Need Help Picking Parts

[PC_N00B_3000]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and PC gaming in general and would like to know what sort of components would go best with a GTX970. I picked this card because to me, it had the best price/performance and I don't want to spend more than £300 on a GPU.

To the point, as I'm a PC noob I want to know:

-Which is the best GTX970 manufacturer? I heard some have failed and others are faster (like MSI vs Zotac etc).
-Which is a good CPU to go with a GTX970? Like good enough not to bottleneck it.
-What's the best price/performance in DDR3 RAM sticks? I want around 16GB or more (for Photoshop and Blender etc).
-After the above is figured out, what Motherboard would be best for these?
-What coolers would I need?
-What PC Chasis would best fit all these in?

I don't need assistance on storage or disc drives.

 

[frag06]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

 

[geofelt]

1. The guts of a GTX970 come from the same source... nvidia.
The cards differ in the cooling applied to them. Not a big point since the GTX970 is not a particularly hot card.
I like EVGA as a vendor, mainly for their good support.

2. If your budget permits, a i5-4690K is as good as it gets for the gamer.

3. Look for a 16gb kit of DDR3 1866 1.5v ram. Faster buys you little in real app performance. (think 1%)
If you want more than 16gb, you need windows pro or windows 8.
Buy only a single kit which will be 4 x 8gb.
4. For a single GTX970, any Z97 motherboard will oc decently and do the job.
5. I have become a bit jaded on the subject of haswell cooling for overclocking.
How high you can OC is firstly determined by your luck in the bin lottery.
I had high expectations from the Devil's canyon parts and their better thermals.
I found out that the thermals really do not matter unless, perhaps, you are a competitive overclocker.
Haswell runs quite cool, that is, until you raise the voltage past 1.25v or so.
Once you go past 1.3v, then you really do need very good cooling to keep stress loads under say 85c.
But, the consensus is that voltages higher than 1.30 are not a good thing for 24/7 usage.
I have been unable to find any official Intel recommendation on what is a safe vcore limit.
If you are an enthusiast, you can go higher.
Even if you can handle the heat, how much do you really need that extra multiplier from say 4.4 to 4.6?
My thought is that it is better to use the exotic cooling funds for a quieter and less expensive air cooler.
Anything extra can go to a stronger graphics card for the gamer or a SSD.
I would suggest noctua or Phanteks with a 140mm fan like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608041
6. Cases are a personal thing. Buy what appeals to you.
If you buy a M-ATX sized motherboard, it can fit on a smaller case like the Silverstone TJ-08E.
I like simple cases with washable front intake filters behind two 120/140mm fans.

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

Around £600 - £1000

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

1. The guts of a GTX970 come from the same source... nvidia.
The cards differ in the cooling applied to them. Not a big point since the GTX970 is not a particularly hot card.
I like EVGA as a vendor, mainly for their good support.

2. If your budget permits, a i5-4690K is as good as it gets for the gamer.

3. Look for a 16gb kit of DDR3 1866 1.5v ram. Faster buys you little in real app performance. (think 1%)
If you want more than 16gb, you need windows pro or windows 8.
Buy only a single kit which will be 4 x 8gb.
4. For a single GTX970, any Z97 motherboard will oc decently and do the job.
5. I have become a bit jaded on the subject of haswell cooling for overclocking.
How high you can OC is firstly determined by your luck in the bin lottery.
I had high expectations from the Devil's canyon parts and their better thermals.
I found out that the thermals really do not matter unless, perhaps, you are a competitive overclocker.
Haswell runs quite cool, that is, until you raise the voltage past 1.25v or so.
Once you go past 1.3v, then you really do need very good cooling to keep stress loads under say 85c.
But, the consensus is that voltages higher than 1.30 are not a good thing for 24/7 usage.
I have been unable to find any official Intel recommendation on what is a safe vcore limit.
If you are an enthusiast, you can go higher.
Even if you can handle the heat, how much do you really need that extra multiplier from say 4.4 to 4.6?
My thought is that it is better to use the exotic cooling funds for a quieter and less expensive air cooler.
Anything extra can go to a stronger graphics card for the gamer or a SSD.
I would suggest noctua or Phanteks with a 140mm fan like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608041
6. Cases are a personal thing. Buy what appeals to you.
If you buy a M-ATX sized motherboard, it can fit on a smaller case like the Silverstone TJ-08E.
I like simple cases with washable front intake filters behind two 120/140mm fans.

Thanks for the reply man. At number 2, is that the best CPU for gaming then?

 

[frag06]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

Around £600 - £1000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £851.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:10 GMT+0000

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is the best.

