Build advice?

[Zapados]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8H9GdC

Prices are not final!

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($336.77 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba Q Series Pro 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($629.98 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (Purchased For $0.00)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN951N 802.11b/g/n PCI Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: BenQ FP421W (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail (Purchased For $0.00)
Other: ASUS ROG Maximus VII Hero ($204.99)
Total: $1586.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available


Does this look like a reasonable build? Anything obviously wrong here?

Any opinions on ASUS Maximus VII Hero VS ASUS Maximus VII Ranger?

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, browsing, music, coding.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? Don't really have a budget, but want reliable, semi-common components. I know what I want for CPU (i7 4790K) and GPU (GTX 980), so I'm working around those. Not interested in crazy water cooling rigs.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible. New Hampshire, USA.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Need a CPU, GPU, motherboard, RAM, CPU cooler, SSD. Already have everything else.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Reused parts are listed above and marked "Purchased".
6) Will you be overclocking? Yes, CPU-side will be mildly OCing, starting with automagic OCing done by the mobo. GPU side, yes, more extensively.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 1920x1200, uhhh 22" I think? I may upgrade to a dual-monitor system eventually. I know a GTX 980 is somewhat overkill for that resolution, but I'm a believer in 60+ FPS. Would like to run all my games with maxed out settings and get 60+ FPS ideally.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Very soon! I plan to make purchases this week or next.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? SLI support, good OCer, automagic OC-ability that reliably works for moderate OCs.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Yes, 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate.

Any advice is welcome. Thank you!

 

[horrorshow]

Switch that SSD to a Samsung/Crucial variant....

 

[wtourist]

Do not know if this is better or worse
supposed to ship in 2 to 5 weeks
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GTX980-S...e=UTF8&qid=1412736174&sr=8-1&keywords=gtx+980

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GTX980-2...e=UTF8&qid=1412736174&sr=8-4&keywords=gtx+980

Ripjaws X 2X 8gb 2133 $148.49 w code EMCWPPC39 [email deals newegg]

Crucial MX100 $210
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX100-adapter-Internal-CT512MX100SSD1/dp/B00KFAGCUM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412736867&sr=8-1&keywords=512+gb+ssd

Aftermarket cooling
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&cm_re=cooler_master_evo-_-35-103-099-_-Product

http://www.amazon.com/Scythe-Mugen-Cooler-Socket-SCMG-4000/dp/B00G9YBHEY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412737436&sr=8-1&keywords=scythe+mugen+4

 

[Dangman]

Does this look like a reasonable build? Anything obviously wrong here?

Any opinions on ASUS Maximus VII Hero VS ASUS Maximus VII Ranger?

We really need more information before we can come with solid arugments/advice. So please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!" so that we can help you better.

Though at a glance with no information from you, that build list looks bad.

 

[Zapados]

Thanks horrorshow and wtourist!

I've had multiple people recommend Crucial for the SSD. I got that Toshiba from Tom's Hardware best SSDs for the money. But with the recommendations for the other brand name SSDs, I'll def. look into that. Anyways, the Toshiba doesn't even come with a mounting bracket.

wtourist, why the steering away from the Noctua? I've heard so many good things about it!

 

[Zapados]

Dangman, I updated my original post to answer all the questions, so I'd be interested in your input based on that.

 

[Dangman]

I've had multiple people recommend Crucial for the SSD. I got that Toshiba from Tom's Hardware best SSDs for the money. But with the recommendations for the other brand name SSDs, I'll def. look into that. Anyways, the Toshiba doesn't even come with a mounting bracket.

I recommend Samsung or Crucial over any Toshiba SSD.

wtourist, why the steering away from the Noctua? I've heard so many good things about it!

What Noctua are you talking about? You didn't list any Noctua.

How soon will you be getting that second GTX 980 for SLI? If it's not within 2 to 6 months, probably just forget about it.

