Jay's New Gaming Rig

Jay

Jay

Hello folks,

I'm starting to look into completely upgrading my gaming rig. This includes a new case... basically the works. Eventually I'll also upgrade my computer monitor as well. All I'm keeping is my headset, mouse and keyboard.

My requirements :

- While having the best of everything is quite nice, we all know it's simply not very practical. You'll get that marginally better performance for a whole lot of more cheddar. No thanks. So, I'm looking at a notch below that. Today, as I don't follow the market all that much, so I don't know what's what.

- I'm going with 2 HDs again.. If SDD are more cost effective, I'd like that to be my main harddisk. I lived with a 300 Gig Raptor Drive the last 4 years. 500 Gigs or so would be nice, more if it's worth it.

- I also want to get my hands on a RELIABLE External HD as well. 1 TB should be fine. 2 TB if it's not too much more.

- I never had SLI, I'd like SLI. How possible is that?

- Must have Sound Card. A good OEM one.

- I have a Samsung SyncMaster 226 BW monitor, I'm looking at maybe upgrading that.

- How terrible is Windows 8.1? I know Windows 10 may come late 2015. Maybe I should stay with my Windows 7 for now.

- I'd also like to slightly overclock some of these things with a friend of mine who can help me set it all up.


@PatrThom

Su
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

When buying a new monitor, I can't encourage you enough to buy one that can pivot into a portrait orientation for reading long documents/webpages. When I had two monitors, I kept one in that orientation almost continually.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I really think the GeForce gtx 970 is amazing. It overclocks like nobody's business, is only a little slower than the 980, but is half the price.

You can sli 2 970's for just a little more than you'd pay for one 980. And the fact that it runs so cool and with so little power (compared to previous gens) means it's also really quiet.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Frank said:
I'm out of date with graphics cards, but isn't the R290X still the best bang for your buck?
Click to expand...
The 970 is roughly on par with the r290x, but is (or was, until recently) much cheaper. AMD currently doesn't have anything to compete with the 900 series, and so dropped the price of the 290x to compete alongside the 970. The 970 draws a lot less power, though, and also runs a whole lot cooler.[DOUBLEPOST=1416817111,1416817054][/DOUBLEPOST]


 
Frank

Frank

Cool, like I said, I'm behind the times in video cards. You get nVidia's generally superior drivers that way too.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

The main reason to go with NVIDIA right now is because their drivers are better about the whole micro-stuttering thing at this time. AMD says they're going to do something about it, and their cards are actually significantly superior for most (non-CUDA) GPU-assisted computing (because that's the direction they're heading), but for gaming NVIDIA currently holds the edge.

--Patrick
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

I got the ASUS GTX 970 as the price was not too bad. When I get my system built up this week or next, I will tell how I feel about it. It looks like a pretty good card.

When it comes to SSD I have noticed Samsung has been having a lot of flash deals. I got a 250GB drive awhile back for less then $100 and just recently for the new system got a 500GB drive for $200. These were during sales on Amazon.

Monitors are tricky as I have never found one I have been fully happy with. I hear good things about BenQ, which is a monitor company I only heard about this year that focuses on gaming monitors. I even ordered one recently as it was half off.

Definitely stay with Windows 7. You can get Home for less then a hundred bucks and you know it will be stable.

Really, I guess I should just wait till I get my new system built and a bit more under my belt, then I can say how well they all work.
 
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Gared

Gared

We use BenQ monitors at work for all of our engineering workstations, which led me to buy one for my wife's gaming rig - they work great.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/6F3cNG
  • You're a guy of means, so I didn't skimp, though I did still try to choose with "value" foremost in mind.
  • Chosen on spec/features, I have not worked with these parts to know how well they'll all physically go together (mainly RAM height).
  • pcpartpicker warns that the memory runs a little hotter than recommended, that's because I expect that memory to be set at 1600 rather than the stated 1866 and that's just fine. It's the lower latency that mattered more.
  • I really wanted the LCD to go 2560x1600 rather than 2560x1440 but those prices? Ugh. Would've been $100 more.
  • Motherboard I really wanted is the ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer, but guess what? Not available in North America. Boo. Feel free to have a contact in England buy you one and ship it over, though.
  • Stock cooler should be good enough as long as you aren't overclocking.
  • Case might require an extra fan or two that I didn't include, use your best judgement.
As always, commentary welcome. I rely on y'all to catch any details I've missed.
Also, rather than build a giant, intimidating wall-o-text, I'll explain my per-part rationale only if requested.

