Gaming PC build, need advice

[isendel11]

Hi folks,

Since I'm kinda new to building my own pc, I would like to show you my build and ask for any comment.


I have made this build:

http://it.pcpartpicker.com/p/NjGrwP

and i think i could use some advice. What do you guys think about it? My budget is around 1200 €, with monitor. I get 2 compatibility notes:

Some Intel Z87 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Haswell Refresh CPUs.
Unable to verify the Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case has sufficient space to fit the Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Edition Video Card.

Should I be worried? The GPU is going to be a gtx 970, that was the only model the italian partpicker had.

One more thing: while I'm pretty used to changing single components (ram, video, hard disk and so on), I never built a pc from scratch. There are many guides online, I guess i'll be fine right?

I'm open to any suggestions, thanks!

 

[sadams04]

MB - Changed to a Z97 offering.
CPU COOLER - Don't forget one.
MEM - Always install modules in pairs to take advantage of the dual memory controllers. Installing a single modules, or mismatched modules, will have you running in single channel mode. Less than ideal.
SSD - Very nice, but you could scale back here and save a bit on the budget.
HD - The Seagate will perform better than the WD Blue.
CASE - Changed to a Fractal design. The GTX 970 should fit fine..

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€218.49 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€46.43 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€108.66 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€76.04 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€102.90 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€53.00 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Edition Video Card (€389.90 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Fractal Design FD-CA-CORE-3300-BL ATX Mid Tower Case (€68.37 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€93.21 @ Amazon Italia)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (€17.11 @ Amazon Italia)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (€114.74 @ Amazon Italia)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (€10.14 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1298.99

 

[Kohwali]

About the 970 according to NewEgg, its 204 mm in length and PCPartPicker has your case listed as having a maximum card length of 360 mm. I'll check your build.

 

[Kohwali]

This is the build I would suggest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€218.49 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€46.43 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€133.00 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€78.80 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€48.50 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Edition Video Card (€389.90 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case (€64.00 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€161.12 @ Amazon Italia)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (€17.11 @ Amazon Italia)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (€114.74 @ Amazon Italia)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (€10.14 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €1282.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-28 18:16 CET+0100

Added a CPU cooler because you have a K series CPU selected and you'll need better than the stock cooler for overclocking.

Switched to the ASUS Z87-A motherboard because that has support for SLI and ASUS makes top notch motherboards.

Switched RAM to dual channel because that's recommended. Unless you planned on buying another 1x8GB RAM stick, go with 2x4GB.

Dropping the SSD in favor of a better power supply which will be more than enough for a future 970 two-way SLI configuration. Keep in mind an SSD only increases boot speeds and loading times, your FPS will not change.

Any questions?

 

[Kohwali]

HD - The Seagate will perform better than the WD Blue.

Why? Both are 7200RPM.

 

[sadams04]

HD - The Seagate will perform better than the WD Blue.

Why? Both are 7200RPM.

The Seagate is a better performing drive as can be seen on benchmarks and real world scenarios.

 

[isendel11]

Some very nice inputs, thanks a lot guys!

About the SSD..I'm so used to SSDs that I feel I can't build a gaming pc without one, I know it's quite a blow to the price but it pretty much became a QoL add. I have a gaming laptop that I will substitute with this PC and it doesn't have a SSD and the difference is huge..OS and games load in 10 times the time they do on my other non-gaming oriented laptop with older cpu and gpu.

About the RAM: I'm planning to rely on this build for a long while, is 8 GB enough or should I just add 8 more GB? What happens if I couple modules with different sizes (e.g. 8 and 4 GB, or 2..) I have a couple spare 2GB modules (not the most recent tbh, pretty sure not 1600) I should just get rid of them right?

 

[Kohwali]

Some very nice inputs, thanks a lot guys!

About the SSD..I'm so used to SSDs that I feel I can't build a gaming pc without one, I know it's quite a blow to the price but it pretty much became a QoL add. I have a gaming laptop that I will substitute with this PC and it doesn't have a SSD and the difference is huge..OS and games load in 10 times the time they do on my other non-gaming oriented laptop with older cpu and gpu.

About the RAM: I'm planning to rely on this build for a long while, is 8 GB enough or should I just add 8 more GB? What happens if I couple modules with different sizes (e.g. 8 and 4 GB, or 2..) I have a couple spare 2GB modules (not the most recent tbh, pretty sure not 1600) I should just get rid of them right?

Well its your money. I personally don't feel like waiting an extra 10 seconds is a big deal so a SSD isn't necessary to me, especially when the extra money can go into something much more practical to a gaming build like a GPU or PSU upgrade.

8GB is enough for now. Keep in mind many of the games are ported from "next-gen" consoles whose components are roughly equivalent to a $400 PC build.

For RAM I asked a similar question a couple weeks ago and from what I gathered, the speeds must be the same, but they should still work even if the capacities are different. Although you may run into issues, its unlikely. Don't quote me on this because I don't know very much about RAM except going above 1600 mhz is unnecessary and dual channels work best.

 

[isendel11]

Very helpful, thanks a lot!
Now give me the time to psychologically prepare to spend that amount of money and I'll let you know how good it feels to play on that build!

 

[Kohwali]

I updated my build suggestion because I originally had the wrong motherboard selected.

Good luck on your build!