You haven't really said anything where the Asus Maximus VII Hero or Maximus VII Ranger would be a good purchase. You're only doing a moderate OC nor have you mentioned using any Maximus VII specific features. I think the cheaper Asus Z97-A will be enough:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/21/asus_z97a_lga_1150_motherboard_review/#.VDYZw_ldXt8

The RAM is overpriced: You won't notice a difference at all in real world performance between DDR3 2133 and DDR3 1600 RAM. So go for the cheapest DDR3 1600 RAM you can find.

 

[Zapados]

I recommend Samsung or Crucial over any Toshiba SSD.

Ya I'm gonna go with the Crucial MX100 512GB. Any idea what the "life write" TB count is for the Crucial MX100 512GB?

What Noctua are you talking about? You didn't list any Noctua.

Oops I forgot to list that on my PCPartPicker. It's updated now: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rYkDmG

How soon will you be getting that second GTX 980 for SLI? If it's not within 2 to 6 months, probably just forget about it.

Ya I probably won't be getting it any time soon...I think the 980 will hold me off for a good while.

You haven't really said anything where the Asus Maximus VII Hero or Maximus VII Ranger would be a good purchase. You're only doing a moderate OC nor have you mentioned using any Maximus VII specific features. I think the cheaper Asus Z97-A will be enough:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/08/21/asus_z97a_lga_1150_motherboard_review/#.VDYZw_ldXt8

I'm concerned about the ASUS Z97-A reliability. Reviews on Newegg are not that great...plenty of failures being reported. 49 4+ stars, 25 2- stars. Maybe it's a scale thing...so many more being sold? Any idea why the high rate of bad boards according to Newegg reviews?

The RAM is overpriced: You won't notice a difference at all in real world performance between DDR3 2133 and DDR3 1600 RAM. So go for the cheapest DDR3 1600 RAM you can find.

Dude I gotta splurg somewhere, and this will actually affect game performance! Not like SSDs which would really only affect load performance.

 

[GioG]

I see that you're dead-set on a 4790k, but it's a bit overkill for what you intend to use it for. I could see it being a little helpful for compiling code while programming, but it really depends on what you're using for compiling and how much you compile at a time. If you write smaller programs, that extra millisecond isn't going to account for $100 extra. Aside from that, the RAM is definite overkill unless you plan on hand-tweaking the timings and what-not. Go with a cheaper 1600-1866 MHz variant (~$35 cheaper). Going with lower spec RAM also saves you the hassle of having to set it up or expect the mobo to automatically O.C. it for you, and the cost of upgrading to 32GB would be much cheaper. Faster RAM isn't necessarily utilized faster unless you're doing very specific tasks with it such as a RAM Disk. Going with anything higher than 1600 MHz will deal no tangible difference in games, only in benching/scientific software specifically made to target RAM.

You could go with a cheaper motherboard; it doesn't look like you intend to get too insane with overclocking or other features, so most of that board's extras won't really help all that much. You could go with an Asus Sabertooth Mark2 (~$40 cheaper) or look into MSI or even a mid-tier ASRock (intermediate features, low price). Auto-overclocking, stable voltages, and everything else you would ever use are covered by cheaper alternatives. In addition, a mid-tier motherboard would be more than capable of reaching on-air cooling limitations.

As per the GPU, the monitor is only 1920x1200; you would be fine with a GTX 970 instead. You could easily overclock it with safe temps, heat, power consumption, and without a risk to its lifespan to compensate. That would save $200. Granted, you seem like you don't want to change it, but overall the GTX 980 is really only something to consider if you are pushing 1440p or 4k. The GTX 970 regularly gets 55+ FPS on every modern game at 1440p; 1440p is 50% more pixels, so expect 40% higher framerates at your lower resolution. You won't have to worry about dipping below 60 for a couple of years at which point you could sell the card for $200 and spend an additional $100 to upgrade to the newest card. You would still save a net $100 doing so. Use the 1080p benches of the review below as a reference and also take a look at the Overclocking segment; even a GTX 970 is overkill for your resolution - http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga.

