First Gaming Rig

[blakerv8]

Hello guys, Im building my first gaming rig and I have just finished selecting my components. I am hoping to order in the next couple days but still tossing up between a few options and would like some advice on what to choose and opinions on the parts I have selected so far.

Any suggestions on alternative parts, upgrades or downgrades would be great.

Im going to be using this PC mainly for gaming and I will be attempting to overclock.

The build so far...

CPU: i5-4670K
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H80i or Corsair Hydro H100i or Zalman LQ320
MB: Asus Z87-PRO or Asus Maximus VI Formula
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 280X
RAM: Corsair Vengance Pro 1600 8GB
PSU: Corsair RM650 or Thermaltake EVO Blue 2.0 750W
SSD: Samsung 840 PRO 256GB or OCZ Vector 256GB
HDD: WD Green 1 TB or WD Black 1 TB
Case: Corsair Graphite 600T or NZXT Phantom 410

Is the Vengeance Pro series compatible with these Asus mainboards? It was not on the QVL.
I am unsure of what PSU wattage I should be aiming for. Is 650w to much?
Is any of this is not compatible and will it all fit together space wise? (GPU won't fit in the case for example)

All comments welcome.

Thanks in advance

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Get faster RAM, 1600mhz is quite dated now. Go with 1866 minimum or 2133. Your i5 will thank you.

 

[blakerv8]

Get faster RAM, 1600mhz is quite dated now. Go with 1866 minimum or 2133. Your i5 will thank you.

I noticed the motherboards support higher speed memory but I chose 1600mhz because under the specs for the 4670k on intels website it says DDR3 1333/1600. I figured why go higher if the cpu doesn't support it. Am I missing something? 'Im new to this so any help would be great!

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I noticed the motherboards support higher speed memory but I chose 1600mhz because under the specs for the 4670k on intels website it says DDR3 1333/1600. I figured why go higher if the cpu doesn't support it. Am I missing something? 'Im new to this so any help would be great!

Look at what the motherboard supports not the CPU.

 

[Cru]

I noticed the motherboards support higher speed memory but I chose 1600mhz because under the specs for the 4670k on intels website it says DDR3 1333/1600. I figured why go higher if the cpu doesn't support it. Am I missing something? 'Im new to this so any help would be great!

everything else are "overclocked" settings and may not work with every CPU, that's why it's not listed. they work 99.9% though.
also, higher frequency RAM doesn't really add any performance in games so far, maybe in BF4 but that's not really proven yet
so unless you plan on playing lots of BF4, stick to 1600

also:
h100i would be the best option for cooling, with some sp120 quiet edition fans maybe

both motherboards are good, although very different colour scheme. pick what you like more

corsair psu. no brainer.

samsung ssd. also a no brainer.

both HDDs are good. not much difference

also good cases, go for looks?
also take a look at fractal design if you didn't already

 

[blakerv8]

everything else are "overclocked" settings and may not work with every CPU, that's why it's not listed. they work 99.9% though.
also, higher frequency RAM doesn't really add any performance in games so far, maybe in BF4 but that's not really proven yet
so unless you plan on playing lots of BF4, stick to 1600

I will be playing a lot of BF4 but regardless, If I decide to go the higher frequency ram, will I have any compatibility issues or will it just not be getting used at it's full potential? Also should I go 8 or 16gb?

both motherboards are good, although very different colour scheme. pick what you like more

What about the MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING, how does it compare to the Asus Z87-Pro? It looks alot better but I've read that MSI is not a high quality as Asus...

 

[Cru]

I will be playing a lot of BF4 but regardless, If I decide to go the higher frequency ram, will I have any compatibility issues or will it just not be getting used at it's full potential? Also should I go 8 or 16gb?



What about the MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING, how does it compare to the Asus Z87-Pro? It looks alot better but I've read that MSI is not a high quality as Asus...

8gb is enough if you don't do a lot of rendering.
With the ram set to a higher frequency a high cpu overclock might be unstable. But 4.5 or something like that will be fine.

Read the reviews mate

 

[blakerv8]

Read the reviews mate

I have and like I said a lot of them are leaning towards the Asus saying that MSI has slouched on quality over the past few years. I was hoping to get some personal opinions as I do like the looks of the MSI board a lot more than the Asus. Having said that I don't want to choose a inferior board just because of the looks.

 

[Cru]

I have and like I said a lot of them are leaning towards the Asus saying that MSI has slouched on quality over the past few years. I was hoping to get some personal opinions as I do like the looks of the MSI board a lot more than the Asus. Having said that I don't want to choose a inferior board just because of the looks.

Well I can't complain about mine
And iirc the video review was very positive

 

[Excalabur50]

The GD65 is one of if not the best Z87 board on the market ATM and the higher the ram speed the better off you will be so go with the highest you can afford

 

[TheOuterOne]

As for the HDD's, I would go for the WD Red. Not sure about the prices in other countries, but over here 2TB costs just 27 euro's more than 1TB WD Red. For these 30 euro's I'd take that double storage space :lol:

From your list, I'd prefer WD Black over Green, since black as much higher RPM. Budget-wise WD Red would be a better choise, I'd say.

 

[Bobiz192]

With the nzxt phantom 410 remember if you top mount the h100i you can not push pull without modding the case. With the ram get the highest you can afford but 1600 is fine for gaming. I use it in my rig for bf4 works fine. For the mobo there are enough good ones out there, I would be trying to find one you like the look of think of the colors. Lastly spend the money on a good power supply(corsair) as it is worth it, 650w is more then enough.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Ram: i use 1600mhz 8gb ram and in bf4 i use just over 5gb of system ram alone(thats with only BF4 running.. i mainly have many things open while playing). Personally i would try to aim for 16gb if possible. 1866mhz CL9 timings are the best you can get speed wise for most games. It provides a very good balance but then again not very many games have been proven yet to benefit from high speed memory.

Motherboard: MSI GD65 is the best motherboard for z87 at it's price(not in the US.. it is super expensive here!) and here is toms video and thoughts..



PSU: Corsair, Seasonic, NZXT are all good brands. Do not settle for less than 80+ gold and for a 280x system 650 watt is perfect. In the future Xfire would need a 750Watt PSU to be on the safe side.