New PC Gaming Build Approval and Comments

[Zachary0112]

Hey as the title suggests this is my new buildto replace my 3 year old build, I'm wanting to build to perform at high to ultra settings on a 2560 x 1440 monitor I'm also wanting the tower to be relatively silent whilst still retaining low temps so please feel free to offer any better case or fan options

NEW BUILD

Graphics card – MSI Nvidia GTX 980ti
CPU – i7-4790k
CPU Fan – Dark Rock Pro 3
Motherboard – Asus Maximus VII Hero 1150 Z97
RAM – Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400mhz 16GB (2x8)
PSU – SeaSonic Snow Silent 1050w
Storage – 2TB SSHD and one 250GB SSD
Case - Corsair 780t
Fans - Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm to replaceall case fans

 

[Sabrewings]

Pretty similar to my new machine with a few differences. You'll be happy with it for 1440p.

My system is extremely quiet if you feel like going for water cooling. Corsair Obsidian 900D is an amazing case with plenty of options for radiator mounting.

 

[nitromullet]

Those are high quality parts, so I doubt you'll be disappointed.

My only comments would be that the PSU is overkill, and that case is huge for a standard ATX build. That being said, if you like the look of the case and have the room for it, go for it.

Not sure how soon you are planning to buy, but if not immediately, have you considered waiting for i7 6700K and Z170 boards?

 

[Fire&Blood]

If you can find a deal on 4790K, ignore Skylake, minimal improvement that carries a premium price. I would go with the PSU if for no other reason, it gives you the option of going SLI later on. Everything you listed looks very good though I would recommend water cooling the CPU, you may get a cheaper case and divert savings towards a decent AIO. Other than that, that's a great config.

 

[tential]

I'd take Skylake. But that's just me.

 

[nitromullet]

If you can find a deal on 4790K, ignore Skylake, minimal improvement that carries a premium price.

The only reason I brought up Skylake is because the OP mentioned they are updating a 3 year old build, so it's possible the old cpu is Ivy Bridge. If that's the case, it hardly makes sense to upgrade a three year old cpu with a a two year old architecture.

The MSRP for an i7 6700K is the same as the 4970k. Sure, there might be early adopter premium added by retailers initially, but how much are you really talking?

 

[tential]

The only reason I brought up Skylake is because the OP mentioned they are updating a 3 year old build, so it's possible the old cpu is Ivy Bridge. If that's the case, it hardly makes sense to upgrade a three year old cpu with a a two year old architecture.

The MSRP for an i7 6700K is the same as the 4970k. Sure, there might be early adopter premium added by retailers initially, but how much are you really talking?

If he has IVybridge then I agree, don't upgrade. SAve the money until a real CPU comes along worth getting. You can even save up for a hexacore by the time the new ones are released you'll have more than enough cash.

 

[Zachary0112]

The only reason I brought up Skylake is because the OP mentioned they are updating a 3 year old build, so it's possible the old cpu is Ivy Bridge. If that's the case, it hardly makes sense to upgrade a three year old cpu with a a two year old architecture.

The MSRP for an i7 6700K is the same as the 4970k. Sure, there might be early adopter premium added by retailers initially, but how much are you really talking?

Would the 6700k perform similiar to the 4970k In terms of gaming etc

 

[Nhirlathothep]

Hey as the title suggests this is my new buildto replace my 3 year old build, I'm wanting to build to perform at high to ultra settings on a 2560 x 1440 monitor I'm also wanting the tower to be relatively silent whilst still retaining low temps so please feel free to offer any better case or fan options

NEW BUILD

Graphics card – MSI Nvidia GTX 980ti
CPU – i7-4790k
CPU Fan – Dark Rock Pro 3
Motherboard – Asus Maximus VII Hero 1150 Z97
RAM – Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400mhz 16GB (2x8)
PSU – SeaSonic Snow Silent 1050w
Storage – 2TB SSHD and one 250GB SSD
Case - Corsair 780t
Fans - Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm to replaceall case fans

just buy the new gpu (gtx 980ti) and try it on your 3y old system.
At 1440p with maxed out settings cpu doesn t matter too much, probably u re gonna be satisfied saving money. (for a 980ti SLI, things are totally different)

otherwise, after the test, u re always in time for a full upgrade

 

[cmdrdredd]

Would the 6700k perform similiar to the 4970k In terms of gaming etc

Better because it has better performance at the same clock speed. Not by a huge margin, but still better. The real difference comes in the form of the new Z170 chipset on the motherboards allowing more PCIe 3.0 lanes for installing PCIe SSD drives and USB 3.1 as well as high speed DDR4.

