Building new PC for X-Mas

Hello, its that time again. I need to update my rig. So for starters don't worry about price, I'm just looking for suggestions on what parts I should be looking into right now for a quality gaming PC to last the next 3 years with good performance all around.

Edit: Going off something Chux posted in Slack, let's use this as a foundation and see where it gets us

What I'm looking to get
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($289.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170 Krait Gaming ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($147.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($77.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB AMP! Video Card ($619.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1446.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-14 00:52 EST-0500

Any suggestions will help, thanks.

why not go for the i7 cpu? and the power supply is only 550w? why not get a 1000 watt just in case you decide to SLI 980 Ti's later? For cooling I would get away from traditional heatsinks and go hybrid liquid cooling aka the radiator with a closed loop.

And if you really want to complete the experience get a monitor that has G-sync if you dont have one already (no tearing with vsync off) and once you go ultra wide you never go back

Full Tower Case: Fractal Design Define R4 http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...actal%20Design

This tower is my personal favorite so far. Good quality build, very low noise and a lot of options and space. Quite large and heavy tho. Comes with 2 good 140mm fans.
You can watch a review here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1GqMF2bnV8

Motherboard: That really depends on if you want to Overclock your cpu and or if you want to have more than one videocard or not.

Video Card:
The trend right now seems to be the GTX 970. It allows you to play "anything" 60 fps plus and is not too pricey.

GIGABYTE GTX 970 Gaming G1 http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...e&promoid=1413
(Best performing and OC capable version of the GTX 970 but much longer that the others because of the extra fan on the cooling unit)
or
EVGA GeForce GTX970 Acx 2.0 http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...A&promoid=1428
(What I have, a good version also of the GTX 970, quiet and OC capable too)

Both cards are already somewhat OC'ed out of the box.

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Memory Black 16GB http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...cture=Kingston
From what I read, not much of a difference between memory sticks beside better cooling options for OC'ing, in the end wont matter much.

CPU: Definitely a i5 for gaming, you won't get anything out of an i7 of same Generation and # for gaming. Hyper-Threading won't help for gaming.
I'll save you the tl:dr but here some info on it

Quote:

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`Hyper-Threading

Hyper-Threading means that each core on the processor is capable of handling two threads instead of just one. Windows will actually detect extra threads as physical cores, and software will use them as such, but the performance gain is only a fraction of what an extra physical core will provide. Still, the extra threads are useful in demanding software.

Hyper-Threading is not typically found on Core i5 desktop chips. It is common on Core i5 mobile dual-core processors. All Core i7 processors have it, which means they all can handle twice as many threads as they have cores. While nice to have, the feature doesn’t have an impact on most software. Only applications specifically designed to take advantage of multiple threads will see a performance increase. The feature is most useful to people who run productivity applications, including photo and video editors.

---

It's hard to suggest a cpu since there is so many. I would need to read a lot of reviews to suggest something. Mine is from the second gen and is still kicking butts ;)
Someone else can probably suggest something



CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...e=COOLERMASTER
If your going for OC'ing this is affordable and very cost/effective and silent. If you want to OC like crazy, I can't recommend much but i would go for either a bigger Noctura brand or some type of water colling.

Power Supply: So many out there and one of the most important item in your build imo.
I would look for a "true RMS PSU". Corsairs and other known brands do good.
Look for a 80plus logo, I'd recommend not to go lower than 80plus bronze.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

(In short, better PSU's wastes less electricity in heat so more money in your pocket on the long term)
If possible an ideal PSU would have a normal load of 50%, that's where you PSU will be the most energy effective.

For a current 1 videocard gaming rig, a 600-650 watts would be perfect.

My current is: Fractal Edison M 650W ATX Modular 12V 80PLUS Gold http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...actal%20Design
The fan stays off until the PSU is over 25% load, so outside of gaming, no noise at all.

Optical Drive: Meh.... anything as cheap as possible unless you want a BluRay.

Case Fans: Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=...n&promoid=1241

Cheap and quiet, for the price I found nothing better. If you have a case with intake filters, I would recommend to have at least 1 more fan pushing in than the number of fans on the exhaust. Positive pressure keeps all the dust from entering in. You'll only have to vacuum your filters once in a while.

Well I hope that helps and not to long to read.

Feel free to ask if you need more info on that matter.

Also,

a good place to compare videocards with an actual score http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It's a good place to start and it gives you and ideal of performance/price.

Best to check sites that try many benchmarks and compare cards together.


EDIT : Ah! You edited your own list while I was typing this wall of text T.T, bad timing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by King Nyxus

why not go for the i7 cpu? and the power supply is only 550w? why not get a 1000 watt just in case you decide to SLI 980 Ti's later? For cooling I would get away from traditional heatsinks and go hybrid liquid cooling aka the radiator with a closed loop.

And if you really want to complete the experience get a monitor that has G-sync if you dont have one already (no tearing with vsync off) and once you go ultra wide you never go back

---

From what I've read, you aren't getting much of a performance increase with i7 over i5. Unless every game has turned to hyper-threading in the last 3 years. Although I could get a bigger power supply, I have never SLI ever because after 3 years, I normally just build a new PC. I do have a liquid cooler on my current rig and I was talking about this in Slack earlier. And lol... that monitor is like a whole christmas gift onto itself. I'll have to think about that maybe next year.

Well it sounded like you wanted to future proof? an i7 4790k and ddr3 ram is cheaper and you arent losing really anything but thats just current games, who knows how things will change once the dx12 games come out.

I run a i7 4790k, 16gb ddr3, and a single 980 ti @2560x1440 and can easily max anything out. FFXIV is like 70-120 FPS on max settings.

I do want it to be good for the next 3 years, I'm just not sold on the i7 doing that for me. I think the memory i have listed is DDR4. I might increase the wattage of the power supply though.

Update: I increased the power supply and added in a SSD because I need to give my Dad it for when I trade PCs with him.

I7 not worth it if it is primarily for gaming.

As a related note, the 980 ti, while a fantastic GPU... The Pascal is still slated for a spring 2016 release. Might be worth just getting a 970 (or cheaper) for now and waiting on the Pascal.

Are you planning on getting any storage besides the 250GB SSD? If not, I'd highly recommend it. Going up to a ~500GB isn't a huge price jump, but makes a huge difference. I personally have 500GB SSD in addition to a 2TB SATA drive, and I still fill up the SSD fairly quickly.

@kayko i wanted to build it all by x-mas. Theres always going to be something better just around the corner.
@cedric the storage is for my father when i give him my old pc. I have a 118 ssd, 250 ssd, and 1.5 tb harddrive so i think i'm alright for storage.

Just go for i7, just in case you need it for something else in the future.
My desktop is i5 while my laptop is i7.