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Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:25 pm
by cmdub
Well new here obviously but not new to pc building and ended up finding this forum while searching for something on google and thought I'd throwup my in progress build and hope I could get some feedback on it!

Basically gonna be using this build for gaming/every day use and a little video rendering.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor[
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus USB-N53 802.11a/b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse

Some of the stuff I've purchased already and gotten pretty good prices on but the rest I'm looking for opinions on. I feel pretty dead set on the mobo & gpu and I've read a lot of good stuff on the d14. With the case I'll end up removing the top hdd cage and its logical to add a second fan to the front as well

So thats about it any feedback helps, thanks.

[Mod: Deleted links and prices - they don't matter for our consideration, and we are not endorsing sellers.]

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:36 pm
by mkk
Looks good to me.
If the budget allowed I would consider a graphics card with more memory as 2GB can be filled up pretty quickly by the latest games. But it's not a problem as long as you are aware of that stuttering could start to ocurr with settings that makes a game run out of graphics memory.
I would generally get more RAM just because, but the 8GB that you've already purchased is certainly going to be enough.
Install Samsung's software for the SSD and turn on "Rapid mode". That uses up to 1GB of RAM but it's generally worth it to get really speedy drive performance. That 250GB model definitely has the best value in its class right now.

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:10 pm
by quest_for_silence
cmdub wrote:I've read a lot of good stuff on the d14.


Is it compatible with the proposed mobo/ram combo? I would double check it.

For everything else, the enclosure looks like to me the only "silencer-oriented" part, so why SPCR? At any rate, as an enthusiast machine, it would seem rather balanced.

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:57 am
by Abula
I would swap the gigabyte gtx770 for msi n770 gtx770 twin frozr.

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:52 am
by cmdub
mkk wrote:Looks good to me.
If the budget allowed I would consider a graphics card with more memory as 2GB can be filled up pretty quickly by the latest games. But it's not a problem as long as you are aware of that stuttering could start to ocurr with settings that makes a game run out of graphics memory.
I would generally get more RAM just because, but the 8GB that you've already purchased is certainly going to be enough.
Install Samsung's software for the SSD and turn on "Rapid mode". That uses up to 1GB of RAM but it's generally worth it to get really speedy drive performance. That 250GB model definitely has the best value in its class right now.
yea i've read up on that and I was worried about 8gb not being enough if i decided to use it. I mean I guess if I really wanted to I could always wait 1-2 weeks after I finish the build and if it the 8gigs with rapid on seems to not be enough I could always just grab 2 more which according to noctua do fit for the mobo/ram

For the graphics card it seems to me that the 770 is really good value at the moment and I've read about 2gigs filling up quick on really higher end stuff(skyrim w/mods etc.) Would the 780 @ 3 gigs be the most logical step up since I've read that the 770@4gb doesn't utilize it all that well

I also haven't received the ram yet(in the process of being shipped) but would it be worth it to return it since I got it through newegg and I have the 30day trial for premier so I'd have no restocking fee and just grab a 2x8 set from someone when/if a nice one goes on sale

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:42 pm
by cmdub
so made a 2 changes and I'm thinking about grabbing the ram while its on sale today/tomorrow:


CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus USB-N53 802.11a/b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:13 pm
by mkk
cmdub wrote:For the graphics card it seems to me that the 770 is really good value at the moment and I've read about 2gigs filling up quick on really higher end stuff(skyrim w/mods etc.) Would the 780 @ 3 gigs be the most logical step up since I've read that the 770@4gb doesn't utilize it all that well
Yeah the 4GB 770's are about half the way between a regular 770 and 780's in price, so the latter would be a good option. In the end consider the time span of the card. The longer you are likely to be keeping the card you get today, the more worth will you get out of paying for a faster GTX 780. Or an R9 290. :wink:

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:21 am
by cmdub
mkk wrote:
cmdub wrote:For the graphics card it seems to me that the 770 is really good value at the moment and I've read about 2gigs filling up quick on really higher end stuff(skyrim w/mods etc.) Would the 780 @ 3 gigs be the most logical step up since I've read that the 770@4gb doesn't utilize it all that well
Yeah the 4GB 770's are about half the way between a regular 770 and 780's in price, so the latter would be a good option. In the end consider the time span of the card. The longer you are likely to be keeping the card you get today, the more worth will you get out of paying for a faster GTX 780. Or an R9 290. :wink:
yea i mean the thing is i just dont have the $$ to spend for a 780 right now and a 770 is really the price point for me, any recommendations between the msi/gigabyte/evga?

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:45 pm
by Troveo
they dont sell evga prominently where i live but between msi and gigabyte, soundwise, msi twinfrozr is better. i can barely hear my r9 270x next to me, and i let my pc case open sometimes.

besides, dont 770 from msi have backplate? isnt backplate cool? lol just saying

Re: Building new gaming machine, any advice appreciated!

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:39 pm
by mkk
cmdub wrote:, any recommendations between the msi/gigabyte/evga?
Not much in the way of first hand experience with GTX 770 card models, but locally the MSI GTX 770 Gaming model is both nicely priced, and seems to have a similar cooler that sits on my own R9 290. Which I like very much for its quietness at idle, and a GTX 770 is simpler to cool but the designs may still differ. The other ones with their own custom coolers probably aren't bad either though. Gigabytes is a little bit longer but should still fit with all drive cages in the Define R4. Should be a wee bit noisier to sensitive ears at idle with its three fans, but it also tends to be nicely priced around here.