Building a Gaming PC - what am I missing?

Achenar459

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Jun 27, 2014
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OK, so here is my list of parts so far (all from Amazon)...

FIRST: I know I'm missing case fans. I would like opinions as to how I should go about setting up the case fans, and which ones you would recommend.

SECOND: I'm considering a liquid-cooled solution, but I've never done it before and have no idea where to start...Should I do it now, or wait on the liquid cooling until I reach a point where I would need to overclock my card and/or buy a second 780 Ti and put them in SLI?

THIRD: Do you think there would be any point in waiting to build this system until the 880's are released?
Or should I get a single 770 for now and upgrade later, or would that just be a waste?


Please let me know if I'm missing anything else.

EDIT: Power Supply: Rosewill Lightning 1300 (80 plus Gold)

Corsair Vengeance Series Military Green C70 Mid Tower Computer Case (CC-9011018-WW)
$116.99

EVGA GeForce GTX 780Ti 3GB GDDR5 384-Bit Dual-Link DVI-I DVI-D HDMI DP SLI Graphics Card 03G-P4-2888-KR
$729.99

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK1 ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK1
$238.99

Intel Core i7-4790K Processor- BX80646I74790K
$339.99

Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory CMY16GX3M2A1866C9
$164.99

Western Digital 4TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive, Black, WD4003FZEX
$229.99

Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE120BW
$79.99

 
Solution

1) Yes. Good tip - I will do that.
2) Yes. Again, good tip - I...

byza

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You're going to need a power supply for that beast.

I don't liquid cool myself, but it seems like it would be easiest to set up from the start, as you'll pretty much have to pull it all apart to do it later. You can buy starter kits that will get you going in the right direction, and I would at least liquid cool the CPU now, even if you add the GPU's to the loop later on, as you won't need to pull out your MoBo etc to do this.

Update: Worry about case fans when you decide how your going to be cooling the system. Think about where your radiators will fit, and how much space you have for rad+fans. You might need slim fans or you might have space for chunky wind turbines. Besides, you can always get fans locally for reasonable money. They're not like the big ticket items that you can save a nice chunk of change on, by shopping around.

No-one knows then the 880's will come out, but it probably won't be until next year, so it really depends on how long you want to wait for your system. Besides, when the 880's come out, then we'll all be expecting the next big thing from AMD and the 880 Ti will probably be expected 6 months later. Unfortunately, life on top is short lived, and if you must be the king, you can always sell your 780 Ti down the road and probably not loose too much money on it.
 

SU11YBEAR

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Jan 7, 2014
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Missing Power Supply, do you need peripherals, mouse/keyboard/monitor or OS
1) I generally just get inexpensive fans with good reviews for case fans so can't comment
2) For liquid cooling first check if your card is a reference PCB (http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/ is EKWB's site and is very handy for determining if you can get a full cover cooler for your video card, Evga's tend to be good for this)
3) The 880's probably won't be out until early next year, judging by all the rumors / reports I have seen, so do you want your build before then or could you wait, the other question is would you want to wait until September for the X99
 

SU11YBEAR

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Oh and for liquid cooling here is Tom's guide
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a-beginners-guide-for-watercooling-your-pc,1573.html

I have liquid cooling in my PC and love it, if you go this route a few recommendations
1) I like compression fittings, look better then clamps in my opinion and they dont wear out like clamps if you make changes to your loop
2) Plan a drain point and put a ball valve down there, lets you do any drains much easier
3) If you are O.C. you may need some extra air flow on the Voltage regulators since they depends on air flow from the CPU to cool them they will get hot if you dont put some cooling in the area, or liquid cool them as well
 

Achenar459

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Jun 27, 2014
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1) Yes. Good tip - I will do that.
2) Yes. Again, good tip - I will do that.
3) I don't know what a Voltage regulator even is!!! I have seen setups that water-cool the RAM on motherboards, but if I'm understanding you correctly, you can water-cool other things on the mobo too?


1) I have all of that already (maybe not the best, but good enough for now)
2) I checked EKWB and found a solution for the 780 Ti already...it's just the 'kit' and assembly I know nothing about...I should probably read up on EKWB's site
3) Holy crap! If the X99 will be released this year then YES I will wait on building this system for that...40-50% performance increase for both the new 8-core processors and DDR4 ram? - WORTH THE WAIT!

Thanks!!!
 
Solution

SU11YBEAR

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For water cooling the big two are always CPU and GPU, after that though you can cool the following things (for some of these there are custom designed blocks or you can get more universal solutions), most of the following are not liquid cooled that often because they don't put out nearly the heat that the CPU/GPU do
1) Mosfets/Voltage Regulators, on a high end board these are generally the areas around the CPU with the big heat spreaders on them
2) Chipsets, north and south bridge coolers are available
3) RAM, pretty self explanatory
4) HDD, again self explanatory
5) PSU, some power supplies exist with liquid blocks instead of fans, not that common though, these do put out more heat but since most PSU's are designed to exhaust out the back of your case there isnt as big of need,

For installing the full cover board its the same process as any aftermarket cooler, and generally very straightforward, only recommendations are
1) Stress test the GPU first, that way if its DOA you find out before you potenitally void the warranty
2) It's much easier to remove the stock cooling after a good run since the thermal paste will still be warm

Other option is get a 780 Ti with a stock liquid cooler, little more pricey then installing it yourself but comes with a higher factory OC and then you don't need to worry about voiding any warranties
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=03G-P4-2889-KR

Last thing I had seen was Intel aiming for a September launch, which probably means we won't see Mobo CPU and RAM all out until October in any quantity but they may be able to ramp up for the Christmas season
 

Achenar459

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Ya I was hoping to get a stock liquid cooled 780 Ti, but I can't find any actually for sale anywhere. The EVGA one isn't available anywhere and the new Galaxy HOF liquid cooled one hasn't been released yet.