$2200 144hz Gaming PC--Tips appreciated

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Hi, Teksyndicate! I'm planning to build a 144hz gaming PC for $2200 before taxes (6%, USA). This PC will be built around the GTX 780, and I plan to order it in 2 weeks. The only other build I've ever done was a $550 build for my sister, and that was based 95% off of one of Logan's vids.

General build tips & recommendations will be taken very seriously and greatly appreciated!

Current build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/daniel91/saved/1YTN

 • Main Games: Crysis 3, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, Skyrim, Battlefield 4, Arma 3, Metro: Last Light, Civ 5, Fraps

 • Peripherals: Speakers, mouse (claw grip)+mat, 144hz 1080p monitor, keyboard (Silver with blue backlit already bought)

 • Overclock: I plan to OC hard, but I have no previous experience. Tips appreciated

 • Custom Watercooling: I'm willing to learn custom watercooling if it isn't too difficult and wont send me over budget

 • OS: I have a Windows 8 Pro key I'll install VIA usb

 

Stuff I'll really need tips on

• Cooling: I know very little about cooling. If I need more fans or a different case/cooling system, please tell me.

• RAM: I'm not too sure what's good enough. 1600? 2400? Cas 9, cas 11? I don't what makes a bigger difference with gaming.

• Case: Not much experience. I'm wondering if a Mid ATX case would be possible without sacrificing cooling. If I can I'd want a glowing blue themed PC like I've seen before. My wire management is also non-existant with my current PC.

• Power Supply: As long as it's gold and has the correct plugs, that's all I know about them.

• Sound: Are my speakers nice for surround sound gaming? Would a sound card make a huge difference for games with great sound?

Once again, any tips are appreciated. Thanks so much for reading.

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This isn't necessarily what I would get, but it gives some alternative products.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1uji9

Swapped out whatever was necessary to run 760 SLI. Higher/similar performance value than/to the 780, pretty balanced at 144Hz, cheaper.

I went with the NZXT 630 based on your interest in the 820. The 820 is fucking huge, I really don't think you would need a case that big. I feel picking an appropriate sized chassis will help the build feel a little more balanced, and save money. I would definitely recommend a mid-tower, or even mATX. Plenty of upgradeabilty without the need for XL-ATX. A lot of great cases for sub $100.

Silly things like matching the colour of the RAM to the slots! Makes the PC run faster. Don't need anything more than 1600mhz for gaming.

Might want to get a decent sound card, unless you pick a motherboard with good audio, like the ROG Hero.

Bigger SSD, 120-128 will get filled with games and OS pretty quickly.

Dark Knight is a good cooler, but Haswell (4th gen Intel) CPUs run really hot. Might want to grab something like a Noctua NH-D14 or Phanteks 14PE if you want to overclock to 4.5 or upwards of that.

 

And this is all if you really feel the need to spend this much on a gaming system. Because this budget would cover a really good editing spec. The AMD option might be worth considering.

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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1ujVT

Probably not the best build around. If your budget was 200-300 dollars higher I could've been able to fit in a 4770k and ROG Hero. But whatever. I would've went the AMD route, but the budget is pretty high.

CPU: Great CPU for gaming. Haswell CPU's get pretty darn hot when overclocked but I think the cooler will do the job.

MOBO: Don't really know much about this motherboard, but I like MSI. It also has great reviews on it.

CPU Cooler: Great heatsink, lots of thermal mass. I added the Noctua's for more silence and better preformance (Brennanriddell DKM)

RAM: Great memory running at 1866 even though it won't really matter.

SSD: Very popular SSD, 256 GBs for more space. Put your OS on it and some games you like.

HDD: Just a plain 1 TB. Nothing much. Put your Data on here.

GPU: I like single card configurations. You always have the option to SLI in the future (The PSU will be enough). White PCB for extra sexiness. The 780 will get you the FPS you want.

PSU: Great quality PSU. 80 plus gold certified. SeaSonic is a very high tier company.

*EDIT*

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1uksr

Managed to fit an MPOWER in there. Credit to Brennan.

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GD65 is great for overclocking. I would have put an Mpower in there, but that is just me.

Fantastic choice on CPU cooler + fans. Will handle that 4670k @ 4.8gHz to 5gHz easily.

Love, love, LOVE the HOF 780. Great looks, sexy PCB, fantastic VRM for overclocking.

Really nice SSD, as well. HDDs are HDDs, as long as it isn't a 2.5" or a Barracuda.

Hate that case. With a passion. Too curvy. Nice case, I just hate it. A lot.

Lastly, I would have used a Seasonic X 650 instead of the G650. Having a semi-modular unit if you want ot sleeve sucks. A lot. You may not want to sleeve now, but  he may eventually, and by then, he won't be able to return it. X650 hits 80+ Plat, has a ripple below 20mV, and really tight load line reg. Fantastic unit, especially the original. KM3 is also fantastic.

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Even though I built the entire PC around the 780, your post did get me thinking maybe SLI 760s would give me more performance for less money. My concerns are that maybe the 760s wont OC as well as the single 780 DirectCUII, and cooling may be a problem, and I would be running single monitor 1080p so 1 card should be better right?

As for the case, that's better than what I had. I really wasn't going to go with the 820 either way. It's too big, and I am still hoping to get the case even smaller but I'm worried a mid ATX wont cool well or fit the Asus GTX 780.

I like the bigger SSD definitely.

