Time for a beefy new gaming rig!

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Hi. I want new machine for gaming. I'm open to ordering the parts and having it assembled by someone or just ordering a pre-built if the price is right.

First let me start with my current build.

CPU- i5 4670k
Mobo- MSI G45 Z87 Gaming
Cooler- Noctua NH-D14
GPU- Classified 980 Ti
RAM- 8gig G.Skill Ripjaw 1600
PSU- Seasonic X 1050 W Gold
SSD- Samsung 840 pro 256g
HDD- WD Blue 1TB
Display- Asus RoG Swift PG278Q

I can probably just my current PSU in the new build. I also want atleast a 1TB SSD for my games but I can probably bring over my 940 pro as well. Maybe just use it for Windows a few games/apps like I'm doing now. I know I have a good Noctua cooler but I think I want an AiO cooler. The Noctua is massive makes it difficult to work inside the case and the fans have 3 pin connectors so they can't do the smart fan control thing.

I would really like to splurge and build a beastly rig this time or just buy a pre-built one.

Here's a breakdown of what I'm thinking I need and what I believe it will cost.

CPU- Latest i7 for around $300 should be good? I don't think there's much to be gained for gaming going with a $1000 dollar CPU right? No clue what the latest CPU's are though lol.

Mobo- A good motherboard for around $300 should do nicely I think.

Cooler- AiO cooler for around $100-$150?

GPU- I want the 2080 Ti because it's the fastest and I would get astronomical fps at 1440p but I also kinda want one of those new Asus monitors with 4k, 144hz, HDR and Gsync. Or just in general I would like to try and play at 4k now. That being said, the price of the card is also astronomical and if I can get a 1080 Ti for say $500 maybe I just do that and stay at 1440p I dunno yet. There's also the new tech that comes with the RTX to consider. Ray Tracing looks incredible but if it only runs at 30fps at 1080p I probably already wouldn't enjoy that and can only imagine how bad it would be at higher resolution but this is just me speculating right now because there arn't any benchmarks with RTX enabled yet. There's also DLSS but same deal here no benchmarks. The 2080 Ti can handle most games at 4k/60fps with RTX off but those are current games so what will happen when more taxing games are released. And of course there's the fact that if I stay at 1440p I'll be playing at very high frames with max settings and won't have to worry about it at all. Sorry for the wall of text.

RAM- I've never had issues with my 8gigs of RAM so I'm thinking 16 gigs will be plenty? No clue what RAM though. I don't think I need super fast RAM for gaming.

PSU- Can use my Seasonic one.

SSD- I want a decent SSD with atleast 1TB of space. I don't think it needs to be the fastest one though.

Display- I was an early adopter of the PG278Q and I've enjoyed it nearly 5 years now, although I did have to RMA it twice. Once for a dead pixel and another time something went wrong and it had lines on bottom half of the screen. The one I have now is perfect though. I am interested in the new $2000 monitor though. Thoughts on this?

Games I'll be playing. I play WoW and Overwatch but I also play a lot of the big AAA titles so I want a beefy rig for those.

Again, I'm also open to buying a pre-built if it makes sense.

Any recommendations or input would be appreciated. Thanks!

Oh, totally forgot the most important thing, the case! Right now my build is in a Fractal R4. I want a new case though. I'm willing to go as high as $200-$300 for a really nice case. If you believe there's a cheaper case that is better than a more expensive one I'd like to see that as well. Thanks again!

 

[Countgreen]

So what is your max budget?

Update: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PwNByX
The current PSU you have will have enough power. You should bring over what ever drive you have with the OS on it. It will save you some money.

 

[Dugimodo]

There are plenty of good options, for me personally I'd go for any one of:
8600K
8700
8700K
9700K (when it comes out)
Ryzen 2600X
Ryzen 2700X

16GB of DDR4 3200
1070ti, or 1080ti

I'd leave the 2080ti for at least six months personally, there are no ray tracing games around to compare and it's crazy expensive right now. Also the 1080ti trades blows with the 2080 so far making it much better value for money while it's still available.

The reason for so many CPU choices - they all game very well and only at very high frame rates does it really matter which of them you have.

