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Looking to build a computer
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Narcotic Gryffin
Digital Mercenaries Inc.
#1 - 2015-02-28 00:44:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Narcotic Gryffin
First time building a computer and was using pcpartpicker as a tool to do it. Not sure how reliable it is or accurate for that matter. So wanted some feedback and constructive criticism since I only have a rough idea of what im doing and would hate to buy everything only to figure out 1 or more parts aren't compatible with each other.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($369.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler:Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($186.98 @ Newegg)
Memory:Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage:Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($118.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage:Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card:MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Case:Cooler Master Storm Stryker (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($149.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply:EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive:Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System:Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1728.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-28 14:17 EST-0500

Thanks EVE Community :D

http://www.sortius-is-a-geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/history-channel-hd-aliens-thumb.jpg
Amber Kurvora
#2 - 2015-02-28 01:51:11 UTC
Do not make the mistake I made when I put together my first pc - my intiial case wasn't bit enough for a HD6850 to fit in. Which is odd seeming it wasn't a huge card. So, yeah... make sure the measurements add up.
Colonel Selene
Kesukka
#3 - 2015-02-28 02:07:18 UTC  |  Edited by: Colonel Selene
Whats your reasoning for the X99 platform? A Z97 would work just fine and save you some money unless you are doing some hefty CPU intensive stuff and/or need a boatload of memory.

Also WD Cavier Blues are trash, I'd get some WD Blacks instead. Swap out the SSD for some Samsungs, Crucial or Intel. OCZ have kinda been prone to failing in the past. No idea if they got their act together or not now

Grrr.
Hrothgar Nilsson
#4 - 2015-02-28 03:17:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Hrothgar Nilsson
Honestly, unless you're an early adopter and money is not an issue, I would wait a few months for DDR4 to mature and its price and the mobos that support it to go down. Even a month or two could see your overall costs go down a few hundred dollars.

I don't know what you're currently using for a mechanical hard drive, but as long as its a 7200RPM SATA drive with something close to the 1TB storage you're looking at, just pull the one you have now from your old PC, and put it in your new one. The standard for PC homebrewers nowadays is to use the SSD for the OS and most commonly used applications, and the mechanical for storage, so unless your hard drive is small and/or IDE, re-use of your current drive would be my advice. Back in the day when we'd RAID 7200 RPM HDs for performance, upgrading from one to another might make sense, but with 7200s as storage and SSDs for the OS/common applications, it's less critical.

No reason you couldn't re-use your current optical drive either, unless it's IDE or lacks DVD-R/RW ability. Personally, I'd rather pony up the $20 just not to have to deal with the annoyance of an IDE ribbon cable and get something with a SATA connection instead. But if you're using a desktop, and bought it in the last several years, it should be a SATA DVD-R/RW drive. Some PC manufacturers are a pain in the arse with proprietary fronts on their optical drives to match their proprietary case stylings, making it impossible to re-use, but if your current drive is the standard format, just re-use it.

With regards to where you purchase your components, I'd just go NewEgg all the way. You might save a buck or three shopping around on various websites on this component or that component, but with $10,000 in purchases from NewEgg since 2003, I can personally vouch for their return policies and warranties. There's a damned good reason NewEgg is #1 and has been since early last decade. You'll save yourself a headache if something arrives DOA or dies prematurely.

edit: agree with Rain on the OCZ. They have a pretty bad reputation for bricking. Samsung has the best SSDs on the market AFAIK, but I currently use a Kingston HyperX myself.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...
Narcotic Gryffin
Digital Mercenaries Inc.
#5 - 2015-02-28 03:37:52 UTC
Colonel Selene wrote:
Whats your reasoning for the X99 platform? A Z97 would work just fine and save you some money unless you are doing some hefty CPU intensive stuff and/or need a boatload of memory.

Also WD Cavier Blues are trash, I'd get some WD Blacks instead. Swap out the SSD for some Samsungs, Crucial or Intel. OCZ have kinda been prone to failing in the past. No idea if they got their act together or not now


To answer your question mostly guess work, I picked the processor first and used pcpartpickers compatability tool to find a motherboard that worked with. As for the ram and the ss I personally am not familiar with the reputations.

Hrothgar Nilsson wrote:
Honestly, unless you're an early adopter and money is not an issue, I would wait a few months for DDR4 to mature and its price and the mobos that support it to go down. Even a month or two could see your overall costs go down a few hundred dollars.

I don't know what you're currently using for a mechanical hard drive, but as long as its a 7200RPM SATA drive with something close to the 1TB storage you're looking at, just pull the one you have now from your old PC, and put it in your new one. The standard for PC homebrewers nowadays is to use the SSD for the OS and most commonly used applications, and the mechanical for storage, so unless your hard drive is small and/or IDE, re-use of your current drive would be my advice. Back in the day when we'd RAID 7200 RPM HDs for performance, upgrading from one to another might make sense, but with 7200s as storage and SSDs for the OS/common applications, it's less critical.

