$2500 Gaming/Rendering Build--Please Help!

[F4lconF16]

Approximate Purchase Date:
Within the next month or two, hopefully in two weeks

Budget Range:
$2700 for EVERYTHING (main build, OS, monitor, etc.)

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
Gaming, 3D modeling using AutoDesk and CATIA, browsing and entertainment
I would like to play Battlefield 4, Crysis 3, heavily-modded Skyrim, etc., on highest settings possible. I'm also going to be using this computer for a fair amount of 3D modeling/rendering and perhaps some fluid-dynamics modeling.

Monitor:
Yes; must be 2560x1440p and I will not take the chance with a Korean monitor--the lack of support and chances of defective parts just makes me nervous.

Do you need to buy OS:
Yes-going with Windows 8

Preferred Website(s) for Parts:
Anywhere reliable; The fewer the better, because it's easier to buy/return parts.

Location:
US; sadly, not near a Microcenter

Parts Preferences:
NVIDIA GPUs, just because I'm planning on SLI and there are fewer issues, better support, better drivers, better performance in Battlefield. (Although I can change my mind, no fanboy here )

Overclocking:
Yes, although only mildly

SLI or Crossfire:
Definitely for the future, hopefully within a couple months.

Additional Comments:
The build below I've put together after a fair amount of research. Reliability is my highest priority in this build, even if it does get me a little less bang for my buck. I like the idea of a quieter system, and I've picked the Fractal because it looks amazing imho, has decent temperature performance, and it's gotten consistently good reviews by users here and on Newegg and Amazon. Other than that, I'd like to get keep the cost of the PC down below the max of $2700; I have a large, but quite tight, budget. The parts I'm most concerned about are my choice of an SSD, I'm a little worried about reliability here, and also whether the motherboard is going to work.

The Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ NCIX)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($409.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($154.78 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS524-06 DVD/CD Writer ($25.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($707.58 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($59.77 @ Compuvest)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $2643.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-03 02:01 EDT-0400)

Sorry for the long post-I just wanted to make sure I covered everything! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Essence_of_War]

1) I think that the Black's are overpriced for little-to-no performance gain over Blues. You're paying only for the extra warranty. I'd skip it, save about 20 USD/each on Blues and put the money towards other things.

2) You can get the same Dell monitor on amazon for ~100 USD less.

That extra 140 USD gets you to the 780 gpu if you'd like.

I would like to play Battlefield 4, Crysis 3, heavily-modded Skyrim, etc., on highest settings possible.

I don't know about BF4, but Skyrim should play wonderfully on a 770 w/ that CPU even at super-high settings.

Crysis 3, though, is REALLY tough to max out at the resolution that you're talking about. Not even a titan will do it with a single card, you NEED SLI.

A 780 will likely get ~31 fps at max settings at 2560x1440 for Crysis 3.
A 770 will likely get you ~26 fps.
2x780 will probably get to 55ish
2x770 will probably get to 48ish.

Plan/budget accordingly

That is to say, if maxing out Crysis 3 is really important to you, you probably need to find room in your budget for 2x780s.

 

[Termie]

Welcome to the forums, F4alconF16!

That's a good start, but you can do a lot better on prices and component selection.

CPU and Motherboard - too expensive. Get one of the much better bundles at Newegg - like the same setup for $20 less: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1327777

Or better yet, the superior Asus Z87-Pro for $3 more that what you were going to pay: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1328369

Memory - way too expensive. You can get DDR3-1866 for less from G.Skill: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231627

Or save even more by getting in on this one-day sale at Newegg on Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 LP: http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellS...5-_-06032013_1

Hard Drives - why would you get two 1TB drives? That's bad on GB/$. Get a 2TB drive for around $100 from Seagate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148910

DVD Drive - every single DVD burner is cheaper at Newegg, so I'm not sure why PCPartPicker gave you that option.

Monitor - way too expensive - it's often under $600 at Dell or Newegg. Don't buy at $700.

Everything else looks fine, but with the adjustments above, you'll have a better system for at least $100 less.

 

[Torn Mind]

Phooey, if you're going to spend $170 on 2TB, get a high end enterprise drive like a Constellation ES.2.

