Building a new kickass computer from the ground up

[Stonework]

Hello fellow Tomshardware community!

As you might have seen in the title I am doing an entirely new "from the very beginning build" and since the reputation of this forum is very well I thought I´d ask other knowledgeable people what the think about the config and the reason behind individual parts and see If we can find something that can be done better.

It is mainly thought for daily usage, games, ultimate bang for the buck without these compromises and cut corners you see so often aswell as running efficently and reliable.

Before I get started I just wanna warn you that this´ll be a fairly lengthy post as I will be going into a lot of details.

I started planning in mid January and thught I´d build sometime in October but I didn´t expect that I´d be able to build it right now.

Now I´ll stop talking and show you the parts

Spoiler

CPU:
Intel Core I5 4670k -- currently 190 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/11YmSj]http://goo.gl/11YmSj [/url]
(It´s german though)

GPU:
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X currently 340 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/GACorv]http://goo.gl/GACorv [/url]

Mainboard:
Gigabyte G12 Sniper M5 currently 120 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/n17SIi]http://goo.gl/n17SIi [/url]

RAM:
8GB G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1333 CL7-7-7-21 currently 69 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/RQo55V]http://goo.gl/RQo55V [/url]

SSD:
120GB Samsung 840 Evo currently 67 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/w2dHYe]http://goo.gl/w2dHYe [/url]

HDD ? :
Western Digital Blue 1TB 64MB cache curently 45 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/c1hAOH]http://goo.gl/c1hAOH [/url]

PSU:
680W be quiet! Straight Power E9 CM currently 117 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/ydp4gK]http://goo.gl/ydp4gK [/url]

Case:
Corsair Obsidian 350D windowed currently 87 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/FYAea5]http://goo.gl/FYAea5 [/url]

CPU cooler:
Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 bought it for 49 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/NK75fh]http://goo.gl/NK75fh [/url]

Fans:
Noctua NF-F12
[url=http://goo.gl/Uq2NFv]http://goo.gl/Uq2NFv [/url] -- front
140mm be quiet Shadow Wings
[url=http://goo.gl/QTz8RP]http://goo.gl/QTz8RP [/url] -- top
120 be quiet Shadow Wings
[url=http://goo.gl/SORsJ9]http://goo.gl/SORsJ9 [/url] -- rear

Keyboard:
Cherry MX Board 3.0 with brown keyswitches currently 55 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/AWyDzF]http://goo.gl/AWyDzF [/url]

Mouse:
Sharkoon Drakonia green laser mouse currently 25 Euros
[url=http://goo.gl/a9gYc8]http://goo.gl/a9gYc8 [/url]

All in all these parts will cost about 1220 Euros which is IMO a good price considering the components I chose.


Now I´ll tell you the reasoning and thoughts behind each individual part:

Spoiler

CPU:
I originally wanted to go with the 3570k but then Haswell became much cheaper and newer tech is newer tech, also it delivers promising results in most benchmarks annd is very well above the requirements for modern games and snappy OS performance.
---------------------------------------------

GPU:
I chose Sapphires model because it is rather cheap and the coller des a good job, in addition to that they provide mwe with their Trixx software for easy modifications on clockks and voltages

It´s a great bang for the buck and generally a very powerful card.

Its technical abilities should last me for a while until I need to upgrade.
---------------------------------------------

Mainboard:
At first I chose the Z87MX-D3H because at 100 bucks it was cheaper than the Sniper but then I found out about the 4 phase power design which could be a potential life decreasing factor when I am overclocking later on and a few weeks ago the Sniper dropped in price from 160 to 120 so...

I decided for myself that µATX is enough for me, they really catched up in terms of quality and I can still put addon cards if I´d need some later.

This MB makes a soundcard unneeded because it has great onboard and I am far from an audiophile anyways.
---------------------------------------------

RAM:
For now I chose the kit with 1333MHz, Bandwith isn´t really a bottleneck today and the lower latency at 7-7-7-21 instead of 9-9-9-27 raises the efficiency a little bit.

With a slight voltage bump I might be able to clock it to 1600MHz.

It also is a dual kit and it has lifetime warranty so I guess it´s a good alternative to the overpriced Dominator Platinums.
---------------------------------------------

SSD:
I chose this one since it´s got amazing performance and it´s also a very popular choice in a lot of builds.

It´ll be used for te operating system on a C partition and Software as well as some data on a D partition.
---------------------------------------------

HDD:
I currently list this one because it has a lot of capacity, a lot of cache a´nd it´s priced well. I didn´t want to go with a black one because data wise they just seem to be rebranded Blue drives wth a longer warranty.

But here comes my first question,
The WD RE4 WD1003FBYZ caught my eye and I am thinking about going with this one instead of the blue since it has a longer warranty and seems to be a safer choice on the reliability side.

BUT I read about this drive being a bad choice for mass storage in desktops due to it´s nature of being meant for raid configs. Some people even claim to have crashes and such.
Does anyone of you use this Harddrive and did anyone experience mentioned issues ?

