PC GAMING MASTER RACE, ASSEMBLE!!!! First time PC builder here, how does this rig look? - UPDATE #4

[pokepuke]

Anyways, how does this look and what's it like compared to Update #2's rig?: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TNvVLk

That Monk dude seems to know what he is doing. Your first priority should be CPU and GPU, followed by amount of RAM, then the rest. The mobo should just meet the basics, and you're not doing SLI, so you can go cheap with latest gen. The PSU for your level really only needs 500 watts. You can even get a GTX 970 and be fine (they're very efficient). I have a 450w and I'm getting it soon (currently R7850). But you want at least a R9 280 which often is on sale, or step it up to the 970.

Don't go AMD. They are so far behind it's not funny. And 8 cores is utterly useless for gaming. You had it right before: the current rule for gamers is get the best i5. And if you're desperate to save 25$ get the 4590.

Do not get the WD Black. It is super overpriced. The best deal still out there is the 3TB Barracuda by Seagate, but you can get a 2TB for the same price as the 1TB WD Black and it will be faster, but not as fast as the 3TB. Don't listen to anyone claiming any certain brand sucks, because they all have almost exactly the same failure rates.

But if you really want any real speed, get a SSD, and not that shitty 60GB one you had before that was nearly 1$ per GB. Disgusting. I would recommend getting a 240GB or 480GB SSD alone, then later you can get a HDD when it fills up and you know how much extra space you might need for storage.

[quote post="9.862182.21471448"]and getting the cheap stuff can be even worse than not having any paste at all. In my opinion (and experience), getting 200 grams of thermal paste for 15$ is a very bad idea.[/quote]
This bit of "advice" should be ignored completely. Even with a few grains of salt for hyperbole, this example would never ring true, and any thermal paste is at least decent. Having none would ruin a CPU.

You can look up benchmarks if you want, but most of the known good brands are very close. I got Arctic MX-2 way back, and it was (very) arguably the best performer at the time. Now there is MX-4. Remember to look up how-to videos to make sure you don't put too much and see how to press down the heatsink.

Why are you buying Windows 7? Do you not already have a copy? It's just such a waste to see it add 100 bucks to a PC, for software.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dhzMyc - $1179.59 with 480GB SSD
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YMhqwP - $1064.59 with 240GB SSD
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/W7NNBm - $1047.37 with 2TB HD
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JYD8xr - $1021.37 with 4590 and 2TB HD
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/77LDmG - $992.58 with 4590 and 1TB HD
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/V2PsvK - $858.50 with 4590, R9 280, and 1TB HD

 

[major_chaos]

It's just that I can't really see anything that you'd need that much space for.

Have you bought any PC games recently? TitanFall is 50GB, The Witcher 2 comes in around 27GB IIRC, Wolfenstine is 44GB, WoW is currently at 25GB and I have a feeling that will increase with the expansion. Unless you play exclusively retro games or have a incredibly tiny library you can burn through 500GB insanely fast. Hell I used 44% of my 120GB SSD just on Windows and applications.

 

[JET1971]

Shooting for 120 FPS isn't the best practice. The best thing you can do is cap it at 45-60 FPS, not Vsync but a hard cap.

From one of my games ini files:
EnableFPSLimit=True
FPSLimit=45.0

The reason to cap the FPS lower than what the video card can handle is so there is the extra processing power available for when something happens. Being in a dusty/rainy/snowy environment and there's allot of explosions plus players running around shooting. All those particle effects can and will bring the card to %100 if it is running %80 average without the explosions or whatever and cause stuttering. Capped at 45-60 FPS leaves enough processing power available to prevent those stutters because the card doesn't jump to %100.

Any frames over that cap are well beyond what the human eye can detect but our eyes are quite good at noticing stuttering and preventing that stutter is far better than having frames you don't even see. Ofcourse if you are running a current gen, high end video card and playing a 3-5 year old game you can just let it do whatever and you shouldn't max it out.

With that said I wouldn't bother spending more for a 120+ hrtz monitor when older games with V-sync on and new games with a cap look just as good as 120 fps. And high framerates are only really useful for benchmarking and comparing settings or different cards so you can see what's the better performer.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/77LDmG - $992.58 with 4590 and 1TB HD

This is a great build for under $1000.