 

[F4lconF16]

Okay I worked on it and here's the new build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($107.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($409.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($154.78 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Dell U2713HM 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($586.85 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Mouse: ROCCAT Kone[+] Wired Laser Mouse ($65.45 @ Newegg)
Total: $2488.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-03 15:25 EDT-0400)

Also, definitely not hoping to fully max out on Crysis just hoping to get playable framerates. I'm happy to go to FXAA if I need to to get 40fps. I think I'll be waiting to buy the 770 4gb when it comes out as I've read that with the new gen consoles ported games may require more memory, and that way I can play uber-modded skyrim Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Essence_of_War]

Looks good to me.

Is there any reason you're going for 2x 1TB drives rather than 1x 2 TB drive w/ 1 TB platters? I think it saves you 20-30 USD, and depending on the application, you might not miss it.

 

[F4lconF16]

I'm going with the dual drives because from everything I've read, individual drives are more reliable than than multi-platter drives. The extra drive might be nice so that if one goes out, I still have a place to store media, as I have a ton of high-kbps 20 minute long music files that I access fairly often, and I would like to be able to continue using them fairly uninterrupted, rather than having to wait a week or two for a replacement drive. Obviously I'll have external back-ups, but it's mostly for convenience.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I'd agree with you that, for example, a 1 TB drive with a single 1 TB platter is likely to be more reliable a 1 TB drive with 2x500 GB platters, but I don't know how the reliability math works with a multi-platter drive vs. multiple single platter drives. And it might vary depending on if the multiple drives are a JBOD/raid0, or a raid-1.

To me, your answer sounds like a round-about way of saying that you'll be using the two drives in a software raid-1, which is fine, and is basically what I was asking originally when I asked if you had any specific reason for going with multiple drives.

 

[F4lconF16]

Haha yes, that is what I was trying to say. I do believe I forgot to mention that one little part thanks very much for the help!

 

[Topweasel]

I'm going with the dual drives because from everything I've read, individual drives are more reliable than than multi-platter drives. The extra drive might be nice so that if one goes out, I still have a place to store media, as I have a ton of high-kbps 20 minute long music files that I access fairly often, and I would like to be able to continue using them fairly uninterrupted, rather than having to wait a week or two for a replacement drive. Obviously I'll have external back-ups, but it's mostly for convenience.

Glass half full approach. You just increased the amount of hardware that could die. Does a 4 platter drive have that much more of a failure rate than 2 2 platter drives and 2 heads and two logic boards? Spindle drives are pretty reliable they are either DOA or they last forever unless you are extremely unlucky. All of us have had drives die on us but we also go through dozens more than most. The other half of that half. If one dies you don't lose everything. But who cares if its the one holding the most important. In the end.

If you are doubling up on storage drives and a worried about HDD failure rate the answer is Mirroring. If your not doing that then I don't see the philosophical difference between 1 drive or 2.

 

[F4lconF16]

I will be placing the drives in raid 1. My fault for forgetting to mention that, sorry. However, how reliable are the Seagate 2tb drives? If they're pretty similar to the WD blues, then I might consider placing two of them in raid 1 for some extra space, which would be nice. The extra $60 could be added to the budget if necessary. Mostly I've just heard varying things about Seagate drives.

 

[Essence_of_War]

All of the major HD manufacturers have basically the same reliability for similar products. Some people have had personal experiences that lead them to one manufacturer over the other, but I don't think that any sort of data backs that up.

The most relevant question, I think, is what are your data storage needs right now, and do you expect them to be dramatically different in the near future?

If you've got less than a few hundred GB of data, I'd just go with the 2x 1 TB Blues. You can always get bigger HDDs later if you really need the space, and if history is a good guide, they'll probably be cheaper then too! If you are getting into the >500 GB range, I'd go with the 2x 2 TB Seagate Barracuda, or 2x 2 TB Blue.

Either way, it looks like you're probably coming in under budget.

 

[F4lconF16]

All of the major HD manufacturers have basically the same reliability for similar products. Some people have had personal experiences that lead them to one manufacturer over the other, but I don't think that any sort of data backs that up.

The most relevant question, I think, is what are your data storage needs right now, and do you expect them to be dramatically different in the near future?

