Corsair 250D ITX Build | Need Monitor/GPU Advice

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Hi guys,

I'm going through the motions of building a gaming/work rig in a Corsair 250D. I haven't properly PC gamed in years - since the last time I built a PC running a newly released 9800GTX - and I want to get back into it. 

I will also be using some bioinformatics applications that are very RAM/CPU intensive, and whilst I don't expect dedicated workstation performance, it'd be nice to be able to do some analyses from home. 

What I've planned so far:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3AOqy

Undecided on keyboard, but looking at the Ducky Shine in MX brown. Will be getting Windows 8.1 on student discount and installing via USB. Wanted to overclock, so went with K variant and managed to get an offer on the H100i. I wanted a gold efficiency, modular PSU and in the UK we seem to get charged a big surplus on other brands like Seasonic and BeQuiet, so went with an RM550.

 

Where I need help:

There are a few things I'm unsure about going forward. The first is the graphics card - I'm not sure whether to spring for the 290X (pcpartpick-ed a stock-cooled one for ease, but the MSI Twin Frozr Gaming or Sapphire TRI-X regularly go on sale for £380), or wait for the 780 6GB, or wait for the 780Ti to drop in price, which I suspect it might when the 6GB is released. I'm not in a rush to buy a graphics card particularly, and will be building the rest of my rig first, waiting for a good offer to pop up. Would be very interested in what your thoughts are!

My next problem is largely influences the last, and that's what monitor to go for. At the moment, I'm looking at getting a Korean 1440p S-IPS 10-Bit panel, for between £190-230. The only reason I'm really leaning towards this is because of the price - a decent IPS monitor in the UK runs £130+, and for a little extra I could get a much better panel. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of monitor, or have any suggestions for what else I should look at for the budget? I only want a single, relatively fast response monitor, with a good panel. More interested in 1440p than 120hz, because I get the feeling that I'd lose the benefit of 120hz quicker as my card ages and can't keep up.

 

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any advice you can give!

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I do indeed think that a single non 6gb 780 is more than enough and far better than a 290x anyways. Also that Korean 1440p S-IPS 10-Bit panel looks very appetizing.

if you end up going the R9 290 route you should upgrade that PSU, maybe a 650W

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If you plan on overclocking both the GPU and CPU, get a 600-650w power supply.

Also, any of the aftermarket cooled R9 290s will be good enough.  I also believe that the 290 is so close to the 290x in performance that the 290x is not worth the price premium.