New mid range or higher rig - need suggestions and help catching up on tech

[Storm]

Below are the pre-req answers

1. Upgrade from a 7 year old Core Duo rig, primarily for gaming.
2. About $1500 give or take
3. US
4. N/A
5. See below
6. Nope
7. Default usually say oc but I never do not since the Celeron 300a days
8. 1920 x 1080
9. In the next month? Maybe this weekend?
10. Windows 7

So based on the mid range post and some other threads this is what I came up with so far... Feel free to give opinions and answer any questions I have it is much appreciated .

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K
Mobo: Not sure got a ton of a questions...

The socket is LGA 1150. The chipset is the Z87 but there was a refresh of the chipset to Z97. Is there any practical use for the features of the Z97? Like Haswell Refresh CPUs, SATA Express. Prefer Asus mobos just in case anything goes wrong I can RMA instead of the company like Epox no longer existing.

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Any other suggestions?
Hard drives: definitely SSD that will be the biggest change, not sure if there is a preferred preference for the Samsung Pro vs EVO or the Crucial one like the MX100 or is it all relative? Thinking of getting two drives one for os (256) and another for everything else (512)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 believe some suggested the Gigabyte one. Any particular GTX 970 people like?
Optical drive: SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X from mid range guide
PS: SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W from mid range guide
Case: Love my Praetorian aluminum case too bad they don't make those any more. I think having a removable mobo tray is easier. Any suggestions other than the ones from the mid range guide?

Lastly for running a higher resolution than 1920 x 1080 are there any suggestions for bigger monitors? Currently using an Asus VW246H monitor.

 

[phasseshifter]

i picked this mobo out http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97A/specifications/ gigabyte nvidia gtx 970 looks good value...................power supply go for gold or plat series much better load line regulation ..but use seasonic..Samsung ssd`s imho are the best but no tlc unless you spend more in $$$.......ram you picked are quite adequate..cpu is quad core with 8 threads supports hyper threading only has 16 pcie lanes http://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz your screen is fine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy96rKj5XJs i am not a guru on screens ..somebody has more know in that matter

More paragraphs and less ellipses. Your posts have little value if they are not readable.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

 

[Ken g6]

Is there any practical use for the features of the Z97? Like Haswell Refresh CPUs

This, in particular. Practically, you need Z97 (or H97 if you won't overclock) for a 4790k. Overclocking a 4790k is probably overrated; but you might want Z97 if you want to keep this around as long as you did the old system and buy SLI cards at some point.

Hard drives: definitely SSD that will be the biggest change, not sure if there is a preferred preference for the Samsung Pro vs EVO or the Crucial one like the MX100 or is it all relative? Thinking of getting two drives one for os (256) and another for everything else (512)

Two SSDs sounds like a waste of money. One 512GB Crucial MX100 for everything should be fine, though another HDD would be good for backups. Samsungs are a little faster if you're determined to spend money, but you won't notice the difference. Pro is for business-class users doing gigabytes of writing to disk per day.

Case: Love my Praetorian aluminum case too bad they don't make those any more. I think having a removable mobo tray is easier. Any suggestions other than the ones from the mid range guide?

Maybe keep your case, and add this for USB 3.0?

 

[Omar F1]

Case: Love my Praetorian aluminum case too bad they don't make those any more. I think having a removable mobo tray is easier. Any suggestions other than the ones from the mid range guide?

If you want something basic, I'd say take a look over Fractal Design Core 3500
I just upgraded my PC and moved to it, I like it's basic shape and overall quality.

 

[Cerb]

The socket is LGA 1150. The chipset is the Z87 but there was a refresh of the chipset to Z97. Is there any practical use for the features of the Z97? Like Haswell Refresh CPUs, SATA Express.

Guaranteed refresh CPU support, pretty much.

Thinking of getting two drives one for os (256) and another for everything else (512)

IMO, get one big one, or, for faster file copies, 2-4 in a RAID 0. Use an HDD for backup. Keep in mind that, without a RAID 0, copies to an HDD will be limited by the HDD, and in-volume copying will generally go at 150-300MBps, depending on file size mix, with a single drive. Only large file copy operations will be sped up by using multiple SSDs, and a matched set in a RAID 0 will always offer the best overall performance, if getting multiple ones. Other uses will not be sped up at all by having multiple SSDs. Also, different SSDs perform better up to certain sizes, so 2x256GB might not be double the sequential speed of 1x512GB.

 

[mfenn]

For $1500, I would take the midrange builders guide and beef up a few components. In order of decreasing utility (i.e. the earlier items are more bang for the buck):

- Bigger/faster SSD : Crucial MX100 512GB +$118
- Much nicer case: Fractal Design R5 +$70
- More RAM: Team DDR3 1600 16GB kit +$125
- Faster CPU: i7 4790K + GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK +$110

 

[Storm]

Thanks for the all suggestions! Also didn't realize the message control panel doesn't have linking by default. Oops

phasseshifter - thanks for the mobo suggestion

Ken g6 & Cerb - thanks for the ssd info, I'll go with one drive for now.

Omar F1 - thanks for the Fractal Design suggestion


Below is what I've finally settled on with links!

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K - $339.99

Mobo: ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Intel Z97 - $144.99

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM - $149.99

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N970WF3OC-4GD GeForce GTX 970 - $339.99

SSD: Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 - $204.99

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold - $89.99

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - $79.99

DVD drive - SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X - $19.99

OS - Windows 7 Pro 64 bit - $139.99

Subtotal - $1,509.91

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the all suggestions! Also didn't realize the message control panel doesn't have linking by default. Oops

phasseshifter - thanks for the mobo suggestion

Ken g6 & Cerb - thanks for the ssd info, I'll go with one drive for now.

Omar F1 - thanks for the Fractal Design suggestion


Below is what I've finally settled on with links!

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K - $339.99

Mobo: ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Intel Z97 - $144.99

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM - $149.99

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N970WF3OC-4GD GeForce GTX 970 - $339.99

SSD: Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 - $204.99

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold - $89.99

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - $79.99

DVD drive - SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X - $19.99

OS - Windows 7 Pro 64 bit - $139.99

Subtotal - $1,509.91

I think you can do better in a few places:

- The Z97-A is a comparable board to the GA-Z97X-UD3H but you're missing out on the combo discount with the CPU. The combo I recommended above would save you $38.
- The difference between the G.Skill kit and the Team one that I linked is 1 cycle of CAS latency and $25. You'll never notice the difference unless you run SuperPI all day long, so I would go for the less expensive kit.
- The X650 Gold is a nice unit, but it is nowhere near twice as good as the M12II you were originally going to go with. Stick with the M12II and save $40.

All told, those three changes knock $100 off the build for no perceptible difference in performance.