Posted: 4/3/2016 6:34:45 PM EDT
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Hey y'all - been out of the PC world for a while, but need to replace my laptop - looking to buy a PC for some gaming and video work. how's this look for specs?
Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Processor (4x 4.0GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid CPU Cooler - Standard 120mm Fan 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-2133 Memory Module - ADATA XPG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 - 4GB - Single Card 802.11AC Dual Band Wireless USB Adapter Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 -- 3x PCIe x16, 4x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0 800w Power Supply 256GB ADATA SP600 V2 SSD + 2TB 7200RPM Hard Drive 24x Dual Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy FX [PCIE] -- 5.1 Channels, 192KHz/24-bit Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card Windows 10 Home + Office 365 Trial will it run crysis? 
(or at least most modern games to good settings?) I don't want to hassle with building my own, I've done it in the past but don't want to devote the time and effort. Looking at piecing this together somewhere like ibuypower or something like that.... specs-wise, is that pretty sufficient? |
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Yeah that should run just about anything at 1080p/60. The 800w power supply is a little overkill, even 700w would be more than enough. I may be upgrading down the road, especially as VR becomes a thing, so i was kind of thinking maybe if i add a 2nd graphics card or some more goodies, i'd have the room. would 700w cover that stuff if I do it down the road? |
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why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots You lost me there. Is that the motherboard? eta: did some digging. i'll consider it |
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You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card?
Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted:
why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. |
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You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. Quoted:
You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted:
why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) |
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Quoted: ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) Quoted: Quoted: You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted: why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) |
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I may be upgrading down the road, especially as VR becomes a thing, so i was kind of thinking maybe if i add a 2nd graphics card or some more goodies, i'd have the room. would 700w cover that stuff if I do it down the road? Quoted:
Quoted:
Yeah that should run just about anything at 1080p/60. The 800w power supply is a little overkill, even 700w would be more than enough. I may be upgrading down the road, especially as VR becomes a thing, so i was kind of thinking maybe if i add a 2nd graphics card or some more goodies, i'd have the room. would 700w cover that stuff if I do it down the road? If you plan on adding a second GTX 970 down the road stick with the 800w |
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Quoted: did not know that. what about the wifi card? is that built into the boards now, too? Quoted: Quoted: consumer boards all come with decent sound cards on board, especially if you get into the Z170 boards they actually come with pretty high quality sound cards did not know that. what about the wifi card? is that built into the boards now, too? this is a great option |
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That should smoke any game that's out now. My R9 280x and i5 6600 (and i5 2500 before I replaced it) has no problem running modern games on high settings with stock cooling and a mild overclock on the GPU only.
I would consider the current gen Intel processors, though. The price is similar. They would allow/force you to use DDR4 RAM and the latest motherboards. Not sure DDR4 is noticeably better for gaming, maybe someone else can chime in on that. May want to look into whether you really even need an i7. |
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I don't want to hassle with building my own, I've done it in the past but don't want to devote the time and effort. Looking at piecing this together somewhere like ibuypower or something like that.... specs-wise, is that pretty sufficient? Where in TX are you? Somebody may build it for you and save the cost over a system builder. (I'm in DFW) |
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Put this together quick in ibuypower. came out to about $1500, and I think it'd do everything you need it to do. it actually came out slightly cheaper than a similarly equipped setup that i did on pcpartpicker, after rebates and such |
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Quoted: ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) Quoted: Quoted: You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted: why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. |
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You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted:
why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. You're funny. I can't remember the last time I installed software from optical disc. |
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Quoted: You're funny. I can't remember the last time I installed software from optical disc. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted: why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. You're funny. I can't remember the last time I installed software from optical disc. I do install a lot of stuff from optical disk. Drivers for example. It makes things a lot easier. Time saver. |
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Quoted: Yep, a CD drive is nice for installing your OS and drivers. Besides, they're $20. Yep. Unless the OP have a personnel network where he can install his OS from it will be a nightmare without an optical drive. I have a lot of bootable utilities disks that I run on computers to check for hardware damage (ram tester for example) or other things like ghosting an entire drive. |
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I do install a lot of stuff from optical disk. Drivers for example. It makes things a lot easier. Time saver. Quoted:
I do install a lot of stuff from optical disk. Drivers for example. It makes things a lot easier. Time saver. Quoted:
Quoted:
Yep, a CD drive is nice for installing your OS and drivers. Besides, they're $20. Yep. Unless the OP have a personnel network where he can install his OS from it will be a nightmare without an optical drive. I have a lot of bootable utilities disks that I run on computers to check for hardware damage (ram tester for example) or other things like ghosting an entire drive. Yes, they are cheap. But, far from a necessity. And $20 is $20. Drivers: Download the latest ones from the manufacturer. Popping in a disc, waiting for it to load, install, and then updating the drivers is definitely not any faster. W10 generic drivers are good enough to connect to the Internet and download the drivers. Unless, of course, you have crappy Internet. OS: Unless this is your very first computer ever, you can download the ISO and make a bootable USB drive (Microsoft made a utility to do this back on W7). Windows 10 is now sold on a USB stick. Bootable Utilities: See USB stick. This isn't 1995 anymore where you boot from floppy A: You aren't going to be running diagnostics on your home computer all the time either. |
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Don't get a Z97 motherboard. Get a Z170. Supports DDR4...it will last for several upgrades. It usually doesn't pay to go with latest and greatest...except for the motherboard.
