mATX Gaming Build

[MatteAMG]

Hello forum, been planning this build for a long time now and all I ask for is your opinion and hard criticism. It might sound like I made a poor judgement, but the first part I bought was the Corsair 350D case, idk but something about that case tickled my fancy and I wanted to build almost an exact replica of the advertised picture, but better (in a way). So I have not bought anything else because hardware is different than the actual housing, but yeah just bear with me. This is a gaming build I would hope it will run everything and anything on high settings and still look sweet. For the guts here we go:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
was scared to go 4th gen but I am willing to go the risk

Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Gene Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
as I said 4th gen gets me scared a bit, but the asus v gene was great motherboard from what I hear so I am hoping his new brother would be just as great.

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB ) DDR3 1600 Memory
I was going to go with just the regular vengeance memory but the price difference isn't that huge might as well step it up

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD7950 3GB Video Card (Specifically this model [Sapphire 21196-00-20G])
Now I want to have just one card i think one is enough and I wanted this specific model because it looks nice but I haven't been able to decide to go with the HD7950 or the HD7970 (Sapphire 21197-00-40G) most people gave it great reviews and the price difference is only like $80. would really like your opinion on this matter.

Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80 Plus Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V
mostly chose this because I really want a fully modular power supply with platinum efficiency and i do plan on adding more stuff into the build in the future such as a sound card and possible water cooling so i need a good amount of watts

Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD and a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM HD
I dont mind changing this if you guys know something better and cheaper but this was what a friend recommended i should get. Was planning on putting the OS on the ssd with 2 or 3 games and all the other stuff in the HDD.

Oh i was also planning on buying the Corsair H100i as my cooler as I do want to overclock, but nothing to serious maybe 4.2GHz (I don't know). I want to take the fans that come with the Corsair H100i move those to the front of the case as main intakes, and i was going to buy a pair of Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiets to hook up with the radiator and a Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet as my back exhaust what do you think?

Well thats basically the build i constructed. In my head it looks like beauty, but sadly this is technology we are dealing with and looks don't mean anything without some good numbers behind it. Give me any rough criticism and thank you all.

(I'm praying its good because I really like the way it looks...in my head lol)

 

[jamesriley94]

Sounds pretty good to me - Only a couple of things I'd change:

Graphics card:
The 7950 is a good choice, and the Sapphire one is great -but the blue PCB would kind of clash a bit with colours. This is(was) mine (pretty much exactly what you're wanting to do really): http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=55176
Maybe go for the Asus DCII version instead? Or MSI have a red one too.

SSD:
Go for the Samsung 840 Pro, rather than the normal 840.

HDD:
Go for Western Digital Green/Blue rather than Seagate.

Fans:
Why not go for a full set of AF/SP120s to keep the colours consistent throughout? The stock H100i fans aren't great, and to me, there isn't much point swapping them to SP120 QEs if you're just going to put them elsewhere in the case. It will look a lot better getting the AF and SP120s everywhere, and won't look mismatched.

Other than that, it looks fine to me - and the things I've changed are very minor.

 

[MatteAMG]

Sweet, I see you do have a point with the fans do really want the best airflow going. I might actually get that MSI N770 the Gaming Series one seems really good with the dual fans, not so much the Asus graphics card they look heavy and I think a GPU sag will kill me slowly. BTW you have a really sick build man, I'm loving your 350D nice job with it.

 

[jamesriley94]

Sweet, I see you do have a point with the fans do really want the best airflow going. I might actually get that MSI N770 the Gaming Series one seems really good with the dual fans, not so much the Asus graphics card they look heavy and I think a GPU sag will kill me slowly. BTW you have a really sick build man, I'm loving your 350D nice job with it.

There are a fair few choices with graphics cards these days. Any 7870/7950/7970, and any GTX670/760/770 is a great choice. Just try and get one with a black PCB. Don't worry about the graphics cards sagging a little, happens with all of them to an extent, and if it was a serious issue, you'd have heard a lot more about it by now.

And thanks about the build - I don't actually have it anymore though! I'm getting a new PC today and so I've sold on pretty much all the parts from that. Shame really, as the 350D is a great case, and I definitely much prefer MATX PCs to full ATX these days. Oh well!

 

[MatteAMG]

There are a fair few choices with graphics cards these days. Any 7870/7950/7970, and any GTX670/760/770 is a great choice. Just try and get one with a black PCB. Don't worry about the graphics cards sagging a little, happens with all of them to an extent, and if it was a serious issue, you'd have heard a lot more about it by now.

And thanks about the build - I don't actually have it anymore though! I'm getting a new PC today and so I've sold on pretty much all the parts from that. Shame really, as the 350D is a great case, and I definitely much prefer MATX PCs to full ATX these days. Oh well!

May he rest in peace then. I was actually just checking up on the SSD and the Samsung Pro 128GB is the same price as the Corsair Force Series GS 128GB have any thoughts on which might be better?

 

[NeverBackDown]

840 pro. Faster and not sandforce.

If you plan on going light overclocking on the CPU and not overclocking like crazy on the GPU then a 650watt psu will be fine. Seasonic is what i would recommend. With Dual Gpus if that is what you plan on doing then a 750watt psu is better but you won't be able to get any soundcard in the rig. Both Gpus will take up all 4 slots.

 

[christopher]

840 pro. Faster and not sandforce.

If you plan on going light overclocking on the CPU and not overclocking like crazy on the GPU then a 650watt psu will be fine. Seasonic is what i would recommend. With Dual Gpus if that is what you plan on doing then a 750watt psu is better but you won't be able to get any soundcard in the rig. Both Gpus will take up all 4 slots.

I trust sandforce for its continued support & reliability. I have been using my kingston hyperx 128GB SSD for quite some good time & would surely recommend this! You need to feel sandforce drives to fully believe my words Best advice is do not just be impressed by other's experiences & be fooled at times

 

[NeverBackDown]

I trust sandforce for its continued support & reliability. I have been using my kingston hyperx 128GB SSD for quite some good time & would surely recommend this! You need to feel sandforce drives to fully believe my words Best advice is do not just be impressed by other's experiences & be fooled at times

Kingston HyperX 3K 120gb you mean? I also own it. It's only fast for read speeds. Sandforce is ok but newer controllers are far better.