Gaming rig for ~1600

Hardware Build a PC
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2 gtx980s

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I think one 980 will rock your world ... but I've been wrong before and your build was looking awesome ... a little overkill with the PSU ... like I said one 980 should do you fine

EDIT and to answer some of your questions above ...

  1. Noctua coolers are quieter than most water cooling (unless you use large radiators and spend extra $$$ on super quiet fans)
  2. Asus mobos are better than Asrock
  3. if only using one GPU ... make it a monster and you will find bliss and you can use a smaller PSU
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just to clarify ... WD blue has two year warranty  ... blacks have five

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my memory is correct

that is why you are the master   lol

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Super beast:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MKPTjX

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An overclocked 970 is roughly on par with a 980 due to the cut memory bus. If you actually need more GPU power (I don't know why a gaming rig would), then SLI two of them In the future. This rig will be beneficial for you in the long term due to its CPU horsepower, and DDR4. Best part is it fits your price range.

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I would bet real money that the i5 on an Asus Hero mobo with a GTX980 kicks it's ass by a mile as far as gaming only goes.

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I personally think that is a beautiful build ... just a little overkill on the PSU ... but I have never had a problem that was caused by PSU overkill    lol

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+1 that is an epic PSU

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Ok... It makes more sense to use a 970... The difference betwixt the 970 and the 980 is incremental. This isn't my build, but for 4k gaming dual 970s are roughly the same cost which will give you at least 170-180% of the performance of a single 980. If it were me, and I was rich like everyone who can afford over $600 on a rig, I'd wait for the R9 390X due to its new memory capabilities that will indefinitely outperform the 980 altogether at a low cost. If you want yo do 4k gaming at this budget, an R9 290x runs ya $200 on eBay. I'd go for two of those personally. Honestly, you get what you pay for. Sure grab an i5, but this rig grants you longevity. Broadwell will be the last 22nm chipset released by Intel for soctet 1150, and as such I can't recommend this chipset to anyone looking for a future proof build. 2011-3 will at the very least last you until the end of 2016 and even then, it's so powerful you could squeeze any other 5-7 years out of it. Truthfully, it doesnt matter what the OP chooses as long as he's happy with it (man I wish I could drop this much on a computer, LOL).

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Proof:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/190463-nvidia-maxwell-gtx-980-and-gtx-970-review/2

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what about this WC 

www.corsair.com/es-es/hydro-series-h105-240mm-extreme-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler

is it quieter then this Nocuta ?

 

 

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the Corsair 105 cooler will  run up to 37.7 dbA  mounted to the side of your case

the Noctua D15 will run between 19.2 - 24.6 dbA  inside the center your sound dampened case

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-cw9060016ww

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15

Pistol uses a Noctua D14 to cool the monster 220w 8 core FX9590 CPU and it does fine ... the D15 will cool better

34

I see your point ... and I agree ... wait for the next Nvidia drop

@seekingsight I apologize for my rude comment ... just have RL issues kicking my ass ... but that's no excuse for my behavior

35

Water coolers are pretty much always going to be more noisy than air coolers.  The pumps will never be completely silent.

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The pump is usually almost completely silent on almost all AIO's. Its usually just some cheaper fans stuck on what would be a better cooler then an air cooler. For example, a nzxt kraken x60 with some 140mm noctua fans is going to run cooler by a good 2-5c compared to a d15 with the same fans. The thing that the d15 has in its favor is that the expensive noctua fans come with it. Those $30 fans make a $100 AIO into a $160 AIO. And the Noctua ndh15 can usually be found for around $95. The kraken will run you $122 right now. Performance 2-3c at stock configurations(in favor of kraken). Adding the noctua fans will get the 5c difference but you could buy a second noctua or a step up gpu from the savings you get from just going with the d15.       

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what PS use for 2x 970  ?

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what PS use for 2x 970  ?

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650w would be plenty.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ssr650rm

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cs750m

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650xxxb9

Choose one!  The first 3 are more efficient than the last one, but all are decent quality.