Desktop build for building and playing games

Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s (2 of these)
Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W
Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L Non-ECC CL11 DIMM 1.35V (Kit of 2)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Intel Core i5-4670 Box, LGA1150
ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer, Sockel 1150, ATX

Total cost 917,32€, ordering it from Germany. It would cost at least 300€ more from here.

Any comments on any of the parts? I'm planning to Raid mirror the system SSD drive and also store projects on it. I have 3 good Samsung 500gb drives for mass storage. I only have one monitor, but I'm looking to get 1-2 more soon.
Also might get a second 2x4gb 1600mhz ram kit later.

I suppose it supports easily two monitors and a third one without significant issues if need be. Two might suffice though. I think this is a pretty decent build. I chose a little bit more expensive motherboard because, hey, it's where all the other parts connect to.

I still need to find a casing for it and will be installing Noctua industrial class fans that produce 40dBA but also move 270m^3/h of air for 30€ a piece. That is 158 CFM if you were wondering, CFM : m3/h = 1:1,7

Using headphones so the noise isn't an issue and you can of course set the fans to run slower, from 3000rpm to 900rpm which significantly reduces noise on low stress.

Mostly running games through Unity editor, building builds, compiling code and recording gameplay and development videos. Right now I can't even run half of the stuff on my laptop, much less screencap videos. Building a build takes forever.

 

Dont use the i5 boxed fan - noise isnt as much a problem as them being really really bad at cooling your cpu - they are designed to barely keep the heat below thermal shutdown.

iam not a huge fan of the AsRock gaming series and can recommend the MSI Gaming Series from personal experience but thats your choice (might wanna consider it as an alternative though)

MSI Z87-G45

in addition you might wanna consider grabbing a 2nd 8gb ram kit to use all 4 slots on your mainboard and cause 8gb isnt that much anymore ...

 

Thanks for the tip.

Updated build with casing:
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s
Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W
Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L Non-ECC CL11 DIMM 1.35V (Kit of 2)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3X, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Intel Core i5-4670 Box, LGA1150
Corsair Hydro Series H100i
Corsair Carbide Series 400R, ATX, ohne Netzteil
MSI Z87-G45 Gaming, ATX, Sockel 1150
1.030 + shipping.

Happy with initial 3 case fans as watercooling for cpu will keep it's heat outside the case. Also, graphics card will fit in nicely and leave room for future additional HDD cage fans.

This is all I can afford right now, but I think it's now a good package and in the future I can install additional Noctua fans when I get more cash, as well as that second 2x4gb ram kit. So, I think it's pretty great now and it can easily be made a little bit more greater later with additional 150€.

Shit. I can't believe I am getting anything this good. This is the best and most expensive setup I've ever had, even not taking inflation into account. Usually I have had systems of 500€ range and when I got a 700€ laptop, it was the most expensive until then and it's still after almost 3 years the main system in use. Not being able to operate the scene view in Unity editor is telling about what's wrong with the laptop and it runs at steady 90 degree celsius.

Damn. All these great new games coming out,.. Maybe I should try and convince the company to buy me Oculus next year ;D

 

I would say a 500w power supply might be marginal. Especially if you're planning on running lots of fans. Other than that, looks good. Actually pretty similar to what I built a few months ago, except I went with the K processor for future over clocking capability.

 

I would agree on the PS. Throwing your approximate build into a PS calculator gave me 430W. I would not want to run that close to maximum output. I would probably bump your PS up to a 700W.

 

That's another good tip. I forget how much power these machines take nowadays. I remember when 300W used to be overkill

:edit:
Added Corsair CX 750W, it is 80plus bronze so it doesn't overheat intensely. It put ~20€ more on the price, but it's generally not good to run PS near max capacity. People report all kinds of issues when they do that.

 

Fuuuu

Chucked in Gigabyte's GTX 780 instead of 770, the 770 I was going to buy suddenly ran out just as I was about to place the order, so I just went berserk and I just stopped caring about my budget.

I may need a mortgage to actually pay for it all, but now it's like the best computer I've ever had ^2.

 

Blablabla.

Can't pay in installments because it's in Germany.
Can't get it leased because it's in Germany.
Buy from Finland? Sure, costs 40% more + interests.

