Some Opinions on This Complete Setup

[Air tree]

Well first off I'm pretty educated when it comes to hardware. As is most people who build pc's. It's nothing too complicated.

But anyways, I just wanted some second opinions on my planned complete setup, I may be just overspending for no reason in some areas. I'm starting my new job somewhat soon and should be able to afford everything in about 3-4 months I would think. And of course I will update it a bit so it's a bit more up to date as new graphic cards come out as expected.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/airtree/saved/Cz9tt6


This is just 2560x1440 resolution gaming so the 780 (Probably 880 by then) should have enough power to drive just about everything at that resolution at a good 60 fps on high settings.

Oh and I probably could use some suggestions on headphones, I'm not as educated in that area as I would like.


Also this is a upgrade from a dual core APU laptop. It's much needed...

[byker]

Good choice in headphones. I would say go AMD right now, better bang for your buck, but not a big deal. You could probably get away with a smaller psu, but again not a big deal. I wouldn't buy the pixel perfect monitor, I ordered a regular 1440 qnix off of ebay and it has no dead pixels. 16 gb of ram is nice but if you only got 8 there would hardly be much difference. Overall I think it is a very nice setup, but you could probably save a lot of money if you wanted too. Nothing is too extravagant however. I spent around $1100 CAD about 4 months ago, and got an i5 with a 770 and it runs 1440p like a charm, so if you don't want to spend so much you don't have too, but why not! 

[Puddsy]

AMD just killed their gaming line, no futureproofing

Intel is the only option for gaming systems right now

[CSCoder4ever]

Everything besides the OS* is awesome!

*I'm a little bias when it comes to operating systems so yeah. 

[byker]

AMD just killed their gaming line, no futureproofing

Intel is the only option for gaming systems right now

Wanted to clarify, AMD over nvidia, as in an r9. Definitely intel for cpu

[Melvang]

AMD just killed their gaming line, no futureproofing

Intel is the only option for gaming systems right now

I would have to concur with this.  Unless you are building the absolute most basic system go with Intel over amd.  Personally I prefer Nvidia right now over ATI video cards as well and have had zero issues with the ones I have put aftermarket coolers on.

I still have a 7800 GTX that still runs (if I could find all the parts for the funky cooler setup).  After that I went to a 280 gtx as engine upgrades in WoW was starting to hurt raid frame rates.  That card died after a year and a half.  I am currently running a 680 GTX OC Sig+ from EVGA with an aftermarket cooler.

My suggestions if you are the type that waits as long as possible between upgrades is this.  Buy the best parts you can afford ranking is this order if the primary use is going to be for gaming.

Video card and after market cooler
PSU
Case with proper cooling
CPU
Motherboard
Ram is last on the list cause its cheap.

Also I recommend an aftermarket cooler on the CPU as well.  Do research as none are created equal.

The reason I detail cooling is not for over clocking but for part life.

For every 10 degrees C you can drop the operating temp on an electronic component you *should* expect a 50% increase in life expectancy.

[The Mad Professor]

I'd swap out the SSD for the Crucial MX100 512GB drive. Very similar performance for $210ish...

[Lingj]

I think you could cut corners with a lot of your parts and you could save maybe $500-$600. I thinking spending over $1.5k on a computer build is overkill if all you're doing is gaming. Cut down on ram, use a solid state only for your operating system, save some money on a lower wattage psu.

[Air tree]

I forgot to list what I'm using it for.

I'm going to be gaming quite a lot, trying my hand at 3d modeling, coding, modding in general and some other little things.

To be honest I'm not sure how stressing 3d modeling is. does it tax on the machine very much?

[Melvang]

My other suggestion is dont' try and shove this much hardware into that small of a form factor.  I would go with at least a mid tower.  Especialy for gaming, it will be very difficult to get enough air flow through the case to cool the parts properly and it will impact part life in a negative way.

[The Mad Professor]

In general, 3D modeling is CPU intensive, so you want a good processor. The i5 is adequate, but more is better.

[Melvang]

For modeling I would go for an i7 and gaming is much more taxing on the video card.

[Lingj]

a high end i5 is good enough for doing a lot of things. I'd say if you were video editing or modeling for your career/job then I would get a high end i7 but for what you're doing I think an i5 is good enough.

[Sniping]

If you have the extra money I would recommend the Hifiman HE-400 for your headphones. They were already great at $400, but they knocked off $100 since they came out with the HE-400i and now the HE-400 is a steal at $300.

[Air tree]

If you have the extra money I would recommend the Hifiman HE-400 for your headphones. They were already great at $400, but they knocked off $100 since they came out with the HE-400i and now the HE-400 is a steal at $300.

