Final Revisions before purchase (first ever gaming build)

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My current rig is a laptop from 2010 using a i7 q740, radeon 5800, 8Gb RAM, and 1 Tb 5800RPM HDD

The purpose of this build is to provide high quality gaming while still being able to function for my basic needs of opening 10-20 tabs on my browser (hah) as I tend to do. There is a nice Asus 27" 1440P Gsync monitor at a store near me for around $600 so that's probably what I'll end up doing for my monitor needs. I don't do any streaming or recording.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU | Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $259.99 @ Newegg
-After extensive research into processors it doesn't seem that have a SUPER HUGE impact on gaming performance and thus I decided to go with a solid i5 that I could overclock for a little extra juice.

CPU Cooler | CRYORIG R1 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $89.99 @ Newegg
-Probably a little overkill, but I like my components cold and quiet. (Maybe someone can suggest something that will work just as well for a little cheaper).

Motherboard | Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $233.98 @ Newegg
-I haven't done a lot of research into overclocking, but the reviews on this motherboard have been fantastic saying that it has great functionality. The quality of components are supposedly super durable and a bit better heat resistance

Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory | $67.99 @ Newegg
-Honestly I just grabbed whatever had the right color scheme for a decent price.

Storage | Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $84.99 @ Newegg
-Again I haven't really seen any bad reviews of any SSD's. I think it's like a hit and miss or something.

Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $53.99 @ Newegg
-High storage, cheap, solid RPM

Video Card | Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX Video Card | $669.99 @ Newegg
-Only reason I went an Asus over the EVGA FTW is I had seen a few reviews that said the asus was actually a bit better. (perhaps you can help me "see the light" and convince me otherwise)

Case | Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case | $103.98 @ Newegg
-Originally I was going to go with http://pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-case-bgw02 , but I think the Phanteks would probably have better air flow, work space, and cooling options (If I were to ever become an enthusiast). I Just like the look of the "Be quiet" more.

Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $95.98 @ Newegg
- Eh... what's there to say? EVGA, +Wattage, gold certified, fully modular for excellent cable management.

Optical Drive | Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer | $20.98 @ Newegg
-From my understanding I don't really have a need for an optical drive other than installing my OS (I've never tried installing an OS from a USB or anything). I may also like to sit back and watch some of those horrible redbox movies too at times :P.

Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) |-
-Haven't had an issue with windows 10 personally. I know a lot of people call it spyware though.

| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1681.86
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 13:17 EST-0500 |

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Please don't buy Intel or NVIDIA.

I don't want to see gaming hardware spaces become monopolies. Ever.

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You might want to go Fury or FuryX over the 980ti.

Windows10 is spyware....

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Well, I think you got everything right. I personally would stick with this set of hardware because, to my eyes, it's well balanced an everything has a reson to be there. Just one really minor correction: for the same price of the Cryorig R1 Ultimate I would buy a Noctua NH-D15. I have one and it's dead quiet even at full load.

SNB15307.JPG1258x943 574 KB

This is how a Noctua NH-D15 looks on a Maximus VII Hero in the Enthoo Pro (I thought the pic might be helpful to decide about the case).

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Your build for the most part is pretty good. If you want a cheaper yet beefy cooler, you could get the Noctua NH-D14 for $75-80 but you may not like its color scheme. The is also the Phanteks PH-TC14PE and it comes in different colors like red, blue, orange, black, and white. Can cost between $65-80.

I'd probably would get a bigger hard drive if I were you. Something like a HGST/Hitachi 2TB drive from Amazon for $60-70. They are pretty reliable drives.

I would bump the PSU wattage from 650W to 750W, especially if you plan on putting a second GPU in the future. It doesn't hurt to have a little extra wattage for safety and efficiency, even though you may only max around at 460W.

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i5 + asus maxiumus? ... no point...

better get i7 and cheaper mobo...

consider hybrid cooling systems...

get moar memoris k? (cheaper mobo = more memory)

get ssd...

get Fury nano... be smart.

u don't need that case. get haf xb coolermaster...

get win7 (cheaper) and upgrade to win10 if you want it...

get enermax 850W plat psu...

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@aaronauron your build looks very decent to me.
i would say go for it.

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Why would he do that?
The 980Ti is the better performing card arround the board.

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I think he said that for the same reasons that I went with my Fury X:
- Free Sync monitors are much cheaper than G-Sync monitors like the one the op mentioned
- DirectX 12 support seemd be much better for GCN 1.2 than for Maxwell
- Nvidia has been a nasty company for the past months/years and I'm not willing to support them (Gameworks, gimping kepler, lying about DX12 support on maxwell, etc. Oh and I still don't quite forgive them for what they did to PhysX) Also speaking of gimping kepler, I think they'll probably do the same thing with maxwell but that's just my prediction
- AMD is pretty fucked (like thats something new) and I really don't want a monopoly in the hardware market
- And while it may not be the case for the FuryX, the non x fury and the with the recent price drops even the nano offer much better bang for the buck even though the 980ti is faster right now

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The only point that makes sense to me is the free sync monitors.
Rest of the points dont realy make that much sense to me tbh.

