Please review my build and offer comments or suggestions

insider9

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Jan 3, 2016
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I have only been on here since new year and been amazed by how nice and helpful everyone is. Thanks again. I've used a lot of advice and read a lot in forums as well as reviews, articles, etc. I finally came to a point where my build is almost there. It's supposed to be mainly for gaming for my 15 year old son. I'm looking for a reasonable OC on CPU and GPU as well as SLI in the future.

I put an asterix in front of parts I already own. Quite a few were bough either second hand or were used in my previous pc (bar psu, ssd). The rest I'm going to buy brand new.

Here goes:

*CPU: i5-4690k
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Motherboard: Asus Z97 Pro Gamer ATX
*Memory: 1x4GB Kingston HyperX Blu DDR 1600 (1.65V) CL9
1x8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X Series DDR-1600 CL8
*SSD: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO
*HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda
*GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SC
Case: Corsair SPEC-03
*PSU: EVGA SuperNova G2 750W
*Optical drive: DVDRW
*Additional case fan: Arctic F12 PWM rev 2

My main concern is whether the heatsink will fit when used with this case/motherboard/memory combination.

Any criticism or tips are welcome.

If possible at all I'd rather stick to remaining parts or at least the budget. It's already been stretched too many times. Here's a link in case you are thinking I could get something else for comparable price
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/NPmXK8

Thank you in advance
 
Solution
Give a look to Fractal Design Define S or Fractal Design Define R4. Both are great cases for the money with good airflow and noise suppression.

apanpapan3

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Your build is good, but the heatsink will not fit, the SPEC-03 supports coolers up to 157 mm, and the Hyper 212 Evo is 159 mm. You have to choose a smaller air cooler or a liquid cooler.
 

insider9

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Oh I wasn't expecting that. Water cooling is the one thing I didn't read about at all. It was either Hyper 212 Evo or Noctua NH-D14 but due to cost I went with Cooler Master. Just checked and Noctua is even bigger so it looks like I need to get a different case.

Thank you very much for pointing that out.
 

insider9

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Will do, thanks.
 

insider9

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Thank you for that. Is there any budget water coolers you would suggest or would it just be easier to spend on a larger case? I only picked that case as it had good airflow.
 

insider9

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Luckily I haven't bought the case or cooler yet so I can still do another days worth of research. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I've got a lot of reading to do :)
 
Every mobo has 4 slots nowadays just if he goes 2x4 for dual channel now then in the future if he (and he will) wants to expand to 16 gb he will be with 4x4gb having only them running in 2 separate dual channels. Better a single 8gb stick now and in the future 2x8gb in dual channel.
 

insider9

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Yes you are right Gingerbread.

And to answer the question Corwin 65 as it is a good point I already had less desirable 1x4GB Kingston and got a good price on the second hand 1xGB Ripjaws. In a while I'll definitely try to pair up so it all works proper dual channel and Kingston will be obsolete being slower out of the 2.
 

insider9

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Jan 3, 2016
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Thank you to all of you for comments and suggestions. Really appreciate you taking the time to read all of it and take your time to post answers.

Thought I'm going to give you an update as now ordered all the parts now. Someone might want to find this useful so here goes.

I was really surprised when both apanpapan3 and Gingerbread pointed out that Hyper 212 Evo won't fit into SPEC-03. I have seen number of builds (pictures and all) on pc partpicker using these so didn't really check the details. Even thought SPEC-03 theoretically it's 2mm too narrow.

I ended up ordering a different case and kept Hyper 212 Evo and Asus Z97 Pro Gamer.

I went with Zalaman Z11 Neo in black.

Special thanks to you Gingerbread as you pointed me towards Fractal Design cases that led me to the one I picked therefore I will chose your answer as the solution.