Thoughts on my first build?

[TheRedMan]

Hey guys, so this is my first time building a pc and I intend to use it primarily on gaming. It's a mini ITX build and hopefully would do well on playing The Witcher 3. So here it is :

CPU: Intel i7 4790K
GPU: Zotac GTX 970
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2x8GB) 1600MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Z97I-PLUS
PSU: Seasonic M12II 650 (80+ Bronze)
Case: Thermaltake Core V1
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S

What do you guys think about it? I've done compatibility check on everything and pretty sure it's good to go. Also I'm planning to do mild OC in the near future and my brother suggested to get AIO cooler instead of the noctua because he thinks it's better for the build, should I go with it or just stick with air cooling?

PS : This build is already exceeding my budget so if you guys have item recommendations with similar performance for lower price, that'd be very helpful.

Update v1.1:
Switching from Seasonic G-650 to M12II (650 or 620W) since it's cheaper.

Update v1.2:
Decided to go with the M12II-650 because it's Haswell ready, and the 620 isn't.

 

[Arronleeds]

great first build mate, the water cooler option would be better for a mini itx build as it doesnt restrict as much space and will make it look cleaner.

 

[madmatt30]

The noctua cooler isn't going to do a great job with an i7 mate - either go with an aio like the seidon 120 or h55 or swap to an unlocked i5.

Another option is the big old raijintek Pallas which offers excellent low profile quiet cooling for the cpu & pretty much the whole board.

 

[Hydroshot]

good build

 

[madmatt30]

Ignore my comments above ,I'm mixing that noctua up with the lh9 low profile cooler :-/

 

[TheRedMan]

The noctua cooler isn't going to do a great job with an i7 mate - either go with an aio like the seidon 120 or h55 or swap to an unlocked i5.

Ah yes I have considered getting the seidon 120v since it is cheaper than the noctua, should I go for it? I wouldn't swap out the cpu because I edit videos on some occassions and thought that the hyperthreading would be helpful.

 

[Guest]

Great build, but the i7 might be a bit of overkill currently. A i5 4670 would be a much more economical option that you would see extremely similar results in.

Soruce: http://www.hardwarepal.com/best-cpu-gaming-9-processors-8-games-tested/

 

[Arronleeds]

dont get a h55 though bro, i had one and it sucked big time, was hotter than a 212 evo that almost cost half the price.

go for the seidon .

 

[TheRedMan]

great first build mate, the water cooler option would be better for a mini itx build as it doesnt restrict as much space and will make it look cleaner.

Thanks mate, my case has enough room for everything and I don't have to worry about restrictions. What I do worry about is the overall cooling performance

 

[madmatt30]

Looking at the case layout mate stick with the noctua .
The only place for a rad is as a front intake which is going to make the case toasty.

Consider a blower style 970 is my advice like the new Asus turbo model (& yes I know its white but its the best card of that style)

You only have 80mm exhausts on that case ,if you can source the fractal design silent series 80mm fans where you are they are quite literally the only 80mm fans I would consider.

This advice is from my experience of doing a build with the antec isk 600 which is incredibly similar .

I had to return a twin fan 280x as it heated the case internals too much - replaced it with a reference blower style card & while its a bit noisier the cpu temps dropped over 10c - the simultaneous drop in cpu & exhaust fan speed near enough negates the extra noise a single fan GPU makes.

 

[geofelt]

A very good build as is.
A 4790K runs at 4.0/4.4 stock and really needs no overclocking.
The stock intel cooler might get noisy, but would do the job.
Still, I like the noctua cooler; their fans are very good.
You could consider the cryorig H7 with a larger 120mm fan for half the price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565
My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

One other suggestion:
120gb gets filled up quickly on a "C" drive.
As it nears 90%full, it will slow down and lose endurance.
If you mainly play a handful of games, consider a 240gbg ssd and defer on the hard drive for later.

The psu is very good. Gold rating and modular are not worth chasing.
Gold rating saves you little, and you are going to use most of the power leads anyway.
A Seasonic 500-620w unit would be just as good.

 

[TheRedMan]

Great build, but the i7 might be a bit of overkill currently. A i5 4670 would be a much more economical option that you would see extremely similar results in.

Soruce: http://www.hardwarepal.com/best-cpu-gaming-9-processors-8-games-tested/

I pick the i7 primarily because of it's hyperthreading, would it make a big difference if I go with the i5 instead?

 

[geofelt]

Great build, but the i7 might be a bit of overkill currently. A i5 4670 would be a much more economical option that you would see extremely similar results in.

Soruce: http://www.hardwarepal.com/best-cpu-gaming-9-processors-8-games-tested/

I pick the i7 primarily because of it's hyperthreading, would it make a big difference if I go with the i5 instead?