  • DX12 support, we dont realy know what that is going to mean for gaming yet.
    yes asynchronus compute works better on AMD cards, however we still dont realy know how that will effect gaming performance.
    We only have seen one tested beta game.
    And nobody realy talks about that anymore, since we have seen diffrence sources with diffrent numbers.

  • Nvidia lying bad company, is just jada jada, that has not realy anything to do with the GTX980Ti performance.
    THe 980Ti is still the best performing single gpu on the market rightnow.
    aside from the TitanX.

  • AMD fuckedup? well i guess its their own fault then.

  • Nano better bang for buck? maybe, its still slower then the FuryX.
    And there is not much room for overclocking at all with that nano.
    I would probably grab a R9-Fury over the Nano then, because you might be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of the Fury.

Ofc these are just my objective opinnions.

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https://redd.it/367qav for Nvidia shitworks
DX12 is not a point, you are right. Asynchronous computing however is. Something Nvidia sucks at since it is a thing. We saw Betas, yes. Beta is close to finished game. "Just Beta" is like saying "just prototype". What ever a given prototype shows will be seen more or less in the finished product.
Nvidia is an unfair company. "Jada Jada" is like the "I don´t belive in that" by a fundamentalist Christian: A null term that has no place in any conversation. Volkswagen isn´t a bad company by that definition aswell. Nvidia lied about the 3.5GB RAM, VW over some NOX, not a big deal...
AMD didn´t fuck up. They got fucked up! Look at the situation with ISPs in the US. Expensive and slow connections. Now imagine a world only with Nvidia. 2000 bucks for the worst product seems like a good deal! Hope you can wait 3 seconds per frame!
Fury works, Nano works, FuryX works. Done on that point.

Edit: I am pretty pissed for locking down PhysX but that would turn into a complete derail.

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Personally I'd spend a bit less on the CPU cooler and mobo and get a 6700k with the savings. However at the same time that system looks great and will perform great.

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Still your points dont realy make much sense to me.
Atleast not according to this topic.
That you dont like Nvidia for whatever reason, is ofc your opinnion.
The only thing i look at in this particular topic, is recommending OP the past parts for his money.
I dont care if the card is AMD or Nvidia.

Arguing about Nvidia and the things they do, adds totaly nothing to this topic.
I think that the GTX980Ti is the better gpu atm. (atleast in most gaming benchmarks i have seen)
How this would be with DX12, we dont know yet!
FuryX might be better with DX12, but it also might be not.
Nobody can speak for the future.

Edit: Also i do appreciate your points of view dont get me wrong.
But arguing about Nvidia being evil, i dont think that it adds much to this particular topic.

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looks great, nice color scheme also. only thing I would do is go 850w with the psu just in case you wanted to add another gpu

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if he gets nano for $470, he'll have enough cash for more ram or better psu... gain is not that big... 5-15fps

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well theoreticly he could indeed grab more ram.
However he allready has addeds 2x8GB to his build.
Thats allready more then you would need for gaming.
So i´m not sure if adding more ram would make much sense.
Still the Nano for just $470,- is still a good price for that little powerhouse.
I will not argue about that.
i7 could be worth it in some cases, but thats ofc a choice to make.

The Fury or the Nano, are ofc still very good choices.
The FuryX is also a great card, but the 980Ti seems to be slightly better arround the board, with some exceptions on the rule.
Freesync is ofc a good point.

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there's this $280 xeon that's hyperthreaded, its 1150, not sure how bad you want the new platform...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117315

EDIT: when did skylake xeons come out? xD i missed that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3KG3636

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that board (probably) has m.2 I'm too lazy to look. but getting a few more reasonable parts might lend you to get one of those ridiculous samsung 950 drives... because who really wants to be able to tell the difference in sleep and a cold boot.

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I'd check the height on those RAM sticks. I have a dual tower cooler, and my sticks only make clearance by bumping the first fan up a bit. In fact I chose lower performance RAM cause of this. Back then, the heatspreaders were these monstrous, tower-like protrusions on "gaming" memory. You should check the QVM for the board you picked to make sure your choice has been tested with it, also to see the fastest memory speed supported. Unless you're going to venture into VMs, you should have enough memory.

Double tower coolers are typically meant for overclocking. Do you plan on doing this? Are you considering noise besides performance in your choice?

I'm biased against Intel and Nvidia, so I won't offer my opinion on those choices.

Windows 10...¬_¬

I agree, you'll want a bigger HDD. 1 TB will fill up fast. Get at least 2 TB, more if you can find a good deal.

Only get a higher PSU if you plan on getting a second GPU in the near future (like within a year). Otherwise, stick with the 650W. If @anon69321716's calculations are correct (I didn't bother running your setup through a PSU calculator) at 460W peak load, you be running at 70.8% of your total capacity...and peak wattage would be like if you were running some benchmark, not even gaming would get you to peak. PSU wattage is tricky to figure out, if you're new to this.

No, you want to be at about 80% at peak load, that would put him at 54.1%. Running at 50% at peak is a common misconception and throws away efficiency (and money). Why pay for efficiency and watts if you're not going to fully utilize them? HAF XB is a great case though. They have the HAF XB Evo now, which made some improvements on the original.

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