 

[cyclohexane]

get the 6700k, and that PSU is way overkill for just 1 card.

 

[RaistlinZ]

The 6700K seems pretty expensive already, and you're paying for an integrated GPU that you won't even use. If you're willing to spend $350 you might as well spend $380 and get a 6-core 5820K, especially if you're into overclocking.

Yes, I'm biased since I have one of course.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The 6700K seems pretty expensive already, and you're paying for an integrated GPU that you won't even use. If you're willing to spend $350 you might as well spend $380 and get a 6-core 5820K, especially if you're into overclocking.

Yes, I'm biased since I have one of course.

Not really because of a few reasons. You get 36PCIe lanes with z170 + 6700k vs 28 for 5820k. This may matter for someone running multiple PCIe devices. Then you have less expensive motherboards which can drop the cost of the build a bit. Then you have better thermals and power consumption on the 6700k. Overclocking a 6 core CPU really ramps up both power usage and heat output and cooling it may be a problem. There's nothing suggesting a 5820k overclocks any better than a 6700k since it has worse thermal characteristics and often needs voltage that skyrocket the temps. Controlling those temps without water is problematic at times. They both seem to top out around the same level generally with perhaps a slight advantage to the 6700k to hit 4.5Ghz at decent temperatures judging the reviews I've looked at. The only real advantage to the 5820k is for programs that are highly threaded and will use all those cores. Most things gamers do, especially games don't reliably use all the available cores.

It depends on your usage but for gaming and general usage I don't see much advantage to a 5820k at all. I was in this back and forth mindset for the past couple of weeks and after all my reading I've come to these conclusions. If I was doing rendering tasks and the like it would be a different story. For gaming I'll take the Z170 + better IPC CPU.

 

[nitromullet]

If you really want to get down to it, i5 is a better option than i7 for gaming. It'll get you 95%+ of the performance for more than $100 less.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/22

IMO, the best high performance 1440p bang/buck gaming rig right now looks something like this: i5 6600k, z170 motherboard, Seasonic OEM 750 or 850W PSU, GTX 980 Ti, Fractal Design or Phanteks case, 512GB Crucial or Samsung SSD.

Of course, if there is some other intended use that might benefit from hyper threading/more cache then an i7 might be a worthwhile upgrade, but for gaming on a 3-4 year upgrade cycle i5 is where it's at.

 

[Fire&Blood]

The only reason I brought up Skylake is because the OP mentioned they are updating a 3 year old build, so it's possible the old cpu is Ivy Bridge. If that's the case, it hardly makes sense to upgrade a three year old cpu with a a two year old architecture.

The MSRP for an i7 6700K is the same as the 4970k. Sure, there might be early adopter premium added by retailers initially, but how much are you really talking?

Valid point there, I didn't consider what platform the OP is upgrading from.

I was in the same boat as OP (except I was upgrading from SB) just a few months ago, until I saw Skylake official specs, then I knew it's just another minor upgrade. PC with Devil's Canyon parts can be put together for a lot less making it the better option considering minimal performance differences.

OP, it depends on your current PC. If it's anything like the one you are building, it may make sense to just upgrade the GPU and sit on the current config for another year. By then maybe enough incremental upgrades will occur for an upgrade to make more sense than it does now.

 

[UglyDuckling]

Grab a 1440p display and be smoking dem phat cigars.

 

[tential]

If you really want to get down to it, i5 is a better option than i7 for gaming. It'll get you 95%+ of the performance for more than $100 less.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-review-6700k-6600k-ddr4-ddr3-ipc-6th-generation/22

IMO, the best high performance 1440p bang/buck gaming rig right now looks something like this: i5 6600k, z170 motherboard, Seasonic OEM 750 or 850W PSU, GTX 980 Ti, Fractal Design or Phanteks case, 512GB Crucial or Samsung SSD.

Of course, if there is some other intended use that might benefit from hyper threading/more cache then an i7 might be a worthwhile upgrade, but for gaming on a 3-4 year upgrade cycle i5 is where it's at.

Buying an i5 today off todays performance suite is insane. One should pay attention not only to what is happening today, but what will happen in the future.

