personal gaming/workstation rig build

katiekitsune

New member
So my current PC is on its way out and im going to be building a bigger better one (not that it would be hard to do). i needed something for more power for games and 3D modeling programs so i wanted some good overclocking potential. the overall asthetic is sleek and menacing but still pretty.

parts:
  • case: phantecks enthoo primo
  • mobo: asus ROG maximus VII hero
  • cpu: intel i7 4790K
  • cooling: H110 (or other cooler if more lucrative)
  • boot drive: hyperX 3k 120gb
  • program ssd: samsung 840 evo 500 gb
  • storage drive: WD caviar black 1TB
  • RAM: Corsair Vengance Pro 16GB 1866MHz red (or kingston hyperX fury 16Gb 1866MHz red)
  • GPU: ASUS R9 280X DCUII TOP
  • PSU: Corsair RM750
  • Fans: 5x noctua NF-A14 PWM
if there is anything that i could do to make this build better please let me know.
SSD's interchangable
 
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The onlu things I would change is to ditch the game drive and get a bigger ssd, seagates arent that great and an ssd will be faster anyway unless you plan on installing all the games in the steam library....
 
I would up the memory to at least 16GB, that way the modelling will run a lot better for you, especially when it comes to rendering.
 
Depending on the software used it may be a better choice to get a 280x over the 760 you selected. Its also faster in games which is always a plus.

Drop the game drive and put the money saved towards the biggest ssd you can find so you can store all your rendering software on their and either keep the SSHD or WD you selected but the 2TB version since storage seems like a need for you. Also Seagate drives aren't bad in my experience. My brother has the 1tb SSHD and it is noticeably faster than a regular drive. Worth the little premium if you ask me.

Lastly i would opt for 2x8GB sticks of ram depending on how much you really want to render and edit stuff it will help you quite a bit. Also strains the CPU memory controller less instead of having 4x4GB sticks. That will help you hit that 2400mhz mark easier than having 4 sticks doing that.

However these changes only reflect what i would personally want but it is up to you.
 
thank you for your input, i would love to get the ROG 280x matrix though with my triple monitor setup plan i might want the extra gb of ram. i would like to up the ram capacity though its a big price jump and the only program i would think to need it would be autodesk maya (the other modeling programs i use are 3dsmax and inventor)
 
Personally i would rather go for a non ROG card. Save money and keep the same performance. The extra vram isn't that much of a difference since 3GB is already alot. 280x gets my vote since maya supports OpenCL and so does 3dsmax iirc. Which makes it better than CUDA since OpenCL tasks perform better and performs far better on AMD cards.
 
the reason i would use the matrix is because it has 4 displayports so i could have all of my monitors using the same interface but that is its only advantage over the standard asus model (well it might run cooler but im not sure about that)
*edit* the asus r9 280x v2 can has the same useful features as the matrix without the rog premium (it still costs about $80 more)
 
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I would definitely try switch around some budget to get 16GB of ram over 8GB, perhaps even slightly slower than 2400mhz.

Other than that the core build seems fine and with the change of GPU over to AMD you'll get more bang for buck in my opinion.

Also, welcome to the forums, I see you're a new joiner :hello:
 
The rig you have specified is basically what I have just built, but currently I can't comment as to how well it performs, as I am awaiting the 4790k (should get it on Tuesday) and I have 2 of the graphics cards running in sli, but as for performance, the graphics cards will do what you want, although they aren't as fast as the top of the line Matrix 780ti or Poseidon 780, but for what you get, to me atleast, they are definately worth the money. I currently have them running in an old AMD 64x2 rig, and the performance is 100 times better than the 2 7900's I previously had in there running in sli.
 
im looking into higher capacity ram and i could go as low as 1866MHz and would feel safer with 2133MHz though im not sure how much of a difference it will make. could anyone suggest some good (inexpensive) DIMMs?
i also cant decide between the two verisons of asus r9 280x (one has 4xDP 2xDVI-D the other has a standard IO layout)
*edit* found the best GPU model option for my purposes will probable stick a GPU watercooling bracket on it to account for older cooler.

Edit: ok so with my graphics card figured out im $200 under my original budget, so im wondering should i double my SSD storage or should i upgrade to the entoo Primo?
 
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Probably more worth it to upgrade the GPU. An extra $200 can give a very large performance improvement. Otherwise imo a bigger SSD over the Primo. Much easier to upgrade to a new chasis than to a new ssd.
 
Phanteks Ethoo Primo is definitely worth the extra money. Such a lovely case. For me it would go in this order.

  1. Case
  2. Second SSD
  3. Graphics card upgrade

You buy one case to last you multiple generations. A second smaller SSD should be used for your boot drive, it's best to separate your OS from everything else (just my opinion). Graphics cards come and go, my personal preference with cards is to always buy the 2nd or 3rd best card available and to SLI or Crossfire them.

Hope this helps.
 
exellent idea
im currently using less than 250gb of games so i could put them all on the 250 ssd

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should i use the hyperX as the boot drive or the main program drive?
 
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Remember though its only a good to use 200-220GB of storage on that ssd because otherwise it will die faster since more nand is full and it has to enable trim more often to even out the wear on the nand.

Also if it is also a OS drive it leaves you with even less storage available for other things. Windows is storage hog and will easily take 30GB+ of storage.
 
Ok so I need some help with hard drive placement, I want a 3.5" drive mounting solution that doesnt go in the hard drive cage area. please hep
 
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