The SSD you wanted was really the biggest issue towards building a great gaming rig. It's still considered a luxury product for budget builds. I'd go for this. Unless you plan to overclock your CPU. Because i5-4590 is locked. So is the motherboard. But it's still a terrific build.

 

[Rayce Archer]

That's pretty solid. I'd really keep the SSD and as has been said, take it up to 256. If you can take 4 RAM sticks I'd bit the bullet and buy them all now so you can get the best possible match.

Also I don't see a custom cooler on there. Were you going to OC/Overvolt?

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/77LDmG - $992.58 with 4590 and 1TB HD

This is a great build for under $1000.

The SSD you wanted was really the biggest issue towards building a great gaming rig. It's still considered a luxury product for budget builds. I'd go for this. Unless you plan to overclock your CPU. Because i5-4590 is locked. So is the motherboard. But it's still a terrific build.

Admittedly, I'm quite liking it too. I do wonder how it handles multiple programs running at once compared to the fx-8320 (main reason I'm wanting to go duel monitors, after all), but CPUBoss shows it having much higher performance per core, which should make it better at straight-up gaming if not overclocked (which I don't intend on doing). It also doesn't appear to require a BIOS update at all, making things more convenient.

The one thing I do disagree with is the HDD though. I decided to do a bit of research on HDDs after seeing pokepuke's post, and what I ended up seeing was that Seagates - the Barracuda brand in particular - really are much more prone to breakdowns, with Western Digital and especially Hitachi HDDs being pretty reliable overall. HDD failure has been by far the biggest problem I've had with my laptop, having gone through 2 of them during the past 3 years and with my current one being a paltry 111GB. As much as poke swears by Seagate and he does likely know more about computer parts than I do, I'm just not willing to take a chance with SG at this point. Fortunately, I found a similarly-priced 1TB Western Digital HDD that looks pretty good. What do you all think of it?: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex

As for the SSD, it is indeed a luxury item and one I may very well just skip out on. The main reason I've been thinking of it though is that I really like the idea of having the OS on it's own drive, especially after my history with HDD failures. I could of course go with a regular HDD, but if I'm going to spend money on a second storage unit then it seems like I might as well go all in and buy a SSD instead, to save me money and trouble down the line. Both the fx-8320 and i5-4590 rigs are a bit over budget though (i5 rig is now at $1022), so doing such would really break the budget. Fortunately, it'll be a couple months at least until I actually order the parts and build the thing, so I'll be able to decide then if I want to raise the budget for an SSD then. Who knows, maybe things will be cheaper by then.

Anyways, I think it's about time for update #4. Gonna post both rigs to try to get more feedback if I can from here. Fuck, this is making me excited, especially after I found out how badass that 970 actually is. XD

Thanks for all the help again, everyone, and feel free to give any more recommendations you can think of!

EDIT: Some part of me is also wondering if a 500w PSU will be enough. What are your thoughts on Poke's PSU recommendation?

 

[Zipa]

I simply like the idea of having a bunch of paste around for future uses, including possibly helping others build their own rigs. It's not meant to be used all at once. Also, Pink pony is best pony (when written correctly, anyways <_<).

Even if you install a new cooler once per week you won't get through a tenth of it before it goes bad. Besides, when it comes to thermal paste, you should always stick with the well known brands. It has a big impact on CPU temperatures, and getting the cheap stuff can be even worse than not having any paste at all. In my opinion (and experience), getting 200 grams of thermal paste for 15$ is a very bad idea.

Good point, and something I wasn't aware of. What would you recommend for paste then?

Arctic Coolings "Arctic Silver" brand is a good bet. Read some reviews of the different types you can get.
Also, you don't strictly need to buy Windows. There's other ways of getting an OS.

How's this paste look?: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/arctic-cooling-thermal-paste-mx2r

There is nothing wrong with blu ray drives themselves, however you do need extra software to be able to play them most of which you have to pay for. Something like Windows Media Player or iTunes won't be able to play them.

