Questions on a build and its performance...

[STrooperTK421]

...been out of the loop for quite sometime (stupid being poor) and now I may have the opportunity to build a new PC and I would like to get someone else's take on it and what kind of performance I could expect to get out of it.

Here is the parts list:

CPU Haswell I7-4771
MOBO ASRock Z87 OC
MEM GSkill Sniper 4x4 2133
CASE Thermaltake Chaser MK-I
POWER EVGA SuperNOVA 1000
SSD1 (O.S.) Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB
SSD2 (Games) Crucial M500 240GB
Asus GTX 780Ti X 2
Win 7
CPU cooler Thermaltake Water2
Arctic Silver Arcticlean
Arctic Silver Thermal Compound

The monitor I'm using was a freebie from work so even though it's a cheap shit panel, free is good so I'd rather sink the money into the hardware. Another thing, I do not have 20/20 vision, so I use very little image processing (AA or is it MSAA these days...?)...but...I demand high frame rates, no lag, no stutter, everything cranked up to max.

I've looked around, but the kind of numbers I'm looking for I'm not able to find. What kind of performance am I really buying here? After years of playing 10+ year old games, and playing Fallout 3 and Fallout NV at 640 x 480 with everything turned down and still getting severe chop at times, I'm ready for some power.

 

[tiraides]

What's the brand and model of the monitor? Are you planning on buying additional monitors within the next six months?

I believe that your proposed build is overkill for gaming at a 1920x1080 resolution. Depending on what else you plan to use this machine for, you may not have the right parts on hand.

Please answer the sticky questions so we can better tailor our recommendations to your needs.

 

[Araxie]

at what resolution will you be gaming at?.. I mean.. well i guess you are at least running 2560x1440 or a surround 5760x3240 to require 2x 780TI..

Well first.. why a 4771?... for the same money you can get a 4770K and you can overclock (that will be really appreciated by those huge monster 780TI..),

why such high ram speed?.. worthless for the real world, only useful when using onboard video.. so passing the line of 1866mhz at this point its just waste of money.. you can save some money searching for a 4x4 1600mhz kit with tight timmings and you will have better performance..

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 suck..bad voltage regulation and few etc etc a seasonic platinum 860W will do way better job and its way better PSU and the best you will save money..

why 2SSD of such low capacity.? you will be better with a samgun 840PRO of 256GB for important games, that can benefit from a SSD, and 1TB of HDD. you will be way better.. best SSD performance of the market right now with the samsung, and a good reliable HDD for games.. saving some money..

actually for the price you can changethat Arctic silver and buy some Noctua NT-H1 which have the same price but its a better, its non conductive and have no cure time, so full performance since first minute of installation..

If you do not plan to overclock (due to that 4771 CPU) you can buy a cheaper Cooler, you wasn't very specific if it are thermaltake water 2.0 extreme or PRO, a hyper 212EVO will do a perfect job keeping the CPU cool and silent..

what i would do? i would pick a cheaper I7 3770K with a much better branded mother board like Asus or Gigabyte.. with the possibility of overclock and have way better performance than a i7 4771. would change that memory kit for a corsair dominator kit with tight memory timing and lower latency and you will be still saving money.. i highly doubt you are on a 2560x1600 panel or a surround setup so if you are in a 1080P panel or 1200P.. a single 780TI its even too much horsepower for that resolution only buy 2x 780TI if you are above 2560x1440 or 2560x1600...

 

[STrooperTK421]

at what resolution will you be gaming at?.. I mean.. well i guess you are at least running 2560x1440 or a surround 5760x3240 to require 2x 780TI..

Well first.. why a 4771?... for the same money you can get a 4770K and you can overclock (that will be really appreciated by those huge monster 780TI..),

why such high ram speed?.. worthless for the real world, only useful when using onboard video.. so passing the line of 1866mhz at this point its just waste of money.. you can save some money searching for a 4x4 1600mhz kit with tight timmings and you will have better performance..

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 suck..bad voltage regulation and few etc etc a seasonic platinum 860W will do way better job and its way better PSU and the best you will save money..

why 2SSD of such low capacity.? you will be better with a samgun 840PRO of 256GB for important games, that can benefit from a SSD, and 1TB of HDD. you will be way better.. best SSD performance of the market right now with the samsung, and a good reliable HDD for games.. saving some money..

actually for the price you can changethat Arctic silver and buy some Noctua NT-H1 which have the same price but its a better, its non conductive and have no cure time, so full performance since first minute of installation..

If you do not plan to overclock (due to that 4771 CPU) you can buy a cheaper Cooler, you wasn't very specific if it are thermaltake water 2.0 extreme or PRO, a hyper 212EVO will do a perfect job keeping the CPU cool and silent..

what i would do? i would pick a cheaper I7 3770K with a much better branded mother board like Asus or Gigabyte.. with the possibility of overclock and have way better performance than a i7 4771. would change that memory kit for a corsair dominator kit with tight memory timing and lower latency and you will be still saving money.. i highly doubt you are on a 2560x1600 panel or a surround setup so if you are in a 1080P panel or 1200P.. a single 780TI its even too much horsepower for that resolution only buy 2x 780TI if you are above 2560x1440 or 2560x1600...

