So it sounds like cpu/mobo/vid card is where it's all at. Not surprising since that hasn't changed in 20 years I guess. More surprising is you never see anything about sound cards anymore but I guess mobo ones are pretty good now.
I roll with an Asus Xonor DG PCIe (formerly DS PCI) card over the one in my Sabertooth Z77 board. $30+ card but is more clearer and cleaner sounding than the on-board card.
And SSD's as you stated in your OP. But as Space Ghost said, don't skimp on the Case, Water Cooler and Power Supply. I like a virtually silent box. I hate the buzz. You have to pay to make them silent. Cooling so the fans don't kick in, but when they do the fans must by top of the line and no noise. SSD's makes this easier now, too.
I built my current gaming rig about 2 years ago. Ended up going with an i5 and over clocked it. Spent most on video card and good quality mobo and SSD. Have fun with the build!
One quick note... Is there a reason you are going with the i7 vs i5? You could save the 100 dollars by going with the i5. Only advantage of the i7 over the i5 is the hyperthreading. You will only notice this difference if you do a lot of photo or video editing.
Yeah, I plan to get it from Microcenter. For some reason they always have the best price for mobo/cpu. Not a lot of photo editing but I will be doing that since photography is my hobby. Also, plan to stream videos for the house from Plex, which is hyperthreaded if I'm correct.
Hey guys, Thanks for the help. I just wanted to update on what I ended up ordering. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/W4Pxxr Basically, Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz on Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO Motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill Trident X Series DDR3-2666 Memory, Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD for my OS drive, Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB for my files, EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card, SeaSonic Platinum 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Power Supply, all in a Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case. Bought a new Logitech mouse and CH HOTAS setup in preparation for Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous. Cost about $2500 or so but I'm also looking at getting the new 1440p, 120Hz Asus ROG monitor when it comes out and that's going to cost a bunch and take me over $3k but will be worth it.
Congrats, that's a beast of a PC. I built a new computer myself after my MB crapped out on me a couple of weeks ago. Didn't have to spend much, since I reused some parts. i7 4790, Asus H97M, G. Skill 16gb, WD Black 1TB, EVGA 770 GTX, Seasonic 660SP2 Platinum. I think I spent about about $450 for a new cpu, mb and psu. On benchmarks, there isn't much of a difference when it comes to gaming between a i5 and i7, but I noticed my i7 runs a lot cooler and uses a lot less processing power when I play the same games. For example, this one game would use 55-60% of my cpu resources on my old i5, on my i7, it barely uses 17%. I think it's worth the extra $50-$100 for a i7 over i5. My i7 only cost $249. Don't plan on OC, therefore didn't need the 4790k or Z series MB. For silent fans, I would go with Panaflo or Noctua. I have some Antec fans that retail for $20, but I got them for about $5 on sale awhile back that do a very good job. I sort of want to upgrade my cpu cooler/fan, but haven't decided on what I would like to do.
The Corsair case I got comes with 2 front fans and 1 rear fan but has all sorts of slots up top and mid and below. Should I bother putting any in or only if it gets hot?
I would say yes, because the gpu will run hot when you start pushing it. At least add one on the bottom and one on top. You want the fans from the front/bottom pushing the air in and the rear/top pushing the air out. I looked at pictures of the case you purchased and the design is really similar to mines. You can spend the extra time like I did to try and hide all the wires to have that clean look.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6VggrH Thoughts? CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory SSD: Intel 530 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case Power supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit Monitor: Asus VS278Q-P 27.0" Monitor Video Card: Going to use my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 from my current desktop.
Curious: Once built . . . . how much do you spend on Software? [I know I know .. . no one buys software anymore ] I always considered NOT getting all the namebrand BLOATWARE the biggest draw to building you can make a very lean machine with not alot of extra crap on it Also . . if you do build .. . what software is a MUST for you? Obvious and OS . . . but what is the good Virus Protector these days? I am guess some kind of office program . . . beyond that . . what is is good to have? [i know it depends on needs] Rocket River
I buy software. For me it's usually just $60 for Windows and Anti-virus if I don't already have an available license. All my other software (Steam games, Ultramon, Winrar, etc) I've already bought so I can just reinstall it over to the new machine.
Going to reuse another one as your regular drive? 240GB will be just enough for your OS and some key applications. And why a wifi adapter? Not close to a wired location?
