New Gaming PC - Missing Anything? Should I Wait?


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It has been 7 years since I built my last PC. In that 7 years I only upgraded the GPU twice. So needless to say when I build a computer I like them to last me a decent amount of time, as such, I go fairly high end for what is available at the moment.

 

Initially I thought I would only spend around $1500, but I now see I was off by about $600.

 

So here is the build I am close to building.

 
$369.99
$339.99
$34.99
$219.99
$484.99
HDD PRIMARY: Crucial MX100
$214.99
HDD SECONDARY: Western Digital WD Blue
$59.99
$169.99
$89.99
OPTICAL DRIVE: Asus BluRay Burner
$59.99 With Rebates, Etc.
 
All Prices are an approximation and do change from day to day slightly depending on which site I check out.
I will actually probably go with Amazon to order everything, as it winds up only being $10 more if I go through them, but I am a Prime Member, and only one item requires me to pay for shipping (the case).
 
Now I have two main questions.
  1. Does it make sense to hold off on the GPU? I know the 800 series from Nvidia is coming out Q4.
  2. Did I somehow overlook anything?

So I am strongly considering holding off on the GPU until the 800 series is released and using my current card, which is a 460 Ti. It would clearly be the bottleneck if I do so, but the possible pay off for waiting just seems to good not to wait, as everything about the 800 series is pointing towards massive improvements all around.

 

So if I should wait on the GPU, should I just wait on the whole damn thing?

 

I am just super excited to build this computer since it has been so long, and this thing is pretty much my dream build, and luckily right now I can afford to build it. And again keep in mind, I prefer it to last me a very long time. I will also be doing multimedia production besides just gaming, so definite Photoshop / Illustrator, and even video editing as well.

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The problem with waiting is that you'll always be waiting for the next iteration, so if you're going to do it just do it :)

 

I believe the next round of nvidias GPUs will be focused on lower power rather than more performance, so in a gaming PC you may not see as much benefit.  A 780 is a great card and will do you well for some years to come.

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The general consensus i've seen if you don't heavily multitask i7 are burning pockets just for the sake of it. Though i'm sure someone else will chip in with performance numbers on how the i5 and i7 are closely matched.

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get that ram speed up to 2400

He should also get an AMD APU to actually take advantage of the frequency. /s

 

Personally I would wait a little more since PC components have been stagnating this year. Rumours say Maxwell will be a paper launch, however I wouldn't want to feel buyer's remorse after such a short period. As far as the current system is concerned you haven't specified its use, so I'm going to go with gaming (although I know you keep mentioning that you have very limited time for that):

 

- the MOBO, CPU and RAM are a waste of money for little to no performance gain

- you'll get better performance with an AMD R9 290X which can be found at around the same price

- the PSU is overkill for your intended config

- why not go for the Define XL instead of the Arc (I believe you could order the windowed panel if that's what you want)

 

On the other hand you say this would be your dream PC and I suppose that can justify any extra expense.

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Next month Haswell-E will be ready.  From what I've been reading, the base model 6 core will be about the same price as the 4790k you have picked out.  Might be worth the month wait.

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Thanks all for the replies so far.

 

To address a few of the comments and questions.

 

Although this clearly has a heavy focus on gaming, it will be used for everything, including multimedia related stuff (design, video editing, etc.).

And in fact the main reason I am building a Gaming PC again is to try and get back some of the time I no longer have for gaming. One of my biggest issues is my consoles reside in the same room we watch TV in, so the only time I can play for sure is either one my wife falls asleep or when she is not interested in watching something, which the latter is not very often. Having a Gaming PC gives me back more time to play. And the truth is my current one is just starting to show its age so it is about time to build a new one.

 

I am a Nvidia person and as much as I know AMD offers a better value for the buck, I am willing to pay more for sticking with what I know and like.

There is also another reason I am sticking to Nvidia. I might pick up a G-Sync monitor down the road.

 

I absolutely know some of the components are overkill, for example the MOBO, but I like the specs of it, and I love the simplicity and design of it. In this point in my life less is more so to speak. and while that motherboard has a decent amount of unnecessary bells and whistles, I also really like the overall simplicity of the design and the look of it. Plus ASUS has always done me good with Motherboards on my previous builds.

