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3100 AUD (2900 USD) Build. What parts?

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Right! So my dad is looking to update his old 2500k/HD 7790 mATX build with a nice, new $3000-ish one. It seems that 768p wasn't the best resolution, so we hope that this computer will run 1440p or 4K. These are just the raw components. Not including montior and liquid cooling parts, however a custom loop will eventually be used.
Considering there will be liquid cooling, I've chosen parts with liquid cooling in mind. Here are my parts that I've chosen:

Note: We will end up purchasing a 4790K when it is released. The 4770K was chosen as it isn't included on site, has similar compatibility and price.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/Ldt7pg

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K
RAM: Not important. 16GB of nice looking RAM. 4x4GB is preferable
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX
Video Card(s): 2x GTX 780 (Any reference PCB model, makes known to OC better preferred)
SSD: 2x 250GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: WD Caviar Green 2TB
Case: Corsair 540 Air
PSU: Corsair AX860i

My dad seems to not want to spend anywhere around $800 on liquid cooling so I need some help picking good bang-for-buck parts (if value exists in the LC world).

I am unsure about the motherboard. If you could find a better mobo (OC-wise. Minimum 2 16x PCIe 3.0) for a similar price and in a better colour please let me know.

I've also heard that 2 x GTX 770 4GBs are better. I am not sure about this. I've also heard a single 780ti would provide better performance for the price. If we end up going with 4K, we will probably need 780 ti SLI.
 
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seriously? that's overkill for ME, i couldn't imagine getting that for my father. really not trying to be an ass here - what does he use it for? Is the budget just flush and ready to spend, because really you could do away with liquid cooling and just not overclock with the components you are looking at. I would also recommend 8gb ram. does he play video games or do ANYTHING that justifies a second gpu, or even a single 780 for that matter? 2x250 evos? is he into digital audio or video editing?

anyway.
 
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if you are going 4K it would be best to SLI some 6GB GTX 780s if he plans to play games at that 4K resolution. Also those 780s seem overpriced. I know umart sells 780s for nearly $100 cheaper. I don't know the pricing of 6GB ones yet though, I haven't seen them in Australian shops yet.
 
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Well for a start. My dad is paying for it. I'm just his adviser. He does know about computers too.

My dad DOES play video games. I constantly see him munching through the campaigns of modern, high spec video games on a puny 768p monitor. He's been watching videos and has decided it would be fun to build a monster. He wants a 1440p or 4K monitor, LIKE I STATED. 4K is a GPU power munching resolution. 1440p also needs a bit of juice, but in that situation we will be looking for high FPS to justify a smaller resolution. So on the 1440p route we may purchase a upcoming ASUS G-sync. So yes! Playing games like Watch Dogs, Metro Last Light, Wolfenstein: New Order, BF4 on ultra at large resolutions does justify the power. Liquid cooling isn't for value. It is for fun!
And yes. There is more than enough cash for spending. There hasn't really been any saving involved. Upcoming games will also be played.
 
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if you are going 4K it would be best to SLI some 6GB GTX 780s if he plans to play games at that 4K resolution. Also those 780s seem overpriced. I know umart sells 780s for nearly $100 cheaper. I don't know the pricing of 6GB ones yet though, I haven't seen them in Australian shops yet.
Well the cheapest 6GB edition I've found is $699 pushes the budget a bit. Would a 4GB 290x be advised?
 
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Well the cheapest 6GB edition I've found is $699 pushes the budget a bit. Would a 4GB 290x be advised?
Well the extra gigabyte of vram (compared to a 780 or 780ti) will certainly help with 4k and future titles. Also mantle will be able to be used in the games that support it for a little bit of a performance boost.
 
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I would advice 2 290s(not X), coz they are a lot cheaper and silent when wcooled. Here in Bulgaria there is promo for VTX3D 290 for about 175 euro, which is a steal btw. I payed mine double in january.
 
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I would forget 4k and focus on 1600p. If your goal is pure gaming, single card is better because you dont have to worry about game profiles, shuttering and other stuff. If on the other hand you want monster, dual cards look great especially with full cower blocks. - Are you going to watercool graphic cards?

What sort of watercooling are aiming at? mainstream or something special? standart parts would be dcc pump 100$, EK supreme block 75$, 360 rad 100$, reservoir 30$+, 8 fittings 50$+, pvc tubing 10$
 

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2500k old? :(

I'd aim for 1600/1440 too. Just get a REALLY nice one if money isn't an issue. 4k will be cheaper and better in a bit, better to wait imo.
 
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I would forget 4k and focus on 1600p. If your goal is pure gaming, single card is better because you dont have to worry about game profiles, shuttering and other stuff. If on the other hand you want monster, dual cards look great especially with full cower blocks. - Are you going to watercool graphic cards?

What sort of watercooling are aiming at? mainstream or something special? standart parts would be dcc pump 100$, EK supreme block 75$, 360 rad 100$, reservoir 30$+, 8 fittings 50$+, pvc tubing 10$
For cooling im just looking for a basic custom water cooling loop capable of cooling overclocked two graphics cards and a cpu. The case supports 2x140mm + 2x120mm rads. If we will skip on the 4K, we will probably end up with dual 780s. If getting 4K, then it will be a R9 290(x). Hopefully a 6GB 780 (ti) would become cheap enough to become an option.
 