Just to let you know, it would be a single mass storage drive as an E partition without anything crucial for the system. This will be made sure by istalling after the OS setup got finished.
---------------------------------------------

PSU:
I chose this Power Supply because be quiet ius well known over here, it´s modular aside from the 24 and 4+4 Pin connector, it has 80Plus Gold.
It´s a multi rail which is IMO a little bit saferon 600W and above
It has thought out rail splitting, a 5 year warranty, sleeved cables and and and.....

At first I bought a PowerZone 750 for 72 Euros when DiTech (a now bankrupt retailer in Austria) had its last big sale but I it´s a bronze, it´s way too strong, I´d only be able to use 66% of it´s capacities at the very max and it is a monorail above 600W so there´s a slight risk despite it´s huge load of safety preperations so I am gonna sell that one later.
---------------------------------------------

Case:
I went with the 350D simply bevause it´s the only case that fits my needs, it´s spacious for an µATX, has rubber grommets for cable management, a window, good usability and so on...
---------------------------------------------

CPU cooler:
As I mentioned above a local retailer got bankrupt and made a big sale so I bought this cooler for 49 bucks which is a phenomenal price.
I guess I don´t have to say mch about the D14 except that this is the SE2011 one because all other ones were sold out which forces me to get the 115x kit but that´s ok.
---------------------------------------------

Fans:
I chose 2 NF-F12 PWM fnas as front intake because the 350D´s front is rather restricted so it requires more force to get a good amount of air in. These fans are best candidate for that task and they are Noctua, a well known company from my own home country

As top I chose !40mm Shadow Wings from be quiet! because they look very good, they perform very good, they are quiet and with be quiet I know that I am not getting some bog standard OEM stuff.

Same goes for the 120mm Shadow Wings fan on the back,
---------------------------------------------

Keyboard:
I thought when I am already building a kickass no cost compromise machine I´ll directly go with a mechanical keyboard. This one is perfect for me because I don´t need all that additional junk like programmable buttons and illumination and dsplays and all that unnecessary stuff.

It also has got a dtachable cord and gets delivered with big grips.
---------------------------------------------

Mouse:
For a mouse I simply wanted something that feels well and just works.
This one fits the criteria.

I will also do the following mods if I may call them this way:

Spoiler

1. I will uninstall the HDD cage and the SSD cage. I will mount the drives in the brackets and then I will use double sided foam tape to mount them onto the cases´ floor, this way there´s less obstacles for the air to passand the thick foam reduces the passing of vibrations as a side effect.

2. Depending on the way the GPU´s fans work I will detach the PCI Slotcovers and install a little 80mm exhaust fan there if the cards fan blow air out instead of pulling it in. Can anyone owning this card tell me how it´s cooler works by the way ?

So what do you think of it ? Is there anything I forgot to think about or would you do something different ?

I planned this rig for about 4-5 months with daily alterations on the build list so I personally think that the way it looks right now is fairly thought out and ready to be built but I could be wrong...

Needless to say I wanted to get the opinions of other people aside from myself who also have knowledge in this area so I could get that little extra reassurance of doing it the best way can.

One thing I forgot to mention is that as OS I will use Windows 7 64bit instead of Windows 8.1 because after extensive usage and after preparing 40 office computers with this OS I still prefer the UX of Windows 7.
I am obviously going to properly and cleanly do the software part so that´s no problem at all (aside from these annoyingly long taking Windows Update DL, install and configuration times :/ )

i also have one last additional qestion,

As this will be a complete setup built and planned from the ground up I will also need a monitor.
I was looking at the XL2720T from BenQ because it seemed to be my best option, do you know a better monitor in the 24" to 27" range that I should consider ?
I am looking at 1920x1080 only because I am also playing on consoles (currently PS3, Wii U and PS4 at some not too distant point in the future).
An analog video input method is needed if I wanna use some legacy devices like older consoles (ie GC, N64, PSX and so on) on this monitor, pixelation shouldn´t be that big of a deal at smaller sizes like 27 inches.

I´d really like to see your answers and thoughts

thanks in advance!!!


P.S. I did my best to format the text as good as possible with spoilers, more or less adequate grammar and shortened links so I hope this might make it easier for you to read.

 

[Traciatim]

You don't want 1333 RAM.

If you figure out the latency it takes 7 cycles to look up where data is on 1333 the RAM. Each cycyle is something like 7.5ns, so it takes about 52.5ns to look something up. On CAS9 for 1600 though, you would think that's 28% slower (2 more cycles, over 7) but since it's running faster each cycle is only 6.25ns or so... which means 9 of them takes about 56.25ns. That's actually only a difference of slightly over 7%.

But, once you look up the data the burst of eads will be faster because the cycles are shorter, so the trade off is a very slightly (not really all that measureable) latency change but quite a bit more bandwidth.

Personally, I prefer single rail power supply designers so that in the future you ever have to use any kind of adapter you don't have to care which rail connects where. That's more of a personal preference. You'd probably going to be running at or less than 350 watts anyway, so it's not like you are going to be pushing your power supply very hard.

All in all a pretty solid build.