What kind of sound do they have? I listen to a lot of classical, some metal, and vocal heavy music.

Are they a very balances type of headphones? Bass heavy?

Just curious.

[Sniping]

If you have the extra money I would recommend the Hifiman HE-400 for your headphones. They were already great at $400, but they knocked off $100 since they came out with the HE-400i and now the HE-400 is a steal at $300.

What kind of sound do they have? I listen to a lot of classical, some metal, and vocal heavy music.

Are they a very balances type of headphones? Bass heavy?

Just curious.

That's an interesting mix of genres. The Sennheiser HD600/650 is generally known for a more lush sound that's suitable for classical and less "noisy" music. The HE-400 is geared more toward pop, rap, metal, but EDM is where the HE-400 shines the most.

Relatively speaking, the bass is quite strong and good (visceral, good extension, no bleed and quality impact) but again, this is relative. If you're used to regular headphones/earbuds, you'll actually be underwhelmed by the bass because cheaper audio products will emphasize mid-bass frequencies and give more perceived bass, but this isn't what you want.

The reason why I recommend the HE-400 is because of value: They are comparable to the HD600/HD650, but they have different sound signatures. More importantly, the HE-400 doesn't require an amp to sound good. At the HE-400 tier, this actually isn't very common. You'll find people saying that an amp is "required" for headphones like the HD650 or Mad Dog T50rp, but this isn't the case with the HE-400. A $100 amp is still a nice upgrade for the HE-400, but plugging in the headphones straight to your computer is fine.

[nubbinator]

If you're doing modelling, like others have said, grab the i7, it's worth it for that kind of work.

Nix the Swiftech H220 and get the H220X instead.  It's a nicer setup, if wonkier due to the integrated reservoir, than the H220.

Personally, I'd avoid Asus.  If anything goes wrong, their support is miserable.  You could save some money and get a nicer board with this ASRock board.

The PSU is also beyond overkill for the system.  If you're aiming for silence, I'd get one of the Platinum rated fanless Seasonic PSUs.

[IvanIvanovich]

If I were you I might think seriously about an X99 build with 6c12t CPU. If you are like me and keep PC for 4+ years spending a little bit more for something that will be more capable for a long time isn't a terrible idea. As far as the display, some new models with 140hz PLS panels and adaptive sync should be appearing soon so it might be wise to wait a little bit and see how terrible the pricing is on them. It would be nice to have speed of gaming TN with accurate color as long as the price isn't astronomical. Rumor is they are supposedly slated to be similar cost to other Korean brand IPS 1440p available now but we'll see.
I couldn't agree more about the Seasonic SS460FL2. I have one of those and it's fantastic for pretty much any single CPU single GPU system. Unless you are positive you will run multi GPU in the future there really isn't much need for anything over 520w.

[Air tree]

I would like to have some room because there is a decent chances that I might get a second gpu in the future. And if I do I would like to be able to use the same psu instead of buying another.

[JaccoW]

My other suggestion is dont' try and shove this much hardware into that small of a form factor.  I would go with at least a mid tower.  Especially for gaming, it will be very difficult to get enough air flow through the case to cool the parts properly and it will impact part life in a negative way.

Now where is the fun in that?
You can put a lot of power in even smaller cases. Though at some point you have to start dabbling in watercooling everything, including the GPU and that gets expensive. (You seem to have already changed to a Midi tower)
My plan for an Ncase M1 mATX build is similar but I won't do that much 3D modelling.

Other thoughts:
- Get the i7 if you can afford it.
- Perhaps wait until later this year to upgrade your monitor.
- The PSU is overkill but can be okay if you plan to update in the future. I never bothered though. Upgrade to a better midrange card every 3 years and you will be fine.

Other than that, it looks quite good.

[nubbinator]

I would like to have some room because there is a decent chances that I might get a second gpu in the future. And if I do I would like to be able to use the same psu instead of buying another.

Get a second one now or upgrade down the line.  It's almost never cost effective to add a second card down the road...plus the issues you get from a dual card solution and often minimal gains.

[Melvang]

My other suggestion is dont' try and shove this much hardware into that small of a form factor.  I would go with at least a mid tower.  Especially for gaming, it will be very difficult to get enough air flow through the case to cool the parts properly and it will impact part life in a negative way.

Now where is the fun in that?
You can put a lot of power in even smaller cases. Though at some point you have to start dabbling in watercooling everything, including the GPU and that gets expensive. (You seem to have already changed to a Midi tower)

Granted that would be a fun build and interesting to see a PC of that size pull the benchmark numbers it should but I am strictly speaking from the aspect of cooling and its affect on life time on parts.  It has a much larger effect than what most consumers think.

