First new build for 7 years !

[DaveLEL]

My PC is now just over 7 years old, and its time to update ( some would say long past !)

Its gets used for a mixture of things - gaming (Mosley WoW ) and Altera EPLD development, Windows and Linux.

Tend to over - specify my PC and then make it last a long time, until it comes time to change, so appreciate that at the moment I may be underusing the components I’m looking at.
As I have not done a new build for a number of years I would appreciate any input from more experienced builders, just in case I have made a mistake in my selection before going out and getting all the components.

CPU - Intel Core i7-4770K, 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.5GHz
Cooler - Corsair H100i Hydro
MB - Asus ROG Maximus VI HERO, Intel Z87
Memory- 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro Series Red, PC3-19200 (2400), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 11-13-13-31, XMP, 1.65V
OS - Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit
GPU- 3GB Asus GTX 780 DirectCU II OC, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 889MHz, Boost 941MHz, Cores 2304
SSD - 240GB Corsair Force Series 3 SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s, SandForce SSD, Read 550Mb/s, Write 520Mb/s, 85K IOPS
Case - Corsair 300R Black Mid Tower
PSU - 760W Corsair AX760i Digital Full Modular
KB - Corsair Vengeance K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Black Cherry MX Red Switch USB
Mouse - Corsair Vengeance M65 Performance Laser Gaming Mouse

I hope all the components will work together, and the PSU is of sufficient power for all the components + a couple of 1TB drives that I will move from my current PC.

[Chris-UK]

All looks good to me and your choice of PSU will be fine to power that and more.

My only comment would be that whilst the 300R is good case it appears to outclassed by the other components if that makes sense. Maybe go with something from the Corsair Obsidian range to compliment the other components.

[DaveLEL]

Yes think you may be right on the case, but while I have the cash, was trying to compromise on the case to save a bit of cash, bit then looking at the Corsair Obsidian 550D it does look a lot nicer.
And as it comes with a second drive cage and has the grommets fitted the price difference may not be that big, so think I will change to the 550D.
Good to know the PSU is OK, Im an electronics engineer so appreciate a well designed PSU, paying a lot extra to be able to monitor the power but that appeals to my inner engineering geek !
(Hope the days of cheep power supplies with the input filters replaced by wire links, to save a couple of pounds have gone -- blew a few up, testing to EN standards as importer watched !)

[Jellyfish]

Hey DaveLEL! I'm not too hot on Intel (been mostly reading up on Amd) and your build looks good. I'm pretty certain that you wouldn't need 760w if you were pulling a single Gpu, possibly a high quality 500w or 600w if you needed (unless ofc you wanted to Sli at somepoint then the 700w should be great for that) I was just trying to find out if you needed 16gb of ram for Altera EPLD but i only looked briefly, so can't say for sure (i'm sure you and a few people here will know more )

I think the 760i is an Oem of Flextronics, while it isn't bad i would personally suggest a Seasonic or a Corsair (that's made by Seasonic/Oem) You could also consider Xfx and they make nice psu's (but one thing is the Rma/customer service can be lacking)

The 760 (non i) i think is made by Seasonic and rebadged (while the 'i' version is made by flextronics) which is: (although best to check, was trying to google it up quickly myself)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Prof.../dp/B00A74X9SO

I don't own an SSD currently but from what i've been reading alot of people rate/like the Samsung (or evo, depending on price) and the Crucial. Kingston was also highly thought of but was recently reading into them slightly changing the components (again i have to read up more to make sure, so i'm not 100%)

I hope this helped, and doesn't seem to random

*EDIT* i was reading a thread on the psu i linked, i'm not 100% if it's completely compatible with some z87 boards, would be best to google more, sorry just wanted to add!

[flearider]

get the 760 .. why push a psu to it's high end to save a few quid asus is always a good choice for m/b .. only thing is the hydro for cooling ..
I'd go full water if only for the cpu a triple rad pump and block ,res .. yeah a little more but far out performs the hydro ..

[Chris-UK]

Yes think you may be right on the case, but while I have the cash, was trying to compromise on the case to save a bit of cash, bit then looking at the Corsair Obsidian 550D it does look a lot nicer.
And as it comes with a second drive cage and has the grommets fitted the price difference may not be that big, so think I will change to the 550D.
Good to know the PSU is OK, Im an electronics engineer so appreciate a well designed PSU, paying a lot extra to be able to monitor the power but that appeals to my inner engineering geek !
(Hope the days of cheep power supplies with the input filters replaced by wire links, to save a couple of pounds have gone -- blew a few up, testing to EN standards as importer watched !)