And as I said it is my dream build so to speak, so I am treating myself to a few things as a result.

 

As far as the ram, I have always been under the impression it is not always about the MHz, but if I can be convinced otherwise, I am open for sure.

 

Finally with the case, I am open to suggestions there. Really I just picked one of the better reviewed ones out there that was still simple looking. I am into plain normal looking cases that are easy to work with, which I have read this case is all of the above.

 

Oh in regards to the PSU, I always go way more than I need, it is a result of a long time ago not having a PSU that was capable of powering everything and just having some weird fear of going through it all again.

Plus I figure if down the road if I did choose to SLi that 780 GTX, i have more than enough power to do so.

 

Thanks all for the replies so far. (Y)

I may hold off I was not aware about the imminent release of Haswell E , so want to research that before I make any decision.

Or I think I might just go ahead and purchase it tonight so I have everything by the weekend LOL But truly still not sure on that.

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Well the motherboard sure is a looker.

 

If you do really want long termish, why no wait a couple of weeks for haswell-e ?Already waited this long.

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The problem with waiting is that you'll always be waiting for the next iteration, so if you're going to do it just do it :)

 

 

 

Not really tech like pci-e and sata get a refresh once in a while.

 

I'm not sure now is a good time. pci-e 4 is around the corner. Same for ddr 4. I think Sata express is already out but if it is not it is around the corner too.

 

If you absolutely need to build a new PC then do it. But if you can wait fall 2015 i would personally wait.

 

I bought my PC when sata 3 and pci-e 3 were around the corner and honestly i regret it a little bit cause i'm stuck with sata 2, usb 2 and pci-e 2 and my pc is still good enough to play any games i throw at it at 1080p.

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Not really tech like pci-e and sata get a refresh once in a while.

 

I'm not sure now is a good time. pci-e 4 is around the corner. Same for ddr 4. I think Sata express is already out but if it is not it is around the corner too.

 

If you absolutely need to build a new PC then do it. But if you can wait fall 2015 i would personally wait.

 

I bought my PC when sata 3 and pci-e 3 were around the corner and honestly i regret it a little bit cause i'm stuck with sata 2, usb 2 and pci-e 2 and my pc is still good enough to play any games i throw at it at 1080p.

:laugh: 

 

You want the man who's deciding whether or not to buy gear this week to wait for a whole year? :P :Rofl:

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:laugh:

 

You want the man who's deciding whether or not to buy gear this week to wait for a whole year? :p :rofl:

 

Well he asked should i wait ...

 

I did not read the whole post but waiting for a new GPU the answer will always be no it's not worth it specially if you can find a good deal which is often the case when new gpus are about to be released.

 

At leaat the mobo has 2 sata express ports which is the most important part cause sata 3 will be a bottleneck soon enough.

 

[edit] BTW even if i voted for it this puppy doesn't fit you very well. I feel like i'm replying to a 45yo woman ...

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For the price you are better off with a 290x. But if you really want green team you might hold off until Sept or Oct worst case scenario is 800 launches at extremely high price but 7xx price drops

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Well he asked should i wait ...

 

I did not read the whole post but waiting for a new GPU the answer will always be no it's not worth it specially if you can find a good deal which is often the case when new gpus are about to be released.

 

At leaat the mobo has 2 sata express ports which is the most important part cause sata 3 will be a bottleneck soon enough.

 

[edit] BTW even if i voted for it this puppy doesn't fit you very well. I feel like i'm replying to a 45yo woman ...

Lol the OP doesn't seem very patient if you ask me  ? :laugh:

 

 

offtopic: yeah, neither do I, but the tallied votes, what would you suggest then? :laugh:

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Well he asked should i wait ...

 

I did not read the whole post but waiting for a new GPU the answer will always be no it's not worth it specially if you can find a good deal which is often the case when new gpus are about to be released.

 

At leaat the mobo has 2 sata express ports which is the most important part cause sata 3 will be a bottleneck soon enough.

 

[edit] BTW even if i voted for it this puppy doesn't fit you very well. I feel like i'm replying to a 45yo woman ...