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2500k old? :(

I'd aim for 1600/1440 too. Just get a REALLY nice one if money isn't an issue. 4k will be cheaper and better in a bit, better to wait imo.
Nah nah. The 2500K is a great CPU. But the GPU is a single 7790. It can run games on ultra, at 768p :p. And also the case is quite small and stuffy as a no cable management mATX. The current motherboard also has some OC limitations.

Bringing the 2500K across would require a new motherboard.
 
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Have you considered gtx780 with titan cooler? looks amazing, very quiet at idle and not noisy at load.
540 air can take thick 360mm rad in front and thin 360mm rad top or think 240/280mm rad in top.
Unless you want some insane low temps single thick (60mm) 3x120 rad will be fine for cpu + 2x gpu
 
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I would guess that he will barely notice the difference between a 2500k and a 4790k unless the 4790k overclocks beyond 5.0ghz.
Quad channel ram makes no sense for dual channel cpu, so get 2x8GB sticks.

If you really think you need the 2x16 bandwidth then get socket 2011.
 

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Honestly, a 2500k would be more than enough CPU power for most games. There is a concern about PCI-E bandwidth, but I'm not sure if it's warranted. I personally would just upgrade the GPUs on the rig as it is now and see how it runs. If the CPU gets pegged out or performance is sub-par for some reason (PCI-E?), consider a 4820k and skt2011. More than 4 cores really isn't needed for gaming.
 

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Keep 2500K, use entire budget on a pair of 780Ti, get a 500Gb SSD. Upgrade ram as needed. If a good overclock is to be done on the 2500K, get an AIO or a big air (Noctua U14 is a good start, as is Corsair H1xx).
 
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Keep 2500K, use entire budget on a pair of 780Ti, get a 500Gb SSD. Upgrade ram as needed. If a good overclock is to be done on the 2500K, get an AIO or a big air (Noctua U14 is a good start, as is Corsair H1xx).
I think OP said that he has mATX board so cooling would be an issue. SB is limited to pcie2, that could hold back 780ti in sli.
 

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I think OP said that he has mATX board so cooling would be an issue. SB is limited to pcie2, that could hold back 780ti in sli.

No problem on both counts. Yes, I checked, most games are not CPU bound (with obvious exceptions of RTS games), even on stock. As for the pair of 780Ti, penalty for 3xSLi is about 10%, again, not such a big deal. Difference between 770 and 780Ti is way bigger than 10%. Ultimately we are looking at a tradeoff between maxing out the graphics cards vs building a balanced rig to take maximum advantage of the components. I am obviously in favour of the former, but depending on games played I might change my opinion to the latter.
 
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Haven't I already said that taking out the 2500k would not only require a new mobo, but stop the old computer from functioning without a replacement CPU. Also, it has been decided that we will go with 2 x 290x s as they have 4GB of VRAM, have great crossfire scaling in comparison 780s and offer better performance in 4K. Also they are a bargain, with models popping up for less than $400. I want the computer to revolve around overclocking just as much as gaming. Also, my dad carries out muliple tasks that may require the extra i7 power including compressing and encoding. Games such as BF4 also would require heavy CPU power.
 

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Haven't I already said that taking out the 2500k would not only require a new mobo, but stop the old computer from functioning without a replacement CPU. Also, it has been decided that we will go with 2 x 290x s as they have 4GB of VRAM, have great crossfire scaling in comparison 780s and offer better performance in 4K. Also they are a bargain, with models popping up for less than $400. I want the computer to revolve around overclocking just as much as gaming. Also, my dad carries out muliple tasks that may require the extra i7 power including compressing and encoding. Games such as BF4 also would require heavy CPU power.

SLI is smoother if that matters at all.
 
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SLI is smoother if that matters at all.
I don't want to sound like an NVidia fanboy but I agree completely. I had an R9 280x crossfire setup, sold them and went to SLI gtx 780s. I don't get any noticeable stuttering with the SLI setup whereas I did with crossfire. Also, there seems to be less texture glitches with the 780s too. Titanfall was the biggest offender when it came to texture glitches with the r9 280x crossfire. I had tried out different cards from different vendors and many different drivers too. Texture glitches were reduced in Titanfall after I think 2 new beta driver releases but it still occasionally happened. Stuttering and smoothness and other stuff like that might be different for an r9 290x crossfire setup though, I can't say for sure.
 
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I suggest go steady unless your father really wants to spend those $$$ :)
Buy a Z77 mobo a good air cooler overclock that CPU(if not satisfied you can upgrade to a 3770k), 8GB of RAM, than get a GTX770/R9 280x because in a few months the new nVidia 8xx series will launch that promisses better performance and lower prices than 7xx series i would not spend money on a high end GPU right now.
A SSD would speed up your game loading times also.
 

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Storage WD SN850 500GB (OS) | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) | Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s) Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS | Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS | Asus 24" IPS (portrait mode)
Case Lian Li PC-011D XL | Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s) FiiO K7 | Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition
Software Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit
I would guess that he will barely notice the difference between a 2500k and a 4790k unless the 4790k overclocks beyond 5.0ghz.
Quad channel ram makes no sense for dual channel cpu, so get 2x8GB sticks.

If you really think you need the 2x16 bandwidth then get socket 2011.

Oh come on @Vario. I expected better. Just because theres 4 sticks in a kit, doesn't mean its quad channel. Needs to be installed on a platform that allows quad channel (LGA2011 X79) It'll still be dual channel on the z87/z97 platform, you will just populate all the slots, which for Haswell that is faster when it comes to bandwidth and latency reduction when you use 4 sticks over 2.
 
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