend to try. So a -K variant would be wasted money.

Chazus, thanks for moving the thread.

[Deleted]

...Try this build, then:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€66.02 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€70.58 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€101.96 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€50.17 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (€277.19 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€123.81 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€84.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Other: Intel Core i3- 4130 (€110.40)
Total: €884.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 15:28 CEST+0200)

Similar quality, clsoe clock-speeds and only slightly less performance over the original 4570 you selected. You can keep the same core, but the G1.Sniper M5 is showing as €210 new on Amazon.it, so I'd be surprised to see it at much less than that.

[nocturnus]

...Try this build, then:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€66.02 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€70.58 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€101.96 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€50.17 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (€277.19 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€123.81 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€84.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Other: Intel Core i3- 4130 (€110.40)
Total: €884.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-10 15:28 CEST+0200)

Similar quality, clsoe clock-speeds and only slightly less performance over the original 4570 you selected. You can keep the same core, but the G1.Sniper M5 is showing as €210 new on Amazon.it, so I'd be surprised to see it at much less than that.

Thanks for your input tenan. I really appreciate it, yet I have to disagree with your choices. An i3 for a gaming rig? An Asus card that has been plagued by instability issues over an MSI card that has scored extremely high across the board (also advised on MMO-C setup of the month)? Mind you, your setup isn't bad (with exception of the CPU), I just think mine is quite a bit better.

I hope you don't consider my reply as being ungrateful for your input. I am very grateful that you're chipping in to help a hand.

As for overclocking, I think I can teach this friend how to overclock efficiently. The 4670k is in fact a better choice, especially considering it only costs 20 euro more.

[Majesticii]

Interesting how you rate MSI over ASUS when MSI is the one using cheap sleeve bearing fans..

[nocturnus]

Interesting how you rate MSI over ASUS when MSI is the one using cheap sleeve bearing fans..

Not doubting your truth, but according to what source?

[TaintedOne]

An Asus card that has been plagued by instability issues

Can somebody give me a link on this ? I'm curious and wanted to know more but all google gave me was a bunch of reviews rating this card highly and one link saying it was unstable when trying to overclock it passed the already factory overclocked settings which is not surprising at all.

[Majesticii]

Not doubting your truth, but according to what source?

MSI's TwinFrozr IV uses PowerLogic PLD10010B12HH fans. Which use sleevebearings and have no dustprotection.
EVGA's ACX cooler uses double ball bearing. ASUS's use either FDB of Rifle bearings and dustprotectors. Both a significant improvement over MSI fans.