Altogether, you could cut $100 on the CPU assuming you don't need the added Hyper-Threading for compiling (pending on the compiling size/software), $35 on the RAM, $40 at the least for the motherboard, and $200 on the GPU. Your initial build is full of overkill, but there's no need. The point of overkill is to have the best around, but your initial build isn't the best; it never will be unless you go even more over-the-top. As is, the initial build is stuck in a limbo where it's too overpowered to be worth the money but also too underpowered to be the best. Don't go for ridiculous unless you plan on doing something special. Your current build is overkill, but not overkill enough; you should either drop the specs to something that isn't a complete waste of money but still more than good enough for what you intend to do, or go extreme. If you want the latter, go with an ASUS MAXIMUS VII FORMULA motherboard or drop the 1150 slot altogether and go 5820k/x99; get two GTX 980s; get two more monitors for Nvidia Surround or sell the existing one and get a 4k monitor; get another 16GB of RAM or drop it for DDR4 if you go with x99; get a second SSD for RAID 0. I can tell you want something show-y, but there's no point in showing off unless you have something that's better than everyone else's. Your current build won't land you bragging rights because it isn't high-end enough to compete; at the same time, it's too pricey and powerful for what you intend to use it for and you'll never be able to see that extra money doing anything on-screen.

 

[Zapados]

GioG, good post, thanks for your input.

That said, I feel like my little baby is dieing! Hehehe. You and others have brought a dose of hard reality to my dreamy tinted build eye.

Let me try to defend each point here just a little bit, for fun.

CPU - i7-4790K: For me, it's mostly all about that extra clock speed. Stock 4GHz is sweet! Plus getting an moderate OC will bump it even higher! When I built my current system I got a higher-clocked dual-core instead of a slower-clocked quad because utilization of multiple cores was weak. It is better, but still weak, so I tend to err on the side of speed over cores. Also seems to make more sense as I'm building for gaming more than CAD.
Some other tick marks here...I'm worried GTA V will be a crap-ass port, leaning too heavily on the CPU. I've also been in a few Landmark beta weeks and stuff, and the game is not optimized yet, so requires massive CPU to run well. As I like my Betas I can also see this happening in the future.
Frankly the code part, you are right. I'll probably do less coding on this rather than more, unless I get lucky enough to work out a little work from home arrangement eventually.

RAM - 2133 MHz 9-11-11 G.SKILL: You may have me here.... Do you know of any good gaming benchmarks based on RAM? I've found these: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/...3-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/8
They show small FPS increases. You are right, nothing crazy for sure, but at the same time if we are talking about ~$30 extra...that's what, dinner for 2 at a decent restaurant, with no drinks? I'm willing to blow it.

Motherboard - ASUS Z97-A: I already sold myself off Hero in my original post. The Hero is def. overkill and not worth the money. I'm leaning towards the Z97-A as recommended here. Has the great ASUS auto-OCing suite and all that which is what I mostly want. Maybe this is a piece you missed in your post, since I forgot to update the OP with that?

GPU - GTX 980: I basically agree that a 970 is plenty enough with my current display. However I could see myself getting a badass Dell 27" or 30" and running my current monitor as a secondary. Looking at those benchmarks the 980 squarely beats the 970. Is it worth the extra money? No, but it's still banging!

Conclusion: I do want something show-y, but don't want to go ape-shit for the bragging rights...just costs too much money for too little tangible reward. It's easier to beat the Jones categorically...AKA run the same platform, but have a faster CPU, GPU and RAM. Am I totally off base here?

