Gaming Desktop able to run FPS's on ultra settings

[Niftyeye126]

Hello there, I'm looking to build my own PC, baring in mind this will be my first time and I literally have no idea about computers, wondering if you might be able to help me out. I brought an Alienware x51 about 3 years ago and yes I know, it was a mistake, but it's lasted me till this point. I play FPS games like planetside 2 and MMO's - (World of Warcraft) and would like to be able to stream comfortably on ultra settings.

I enjoy recording and editing videos for youtube on top of doing all the above. Now I'm not aware of the difficulty involved with building your own PC, but most of the people I've spoken to seem to say it's not hard at all. And it's the best value for your money. My budget for this PC I'd say is about £900 - £1000 give or take. I would really appreciate some experienced advice. Hope to hear from you soon, thanks in advance!

This is what I've come up with so far, been doing some research, although, could use some help deciding on cases. Let me know what you guys think - http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Niftyeye/saved/#view=gy6LrH

 

[MasterDell]

Okay so your research served you well. I am guessing you did some research on this website considering your PSU choice. One thing that I am not saying you should do but would be a good idea to look into would be switching your CPU to a Xeon E3-1231 V3. These are 3.4GHz, hyperthreaded CPUs at a much lower cost than i7's. Only key differences being a bit of clock speed and integrated graphics. One of which is absolutely useless to you anyways. As for the CPU cooler, the H100i is extremely loud and I highly recommend using a different cooler. Preferably air as they are more reliable and quiet. Some good coolers to look into would be the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 and the Noctua NH-D14. Now for the case you have tons of options. Some cooler looking ones on a budget are the Corsair SPEC series and a case that I really like is the NZXT Phantom 410. And if you could afford it, the NZXT H440 is an amazing case.

 

[mastrom101]

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!

 

[MasterDell]

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!

Mas not to be rude or anything but the PSU you picked is horrible and any AIO below $110 is really bad. Or £, in this case.

 

[Niftyeye126]

Okay so your research served you well. I am guessing you did some research on this website considering your PSU choice. One thing that I am not saying you should do but would be a good idea to look into would be switching your CPU to a Xeon E3-1231 V3. These are 3.4GHz, hyperthreaded CPUs at a much lower cost than i7's. Only key differences being a bit of clock speed and integrated graphics. One of which is absolutely useless to you anyways. As for the CPU cooler, the H100i is extremely loud and I highly recommend using a different cooler. Preferably air as they are more reliable and quiet. Some good coolers to look into would be the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 and the Noctua NH-D14. Now for the case you have tons of options. Some cooler looking ones on a budget are the Corsair SPEC series and a case that I really like is the NZXT Phantom 410. And if you could afford it, the NZXT H440 is an amazing case.

Thanks a bunch for the advice. I've swapped the CPU as you say to the Xeon, did some research on it and there's little to no difference as explained. Only the graphics and a small notable difference in clocking speed, in which I likely won't do for a while since this is my first build and no idea how or where to start. Unsure about the case design, the NZXT looks like a nice case although it's quite blank in terms of style in my personal opinion. I'm looking for one that performs well and also looks amazing. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/ - It's coming together. I won't be building/buying for another couple of months so have plenty of time to decide

 

[Niftyeye126]

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!


Thanks for the advice, I've taken these into consideration. Although, I swayed towards the cheaper option scaling them performance - price. The Xeon is definitely the better option for myself.

 

[MasterDell]

Nift you need to copy and paste the specific URL rather than the one I'm your address bar. If you copy the one in the address bar it will bring is to our builds

 

[sora]

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!

Mas not to be rude or anything but the PSU you picked is horrible and any AIO below $110 is really bad. Or £, in this case.

The power supply is a lot better than a Corsair CX series though.

 

[Icaraeus]

EVGA's PSUs are good. The CX series from Corsair aren't very good quality and will only last 2-3 years.

 

[MasterDell]

Your build looks great!

This is what I come up with. Its quite similar.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£267.54 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£131.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£105.01 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£80.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (£273.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£74.41 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.55 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1131.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 02:57 GMT+0000

I would definately switch the motherboard to the one above, or even this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97killer


Your CPU cooler and PSU are both expensive as well.

Looks good!

Mas not to be rude or anything but the PSU you picked is horrible and any AIO below $110 is really bad. Or £, in this case.

The power supply is a lot better than a Corsair CX series though.

Not true, they are equally as bad. If that was an EVGA 750w B2 it would be a different story.

 

[Niftyeye126]

Nift you need to copy and paste the specific URL rather than the one I'm your address bar. If you copy the one in the address bar it will bring is to our builds

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Niftyeye/saved/#view=wwdfrH - Sorry about that.

