New Gaming PC Build

Phantoms.....I may have something nice happening soon. Given all the time I've spent working of late, I may be doing a PC build.  Since it's my first build since the late 80's, I wanted to get input from anyone that wants to provide some about the specs/parts I'm thinking of using. It's going to be suitable for 1080p or 1440p as far as I can tell.  Here's what I'm looking at:

                     I5-6600K
                     EVGA Z170 Classified K mobo
                     EVGA GTX 970 FTW ACX
                     8Gb of DDR4 ram @ 2133
                     EVGA SuperNOVA 80+ Platinum power supply @ 750w
                     Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 240 AIO cooler
                     WD Black 1TB Performance HDD - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache
                     Logitech G105 Illuminated USB Gaming Keyboard
                     ASUS VG248QE Black 24" Gaming Monitor, 144Hz 1ms (GTG), 3D Monitor
                     SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D
                     Fractal Design Define R5 Titanium with Window (Or the black version)
                     LG Internal Super Multi Drive DVD Burner

   Needless to say,this is NOT a portable system but I'll have what seems to be a nice machine at home. Throw in a couple of fans and an OS (Win 8.1) and it comes out to $1,862 or so. I also have a Z97 build that's comparable that I could do for about $1,615. Any ideas or just comments in general will be pleasantly received

Seems like you have picked good parts. However, the cooling that come stock with every intel processor, should be sufficient to run it at normal clock speeds. So unless you are going to overclock, might as well drop the extra cooling, unless of course you absolutely want it. Might as well invest that in some more ram, 12gb or even 16gb?
Lastly, i would find a better Graphics card, The 970 is amazing and I use one myself, but I would choose a different card. Stick with the 970, but go for a better performance per price card. I honestly don't think it's worth it. However, you might be crazy about cooling as many are, so go for it if you feel like it!
I can discuss this further and be more specific, since this is just a quick thoughts on the whole thing.
Send a msg i guess if you want any help!

The Skylake looks good, an i5 is enough for Mechwarrior as it doesn't use the 8 threads of an i7 anyway so it is wise to save money there. I am not sure why you're estimated price is that high, you only have 8gb of ram and a 970 isn't the best for 1440 p gaming. Is it the monitor that is so expensive? Try using a website like http://pcpartpicker.com/ and tell me what it adds up to after that. Also do you plan on overclocking? The intel stock coolers are crap, but like Cynanide said they are sufficient for stock cooling. I run my intel stock just fine.

These are my computers here for comparison:

Alpha Sapphire
cpu-Intel Core i7 3770k
ram-G.Skill 4x4gb DDR3-1600
gpu-Radeon R9 Nano
motherboard-Asus P8Z68-V LE

Omega Ruby
cpu-AMD FX-8320E @ 4.5ghz
ram-G.Skill 4x4gb DDR3-2100
gpu-Geforce GTX 980 Ti
motherboard-ASRock 990FX Extreme9

Thanks for taking a look guys. To answer some questions, yes, I intend to learn overclocking and that's why I bought a high performance cooler. I chose the Arctic 240 because it had very good reviews and, at $99 dollars, costs $20 less than the Corsairs and other similar models. It also comes with 4 fans so I can do push-pull or use the extra 2 fans elsewhere in the case.  The selected GPU is there because the GTX 980 models cost $200 dollars more and I intend to add on a second GPU for an SLI config. I went with EVGA because of that particular cards reviews and ratings as well as EVGA's reputation. They have the best , longest warranties and customer service.  That also explains the other EVGA components. Though I've always thought I would be getting an ROG core, Asus' customer service reviews and ratings have really gone down.  No, REALLY!  I don't want to deal with the hassels if I have a problem on the 1st build I've done in years. I would have preferred to have spent my money on an AMD core to keep the competition going but the new ZEN chip isn't out yet. Right now, Intel has the best available and I'm actually a fanboy of neither. The RAM is the cheapest I could get because I'm going to be upgrading it as soon as Crucial comes out with their Ballistic Tactical Tracer DIMMs in DDR4. They had the nicest DDR3 LED memory so it's really about the bling lol.  I also looked into a Z97 build and I could show you that list but, for a couple of hundred dollars more, I get a newer feature set and some expanded abilities. Same for the mobo when I looked at the FTW version versus the Classified K. The latter was just a much better board and was created because of the features left off the FTW version that people complained about.  The monitor is a 1080p @ 144 Mhz so The 1440p concerns want become important until I get the 2nd GPU.  I'd love suggestions and thanks for offering the help. I'll post up the Z97 build if you want to see it as a comparison.  Also, do any of you use a HOTAS system? I have always liked them and one may be great for WT flying. I'm just not sure which ones are good these days. It's been awhile since I had the Saitek X-52 (or 48?) but I HATED the software.  Thanks again.

