z87 Chicken or z97 Egg

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1

I've saved enough money to finally splurge on a new computer, probably buying the first week of June. And while I'm fairly certain on some of the parts I either want to buy (or have already bought,) making a decision about the rest is starting to cause more stress than it should. On top of that, the new z97 motherboards are not helping make this decision any easier. So, its time I reached out to people who have a better grasp of the details than I.

 $1,000 max budget. Preferred stores: Newegg, Amazon, Tiger Direct, Micro Center, NCIX, etc. PC purpose: Silent PC Gaming at 1080p (Watch Dogs, Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim, Civilization 5, Far Cry 3, Borderlands 2, etc) and Blu Ray movie playback. Overclocking: overclock on the cpu and memory. Watercooling: no (either Hyper 212 or Corsair h100i, again, haven't decided yet.) PC experience: average (donating my C2D e8400 (which is my current build) to a friend when I upgrade.)

Already purchased, therefore not included in the build:

Case: Arc Midi R2

SSD: 256gb Samsung 840 Pro (just arrived so under warranty if DOA)

Optical Drive: LG Blu Ray Player

OS: Windows 7 64bit

Fans: BitFenix Spectre Pro LED (says Orange but its closer to Amber or Yellow, which I like)

I'm fairly certain of the CPU I want to get. Micro Center has the i5 4670k for around $207 w/tax. I'm also fairly certain that I want a gtx 760 for my graphics card (will eventually get a second for sli performance) partly because it comes with a copy of Watch Dogs, which saves me from buying it separate, and its quieter than a GTX 770.

Right now, this is what I was considering:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/D8dMan2/saved/4L79

My original build had a strong black and gold theme to it (which I liked.) And Newegg has a z87 pro V edition (same as the Pro without the wifi adapter, which I don't need) for $170. However, for what I plan on doing, I'm not sure I really need a $170 motherboard. I don't plan on doing any overclocking once I have my system stable, but I wasn't impressed with the heat-sinks on the lower-end Asus motherboards (z87 A and z87 Plus.) Also, I really can't afford a new system every other year so I'm trying to build a system to last me as long as possible, which is why I'm tempted by the z97 boards. But after browsing site after site, and review after review on youtube, I find myself drowning in tech specs and can't decide what is what.

What I really need advice on is: z87 vs z97 motherboard, graphics card (quiet is better than powerful, to a point,) PSU (do I need 750w for a GTX 760 sli or can I get away with a 650. I saw a recommendation for a Lepa 650w in another post but its a company I've never heard of so I was hesitant) and monitor.

And please give specific reasons why you picked a certain part, especially for the monitor. I've heard good reviews about the Asus VS248H-P and the BenQ VA LED GW2450 but, like the rest of the parts, after awhile the specs all start to blur. Again, my primary purpose for this PC is gaming and Blu Ray playback so I'm not sure if a gaming monitor is good for movie playback (and if there is a choice, I prefer gaming over movies.)The price of the monitor isn't listed because my current LG 20" will suffice until I save the money for it, but I'd rather know what I should be saving for before I start.

One last thing: I have the opportunity to get a 1tb Samsung 840 Evo through Dell if I wait a month or two to pay down my balance a bit. I know ssd's are quieter but I was concerned about the reliability of the 1tb drive vs the proven reliability of the Caviar Black drives. Is it worth the wait to hold out for the 1tb Evo or should I stick with WD?

Thanks in advance to everyone who responds.

2

Z97 or Z87: It doesn't really matter. Go with the up-to-date one if you can afford it.

A gold/ platinum 650W PSU will be more than enough for two 760 cards. 750W if you want headroom. You might consider getting a single, more powerful card. It will be better for power consumption, noise, and heat.

Most people would have a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD in a $1,000 budget.

Don't go with either of those monitors. Get a higher refresh rate, or an IPS panel.

Forgive me if I missed anything, but that's the questions I could understand from the wall of text.

Useful website:

http://pcpartpicker.com/

3

Sorry about the wall of text. I'm not very good at HTML codes, and because of my indecision with this build, I thought providing more information would be better than less.

I'll probably go with z97 since it is new, although i was worried about being a z97 guinea pig. I'll also go with a seasonic 650w PSU (the gold rated X series) since that will save me $10 on Newegg.

