New gaming build, opinions?

[DanBonehill]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2Gpf6


Hi all,

Just wondering what people thought of this build, it's going to be my first build for a gaming rig.
Gone for an I5 processor rather than an I7 which I was originally going with. I may do some over clocking in the future and will definitely do SLI on the GPU at some point so that's why I have gone for a bigger power supply.

My main question marks are over the motherboard and the CPU Cooler, where a liquid cooler is needed.

 

[allanitomwesh]

Nothing wrong with it,good choice of parts.

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£171.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£87.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£112.90 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£63.58 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.73 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (£523.57 @ Dabs)
Case: Corsair 600T White Graphite ATX Mid Tower Case (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£113.23 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£52.16 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£79.14 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1533.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-24 14:24 GMT+0000)

-Better GPU

 

[DanBonehill]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£171.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£87.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£112.90 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£63.58 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.73 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (£523.57 @ Dabs)
Case: Corsair 600T White Graphite ATX Mid Tower Case (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£113.23 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£52.16 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£79.14 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1533.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-24 14:24 GMT+0000)

-Better GPU

Sorry for the late response, I've been away.

Thanks for that, is the Ti really much better than the standard 780?

Also, with the case, how is it for ventilation with stock fans? Bare in mind the future SLI, Are the stock fans enough or would people recommend swapping them out, if so what for

Thanks

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

From what Iv'e read, the case comes with 2 200mm fans, and 1 120mm fan, and I think that that's all you can install in the case.

As for the GPUs, a stock 780 vs a stock 780 Ti will look like this...
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-780-Ti-vs-GeForce-GTX-780

But the nicer ones (EVGA, ASUS) will really beat a 780, especially at higher resolutions.
Here are benchmarks for BF4 with the ASUS 780Ti DirectCU II
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_780_Ti_Direct_Cu_II_OC/9.html

 

[DanBonehill]

another quick (silly) question

On the motherboard, there are Red and Black slots, Like where the Memory goes for example. what do they mean or how do they differ?

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

On the motherboard, the red and black DIMM slots (where you put the RAM) are both exactly the same, they are just for aesthetics. If, however, you are just installing 2 RAM modules, the slots do mean something. Just 2 moduels run in Dual Channel mode, and each motherboard is set up differently, but you will need to put the RAM into the correct slots for Dual Channel to work correctly. Your motherboard's manual will tell you where to put the RAM. As for the PCI slots, again they are mostly for aesthetics, but they can also tell you if they are x16, x8, or x4 slots, which is another story all together. They can also tell you if the slots are PCI-E 3.0 or 2.0. On the Maximus VI Hero, for example, the 2 red PCI slots are both PCI-e x16 (or at dual x8), znd the black slot is PCI-E 2.0 at x16. The differences between x16, x8, and x4 are bandwidth speeds, or the speed that the CPU can talk to whatever you have plugged into that lane. I linked a few pages that explain PCI-E lanes a bet more, if you are interested.

http://www.enthusiastpc.net/articles/00003/
http://blog.duropc.com/2013/07/the-difference-between-pcie-x1-x4-x8-x16-and-x32/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-PCI-Express/190

 

[allanitomwesh]

another quick (silly) question

On the motherboard, there are Red and Black slots, Like where the Memory goes for example. what do they mean or how do they differ?

In simple terms,generally,you wan't to put identical ram memory sticks in a pair in the same color slot.So say you have 8GB RAM in a pair of 4GB sticks,and you put the first stick in a black slot,you want to skip the red slot an put the other stick in the second black slot.Say later you get another pair of 4GB sticks,and this time you put the RAM in the red slot,the other one goes in the other red slot.

 

[vmN]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£171.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£87.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£112.90 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£126.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£63.58 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.73 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (£523.57 @ Dabs)
Case: Corsair 600T White Graphite ATX Mid Tower Case (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£113.23 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£52.16 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£79.14 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1533.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-24 14:24 GMT+0000)

-Better GPU

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£239.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£133.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£134.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: GeIL EVO CORSA Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£122.76 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£68.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (£520.54 @ Dabs)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£71.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£73.49 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£77.34 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1492.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-04 10:15 GMT+0000)

• 
  ■ Better CPU
  ■ Better CPU cooler
  ■ Better RAM
  ■ Better SSD
  ■ Better HDD
  ■ More suitable PSU for his build
  ■ AND CHEAPER

 

[DanBonehill]

another quick (silly) question

On the motherboard, there are Red and Black slots, Like where the Memory goes for example. what do they mean or how do they differ?

In simple terms,generally,you wan't to put identical ram memory sticks in a pair in the same color slot.So say you have 8GB RAM in a pair of 4GB sticks,and you put the first stick in a black slot,you want to skip the red slot an put the other stick in the second black slot.Say later you get another pair of 4GB sticks,and this time you put the RAM in the red slot,the other one goes in the other red slot.

ok cool, thanks for all that. What is the Red Start button for? seems a bit random and I've not seen it on any other Motherboards

 

[vmN]

another quick (silly) question

On the motherboard, there are Red and Black slots, Like where the Memory goes for example. what do they mean or how do they differ?

In simple terms,generally,you wan't to put identical ram memory sticks in a pair in the same color slot.So say you have 8GB RAM in a pair of 4GB sticks,and you put the first stick in a black slot,you want to skip the red slot an put the other stick in the second black slot.Say later you get another pair of 4GB sticks,and this time you put the RAM in the red slot,the other one goes in the other red slot.

ok cool, thanks for all that. What is the Red Start button for? seems a bit random and I've not seen it on any other Motherboards

It's a power button.
You can turn your computer on from the motherboard.