 

[GioG]

The extra speed boost is nice, but you mentioned wanting to do some overclocking yourself. 4790k's overclock a bit easier than normal (lower voltage O.C.) due to being binned, but a 4670k will usually O.C. to the same frequency with roughly the same if not less voltage due to not using Hyper-Threading (feature requires higher voltage). Hyper-Threading is basically a raw 20% boost in performance if the program uses 8 threads. You get a 5-8% boost of speed per thread used over 4. For the vast majority of games and software that barely push a 4670k over 60% usage, Hyper-Threading is completely worthless. Unless you plan on using CAD/scientific software, Hyper-Threading isn't worth the money. It isn't made for gaming; it's incredibly useful, but not for what you intend. A 4670k will easily overclock to 4.2 GHz with 4.5-4.7 also being within the norm with a good heatsink. If you're worried that GTA 5 will be a bad port, then you definitely shouldn't go with a 4790k considering bad ports usually don't utilize more than 4 threads in which case Hyper-Threading wouldn't help.

The RAM isn't worth the price; Intel motherboards only support stock RAM speeds of 1600 MHz (or 1866; can't remember); everything higher than that is actually being overclocked. Because of that, you usually have to manually enable RAM overclocking then manually set the timings and speed. The motherboard you picked should it for you, but it's actually better to clock the RAM at 1600MHz then tighten the timings. Lower timings are better than higher speeds once you hit 1600, and considering adjusting timings is really time consuming and prone to more instability, it's way easier and stable to just get a good set of RAM at 1600 with 7-7-7 or 8-8-8 timings. The alternative is to get 2133MHz+ RAM then manually adjust it, but if you're planning on using auto-O.C. as a main source of overclocking, then doing this would probably go a bit over your head.

Unless you sell your existing monitor and go 1440p or 4k, you are throwing money at frames you will never see. An alternative is to ditch your current monitor and go 120hz 1080p; a GTX 970 will net you 90+ FPS in pretty much everything at 1080p, so 120hz would be the only way to actually see the difference. If you insist on 1200p and a GTX 980 then you are burning money on invisible performance. If you intend to go with a second monitor, go with an ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q; it's 120hz with better features and a similar price. For $200 less, a GTX 970 is still a better choice; with some overclocking, your frames would still be at 60 even with a 1440p monitor - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014...70_gaming_4g_video_card_review/9#.VDgVDKhdW9Y.

When it comes to being show-y, you either have the best or top tier, or nothing at all. Dual GTX 980's are the starting point of show-y. A 4670k will net the same framerates for $100 cheaper; slightly cheaper RAM won't affect FPS; a GTX 980 will get higher frames, but your monitor can't show them; either go cheaper or go more expensive. Your current build is too weak to be impressive but too powerful to be worth the money. It would be like purchasing a muscle car for racing around bends when all you do with it is commute to work; a muscle car is overkill for commuting but also not good enough for going around turns. Either get a better car with better handling and start racing it, or just get a car for commuting.

 

[Dangman]

I'm concerned about the ASUS Z97-A reliability. Reviews on Newegg are not that great...plenty of failures being reported. 49 4+ stars, 25 2- stars. Maybe it's a scale thing...so many more being sold? Any idea why the high rate of bad boards according to Newegg reviews?

Not quite a bad rate considering that the overall rate is 4 stars. IN any case, Asus tends to be more popular purchases than others. As such, you're going to see more complaints as a result.

Dude I gotta splurg somewhere, and this will actually affect game performance! Not like SSDs which would really only affect load performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/8[/url]
They show small FPS increases. You are right, nothing crazy for sure, but at the same time if we are talking about ~$30 extra...that's what, dinner for 2 at a decent restaurant, with no drinks? I'm willing to blow it.
.....
Conclusion: I do want something show-y, but don't want to go ape-shit for the bragging rights...just costs too much money for too little tangible reward. It's easier to beat the Jones categorically...AKA run the same platform, but have a faster CPU, GPU and RAM. Am I totally off base here?

The problem is that you are going ape-shit for bragging rights by going with that higher speed RAM. Your Anandtech link only shows very very small improvements in a small number of specific gaming scenarios. Xbitlabs showed that higher speed RAM only mattered if you are playing at really low resolutions or play Theif 3:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/haswell-ddr3_7.html#sect0

As such, even at $30, it's completely unjustifiable to go with that higher speed RAM unless you just want bragging rights. That's how you're going to justify that RAM purchase: Bragging rights.