Possibly new gaming build

[Deleted member 88227]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This PC will be used heavily for photoshop and other image editing software. I will also be gaming on it.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$2000 +- $200 (taxes)
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

High Point, North Carolina
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
Motherboard
RAM
GPU
PSU
HDD/SSD
Monitor(s)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Coolmaster 690 II Case
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
3x1080P or 1x4k
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This month
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.
No features stick out to me.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
W7 Pro



I basically have myself talked into a new rig. I am moving into a new house on the 18th and will most likely make my purchase right after that. I sold my last rig because I had no place to set it up at my current residence, but this new house will give me plenty of room.

I'd ideally like 3 1080P displays powered on this setup. I am an amateur photographer and the more pixels real-estate the better. I am not against 4k, but my thoughts are this.

1. If I go with three 1080P then I can pick and choose whether or not to game on all three monitors or just a single 1080P monitor. Should make selecting a GPU easier/cheaper if I am only gaming on a single display that's 1080P vs a 4k display.
2. Since 4k has a 4:1 pixel ratio with 1080P, that means I can downscale with the right monitor to 1080P resolution and essentially game on a single 1080P display as well.

So it comes down to cost. Whether or not I can fit a single 4k display in the budget or multiple 1080P displays. I'd ideally like to keep the 1080P displays to around 24 - 27" but I can go larger for a single 4k display.

I know the case I have is rather old, but it's main functions are okay with me. Those are good cable management and cooling with plenty of room to put whatever I want inside it. The only con I can think of is the fact that it doesn't have USB 3.0 ports on the front, but USB 3.0 has been out for a while now and I still don't have anything that utilizes those speeds. So I don't think I'd make much use of them if I did.

I have a SATA ODD drive that I will use to install Windows. Wont need it after that. Haha.

I am an Amazon Prime member, so I kind of prefer Amazon. While I know I will be taxed, shipping is free and I get it in two days. Unless the saving are substantial then I'm not concerned with ordering from anywhere else, but I'm not against it either.

Also I have over 9TB worth of storage on my HTPC. Keep that in mind when selecting an SSD/HDD.

Games that I play are, but not limited to; Skyrim, Killing Floor, the new UT, Supreme Commander, Starcraft II, CSGO, Dirt 3, etc...

I use all of Adobe's products. Mostly Photoshop and Lightroom, but I use the others as well.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Bumping this up for some love.

 

[Dangman]

Da hell? How'd I miss this?

I'll be back later with recommendations but I do have one question: Do you already have a form of backup?

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Da hell? How'd I miss this?

I'll be back later with recommendations but I do have one question: Do you already have a form of backup?

I have a few forms of backups ranging from optical media, online storage and my HTPC has three 3TB hard drives with mostly duplicate data (important data) stored across them.

In the near future I will be building another large NAS. I sold my last one prematurely due to a recent move across the Country.

 

[Dangman]

$235 - Intel Core i5-4690K CPU
$146 - Asus Z97-A Intel Z97 Motherboard
$242 - 2 x G.Skill Ares Series F3-1600C9D-16GAR 2 x 8GB 1600 RAM
$340 - eVGA 04G-P4-2974-KR GTX 970 4GB PCI-E Video Card
$190 - Crucial MX100 512GB SSD
$103 - Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$110 - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU
----
Total: $1366 shipped plus tax

If there's any part I would recommend buying ASAP, it would be the PSU. That's the lowest price it's been at for the last three months. The RAM and GPU are from Newegg since they represent some pretty substantial savings at $60 and $23 to $48 (non-SC to SC) respectively. In addition, from what I can tell, with the exception of Supreme Commander, none of the games and apps you've mentioned would take advantage of the Core i7's HT features. So you should be fine with the 4690K. With that said, after the monitor purchases and if you still have cash to burn, the Core i7 4790K is about $85 more and is currently $20 cheaper than normal. Then again, that $85 could be used for a secondary SSD for a scratch disk or something.

Now for the monitors, IIRC, for photoshop work, you pretty much want an IPS monitor. As such, that more or less rules out 4K since AFAIK, there's no solid 4K IPS monitor worth recommending. Now I'm not totally up-to-date on monitors so I will have to come back later with additional recommendations but this Dell S2415H seems like a good choice due to this review and its thin thin bezels:
https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/dell-s2415h/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B3XZW/?tag=extension-kb-20

 

[Deleted member 88227]

PSU ordered right now then.

You're the man Dangman.

A single 970 will be fine for triple 1080P displays?

edit
Forgot to mention that the 4k (UHD) display I was looking at was this one: PB279Q. Seen a review for it earlier this month and thought it was a good monitor. If you're saying they don't have any worth while 4k displays then I'll want 3 1080P displays.

 

[Dangman]

A single 970 will be fine for triple 1080P displays?.