I haven't priced RAM lately either, but you'd probably be better off spending the extra $ to go with DDR4, rather than DDR3. Definitely price check that. Drop the USB wireless. Z97 and Z170 boards should have onboard wireless...obviously check first. If it doesn't, get a PCI wireless card, the USB adapters are functional but not game-worthy, and they generally block a lot of USB ports due to their size. Unless you're an audiophile...I mean vinyl-loving, cd-hating audiophile...you don't need a sound card. You also don't need the NIC, the onboard NIC on Z motherboards is just fine. If you haven't burned a cd or dvd in the last year, skip that, too...get yourself a cheap external one that you can use if necessary. Will probably be the last one you ever need....well, until the USB interface is obsolete. As-is, it should run anything out there, though. |
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Where in TX are you? Somebody may build it for you and save the cost over a system builder. (I'm in DFW) Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't want to hassle with building my own, I've done it in the past but don't want to devote the time and effort. Looking at piecing this together somewhere like ibuypower or something like that.... specs-wise, is that pretty sufficient? Where in TX are you? Somebody may build it for you and save the cost over a system builder. (I'm in DFW) I'm also in the DFW area. Thank you guys for all the advice. I wound up going with something pretty similar to that build there, dropped the sound card and network card, but decided not to upgrade to the skylake processor, as the cost to have it assembled was higher than the performance difference was worth, to me. Also, kept the DVD drive, it was like $12 - and I do have old software/games/files stored on DVD, so why not. I didn't want to burden anyone with assisting me with the build, so I ordered through ibuypower. wound up coming in right around $1300 - I'm happy with what i'm paying for what I'm getting, especially not having to hassle with assembling it myself. I really do appreciate all the insight, I learned quite a bit researching into what you guys recommended. i'll try to update the thread with pictures when the box shows up. 
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You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
You don't need that Intel NIC. There is already built in networking to the motherboard. Do you actually need a WiFi card? Cut out the DVD drive, too. And, the sound card. What is the "800 Watt power supply"? Quoted:
why not a skylake build? not *that* much more money to go with a 6700k/z170 board. other than that, i'd recommend a pci-e AC card such as the asus pce-ac56 or pce-ac68. i'd also recommend an m.2 ssd, assuming you get a motherboard that has m.2 slots That board does have a M.2 slot, but M.2 is unnecessary. Get a second SSD for a scratch disk/working disk for video editing. ok, I can see going without a DVD drive, but what has changed that you don't need a sound card? (it's been ~10 years since I last built my own PC) You need the dvd drive. It makes life easier when installing stuff. Stick with the 800 psu. Get a amd r9 390. The 970 will go obsolete once Pascal comes out. The 3.5 gig of ram hurt it a lot. You don't need the sound card unless you want the best quality. The MB comes with on board sound card. Get a different brand of ssd. Stay away from tlc if you're doing a lot of writes because tlc slow down a lot. Mlc nand ssd is the way to go. i heard pascals (desktop versions) not available to consumers until next year? |
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Yes, they are cheap. But, far from a necessity. And $20 is $20. Drivers: Download the latest ones from the manufacturer. Popping in a disc, waiting for it to load, install, and then updating the drivers is definitely not any faster. W10 generic drivers are good enough to connect to the Internet and download the drivers. Unless, of course, you have crappy Internet. OS: Unless this is your very first computer ever, you can download the ISO and make a bootable USB drive (Microsoft made a utility to do this back on W7). Windows 10 is now sold on a USB stick. Bootable Utilities: See USB stick. This isn't 1995 anymore where you boot from floppy A: You aren't going to be running diagnostics on your home computer all the time either. Quoted:
Quoted:
I do install a lot of stuff from optical disk. Drivers for example. It makes things a lot easier. Time saver. Quoted:
Quoted:
Yep, a CD drive is nice for installing your OS and drivers. Besides, they're $20. Yep. Unless the OP have a personnel network where he can install his OS from it will be a nightmare without an optical drive. I have a lot of bootable utilities disks that I run on computers to check for hardware damage (ram tester for example) or other things like ghosting an entire drive. Yes, they are cheap. But, far from a necessity. And $20 is $20. Drivers: Download the latest ones from the manufacturer. Popping in a disc, waiting for it to load, install, and then updating the drivers is definitely not any faster. W10 generic drivers are good enough to connect to the Internet and download the drivers. Unless, of course, you have crappy Internet. OS: Unless this is your very first computer ever, you can download the ISO and make a bootable USB drive (Microsoft made a utility to do this back on W7). Windows 10 is now sold on a USB stick. Bootable Utilities: See USB stick. This isn't 1995 anymore where you boot from floppy A: You aren't going to be running diagnostics on your home computer all the time either. I'm coming into this late but for a gaming rig, I'd still put a drive in there unless you never ever plan on playing any old games. I've still got a bunch of older and more obscure games on discs that I like to break out every once in a while. Some still aren't available digitally on steam type services at this point and probably never will, and a lot of the others that are available cost more money than it's worth to get a digital copy when I've still got a physical copy around. I've found that while a drive may not be essential OEM type equipment anymore, it's still a nice to have option in a gaming rig. Not only are they cheap, but they last forever too so you can move them from build to build. I've got one that is now on its 3rd or 4th PC. Just my own personal experience; YMMV. For a person who's just getting started in PC gaming and doesn't have any older discs it might not be an issue. |
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Better graphics than the ps4 and Xbox one, higher frame rates at 1080p too, as others have mentioned. I have a similar build, only a non k i7 and a second 970 card. If you get to the point of either upgrading to a second card, I recommend selling the 970 and getting a 980ti for the extra memory. Running in SLI, the memory doesn't stack. Two 4 GB cards doesn't make 8gb, it really means like 3.5 gb :/ |
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Nice. Mechanical keyboard? I'm in the market for a mechanical keyboard using cherry mx green switch. yeah, they threw it in with the PC http://www.ibuypower.com/IBPStore/Accessories/iBUYPOWER-MEK-Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboard-Red-Switch-w-Red-Backlit-keys |