Been out of the game - advice on new build

Gillette

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
1,317
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily gaming and streaming, also mining (so AMD GPU a must, depressingly)

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1600 tax/shipping included

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Ottawa, ON, CA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU + Cooler
Motherboard
RAM
SSD
GPU
Case
PSU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?
Heavily.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p, 24", 144hz

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Once the tax return hits, hopefully late April.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Pretty flexible on this... SATA 6Gb/s would be nice for the SSD and I won't say no to USB 3.0. My current PC (in my sig) has lasted me since 2010 and is still a trooper, but the cash will be on hand and with flat-rate utilities (condo) it's time to mine...

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Win 7, 64-bit

With that out of the way, here's the parts list I'm currently looking at:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer
Memory: Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270X 2GB
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl)
Power Supply: Corsair HX650 650W PSU

I've priced this out with PCPartPicker (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3dzzd) and it's spot on budget (a little under actually). Now with that said, I would prefer to shop locally with CanadaComputers (www.canadacomputers.com) and NCIX (www.ncix.com) wherever possible.
 
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Swap out the HSF for the better cooling H80 instead.

As for the motherboard, do you really need the extra features that the UD4H provides over something cheaper like the Asus Z87-A or even theZ87 KILLER FATAL1Y Here's HardOCP's reviews of the three mobos in question:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/06/03/asus_z87a_lga_1150_motherboard_review/#.UyuniPldVWw
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/01/29/asrock_z87_killer_fatal1ty_motherboard_review/
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/09/05/gigabyte_z87xud4h_lga_1150_motherboard_review/1
 
The H80 is double the price, will have to do some thinking on that one. Benchmarks do look good though.

The ASRock board looks fantastic, honestly didn't know about it. Will give that a shot, thanks for the suggestion!
 
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Asrock boards are great. They're an offshoot of Asus.

+1 to ditching the H60. You'll get better results from a noctua, TRUE, or other high end air cooler.

If you're gonna start buying now (or of there will be any order to which you buy the parts), make sure you grab the GPU last as it's the most likely item to change a bit in price (for the better, hopefully).

Great choices overall though!
 
As long as you don't shake your case or transport it on a bumpy road or ship it while that behemoth of a NH-D14 is attached.

I don't think my PC has ever moved except when I actually moved houses so we should be safe there, but thanks for the advice!
 
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