--Patrick
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/6F3cNG
  • You're a guy of means, so I didn't skimp, though I did still try to choose with "value" foremost in mind.
  • Chosen on spec/features, I have not worked with these parts to know how well they'll all physically go together (mainly RAM height).
  • pcpartpicker warns that the memory runs a little hotter than recommended, that's because I expect that memory to be set at 1600 rather than the stated 1866 and that's just fine. It's the lower latency that mattered more.
  • I really wanted the LCD to go 2560x1600 rather than 2560x1440 but those prices? Ugh. Would've been $100 more.
  • Motherboard I really wanted is the ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer, but guess what? Not available in North America. Boo. Feel free to have a contact in England buy you one and ship it over, though.
  • Stock cooler should be good enough as long as you aren't overclocking.
  • Case might require an extra fan or two that I didn't include, use your best judgement.
As always, commentary welcome. I rely on y'all to catch any details I've missed.
Also, rather than build a giant, intimidating wall-o-text, I'll explain my per-part rationale only if requested.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
The MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G is a bit cheaper than the EVGA superclock (or at least was last time I checked) and while the EVGA comes out of the box with higher clock speeds (because it's by default overclocked) the MSI will boost just as high or higher by overclocking it, and also runs quieter with its semi-passive cooling system. I own one of these cards, and it runs quite comfortably boosted even higher than the 980's standard clock speeds.

That said, the availability of the 970 has been spotty due to high demand, and I really doubt that the difference between the two would even be noticed, as pretty much any 970 is going to run like a champ. But I'm just tossing that out there.

I will say that while the MSI is certainly a long card, it's slightly shorter than the slot height, so that might be something to consider if you ever plan on plopping in another for SLI.
 
Jay

Jay

A few tweaks :

- Added a 2nd card.
- Added 2nd Slave HD
- Removed monitor (will buy one next year, no rush atm)
- Removed Windows, I have like 3 copies LOL.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Ravenpoe said:
The MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G is a bit cheaper than the EVGA superclock
Click to expand...
Agreed. I wasn't sure how much effort Jay wanted to put into messing with settings, even if the Afterburner tool does make it relatively easy to do so.
Jay said:
- Added a 2nd card.
- Added 2nd Slave HD
- Removed monitor (will buy one next year, no rush atm)
- Removed Windows, I have like 3 copies LOL.
Click to expand...
Wasn't sure how much more you wanted to do later, but you can easily add a second 970 (for SLI) for only half the cost of the monitor you deleted. The PSU was chosen with enough headroom so you would be able to do this later if you wanted. I also wasn't sure whether you were going to plop a 3TB or 4TB drive in there right away for all your slave needs.

--Patrick
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Conventional wisdom in the past has always been to go with the beefiest single card you can afford, so instead of going for 970 SLI, it would have always been better to just go with a 980 instead, so that you have the option in the future to put in another. But looking up performance between the two now, I'm not so sure that holds true for this generation. The performance increase of the 980 seems to be fairly low compared to the price, so hell, rock those 970's.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

And there's the fact that the 980 costs almost 50% more than a 970, but does not deliver anywhere near 50% more performance.

--Patrick
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Jay said:
I might buy just one and get the other next year when it's half off.
Click to expand...
A single 970 will serve you well. Assuming you're going to be at or around 1920x1080 resolution, you should have no problem running everything at maxed ultra. I know I'm not.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Ravenpoe said:
They're pricing the GTX 570 at almost $700?! I can't find anyone to buy mine for far less than that.
Click to expand...
Could just be a demand thing. There's lots of times that some semi-obsolete card's price gets jacked up just because it's easier to softmod into the Quadro version or some obscure reason like that.
Jay said:
Prices HAVE gone up.
Click to expand...
'Tis the season. Also, RAM prices are being stupid again.
You can bring it under 2k by giving up the 4TB internal for something smaller. You can easily get a conventional 2TB for $100 or less, or you can get something like one of these hybrid drives for just over $100 if performance is going to be any kind of concern, and 2TB should easily be plenty for "things I need to be able to put my hands on right away." Personally, I would dedicate some sort of external drive to be my Enormous Storage Unit/Backup Drive rather than keeping it inside the same box as all my games and such. I'm not comfortable locking all my historical content inside of a single computer, I want to be able to move it from place to place, but again that is personal preference.

--Patrick
 
Jay

Jay

I'm probably going to be looking at this more seriously after the holidays I don't think the price range currently is very what's the word I'm looking for advantageous

Speaking of external hard drive I think I mentioned I'm looking for one preferably 2 TB any recommendations
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Jay said:
the price range currently is very what's the word I'm looking for advantageous
Click to expand...
Sorry, was used to you being a man of wealth and taste, and so picked accordingly.
You might want to check out Nick's thread for my (and other people's) recommendations for parts for a system that won't require waiting while your finances recover, but there is a certain minimum price point under which you just aren't able to build something good enough that you're not gonna want to replace it again in a year's time.

--Patrick
 
Gared

Gared

Jay said:
I'm probably going to be looking at this more seriously after the holidays I don't think the price range currently is very what's the word I'm looking for advantageous

Speaking of external hard drive I think I mentioned I'm looking for one preferably 2 TB any recommendations
Click to expand...
I've been using the 1TB version of this drive for the past couple years, and used a 2TB version of it when I worked at Microsoft, and never had any problems with it.
 
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