Selecting mobo/ram

VladDracule

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
2,043
Hello all,

Im looking at doing a new build, and im wondering how to really go about selecting a motherboard and RAM.

Also what size power supply do you need for future SLI configurations? for the time being ill do a gt780.

As far as MOBO is concerned i know i will not be overclocking but its one component ive never really known how to select. Also what speed on ram is considered best bang for the buck right?
 
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I know you're just asking about two parts, but since this is going in a new build we're gonna need you to answer the sticky questions.
 
I typically figure out how much money I have to spend and then buy the best (most powerful) hardware for the money. It's usually that simple.

You will never know how much power you might need or want in the future, and since power supplies degrade over time, buy what you need now, with a little room to grow, and then sell it and upgrade it later.
 
I know you're just asking about two parts, but since this is going in a new build we're gonna need you to answer the sticky questions.

Additionally, we might as well know which processor you're considering.
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Photoshop, streaming video, ripping/encoding music and video

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
under 2k preferaby

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, New Mexico

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, RAM, MOBO, GPU, Case, ODD, Network Card, PSU, Sound Card

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
none

6) Will you be overclocking?
no

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Want at least 1920x1080 ~22-24"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within 3 weeks

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.
Crossfire/SLI, USB 3.0, Sata 6GB

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No

Current Selected components:
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive

EVGA 03G-P4-2781-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770

ASUS Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
 
To answer your questions:

A solid good quality 750W PSU will be more than enough power for your needs. I recommend this particular 750W PSU since it's on sale right now:
$110 - Corsair HX750 750W Modular PSU

As for the RAM, with current Intel setups, you do not notice any sort of real world performance increase with RAM speeds above DDR3 1333 RAM. As such, the cheief advice for RAM is to get the cheapest DDR3 1333 or DDR3 1600 RAM you can find that's rated at 1.5V. I recommend this RAM to start:
$120 - Crucial BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

Finally the motherboard: I recommend this:
$146 - Asus Z87-A Intel Z87 Motherboard

As for the rest of your chosen parts: Just how often will you be doing music and video encoding?
 
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750-990w PSU (quality single-rail)
eh..
4670K + Biostar hi-fi $130 board
RAM 1866 9-9-9-24 Crucial
 
750-990w PSU (quality single-rail)
eh..
4670K + Biostar hi-fi $130 board
RAM 1866 9-9-9-24 Crucial

Anything over 750W for his system is just more waste. 750W is already overkill as it is.

1866 RAM isn't worth the money on an Intel platform. When you're gaining less than a 1% of performance, stick with 1600.

In fact, stick with everything Danny recommended.
 
Alright here is my revised build.

Case
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

HDD
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive

SSD
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

GPU
EVGA 03G-P4-2781-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

PSU
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC ...

RAM
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00

MOBO
ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU
Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I74770

ODD
ASUS Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS


Im not missing any components am i? ill probably just use my usb dongle for wireless for the time being its never given me problems.

Sound card i use an Ibasso D6 USB DAC/Amplifier

My question is can the 780 handle max settings on a 1920 x1080 display? ill likely have dual displays but the second display wouldnt have much of anything going on while gaming
 
You still haven't answered my earlier question by the way.
 
The ripping and encoding will be front heavy heavy until I get my collection on my drives. Alot of it will be blu rays so large files
 
Alright here is my revised build.
Case
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0
Don't get this case because it's...well shit. Cramped, limited cable management, etc. I recommend any of these other cases instead:
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Antec 1100 ATX Case
$105 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$115 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$144 - Silverstone RV03B-WA ATX case
$154 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$168 - Silverstone TJ04B-EW ATX Case
$167 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B-USB3.0 ATX Case

HDD
Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive
IMO, unless you're severly limited on space, I would not go with this drive since that's a lot of data at risk if that drive should die. I recommend getting two of these drives instead:
$94 - Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

My question is can the 780 handle max settings on a 1920 x1080 display? ill likely have dual displays but the second display wouldnt have much of anything going on while gaming

For current games, yes. Read the following two performance reviews:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...deo_card_performance_iq_review/3#.UgL3rZJiRjs
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/05/29/metro_last_light_video_card_performance_iq_review/3

The GTX 780 is faster than the GTX 680. So if the slower GTX 680 could achieve high performance at 2560x1600, then the faster GTX 780 should be just fine at 1920x1080. Hell one could easily make the argument that the GTX 780 3GB is a bit overkill for 1920x1080.
 
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The ripping and encoding will be front heavy heavy until I get my collection on my drives. Alot of it will be blu rays so large files

Not sure if you saw this reply since it seemed as though you were typing out your reply when I posted it. Thanks for all the advise ill likely be following all of it including the hdd. If I run low on room ill just get a third drive
 
The monitor isn't as important as the resolution of the monitor. It's a 1080P display and one could argue that a 780 GTX is overkill for 1080P, therefore that setup will run like a hot knife through butter on any game out right now.
 
it is a 1920x1080 however it has higher refresh rate options up to 120hz as well as 3d which will be more taxing on the video card. I suppose the higher refresh rate wont effect frame rates per se, but it will affect the quality depending on what rate the card is able to put out with new games
 
Well if you're wanting to get 120 FPS on every game to match your refresh rate AND game in 3D, you might need more GPU power. That would only be with the latest games at the highest visuals. Since not all games support 3D, don't think you'll really have any problem with most games reaching 120 FPS on that setup.
 
Alright here is my revised build.

Case
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

{snip}

GPU
EVGA 03G-P4-2781-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

That combination, as Danny Bui stated, is a poor match for one another because if any drive, especially a spinning hard drive, is installed in one of the center 3.5" bays, the GTX 780 will not fit inside that Antec 900 case as the drive would then obstruct the primary PCI-e x16 slot (restricting the maximum length of an installable expansion card to only 9.25 inches). The reference GTX 780 card already measures 10.5" in length. And because of this, you can forget about SLI altogether with that case, especially with two higher-end GPUs.

In addition, the USB 3.0 port connection of that 900 case is poorly implemented: It requires a cable to go all the way to a rear expansion slot, then out the rear of the case to an external rear-mounted USB 3.0 port at the rear I/O panel of the motherboard! Clearly, that case was not designed with on-motherboard internal USB 3.0 headers in mind.
 
I just finished ordering my parts, unfortunately i blew the money i had which means i wont be able to afford any new games for a few weeks.

My final build:

Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Silver Thermal

Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive

Windows 8 System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit

ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS 12X Blu-ray Internal

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 @1.5v

Intel Core i7-4770 Quad-Core Desktop Processor 3.4 GHZ LGA 1150 8 MB Cache

Asus Z87-A DDR3 1600 LGA 1150 Motherboard

EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked w/EVGA ACX Cooler

Antec Eleven Hundred Black Super Mid Tower

Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive

Corsair Professional Series? HX 750 Watt

ASUS VG248QE 24-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor

Im curious, i highly doubt it but will this be able to handle Uber Sampling on witcher 2?

What are new games with great visuals that would be a good way to test this setup?
 
Probably could have saved some money here and there and afford a few games if you had posted your final build list before you bought everything.

Anyway, get Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Metro: Last Light.
 
Im sure there will always be ways to reduce cost however i am rather happy with this build.

I just finished assembling it, posted on the first go absolutely no problems all hardware recognized. Thanks a bunch for the advice Danny, the Monitor will not arrive until tomorrow which is fine seeing as how i have nothing installed yet anyways.

One thing i would like to know, what bench-mark software should i use to post up some shots and make sure my hardware is performing as expected?
 
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