For your extra $100, you get a better binned chip and more L3 cache along with hyperthreading.
You also get a stock clock that needs no added overclocking.
If the $100 is in your budget, keep it or you will forever wonder if you should have.

 

[TheRedMan]

A very good build as is.
A 4790K runs at 4.0/4.4 stock and really needs no overclocking.
The stock intel cooler might get noisy, but would do the job.
Still, I like the noctua cooler; their fans are very good.
You could consider the cryorig H7 with a larger 120mm fan for half the price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF2DZ6565
My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

One other suggestion:
120gb gets filled up quickly on a "C" drive.
As it nears 90%full, it will slow down and lose endurance.
If you mainly play a handful of games, consider a 240gbg ssd and defer on the hard drive for later.

The psu is very good. Gold rating and modular are not worth chasing.
Gold rating saves you little, and you are going to use most of the power leads anyway.
A Seasonic 500-620w unit would be just as good.

This is the most helpful answer so far.

I couldn't find that cooler or its brand in my country (Indonesia) and I don't think it would fit the case since it has 140mm height limit. I don't really play one game for a long time and I will most likely get rid of it when I get bored so 120 will be enough. And for the psu I think I'll stick with the modular ones like the M12II 650, but you just saved my wallet mate.

Also for the i7, I'm getting it.
Thanks a lot.

 

[Karadjgne]

The h55 is equitable to a hyper212 except in 1 thing. The fan sucks. It's a 3pin fan, so unless you have a motherboard capable of cpu-analog adjustment, its going to run at full speed the entire time and regardless of Corsair's claims of 'silent', its not.
For M-itx builds a clc is often the best bet, simply due to height restrictions. If you are that worried about cooling, a swap to the i5-4690k, decent oc and something like a nzxt Kraken x41, Corsair h80i for clc or a nh-c12 or nh-c14 for air.

 

[TheRedMan]

Looking at the case layout mate stick with the noctua .
The only place for a rad is as a front intake which is going to make the case toasty.

Consider a blower style 970 is my advice like the new Asus turbo model (& yes I know its white but its the best card of that style)

You only have 80mm exhausts on that case ,if you can source the fractal design silent series 80mm fans where you are they are quite literally the only 80mm fans I would consider.

This advice is from my experience of doing a build with the antec isk 600 which is incredibly similar .

I had to return a twin fan 280x as it heated the case internals too much - replaced it with a reference blower style card & while its a bit noisier the cpu temps dropped over 10c - the simultaneous drop in cpu & exhaust fan speed near enough negates the extra noise a single fan GPU makes.

I'm planning to put noctua redux for the exhaust. I have looked for blower 970 but couldn't find one in my country, any alternatives?

 

[madmatt30]

What is your country ??

 

[TheRedMan]

What is your country ??

Indonesia, my good sir.

 

[madmatt30]

Any decent online merchants ??
Can see if there's anything similar

 

[TheRedMan]

Any decent online merchants ??
Can see if there's anything similar

Get to the bottom of the page to switch language:
https://www.tokopedia.com/mo2n
https://www.tokopedia.com/dextsemarang

Got all the components from those two stores, other stores might sell for higher prices.

 

[Arronleeds]

The h55 is equitable to a hyper212 except in 1 thing. The fan sucks. It's a 3pin fan, so unless you have a motherboard capable of cpu-analog adjustment, its going to run at full speed the entire time and regardless of Corsair's claims of 'silent', its not.
For M-itx builds a clc is often the best bet, simply due to height restrictions. If you are that worried about cooling, a swap to the i5-4690k, decent oc and something like a nzxt Kraken x41, Corsair h80i for clc or a nh-c12 or nh-c14 for air.

im sorry but thats incorrect, my h55 got over 60c on prime95 26.6 where as my friends hyper 212 evo got a max of 57c. the h55 is rubbish.

 

[Karadjgne]

I'm sorry Aaronleeds, but claiming the h55 is rubbish simply because your friend got 3°C cooler with a hyper212 isn't acceptable. There are many variables that can affect temps in different pc's. Where the pc sits, ambient room temperature, airflow, pc design, case design, mounting of cooler, gpu, psu, length of test, time of test etc, all of which can raise or lower case temperatures. If your total case temp was a measly 3°C warmer than your friends temps, the the cooler will run 3°C warmer, or thereabouts.

My current h55 on an i5-3570K @4.3GHz, after over an hour sitting at idle, in my 23°C room, after 1 hr of prime95 v26.6 small fft test, with a gtx 660ti pushing dual monitors, on a Seasonic m12ii 520w, totals me out at 70°C.

This is pretty much the same as running a hyper212. As I said, it's equitable results, I dint claim it was better, or exactly the same, a few degrees in either direction is equitable.