Gaming build for <$2.5k (I finally have money)

Apathy

Apathy

Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
890
This pc will be for gaming primarily. Light video/audio processing.

I live in Connecticut, 'Murica

I need all new components except fo HDD storage drives and DVD ROM.

I have a license for Windows 7 Enterprise.

My monitor is a 30 inch Dell U3011.

I'll do some average over clocking to gpu and cpu.

My budget is 2.5k shipped.

Corsair Obsidian 550D Case
$159.99 -$10.00 Instant $149.99

ASUS SABERTOOTH X99 LGA 2011-v3
$329.99 -$20.00 Instant $309.99

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 980 Ti
$689.99 $689.99

CORSAIR HXi HX850i Modular Power Supply
$189.99 -$30.00 Instant $159.99

Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W
$399.99 -$10.00 Instant $389.99

SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$399.99 $399.99

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Memory Kit
$149.99 -$15.00 Instant $134.99

Corsair Hydro Series H110i GT High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler
$136.99 -$7.00 Instant $129.99


Any problems or areas for improvement?
 
I would do a smallish, say 256GB, M2 SSD for your OS and then install Steam on the EVO for games. Never hurts to have a bit more speed for folders where cache and temp files get stored. Nice build list :)
 
That looks like that should be a pretty good build, but I have to ask, why did you choose to go with the x99 platform over z170? Being primarily a machine for gaming and your given parts list, it looks like you won't really see much use of its features (additional cpu cores, increased memory capacity, increased pci-e bandwidth) in contrast to the increased base clock speed and native m.2 ssd support with z170/6700k which would be directly beneficial.
 
..and if you read the complete thread they have noticeably worse specs than other drives in the same category. If you don't care about lifetime or (probably) reliability go ahead.
 
Ok. I did some research. Checked out m2 drives. Looked at the z170 platform. Here's my updated build list.

Total: $3263.44

CPU
Intel Core i7-6700K 8M
$349.99
&#61613;
&#61453;
Motherboard
ASUS Z170-DELUXE
$313.99+
&#61613;
&#61453;
Memory
CORSAIR 32GB (2 x 16GB) Vengeance LPX
$289.99
&#61613;
&#61453;
Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN X 12G-P4-2992-KR
$1,029.33
&#61613;
&#61453;
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W HXi CP-9020073-NA
$147.98
&#61613;
&#61453;
Storage
SAMSUNG 512GB SM951 MZHPV512HDGL-00000
$369.99
&#61613;
&#61453;
SAMSUNG 1TB 850 EVO MZ-75E1T0B/AM
$343.26
&#61613;
&#61453;
Case
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D
$142.99
&#61613;
&#61453;
CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Hydro Series H110i GT
$115.98


Windows
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - 64-bit - OEM
$139.95
&#61613;
&#61453;
Optical Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS
$19.99
&#61655;
 
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Nice build... I'm looking at something similar. One difference is the video card. Isn't the 980 ti nearly a Titan X? I was thinking of the 980 ti and spend on other parts of the build.
 
You can shave off quite a bit on that build without sacrificing performance or reliability...
Titan cards doesn't really carry a good bang for the buck-tag either ;-)
 
Consider Devil's Canyon over Skylake
a 980ti over Titan
16gb is enough overkill for ram
Your 7 license will upgrade to 10 for free, what does pro have that you want?
 
With that kind of budget, get the 5820k. You lose a little stock clockspeed, but you have a H110, so just OC it and you get the benefit of 2 additional cores.
 
I definitely second getting a 980ti over a Titan X. Get something with a nice cooler. Personally I am obsessed with dumping heat outside my case and low noise so I'd get the 980ti with a hybrid cooler. Lower temps generally help with OC as well.

Something like this: http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?i...V1PzMSnP9T5TSRwybjU5gaAga-8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'd also do what this guy is suggesting:

kirbyrj said:
With that kind of budget, get the 5820k. You lose a little stock clockspeed, but you have a H110, so just OC it and you get the benefit of 2 additional cores.
Click to expand...

The two extra cores will help with the light video processing. Depending what you do (I use stabilization and other filters) and I've used 20GB of my 32GB of ram where my 16GB would crash. May want to keep the 32... This was for 20 minute family videos in Adobe Premiere Elements. Also the 5820k is quad channel memory over the dual channel Skylake. From what I've seen 2400 is enough for ram speed for the 5820k. Might be able to get cheaper ram.
 
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OK. Another revision. I think this might be the last one. I am sticking with skylake. Went from titan to hybrid 980. Upgraded evo ssd to pro ssd. Upgraded ahci to nvme m2 ssd. I'm considering switching the corsair 550d case for the fractal design r5 because of configurability and vertical ssd mounts but I'm somewhat concerned about being able to fit the hybrid gpu radiator and the h110i gt radiator. Any thoughts on NVME vs AHCI or the cases? Also is there an updated consensus on the corsair k70 rgb and the software issues?