I was debating on using the 840 Evo for my storage drive because i really want this computer to be as quiet as possible and I know mechanical HD's are noisier because of their moving parts. I have more faith in the 840 Pro as my main drive due to so many positive reviews.

As for the monitor, I'd really like more specific suggestions. I posted those monitors because I think I've seen them highly rated as gaming monitors on other sites and reviews, so I was curious if anyone else had them or used them. I know everyone's taste with regard to visuals is slightly different but I know my tastes tend to be mainstream, so if alot of people are happy with a certain type of monitor, I probably will be as well.

4

Less is more. People can help much more effectively if the text can be read quickly, and then answered quickly. There's plenty of people that love to help regardless. But you would get much more feedback from a short, snappy post.

It's always easier to say "here's a budget, these are my desired settings for gaming, here are the games that I play, I need this included, make it silent". You don't really need to include anything more. To me, this post is still an enigma. I have to read it, then re-read it.

Seasonic X series is a good unit. Don't be frightened to save money there. There are many good, affordable power units.

I personally prefer the MLC NAND flash used in the pro, the EVO uses TLC. There are other options from ADATA and Kingston that I could recommend. It wouldn't hurt to have a mechanical drive, it can be used infrequently, good for storing crap.

You can eliminate noise with a good computer chassis. Some are good for airflow, others are good for acoustic performance.

You should choose either an IPS panel, good colours and viewing angles, good for design, gaming, movies; or a higher refresh monitor, 120-144Hz, produces a much more fluid, fast paced experience. The suggested monitors are neither of those things. Though, I'd imagine you'd be happy with them

5

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3OLUs

Your parts included (for convenience)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3OM0p

 

Stuck with the gold/yellow/black theme where possible.

Love Fractal cases. The R4 would have been the better choice for noise reduction.

The WD blue HDD is quieter than the WD black.

Better to have a single, more powerful card. 2way SLI adds more heat, noise, power requirements. Not all games support SLI. multi-card configs are not particularly appealing for most.

780 comes with watchdogs. ASUS use a quiet cooler. They include gold accents to replace the red. Runs with the theme.

You might consider the EVGA branded cards. Their ACX cooler is black and gold. They have good warranty, and good customer service.

While the build is slightly over budget, you could replace the 780 with an R9 290, which performs equally well:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3OM7v

Alternately, get a 770 or 280x. A single 770 would grant satisfactory performance at 1080p in any given game.

Motherboard does have SLI capability, if you want to do 760 SLI. Simply switch the aforementioned GPUs with your choice of GPU.

Other suggested PSUs:

Cheap and good:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9

Single GPU

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ssr550rm

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550bbefx

2 way

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-power-supply-fdpsunt3b600w

List is not exhausted.

CPU heatsinks.

CM EVO for a fair amount of overclocking

Anything by Noctua, very quiet coolers. Their house style kinda sucks. Can't think of any good gold coloured heatsinks. The larger the cooler, the more aggressive the overclock. Unless, you're unlucky and get a CPU that doesn't overclock very well. All-in-one water coolers can add unwanted pump noise, I don't recommend them.

6

IPS panel:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/viewsonic-monitor-va2349s

Appears to have a good stand, VESA mounts. Good panel size, good panel quality. Reasonably priced. Capped at 60FPS by the 60Hz refresh rate.

There's a cheaper 21" variant:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/viewsonic-monitor-va2249s

High refresh:

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vg248qe

High refresh allows you to see more than 60FPS, providing that you have the GPU performance to power it.

7

Thanks for all your help. I really like hearing other people's opinions, especially where I'm less confident about what I want. Newegg just dropped the price on their MSI and Asus GTX 760 cards to $239.99 and the MSI has a $10 rebate which makes the 760 sli option even better, although the idea of dual 780's is REALLY tempting. The Fractal Design is about the same as the Seasonic but I feel alot more confident buying a 650w PSU now so that will save me some money.

I was planning on getting noctua fans for my h100i and Amazon just dropped the price to $90. I still haven't decided yet between the 100i and the 212 Evo but I know I'll be getting Noctua fans for whichever I choose.

I liked the Define R4 but I HATE front panel doors, which is partly why I chose the Arc Midi. That and I loved the tinted side window. I've heard you can purchase sound dampening foam which I may do and install on the side panel to help with the acoustics. It may not be ideal but it should be better than what it is.