Oh....that price was from the Newegg listing. PCPartpicker was cheaper but I want the backing of a reputable distributor if I'm investing this much, not just the 'low price leader' of the week.

Ok I have a pretty clear picture now. Still though I would recommend a better video card if you do go with a higher resolution. SLI is about as useful as a blind race car driver especially in mwo, which still has no support for it. It's twice the heat, twice the power consumption for maybe 2x the performance. Anyway don't want to rain on your parade so I'll say the 970 is fine for 1080p.

Actually Hardin, I agree that I would prefer to have a GTX 980 or 980ti. It's a significantly better card performance wise. What I didn't know was that the SLI performance of two 970's was poor. Is that just on MWO or does that apply to other titles as well? I think you know what I mostly play....mil sims and an occasional RPG. I wouldn't call your advice "raining on my parade", I'd call it enlightening and appreciated.

The problem with SLI is that it's is not really that reliable. It can run into more problems than a solid singel GPU, especially since games have to support SLI/crossfire for it too take full effect. It is still good of course.
I don't have much experience with SLI, the only being my dad's computer. I would recommend you go look it up for yourself. The internet is full of videos and guides on SLI and much more.
And is the z97 build instead of the one you posted, or another one?

Also, I wont say much on price, since prices from the states vary a lot to those in Norway, and I can't be bothered looking it up . Computer components are more expensive here. A consolation is that price per performance is going down, so i got that going for me which is nice.

Here's whats different on the Devil's Canyon build:



   ARCTIC COOLING Liquid Freezer 120
   Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
   Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150
   EVGA 210-GQ-0850-V1 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Power Supply
   MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 100ME
   MSI Gaming Z97 GAMING 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
   Phanteks PH-ES515P_BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Enthoo Pro M ATX Chassis

All other components or items are the same as on the previous list.  This one comes in at $1615.18 on Newegg. Most likely it would be less on PCPart Picker. Again, it's focused on 1080p gaming at 144Mhz. I'm not sure this would do well at a 1440p resolution. It's also expandable to an SLI config. I could also go up to a GTX 980 for the price of the EVGA cored system I think. Something for me to consider.  I'm sorry to hear that you might be paying more in Norway. Doesn't seem fair to me. Of course, maybe you're paying more because Norway is such a beautiful place. A girl I almost married was from Oslo and my sister went to Trondheim a couple of times for her company. The pictures I saw of those places were wonderful.  

skyray wrote:PCPartpicker was cheaper but I want the backing of a reputable distributor if I'm investing this much, not just the 'low price leader' of the week.

Well, when you are looking on PCPartpicker you are not really buying from them. You are just finding prices from other companies at a competitive rate. You can pick and choose which retailers you choose to buy from. Personally, I used most of the lowest pricing options on there and am satisfied with the results.

skyray wrote:Actually Hardin, I agree that I would prefer to have a GTX 980 or 980ti. It's a significantly better card performance wise. What I didn't know was that the SLI performance of two 970's was poor. Is that just on MWO or does that apply to other titles as well?  I think you know what I mostly play....mil sims and an occasional RPG. I wouldn't call your advice "raining on my parade", I'd call it enlightening and appreciated.

I'm glad to help, it's nice actually having discussions on our forums . I know it's disappointing to here that about SLI, every year they talk about improving it with some new driver or direct x upgrade. A few games do take advantage of it sadly a lot of the games that we play like mechwarrior, tanks and warships doesn't support it. It sees the other card, but they don't take advantage of the extra horsepower.

Well, Norway is really beatiful, but the real reason is that people get paied quite a lot more in Norway, bigger salary equals bigger price tags. (very popular to go shop in Sweden since it's cheaper. Even i have a lot of money, for my confirmation i got 2.6k usd. And i still have 1.8k usd left, (saving for my drivers license). I have gotten some more since last year, but i did spend 800usd to upgrade my computer.

BTW, your z97 build is much like the one i have now. I am very pleased with it. But since you are into cooling, it is up to you i guess.
GL with your build.

Have you decided on what you are going to get Skyray? I think the Skylake is the best option. Hey it's funny because your name is Skyray!

