[New PC Build Recommendations]

[JackkLewis]

I was just wondering whether anyone could give me recommendations on my new PC rig? What to change? How the airflow and cooling would be? Whether I can run 2, 144Hz monitors? and whether I'm able to maintain high FPS (Preferably 144FPS) while recording and/or streaming?

PC Build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/JackkLewis/saved/#view=2shhP6

If anything needs to be change then can you let me know?
and
If I can make it cheaper in anyway, while still maintaining the low power/low temps and high FPS?

 

[Mxhawthy]

Damn, this is really nice build.

There's barely anything I would change, although I recommend using a singular 980ti instead of 970s in SLI.
The performance scaling for SLI/Crossfire is not very good, and for the amount you pay, you will have a more enjoyable experience with a single card.

With SLI you may experience micro-stutters.
With 970's, you will only have 3.5gb VRAM (Vram doesn't combine when you have 2 cards, and 970's only have 3.5gb of useable vram despite the 4gb on the box)
A 980ti has 6gb of VRAM, so you'll have more.
Not forgetting, some games don't even have support for sli/crossfire, so you will get literally 0 benefit for those games.

I would really only recommend sli/crossfire if you have a 980ti already, and want another.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx980tigaming6g

 

[JackkLewis]

Damn, this is really nice build.

There's barely anything I would change, although I recommend using a singular 980ti instead of 970s in SLI.
The performance scaling for SLI/Crossfire is not very good, and for the amount you pay, you will have a more enjoyable experience with a single card.

With SLI you may experience micro-stutters.
With 970's, you will only have 3.5gb VRAM (Vram doesn't combine when you have 2 cards, and 970's only have 3.5gb of useable vram despite the 4gb on the box)
A 980ti has 6gb of VRAM, so you'll have more.
Not forgetting, some games don't even have support for sli/crossfire, so you will get literally 0 benefit for those games.

I would really only recommend sli/crossfire if you have a 980ti already, and want another.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx980tigaming6g

Most of the games I play, this build will be overkill, but I want a very efficient gaming PC just because I can really, and because if I do play any other games in the future, I will be able to run it no problem.

At the moment I have 1 MSi GTX 970's and was planning on getting another to SLI.

Sorry I'm a bit of a noob in terms of configurations, and have to ask for advice as I dont trust myself to choose correctly hahah! What does VRAM benefit in terms of gaming, video editing, recording and casual streaming? And would it be more beneficial to have 1 980Ti, rather than 2 970's, for gaming purposes?

Also, would a single 970 be able to run 2 monitors running at 144Hz, with this rig that I am about to list.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/JackkLewis/saved/#view=Yq9dnQ

 

[azaran]

So the question has to be asked, why not go with a Skylake version instead of a Haswell. Just did a mock up and it runs roughly 40 more.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£296.28 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£176.46 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£75.38 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£62.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£62.77 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£286.94 @ More Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£286.94 @ More Computers)
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 700D ATX Full Tower Case (£136.99)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£96.98 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£74.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Chroma Wired Gaming Keyboard (£139.99)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma Wired Optical Mouse (£54.41 @ Aria PC)
Headphones: Astro A40 7.1 Channel Headset (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2418.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-18 12:19 GMT+0000

And if you decided to go for a single 980ti instead of a sli 970

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£296.28 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£176.46 @ More Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£75.38 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£62.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£62.77 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (£564.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 700D ATX Full Tower Case (£136.99)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£96.98 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£74.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Chroma Wired Gaming Keyboard (£139.99)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Chroma Wired Optical Mouse (£54.41 @ Aria PC)
Headphones: Astro A40 7.1 Channel Headset (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2409.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-18 12:19 GMT+0000

 

[Mxhawthy]

Games nowadays, and even more-so in the future, are starting to use more than 4GBs of VRAM now for GPUs. So basically, having 4GB or less, is slightly hindering your performance. Even more if you are streaming/recording while gaming too.

Plus, you say you want to be able to run future games with no problems, while it is true that more and more games are gaining support for SLI, so that is in your favour, but it all depends on how long your two 970s will be able to maintain good frames when they are starting to lack VRAM.

Your choice is either to pay around £560 for a 980ti which will guarantee you good performance for a good number of years, or go for another 970 which is much cheaper than a 980ti, but will need to be upgraded again if you want to maintain high FPS in gaming, etc.

There's also a third choice - waiting for the next generation of GPUs. They are rumored to be coming out May, but no one really knows. nVidia's next line is called Pascal, and they are apparently going to be much more powerful that the current line-up (900 series) and will cost a similar price.

But I don't know if waiting is an option for you. That's for you to decide I'm afraid

Hope this helped

 

[JackkLewis]

Games nowadays, and even more-so in the future, are starting to use more than 4GBs of VRAM now for GPUs. So basically, having 4GB or less, is slightly hindering your performance. Even more if you are streaming/recording while gaming too.

