Building a new gaming PC for the first time

[kettesi]

Pardon me if this is the wrong forum to post this.

So, I'm building a PC. I want to use it for gaming, and I want it to last a while.Money isn't a huge obstacle, but I don't want to go all out for some crazy $10,000 machine with water cooling and overclocking capability and neon Tron lights or anything. Here's what I already plan on getting:

Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Hero Motherboard
it has the right CPU sockets for the brand I'm getting (Intel, duh) and as far as I can tell has
three SATA and PCI ports (more than enough, closest I'll get to using all of that is installing
another hard drive), supports 32GB of RAM, more than enough USB ports, and a name that
I can say while playing an electric guitar and wearing a backwards hat.

GPU - Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X
I'm gonna have arthritis before I need to upgrade that thing. Plus, it kinda looks like the
monolith from 2001 a Space Odyssey. That's 2 pluses right there. I have a few concerns
though. Firstly, the price would make it far and away the most expensive thing I've picked
out so far. Second, while some of the places I read and people I asked recommended it,
several others said that it was too powerful for most games to utilize. How long will it be until
developers reach the Titan's limits?

If I decide not to get the titan, I'm going with the MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G. Heard loads of
great stuff about it.

RAM
I dunno if the brand matters, but I ideally want 16GB. I can settle for 8GB.

CPU - Intel Core i-5-4690k
again, I'm a little conflicted here. I want the best I can buy, and apparently that's another
Intel processor that gets 4.0 GHz, vs this one's 3.5 GHz. Problem is, this one costs around
$200, and the other one costs double that. I don't really feel comfortable paying double for
1/8 more processing power, especially since 3.5 GHz is probably more than enough.
Feedback?

What I haven't picked:

-Case
-Hard drive and optical drive
-RAM
-Power Supply
-Keyboard and Mouse and all the extra stuff.

Again, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I'd love some help. Never really done this before, so I want to make sure that everything works with everything else and that I don't waste my money on a crappy product. Thanks!

 

[okcnaline]

U WOT M8?!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's your budget?

GTX Titan X isn't worth it. GTX 980 Ti is around 5-10% of the performance of the Titan X, but cost $400 less. 2 of those 980 Ti costs $800 less, but has somewhere around the neighborhood of 80 FPS in games.
And also, depending on the resolution, you may end up having to get a bit more cores for extra power to lend for gaming at very high resolutions. So...

 

[TerabyteTech]

How's this?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t9khLk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t9khLk/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($208.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($709.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Micro Center)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($27.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $2208.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 16:56 EDT-0400

 

[martinch]

Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Hero Motherboard

A decent board. FYI, it should have 8 SATA ports, not 3.

GPU - Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X

What resolution are you going to be playing at? Unless you're playing at 4K or on a 144Hz panel, it's more likely that a GTX 970 or 980 will be more than enough (and significantly cheaper). The GTX 980 Ti might be a good choice for future-proofing, but it is expensive.

CPU - Intel Core i-5-4690k

Dependent upon what workload you give it, the i7-4790K you referenced is faster (I have one). However, for gaming it's likely not going to make much difference, as most games are GPU-bound, rather than CPU-bound (short: the i7 is better with multi-threaded workloads, and a bit better with single-threaded).

-Case

Do you want something "pretty", "understated", "functional", quiet? The Fractal Design Define R5 and Cooler Master Silencio 652 are both very good, quiet, conservatively styled cases.

-Hard drive and optical drive

Personally, I like WD Blacks, as they're reliable, but expensive. WD Blues have been good, in my experience.

-Power Supply

If you're using high-end components, buy something really decent like a Seasonic X Series (also available as XFX-branded units), or SuperFlower Leadex (also available as the EVGA SuperNova G2 range).

Something like this? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sB2pLk

 

[kettesi]

U WOT M8?!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's your budget?

GTX Titan X isn't worth it. GTX 980 Ti is around 5-10% of the performance of the Titan X, but cost $400 less. 2 of those 980 Ti costs $800 less, but has somewhere around the neighborhood of 80 FPS in games.
And also, depending on the resolution, you may end up having to get a bit more cores for extra power to lend for gaming at very high resolutions. So...

My budget is as much as the parts I want cost. I'm just going to keep saving until I have all the money I need for all the parts I want. Needless to say, I don't plan on buying everything right away. I'm going to go with a regular 1080p resolution. Yeah, Titan probably is not worth it for me...

How's this?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t9khLk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t9khLk/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($208.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($709.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Micro Center)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($27.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $2208.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 16:56 EDT-0400

Holy shit, I don't know how I didn't find this site. Defiantly gonna toy around with that. Everything there looks fine, keeping in mind that I haven't done the prerequisite paranoid research into every single part. Yet.

 

[kettesi]

Motherboard - Asus Maximus VII Hero Motherboard

A decent board. FYI, it should have 8 SATA ports, not 3.

GPU - Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X

What resolution are you going to be playing at? Unless you're playing at 4K or on a 144Hz panel, it's more likely that a GTX 970 or 980 will be more than enough (and significantly cheaper). The GTX 980 Ti might be a good choice for future-proofing, but it is expensive.