You are awesome.

I will go down the list...

Right now it is 1920 x 1080 - BUT...I want to have the raw horsepower in place because I will be upgrading to multiple monitors (but have to wait on that one for a bit...)

4771 to 4770...you are correct, I am switching that on my parts list now...

Memory - Ok, I see what you are talking about, I see a set of Corsair Vengeance (DDR 3 1600) 4 x 4 with a listed timing of 7-8-8-24. Switched.

Power supply - According to what I have seen, two 780Ti's are going to require at least an 800 watt P/S and that you are not supposed to load your PS past the 75% mark or so...would this PS be able to take that kind of load, or do you have another suggestion?

SSD - The approach I was looking at taking was to have Windows reside on the smaller drive by itself, and nothing but games on the 2nd drive but the more I think about it and due to me allocating money to other equipment (video cards...woo) I think for the time being, I will just get a nice 1TB spinner and then on the next go around upgrade to SSD. I know I could axe one of the vid cards and this would solve my budge problem - but I'm not willing to do that

Arctic Silver to Noctua - Switched, thanks!

MOBO - Based on the information you have shared (thanks again) I changed to a 4770 and yes, I will be OC'ing it...but...(since I'm so out of the loop) I have zero idea of what MOBO to get...

This is going to be a gaming machine, I will be doing other work related things on it, but those do not require a lot of horsepower.

 

[Araxie]

so if you are right now at single monitor then save the money of a second 780TI ad buy it later when you acquire the rest of the monitors to surround, the thing its really in fact a Single 770 its plenty for actual 1080P gaming.. even weaker cards like GTX 670, GTX 760 and GTX 660TI do a pretty good job.. a 780 its the right card for being kinda overkill right now for 1080P but being able to be future proof for a couple of years.. that mean a single 780TI yes its overkill for 1080P..with that you will be even able to max out crysis 3, far cry 3, battlefield 4, with high levels of antialiasing.. what i recommend you if save the money for some time, wait until the 780TI drop the price and then you can buy it later... you should know that a 780TI its really a powerful card bud actually the most powerfull gaming video card in the market..

about the Power supply actually 800W its plenty for a 780TI SLI setup a 860W PSU with 80+ Platinum certification even more, if you check This Link.

you will see that a system with a X79 board + i7 3960X + 780TI SLI draw under full stress a average of 617W and that processor its way more power demanding than a 4770K.. so with that Seasonic Platinum 860W you will be plenty of power, it have a dedicated 71A 12V Rail.. so 852W Exclusive in the 12V. thats too much power..

about the CPU i will be again clear with it, if you want to overclock then you should seek for a 3770K with a high-end Z77 board.. i recommend some of the Asus ROG Maximus V Series or the Asus Sabertooth Z77. these boards are prove to be one of the betters overclocker motherboards with Z77 chips... . now if you ask why ivy bridge 3770K and not a haswell 4770K (yes, remember the "K" at the end). its just because ivy bridge are right now cheaper than haswell, ivy bridge overclock way better and run cooler, also ivy bridge consume less power.. haswell have a big problem called integrated voltage regulator, that make the haswell chips run hotter without any reason, it make to draw more volts than what really need for consequence produce more heat, draw more power, and the overclock margin its poor in comparison to ivy bridge, for experience i say you i had 3 i7 4770K and one i5 4670K all overclock poorly, require insane amounts of voltage, and run hot like hell.. so I returned to one of my beloved i7 3770K with my sabertooth z77. i can overclock this baby to 4.6GHZ with only 1.2V while with the 4770K required an average of 1.25V for 4.3GHZ. running more or less 10-15C hotter.. so i recommend again a ivy bridge 3770K.

 

[STrooperTK421]

so if you are right now at single monitor then save the money of a second 780TI ad buy it later when you acquire the rest of the monitors to surround, the thing its really in fact a Single 770 its plenty for actual 1080P gaming.. even weaker cards like GTX 670, GTX 760 and GTX 660TI do a pretty good job.. a 780 its the right card for being kinda overkill right now for 1080P but being able to be future proof for a couple of years.. that mean a single 780TI yes its overkill for 1080P..with that you will be even able to max out crysis 3, far cry 3, battlefield 4, with high levels of antialiasing.. what i recommend you if save the money for some time, wait until the 780TI drop the price and then you can buy it later... you should know that a 780TI its really a powerful card bud actually the most powerfull gaming video card in the market..

about the Power supply actually 800W its plenty for a 780TI SLI setup a 860W PSU with 80+ Platinum certification even more, if you check This Link.

