Gaming PC Advice

[Solyom Csaba]

Hello!

I finally have the money to buy my next gaming PC, and have the outlines nailed down. But I still have some doubts and questions on some components.

Budget: ~1200USD... unfortunately here (Romania) my money buys about 15% less than it would in the US.
Use case:
1. 1050@60FPS gaming. Yes, 1050, not 1080p (I have a 1680x1050 monitor, and it works just fine). Unless the current monitor dies on me, I'm not moving to higher resolutions any time soon, and even if it does, 1080p is the limit for me.
2. Med-to-heavy CAD use (CATIA and Inventor). I work in this field, and being able to learn new things at home is a must for me.

And now to my part list:
CPU: i5-4690. Seems to hit the sweet spot, and offers plenty upgrade options, should I want that (I probably won't). I was debating an FX-8350, but strangely its not that much cheaper around here, and offers less performance and no upgrade option. Would not save enough for a GPU-step up, so sticking with Intel.

GPU: Gainward GTX970 Phantom. Read a bunch of reviews from people who bought this thing, and it seems really good. Performance is good, only slightly hotter and louder than pricier variants. Only complaints seem to be that it looks cheap, both materials and construction-wise. It'll be sitting inside a windowless case, so I don't care.

RAM: 2x8GB@1600 or 1866, whatever happens to be well-priced, well-reviewed from a trusted brand.

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary or Pro4. Going with Z97 leaves the possibility of upgrading to an unlocked CPU, and the added cost is marginal. Pro4 has Crossfire support, I don't care about that, and has 36 month guarantee. Anniversary has only 24, but I think I can buy extra 12/24 months and still come out cheaper. Will probably go with that. Thoughts?

Case: NZXT Phantom. I will be looking at this thing daily for years to come... might as well look decent.

PSU: 80+ Bronze (or better), fully modular, 500-650W range. Might be a bit overkill, but I had way too many PCs die on due to bad/undersized PSUs. Was looking at EVGA SuperNova NEX 650W. Any other suggestions?

Storage: ~250GB SSD, probably Samsung or Intel. Suggestions are very welcome. The 250GB seems enough for me, I'm using a 500GB HDD (for around 4 years now), and right now I hae 320GB of that free...

Keyboard: I need a suggestion for a decent mechanical keyboard that more-or-less fits the budget idea of this build. I might not buy it now, but I certainly will want something better than what I currently have (noname Chinese thing). Backlight would be welcome. Suggestions?

Mouse: I had an A4Tech X7, it died a couple weeks ago. Any suggestions for a replacement, with similar constraints as for the keyboard? I prefer wired mice, 5-6 buttons, very good ergonomics. Suggestions?

While you're at it, please suggest a good headset (general purpose, gaming, music, teleconferencing). I'm not an audiophile. Don't have the money to buy a good one right now, but I will want one soonish.

Thank you very much.

 

[789oGaming]

How about xeon instead of i5-4690 since it seems that you are not going to overclock at the moment. Xeon e3-1231 or e3-1240 seems to be nearly at same price point (at least in germany) but they are hyper-threaded which could help in CAD. I'm using razer blackwidow at the moment and it feels pretty good while being affordable.

You should check this psu tier list and pick a quality one (from tier 1 and 2) http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[Solyom Csaba]

How about xeon instead of i5-4690 since it seems that you are not going to overclock at the moment. Xeon e3-1231 or e3-1240 seems to be nearly at same price point (at least in germany) but they are hyper-threaded which could help in CAD. I'm using razer blackwidow at the moment and it feels pretty good while being affordable.

You should check this psu tier list and pick a quality one (from tier 1 and 2) http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Thanks for that PSU tier list, it is immensely helpful. On the Xeon side, unfortunately that is a no-go around here. They cost about a good bit more (~1400-1600 RON instead of ~900-1000 for the 4690), and the motherboard would cost somewhat more as well.

 

[789oGaming]

That's a pity. Is there a possibility that you could buy components from abroad? Mindfactory.de has low prices at least when comparing to where I live. I have bought several times components from there without a single negative experiment.

 

[Vic 40]

. On the Xeon side, unfortunately that is a no-go around here. They cost about a good bit more (~1400-1600 RON instead of ~900-1000 for the 4690), and the motherboard would cost somewhat more as well.

You could use the same motherboard with a Xeon like the "Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3",even a B85 motherboard would do fine.Just to let you know.

I would use the Asrock Z97 Pro4 board,just think it has some better qualities,like the soundchip,better vrm and M.2 slot for instance.

I would try to get some nice 1866/2133mhz with cas 9 ram on such a board.If the budget allows.

The evga Nex isn't that good so look for something similar but better.You already have the psu tier list so make use of that.

 

[Solyom Csaba]

That's a pity. Is there a possibility that you could buy components from abroad? Mindfactory.de has low prices at least when comparing to where I live. I have bought several times components from there without a single negative experiment.

Well, with shipping, it would still come out 25-30 euros more than the i5... because I don't trust the Romanian Postal Services with anything worth more than a dime.
Oh well... at least now I know that the Xeon would also work with the same socket, so that's something.

@Vic 40 1866MHz@CL9 barely costs more than the 1600 versions, so I will probably go with that. 2133, not sure, they did seem more costly. How much of an advantage would that provide, in actual performance (I don't care about benchmarks)?

One thing I forgot to ask: do I need a 3rd party cooler for this system? How are the stock coolers these days?

 

[Vic 40]

@Vic 40 1866MHz@CL9 barely costs more than the 1600 versions, so I will probably go with that. 2133, not sure, they did seem more costly. How much of an advantage would that provide, in actual performance (I don't care about benchmarks)?

To make it clear,only with a "Z" board would you be able to support ram higher than 1600mhz.

In most things will the speed difference make no difference at all,but i saw a review about the i3 6100,maybe abit far fetched,where some games made use of faster ram so if the budget allows is it imo better to get the fastest as possible which the cpu still might support.
In this review was the i3 becoming a bottleneck and the faster ram helped to alleviate that bottleneck.The i5 may not as easily become a bottleneck so that's why it's maybe far fetched.But the point is that if possible some games do make use of faster ram.

One thing I forgot to ask: do I need a 3rd party cooler for this system? How are the stock coolers these days?

Need no,want yes,well that's my opinion.These cpu's work with a turbo speed,these speeds will be easier maintained when the cooler is kept cooler by a third party cooler.With a "Z" board would it also be possible to make all cores run at max turbo which makes the cpu hotter as well,this is a kind of overclocking.

 

[789oGaming]

I don't think 2133 ram would be worth the extra cost. Ram doesn't make that big improvement unless you are using integrated graphics. And yes, aftermarket cooler would be nice to have. Something like Cooler Master 212 evo will do the job just fine.