The 550D is a very nice looking case. I'm not 100% sure but I think if your fitting a H100i you will need to leave the top panel off the case to aid air flow. This may or may not ruin the aesthetics for you (subjective thing). You should be able to find some images on Google or YouTube for what it would look like. Alternatively the 750D or 650D would work but are not quite as sleek or you could swap the H100i for the H80i, similar performance which would fit in the rear exhaust fan position. This might depend on what your planning to do as far as overclocking the CPU.

I was going to suggest going with slightly slower memory to save some cash but to be honest there doesn't appear to be much difference in price at the moment.

PSU's I'm not to knowledgeable on apart from being able to say that 760w is ample for your build, you could probably even add another 780 in future, I thought Flextronics was a good oem. Your already aware your paying a premium for the geek monitor. I don't know of any other PSU that does that.

[DanceswithUnix]

Sandforce based SSDs have rather a bad reputation for stability. I have a 120GB Force GT which threw a wobbler on me. Managed to get it into another PC and update the firmware and it seems OK now, but I still don't really feel I can trust it.

Don't worry about benchmarks on SSDs, the performance comes from the lack of mechanical moving head giving near instant access time, so all SSDs feel quick.

Flash prices seem to be dropping at the moment, so there are some bargains out there like this at £88 http://www.ebuyer.com/497430-crucial...-ct240m500ssd1

[DaveLEL]

Thank you for all the replies,
Checked about fitting the H100i in to the 550D, it seems all is well unless you convert it to a push -pull configuration with extra fans - but have no intention of doing that, so not a problem for me. ( Should have quite a bit of over-clocking potential as it is).
The Corsair SSD caught my eye, as it was cheep and had good performance on paper, but if it has problems with the controller may be better to look elsewhere -- Crucial M500 or the Samsung MZ-7TE250BW 840 EVO 250GB.

Have found a very good technical review of the AX760 and the AX760i on a USA review site ( Googled AX760 and Seasonic), the builds of the AX760 and AX760i are a lot different, the AX760i has better regulation, as it seems to have a primary AC to 12V converter, with all the other supply rails created using DC-DC converters from this rail. So it looks as if the extra cost is not just down to the USB interface to allow you to monitor its performance. ( More that the DSP control loop allows the monitoring to be implemented relatively easily).

Looking around to try and get all the components from one supplier -- at the moment Scan is my favourite -- always feel if there are problems its easier if dealing with one supplier, so no supplier A blaming the component supplied by supplier B etc.

[DanceswithUnix]

Hmm, my post from earlier was supposed to have been updated guess I pressed a wrong button somewhere. Let's try again...

The RAM you mentioned is 1.65V, which I think is fine with AMD chips which are a bit more tolerant but I think you want the 1.5V sticks with Intel. There should be a compatibility chart for that board on the Asus site on which I seldom find the exact stick I want to buy but if there isn't a single 1.65V part on there that would act as guidance. You should be able to download the motherboard manual as well which might tell you straight.

There is a bit of debate on the Samsung EVO drives because they are 3 bit per cell rather than the usual 2 bits for consumer drives. This in theory makes them faster to wear out and slower in performance, but the benchmarks don't support a slower argument and they seem to last fine so overall I think it would be a good choice. The M500 is being replaced by the M550, but it seems the big improvement on there is smaller drive performance so the bigger the drive you get the less it matters. For the money, they are a stonking deal, but not as fast as the Samsung in benchmarks if that matters to you.

And yes, one supplier can make it easier. I have had to send back RAM, motherboard and CPU together before to Scan and ask them to work out which bit was duff. The motherboard had blown the CPU, that could have been a nightmare if I got them from different places but they just sorted it out.

[DaveLEL]

Have checked the qualified DDR3 list for the Asus HERO and it has a lot of 1.65V parts, but as from 7/13 its well out of date, with non of the parts I can find for sale now featuring on the list.

While not good you have to return items, dealing with a single supplier sounds the best way to go, the few pounds saved by shopping around could very quickly be wiped out.

[SNYPER E]

What other games apart from WoW? Even my 1GB 6870 (sold recently) at 1080p could achieve 60+fps easily in 10 man raids, and even 25 man without shadows.

[DaveLEL]

Are I should have listed the monitors- using two monitors a 1440p so 2560x1440 and a second 1080P in portrait orientation.

As the Intel i7 has a GPU plan to connect the second monitor to the MB output, assuming they can both be used at the same time.

So may be over the top for now but plan on making it last - so going for top GPU, also think some of the engineering software I have makes use of the GPU to do calculation -- should look in to that in more detail.