As for CPU, would the 4750k bottleneck the GPU? I wasn't going to OC the cpu too much, unless you think I'd get a way better performance deal buying a different CPU and PCing it instead.

As for budget, I'm comfortable with spending this much. Gaming is my life, I want to taste the 144 fps in mid-tier games or play new games maxed out.

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Love the case, would it cool well and fit a 780?

Also would the Galaxy GPU perform better than the Asus?

Thinking about switching to the cooler you mentioned, I wasnt aware 4670Ks ran THAT hot.

Sorry about making this mistake, but my budget is 2200 including the keyboard I already ordered. So it's really roughly 2100 without the keyboard, I still like this build a lot though

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I was just offering alternatives. The 780 is geared towards resolutions higher than 1080p. I'm maxing games and maxing my 1440p panel with just one 780. I'm not entirely against the 780 at 1080p, unless the refresh rate is below 120Hz. I was just showing that there are other card configurations suited to your 144Hz panel. 780 might be advisable if you like to run lots of mods in different games. Loading additional textures will require that 3GB Vram "sweet spot" and extra performance. Just don't underestimate the 780, it has the gaming performance of the Titan. You don't want to over-spend.

There are plenty of good mATX or mid tower cases. My 600T came with 200mm fans preinstalled on the front and top. Generally, if you stick to Corsair, Fractal and other quality brands, airflow will be taken care of. My mid tower 600T happens to be really quite large. So the 820 would be a monster in comparison.

SSDs aren't necessary, but you either make it worthwhile or you don't.

Nope, the 4670K has the gaming performance of the i7. They are the same chip, more or less, but the i7 has hyper-threading. HT doesn't really contribute to games. So I would say the i5 is the best balanced Intel gaming CPU.

Just use your BIOS to set a turbo frequency of 4.2GHz. It will ramp up to that clock speed if your system needs it, and it won't produce too much heat. AMD has the better price to performance. The 8350 has 8 cores which makes it pretty versatile. Used for gaming and editing. Gaming performance is equal to the i5. Platform is cheaper on the whole. Personally, I went with Intel because they update frequently, so you get more tech. Nothing to be too concerned about.

144Hz is handy for first person shooters. But have you considered surround or 1440p? Might be more beneficial for the majority of games that you listed. It's not that you cannot spend this much on a "gaming" rig... I know I did! However, I also geared my rig for editing. You have to think about the experience that you are going to get. Playing the games that I play on my rig, I know that I would be just as happy playing those games on a machine that cost half as much.

Performance is relative. I needed a 780 because my 1440p monitor has x1.8 the amount of pixels at 1080p. To max games at 1080p, would I get a 780 for myself? Hell no! A single 760 with a 1080p 60Hz IPS panel (IPS has the best colour reproduction and viewing angles) would do incredibly well. I prefer IPS over high refresh rates (the Hz).

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The 780 HOF is a better card than the Asus DCUII.

 

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Thanks man, I appreciate it.

I'll switch to the case to the 600T definitely for now. That other one was too big, I thought it would cool like 10x better for some reason.

I will definitely do that in my bios for the CPU, thanks man!

I thought long and hard for a couple weeks and decided I wanted 144hz, since most of the games I like are fast paced and I get really annoyed being below 60ish FPS. I want to run competitive games at 144+ frames ideally, I want the smoothness and speed for Dota 2/Starcraft 2/Shooters. I still want to get close to 60 FPS on new AAA games at 1080p, but 1440p would be sacrificing the smooth speed I want+frames, and 1080p 60hz is a 100% no-go.

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I can tell you that the 600T will keep your system cool, because that is exactly what I have. Problem with the 600T is that the preinstalled 200mm fans are louder than they need to be. I have my fans set on silent profile, and I can still hear them. It's not too intruding, though.

780 utilises GPU boost 2.0 to automatically clock up to the highest speed attainable, without crossing the 79-80 degree threshold. So no matter what you do, the card will always get that hot. It's fine. The 780 is capable of much higher temps.

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I'm not familiar with that card. Does it run cooler/quieter/faster? I will definitely switch if it performs better

 

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Thanks guys, I've changed the build a bit. I think it looks a lot better so far. Question: Where would I put those two 140 mm fans?

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Think it looks nice. But please please please colour match your RAM to the motherboard and heatsink xD

Driving me insane

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The 600T with the side mesh (there is a window version of the 600T) can be populated with four 120mm fans. Other than that, I think the rear fan, front, and top take up all the other mounts. There might be some mounts in the base of the chassis. But, I honestly don't think you need that many fans.

Grab some Noctuas for that side panel. Maybe replace the front 200mm with a Bitfenix spectre pro. Probably not the most ideal fan, but it will run quieter than the stock fan.

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The Noctua's are for the CPU Cooler.

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OH I didnt know what you meant at first looool. I thought you were explaining what dual channel was. Thanks I'll change it in a couple minutes here

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Okay thanks! I didn't know there were CPU coolers with fan slots. cool stuff

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Bumping because I wanted to mention I'm about to order the GTX HoF and I noticed it says minimum power supply: 600 watts and my power supply is 550. Should I get a higher power supply? I will be overclocking the card a lot, and the CPU a bit.

 

If there are any other last-minute changes I should do please mention them. I'm about to order the rig in a little over 1 week

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Recommended minimum supply takes into account your whole system + extra headroom. It's meant to be a guideline for noobs. Change it if you want piece of mind. Usually a quality supply means you can get away with less.

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All right, thanks again, sir! You've been very helpful throughout this thread.