Plus, you say you want to be able to run future games with no problems, while it is true that more and more games are gaining support for SLI, so that is in your favour, but it all depends on how long your two 970s will be able to maintain good frames when they are starting to lack VRAM.

Your choice is either to pay around £560 for a 980ti which will guarantee you good performance for a good number of years, or go for another 970 which is much cheaper than a 980ti, but will need to be upgraded again if you want to maintain high FPS in gaming, etc.

There's also a third choice - waiting for the next generation of GPUs. They are rumored to be coming out May, but no one really knows. nVidia's next line is called Pascal, and they are apparently going to be much more powerful that the current line-up (900 series) and will cost a similar price.

But I don't know if waiting is an option for you. That's for you to decide I'm afraid

Hope this helped

Very true, however waiting may not be an option for me as I'm a VERY impatient person haha! I will probably settle for the Ti, as I dont plan on upgrading for a while, and I will only play demanding games temporarily. I normally play LoL, which I know my rig is VERY overkill for that game, but I wanted to know for certain whether it is worth to SLI, or just to settle for 1 GPU that has higher VRAM and wont need to be upgraded.

If I wanted to buy 2 GTX 980Ti's, how much will that improve my FPS 'ingame' and will it affect the purchasing of other components. Will I need to by extra case fans and a better cooling system to maintain low temps and better airflow with 2 Ti's? Or will my current rig be enough for running two Ti's?

Also, will a single GTX 970 be enough to run 2 144Hz monitors, or will I have to grab a better GPU?

 

[Mxhawthy]

I'll try my best to answer as many questions as possible here:

If you bought two 980ti's, your FPS would improve dramatically, yes. Although they are expensive cards, and one is enough to run everything right now, in 4k, on max settings, at 60+FPS, so it's not really necessary to have them in SLI for a while.

Your current rig would maybe need a couple of extra case fans if you wanted to add another 980ti at a later date. Generally, nVidia cards run at very respectable temps, however the sheer size of having another card will mean there is much less space for air to get around your case. Nothing too serious though.
(And yes, your case would be big enough for an extra GPU )

Finally, on the subject of your two 144hz monitors:

It's not a question of 'whether or not a GTX 970 can run two 144hz monitors'... It's whether or not a 970 can run games in high enough frames to take advantage of the 144hz monitors.

These two quotes explain it better than I ever could:

"There is a huge difference between 60hz and 120 or 144hz when it comes to smoothness and feel. Most die hard gamers understand this and perfer this. The problem that most people have is that they buy a 120hz/144hz monitor and they run a crappy video card that can't run high enough fps in the games they play to match the hz rate so they don't feel the benefit of the 120/144hz monitor. If your a 1080p gamer playing the latest games, you better have a really good video card or sli setup that will allow you to average at a minimum 110-150 fps in all your games otherwise don't buy the monitor."

"if your gpu is capable of delivering 120+ fps, then the gameplay will be smoother. You will notice the difference, no doubt. If your gpu cant do 120 fps, then dont bother, because you wont be able to enjoy the full experience of such a monitor.
I should say this... before i had 144 hz monitor, i didnt think there will be much difference, but after having it i can't go back.
the 3d difference between 60 hz and 120-144 hz is muuch more observable indeed.
PS : professional games often suggest having as many fps as posible, even by lowering quality. they would not recomend 120 + fps if they had a 60hz monitor."
These two quotes were taken from here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1845694/144hz-monitor-worth.html

To answer your question, a single GTX 970 will easily be able to run LoL in 1080p at over 110FPS, so it will take advantage of your 144hz monitors, however it won't run high-demanding games at such a high FPS, so in those cases, the 144hz monitors won't have any real benefit over a cheaper 60hz monitor. But if you already own those two monitors, then forget all this. You will be fine. On low-demanding games, they'll be fantastic on a 970. On high demanding games, a 970 will run at around 60-70FPS and so the 144hz monitors will still look great, but just look like normal 60hz monitors. (which personally, I find fine, I have 3 monitors at 60hz)

I hope this helped

 

[JackkLewis]

I'll try my best to answer as many questions as possible here:

If you bought two 980ti's, your FPS would improve dramatically, yes. Although they are expensive cards, and one is enough to run everything right now, in 4k, on max settings, at 60+FPS, so it's not really necessary to have them in SLI for a while.

Your current rig would maybe need a couple of extra case fans if you wanted to add another 980ti at a later date. Generally, nVidia cards run at very respectable temps, however the sheer size of having another card will mean there is much less space for air to get around your case. Nothing too serious though.
(And yes, your case would be big enough for an extra GPU )

Finally, on the subject of your two 144hz monitors:

It's not a question of 'whether or not a GTX 970 can run two 144hz monitors'... It's whether or not a 970 can run games in high enough frames to take advantage of the 144hz monitors.

