Is this a good and futureproof gaming rig?

[andreas0912]

I made a thread about the CPU and GPU a couple of minutes ago but take a look at all the components and tell me if it's good and futureproof.

NZXT H440 case
Intel i5-4690k
MSI GTX 980
Corsair 16gb 1600mhz
MSI z97 Gaming 5
EVGA Supernova 750 G2 fully modular 80+gold PSU
Asus VS248H monitor
Samsung 850 Evo 120gb
WD Black 2TB
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Windows 8.1

Tell me if there's anything I could change!

 

[quilciri]

I strongly recommend against buying PC's based on any concept of "futureproofing". Leaving room for expansion/upgrades is my preferred method. I spend ~$250 each year on PC upgrades, and I have a stronger PC for almost the entire time over the people I know that spend $1500+ every 4-5 years on a new PC.

 

[Kevin_Smith]

I made a thread about the CPU and GPU a couple of minutes ago but take a look at all the components and tell me if it's good and futureproof.

NZXT H440 case
Intel i5-4690k
MSI GTX 980
Corsair 16gb 1600mhz
MSI z97 Gaming 5
EVGA Supernova 750 G2 fully modular 80+gold PSU
Asus VS248H monitor
Samsung 850 Evo 120gb
WD Black 2TB
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Windows 8.1

Tell me if there's anything I could change!

You should be able to run the newest games at highest graphics with 1080P for maybe a year or 2, but nothing is really "future proof" unless you get a really expensive rig. It is still pretty good, but you could increase that SSD to 256GB. Get an Asus Z97 instead of the MSI motherboard, since I hear it's better. Hope I helped!

 

[Larry Litmanen]

I am not sure if liquid cooling is better than regular air cooling, i think it is quieter. But your cooler costs $35 on NewEgg, for $50 you can get 120V Seidon. I got the same cooler and i think it works good, i haven't had any issues just don't forget to power both pump and the fan lol, i did not originally. Other than that excellent built that will last you for years.

I have the same motherboard and it has an M.2 slot so you can upgrade down the road.

BTW a little tip, from the box that motherboard comes with BIOS version 1.2, get MSI Live Updater (MSI's software that updates drivers) and you can update all the drivers including BIOS with like 2 clicks.

 

[quilciri]

My humble suggestion. You can add another 8GB down the line once you actually need it, and you can either add a second 970 (which will be really good once DirectX 12 debuts) or sell the 970 and add a 390X/Titan X once prices come down. You'll have a stronger system for the same price if not cheaper:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($218.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($310.19 @ Amazon)

Total: $734.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-20 14:14 EDT-0400

Cheers!

 

[Larry Litmanen]

One more thing, as i can remember mobo accepts 4 fans but your case can accept more 120mm if i rememeber. So you may need a fan slitter.

 

[Eximo]

I don't see anything particular wrong with the original build up there.

Fast quad core with overclocking capability and a motherboard to match.

16GB of memory is a little overkill, but it is relatively cheap to have it. If you get a 2x8GB kit then you could potentially upgrade to 32GB down the line.

GTX980 is a good GPU, and for much more then 1920x1080 for a year or two... More like for the next 4 or 5 years. 2560x1440 for at least a few years. It can't really do 4K on its own, but you have room for a second GTX980 in the future.

Case is large, you don't have to install all of the fans, so a splitter isn't 100% necessary.

Liquid cooling is only good on the high end with an overclocking CPU. In small form factor cases they can be quite useful. In a tower, an air cooler makes more sense unless you plan to go for extreme overclocking. Then a custom loop is a better choice anyway.

 

[mystilez]

EVGA Supernova 750 G2 fully modular 80+gold PSU
Samsung 850 Evo 120gb
WD Black 2TB
These are the only future proof items you got.
win 10 will be coming out this year
new intel broadwell and skylake will be out too (effecting your cpu cooler)
along with a new set of gpu from amd with die stack memory (unless your a biased fanboy than ignore)
as for monitors why not a 1440p monitor? prices came down drastically.

ddr4 memory is out as well and prices will fall

 

[g-unit1111]

EVGA Supernova 750 G2 fully modular 80+gold PSU
Samsung 850 Evo 120gb
WD Black 2TB
These are the only future proof items you got.
win 10 will be coming out this year
new intel broadwell and skylake will be out too (effecting your cpu cooler)
along with a new set of gpu from amd with die stack memory (unless your a biased fanboy than ignore)
as for monitors why not a 1440p monitor? prices came down drastically.

ddr4 memory is out as well and prices will fall

Windows 10 will be available as a free download from Microsoft for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users so it doesn't matter what you purchase there. Sky Lake will be out sometime in the summer, and DDR4 is currently only available for X99 systems, no word yet on whether or not it will be used on consumer / gaming systems yet. CPU cooler won't be affected much by changing CPU sockets - universal coolers such as the Corsair H100i and Hyper 212 Evo will all be made to use on any CPU socket.

That build looks nearly identical to my own and my build works great.

Case is large, you don't have to install all of the fans, so a splitter isn't 100% necessary.