[tp4tissue]

Honestly... I'd recommend going with x99 right now..

The budget Haswell E is only $300,  and it will still be around that price once broadwell hits..

[The Mad Professor]

Honestly... I'd recommend going with x99 right now..

The budget Haswell E is only $300,  and it will still be around that price once broadwell hits..

I'd have to disagree with x99. It's a newly released techbase that incorporates not one, not two, but THREE brand new techs.

1) X99 chipset
2) LGA 2011-3
3) DDR4 RAM

That's multiple points of potential failure on one board. A board which has already gone up in smoke twice, I might add...

[tp4tissue]

Honestly... I'd recommend going with x99 right now..

The budget Haswell E is only $300,  and it will still be around that price once broadwell hits..

I'd have to disagree with x99. It's a newly released techbase that incorporates not one, not two, but THREE brand new techs.

1) X99 chipset
2) LGA 2011-3
3) DDR4 RAM

That's multiple points of potential failure on one board. A board which has already gone up in smoke twice, I might add...

what do you mean.. Points of failure ? 

[JaccoW]

Honestly... I'd recommend going with x99 right now..

The budget Haswell E is only $300,  and it will still be around that price once broadwell hits..

I'd have to disagree with x99. It's a newly released techbase that incorporates not one, not two, but THREE brand new techs.

1) X99 chipset
2) LGA 2011-3
3) DDR4 RAM

That's multiple points of potential failure on one board. A board which has already gone up in smoke twice, I might add...

what do you mean.. Points of failure ? 

He means if a well-tested, reliable part has a reliability of 99%, even with 5 parts that will still give you a 95% chance of being perfectly fine.

An untested, new part that has a reliability of 95% means a board with a 73% chance of being okay... But a 27% chance of having at least one part broken.

Point of failure is the wrong term in this case. Because an item with multiple points of failure is more desirable.
What he meant is that the more untested parts there are, the higher the chance that something is wrong with it, rendering your motherboard unusable.
You'd be damn pissed if your expensive mobo had faulty Ramslots for example.

[lakiozoon]

If you need a good 3d positioning sound in games, i would suggest AKG Q701/K712 headphones. They do require an amp tho. In music listening they are a bit light on the bass side (if you are a basshead),  but the bass is well defined. They lack some warmth, but on the other hand they offer a huge soundstage.

[tp4tissue]

Honestly... I'd recommend going with x99 right now..

The budget Haswell E is only $300,  and it will still be around that price once broadwell hits..

I'd have to disagree with x99. It's a newly released techbase that incorporates not one, not two, but THREE brand new techs.

1) X99 chipset
2) LGA 2011-3
3) DDR4 RAM

That's multiple points of potential failure on one board. A board which has already gone up in smoke twice, I might add...

what do you mean.. Points of failure ? 

He means if a well-tested, reliable part has a reliability of 99%, even with 5 parts that will still give you a 95% chance of being perfectly fine.

An untested, new part that has a reliability of 95% means a board with a 73% chance of being okay... But a 27% chance of having at least one part broken.

Point of failure is the wrong term in this case. Because an item with multiple points of failure is more desirable.
What he meant is that the more untested parts there are, the higher the chance that something is wrong with it, rendering your motherboard unusable.
You'd be damn pissed if your expensive mobo had faulty Ramslots for example.

I don't understand why you guys think these new components will FAIL...

What exactly about this is going to "FAIL"...   what constitute a failure state.....


There's going to be bugs in Every board...


I have a launch p67 board,  and it worked just fine.. that had nearly all new happenings as well.  all the Major new features worked.

[JaccoW]

I don't understand why you guys think these new components will FAIL...
What exactly about this is going to "FAIL"...   what constitute a failure state.....

There's going to be bugs in Every board...

I have a launch p67 board,  and it worked just fine.. that had nearly all new happenings as well.  all the Major new features worked.

It's just the slight niggles of bleeding edge tech.
An example would be Motherboards that get shipped and need a bios upgrade to work with the latest processor... but it won't boot or upgrade without a processor. Meaning you either have to loan one or buy another.
Incompatibility, bugs, parts that interfere with each other.

For example the Asus Impact VI has an issue where the speakers *pop* when turning the computer off. My DFI P45 (remember those?) board doesn't support a multiplier higher than 8x where my processor had a multiplier of 8.5x Things like that.

Not necessarily saying it WILL happen but in places where new, unproven, tech comes in things CAN go wrong. More often than with OLD proven tech.
I would be inclined to upgrade when the second generation of DDR4 boards comes around. But not necessarily the first.

It's OP's choice though.

OT/ I hate how these threads always turn into a fight between proponents of one view and the other.