 

[MasterDell]

Nift you need to copy and paste the specific URL rather than the one I'm your address bar. If you copy the one in the address bar it will bring is to our builds

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Niftyeye/saved/#view=wwdfrH - Sorry about that.

It is fine but I would suggest just getting an H97 board since you won't be OCing. And the cooler is overkill too because of the same reason.

Oh wait do you plan on doing SLI in the future? If so you actually will need the Z97. But still don't need the cooler.

 

[MasterDell]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/fWgLnQ

That cooler is way more than you need.

 

[Niftyeye126]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/fWgLnQ

That cooler is way more than you need.

Hey master, thanks again for quick replies. So I'd like one that I'm able to upgrade in the future to better parts, what's your opinion on SLI or just upgrading singular for future reference? - Also, there's a compatibility issue with the case I'm looking at, it says one of the drive bays may not be accessible due to the size of the video card, is this going to be a problem whilst building? - I apologise for the many questions -http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Niftyeye/saved/

 

[MasterDell]

There are going to be no issues at all the Phantom 410 has removable drive bays while allow you to fit any graphics card size on the market. When you remove these drive bays it will leave you with two drive bays. And you don't even need to mount your SSD in a drive cage since they don't move have any moving parts. I personally have mine like dangling in my case in a weird place. But it looks cool so that's why I put it there haha.

Anyways, the Phantom 410 has drive cages that has 2.5" screw mounts so you won't be needing a conversion kit or anything.

My opinion on SLI? I honestly don't really have one. It always depends on the card. I have a 970 and I quite frankly won't SLI it due to the VRAM allocation issues they have been facing. (This is a completely none issue for you) This only because a real issue in some 4k games and very very few 1440p games. Never at 1080p.

Nvidia made SLIing the 970 a really confusing and hard choice so sorry if I can't explain it very well.

So is SLI worth it? Yes for other cards, but for the 970, no. Not in my, and many others opinion at least.

Feel free to keep the question rolling I really don't mind

 

[Niftyeye126]

There are going to be no issues at all the Phantom 410 has removable drive bays while allow you to fit any graphics card size on the market. When you remove these drive bays it will leave you with two drive bays. And you don't even need to mount your SSD in a drive cage since they don't move have any moving parts. I personally have mine like dangling in my case in a weird place. But it looks cool so that's why I put it there haha.

Anyways, the Phantom 410 has drive cages that has 2.5" screw mounts so you won't be needing a conversion kit or anything.

My opinion on SLI? I honestly don't really have one. It always depends on the card. I have a 970 and I quite frankly won't SLI it due to the VRAM allocation issues they have been facing. (This is a completely none issue for you) This only because a real issue in some 4k games and very very few 1440p games. Never at 1080p.

Nvidia made SLIing the 970 a really confusing and hard choice so sorry if I can't explain it very well.

So is SLI worth it? Yes for other cards, but for the 970, no. Not in my, and many others opinion at least.

Feel free to keep the question rolling I really don't mind

Thanks again, I think that this is the build I want to complete. I shall be ordering in a few weeks after I've moved and settled into my new flat. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the completed build/setup once I'm done. Really appreciate all your help, saved me at least a couple £100 on this.

 

[MasterDell]

There are going to be no issues at all the Phantom 410 has removable drive bays while allow you to fit any graphics card size on the market. When you remove these drive bays it will leave you with two drive bays. And you don't even need to mount your SSD in a drive cage since they don't move have any moving parts. I personally have mine like dangling in my case in a weird place. But it looks cool so that's why I put it there haha.

Anyways, the Phantom 410 has drive cages that has 2.5" screw mounts so you won't be needing a conversion kit or anything.

My opinion on SLI? I honestly don't really have one. It always depends on the card. I have a 970 and I quite frankly won't SLI it due to the VRAM allocation issues they have been facing. (This is a completely none issue for you) This only because a real issue in some 4k games and very very few 1440p games. Never at 1080p.

Nvidia made SLIing the 970 a really confusing and hard choice so sorry if I can't explain it very well.

So is SLI worth it? Yes for other cards, but for the 970, no. Not in my, and many others opinion at least.

Feel free to keep the question rolling I really don't mind

Thanks again, I think that this is the build I want to complete. I shall be ordering in a few weeks after I've moved and settled into my new flat. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the completed build/setup once I'm done. Really appreciate all your help, saved me at least a couple £100 on this.

Sounds really awesome

I would really like to see the pictures. You will be stunned at how quick this thing is compared to your x51.

If you need any help at all I really encourage you to PM me. Happy building