Advice on ~Mid-range Gaming PC

[Cymera]

Hi all!

I was hoping you guys could give me some advice on a gaming PC I am putting together for a friend. Anandtech has helped me several times over the years tune component lists and get the most out of my money, and I really appreciate it!

1) It will be a gaming and office productivity PC (e.g. documents, spreadsheets, browsing, general multitasking). No peripherals or software required.

2) His budget is ~$1500 CDN and we'll be buying parts in Canada. Ideally from Canada Computers (might have them put it together as I'm tight on time)

3) I don't think he has a brand preference, but I'm generally an Intel-nVidia fanboy

4) He'll be playing games like the Witcher 3 at 1920x1080. Also he won't be overclocking.

5) I think he'd like to build it yesterday, but let's say within a month.

Overall, I'd like to know if I went wrong in the list below. I tried to find a good performance/price balance, but I'm far from an expert and I only keep up with hardware when I have to build something.

I think he'd like this to 'last' for 3-4 years and still perform reasonably well. I know you can't 'future' proof these things, but my build (sig) feels like it handles anything I throw at it even after a few years. I think he'd like something similar.

Also, is there something literally a few weeks away that would give me reason to postpone this build?

Mobo: Asus Z97-K/CSM ($154.99)
CPU: i7-4690 3.5Ghz ($279.00) OR i7-4790K ($425.00 - the non 'K' is only 0.1Ghz faster than the 4690...)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 ($44.99)
DVD : ASUS Internal 24x DVD-RW ($19.99)
GPU: Zotac GTX 970 ($419.00 - the 960 was an option, but it performs worse than my 680 in the benchmarks I've seen)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 ($153.75)
PSU: Corsair CS Modular CS650M ($119.99)
SSD : Crucial M500 240GB ($119.99)
HDD : WD Black 2TB ($179.99)
Case: CM HAF 912 ($84.99)

Total: $1,576.68

I chose a modular PSU for tidiness and airflow; the HAF 912 is for expandable storage and airflow.

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this builds! Thank you!

 

[lehtv]

Motherboard - no need for Z97 when not OC'ing
CPU - i5-4690 is nice
Cooler - not really necessary unless your friend wants the PC to be particularly quiet; even then, a 212 isn't the quietest but it's quite good
GPU - nice
RAM - 16GB not needed unless your friend's multitasking / spreadsheet habits definitely require lots of RAM. 8GB is enough for gaming, and it should be enough for normal office stuff as well
PSU - looks a bit expensive and is 100-150 watts unnecessarily powerful for a Haswell+GTX970 build... let's see what else there is
SSD - M500? they still have those? the price is nice... CC has very few left in stores, if you can grab one of those that's great, below I'm recommending one that's in stock online
HDD - too expensive
Case - old design, not very quiet

Here:

$767
+$75 system assembly, or DIY
+Crucial MX200 $130 shipped @ ncix - a few generations newer than M500
+Zotac GTX 970 $372 after rebate and shipping @ newegg, +2 free games

= $1344 with assembly

You can easily install the SSD and GPU yourself, no need to include in the build service.

That's all you really need to pay for an uncompromising i5+GTX 970 1080p gaming build. If you want to squeeze as much value out of $1500 as possible, then the 4790K is an okay idea (combine with the below cooler), it should last a tiny bit longer and provide a smoother gaming experience in the meantime. Also:

Optional cooler: Arctic i30 +$45 (it's worth it over 212 EVO, runs at 400-1350RPM and backed by 6yr warranty)
Silent higher end case: Define R5 $130-140 (not really worth it in the short term, but sturdy, feature rich cases can last over multiple builds)

 

[mfenn]

Nice build from lehtv as usual.

I would caution that we don't really know how TW3 performs just yet, but early indications are that a GTX 980 can run it at 60 FPS at 1080p. The GTX 970 is roughly 10% slower than the GTX 980, so it should able to run TW3 at a good framerate.

 

[Cymera]

Hi all, thanks for the replies!

Made some changes based on your suggestions. I think I will stick with the RAM because my friend likes to keep a ton of things open and I think he'd benefit from it; is that totally wrong? If it's a problem for his budget, we could start with an 8GB kit and then he can upgrade later if he chooses to.

Mobo: Asus H87I-PLUS ($99.88)
CPU: i7-4690 3.5Ghz ($279.00) OR i7-4790K ($425.00)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling i30 ($44.99)
DVD : ASUS Internal 24x DVD-RW ($19.99)
GPU: Zotac GTX 970 ($419.00)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 ($153.75)
PSU: Corsair BS Modular CX600M ($99.99)
SSD : Crucial M500 240GB ($119.99 - if it's still in stock!)
HDD : WD Green 2TB ($109.99)
Case: CM HAF 912 ($84.99 - he really liked this case and isn't concerned with noise)

New total: $1,431.57

Thank you for the links to deals, but insofar as I'm not sure how soon - i.e. this week or in three weeks - we're building, I don't want to factor them into the baseline quote. I will tell him that there are deals if we can do it now.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks again, guys!

