Yet another (verbose) new gaming/hobby build. Thoughts?

[nick3318]

Hey, hi!

Firstly I want to apologize for not having anything super interesting to bring up - this is just going to be another one of those build threads where somebody who is about to spend a bunch of money seeks validation and approval as a means of justification.

Secondly again, sorry for my lack of a filter in advance - I tend to be pretty thorough, which can lead to uh, quite a few paragraphs....

But! Your validation and approval is much appreciated! Truly!

Primary use will be gaming, but I would like to have some flexibility in terms of using it in as a basic workstation for photoshop - etc. Future proofing is somewhat important - but I'm pretty bad at compromising in order to wait for a future upgrade. Planning on doing some overclocking at some point but I'll likely leave it at the stock initially (unless you think I would really benefit by overclocking right away).

I've been out of the components game since I built my current setup back in the dawn of '08. It's a DDR2 system for some perspective, and while my QX9650 is still hanging in there, I think its probably getting pretty long in the tooth. (Also running a GTX570 - I have made a couple GPU upgrades).

This build was made after spending a relatively short period of time researching what would be the most cost effective - and then simply bumping certain aspects up as I saw fit. If you see any issues or if you think you would do anything differently, please feel free to nitpick away - I only ask if you can give explanation along with your comment if at all possible!

Random concerns of mine:

I've never used an AMD card - it seems as though the R290 is my best option for high end value - but It feels admittedly pretty strange switching from Nvidia after all these years. Reassurance or personal experiences would be great here. I'm assuming that lack of something like PhysX isn't a big deal (can you just offload it to the CPU?). Optimization seems pretty similar across the board, yeah?

Yeah I know I haven't listed an aftermarket cooler. I'm trying to save a tiny bit of cash here. Will it run okay with a stock cooler in the meantime though?

Just let me know if you think that I'm missing any glaring features - again, I haven't been following hardware much (I haven't had means to afford to!) so there have been generations of feature sets that I've missed out on. I only went for the ASUS board as it seemed relatively solid and was a familiar brand (I'm on an original Maximus Formula currently). But might lack support for future Sata versions or something? ESATA? Ripe tomato?

I have an Auzentech Prelude sound card installed on this current rig - should I even bother keeping it or would I be better off saving watts? I haven't done much sound processing like I originally thought I would when I invested in a sound card. How is on-board sound these days? I have a pretty decent set of headphones, but that's about as hard as I push this thing. I don't want to experience a notable drop in quality, though.


It's been a long while since I posted one of these (excitingly!), so here goes:

ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X 100362VXSR Radeon R9 290 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support TRI-X OC (UEFI) Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 220-G2-0850-XR 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Power Supply Intel ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I74790K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I'll be reusing my old case for now I think (Original Cooler Master Cosmos), as there doesn't seem to be a huge reason to change that right now.

Thanks so much for your time and thoughts!

 

[byza]

Looks like a powerhouse. I use onboard sound without issue, but I don't know any better. Some people seem to think it's rubbish, some people think it's great. I guess it depends what your expectations are.
The stock cooler is ok for now, but you will definitely want to upgrade. Otherwise, maybe drop a HDD in for storage if you will use it.