We are not even close to tapping sata3 with current and upcoming ssd's, something else will bottleneck before that

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Lol the OP doesn't seem very patient if you ask me  ? :laugh:

 

 

offtopic: yeah, neither do I, but the tallied votes, what would you suggest then? :laugh:

 

Put a joker mask on said puppy and take a new picture.

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We are not even close to tapping sata3 with current and upcoming ssd's, something else will bottleneck before that

 

He did keep his last pc for 7 years ...

 

In 7 years sata 3 will be a bottleneck. But not a problem as the mobo supports it.

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i live the setup, and i think you should get it.   

 

 

surely it will last long while and if needed you can upgrade parts later on.

 

 

certainly no point in waiting if you finally decided to upgrade now, and this setup will guarantee you amazing service for many years.

 

 

 

 

this, waiting for new tech, is just annoying.     i got a top of the range gaming pc build 2 years ago, and it does EVERYTHING i want now.  

it looks like at least 3-4 years before i even consider upgrading parts.

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Lol the OP doesn't seem very patient if you ask me  ? :laugh:

Yep as already pointed out, my current build has lasted me the past 6 years (I thought 7, but I Googled it), and I actually started looking at a building a new PC earlier this year according to this comment. In fact this past Christmas is when I really got the itch, I just never got any of the components I asked for to start the build.

 

So I have actually been very, very patient, and that is part of the reason I can build such a nice computer. I have been telling my wife for over a year I was planning on building a new PC, so now that I have officially said I am going to, she did not ask a single question.  :laugh:

 

With that said if the 800 series is just a few months out, it may make sense to wait a bit longer. It is just hard, very, very hard. LOL

 

EDIT - And to read my thread from 6 years ago, I am pretty damn consistent if nothing else. :s The only thing that changed is I did go with MSI instead of Asus, but Asus was the brand I used prior to that build. But I talk about how I want Intel, Nvidia and Corsair. I also purchased a PSU that was more than enough. Like I said, consistent. Haha And back then is when I built a new PC every 2 or 3 years.

 

Crazy to realize I have been doing custom builds now for 11 years. It is why I joined Neowin actually, I had just built my first computer with the help of a friend and he said if I had any questions do not ask him but to ask here. The rest is History. And it comes full circle, and I am back on Neowin asking questions about building a PC. It is really just because I have not done so in 6 years, and feel like I might not know something, but as soon as I put it all together, I realized not only has nothing really changed, but it is easier then ever.

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There's nothing wrong with your build, but there are a few strange things:

 

 - You're getting a huge case just to put a regular-size heatsink, one video card, one SSD and one HDD - you'd be perfectly fine with a standard ATX that's lighter, easier to work with, etc. 

 - Why the Hyper N520 rather than the classic 212 EVO? I see a lot less user satisfaction on newegg for your choice.

 - The RAM is pointlessly fast, this is just a waste of 50$ compared to DDR3-1866. You're not going to use the integrated GPU so there's no workload where this'll make a difference.

 - There are better values for the motherboard and GPU but you already know that.

 - PSU is complete overkill, but at its price it's not such a bad choice.

 

Otherwise great choice of CPU and SSD.

 

If you want to wait there's Broadwell coming out early 2015 with DDR4, should make more difference than Haswell did. By that time the GTX 800s will be out as well (hopefully fully-enabled Maxwell parts, yeah!).

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There's nothing wrong with your build, but there are a few strange things:

 

 - You're getting a huge case just to put a regular-size heatsink, one video card, one SSD and one HDD - you'd be perfectly fine with a standard ATX that's lighter, easier to work with, etc. 

 - Why the Hyper N520 rather than the classic 212 EVO? I see a lot less user satisfaction on newegg for your choice.

 - The RAM is pointlessly fast, this is just a waste of 50$ compared to DDR3-1866. You're not going to use the integrated GPU so there's no workload where this'll make a difference.

 - There are better values for the motherboard and GPU but you already know that.

 - PSU is complete overkill, but at its price it's not such a bad choice.

 

Otherwise great choice of CPU and SSD.

 

If you want to wait there's Broadwell coming out early 2015 with DDR4, should make more difference than Haswell did. By that time the GTX 800s will be out as well (hopefully fully-enabled Maxwell parts, yeah!).

I actually meant to get the 212 EVO but added the wrong one to my cart on Amazon, they are both listed on the same page. I would have never realized it either. Changed.