 

[lehtv]

16GB RAM is fine (8GB modules will keep their resale value better than 4GB ones) but I'm not convinced he'll actually need that much RAM. What kind of a PC is he currently using, how much RAM does it have and does he find that he's running out of RAM?

Asus H87I-Plus - why? That's an ITX board, you don't want to put an ITX board into an ATX case. And H87 chipset doesn't make a lot of sense when there's H97 (newer) and B85 (cheaper but does essentially the same things).

Corsair CX is pretty low end. It's built by CWT which is not quite as good as Seasonic who build their own units. With Seasonic G550 you get better quality components, longer warranty, better efficiency, and quieter operation all for $20 extra. The PSU is the absolute last part you want to skimp on with such a big budget.

WD Green 2TB is slower than the 1TB Seagate recommended above. 2x1TB ends up costing only $10 more, it's worth it. I did spot the Green drive earlier and dismissed it for this very reason.

Thank you for the links to deals, but insofar as I'm not sure how soon - i.e. this week or in three weeks - we're building, I don't want to factor them into the baseline quote. I will tell him that there are deals if we can do it now.

There will almost certainly be better SSD and GPU deals elsewhere, no matter when you're building.

 

[Cymera]

Hi current PC is a 4-5 year old HP, he has no idea what's in it, just that it pretty much sucks across the board at this point. I found, and maybe this is some kind of placebo, that I could switch between games (which I sometimes leave running...) and various other programs more smoothly when I jumped from 8 to 16 GB.

My bad with the ITX board, I thought I filtered for only ATX to show up. Canada Computers is out of H97 somehow. They have several Z97's $125+ and B85's ~$100, but all M-ATX - what should I do? Go with one of those options or order the MB from retailer? The B85's do seem to cover everything he would need.

Switching to the Seasonic for the PSU and moving to a 7200 RPM hard drive. Strangely the 1TB WD Green is 7200 while the 2TB is 5400...

Changes below:

Mobo: Asus B85M-E ($99.99) OR MSI Z97 ($124.99)
CPU: i7-4690 3.5Ghz ($279.00) OR i7-4790K ($425.00)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling i30 ($44.99)
DVD : ASUS Internal 24x DVD-RW ($19.99)
GPU: Zotac GTX 970 ($419.00)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 ($153.75)
PSU: Seasonic G-550 ($119.99)
SSD : Crucial M500 240GB ($119.99 - if it's still in stock!)
HDD : Seagate 1TB ($69.99 x 2)
Case: CM HAF 912 ($84.99 - he really liked this case and isn't concerned with noise)

New total: $1,481.67

Thank you for bearing with me, I really appreciate the time you're taking to help.

 

[mfenn]

Thank you for the links to deals, but insofar as I'm not sure how soon - i.e. this week or in three weeks - we're building, I don't want to factor them into the baseline quote. I will tell him that there are deals if we can do it now.

Locking in parts and then going to look for deals on those specific parts is not the way to maximize value. The truth is that there are many functionality equivalent components out there, and you'll get the best overall value by leaving yourself the flexibility to choose the best value at the time of purchase.

If your friend wants a line-item quote ahead of time, I would go with more generic component descriptions which leave you the flexibility to choose the best part when it comes time to order.

 

[Cymera]

Thanks mfenn, you're totally right. This will be a general and tentative list, and when he's ready to buy, I'll look for the best deals for each component.

 

[Valantar]

If he doesn't plan to go SLI at any point (which seems unlikely), you're not really losing anything going with an mATX board - so if there are cheaper options in mATX, go for one of them. If you're planning to go 2*8GB RAM, you don't even need to get one with 4 RAM slots, as 16GB will be plenty for gaming an office use for the practical lifetime of a computer built today.

Also, you're probably able to keep the DVD drive from his old PC, no? That's another $20 saved.

As for the GTX 970 - it's a great card, but as of today, the Radeon R9 290/290X gives better value (the X performs slightly better, especially at higher resolutions, for less money). They both draw more power, though, but you'll be able to run either off of a 550W PSU.

And as was mentioned, don't skimp on the PSU - from what I've been reading recently, anything Seasonic or Seasonic built (XFX XTR, for example) is the way to go for quality components, efficiency and build quality.

For daily home use, an SSD is an SSD, so to speak. You won't notice much of a difference between models. But Crucial's MX and BX drives seem to get recommendations left and right due to great prices and good performance. Still, I'd go for whatever has the capacity you need and that fits your budget.

While it's true that the i7 4790 non-K is only .1GHz faster than the i5 4690, it has Hyper-Threading. Doesn't make much of a difference today, but might with DX12. Nobody knows yet. If you can afford the K, which has both HT AND higher clocks, go for it.