1st Build Guide...Feedback Needed

CPU - Intel Core i5-4670K 

CPU Cooler - Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 

Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 

Storage 1 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM 

Storage 2 - Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB 2.5" SSD

GPU - Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (2-Way SLI)

Case - Corsair 200R

Power Supply - EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular

Optical Drive - LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

(In case it's needed: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nBYCK8)

 

As you may have noticed, it is almost identical to the "Glorious Gaming Build" off of PCPartPicker. I made some changes based on my preferences for my system. I heard I'd get some help on this forum, so I created this account to get some feedback/help/etc. Thanks!

 

 

EDIT: 

  • Budget. How much are you willing to spend? - About $1,500-1,800 USD
  • Where do you live (what country),  and what currency do you use? (see above)
  •   -Is there a retailer you prefer? (No preference)
  • Do you need or already have peripherals? (this can add to costs) I have peripherals
  • What will you be using your future computer for? Gaming? Rendering? Mix of both? Or is this a home media PC? Gaming, Video/Photo Editing, General Use
  • Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking? Yes, want to get into it
  • Do you plan on going for custom watercooling now, or in the future? Future, need experience first
  • OS. Do you need a new one? Yes, prefer Windows 7


If you Game...

  • What kind of settings do you like or what FPS do you want to play at? Looks Fantastic, Steady High FPS
  • What resolution will you be playing at? //or would like to play at. 1920x1080 currently playing @
  • What kind of games do you like to play? FPS, MOBA, etc
  • What specific game will you be playing (if you only really play one) Team Fortress 2, CS:GO, L.O.L., any games suggested by other PC Gamers and friends


Decent build it's very good but you did one dumb thing.

Your graphics cards. NEVER use sli/crossfire unless you've already got the highest end cards available.

Also the hard drive you could get another TB for $20 if it's worth it.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Vszwpg

try that lower price better compatibility with games.

edit: If you're going to video editing then you might want a titan class card for faster rendering.

A 980 will be about the same render time as the cpu or a gtx 660

Glad to see you're not one of those windows 8 likers. Good man.

This may seem out of context but take a look at Flatout I've been playing the crap out of it and really enjoying it.

Looks pretty good man, I got a single 970 by Gigabyte and it runs pretty well, so SLI should run 4k games fairly well. Have fun

Does anyone know if Kingston has fixed the v300 SSD thing that they screwed up on?

I'd change to something else like a Crucial MX100 just to be safe.

If I was doing a build for $1800 I would do something like this.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L7WvYJ

 

Thanks for the advice. I unknowingly took that SLI from the glorious gaming build as i said earlier

I have Windows 8 on my current laptop. It's just a pain to use. Games for Windows live games such as GTA4 were a pain to get RUNNING even.

I'm not going to be doing hefty amounts of video editing. I just included some information on what I do so the reply builds would have some variety or some advice if I decide to do more editing,

 

Pretty nice. I was worried about clearance of the radiator for the cpu cooler. seeing the reviews for the 200R, i was thinking about reworking the build and allowing for a larger case. I'll look into this one. Thanks

  1. Unless if you're getting a deal on the 4670k get the 4690k it has better thermal interface between the die and lid for the same price and you should get that instead.
  2. The power supply is a lot more than what you need, not really a bad thing but if you want to cut spending that's an area where it could be done easily. Anything with a gold rating is usually a safe bet as far as reliability. EVGA Seasonic and Corsair are good choices.
  3. The Gtx 970 currently has an issue where the last 500mb-1gb of memory is allocated so slowly it's rendered useless I would either hold off on that because a recall may be coming, keep an eye on it
  4. If you plan to overclock that cooler will get the job done but expect high temps if you add voltage. Consider something dual rad if overclocking high is important to you.
  5. As mentioned Earlier some of the Kingston ssdnows floating around aren't as fast consider another ssd. For something around the same price consider a crucial m500 or if you're willing to spend more the new Samsung 850 series ssds are a great choice. here is a link to a useful ssd benchmark site.
  6. Depending on how soon you do this build should probably get Windows 10 as the overhead for upcoming Dx12 is going to be much less intensive and performance will benefit greatly

Overall it's a really good build and you're not going to suffer if you don't change anything. And to be clear you are not doing SLI correct?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VfcLYJ

This is my current build guide after revision. I'm not planning on SLI now. I may switch to 10 but it depends when I get all my parts and when 10 releases. I will overclock a bit but not extensively until once again I Gain experience with the guts of the pc. 

Looks good!

W10 releases when? I've been trying to look online but I'm a little busy at the moment

Not really sure since they haven't given a date. sometime soon a few months ish probably.

I've seen free for the first year for 7/8/8.1 users and mid/early 2015

This one gets the +1 from me.

I'd go with LinuxForYou's build.

GTX 970 has a much, much better price-performance value, and imo it's high enough up in nvidia's lineup to SLI with.

WD Greens aren't great with reliability due to the drive's constant spinning up and slowing down in an attempt to save power.  It's also a bit slow at 5400 rpm.

Very good choices. Do not move away from the PSU you have already, it is the best in its category (apart from the corsair ax850i which is overpriced unless you go sub zero). If you really want to overlock, the best board I would recommend is the AsRock Z97 OC (its yellow or whatever) it's got very very good VRM layout for the price, the only thing really beating it would be an Asus Rog series board.

Go with a 4690k. If you plan on doing a custom liquid cooling loop in the future, whatever you are getting now doesn't have to be amazing, I'd recommend the MX100 256gb  instead of the SSD you have now.

Multi Gpu is very split. Don't go more than 2. If you can go three move up a tier and get two of that. i.e. 3 970s = 2 980s . But 2 970s are still better than one 980 so it still makes sense. I'd also get the G1 gaming over the strix anyday.

  • H55 cooler, maybe for stock speeds but you're getting a 'k' chip + oc'ing motherboard so I'd grab a cooler that will handle an overclock. 
  • But....since you mention editing grab a 8 thread xeon, and lower tier motherboard. In this case a H55 would be ok.
  • That ssd will be an expensive paperweight or an RMA headache in the near future, grab something like a Intel 530, Crucial MX100, Intel 530 etc
  • Grab a non-seagate hdd, something like a e hitachi or wd.
  • Go sli if you want just be aware that you will run into issues with something at some stage. I'd grab a single 980 unless the 970's are at a really good price. 

Regarding Seagate:

http://youtu.be/e85aRCFH8gM?t=53m1s

First off, love the profile pic. 

Secondly, the build I've retweaked can be found here http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Yydf7. im still working on it until im satisfied with everything in it. I've decided to go with a single 980 instead of two 970's, switched to a Crucial MX100, swapped out the 4670k for a 4690k, etc.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CYyz99

The Hyper 212 performs just as well as all the 120mm liquid coolers out there for much cheaper.

Windows 8 for better performance

Better quality power supply.  EVGA's NEX lineup isn't that great.