 

Is this a better choice for Ram?

 

I am open to case suggestions, if you have any you think are better, on Amazon, please share. I would rather have a big case then a cramped case though, no doubt about that. I have always used Full Tower cases as well.

 

What is a better Nvidia GPU? I am not budging on sticking to Nvidia, so if you have a better suggestion for a Nvidia GPU, again I am all ears.

 

Motherboard I am set on, that is the part I researched the most, and am willing to pay the premium for it. As I said I very well may go SLi at some point in the future, and all of the other Asus motherboards I saw in a similar area of what it offers only offered 8x for PCI E when going with SLI, where this one does support full 16X for both slots if one goes SLi. That is just one of the reasons I was sticking with this motherboard, but by all means if you can find me another one, again, I am open to suggestions.

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I am a Nvidia person and as much as I know AMD offers a better value for the buck, I am willing to pay more for sticking with what I know and like.

There is also another reason I am sticking to Nvidia. I might pick up a G-Sync monitor down the road.

Keep in mind Adaptive-Sync is now part of the DisplayPort 1.2a standard so it's only a matter of ~5-6 months before monitors start implementing that and G-Sync is made largely obsolete. I'm not sure how Nvidia plans to support it as it competes with its own proprietary tech, but AMD will have support in time for the first of these monitors.

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Yes, that's a better choice of RAM. Perhaps try seeing if you can get lower timings at a similar price, but in any case they're ok.

 

I'd personally get a Fractal Define R4 (well actually, that's what I have :p), less expensive and still quite a large, heavy case. I imagine the full tower version must be quite a pain to handle and move around.

 

I have no recommendation for another NVIDIA GPU, but you could get an R9 290 for a lot less money with the same overall performance. The Sapphire VAPOR-X model is highly rated, has more memory than the GTX 780 (should help at higher resolutions) and costs like 70$ less. Unless you have a very specific G-Sync monitor you are waiting to buy I think you'll have plenty of choice next year as new DisplayPort 1.2a monitors come out with Adaptive-Sync support. If you're really bent on getting NVIDIA for brand loyalty or familiarity then of course I can't argue against that.

 

As for 16x SLI the last time I saw benchmarks it made no difference whatsoever, any money you put on that would be better spent on faster video cards or whatever. I don't have specific suggestions as the last time I researched motherboards was for the Z87 chipset but there are plenty of high quality affordable options from MSI, Gigabyte, ASrock, ASUS - if it's of any help I've used both the Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H for my home build and the MSI Z87-Gaming for a high-performance computer at work, they've been very reliable and great for overclocking.

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I have to admit, I was sitting here wondering why the case was even being mentioned, as I thought it was a normal case.

I did not realize I had picked the XL version.  :rofl:

So yeah, new case, Fractal Design R4 with Window Titanium Gray

 

So actually I plan on getting this build more or less as I listed it, just waiting two weeks. It has nothing to do with waiting for new technology, etc., just turns out I totally forgot about an expense this month, and I only put things on my credit card I can pay off by the next due date of the card (I know it may seem weird to some, but it is how I personally choose to do things, as I pay zero interest on anything and it also just keeps me from letting things get out of control).

 

My next cycle on my card is a few days after the 20th, and my every 2 weeks pay check is this Thursday, so next paycheck I will be picking everything up as I can put the money to the side and then just pay it off on the following cycle of my credit card.

 

So yeah, in a little over two weeks, expect me to post saying I got everything, just with the case listed above.  :laugh:

 

I did also forget I need a copy of Windows 8 as well. I have 2 copies of 7 i can use, but I want to go with 8, so that is another $100+ I did not account for. I have heard of some people having luck with a $15 key off of Reddit, but usually when things seem to good to be true, they are.

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I made two pretty significant changes which got the price down by about $300

Going to do a Core i5 4690k

Cut the Motherboard way down with an Asus Z97A

And the Fractal Case is sold out every damn where so going with a Corsair Obsidian (which actually costs more, but is very well reviewed).

Was going to cut the PSU down but actually the same model for a 750W is only $10 less, so figure why not be safe.

 

So with the above changes, does that seem more reasonable to people?

If you can answer within an hour, I can order tonight and have by the weekend.  :woot:

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