Yeesh. Looking up on good Blu-Ray programs leads to everything pointing to CyberLink PowerVD as the most practical option, and I really don't like that program. My laptop came with that installed and uses that as the default DVD player, and every time I try watching a movie it fucks with the computer's colors and just all around sucks. Maybe it's a crappy, outdated version of the program, but for now I'm probably going to bump things down towards a regular DVD drive until I know of a more reliable program for Blu-Rays or if I find out modern versions of PowerDVD aren't as crappy as my laptop's version. Fuk dat shit!

For what its worth I do use the 2013 version of Cyberlink and it has worked without problems for me.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Some part of me is also wondering if a 500w PSU will be enough. What are your thoughts on Poke's PSU recommendation?

Well it's a Corsair PSU. It should be a quality product. As always, google it.
I don't know about the wattage. New CPUs and GPUs are very power efficient, so it's probably enough.
As for HDD's, Hitachi is quite good. One of my HDD's is a 7 year old Hitachi 500Gb. Works like a charm. But I've never had issues with either Western Digital or Seagate. It all comes down to some luck.

This video is relevant for PSUs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqThn3C-zg4

Fuck, this is making me excited, especially after I found out how badass that 970 actually is. XD

Oh yeah, it's badass. And I've always loved research before purchase when it comes to building a PC. It is exciting...for geeks. Which is what most of us on this website are.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Some part of me is also wondering if a 500w PSU will be enough. What are your thoughts on Poke's PSU recommendation?

Well it's a Corsair PSU. It should be a quality product. As always, google it.
I don't know about the wattage. New CPUs and GPUs are very power efficient, so it's probably enough.
As for HDD's, Hitachi is quite good. One of my HDD's is a 7 year old Hitachi 500Gb. Works like a charm. But I've never had issues with either Western Digital or Seagate. It all comes down to some luck.

This video is relevant for PSUs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqThn3C-zg4

Decided to do a bit of research on it (thanks for the vid, btw) and kept coming across Seasonic and XFX as two of the best manufacturers of PSUs (especially Seasonic). Found a 550w XFX PSU with a +12v@44A output and an 80+ Bronze certification for around $50, though actual reviews of that specific model are hard to find. Many of XFX's other models seem to review very well however, though I'm still too new to really understand what makes a good PSU other than efficiency.

What are your thoughts on it, and how well will the volt-ratings work with the rest of the rig (the GTX 970 in particular)?: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Fuck, this is making me excited, especially after I found out how badass that 970 actually is. XD

Oh yeah, it's badass. And I've always loved research before purchase when it comes to building a PC. It is exciting...for geeks. Which is what most of us on this website are.

You're as bad at re-editing your posts as I am. Yay for the Late Edits Club! We have nachos in the corner. XD

You should have seen my face when I went to GPUBoss to compare the GTX 970 to the R9 270 (let alone the 750ti), then found the 970 hanging out in the "High-End" sections of numerous lists of GPU benchmarks. This will be fucking awesome, especially after having been on this shitty laptop for so long.

Captcha: "come what may" I think Captcha's trying to scare me.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Decided to do a bit of research on it (thanks for the vid, btw) and kept coming across Seasonic and XFX as two of the best manufacturers of PSUs (especially Seasonic). Found a 550w XFX PSU with a +12v@44A output and an 80+ Bronze certification for around $50, though actual reviews of that specific model are hard to find. Many of XFX's other models seem to review very well however, though I'm still too new to really understand what makes a good PSU other than efficiency.

What are your thoughts on it, and how well will the volt-ratings work with the rest of the rig (the GTX 970 in particular)?: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9

That should be an alright PSU. Especially for that money. Can't go wrong with an XFX.

With this build you should be able to play The Witcher 3 on High or even Ultra when it comes out.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Decided to do a bit of research on it (thanks for the vid, btw) and kept coming across Seasonic and XFX as two of the best manufacturers of PSUs (especially Seasonic). Found a 550w XFX PSU with a +12v@44A output and an 80+ Bronze certification for around $50, though actual reviews of that specific model are hard to find. Many of XFX's other models seem to review very well however, though I'm still too new to really understand what makes a good PSU other than efficiency.

What are your thoughts on it, and how well will the volt-ratings work with the rest of the rig (the GTX 970 in particular)?: https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9

That should be an alright PSU. Especially for that money. Can't go wrong with an XFX.

With this build you should be able to play The Witcher 3 on High or even Ultra when it comes out.