These two quotes explain it better than I ever could:

"There is a huge difference between 60hz and 120 or 144hz when it comes to smoothness and feel. Most die hard gamers understand this and perfer this. The problem that most people have is that they buy a 120hz/144hz monitor and they run a crappy video card that can't run high enough fps in the games they play to match the hz rate so they don't feel the benefit of the 120/144hz monitor. If your a 1080p gamer playing the latest games, you better have a really good video card or sli setup that will allow you to average at a minimum 110-150 fps in all your games otherwise don't buy the monitor."

"if your gpu is capable of delivering 120+ fps, then the gameplay will be smoother. You will notice the difference, no doubt. If your gpu cant do 120 fps, then dont bother, because you wont be able to enjoy the full experience of such a monitor.
I should say this... before i had 144 hz monitor, i didnt think there will be much difference, but after having it i can't go back.
the 3d difference between 60 hz and 120-144 hz is muuch more observable indeed.
PS : professional games often suggest having as many fps as posible, even by lowering quality. they would not recomend 120 + fps if they had a 60hz monitor."
These two quotes were taken from here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1845694/144hz-monitor-worth.html

To answer your question, a single GTX 970 will easily be able to run LoL in 1080p at over 110FPS, so it will take advantage of your 144hz monitors, however it won't run high-demanding games at such a high FPS, so in those cases, the 144hz monitors won't have any real benefit over a cheaper 60hz monitor. But if you already own those two monitors, then forget all this. You will be fine. On low-demanding games, they'll be fantastic on a 970. On high demanding games, a 970 will run at around 60-70FPS and so the 144hz monitors will still look great, but just look like normal 60hz monitors. (which personally, I find fine, I have 3 monitors at 60hz)

I hope this helped

Brilliant thank you!

One more question, case fans.
With having the NZXT H440, will i need to buy any additional case fans to improve airflow and keep the temps as cool as possible?

Also, If i replace the three rear 120mm NZXT fans, what can I replace them with? I want it to look aesthetically pleasing, so i was thinking the Corsair AF120-LED's Red at 120mm, but are you able to give me some information on how many I need to buy to replace all of the NZXT fans, whether it would be worth it in terms of efficiency and looks, and what do I need to buy and do to make them run?

Sorry, I'm a bit of a noob with all of this!

 

[Mxhawthy]

If you want to make your case as aesthetically pleasing as possible, buy 4 of the Corsair 120mm LED fans and put 3 intakes at the front, and 1 exhaust and the rear. I did a quick google and it appears that the H440 only has 4 fan mounts, which is 3 and the front and 1 at the rear. So that's all you can do.

Apparently, the case comes shipped with 4 fans in those positions already, so there's no question of you 'adding more fans for extra cooling' as far as I can see (though I may be wrong, I'm at work so I haven't really got the time to do loads of research about that case).

It's down to you, as to whether or not you want to pay for a whole set of 4 replacement fans for the aesthetic benefit of LED.

EDIT: And yes, you will want at least 3 or 4 fans if you are going to have 980ti's in SLI

 

[JackkLewis]

If you want to make your case as aesthetically pleasing as possible, buy 4 of the Corsair 120mm LED fans and put 3 intakes at the front, and 1 exhaust and the rear. I did a quick google and it appears that the H440 only has 4 fan mounts, which is 3 and the front and 1 at the rear. So that's all you can do.

Apparently, the case comes shipped with 4 fans in those positions already, so there's no question of you 'adding more fans for extra cooling' as far as I can see (though I may be wrong, I'm at work so I haven't really got the time to do loads of research about that case).

It's down to you, as to whether or not you want to pay for a whole set of 4 replacement fans for the aesthetic benefit of LED.

EDIT: And yes, you will want at least 3 or 4 fans if you are going to have 980ti's in SLI

Hmm, just done some research about the case and what's the best airflow configuration for this particular case. In most cases, it's normal to have the push/pull effect by intake from the bottom and the front, and exhausting out the top and the rear.

In all honesty, I have had a look at whether if I change the fans to make it more aesthetically pleasing, if it will improve the efficiency of the airflow, but in actual fact it only makes it look nicer, which doesn't really bother me I guess. Only a few LED lights! All in all, I'll probably just settle for the case fans that come with the NZXT H440, can't be arsed to faff about on my first build.

In terms of cable management, will that be something I should priorities when building the PC, and is it something that can take some time?

 

[Mxhawthy]

You should ideally take some time to do proper cable management, although I'm the worst. I simply can't do it. I end up getting stressed, my cables are a huge mess inside my case (But I always make sure the cables aren't near moving fans, or heat sink, etc).

I don't have a windowed case so there's no aesthetic benefit to me. It's up to you.