CPU - Intel Core i-5-4690k

Dependent upon what workload you give it, the i7-4790K you referenced is faster (I have one). However, for gaming it's likely not going to make much difference, as most games are GPU-bound, rather than CPU-bound (short: the i7 is better with multi-threaded workloads, and a bit better with single-threaded).

-Case

Do you want something "pretty", "understated", "functional", quiet? The Fractal Design Define R5 and Cooler Master Silencio 652 are both very good, quiet, conservatively styled cases.

-Hard drive and optical drive

Personally, I like WD Blacks, as they're reliable, but expensive. WD Blues have been good, in my experience.

-Power Supply

If you're using high-end components, buy something really decent like a Seasonic X Series (also available as XFX-branded units), or SuperFlower Leadex (also available as the EVGA SuperNova G2 range).

Something like this? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sB2pLk

"What resolution are you going to be playing at?"

1920x1080.

"Dependent upon what workload you give it, the i7-4790K you referenced is faster (I have one). However, for gaming it's likely not going to make much difference, as most games are GPU-bound, rather than CPU-bound (short: the i7 is better with multi-threaded workloads, and a bit better with single-threaded)."

Probably getting the cheaper one then. I have simple, gaming related needs for my CPU.

"Do you want something "pretty", "understated", "functional", quiet? The Fractal Design Define R5 and Cooler Master Silencio 652 are both very good, quiet, conservatively styled cases."

Definitely understated, quiet, functional. The Silencio looks really nice.

"Personally, I like WD Blacks, as they're reliable, but expensive."

Gonna spend a lot of money on this anyway, might as well go reliable.

 

[MasterDell]

I wouldn't call the WD Blacks reliable. They have mostly the same parts as an ordinary Caviar Blue. Just quicker write times. And not even noticeably quicker when loading things. I have tested this before in the same conditions with both a Caviar Blue and a BLACK SERIES HDD. Both 1TB. Only reason I am going to recommend it in my build is because of its longer warranty.

I don't think spending $200 on a motherboard is really necessary. Yes it looks amazing. (I have one and I love it) But the problem is a feel kind of stupid with it because I use barely any of its features.

I would completely avoid a 980 Ti and just get a GTX 970.

I would also completely avoid an H100i as it is a noisy cooler that thinks it's a train (noise).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Avexir Blitz1.1 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($329.99 @ Directron)
Case: NZXT Noctis 450 ATX Mid Tower Case ($123.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC G2460PQU 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1568.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 21:51 EDT-0400


There's a difference between spending money wisely and spending money for fun. Since he doesn't have a budget doesn't mean a 980 Ti will magically make 1080p gaming better..

 

[okcnaline]

x) 1080P...

$1000 is good enough for 1080P. Max budget needed is like $1600.

Enjoy the stealth green build...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK2 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($162.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB 100 Million Edition Video Card ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 Designed by Razer™ ATX Mid Tower Case ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VX228H 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1427.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 22:56 EDT-0400

 

[kettesi]

I wouldn't call the WD Blacks reliable. They have mostly the same parts as an ordinary Caviar Blue. Just quicker write times. And not even noticeably quicker when loading things. I have tested this before in the same conditions with both a Caviar Blue and a BLACK SERIES HDD. Both 1TB. Only reason I am going to recommend it in my build is because of its longer warranty.

I don't think spending $200 on a motherboard is really necessary. Yes it looks amazing. (I have one and I love it) But the problem is a feel kind of stupid with it because I use barely any of its features.

I would completely avoid a 980 Ti and just get a GTX 970.

I would also completely avoid an H100i as it is a noisy cooler that thinks it's a train (noise).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Avexir Blitz1.1 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($329.99 @ Directron)
Case: NZXT Noctis 450 ATX Mid Tower Case ($123.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC G2460PQU 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1568.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 21:51 EDT-0400


There's a difference between spending money wisely and spending money for fun. Since he doesn't have a budget doesn't mean a 980 Ti will magically make 1080p gaming better..

Does that case work well with that motherboard? I read (watched, whatever) that the fan placement is weird.

x) 1080P...

$1000 is good enough for 1080P. Max budget needed is like $1600.

Enjoy the stealth green build...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK2 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($162.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB 100 Million Edition Video Card ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 Designed by Razer™ ATX Mid Tower Case ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VX228H 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1427.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 22:56 EDT-0400

Well, can you run most games higher than 1080p? If so then I'll probably go over that, but I don't want any blurry or pixely shit in this household. Sorry if I'm flipflopping around on a lot of this, but I'm learning a lot on the fly here as I look into the two (now three) builds suggested to me.

 

[okcnaline]

Hm...

1440P:
A gold build, if you're into that...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($148.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($125.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB 20th Anniversary Gold Edition Video Card ($629.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC Q2778VQE 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($299.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $1900.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-09 00:06 EDT-0400

4K:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($372.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($222.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card ($879.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Mid Tower Case ($185.12 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC U2868PQU 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($429.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2646.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-09 00:18 EDT-0400