Actually the H440 is a standard mid tower, I have one, and there's actually a built in fan splitter and it has 5 fans (2 x 140mm top, 2 x 140mm front, and 1 x 140mm fan rear).

I am not sure if liquid cooling is better than regular air cooling, i think it is quieter. But your cooler costs $35 on NewEgg, for $50 you can get 120V Seidon. I got the same cooler and i think it works good, i haven't had any issues just don't forget to power both pump and the fan lol, i did not originally. Other than that excellent built that will last you for years.

I personally have not had much luck with closed liquid coolers. The NZXT X61 that I was using had a defective pump and I so far have not been able to get a replacement for it. The H440 has sound dampening panels so the noise isn't really a factor. I would choose air cooled over liquid cooled 9 times out of 10.

One more thing, as i can remember mobo accepts 4 fans but your case can accept more 120mm if i rememeber. So you may need a fan slitter.

MSI typically has 4 x PWM fan ports on their motherboards. If you need more than that (chances are you don't), you can get a Y cable splitter and hook the fans up to your power supply. But you don't really need that with an H440 since there's a fan splitter built into the case that accepts up to 10 fans plugged in.

 

[Eximo]

I guess I should say a roomy case as compared to other mid-towers with plenty of room for two graphics cards.

 

[mystilez]

"Windows 10 will be available as a free download from Microsoft for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users so it doesn't matter what you purchase there. Sky Lake will be out sometime in the summer, and DDR4 is currently only available for X99 systems, no word yet on whether or not it will be used on consumer / gaming systems yet. CPU cooler won't be affected much by changing CPU sockets - universal coolers such as the Corsair H100i and Hyper 212 Evo will all be made to use on any CPU socket.

That build looks nearly identical to my own and my build works great. "

Windows 10 is only free for a year.... not forever
DDR4 will most likely be released for regular consumers as well...
and those cpu coolers nay, new brackets will most likely be required.

 

[g-unit1111]

Windows 10 is only free for a year.... not forever
DDR4 will most likely be released for regular consumers as well...
and those cpu coolers nay, new brackets will most likely be required.

1. Really? I have not heard this.

2. I haven't seen anything yet that says that DDR4 will be available for consumer / gaming machines. If you do have something post it.

3. Not really - Intel sockets don't really differ from generation to generation. LGA 1156, LGA 1155, and LGA 1150 are all really similar in design. Unless Intel does something drastically different for the next generation the brackets won't change.

 

[mystilez]

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Intel’s Haswell-E would be the first consumer platform to officially support the DDR4 memory. The new high-end platform is expected to launch in Q4 2014 bringing in enhanced set of features and more cores for enthusiasts to overclock. On the mainstream side, Intel will launch the Skylake platform in first half of 2015 which would also be given DDR4 memory support and we will see a wide range of memory kits available to consumers by that time with different clocks and timing configurations.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/crucial-ddr4-memory-ballistix-3000-mhz/#ixzz3V3luv5ZH


and skylakes socket will be shrinked i believe. you can read it up on intels site.

 

[mystilez]

I take the windows 10 back... wtf.. free upgrade ??? i swear i heard someone from microsoft saying its a 1 year free trial...

 

[g-unit1111]

Intel’s Haswell-E would be the first consumer platform to officially support the DDR4 memory. The new high-end platform is expected to launch in Q4 2014 bringing in enhanced set of features and more cores for enthusiasts to overclock. On the mainstream side, Intel will launch the Skylake platform in first half of 2015 which would also be given DDR4 memory support and we will see a wide range of memory kits available to consumers by that time with different clocks and timing configurations.

Haswell-E isn't exactly consumer grade - it's a professional grade socket. The systems that would take full advantage of X99 are systems that are used for multimedia content creation and rendering and CAD applications. Not for gaming or general usage. Which is why it uses memory with higher bandwidth than desktop / gaming systems do. If the Intel socket shrinks it won't be by much compared to previous sockets.

 

[Eximo]

I believe the skylake desktop socket is designated LGA1151 so it will likely be the same size as the other LGA115x sockets.

Skylake is supposed to support DDR3 and DDR4 I believe. Some of the Core 2 boards supported both DDR2 and DDR3 as I recall.

 

[g-unit1111]

I believe the skylake desktop socket is designated LGA1151 so it will likely be the same size as the other LGA115x sockets.

Skylake is supposed to support DDR3 and DDR4 I believe. Some of the Core 2 boards supported both DDR2 and DDR3 as I recall.

Yeah there wasn't much of a design difference between DDR2 and DDR3 which is why the motherboards could support both at first. There is however a huge difference in architecture change from the 233 pin DDR3 that we're used to to the new 288 pin design of DDR4. Right now only X99 supports DDR4, and whether or not that changes with the next generation of Intel CPUs remains to be seen.

 

[Eximo]

In the roadmap with both. My theory is still DDR3L for mobile platforms, and DDR4 for desktop class chips. We will see.

DDR4L just barely exists, and the smartphone market will probably consume most of it for a while.