As for the monitor, I'll be keeping your options in mind. But I honestly think I need to take a trip to Micro Center and try and get an idea of the differences in person. I'm not sure which is more important: faster rate or better color accuracy because, right now, they are just ideas to me. I think seeing a few of the differences in person will help alot. But once I do decide, I will now have a monitor recommendation.

Again, thanks again for all your help. Having feedback and options from people with the right experience really takes some of the stress of choosing out of the process.

8

You'll find if you get a quality non-reference cooler, any GPU you buy will be silent. EVGA and ASUS are my two of choice. If you have the option, and they are both specced and priced the same, EVGA has much better customer support. That being said, it's ALWAYS better to buy the more powerful GPU... you certainly don't want to buy a GPU based on what games it's bundled with, as it's the most expensive part of the computer

Sound dampening foam will certainly help with noise, but you'll find quality fans don't put out much noise anyhow...

9

Of course, you can do whatever you like. But I would advise against dual cards of any kind. A single 780 will destroy games at 1080p. Perhaps a single 770. Multi-GPU configurations actually introduce more problems, like frame stutter, noise, heat, power requirements, sometimes it will prove to be more costly. Not all games support SLI or Crossfire, so you would be stuck using a single 760, and that's going to be ok, not ideal. No point paying $$$ for a card that you won't always use, that's my two cents.

If you chose to purchase a single card, you could use the ~$50 XFX bronze and you'd be more than fine with that. Save a good chunk of change. You should get an efficient PSU, if you can afford it, but not before you've purchase more meaningful components or peripherals that you're going to be happy with.

If you're going to purchase Noctua fans for the H100i, you should probably just go ahead and purchase a Noctua cooler. It's likely to be quieter, it can often produce lower temperatures than the closed loop coolers. It's very hit and miss with AIO coolers. There are reports of seals breaking on AIO and liquid pouring onto computer components. Noctua has a really good socket mounting mechanism, and the H100i does not. H100i is good, but the Noctua is going to be the better rounded choice. The NH-D14 is cheaper. Alternately, you could get the NH-D15 which beats the AIO coolers, reportedly.

http://youtu.be/emFN5KeGGnc?t=4m32s

I do prefer the Arc series more than the Define. By all means, try the case before you get sound dampening foam. Try ASUS Fan Xpert fan utility, reduce that chassis fan noise, it will produce great acoustic results.

Yes, go and view panels in store. Faster refresh means the panel updates more often, so faster paced games look more fluid. It's a noticeable difference, but without the fluidity being demonstrated to you, you would be none-the-wiser. Most people are ok with 60Hz. If you're a competitive FPS gamer, the high refresh is a no-brainer. High-refresh + 780 or R9 290 would be a perfect combo. You could argue a case for dual 760s on a 144Hz panel.

IPS is the every man's choice, it's a good balance of casual gaming (I do play competitively on an IPS), movies, design. Of course, you could purchase one panel now, and grab an additional panel at a later time. That would be a better use of money, rather than insisting on dual cards, in all honesty. For 60Hz, a single 760/ 770/ 280x would be sufficient, as the screen is capped at 60FPS. You simply would not require dual cards, or an ultra-tier card for that kind of display.

10

Chicken is good for dinner. Eggs are better for the morning.

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I was looking at the Noctua coolers. The D15 is massive, though, and thats one of the reasons why I wanted to go with the H100i. I had a semi-big air cooler on my machine and although I didn't tinker much with it after it was installed, it made me realize how much of a pain it was dealing with it. I was looking at the U12 versions since they can use the same sort of fans but aren't quite as big. Do you know if you can use any Noctua fans with the NH U12 series or do I need specific ones? I won't get as much of an overclock because of it but I'm not looking to push records with my build. Anything over 4.2 and I'll be pretty happy.

I'm still on the fence between 760's in SLI and a 780 but being able to use a smaller power supply does argue in the 780's favor. It's just the thought of dropping $500 on a graphics card that has given me a little sticker shock. Don't think I've ever paid more than $250 for a single computer part and I understand the reasons but still.... ouch.

The sound dampening idea was in case the fans and fan controllers didn't mute the sound as much as I needed. I'm getting really sensitive to sound lately and so I'm sort of pre-planning my computer as much as possible, even if it doesn't need it. The noctua fans, the fan controller on the case itself, and foam if necessary, my computer should be fast, cool, and uber quiet when I'm done with it.