you will see that a system with a X79 board + i7 3960X + 780TI SLI draw under full stress a average of 617W and that processor its way more power demanding than a 4770K.. so with that Seasonic Platinum 860W you will be plenty of power, it have a dedicated 71A 12V Rail.. so 852W Exclusive in the 12V. thats too much power..

about the CPU i will be again clear with it, if you want to overclock then you should seek for a 3770K with a high-end Z77 board.. i recommend some of the Asus ROG Maximus V Series or the Asus Sabertooth Z77. these boards are prove to be one of the betters overclocker motherboards with Z77 chips... . now if you ask why ivy bridge 3770K and not a haswell 4770K (yes, remember the "K" at the end). its just because ivy bridge are right now cheaper than haswell, ivy bridge overclock way better and run cooler, also ivy bridge consume less power.. haswell have a big problem called integrated voltage regulator, that make the haswell chips run hotter without any reason, it make to draw more volts than what really need for consequence produce more heat, draw more power, and the overclock margin its poor in comparison to ivy bridge, for experience i say you i had 3 i7 4770K and one i5 4670K all overclock poorly, require insane amounts of voltage, and run hot like hell.. so I returned to one of my beloved i7 3770K with my sabertooth z77. i can overclock this baby to 4.6GHZ with only 1.2V while with the 4770K required an average of 1.25V for 4.3GHZ. running more or less 10-15C hotter.. so i recommend again a ivy bridge 3770K.

Thank you for the information! I guess it is my fault for not keeping up over the past few years but if you can't afford it, why look? Next up...(once purchased)...how to overclock these new computers, cause back in my day dammit it was bus * multiplier and that was it...GET OFF MY LAWN!

 

[tiraides]

Right now it is 1920 x 1080 - BUT...I want to have the raw horsepower in place because I will be upgrading to multiple monitors (but have to wait on that one for a bit...)

When are you planning on buying additional monitors? Which resolution(s) are you considering? Even one GTX 780 Ti is overkill for a 1920x1080 resolution, and depending on when you buy a second (or third) 1080p monitor, it may even be impractical. (You're spending nearly $800, if not more, on one video card -- and it probably won't be the fastest card around in a year or two's time.)

You should focus on the present rather than prepare for the future. The video card market is very volatile and newer, faster, cheaper cards tend to arrive faster than any other component. Right now, you would be fine with one 4GB GTX 770 for 1080p gaming. Seriously, the GTX 770 can play most games at high settings at 1920x1080 with at least 40 frames per second.

If you grab that additional monitor (or two) within, say, the next six months, you could decide then whether a second GTX 770 (or an entirely new GPU setup) would meet your gaming needs.

MOBO - Based on the information you have shared (thanks again) I changed to a 4770 and yes, I will be OC'ing it...but...(since I'm so out of the loop) I have zero idea of what MOBO to get...

This is going to be a gaming machine, I will be doing other work related things on it, but those do not require a lot of horsepower.

You don't need an Intel Core i7-4770K processor for a gaming machine. Most games don't benefit from the Core i7's Hyper Threading, and some games even suffer a performance drop with Hyper Threading enabled. Go with the i5-4670K if you wish to overclock or the i5-4570 if you want a good quad-core for gaming.

As for overclocking, you also need a good Z87 board (the Asus Z87-A and the MSI Z87-GD65 are good, relatively inexpensive choices) and a capable CPU cooler (the Corsair H80i is one such example).

Memory - Ok, I see what you are talking about, I see a set of Corsair Vengeance (DDR 3 1600) 4 x 4 with a listed timing of 7-8-8-24. Switched.

Go with a dual-channel DDR3 1600 CL9 kit instead (example: Crucial Ballistix Sport). That pair of RAM will work just as well for you needs while costing considerably less.

Power supply - According to what I have seen, two 780Ti's are going to require at least an 800 watt P/S and that you are not supposed to load your PS past the 75% mark or so...would this PS be able to take that kind of load, or do you have another suggestion?

All of the GTX 780 Ti SLI benchmarks I reviewed confirmed Araxie's comments. You can get by with a quality 850 watt power supply like the Seasonic X850. If you're going the GTX 770 (SLI) route, however, you could get by with a cheaper 750 watt power supply (like the Corsair HX750).

SSD - The approach I was looking at taking was to have Windows reside on the smaller drive by itself, and nothing but games on the 2nd drive but the more I think about it and due to me allocating money to other equipment (video cards...woo) I think for the time being, I will just get a nice 1TB spinner and then on the next go around upgrade to SSD. I know I could axe one of the vid cards and this would solve my budge problem - but I'm not willing to do that

If you're going to spend over $800 on video cards, you should spend at least $100 for an SSD as your primary drive. It's a significant improvement over a 7200RPM hard drive. Plus, prices have dropped to the point that you could buy a good SSD like the 480GB Crucial M500 for less than $300.