At low to medium settings it looks like actually. If you want high to near close max settings, you should be going for GTX 970 SLI. That goes for either NV Surround or 4K gaming. If gaming at just a single 1080P resolution, then the 970 is more than enough GPU power.

edit
Forgot to mention that the 4k (UHD) display I was looking at was this one: PB279Q. Seen a review for it earlier this month and thought it was a good monitor. If you're saying they don't have any worth while 4k displays then I'll want 3 1080P displays.

I didn't know that monitor existed. Should be a solid monitor actually.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Then I will go ahead and go with SLI 970s then.

Yeah that monitor looks promising for sure. I can't wait till it's available here. Hopefully it's not MORE than the projected MSRP.

What is your go-to CPU cooler now? I think I still have my CM 212+ laying around somewhere, but just in case I have to buy one. I'm gonna guess it's one of those AIO water coolers?

 

[Dangman]

Then I will go ahead and go with SLI 970s then.

Yeah that monitor looks promising for sure. I can't wait till it's available here. Hopefully it's not MORE than the projected MSRP.

What is your go-to CPU cooler now? I think I still have my CM 212+ laying around somewhere, but just in case I have to buy one. I'm gonna guess it's one of those AIO water coolers?

If you still have the 212+, I actually would recommend reusing with more quieter/effective fans as the 212+ is still a very solid HSF. With that said, I love the Coolermaster Seidon 120V for liquid AIO coolers. But it's definitely noisy.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

I got the EVO fans on it. For whatever reason that I can't seem to remember right now I had to contact CM customer support for a problem with one of the fans and they sent me two EVO fans instead. IIRC, they were slightly thinner and shiny.

I need to go see if I did bring it with me when I moved.

 

[Dangman]

Bring what? the HSF or the fans for the HSF?

 

[Quartz-1]

If your primary use is going to be Photoshop, you might want to look at a FirePro or Quadro video card and 10-bit monitors (can a Titan do 10 bit colour?)..

 

[Dangman]

If your primary use is going to be Photoshop, you might want to look at a FirePro or Quadro video card and 10-bit monitors (can a Titan do 10 bit colour?)..

He's also gaming on it so that does rule out the FirePro and Quadro cards more or less.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Bring what? the HSF or the fans for the HSF?

The HSF and the fans.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

I no longer have the 212+. Can't seem to find it so I am assuming I sold it after I parted out my old rig last year.

Also I got a helluva deal on that PSU. $90 shipped from Newegg. I had to call them, but they are refunding $20 to my card since it's now $89 and was within' 14 days of ordering it. Woot. Woot.

 

[Dangman]

NICE!

Well the Coolermaster 212 Evo is still my go-to air cooler and it cools better than the older 212+.

 

[Quartz-1]

He's also gaming on it so that does rule out the FirePro and Quadro cards more or less.

The OP's primary purpose is Photoshop, not gaming.

On price vs performance, the professional cards are nowhere near as good for gaming as the Radeon and Geforce, but if you look at benchmarks, they're not bad. You've just got to pay. Look at the Firepro W7000, for instance, for a reasonably-priced professional card at ~£500 which has the performance of the R9 270, the old Radeon 7950.

 

[tiraides]

The OP's primary purpose is Photoshop, not gaming.

On price vs performance, the professional cards are nowhere near as good for gaming as the Radeon and Geforce, but if you look at benchmarks, they're not bad. You've just got to pay. Look at the Firepro W7000, for instance, for a reasonably-priced professional card at ~£500 which has the performance of the R9 270, the old Radeon 7950.

Many people have used consumer GPUs with Photoshop for years with no issues.

Forgot to mention that the 4k (UHD) display I was looking at was this one: PB279Q. Seen a review for it earlier this month and thought it was a good monitor. If you're saying they don't have any worth while 4k displays then I'll want 3 1080P displays.

The PB279Q still isn't available in the U.S. (That's a shame; now I'm interested in it.) Most of the sub-$800 4K monitors currently available use either TN or (Samsung's proprietary PVA-esque) PLS.

If you need something now, the 24" version of the PB279Q is the PA248Q. (The newer PA249Q is overpriced in comparison. One good non-Asus alternative is the Dell U2415.)

 

[Deleted member 88227]

The OP's primary purpose is Photoshop, not gaming.

If we consider time; then gaming will be done most on this rig. I just wanted to stress that having a rig that can handle Photoshop very well is just as important. With that being said. I've used gaming GPUs with my previous rigs and they've handled my photopshopping/lightroom tasks just fine. Thanks for the suggestion though. I do appreciate.

The PB279Q still isn't available in the U.S. (That's a shame; now I'm interested in it.) Most of the sub-$800 4K monitors currently available use either TN or (Samsung's proprietary PVA-esque) PLS.

If you need something now, the 24" version of the PB279Q is the PA248Q. (The newer PA249Q is overpriced in comparison. One good non-Asus alternative is the Dell U2415.)

I currently have an older 23" ASUS montior from one of my previous builds I intend to use as a fill in until it becomes available. Unless the price is ridiculous on that monitor then it's what I am going to go with.