Advice on $2600 gaming computer - 1440p G-sync

[Calliope]

Approximate Purchase Date: Probably in 2-3 weeks

Budget Range: Around $2600 in U.S. Dollars, or $3500 in Canadian dollars

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies, editing pictures

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Parts to Upgrade: Clean new build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca, canadacomputers.com

Location: Ontario, Canada

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Nvidia graphics

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1440p
Additional Comments: A quiet machine would be good, don't care too much about bling but more interested in quality. Will also use an existing second 1080p BenQ monitor, for web browsing, watching videos, etc at the same time as playing games on the main monitor

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Want to be able to play pretty much anything on maxed out settings at 1440p on a g-sync monitor, want the games to be extra pretty for taking screenshots.

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts. Please do not post only links.

Here's my stab at a build, but I'm open to suggestions or advice. Particularly when it comes to:
-the cooling (do I need extra case fans, and what type? Is the CPU cooler that I picked decent? I know very little here)
-the motherboard (I like the overclocking features on the Hero and it got a good review here, I've never overclocked before and might wait until the computer ages to then try overclocking. But I don't know too much here either)
-the power supply(another one picked from its review here, mostly want a quiet fan and enough power for this system)
-the RAM (does DDR 2400 RAM makes sense for this build?)
-the graphics card (should I stick with the 1080 or go with a 1080ti for graphics? I went with the MSI 1080 Gaming X 8G because of reviews here about it being one of the quieter cards)

PCPartPicker part list: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/J9Vkyf
Price breakdown by merchant: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/J9Vkyf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($479.99 @ Newegg Canada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($41.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS IX HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($299.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($289.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($369.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card ($849.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($119.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278QR 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor ($889.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $3471.90 (Canadian dollars, or around $2600 in US Dollars)
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-04 15:35 EDT-0400

 

[Finstar]

Pretty solid build, not much i'd change in it.
Maybe the newer 1080 ti, samsung ssd instead of crucial and a quieter noctua cpu cooler instead of the hyper 212 evo.

 

[burtman88]

Why is the 1080 849? makes sense if it were 1080 ti yah go with ti if you can

 

[Calliope]

Pretty solid build, not much i'd change in it.
Maybe the newer 1080 ti, samsung ssd instead of crucial and a quieter noctua cpu cooler instead of the hyper 212 evo.

I was thinking about the noctuas, maybe I'll go with one of them instead. I wasn't sure if Samsung was worth the extra cost or not, I'll take another look at them. The 1080ti might take me a bit over budget, I wasn't sure if I'd need it for 1440p gaming. Maybe I'll go peek through the reviews again. Thanks for the input!

 

[Calliope]

Why is the 1080 849? makes sense if it were 1080 ti yah go with ti if you can

Because Canadian dollars

 

[mrmike_49]

you could think about dropping to 16GB of RAM - I have 32GB, and I never see it used, I think I wasted some money, since 16GB seems to be enough RAM.
Save a few more bucks on a slightly cheaper power supply, and then go for the 1080ti video card

 

[burtman88]

So there you go everyone said do the 1080ti Now you have to lol Future proof yourself man

 

[velocityg4]

If you want powerful and quiet. You won't do much better than a Be Quiet Silent Base 800 Case and Nocua D15 Heatsink. Without going insane on the prices.

As far as big air heatsinks go. The Noctua D15 is the coolest and quietest I am aware of. Water cooling will be noisier and only slightly cooler.

As for cases. The Be Quiet Silent Base 800 is a good choice for quiet and air flow. There is some sacrifice made in case temps by using sound dampening. This can be offset by using superior Noctua Case fans. There are other sound dampening cases. This is just a good balance of the shelf of quiet, price, airflow and expandability. If you take your time you could likely find something cheaper. Install sound dampening foam yourself and load it up with Noctua NF PWM fans. For maximum airflow and minimum noise.

You have no need for a motherboard so expensive. I dropped it to one which is still good for overclocking with lots of expandability and features.

There is no need for 4x8GB. May as well do 2x16GB and have room for upgrading in the future.

The PSU used is just a high quality unit. 650w is plenty. Your other PSU is just as good. I didn't see a price.

The card was just changed to a unit with heavier duty cooling. Just so it runs quieter.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($479.99 @ Newegg Canada)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.85 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: MSI Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($219.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($282.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($369.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB DUKE OC Video Card ($704.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: be quiet! Silent Base 800 (Orange) ATX Mid Tower Case ($179.00 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($119.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278QR 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor ($889.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $3541.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-04 17:01 EDT-0400

 

[Calliope]

I like the idea of going a bit cheaper on the motherboard if it'll still work well for this build, and finding out that I'd only need 650 W instead of the 750 W power supply. The quieter noctua fans sound good too.

Hmm, I might go with the quieter fans but not the sound dampened case to keep the price of the case down, maybe go down to 16 GB RAM as well. And see if I can squeeze in a 1080 ti like a lot of you are suggesting.

Lots of great advice here, thank you all so much!