I just built my new machine with a 2700X but I kept my old 1070 for now while I see what happens with graphics cards. Also I only game with a 2650 x 1080 60hz panel so I don't really need any more for now.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Kinda confused on the R4. It’s a stellar case - cool and quiet. What do you want from a different case?

Do you plan to do any VR? If not get 2x8gb of ram - or... since money doesnt seem an issue might as well get 2x16gb of 3200mhz ram and be good to the end of life of the system.

Would also get a 1tb 970 evo and not bother installing your existing ssd (again, assuming the cost isnt a driver).

Edit: since shelling out for a 2080ti stand buy to purchase a cpu until the 9700k reviews are out.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

So what is your max budget?

Update: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PwNByX
The current PSU you have will have enough power. You should bring over what ever drive you have with the OS on it. It will save you some money.

Max Budget is probably around $3000. I probably don't need to spend that much though. I'll use the Seasonic PSU. I have Windows 10 on the Samsung 840 pro. The money I'll be saving that your referred to is the cost of buying another copy of Windows?

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

There are plenty of good options, for me personally I'd go for any one of:
8600K
8700
8700K
9700K (when it comes out)
Ryzen 2600X
Ryzen 2700X

16GB of DDR4 3200
1070ti, or 1080ti

I'd leave the 2080ti for at least six months personally, there are no ray tracing games around to compare and it's crazy expensive right now. Also the 1080ti trades blows with the 2080 so far making it much better value for money while it's still available.

The reason for so many CPU choices - they all game very well and only at very high frame rates does it really matter which of them you have.

I just built my new machine with a 2700X but I kept my old 1070 for now while I see what happens with graphics cards. Also I only game with a 2650 x 1080 60hz panel so I don't really need any more for now.

So first of all I wanted to ask about my current CPU the i5 4670K. Would I see a large performance gain going from the 4670K to one of those new CPUs or would it be minor? I know games are more GPU bound at higher resolutions. Would my 4670K bottleneck a 2080 Ti or even a 1080 Ti at 1440p or 4k?

If I can just replace my 980 Ti with a 2080 Ti or 1080 Ti and get the same or similar fps to what I'd see if I built a whole new machine then it's probably not worth building a new one even though I do want to.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Kinda confused on the R4. It’s a stellar case - cool and quiet. What do you want from a different case?

Do you plan to do any VR? If not get 2x8gb of ram - or... since money doesnt seem an issue might as well get 2x16gb of 3200mhz ram and be good to the end of life of the system.

Would also get a 1tb 970 evo and not bother installing your existing ssd (again, assuming the cost isnt a driver).

Edit: since shelling out for a 2080ti stand buy to purchase a cpu until the 9700k reviews are out.

The R4 is a good case but I would like a new one. Before the R4 I had a Carbide 500R. I got the R4 because I liked its design and for the noise dampening material it has. Now I only game with my headset on so I likely won't hear it anyway. The R4 is pretty heavy though and I would like something lighter. R4 is really good at keeping out dust though I have to say.

As for the 9700K I'd need to find out when they are being released.

Why do you say I shouldn't use my current OS drive the 840 pro with Windows 10 on it?

 

[J_E_D_70]

Only that you have a big budget and although still quite capable the 840 is lomg in the tooth. A single large, faster (on paper) ssd with no cables is nice right?

You’ll have to reinstall windows anyway - you can just move the ssd over and expect no issues.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Only that you have a big budget and although still quite capable the 840 is lomg in the tooth. A single large, faster (on paper) ssd with no cables is nice right?

You’ll have to reinstall windows anyway - you can just move the ssd over and expect no issues.

Yea the 840 is old and it's only 256g. It does boot up windows pretty quick though everything is snappy but if a 960 evo for example would boot up windows much faster maybe I'd just put windows on that and throw in the 840 as an extra SSD if I need it. I like the idea of the 970 that goes in a PCI slot and no cables but if it's ridiculously expensive then I probably won't get it. I'm sure it would look great and I do like nice aesthetics but tbh I hardly ever look inside the PC so I'm mostly interested in performance. If a 970 evo doesn't load my games much faster than 960 but costs a lot more than it's probably not something I would do. Honestly the 840 loads World of Warcraft very quickly, hell even most of the games I play don't take too long to load from the WD Blue HDD Lol.