This is the same line of thinking GTX 770 2GB purchasers had when they purchased that overpriced piece of crap. They looked at benches, said it's the best out and ignored the fact that consoles were being released soon and VRAM requirements would jump drastically.

Getting an i5 now because of BENCH tests, and ignoring how actual users use PCs (generally, I don't close every single process to play a game and I have things in the background running/sites/music(pandora)/etc.) that can all eat your CPU cycles but with an i7 processor? I don't worry about it. Ever. Gimping yourself with 4 threads in a high end setup is just not worth it. Especially if you're getting a high end GPU as there are MANY Games that benefit in the 10+ fps range and bring minimums above 60 FPS from the i7.

 

[nitromullet]

Buying an i5 today off todays performance suite is insane. One should pay attention not only to what is happening today, but what will happen in the future.

I have already posted results for Skylake.

Here is a comparison for Devil's Canyon:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/5
Haswell:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7189/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-september-2013/10
Ivy Bridge:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-3770k-i5-3570k_6.html
Sandy Bridge:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20

The biggest gap between the i5 and i7 is for Sandy Bridge. The trend appears to be going the opposite way of how you suggest. Also, if you're paying attention to DirectX 12, the future is in moving overhead away from the cpu not towards it.

This is the same line of thinking GTX 770 2GB purchasers had when they purchased that overpriced piece of crap. They looked at benches, said it's the best out and ignored the fact that consoles were being released soon and VRAM requirements would jump drastically.

The GTX 770 is not really analogous to an i5. The GTX 680 was re-branded as the GTX 770 in May of 2013, and Intel launched the Haswell i5 4670K in June 2013. While the GTX 770 is pretty lacking at this point, the 4670K is still a great gaming cpu. I know this firsthand because in June 2013 I bought both a GTX 770 and 4670K. I no longer own the 770, but I played a few hours of The Witcher 3 on my 4670K just yesterday.

Getting an i5 now because of BENCH tests, and ignoring how actual users use PCs (generally, I don't close every single process to play a game and I have things in the background running/sites/music(pandora)/etc.) that can all eat your CPU cycles but with an i7 processor? I don't worry about it. Ever. Gimping yourself with 4 threads in a high end setup is just not worth it. Especially if you're getting a high end GPU as there are MANY Games that benefit in the 10+ fps range and bring minimums above 60 FPS from the i7.

If your background workload is so intense that it hits your gaming performance that hard, it probably makes more sense to step up to a 6-core 5820K from an i5 4670K/6600K, than it does to go with an i7 4970K/6700K.

All you gain from the 4790K/6700K is a bit more cache and hyper threading, which isn't going to net you 10+ fps with an intensive background workload. I'm not even sure if a 6-core cpu would do that, but it's certainly more likely under the right circumstances.

edit: don't get me wrong, the i7 is a better cpu than the i5. No argument from me there, but I still consider the i5 a better value for gaming. I put my money where my mouth is too... My gaming PC has an i5, but I made sure to get an i7 in my Macbook Pro, which is used predominantly for music production.

 

[Sabrewings]

For straight gaming the i5 would most certainly be adequate for a while. The 4790k will be adequate for longer as gaming loads become more threaded due to DX12.

If all you want is a gaming PC and are leaning towards value, then i5 is your answer. If you do other CPU intensive tasks with your PC, the i7 becomes a no brainer. I do video encoding a lot so the i7 is the obvious choice that has some gaming benefits.

 

[nitromullet]

For straight gaming the i5 would most certainly be adequate for a while. The 4790k will be adequate for longer as gaming loads become more threaded due to DX12.

Actual DX12 gains still remain to be seen, but if we look at Mantle vs. DX11 the difference between even a lowly i3 and an i7 is negligible. http://www.techspot.com/review/793-thief-battlefield-4-mantle-performance/

I'm not telling the OP not to get the i7 - it will be fantastic gaming cpu. I am, however, cautioning against buying too much into the notion that somehow hyper threading is going to make a drastic (or even noticeable) difference. The benchmarks simply don't support it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The big deal with DX12 is it removes stress off the CPU not increases it so that lower end parts don't suffer as heavily as DX11.

 

[JTsyo]

The 6700K seems pretty expensive already, and you're paying for an integrated GPU that you won't even use. If you're willing to spend $350 you might as well spend $380 and get a 6-core 5820K, especially if you're into overclocking.

Yes, I'm biased since I have one of course.

Might not be the case for long with DX12 multi-GPU support.