Advice for my first build

[Luka KLLP]

Hello good people of TPU!
The time has finally come for me to upgrade my now 7 years old computer, and I'm excited for it. This will be the first PC I'm going to assemble myself, and I've spent the last ~9 months trying to get to know the basics about it.
I've assembled a build myself now, and would greatly appreciate it if you could give me some feedback on it. Please note that I want to use the PC summer, so unfortunately I can't wait for Skylake, Radeon Fury etc.
Also, I want to order the parts preferably before June 26th, since then will get a 50 euros cashback on the CPU + motherboard.
In assembling the PC I went for a generally fast build that should last me a long time before I need to upgrade again. I will also use the PC for gaming at 1440p.
I already have keyboard and mouse and will be keeping my current monitor as second monitor.
Anyway; here is the build:

• Case*: be quiet! Silent Base 800 Black

It got a great review here on TPU, and I really like its looks. Alternatively, I could go for the Fractal Design R5 Black, which is a little bit more compact, and also got a great review here.

• Motherboard: Asus Z97-Pro Gamer

Not that expensive, but still has a lot to offer. The great onboard sound is what really drove me to this motherboard though.

• Processor: Intel Core i7-4790k

This seems to be the only processor in its class. Nice high performance, and like I said, there isn't really an alternative. The i5-4690k is a lot slower in benchmarks, and the X99 platform is just a lot more expensive (especially the motherboards and RAM).

• Processor cooler*: Scythe Mugen 4 PCGH Edition

I wanted to go for the Cryorig H7 originally, but sadly they don't sell that one in the shop where I want to buy. That said, all reviews say that this coller is extremely quiet while still doing a good job colling the processor. I probably won't be doing anything too extreme in terms of overclocking, so it should be perfect for my needs. Alternatively, the be quiet! Pure Rock seems to be a bit louder and seems to run a little bit hotter, but is a bit cheaper as well. Also, I don't think memory clearance is a problem with me, since the RAM I selected isn't very high.

• RAM*: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3-1600 CL9

I have read a lot about different latency and MHz, but the differences seem to be negligible. This is the cheapest kit of 16GB available, and I think it would suit my needs nicely. Around the same price (and I mean within a range of 2-3 euros) are the Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR3-1866 CL10 and Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR3-1600 CL10. Also, for just ~13 euros more (~117 vs ~104) I can get the
Kingston HyperX Savage 16GB DDR3-2400 CL11. All of these still don't have high heatsinks. Do you think it would be worth it to go for the 2400Mhz kit? Are the other two Kingston alternatives better? Please let me know!

• SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB

This will be for the OS and programs, and maybe some games I play frequently. This drive is actually the cheapest SSD here, except the Crucial BX100. So this is basically a no-brainer.

• HDD: Western Digital Red 1 TB

The reason I went for this drive instead of, say, the WD Black, Blue, Green, or the Seagate Barracuda, is that this drive is extremely silent, efficient, and, most importantly, it has 3 years of warranty. I was actually persuaded by a friend to go for this one, after he had his 2nd Seagate fail within 1.5 years. Of course, I know that this I probably just bad luck for him, but I have found that you are always easily persuaded by people you know IRL . Anyway, when I went looking for reviews, I found that this is actually a drive I wouldn't mind getting.

• Backup drive: Seagate Expansion Portable 1 TB

For backing up my files on the HDD. I will probably use some discs to backup Windows (or is it possible to do that on this drive as well? I will probably have some space left over, since I won't back up the games I have installed, which is 250+ GB).

• Optical drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST

Will mainly be used for putting CDs on my iPod. I picked out something that wasn't expensive and had a nice looking front cover .

• Power supply: Seasonic Platinum Series 660W v2

Every build advice I look at, the most important thing people keep hammering on is the power supply. That is how I ended up with this. Sure it's expensive, and believe me, I've looked at alternatives. I spent many a night looking at this table (http://nl.hardware.info/vergelijkin...060-187786-234991-170778-275000-242249-115527), but every time I couldn't justify NOT getting this PSU. Superior stability and efficiency, while remaining super quiet in idle and still quiet during load. I don't mind paying a little extra money for that.