10/27
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$159.99 -$17.00 Instant $142.99

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
$19.99 $19.99

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 06G-P4-1996-KR 6GB HYBRID GAMING, "All in One" No Hassle Water Cooling, Just Plug and Play Graphics
$749.99 -$50.00 Instant $699.99

CORSAIR HXi HX850i CP-9020073-NA 850W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Power Supply
$189.99 -$30.00 Instant $159.99

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Memory Kit Model CMK16GX4M2B3000C15
$134.99 -$15.00 Instant $119.99

Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 95W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel® HD Graphics 530
$369.99 $369.99

Corsair Hydro Series H110i GT High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler
Mail in Rebate Card
$136.99 -$17.00 Instant $119.99

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE1T0BW
$499.99 -$30.00 Instant $469.99

Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Cherry MX Red Switches
$169.99 -$3.05 Instant $166.94

Samsung SM951 512GB (NVMe) MZVPV512HDGL-00000 MZ-VPV5120 Gen3 M.2 80mm PCIe 3.0 x4 512G SSD with a SSD protective case
$469.50 $469.50

ASUS Z170-DELUXE LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$319.99 $319.99
Subtotal: $3,059.35
 
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Well Samsung 950 Pro's are out so I'm switching out the SM951 M.2 drive for the:

SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V5P512BW

$349 Preorder

Cheaper than the SM951 on newegg.
Looks like it ships 11/1/15.

Also adding a 2TB WD Black drive for media storage as my media drives are pushing 7 or 8 years at this point.

I read about several issues installing windows 7 on these drives but apparently someone found a fix recently.

Here's the method I stole from a poster @ tom's hardware as I'm sure several of you will be facing this same issue in the near future. Hopefully firmware updates resolve these issues.

some guy on tom's forums said:
After a long week of desperation and anger I did the impossible..... Installed and booted Windows 7 x64 on Samsung SM951 NVMe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was looking and looking all over the internet for others who might have found a solution but nothing, am I the first who did it?

Installing and booting Windows 7 on this drive simply is impossible there is no driver, no workaround in BIOS settings.
With windows 8.1 or 10 however it works but I hate them so... for everyone else out there who want to stick with Windows 7 there is a solution but it's not simple.

You have to integrate a Microsoft hotfix in installation so you can boot Windows.
Unfortunatelly you can't do the same with setup. Instead and simpler is to use Windows 10 setup installation which is updated and contains NVMe driver. It works perfectly.

Keep in mind the native driver is not the best but it works, the SM951 is ultra fast anyway, hopefully when 950 pro is out it's drive will be compatible and better for faster speeds.


What you need:

Windows 7 SP1 x64.iso

Windows 10.iso

Microsoft hotfix https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2990941

NTlite https://www.ntlite.com/download/


First request and download the hotfix, e-mail arrives instantly with a link.

1. Download and install NTlite (or other similar you prefer)

2. Extract the Windows 7.iso to a folder.

If you are installing in UEFI mode, check efi/boot there should be a bootx64.efi. If not grab it from a current installation of Windows 7 x64. C:\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi copy/paste and rename it to bootx64.efi.

3. Using WinRAR or 7-zip extract the Microsoft hotfix.exe file.

4. Run NTlite and open the iso folder.
You will see 2 folders your current windows and 2nd the iso folder open and choose the version you want to install, home, ultimate etc. and press load, or right click load. It takes sometime..

4.1 Go to updates and add package file. Add the extracted hotfix Windows6.1-KB2990941-v3-x64.msu
(for experienced users: you can add more updates if you want to avoid downloading the huge list of updates everytime you install windows 7 important to keep install.wim under 4GB due to UEFI/fat32 limitation)

Go to post-setup and add command
1st field type reg
2nd field : "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
/v DisableFirstRunCustomize /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

(this step is required because sometimes customized installs of Windows cause the IE to show the welcome screen everytime you open it.)
(the above not required after all, it affects the installation only if you add an updated version of IE)


4.2 Go to Apply press Start and wait to finnish.
When it's done close NTlite and go to iso folder and open sources folder.
Delete boot.wim and setup.exe

5. Open Windows 10.iso with winrar and extract the boot.wim to your sources folder of Windows 7.

6. Copy all contents of iso folder of Windows 7 on a usb drive.

Plug, boot and install Windows 7 !!!

:)
Click to expand...

No more waiting. I'm ordering tonight. Wallet be damned.
 
Someone please stop me. I'm about to order the parts. Belp.

*edit

too late.
 
Last edited:
Pre-build delivery pron.

jaKXYAS.jpg
 
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