New PC Build Would like opinions

[eggbrook]

Alright everyone I am building a new PC for my brother who is an avid gamer and wants me to build him a machine that won't need to be upgraded for at least 3 to 5 years. Mind you he plays games like WoW, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect 3.

I was thinking this


CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($373.61 @ Micro Center)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.48 @
Micro Center)

Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($165.45 @ Micro Center)

Nvidia EVGA GTX 980

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($45.89 @ Micro Center)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($45.89 @ Micro Center)

Storage: Crucial MX200 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($330.91 @ Micro Center)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.38 @ Micro Center)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.38 @ Micro Center)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.38 @ Micro Center)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($545.76 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: Corsair 850W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($193.48 @ Micro Center)

Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($42.68 @ Micro Center)

Monitor: Asus VS278Q-P 27.0" Monitor ($182.81 @ Micro Center)

Total: $2215.10

As for a case I am getting him an Antec 300 v2, a retail copy of WIndows 10 Home

I am buying pretty much everything from Microcenter because there is one about 25 mins from home so I would like to stick with them in case of DOA parts. The case and Windows are being bought from Amazon.com Tell me what you guys think and any moderations that would be necessary. 2215 is the max budget at Microcenter though so keep that in mind. Thanks guys

I should also mention I plan on using a raid 5 for the 3 mechanical hard drives to ensure his data is more protected

 

[Mac070]

No graphics card ? Or did you forget to add one ?

 

[eggbrook]

Sorry it didn't include it for some reason Nvidia EVGA GTX 980

 

[Mac070]

Change the Seagate Drive to a Western Digital
Western Digital has been around longer and is more reliable .
Corsair power supplies aren't good quality
I recommend picking up a super flower G2 or any EVGA power supply .
GTX 980?
Get the GTX 980 TI for better performance .
Ram
Dont get me wrong . The ram you choose is very good quality but find something cheaper for cost savings . The EVGA ram is low cost and good

 

[Szaki]

Is there a particular reason for so much (and so expensive) storage options ?

 

[eggbrook]

I had always used Corsair, they used to be great. Has their quality dropped off that much?

 

[Archaic59]

I had always used Corsair, they used to be great. Has their quality dropped off that much?

Which model Corsair PSU are you talking about. The higher end models are fine to use. 2 separate sticks of ram may not work together. Get a single kit of 2 sticks for assured compatibility.

 

[eggbrook]

I had always used Corsair, they used to be great. Has their quality dropped off that much?

Which model Corsair PSU are you talking about. The higher end models are fine to use. 2 separate sticks of ram may not work together. Get a single kit of 2 sticks for assured compatibility.

The model was HX850i and as for the RAM I totally agree with you and am not sure what I was thinking they have a 16GB 2 8 gig sticks of EVGA DDR 4 I think I'll be going with instead

 

[eggbrook]

Change the Seagate Drive to a Western Digital
Western Digital has been around longer and is more reliable .
Corsair power supplies aren't good quality
I recommend picking up a super flower G2 or any EVGA power supply .
GTX 980?
Get the GTX 980 TI for better performance .
Ram
Dont get me wrong . The ram you choose is very good quality but find something cheaper for cost savings . The EVGA ram is low cost and good

I would love to get him the TI but he can't afford it, I may convince him to buy the graphics card through Amazon so we can get a better deal on one and go for the TI

 

[eggbrook]

Is there a particular reason for so much (and so expensive) storage options ?

He wants as large a SSD drive as possible and as for the other mechanical drives I'll be running them in a RAID 5 for extra data protection.

 

[sizzling]

Don't buy seperate sticks of RAM, buy a RAM kit. Seperate sticks of the sales make and model are not guaranteed to work together, yes they usually will but it's not unknown for problems, it is why RAM is sold in matched kits

 

[Archaic59]

The Corsair HXi series are fine. Their newest RMx series look even better. Both are good. Up to you. Around here the high quality standard recommendation is EVGA G2 or P2 series made by Super Flower.

 

[Archaic59]

Don't buy seperate sticks of RAM, buy a RAM kit. Seperate sticks of the sales make and model are not guaranteed to work together, yes they usually will but it's not unknown for problems, it is why RAM is sold in matched kits

We already addressed that issue but thank you.

 

[geofelt]

A very good start, but I have some suggestions:

1. Few games can use more than 2-3 threads, so the I7 hyperthreads will go largely unused.
A I5-6600K will perform equally well, and perhaps better with a decent overclock.

2. It is a mistake to buy two different ram sticks.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
It is safer to get what you need in one kit.
But, it is a bit more expensive because of the added matching of all the sticks to insure compatibility.
2133 or 2400 speed is fine. Buy low profile ram to avoid conflicts with cpu coolers.

3. Today, I like the reliability of Samsung evo. 1tb is a very nice size.
The only reason for hard drives would be to store large files such as videos.
I would defer on the hard drives, it is easy to add them later.
Seagate is not as reliable as Western digital.
I would look to WD red for storage.
Here is a nice article on the WD rainbow:
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Understanding-the-WD-Rainbow-674/

4. GTX980 is a very good card. It is in a strange place in the market.
GTX970 will run most any game at 1080P well. The price of a GTX980 is markedly higher than a GTX970, but the performance does not match.
OTOH, the GTX980ti is a much stronger card for not that much more.
For this build, consider a GTX980ti.
Particularly if you are looking at higher resolution gaming in the future.
You keep a monitor for a long time.
I suggest buying a better 1440P monitor It will be in the $300 range.
It will have a IPS screen with a better 178/178 viewing angle.

5. A GTX970 will need only a 500w psu.
GTX980 550w, and GTX980ti 620w.

I see that microcenter has PC P&C silencer units factory refurbished for $49.
They are outstanding tier 1 units.
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true

Here is the 750w unit:http://www.microcenter.com/product/457156/S75CF_750W_EPS12V_80-Plus_Active_PFC_Power_Supply_Factory-Recertified

On raid 5 or any other raid, what is your objective?

The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 is that you can recover from a drive failure quickly. It is for servers that can not tolerate any interruption.
Modern hard drives have a advertised mean time to failure on the order of 500,000+ hours. That is something like 50 years. SSD's are similar.
With raid-1 you are protecting yourself from specifically a hard drive failure. Not from other failures such as viruses, operator error,
malware, raid controller failure fire, theft, etc.
For that, you need external backup. If you have external backup, and can tolerate some recovery time, you do not need raid-1

 

[Szaki]

Is there a particular reason for so much (and so expensive) storage options ?

He wants as large a SSD drive as possible and as for the other mechanical drives I'll be running them in a RAID 5 for extra data protection.

I mean that's nice and all, but consider this: It will be still "just" a gaming pc. It won't hold "crucial" data and this as big of an ssd as possible...well. If something happens, you can always reinstall the os or any game in a few minutes, but choosing the 980 over a TI is permanent for a while. Listen to the previous posters and make room for that TI, get just one HDD and a smaller ssd. 500gig of ssd will still bee enough for around 10 games.