Alternatively if you don't mind waiting until the end of the year, AMD's Zen processor will finally be released. It's something to consider. Don't wait too long though! There is always something new being released!

Yeah Hardin, I caught that naming similarity too lol. I was thinking about waiting for Zen but, remembering the Faildozer release and noting that fresh AMD components often have driver problems, I decided not to wait for Zen. I haven't gotten it yet because I'm waiting to get paid on a big assignment but I'll let all the Phantoms know when I do. Hell, I'll probably need some info on loading up the software.

Windows 10 loads itself, should'nt be a problem. Just get msi afterburner and geforce experince. It is really straight forward
Gl once again!!!

If you are still not sure about what card to buy then this one looks pretty good. AMD is announcing their new video cards. Or at least one of them right now. $199 for theoretically 40% more performance than the R9 380. If this slide is accurate then 2 of them in crossfire would be a better option then a single gtx 1080. This is just one game though.

Since the 1080 release, I've been waiting to see if 978/970 prices dropped and, to see what the price and performance of the 1070 would be. Given the specs that I've seen, I think I'm going to go with an EVGA 1070 and a monitor that has 1440p native at 120-140Hz. The 1070 will blow away almost any game you throw at it in 1080p,and that was my original target resolution. Now, with the specs I've seen on the 1070 handling most games in 1440 at 60fps or better (no, not all...most), I'm seriously looking at that as a target res. My problem there is the difference in the price of good quality monitors at 1080p vs 1440p. The 1080 card is the best out yet hands down but, doing anything in 1080 with that card is sort of like using a 50kt nuke on an infantry platoon. IE a criminal level of overkill IMHO. The price difference in the cards is pretty much the price of a good 1080 monitor, hence my decision for the 1070. Any ideas on selecting a good 1440p monitor? Heard of any being particularly good while not too expensive? Remember my fellow Phantoms, any of the above is a very nice step up from my 1600x900 laptop monitor. If I do the build and it works, I pretty much win from my viewpoint lol.

I have this really nice 27" 1440p IPS monitor from a company called Overlord Computer. I got a few years ago when the cheap Korean 27" IPS 1440p panels became all the rage. Cheap being still $500 or so at the time. But looking up the company now it seems like they are out of business. It's a real shame because it was an American upstart importing the Korean panels and mine is still going after 4 years or so.

I'd say you would probably have the best luck with an ASUS monitor at this point. You wont have to worry about ASUS going out of business!

Well, I've been looking at monitors and it's down to one of these 3:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236660 The "base" model, or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009869

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236717

I'd really LOVE one of the last 2 for that big, curved screen but DAMN! Look at the price! There's also a concern about a GTX 1070 being able to run one of those at high settings. I'm also looking at a mechanical keyboard but I haven't used one of those since the 80's. The Logitech Orion Spectrum has these new Romer G switches that many reviewers seem to like but I was wondering if any of you guys use mechanical. Haven't been able to get on and talk about it but I'm going to see if the GPU's are available on 7/4 for a sale on other components.

I love the idea of an ultrawide display, but I've never tried it myself. I would think you would forget to use your peripheral vision and focus only on the center, but the people I've heard who use it say it's so natural to use. They are all IPS panels so you wouldn't be wrong for choosing any of them.

Hey Skyray did you ever decide on that build? If you haven't then you might be interested in Intel's new Kaby Lake processors. They have the same ipc as Sky Lake, but they clock much higher. http://www.anandtech.com/show/10968/the-intel-core-i7-7700k-91w-review-the-new-stock-performance-champion

Hey Hardin: Thanks for the idea. I was already looking at that possibility but the bench marks show that Kaby Lake's improvements are so minimal that it's not worth it even with the higher clock speeds. I'll probably do better waiting for Skylake prices to come down since they have the new Z270 mobos out now too. They were just released and all the major companies are ponying up their versions of the new chipset. I need to do something because my main laptop is having problems. I had to get something quick to replace it so a newer version was on sale and it should be arriving in a few days. I'm on my work laptop right now (which doesn't handle games at all really) but I should be around again after I do all the installations and set up for the new one. Christmas and a couple of unexpected bills wiped out a chunk of my build fund but that may be for the best. By the time it's restored, Skylake prices should have come down and I'll even get a better deal. I'm hoping I might get lucky on the monitor prices that way too. I've kinda got my heart set on that Asus ultrawide that's about $1,300 bucks. It's 3440x1440 and should REALLY improve the immersion and enjoyment of the new system. If I can get it all to work that is lol