If you've got less than a few hundred GB of data, I'd just go with the 2x 1 TB Blues. You can always get bigger HDDs later if you really need the space, and if history is a good guide, they'll probably be cheaper then too! If you are getting into the >500 GB range, I'd go with the 2x 2 TB Seagate Barracuda, or 2x 2 TB Blue.

Either way, it looks like you're probably coming in under budget.

Well if that's the case than I think I'll go with the 2x 2 TB Seagate Barracudas, because I have around 600-750gbs of files currently and I'm expecting to have more than a TB in the next year or so. I was just planning on adding another two drives around the end of the year, but considering it's only another $80 to double my storage capacity now and have it ready, that's well worth it for me. Thanks for your help

 

[Topweasel]

I will be placing the drives in raid 1. My fault for forgetting to mention that, sorry. However, how reliable are the Seagate 2tb drives? If they're pretty similar to the WD blues, then I might consider placing two of them in raid 1 for some extra space, which would be nice. The extra $60 could be added to the budget if necessary. Mostly I've just heard varying things about Seagate drives.

Seagate, WD, even Hitachi are all about equal (though they are WD now aren't they?). Big thing to watch out for with is buying OEM drives. Specially Seagate. OEM drives are supposed to go to a system builder that in theory would test the drives as part of the QC of the computer. So they offer fantastic discounts on the OEM drive and just expect the OEM to ship them back a pile of drives that failed. End point being that the DOA number is much higher on OEM drives than retail and that's why. Seagate especially has trouble because their OEM shipped drives are almost exclusively from their Chinese factory.

Mostly a heads up. You will probably get drives that work and if they work out of the box they will last as much as any other. But if you get a bad one just have Newegg or Amazon ship you a replacement and don't fret to much that its a sign that the drives will die a couple of months from now.

 

[mfenn]

Crysis 3, though, is REALLY tough to max out at the resolution that you're talking about. Not even a titan will do it with a single card, you NEED SLI.

Agree 100%. Good thing that the game sucks and there's no reason to actually play it! :awe:

 

[mfenn]

Seagate, WD, even Hitachi are all about equal (though they are WD now aren't they?). Big thing to watch out for with is buying OEM drives. Specially Seagate. OEM drives are supposed to go to a system builder that in theory would test the drives as part of the QC of the computer. So they offer fantastic discounts on the OEM drive and just expect the OEM to ship them back a pile of drives that failed. End point being that the DOA number is much higher on OEM drives than retail and that's why. Seagate especially has trouble because their OEM shipped drives are almost exclusively from their Chinese factory.

Mostly a heads up. You will probably get drives that work and if they work out of the box they will last as much as any other. But if you get a bad one just have Newegg or Amazon ship you a replacement and don't fret to much that its a sign that the drives will die a couple of months from now.

Heads up, Newegg is doing a deal on the 2TB retail drives with better packing for the same price as the OEM drive ($100).

 

[F4lconF16]

Seagate, WD, even Hitachi are all about equal (though they are WD now aren't they?). Big thing to watch out for with is buying OEM drives. Specially Seagate. OEM drives are supposed to go to a system builder that in theory would test the drives as part of the QC of the computer. So they offer fantastic discounts on the OEM drive and just expect the OEM to ship them back a pile of drives that failed. End point being that the DOA number is much higher on OEM drives than retail and that's why. Seagate especially has trouble because their OEM shipped drives are almost exclusively from their Chinese factory.

Mostly a heads up. You will probably get drives that work and if they work out of the box they will last as much as any other. But if you get a bad one just have Newegg or Amazon ship you a replacement and don't fret to much that its a sign that the drives will die a couple of months from now.

That makes a ton of sense. I will make certain to keep watch for that, and I'll be ordering from Amazon or Newegg so there should be no problems there if I need to return something. Thanks for the help and advice!

Agree 100%. Good thing that the game sucks and there's no reason to actually play it! :awe:

Haha good thing I don't care about maxing it out. I'll be over in BF4 and BF3 mostly anyways

Heads up, Newegg is doing a deal on the 2TB retail drives with better packing for the same price as the OEM drive ($100).

Great; I might pick a couple up. Thanks.