So +12v@44A should be good then, especially for the 970? It won't ruin any rails or anything like that?

Another question, if you don't mind. How good are Sandisk SDDs? I've noticed some 128GB models on PCPartPicker that went from $70 to $96. They're a brand that I've heard of before thanks to them sponsoring that Starcraft Invitational a while back, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're quality. I'm just wondering in case I do decide to bump up the budget to fit in a light SSD.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Oh yeah, it's not a problem.

I don't know about Sandisk SSDs. But they seem to be everywhere these days. The only SSD's that I know you should avoid are Kingston SSD's. They tend to suck.

 

[DoPo]

128MB hard drive for the OS for now; there are programs that will let you copy a Windows installation onto an SSD without any sort of issue.

damn son, that is one compressed windows installation

Why? It'd fit fit perfectly fine [https://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349]. You'll likely be left with about half the space. You don't really need those gimmicks like Windows Aero and such shit, right?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

128MB hard drive for the OS for now; there are programs that will let you copy a Windows installation onto an SSD without any sort of issue.

damn son, that is one compressed windows installation

Why? It'd fit fit perfectly fine [https://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349]. You'll likely be left with about half the space. You don't really need those gimmicks like Windows Aero and such shit, right?

that webpage still exists??!?!.....

Typical hard disk space required to upgrade to Windows 95: 35-40 MB

the fact that someone was upgrading to windows 95 when this page was around...makes my insides laugh. I'm not sure if this makes me feel old or young.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

difficulty running games at 120 fps at 1080p even in medium settings.

Wouldn't that be bad for the monitor? Plus I thought it was impossible to notice any difference past about 60 fps?

I don't see how that would be bad for the monitor and the answer is that's not true. You can easily see the difference. I'll admit I was skeptical at first, but once I hooked up the right cable (needed Display Port, standard HDMI can't send that much data) I noticed the difference immediately. Even while I'm typing this post, I can't help but move my cursor around. It slides like butter at 144Hz almost making it look 3D. Whether or not that's worthwhile is a matter of opinion

A terabyte for your hard drive might be overkill. I think you might be able to save a few dollars going for a 500GB drive, or just investing in a single larger solid-state drive. You can get two of these SSDs, adding up to 256 GB http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8864223&Sku=TNQ-102297328 for the same price as you're looking to buy that SSD and HDD for, though you'll also need to get a 2.5" to 3.5" mounting kit, but those aren't extremely expensive.

It's just that I can't really see anything that you'd need that much space for.

That sounds like a terrible idea. I go through hard drives like toilet paper. I'm using 400gb of my 500GB hard drive in my laptop and I barely have a 10th of my Steam games installed. Plus random programs, stand alone indi game/gog installers, books, music, videos, Linux distros, etc. And unless you're raiding, 2 hard drives (both the same size, not a data drive and OS drive) would be a pain in the ass to manage. Plus using SSD's as the only drive is dangerous. Hard disks usually warn the user before failing and can be recovered. When an SSD dies, its done. And using them all the data writing will significantly shorten their life span

And to avoid confusion for the OP, most decent cases (the Phantek, NZXT) come with hard drive sleds that can hold both 2.5 and 3.5 hdds

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

128MB hard drive for the OS for now; there are programs that will let you copy a Windows installation onto an SSD without any sort of issue.

damn son, that is one compressed windows installation

Why? It'd fit fit perfectly fine [https://support.microsoft.com/kb/138349]. You'll likely be left with about half the space. You don't really need those gimmicks like Windows Aero and such shit, right?

Windows Aero? Who needs more than a browser these days? [http://www.browserlinux.com]

 

[DoPo]

Typical hard disk space required to upgrade to Windows 95: 35-40 MB

4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended)
One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive
VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)

Hmm, I think I may need to upgrade my memory. While I'm at it, I may as well get those new fangled tinly 3.5 inch floppies. Although, I think it's just a fad - clearly an 8 inch one would fit more stuff, since it's bigger.

Windows Aero? Who needs more than a browser these days? [http://www.browserlinux.com]

Pfft, 93 megabytes? That's bigger than Windows 95. I reject your (frankly, insulting) offer, good sir! I also raise lower you 50MB [http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/]