I didn't add a cooler. What you want will depend on if you are overclocking or not. If not, a 212 EVO will work great, but if you are you should look into some better coolers.

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

Around £600 - £1000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £851.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:10 GMT+0000

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is the best.

Thank you
So is this the best rig for a GTX970 then?

 

[geofelt]

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is as good as it gets. Few games use more than 2-3 cores so fast cores trumps more cores.
Now that said, there is an argument for the i7-4790K if the $100 difference is not a big issue.
You will get a better binned chip that runs at stock at 4.0 with 4.4 turbo.
You also get hyperthreading which can help with multithreaded apps and I think that includes photoshop.
You also get more l3 cache, but I have seen no analysis on that.

 

[frag06]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

Around £600 - £1000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £851.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:10 GMT+0000

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is the best.

Thank you
So is this the best rig for a GTX970 then?

Pretty much, yes.

All you need to add is a CPU cooler, and like I said before the 212 EVO is more than sufficient if you aren't going to overclock. If you are overclocking, look into something like a Noctua NH-U14S.

 

[geofelt]

Build is good.

I would add a aftermarket air cooler.
Most any will do.

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

What is your budget? We need to know to really suggest any parts or help you build it.

For a 970, the best so far have been the MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 and the Asus STRIX.

Around £600 - £1000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £851.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:10 GMT+0000

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is the best.

Thank you
So is this the best rig for a GTX970 then?

Pretty much, yes.

All you need to add is a CPU cooler, and like I said before the 212 EVO is more than sufficient if you aren't going to overclock. If you are overclocking, look into something like a Noctua NH-U14S.

Okay thanks for the help

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is as good as it gets. Few games use more than 2-3 cores so fast cores trumps more cores.
Now that said, there is an argument for the i7-4790K if the $100 difference is not a big issue.
You will get a better binned chip that runs at stock at 4.0 with 4.4 turbo.
You also get hyperthreading which can help with multithreaded apps and I think that includes photoshop.
You also get more l3 cache, but I have seen no analysis on that.

Ah, so when more games start using more threads and I want a boost in Photoshop speed I should get the other CPU you mentioned?

 

[frag06]

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is as good as it gets. Few games use more than 2-3 cores so fast cores trumps more cores.
Now that said, there is an argument for the i7-4790K if the $100 difference is not a big issue.
You will get a better binned chip that runs at stock at 4.0 with 4.4 turbo.
You also get hyperthreading which can help with multithreaded apps and I think that includes photoshop.
You also get more l3 cache, but I have seen no analysis on that.

Ah, so when more games start using more threads and I want a boost in Photoshop speed I should get the other CPU you mentioned?

For Photoshop you may want to go with an i7.

You may see an increase in performance when games become truly multi-threaded, but no one knows when that will happen and with all of the ports coming out, it probably won't be anytime soon.

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is as good as it gets. Few games use more than 2-3 cores so fast cores trumps more cores.
Now that said, there is an argument for the i7-4790K if the $100 difference is not a big issue.
You will get a better binned chip that runs at stock at 4.0 with 4.4 turbo.
You also get hyperthreading which can help with multithreaded apps and I think that includes photoshop.
You also get more l3 cache, but I have seen no analysis on that.

Ah, so when more games start using more threads and I want a boost in Photoshop speed I should get the other CPU you mentioned?

For Photoshop you may want to go with an i7.

You may see an increase in performance when games become truly multi-threaded, but no one knows when that will happen and with all of the ports coming out, it probably won't be anytime soon.

Oh, well how much more is the i7 then? I'm good with future-proofing if it isn't too expensive.

 

[frag06]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £931.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:34 GMT+0000

 

[PC_N00B_3000]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.00 @ Kustom PCs)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.49 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £931.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-01 18:34 GMT+0000

Damn, that's a full priced game more. Oh well may as well for the Photoshop boost. Thanks for the help!

 

[sora]

For gaming, yes, the 4690K is as good as it gets. Few games use more than 2-3 cores so fast cores trumps more cores.
Now that said, there is an argument for the i7-4790K if the $100 difference is not a big issue.
You will get a better binned chip that runs at stock at 4.0 with 4.4 turbo.
You also get hyperthreading which can help with multithreaded apps and I think that includes photoshop.
You also get more l3 cache, but I have seen no analysis on that.

Ah, so when more games start using more threads and I want a boost in Photoshop speed I should get the other CPU you mentioned?

For Photoshop you may want to go with an i7.

You may see an increase in performance when games become truly multi-threaded, but no one knows when that will happen and with all of the ports coming out, it probably won't be anytime soon.

I remember Sony Vegas only had an 11 second render difference between the i5 and i7 so I doubt Photoshop will depend on an i7 a lot more than an i5.