• Video card*: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 - Superclocked ACX 2.0 4GB

Pretty quickly I concluded the GTX 980 had to be my card: looking at reviews it should serve me well at 1440p for a long time. The GTX 980 Ti is not worth the extra money for me, and the GTX 970 is not quite enough for 1440p. The R9 300 series doesn't interest me (just look at W1zzard's review today), so only Fiji might be interesting, but sadly that is not gonna release on time.
So then I still needed to figure out what brand I was gonna pick. I landed on the EVGA SC ACX 2.0 for now, but that decision isn't final. Prices are fluctuating pretty badly right now, so I will pick one of the following depending on their prices on the day I purchase everything:

MSI Geforce GTX 980 Gaming 4GB: around 10 euros cheaper right now
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4GB: aroung 25 euros cheaper right now, but a little too loud for me
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix OC 4GB: about 3 euros more expensive, so it will definitely need to get more expensive for me to consider it
Palit GeForce GTX 980 Super JetStream 4GB: around 7 euros cheaper right now, apparently very quiet and a little faster, it's just that I don't know how reliable this brand is
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 FTW ACX 2.0 4GB: this is just a little faster than the SC one right? Anyway, it's only 8 euros faster, so I was wondering if that's worth it.

• Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2515H

I was looking at different 1440p monitors, and quickly noticed that if I wanted 144Hz, I would be spending a lot of money, while also getting a TN panel. Of course, the Acer IPS 144Hz monitor seemed perfect (although it was 800 euros) but I heard a lot of bad stories about dead pixels and IPS glow. Furthermore, I don't like Acer's policy on bright pixels. So I decided pretty quickly I was gonna go for a nice IPS display with reasonable response times. However, a lot of those were pretty expensive too. Until... I came upon the U2515H. It really is the perfect monitor for me: 27 inch is just a tad big for me, and it is really cheap for the quality you're getting. Also, Dell has a 'zero bright pixel' policy on their UltraSharp line up.

• OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

I can get this for free via Dreamspark for being a student .

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The parts with a * are the ones I would really like some feedback on, specifically, whether you would rather go for any of the alternatives I mentioned (especially the video cards). Also, my budget isn't extremely tight, so feel free to suggest something a little bit more expensive (although I would like to keep the price as low as possible of course ).

Thanks in advance!!

 

[SASBehrooz]

here my suggestions
GPU : MSI GTX 980 Gaming
RAM : Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3 1600 .
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB ( Better Performance and Read/Write Speed )

Good Luck

 

[2big2fail]

Case is a bit big for your needs, I'd go with FT05 since its around the prices you selected. Since you have air cooling, this case is much better since the two fans that come with it are baller and hot air will be exhausted out the top.

Pros:
• room for 2x3.5" and 2x2.5" drives
• vertical design provides high thermal efficiency, especially for air cooling.
• room for 1 slim ODD
• vertical design insures graphic cards will not sag and bend

Cons:
•50/60$ more? (no window/window)

Spoiler: FT05 Example Build

 

[XSI]

i would go 2 x 970 in sli over one 980 for 1440p .price difference is not too big.
and 4690k is in line with 4790k. only synthetic benchmarks which use hyperthreading shows bigger numbers. in most games 0-3 fps difference. so keep this cpu in mind too.​

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Wait for skylake, might be more interesting than haswell. Also there's a good change 980 prices will be dropping off a little.

WD Reds are no less noisy than blues. Have a rig with a 1TB blue and a pair of 3TB reds and I can hear them all spinning up. I would honestly go with a 3TB red, it's cheap and big, you'd be surprised at how quickly you'll fill it up..

If you are sticking with DDR3, consider 1866MHz kits.

 

[OAcesync]

You can go with whatever case it's all down to preference you can't really go wrong with either choice but it's just that I wouldn't want a Mid tower that tall.
You only need 8GB of RAM for gaming 1600mhz is fine getting faster RAM doesn't make a difference,
You don't need an i7 for gaming only if you plan to run other editing software,etc, for gaming that HT and other i7 feautres makes no difference from the i5 you wouldn't see a difference in performance on a card like the 980
OCing does give you a boost and helps a lot so I would recommend it and maybe getting a watercooler
If you are going for platinum PSU which isn't really necessary but will give you top of line efficiency I would at least get a higher wattage so that you don't yourself needing more power(maybe 700W-850W) if you go the SLI route or go with a higher wattage card and having to waste an excellent PSU, so that you can future proof yourself I shouldn't ever need to upgrade it for a couple of years.
Other than that it's a good build or you can just wait for Skylake and the Fury(non X)