$2000 Gaming Rig, need advice!

Hardware Build a PC
1

I have been looking around for help from other posts, but none of them had my same situation. I recently decided I want to build my own rig. As of now all I have is my 13" Macbook pro, so I need to get a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Also I will be using this computer for LAN parties. I have a budget of $2,000 dollar BTW. I also have some extra questions: 

1) Should I get a Bitfenix Prodigy or Fractal Arc Midi? 

2) I want to water cool my rig, so does anyone recommend any good parts or manufacturers? 

3) Is water cooling a little too much? I want to overclock my CPU and GPU alot. 

 

I put together some parts before so here they are: 

Motherboard (If I go with the prodigy): EVGA Stinger 

Motherboard (If I go with the Arc Mini): ASUS Maximus V Gene 

CPU: i7 3770k 

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 

GPU: MSI N680GTX Lightning GTX 680 

SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 

HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 

 

I also found a water cooling kit, but I don't know if it is good. 

RayStorm Twin D5 AX240 

 

Also any good monitors, keyboards, and mice?

2

on it, what screen size is desired?

3

Dont get a mini ITX build, get Micro ATX and it will be bulkier but you will be very limited with MiniITX mobos, also if you get the gigabyte sniper m3, you save a couple of bucks and it will OC like the gene mobo. Also for gaming, 15 3570K will be sufficient, you can even do editing in this tiny beast with an i5.

For watercooling, you can go custm, but i do not recommend it, unless you are experienced. Corsair H100i is an amazing AIO watercooling kit for going to like 4.5 give or take. Unless you are not gonna OC the ram, go for like a CL7 mushkin redline, it has a lower latency.

Also, don't go for OCZ, they are terrible and the company is going to close down in a year or 2. Get some crucial or Intel drives. For your budget, i recommend the Intel 520 240GB. Seagate barracudas had a bad history, get some WD caviar blue.

For the case, get the Fractal Design Arc mini, they will fit the h100i and has excellent airflow.

4

Ok wait here. I think I could fit a 690 in there. it may take a while but I'm pretty Shure I can fit a 690 in this build. But one thing. If this is just for gaming all you need is an i5. That is all you need. 

5

As you intend to be dragging this computer around to LAN parties make sure your case has a good handle on it that can support the weight.

6

Oh damm it. I re read the post and it says you need a keyboard moniter and mouse. Well that's the 690 out the window.

7

what resolution are you playing at?

8

1920x1080

9

I want to future proof it, thats why I threw a i7 in there. I might look at the sniper. If I go with the i7 will I need water cooling to get to 5ghz? I am not going to oc the ram, its the stupidist thing I have heard of. I will change the ssd to intel and the hard drive to WD.

10

Isn't a 690 overkill unless you are going with a higher res?

11

1920x1080

12

Has anyone ever done a handle mod? Is that even possible? Also is it possible to take the Fractal logo off it? 

13

*Neo voice "Upgrades"

 

now you may be like "Why?" on a lot of my choices

as for the i7, it has 2MB more L3 cache, he's got 2000 to spend on a gaming computer at single monitor 1080p why not, I would disable hyper threading for now making the individual cores stronger and cooler letting you OC more.

the Lightning edition 680 allows you to disable the voltage limiters, although since Nvidia bitched at MSI you may have to update the Bios to an older one to get that feature

since you can OC the Dickens out of the 680 you might as well water cool it, now I choose AIO coolers for the CPU and GPU because custom loops don't like being transported and you'll end up with a giant puddle in your rig

you'll only need 8GB of ram since most games don't even use 2GB of free ram, low timing 1866 should do fine

the motherboard has a plethera of features, like UASP USB 3.0 which is real USB 3, ASUS is the way to go when overclocking, I wouldn't go any other brand do to their rock solid reliability

I've used over 60 rosewill PSUs personally and recommended hundreds online, the one I recommend is a quality PSU, if you hear people say they aren't then they obviously bought a Cheapo PSU from them, you buy a Cheapo PSU, you get a Cheapo PSU, also the only thing from EVGA I'd buy is their GPUs, maybe their mobos but I've had nothing but bad experiences with the mobos and gennerally is best just to go with ASUS

this is recommended by a lot of Hardware review forums and is 80+ gold certified, Single rail and modular

Arc Midi is an excelent case, one of my favorite

Adata is a great company and make quality parts, this SSD is on par if not better than the hyperX3 that logan reviewed, STAY AWAY FROM OCZ PERIOD

HDD is a newer version of yours

the mouse has some pretty good feedback from logan

that key board is one of the BEST keyboard you can buy

 

Put the GPU rad on the Rear fan port if you can

14

The reason behind the 16GB of ram (which people say a lot you only need 8gb) is I want to run a minecraft server with 8gb, so I would have 8Gb free.

15

then I'd recommend this

16

Also I know this might sound stupid but, I think I am going to go with the Maximus V gene since I kind of like the look of it better. I want to paint the grills red on the fractal arc mini so it matches the Gene. BTW there the same price. I can also get 16GB of ram for $75, but I went with the dominator platinums because I heard very good things about them. Every thing you just showed me without the Arctic cooler and instead the dominator platinums was $2,000.88. Do I even need that cooler?

17

Also can I paint the cooler on the 680? I want to change the yellow strips to red.

18

Do you think photoshop, after affects, and vegas will work better with 32GB of ram then 16GB? The reason I got 2x8GB was I can just get another 2 later and have 32GB.

19

uTwYW.jpg2529x2291

I want to paint it like that except the grills will be red not grey.

20

Sorry if I am posting a lot but one more thing, are you sure I will get leaks from moving this around? Because this looks really good:

kFXpT.jpg3502x2335