I decided it's time to treat myself after some hard work! So I decided to configure a build and buy parts for it each time I reach my goal, therefore this list is prone to change over time, but at least I got a guideline to go for. The deadline is set to July 2014, that's why I'm going to buy the main parts first (Mobo/psu/case).
But enough of this chatter. Some info, I live in the Netherlands and we use euros, tho I don't mind if u look up things in the states since the prices aren't too far off. I've been sticking to nvidia and intel, but since this will be mainly a gaming system I'll choose amd anytime if that'll be bang for buck. I'll be overclocking and feel like I need a decent cooler (shamefully I don't know how decent some coolers are atm).
I'll be playing WoW and BF4 mainly, but looking forward to other games like watch dogs etc. Besides that I got a huge list of games I play (skyrim, witcher, deus ex, codghosts, sc2, bioshock, metro which I'll be playing again with this beast!) I'm playing 1080p atm, but I might save up for a 120hz/4k monitor in the near future. Lets get configurating!
Storage - [Samsung 840 PRO 256gb SSD]Samsung 840 EVO 250gb - [Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD]Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
Videocard - EVGA Geforce GTX780 3gb
Case - Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl
psu - Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified (HX850)
optdrive - LiteOn IHAS
[total price: $1651.41]
This is the idea what I had in my head. Its a bit over my budget lol, but since I'll be buying it in batches I don't mind too much. Though as I said before if I made unnecessary decisions since it's mainly a gaming system, please do tell me. I chose the Z87-pro mobo, because I wanted to leave room for upgrades later on (add second videocard). Same reason why I chose the 850W psu. I've looked around but the GTX780 seems to be more worth it than the R9, please do tell me if I'm wrong. Lastly I haven't much experience on any AMD processors so if it is a better choice feel free to enlighten me.
Thanks for having your time and I'm looking forward to your suggestions!
Builds looks pretty solid for an Intel+nVidia build. As for buying, I would try to purchase as much as possible at once, as usually if you buy it little by little, you're just buying the parts when they cost more.
Suggestions:
RAM at 2666 is completely unnecessary. If you're running an APU/iGPU, then that's a different story. However, since you have a nice beefy GTX 780, anything around 1600mhz will do. I'd suggest:
What are the big difference between the i5/i7? I might favor the i7 since I'm doing some modeling and rendering atm on a laptop (bigjoy!). But it's okay =].
I'll have a look at the asrock and compare it with the Z87 in a bit.
I would definitely look for another motherboard unless you care for bluetooth and wifi. Two features you might find unnecessary.
8GB of memory is all you need to run any game and as the poster above wrote: 1600MHz is enough, even though some benchmarks have shown that there is games that benefit from high speed memory.
Also check out the SSDNow V300 by Kingston. Really cheap and I doubt you would notice a difference from the one you're planning to buy now in a gaming environment.
Buying my build in batches has a few cons and pros imo. I can buy parts when they're on sale as I don't have to buy everything at once. But I can't use them until I got my core components all together (and the prices mightve been dropped by that time). But since this is linked to giving myself a pat on my shoulder and a bit of motivation, I'll stick to buying things piece by piece!
Haha yeaaaah, I went all "Oooh shiny" with the ram. I kinda realised that too afterwards that it mightve been a bit overkill and thanks for the suggestion! However thinking back, having a faster RAM does benefit modeling and rendering right?
And u got a point with the 3TB. I got a 1TB WD Media player and another 2TB extern (somehow filled XD). (that's why the 3TB came up in my mind). But adding another 3TB is probably a bit much. I think I'll go for the 2TB saves me another 50 bucks. (I was actually planning to buy another SSD later next year only for gaming) Now looking at it, I mightve even chosen the wrong SSD, Think the Samsung EVO is cheaper and its 250gb...
haha thats a good question. after some quick searching the only difference i can find is that the i7 is .1 ghz faster (if youre overlocking that should not matter), also the i7 uses hypertheading to act like it has 8 core instead of 4.
Thanks for the Kingston suggestion! I think I'll keep the 16gb, but I do agree I chose an overkill ram. I haven't stated in the OP, but I am doing some modeling and rendering! (but that's mostly on laptop/ at work) =].
edit. and I'll have a better look at the mobo's. I'm pretty bad 'informed' with these, I'll have to do some proper reading about it.
I think the most important difference except the hyperthreading is the smartcache. I'm not sure how big of an improvement it is, but what I'm reading its worth it (if you use it)