Building New/First PC Setup -- Please Help!

[greathorn]

Hey, so I've been looking around at builds and recommendations with building a new PC, and I was wondering if anyone had info on what I've chosen. I want to be 100% that all my parts are compatible and realistic, and if there's anything I can improve on. I plan on using the PC mainly for gaming but also for Graphic Design and animation work soon.


Intel Core i5-4690K Processor 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 BX80646I54690K

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 ACX 2.0 4GB GDDR5 256bit, DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, DP SLI Ready Graphics Card 04G-P4-2972-KR

MSI ATX DDR3 2400 LGA 1150 Motherboard Z97 PC MATE

Corsair CX750 Builder Series ATX 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Power Supply

SanDisk Internal SSD 240GB 2.5-Inch SDSSDA-240G-G25

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) UDIMM Memory BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00/ BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00

Western Digital 1 TB RE3 SATA 3 Gb/s 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive - WD1002FBYS

NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case CA-S340W-B1

I wasn't sure what information was needed to decide whether the build would work or not, so I just pasted the name of the parts on Amazon.
My main concerns are probably my motherboard and my HDD, I feel like the might be too small, and that an Enterprise Hard Drive might not be as useful as a Consumer Hard Drive. I'm really not sure, so any input/recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Aikouka]

Why Haswell instead of Skylake? Unless you're getting a great deal on "old tech", I would probably just go with Skylake. It's like what I told someone else -- you won't necessarily get as much out of the CPU upgrade, but newer motherboard features (true USB 3.1) may interest you more.

Also, it isn't a huge deal, but this should really be in the General Hardware sub-forum as they do quite a bit of build assistance. A mod may end up moving it for you.

My main concerns are probably my motherboard and my HDD, I feel like the might be too small, and that an Enterprise Hard Drive might not be as useful as a Consumer Hard Drive.

That was going to be my main comment. You shouldn't need an enterprise-class HDD. Although, at that size, it isn't that expensive to begin with.

 

[cmdrdredd]

How reliable are Sandisk SSDs? Is SSD reliability an issue anymore? Just curious but I'd think about getting a Samsung instead if budget allows (I know they are somewhat faster).

Also consider an MSI 970 if the price isn't drastically different. I can highly recommend those over EVGA since EVGA no longer offers a lifetime warranty.

I second what Aikouka says about skylake. The new Z170 chipset has many features that Z97 doesn't like native USB 3.1 (A and C), more PCIe 3.0 lanes for additional devices including PCIe SSD running off M.2

 

[Youngray20]

How reliable are Sandisk SSDs? Is SSD reliability an issue anymore? Just curious but I'd think about getting a Samsung instead if budget allows (I know they are somewhat faster).

Also consider an MSI 970 if the price isn't drastically different. I can highly recommend those over EVGA since EVGA no longer offers a lifetime warranty.

I second what Aikouka says about skylake. The new Z170 chipset has many features that Z97 doesn't like native USB 3.1 (A and C), more PCIe 3.0 lanes for additional devices including PCIe SSD running off M.2

I bought a used 240GB extreme for my laptop. No issues so far, I like it better than the pro and the adata I had before. It's only been two weeks. :thumbsup: