New Rig after 5+ years!

[Nailezs]

Hey guys!
I am finally letting myself build a new rig! This will be a much needed upgrade from the rig in my current specs.
My Budget is a little over $2000, and it has to last me another 5 years and get me through college! This rig will be OC'd as far as it can handle!

I spent a good 5 hours on PC Part Picker and doing research on what I wanted, and of course I have a few questions that I am hoping the gurus here might be able to answer!

Here is a direct link to the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/13bBv



Or, if you prefer direct links to Newegg:

CPU
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Qu...

CPU Cooler
MSI Z87 MPOWER Max LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6G...

RAM
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin ...

SSD
SAMSUNG MZ-7PD256BW - Newegg.com

VC
EVGA ACX Cooler 03G-P4-2784-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB...

Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Silver Steel structur...

Blue-Ray
LITE-ON IHBS112-04 Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with B...

Monitor
Acer G276HLDbd Black 27" 6ms (GTG) Widescreen LED...

Power Supply
CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2...




Now, for the questions (and comments)!

I had originally picked the Asus Z87 Sabertooth Motherboard because I had it paired with a Noctua NH-D14. However, the Noctua would not fit over my ram, and I really did not want to change my ram. So, I switched to the H100i and the MSI Z87 MPower Max. The fact that the MSI Motherboard has integrated Wifi capability doesn't hurt, and may have influenced my decision. Also, I did not think that the extra MB cooling features on the ASUS would affect any OC potential, seeing as how the MSI MB has already been burned in by MSI. Any criticism on that decision?

As far as the RAM - my understanding of RAM is that a lower CAS is better than a higher frequency, which is why I went with the CAS 9 Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 1866MHz. Should I have gone for the CAS 10 Dominator Platinum @ 2400MHz instead?

For the SSD - I know very little (ok, nothing) about which manufacturers are the best in this area. However, this Samsung SSD had great reviews and great speeds to offer. Are there any others I should be looking at?

Ditto the SSD question for the monitor.

How is Corsair on their powersupplys? Are they up to par on their quality and longevity? Some might notice that I have an 850W PS for a rig that should only use ~500W - I did this because I have a wet dream of installing another GTX 780 one day, and more HDD space. I already have a 2TB WD Black to go into the rig.
Actually, come to think of it, will 850W be enough for a big OC on the CPU and the OC on the GPU?
And what if my wet dream comes true and I am ever able to get another GTX 780 to play with and OC?
Will 850W be enough?
Will going big, like 1000W, hurt the efficiency?

Last Question: What version of Windows 8 should I get?

Thanks Guys!

 

[RCoon]

Doesnt look like you need any help from us! Your build is great!.
Timings on RAM are more important to me than frequency.
MPower MoBo is a great one. Samsung SSD's are excellent performance/value.
Asus Monitors, as far as I'm aware are decent generic monitors.
Corsair PSU's are great - using one, go for the highest rated you can afford, gold or platinum. 850watt is fine, will even support dual GPU's at the brink. Going big improves efficiency at lower load levels, most PSU's lose efficiency the higher they go after around 60-80% load usage.
Dont get windows 8. HAH! If you're set on it, get the generic 64bit home one.

 

[Aquinus]

As far as the RAM - my understanding of RAM is that a lower CAS is better than a higher frequency, which is why I went with the CAS 9 Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 1866MHz. Should I have gone for the CAS 10 Dominator Platinum @ 2400MHz instead?

That depends, the high frequency will give you better latencies but anything over 1866 probably won't yield much improvement, but you can run memory as fast as you want in that thing. I would go with the Dominators @ 2400 CL10.

For the SSD - I know very little (ok, nothing) about which manufacturers are the best in this area. However, this Samsung SSD had great reviews and great speeds to offer. Are there any others I should be looking at?

Looks fine. Samsung usually does a pretty good job.

How is Corsair on their powersupplys? Are they up to par on their quality and longevity?

I have a 4 year old Corsair GS800 that still works great. I always recommend Corsair or Seasonic when it comes to PSUs.

Last Question: What version of Windows 8 should I get?

That's up to you. I personally always go with Pro.

Will going big, like 1000W, hurt the efficiency?

Depends on how much you draw, but if you're idling, you're not going to be consuming all that much power anyways. PSUs usually get their best efficiency anywhere between 25% and 75% load.

Going big improves efficiency at lower load levels, most PSU's lose efficiency the higher they go after around 60-80% load usage.

Actually it takes more load to get to the best efficiency with larger PSUs.

here is the graph from the review for my PSU (Seasonic 1000w Platinum).

 

[RCoon]

Actually it takes more load to get to the best efficiency with larger PSUs.

here is the graph from the review for my PSU (Seasonic 1000w Platinum).
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Seasonic/P1000/images/efficiency.jpg

Yeah, I said after 60-80% load. On a 1000W PSU, thats 600w-800W, which is where the efficiency goes down in the chart you provided xD
Best efficiency is at 400W i.e lower load.
I dont understand your comment, you're actually agreeing with me here!

 

[Aquinus]

Yeah, I said 60-80% load. On a 1000W PSU, thats 600w-800W, which is where the efficiency goes down in the chart you provided xD
Best efficiency is at 400W i.e lower load.

From 93% to 91% as opposed to the ~84% at 100 watts? I don't see your point. My point is that higher power PSUs are less efficient at providing smaller loads.

which is where the efficiency goes down in the chart you provided xD

Efficiency is lowest at the smallest loads, not the largest.

Best is at 400-watts, but 200-watts is just as good (once again 93% vs 91%.) It's idle that kills you, even more so with hardware that idles really well. My SB-E draws a lot anyways, I never drop below 200-watts turned on, even at idle, which is why I felt this PSU was good for me. My machine (like many other machines,) spend a lot (maybe not always most, but a lot) of the time idling, which is why your idle efficiency should be a consideration IMHO.

I dont understand your comment, you're actually agreeing with me here!

I'm not saying it's not a good fit, I'm just saying there are better options. I think 750-800 is a sweet spot, but 1000 might be a bit too much and would be wasteful. Assuming he might want to upgrade to 780 SLI. Otherwise a good 550 should do the trick if he's not upgrading (like a Seasonic 550-watt not a cheap one).

 

[AsRock]

I think 750-800 is a sweet spot,

Yeah he might better of going for a 750-800w. Though my PSU is getting on now but it's best % was lower than 400w.

Surly there is more seasonic PSU reviews with the %'s.

 

[RCoon]

From 93% to 91% as opposed to the ~84% at 100 watts? I don't see your point. My point is that higher power PSUs are less efficient at providing smaller loads.



Efficiency is lowest at the smallest loads, not the largest.

Best is at 400-watts, but 200-watts is just as good (once again 93% vs 91%.) It's idle that kills you, even more so with hardware that idles really well. My SB-E draws a lot anyways, I never drop below 200-watts turned on, even at idle, which is why I felt this PSU was good for me. My machine (like many other machines,) spend a lot (maybe not always most, but a lot) of the time idling, which is why your idle efficiency should be a consideration IMHO.

I'm not saying it's not a good fit, I'm just saying there are better options. I think 750-800 is a sweet spot, but 1000 might be a bit too much and would be wasteful. Assuming he might want to upgrade to 780 SLI. Otherwise a good 550 should do the trick if he's not upgrading (like a Seasonic 550-watt not a cheap one).

My language of lower loads is 400w (not lowest), clearly yours is lower and this arguement is merely from perspective values.
I recommend 850W for prospective dual GPU in the future.

 

[Sasqui]

I am finally letting myself build a new rig! This will be a much needed upgrade from the rig in my current specs.

Coming off an E8600 @ 4.2 Ghz to a 3750k @4.7 Ghz this past winter, all I can tell you is wOooooT! You are going to be stunned at how fast your new rig is.

 

[Cotton_Cup]

I'd suggest a 750/760 watt gold rated or platinum rated from seasonic or silver/gold/plat from corsair ^_^ but everything else looks good and with that kind of a beast upgrade I believe you would see great performance, but I do say get the boxed h100i as for me I liked them boxed XD just my opinion thought

 

[ZetZet]

I would get this monitor instead BenQ GW2750HM Glossy Black 27" 4ms (GTG) HDMI Wide... looks better to me.

 

[Norton]

iirc the max recommended monitor size for 1080p is 24" and anything larger than that doesn't look so great.

Consider getting a 23-24" IPS 1080p monitor or go for a larger resolution for the 27"

My $0.02

Rest of the build looks great

 

[Nailezs]

I'd suggest a 750/760 watt gold rated or platinum rated from seasonic or silver/gold/plat from corsair ^_^ but everything else looks good and with that kind of a beast upgrade I believe you would see great performance, but I do say get the boxed h100i as for me I liked them boxed XD just my opinion thought

Ah, fixed the H100i link to a new one instead of open box. Thanks for the catch.

The currently selected Corsair PSU is Gold Certified, so no worries there!



Has anyone ever heard of one of the "H" series CPU coolers from Corsair failing, or having coolant evaporate? Originally i wanted the NH-D14 for the worry-free performance in comparison to the possible failure of a liquid cooling unit...but then I thought that I've been using the H50 in this rig for years with no problems.
Thoughts?

 

[ZetZet]

iirc the max recommended monitor size for 1080p is 24" and anything larger than that doesn't look so great.

Consider getting a 23-24" IPS 1080p monitor or go for a larger resolution for the 27"

My $0.02

Rest of the build looks great

I personally like 27" 1080p because windows doesn't scale well with higher resoliutions and everything becomes just too small for me to see.

 

[RCoon]

Ah, fixed the H100i link to a new one instead of open box. Thanks for the catch.

The currently selected Corsair PSU is Gold Certified, so no worries there!



Has anyone ever heard of one of the "H" series CPU coolers from Corsair failing, or having coolant evaporate? Originally i wanted the NH-D14 for the worry-free performance in comparison to the possible failure of a liquid cooling unit...but then I thought that I've been using the H50 in this rig for years with no problems.
Thoughts?

When mounting and remounting constantly, the original H80, H90, H100 and H110 tend to break after a few dozen mounts, but the "i" range seem to be of much better quality, with little to no maintenance at all for years.
My H80 saw 3 systems and about 16 mounts before the top came off in my hands. H100 has been remounted 13 times and still works fine. Warranty has them both covered for a system's lifetime though.

 

[Norton]

Ah, fixed the H100i link to a new one instead of open box. Thanks for the catch.

The currently selected Corsair PSU is Gold Certified, so no worries there!



Has anyone ever heard of one of the "H" series CPU coolers from Corsair failing, or having coolant evaporate? Originally i wanted the NH-D14 for the worry-free performance in comparison to the possible failure of a liquid cooling unit...but then I thought that I've been using the H50 in this rig for years with no problems.
Thoughts?

The H100i cooler has a 5 yr warranty and the HX850 psu has a 7 yr warranty so I wouldn't worry too much about either item.... Corsair is usually pretty good at replacing other items that were damaged by their parts failing. I believe one member here had two video cards replaced when his H100 leaked and killed them and another member had most of his rig replaced by them when his psu failed

 

[qubit]

Haswell isn't a great overclocker and runs even hotter than Ivy Bridge, so get the last of the Sandy Bridge 2600K / 2700K CPUs while you still can if that's what you want.

From Tom's Hardware:

Moving on, what can you expect from a Core i7-4770K, in terms of overclocking headroom? We have a couple in the lab, and are getting 4.7 GHz, at most, across all cores using Prime95 to test for stability. However, those samples come from Intel. We were much more interested in feedback from someone with many, many retail parts at their disposal.

Our first-hand information involves a high double-digit number of processors, including samples and final shipping boxed CPUs. Sort testing was limited to 1.2 V to keep heat manageable. Ring/cache ratios are pegged at 3.9 GHz, with the memory controller operating at 1,333 MT/s. Of the chips available for sorting, only one is stable at 4.6 GHz under full load. A few are capable of operating at 4.5 GHz. More run stably at 4.4 GHz. Most are solid at 4.3 GHz and down.

Haswell has a better IPC and more modern tech features though, so it's not a black and white decision on what to get.

Steer clear of Windows 8 and put Windows 7 on it. You can always upgrade it later if you really want to.

 

[Delta6326]

Check out this review to get a better understanding of how all the motherboards are going to perform very similar.

Also it's not a bad list Very good parts you have their, only a couple things "I" would change just to save some money.
ASUS Z87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s US... Your going to get almost identical results and it comes with wifi and all that.
Seasonic SS-760XP ATX 12V/EPS 12V, 760W, 80 plus P... Good PSU, Can easily handle your rig, if you want they make bigger size.
G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DD... Faster Ram, cheaper price, and if you don't want those timing you can easily drop the speed and match thos Corsair with most likely lower Timings.

Also I have W8 I enjoy it, it took me a little over a week and I used to it, plus a new update is coming to make it like W7

 

[LightningJR]

I would go with RAM speed over latency, back in the day latency was more important but with the massive jump from 1866 to 2400 and such a small latency increase it's just not as big of a deal as it used to be. Granted the jump from 1866 to 2400 speed wont give you much real world performance increase either but the bandwidth numbers will be there.

Samsung SSDs are great, their upload is a little slow (in 256GB drives or lower) compared to Sandforce equipped drives but they also have stronger numbers in other areas. Check out a review of it. But not a bad drive at all.

Do not get 500watt PSU, even the BEST 500watt PSU is rated at 500watts for a reason even if it can provide 700watts. The 850W Corsair PSU is great and future proof, SLI 780 should be fine on it as well. If you are worried about it not being enough for SLI just get a little bit bigger PSU, I am sure your wallet wouldn't mind

I agree with qubit, if you enjoy overcocking and it'll be a big part of your decision then get sandy bridge, with a 100i and a bit of luck you could have 5.0Ghz or more on a 2600k. If I had a better motherboard I would be running 5 or more ghz on my 2500k.

You can also go with Sandy Bridge E maybe the 3820 until ivy bridge e releases. Ivy Bridge E will be out on the same socket and will not have the "tim/solder" issue that 1155 ivy bridge has. This will make ivy e a beast overclocker, the way 22nm should be . My next upgrade will be ivy e for sure.

 

[Nailezs]

iirc the max recommended monitor size for 1080p is 24" and anything larger than that doesn't look so great.

Consider getting a 23-24" IPS 1080p monitor or go for a larger resolution for the 27"

My $0.02

Rest of the build looks great

Well, I couldnt find any 27" 1920 x 1200 monitors, and the 2560 x 1440 monitors are way too expensive, so I'm going to have to stick with a 27" 1920 x 1080. It is still a big upgrade, coming off my 22" monitor!

When mounting and remounting constantly, the original H80, H90, H100 and H110 tend to break after a few dozen mounts, but the "i" range seem to be of much better quality, with little to no maintenance at all for years.
My H80 saw 3 systems and about 16 mounts before the top came off in my hands. H100 has been remounted 13 times and still works fine. Warranty has them both covered for a system's lifetime though.

The H100i cooler has a 5 yr warranty and the HX850 psu has a 7 yr warranty so I wouldn't worry too much about either item.... Corsair is usually pretty good at replacing other items that were damaged by their parts failing. I believe one member here had two video cards replaced when his H100 leaked and killed them and another member had most of his rig replaced by them when his psu failed

Awesome. I not worried at all about mounting/re-mounting, just long-term. To hear that the H100i is of superb quality and that Corsair is willing to replace other parts damaged caused by a failure is reassuring!

Steer clear of Windows 8 and put Windows 7 on it. You can always upgrade it later if you really want to.

Also I have W8 I enjoy it, it took me a little over a week and I used to it, plus a new update is coming to make it like W7

One of the things that I understand W8 has over W7 is native support for DX11.1. Once this is built I do not want to have to really change anything or make any other large purchases, so I would really rather not upgrade.

Check out this review to get a better understanding of how all the motherboards are going to perform very similar.

Also it's not a bad list Very good parts you have their, only a couple things "I" would change just to save some money.
ASUS Z87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s US... Your going to get almost identical results and it comes with wifi and all that.
Seasonic SS-760XP ATX 12V/EPS 12V, 760W, 80 plus P... Good PSU, Can easily handle your rig, if you want they make bigger size.
G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DD... Faster Ram, cheaper price, and if you don't want those timing you can easily drop the speed and match thos Corsair with most likely lower Timings.



http://img.techpowerup.org/130605/Capture1213.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/130605/Capture1214.jpg

I went for the higher priced board mainly for the extra quality test it went through (being 'burned in'). I really do not know how much heat this thing will produce, and do not want any type of failure, for any reason.
Currently, I believe that the Corsair PSU is cheaper than that Seasonic
I might end up changing the RAM to the 2400MHz, like people are suggesting. In that case I would consider those GSkills or another Corsair set.
EDIT: I did end up changing the RAM to the 32GB version of the RAM you suggested. I was talking with a friend who plays an MMO that i do as well, and he was using over 16GB of RAM running multiple instances of the MMO, which I plan to do with this rig. Corsair RAM of the same capability was simply too expensive.

I would go with RAM speed over latency, back in the day latency was more important but with the massive jump from 1866 to 2400 and such a small latency increase it's just not as big of a deal as it used to be. Granted the jump from 1866 to 2400 speed wont give you much real world performance increase either but the bandwidth numbers will be there.

I agree with qubit, if you enjoy overcocking and it'll be a big part of your decision then get sandy bridge, with a 100i and a bit of luck you could have 5.0Ghz or more on a 2600k. If I had a better motherboard I would be running 5 or more ghz on my 2500k.

Haswell isn't a great overclocker and runs even hotter than Ivy Bridge, so get the last of the Sandy Bridge 2600K / 2700K CPUs while you still can if that's what you want.

From Tom's Hardware:

Haswell has a better IPC and more modern tech features though, so it's not a black and white decision on what to get.

I did enjoy OC'ing this current rig, but I only did it to increase the time it would 'last'.
So my question would be thus: Would an OC'ed Haswell, even if only at 4.3GHz (as that article would indicate that that's the ceiling for most chips) be better for gaming and useable for 'longer' than a 2700k @ 5GHZ or a 3770k @ 5GHz?
If the Haswell is better, I will of course stick with this build. If another option has more benefit, I would consider that. But that is really what that decision would "boil down to," as my old Auto-Tech teacher would say. I am not so much worried about 'bang for my buck' as I am being future proof within my price limits.

You can also go with Sandy Bridge E maybe the 3820 until ivy bridge e releases. Ivy Bridge E will be out on the same socket and will not have the "tim/solder" issue that 1155 ivy bridge has. This will make ivy e a beast overclocker, the way 22nm should be . My next upgrade will be ivy e for sure.

I did not go with LGA2011 because of the much increased price for those chips. I can only assume that the Ivy Bridge-E chips will have the same if not higher prices - which I am unwilling to pay for a rig that I am not expressly designing for 2/3/4 way SLI, and frankly, I'm not willing to spend that much anyway :\
On the other side, if you have information about the pricing for the new Ivy Bridge-E, and its not too much more than the current Haswell, I might consider it.

 

[shovenose]

Really, I don't see the point in buying a Haswell chip right now.
Going from a Core 2 Duo to any LGA1155 chip is going to be an improvement. An i7-3770K is still an awesome CPU and it's going to save some money and overclock better than an i7-4770K or similar.
The SB-E and IVB-E chips are much more expensive than normal one, so that is also not worth it, but that's just my opinion.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

May I suggest that you take a look at the CoolerMaster TPC-812 cooler. It's quieter than the H100 and performs about as well. Unfortunately, it was recently on discount with a rebate that put its price under $40.

 

[mastrdrver]

On the monitor part, I would recommend getting three 22" 1080 screens over a single large one. I went from a 28" 1920x1200 to my three 22" Hanns-g 1080 screens. Huge difference when it comes to playing games and even normal desktop use. I got mine for $100 each off Newegg. After cables, a DP adapter I needed for AMD cards and this stand, I ended up just over $400 for all of it.

 

[Aquinus]

The SB-E and IVB-E chips are much more expensive than normal one, so that is also not worth it, but that's just my opinion.

The boards are more expensive, I hardly would call the 3820 expensive though. skt2011 is one of those things where you have a goal in mind if you're investing in it and if you really have to ask, skt2011 isn't for you, in my person opinion.

I diverge though because you're not considering skt2011, nor would I recommend it for your purposes.

If I were you, I would go with Haswell for the simple fact that it will offer upgrade options down the road where skt1155 does not and is nearing the end of its life cycle in the market. Also, if you invest in 1150, if something goes wrong or you need replacement parts, it will be much easier to acquire a 1150 board as opposed to a 1155 board in a year or two.

1150 is a much more enticing platform because it's newer and is at the very beginning of its life. The best is yet to come.

With all of this said though, the real difference between the performance between all of Intel's latest overclockable quad-core i7 cpus (2600k, 3770k, 4770k, and 3820) are all going to be about the same and those few extra frames really won't make that much of a difference.

Hilbert over at Guru3d usually does a pretty good job comparing CPUs and his 4770k review shows how close the 3770k and 4770k are and how close the 2600k and 3820 are right behind (and in the case of the whetstone benchmark the 3820 is a little faster at stock.) All in all, they're about the same. For longevity sake, I would got 1150 though.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/core_i7_4770k_review.html

 

[Nailezs]

I have pretty much decided to build the rig as is - I am pretty happy with the feedback I have gotten from you guys, and it confirms my design.
Something I have noticed though is that according to MSI (Support>Memory Support), the board only supports 1.5v RAM, but the higher frequency RAM I have seen are all at 1.65v. I assume that the extra voltage to the RAM is required for the higher speeds, and that it will not hurt the board to supply sad voltage? No compatibility issues or anything?

updated build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/13tAV

 

[Delta6326]

Looks good to me that's a lot of ram! your msi motherboard can handle 1.65v if it couldn't then it should be thrown away... just remember using up all the slot on the MB adds a little bit more stress so higher clocks "maybe" affected.