Have to get my first credit card. Le sigh. I bet that's going to be an interesting story in this economic climate.
"Sorry Sir, you're not really a Sir nor do you own lands or have millions in shares. What exactly did you hope to accomplish by coming here... peasant?"

 

So trying to get a credit card to get the computer.

"Sorry but could you resend this application in color?" Wtf?

Sorry I don't have color in my printer and I don't feel like buying 50€ color pack just because some banker asswipe doesn't like black and white.

Not that it matters. The credit card application is going to boomerang because the company's not been up for over 3 years and because I don't personally earn enough.

 

Can't pay online via bank card? Or paypal linked to a bank acct?

 

Don't want to pay it all once.

 

Not sure if its too late but if youre looking for a good performance/price ratio I would dish the 770 or 780 and get a r9 290. Unless you want PhysiX which I wouldnt recommend using unless you have lots of performance left to spare, which is most likely only the case with older games. A r9 290 is better than both the 770 and 780 and is actually much cheaper than the 780.

Oh and if youre worrying about driver stability thats just a thing of the past, and only a lasting cliche. Both the Nvidia and Amd drivers are just as shitty. Wouldnt call any of them particularly good, but I suppose well never see good graphics drivers from any side, the sheer amount of games make it impossible that they work well with every one of them.

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It looks to me that R9 is more expensive than 770, looking at the shop I'm at, the difference is 30-60€.
780 costs some 50€ more than R9 so it's not that bad and it looks to have a lot better performance. In any case, I've been burnt pretty bad by AMD in the past so I'm not particularly fond of them at the moment.

 

Never go by benchmarks of benchamrking tools. Also that benchmark seems to show highest achieved score with said graphics card, which means its most likely a very overclocked card cooled by liquid nitrogen. Either way results you will never achieve.
But in average on games, the r9 290 beats the 780 by a few frames, especially if you plan on playing in resolutions higher than 1080p, which I do. I dont know about english reviewing sites but this one looked proffesional and trustworthy: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review/16

As you can see most of the time the r9 290 is better and sometimes the 780 is better. Its a fairly old review and of the retail r9 290, so that means worse cooling and driver support at the time. Now with a custom cooler it should be even better.

But I can understand if you dont trust AMD. I switched from Nvidia on laptop to Desktop AMD and honestly Nvidia was worse on laptop. Alot more problems with that one than with AMD. But if you ask me theyre both as shit.

But yeah. As a price/performance enthusiast I would go with the r9 290. Or the 770 if you want to save money. But please dont get the 780. Id rather go all the way with a 780 ti if youve got the money and want Nvidia.

 

Thanks for the idea. I just might go to Ti version because, fuck. Got to work. Just today I tried to run a scene in editor and .. the whole editor just froze, I can read a comic book page faster than the GPU on my laptop rendered a new frame.

And yea, I used to like AMD until I had two really bad GPUs in row.

 

After budget discussion it will be 770.

 

Whaat. Bank says they've accepted my credit card application. Sheesh, they're really handing them out to just about anyone these days, ain't they?

This means war... Mech War.

 

What.
I have to pay upfront to get my credit card?

Well, the joke's on them because I'm going to get that sum back as credit, muhahaha. They ought to know better who to give these cards to

Since it's credit and has never to be paid back, maybe I should upgrade my order a bit?

But then the co-founder would be all

 

Graphics card switched to GTX 970 G1 Gaming, upped memory to 16gb and order is in,..

Then just wait for the next batch of 970 (I had issues getting the payment card in from the bank and I missed the first batch of them), I'm hoping to have the system up and running in 2 weeks.

This is the best system I've ever had! I've never spent even relatively speaking this much money on it and never got such high tier components..
I'm shocked. I always thought that I'd never get stuff that's this good.

I have never played any age's games at maximum setting since the introduction of graphics cards. I think C&C (original) was one of the last games that ran at 'full settings' on my computer since back then you didn't even need to tweak the settings (or couldn't).

I'm shocked and I'm looking forward to merging it with Oculus sometime in 2015.

I also ordered a land line internet connection so I can finally play Warframe with others and overall enjoy a steady connection that doesn't lag or drop me out every 15 minutes.



I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up into a nightmare where none of this is true.

 

Splashing out is nice, isn't it?

It's like retail-therapy for geeks!