 

[g-unit1111]

Here's my stab at a build, but I'm open to suggestions or advice. Particularly when it comes to:
-the cooling (do I need extra case fans, and what type? Is the CPU cooler that I picked decent? I know very little here)
-the motherboard (I like the overclocking features on the Hero and it got a good review here, I've never overclocked before and might wait until the computer ages to then try overclocking. But I don't know too much here either)
-the power supply(another one picked from its review here, mostly want a quiet fan and enough power for this system)
-the RAM (does DDR 2400 RAM makes sense for this build?)
-the graphics card (should I stick with the 1080 or go with a 1080ti for graphics? I went with the MSI 1080 Gaming X 8G because of reviews here about it being one of the quieter cards)

1. I wouldn't worry about case fans until the build is operational and you can see your system temperatures. You don't want to add too many fans because that will actually cause your air flow to recirculate and you don't want that. The 212 Evo was a good cooler but you don't want it for a 7700K. You want at least a Noctua U12, Phanteks TC14, or Cryorig H5 / R1.
2. The Hero is a solid choice. Definitely better than a lot of the competition. Alternately I'd recommend the MSI Carbon or the Gigabyte Aorus. Don't read too much into store reviews - they're meaningless most of the time.
3. The RMX is a good unit, but I would go with an EVGA G3 instead or a Seasonic X.
4. You should try to go higher - get at least DDR4-3200 for a 7700K. I generally use and recommend G.Skill Trident Z, and the RGB RAM is very nice.
5. That all depends on what monitor you're running. For 144Hz or 4K I would definitely go with a 1080TI but that is subject to availability. They're going to be sold out for a while so if you really want to build now you can do so and then buy the card when they become available.

 

[Calliope]

1. I wouldn't worry about case fans until the build is operational and you can see your system temperatures. You don't want to add too many fans because that will actually cause your air flow to recirculate and you don't want that. The 212 Evo was a good cooler but you don't want it for a 7700K. You want at least a Noctua U12, Phanteks TC14, or Cryorig H5 / R1.
2. The Hero is a solid choice. Definitely better than a lot of the competition. Alternately I'd recommend the MSI Carbon or the Gigabyte Aorus. Don't read too much into store reviews - they're meaningless most of the time.
3. The RMX is a good unit, but I would go with an EVGA G3 instead or a Seasonic X.
4. You should try to go higher - get at least DDR4-3200 for a 7700K. I generally use and recommend G.Skill Trident Z, and the RGB RAM is very nice.
5. That all depends on what monitor you're running. For 144Hz or 4K I would definitely go with a 1080TI but that is subject to availability. They're going to be sold out for a while so if you really want to build now you can do so and then buy the card when they become available.

Thanks for the specific answers to those areas I'm particularly unsure about. I'll see what I can come up with, combining everyone's advice here in with my original plans once my tax return gets here. Waiting on that before going ahead with the purchasing. I think I'd like to squeeze in the 1080 ti if I'm able to, hopefully it won't take too long for them to be in stock.

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for the specific answers to those areas I'm particularly unsure about. I'll see what I can come up with, combining everyone's advice here in with my original plans once my tax return gets here. Waiting on that before going ahead with the purchasing. I think I'd like to squeeze in the 1080 ti if I'm able to, hopefully it won't take too long for them to be in stock.

It shouldn't be, it took me about 2 months before I was able to secure my 1080. Usually when new GPUs are in, the demand is ridiculously high for them. It generally tapers off after about a couple of months once the hype dies down.

 

[granchard]

I have been gaming on a dell s2716dg for a year now and love it. Gsync, 1440p, fast response, great color. Less expensive than the rog. Researched extensively and it didn't dissapoint. Worth a look.

 

[Calliope]

Ok, the tax return is in, and collecting the parts for the build has begun. I can already see I'm going over budget a bit, but oh well. Here are the parts I've ordered so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Video Card: MSI GeForce GAMING GTX 1080ti
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Monitor: Asus ROG SWIFT PG278QR 27.0" 2560x1440 144Hz Monitor

Parts still to be ordered:
SSD
Hard Drive
Case

For the SSD, after doing some more reading, it sounds like going with a regular 2.5" SATA 3 is just as good as going with a M.2 SATA 3, and doesn't tend to heat up as much. Are the Samsung 850 Evos really worth the extra price compared to the Crucial MX300s? I'll be getting the 1 TB version of one of those two, I think.

For the hard drive, I think I'm going to go up to a 3 TB Seagate Barracuda drive since they're so cheap.

The case, I'm not entirely sure about still. I can't see spending a ton of money on it, but I don't want to go too cheap on it, either. Any thoughts on the Corsair Carbide series? 200R, 230T, 270R, 300R, Spec-02, Spec-Alpha? Or Coolermaster Masterbox 5? I kind of want to pick up the case from a local store instead of ordering it, so I'm looking at www.canadacomputers.com to choose from, they've got a pretty decent selection. Any input/experience here would be welcomed.

 

[Calliope]

Oops. I think I ordered the wrong type of CPU cooler, I think I need one of the Noctua NH-D instead of the NH-U. Guess I'll be sending that one back and ordering a different one

 

[velocityg4]

Oops. I think I ordered the wrong type of CPU cooler, I think I need one of the Noctua NH-D instead of the NH-U. Guess I'll be sending that one back and ordering a different one

While the NH-U14S will work fine. The Noctua NH-D15 is quieter under load and performs better.

Be careful in case selection. The Noctua NH-D15 is big. Many cases are too narrow. When using PCPartpicker have the Noctua NH-D15 in the parts list. So it will narrow down the search to compatible cases.

The Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 I listed will work with it. If you want something cheaper. Other examples would be the NZXT H440, Corsair 450D, NZXT Phantom 530, Phanteks Enthoo Pro & Evolv.

 

[Calliope]

While the NH-U14S will work fine. The Noctua NH-D15 is quieter under load and performs better.

Be careful in case selection. The Noctua NH-D15 is big. Many cases are too narrow. When using PCPartpicker have the Noctua NH-D15 in the parts list. So it will narrow down the search to compatible cases.

The Be Quiet! Silent Base 800 I listed will work with it. If you want something cheaper. Other examples would be the NZXT H440, Corsair 450D, NZXT Phantom 530, Phanteks Enthoo Pro & Evolv.

Ah, okay. I'll look at the Noctua NH-D15 then maybe.

Well, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass is on sale and looks pretty nice. I might try that one... thanks for the suggestions.