New system build

[redbrd82]

It is time to replace my old computer system (AMD 955 Black w/ AMD5770 GPU) with a new build that will be used primarily for photoshop and some gaming, especially Starcraft2, World of Warcraft. I want two HD's for redundancy for my photo collection plus SSD for speed. Have done overclocking with my past AMD955 and will probably do so with the 4790k. If I need better GPU in future for gaming in future will consider SLI. Total price is about $1500, give or take a little.

What do think of this build
CPU-17 4790K- $339.99
MB-ASRock Z97 Fatal1ty-$139.99 (plus 30 rebate with 4790k)
RAM-GSkill Ripjaw X 2 x 8GB- $164.99
PSU- Corsair HX 80+Gold 750w-129.99- 20 rebate
SSD- Samsung EVO 840, 250 GB- $135
GPU EVGA KR Geforce GTX760-$239.99 after rebate
HD- WD Black 1 TB x 2- $69.99 x 2 (for data redundancy)
Case- Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl
$1339.92
CPU cooler- considering water cooling unit not sure what is best, recommendations welcome.
Windows- Don't really like Windows 8 so am considering Windows 7
Have nice monitor and keyboard
Plan to purchase within a week or two

 

[Analgetic]

It's perfect for the job you want and of course for gaming. Consider reading this before going for sli
Hello,

SLI isn't officially supported for World of Warcraft (nor is Crossfire) but in most cases it should work fine, but as it's not supported you may run into issues using it (we can't guarantee anything when using an non supported configuration).

If you make sure the game is in Directx 11 mode that should help too, however if it doesn't, we can only recommend checking again in the future after updates to the game client and updates to your drivers.

As to future support, there's nothing we can really say on this, the game's old so adding support in may not be possible, but we are always looking to expand the amount of systems World of Warcraft runs on. Sorry, my answer's a bit vague there, but it's all we can say really.

found here: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6533733892?page=1

 

[volcanoscout]

I'll defer to Analgetic on the games as I don't have experience with either. I can say from personal experience that you should be very pleased with the R4 and the SSD and HDDs, as I'm currently running the same on a dedicated CS6 build and a work/play build. I didn't like the stock fans in the R4 and replaced them with Noctua 140s, but many find them satisfactory. I do photo editing and gaming, too, and tried making do with the i5-4670K, but am currently swapping out my Z87 and CPU for a Z97 and 4790K. Depending on the extent of your photoshop use, I would recommend bumping the RAM to at least 16GB and adding in an SSD for a dedicated scratch drive. The RAM doesn't have to be be super-speedy, but 1866 would seem to be the sweet spot between cost and performance (if you're using CS6, speeds higher than 1866 don't noticeably improve performance, but from what I've read, going lower than that will cheat the 4790K for other applications). For the scratch drive, I'd recommend the cheapest SSD in the 120-128GB range you can find. If you're a casual user, what you have listed should be good to go.

As far as the CPU cooler, I've only used air so am not qualified to render opinions on water cooling. I will say that I've have very good experience with the Noctua NH-D14 and the NH-U12S. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo also gets very good reviews, and is half the price. Any of three would be good unless you're going to be doing extreme overclocking.

The Windows 7/8 decision is a personal preference issue. Just keep in mind that if you want to go over 16GB of RAM, with W7 you need to get either the Pro or Ultimate editions.

 

[Analgetic]

@volcanoscout RAM-GSkill Ripjaw X 2 x 8GB- $164.99 he has already picked 16 GB 😀

 

[volcanoscout]

@volcanoscout RAM-GSkill Ripjaw X 2 x 8GB- $164.99 he has already picked 16 GB 😀

That's what I get for trying to be coherent so far past my bedtime - thank you for the correction!

I recently built a dedicated CS3/6 machine that I thought was pretty bad-ass with 32GB until I did some more research and discovered that it barely edged into the bottom of the "Low End Adobe Systems" bracket for "REAL" CS6 users.