Darkbreeze :
I'm gonna have to bust down your build though. Keep in mind this is simply my opinion which may or may not reflect the views of this establishment. Oh, wait, wrong disclaimer.
lol
Darkbreeze :
Anyhow, of course going with the 212 EVO is cheaper, however, it's also louder. The 120mm fan on the cooler has to work MUCH hard and thus spin at a faster RPM, to try and do the same job as the Noctua NH-U14S which has a 140mm fan and can do the same job at a lower RPM which reduces noise. The heatsink on the Noctua fan is vastly better than the EVO's as well. I couldn't get either of two overclocked rigs to go past 4.1 without thermals becoming a problem using the EVO and with the Noctua they are both stable and cool at 4.5Ghz. So if there is any plan to overclock to the chips potential stable and thermally manageable ceiling, the Noctua is a better choice. Even without overclocking it's a better choice because it's quieter at any equivalent thermal setting.
At the Noctua's price range, for a few bucks more I would then advise an H100i in its stead, its noise to performance ratio is inredible.
Darkbreeze :
The PSU is way overkill. Unless there is some intention to add a second card later, there is absolutely not necessity for any PSU over 650w with the GTX 970. 550w will run it fine without anything else seriously overclocked and 650w will be more than enough regardless of what else is being done so long as it's a good PSU and not a Tier 3 unit.
Also, I NEVER recommend Corsair power supplies. Their cheap ones have a high failure rate or at the very least are problematic. I see a ton of CX series issues here that are resolved by installing better units. Their good units are significantly more expensive than other units with the same quality. Therefore, I don't recommend them unless they happen to be on sale and are priced low enough to justify the purchase. Even then, I only do so with the AX, HX v2, GS, TX and as listed on the Tier list, a couple of the RM series models.
In this respect I agree with the different models, however in their 'good' models it's an all different league. I personally have a TX850, and its amazing. However for the overkill, I disagree, don't you believe that in the medium-long run, isn't it prudent to leave the door open for SLI? And with a little wiggle room to not pull max wattage out of a PSU? Instead of lets say in 18 months, OP decides he wants to SLI to keep playing 2016 AAA titles at ultra with decent FPS, but he would also need to upgrade the PSU? Or add a couple of fans in the case on top of that?
Darkbreeze :
Bumping the RAM up to 16GB is never a bad thing in my opinion, except you dropped it from 2133Mhz CL9 modules to 1600Mhz CL10 modules. That incurs a performance penalty on both the clock speed of the module and the latency. Not good.
Agree, it should have been this RAM:
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($157.50 @ Newegg)
Total: $157.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-19 04:59 EST-0500
Darkbreeze :
I'm not 100% certain on this, but I'm 90% certain that the WD Caviar Blue has a higher failure rate than the Seagate drive I chose, mostly for price reasons, and the Caviar green drive you chose is an even slower 5400RPM model that incurs a penalty for performance.
Im not sure if you know this, your comment about the green leads me to believe so, but:
WD Black = Speed + performance at the expense of power consumption and shorter life span
WD Blue = Balance between speed/performance/life span
WD Green = Eco drive, slower, more reliable, long life span, low power consumption
Hence why i suggested the green drive in the 'eco build'
I tend to always use WD drives, either for HDD's or external HDDs, in my 12 years using their drives, have NEVER had any failure.
Darkbreeze :
As I indicated earlier in the thread, if the OP needs to cut the budget down, going with an i5 and bumping the clock up is the best way to do so, shaving about a hundred bucks off the build.
Agree, and this is where the H100i would truly help, I have an i5 4670k which i managed to keep stable at 4 GHz and upto 4.6 GHz in turbo boost, and its temps are still AMAZING with the H100i.
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