Windows Thoughts on my (possible) new gaming rig?

[gmanist1000]

I've never built a gaming rig before and have been using my iMac for PC gaming since my inception into this world.

I built a new one which you can see below.

• Intel i7 4770k quad core (8 threads) 3.5GHz
• GTX 780
• 2 1TB 7200rpm HDD with a raid 0 array.
• 120GB SSD for applications
• 16GB (2-8GB cards) DDR3-1600 RAM
• After-market cooling (not decided yet)
• 1050 watt psu
• Z87-A Socket LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Case: Undecided

I'm curious as to your thoughts on it. I was looking to stay under $2,000, right now it's sitting at about $1804

 

[thekingofnerds]

Looks good to me. Only thing I would suggest would be why not get a 240 or 256 gig ssd. It would be about $100 more but would future proof it quite a bit.

I cheaped out and got a 120 gig for my mac mini a few months back and I regret it - it's floating around 5 GB free constantly and I don't even have that much on it.

What motherboard btw?

 

[ScottishCaptain]

I've never built a gaming rig before and have been using my iMac for PC gaming since my inception into this world.

I built a new one which you can see below.

• Intel i7 4770k quad core (8 threads) 3.5GHz
• GTX 780
• 2 1TB 7200rpm HDD with a raid 0 array.
• 120GB SSD for applications
• 16GB (2-8GB cards) DDR3-1600 RAM

I'm curious as to your thoughts on it. I was looking to stay under $2,000, right now it's sitting at about $1804

PSU? Case? Heatsink? Fans?

There's lots of stuff that isn't listed there. The base specs look nice, though I hope you're not going to store anything important on there unless you've got backup because RAID0 is pretty damned risky (a coworker used to say "You know why they call it RAID 0, right? Cause that's how many files you're gonna get back if a drive goes").

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the SSD (I think they're overrated), but that's just me.

-SC

 

[donuttakedonuts]

What games/resolutions are you planning on playing?
The 4670k is by all means just as good as the 4770k; basically the only difference is hyperthreading - which most games can't use.
I'd skip the GTX 780 and instead buy a 670 or a 79XX. What else do you have in the build?

 

[gmanist1000]

PSU? Case? Heatsink? Fans?

There's lots of stuff that isn't listed there. The base specs look nice, though I hope you're not going to store anything important on there unless you've got backup because RAID0 is pretty damned risky (a coworker used to say "You know why they call it RAID 0, right? Cause that's how many files you're gonna get back if a drive goes").

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the SSD (I think they're overrated), but that's just me.

-SC

I updated my original post, are the RAID 0's really unreliable? I've never heard of that until you mentioned it.

----------

What games/resolutions are you planning on playing?
The 4670k is by all means just as good as the 4770k; basically the only difference is hyperthreading - which most games can't use.
I'd skip the GTX 780 and instead buy a 670 or a 79XX. What else do you have in the build?

I wanted a beast to basically run all the new games coming out in the next couple of months... particularity BF4. My goal is to obviously run them at very high settings with as little lag and FPS loss as possible.

 

[rabidz7]

I updated my original post, are the RAID 0's really unreliable? I've never heard of that until you mentioned it.

----------



I wanted a beast to basically run all the new games coming out in the next couple of months... particularity BF4. My goal is to obviously run them at very high settings with as little lag and FPS loss as possible.

With two drives RAID0 is twice as unreliable than one drive because if one fails the other is corrupted and must be formatted. The more drives you add, the riskier it gets. Why not drop the SSD and add a TITAN?

 

[gmanist1000]

Looks good to me. Only thing I would suggest would be why not get a 240 or 256 gig ssd. It would be about $100 more but would future proof it quite a bit.

I cheaped out and got a 120 gig for my mac mini a few months back and I regret it - it's floating around 5 GB free constantly and I don't even have that much on it.

What motherboard btw?

Thanks that's good advice, I'll consider it.

I was thinking about using a Z87-A Socket LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard.

 

[gmanist1000]

I'm thinking of maybe just saying no to the RAID and going with a 1TB 7200 HDD with an additional SSD, just to bring the cost down a tad.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

I updated my original post

Suggestions:

1) Buy a nice heatsink that handles a 120mm fan from Thermalright (NOT Thermaltake!).

http://www.thermalright.com

These guys sell awesome heatsinks. They are extremely high quality and well worth the price (they're usually around $40-$60).

2) Buy a nice case that supports 120mm fans. The larger the fan, the more quieter it will be moving the same amount of air. I typically recommend Lian Li cases, they're well designed and pretty rugged.

http://www.lian-li.com

3) Buy nice fans. Don't use the cheap **** that inevitably comes with your computer case.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com

These guys sell nice high-end Panaflo and Delta units. The Panaflo FBA12G12L1BX fans are really nice units, super quiet and extremely high quality. The Delta triple-blade EFB series are the best though (EFB0912LE, EFB0912L, EFB1212LE, or EFB1212SHE)- but I haven't seen these in stock for a very long time unfortunately (you might be able to find them elsewhere though).

are the RAID 0's really unreliable? I've never heard of that until you mentioned it.

Yes.

If a single drive fails in a RAID0 array, you lose everything. It is not possible to recovery anything, since the data is split between however many drives you have in the array. Ergo, however many drives you have in a RAID0 array is however many times you've multiplied your chances of a failure by. If any single drive fails, the entire thing goes kaboom.

My recommendation is to just run a nice regular SATA drive or two. By this, I mean some drive that costs more then $100. Not a cheap "eco" or "green" piece of crap that was designed and manufactured as cheaply as possible, but something more along the lines of server or enterprise grade.

-SC