No reason you couldn't re-use your current optical drive either, unless it's IDE or lacks DVD-R/RW ability. Personally, I'd rather pony up the $20 just not to have to deal with the annoyance of an IDE ribbon cable and get something with a SATA connection instead. But if you're using a desktop, and bought it in the last several years, it should be a SATA DVD-R/RW drive. Some PC manufacturers are a pain in the arse with proprietary fronts on their optical drives to match their proprietary case stylings, making it impossible to re-use, but if your current drive is the standard format, just re-use it.

With regards to where you purchase your components, I'd just go NewEgg all the way. You might save a buck or three shopping around on various websites on this component or that component, but with $10,000 in purchases from NewEgg since 2003, I can personally vouch for their return policies and warranties. There's a damned good reason NewEgg is #1 and has been since early last decade. You'll save yourself a headache if something arrives DOA or dies prematurely.

edit: agree with Rain on the OCZ. They have a pretty bad reputation for bricking. Samsung has the best SSDs on the market AFAIK, but I currently use a Kingston HyperX myself.


I'm running a getting close to 3 year old laptop that I've soldered and super glued replacement parts too because fk laptops. TBH with both of you im kinda just guessing it out using the compatability tool and the 4 and 5 star ratings to get a judgement.


PS I knew I should have just stuck with computer science back in college damnit.

http://www.sortius-is-a-geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/history-channel-hd-aliens-thumb.jpg
Rain6637
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#6 - 2015-02-28 05:03:40 UTC
What's that memory thing that uses PCI-E, I hear that's going to be useful. I'd hold out for that.

Help, I can't download EVE

President of the Commissar Kate Fanclub

PLEX: A Giffen good? (It's 1B?)
Hrothgar Nilsson
#7 - 2015-02-28 11:11:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Hrothgar Nilsson
Narcotic Gryffin wrote:
I'm running a getting close to 3 year old laptop that I've soldered and super glued replacement parts too because fk laptops. TBH with both of you im kinda just guessing it out using the compatability tool and the 4 and 5 star ratings to get a judgement.


PS I knew I should have just stuck with computer science back in college damnit.

PC building is to computer science as a backyard mechanic is to an automotive engineer. It's not complicated and doesn't really take much skill.

As far as your cooling goes, the Corsair fans you've selected aren't necessary if you purchase that Cooler Master case. The case comes already stocked with tons of them. I'm not even sure where you'd be able to install them, unless you were thinking of replacing the stock case fans with the Corsairs. The stock fans on the case are rated even quieter than the Corsairs you listed.

The liquid cooling is overkill. It's in no way necessary. If you feel the need for better something better than the stock Intel fan, get a Hyper 212 Evo for $35.

The WD Black has better performance than the Blue, but as I'm guessing you'll be using the mechanical drive primarily for storage, it doesn't really matter. For the 1TB, the difference in price is currently $20. I used to RAID WD Blacks when SSDs were really expensive (bought a 32GB OCZ in 2009/2010, had pretty much just the OS installed), but with cheaper SSDs I went with a Blue on my most recent personal build. The bigger price differentials with the aftermath of the Thailand floods, and the fact the I'd just be using the mechanical for storage inclined me toward the Blue.

As far as your choice in SSD goes, don't do OCZ. They were the first real big seller of SSDs, but their quality control problems and their tendency to brick tanked them in the market. They never recovered as a company. The Samsung 850 Pro has had some kind of problem lately with a firmware update that was bricking the drives, but once they iron that out that'd be my choice. Or the 850 EVO.

I can't really comment on the motherboard, except to say MSI is regarded as one of the better brands. DDR4 has only been available to PC consumers for several months. Personally I'd be wary about buying the early chipset mobo models that support it, as there are often unforeseen kinks in a lot of early models.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...
Hrothgar Nilsson
#8 - 2015-02-28 11:22:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Hrothgar Nilsson
Rain6637 wrote:
What's that memory thing that uses PCI-E, I hear that's going to be useful. I'd hold out for that.

Yes, I realize I was a few months out of whack with regards to the release of DDR4 modules for the PC. I haven't done any system building since a little bit before that time and haven't kept a close eye on developments for the last 6 months or so.

Thanks for pointing that out to me in such an edgy, yet subtle way though! *hugs and kisses*

And no, OCZ never got their act back together. They got bought out by Toshiba, whose reputation in the mechanical market doesn't bode well for the OCZ line.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...
Rain6637
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#9 - 2015-02-28 15:26:51 UTC
I don't know what you mean by edgy, I was just commenting in this thread to participate. I heard there's going to be some kind of memory module that plugs into a PCI-E slot. Dunno how far along it is, if it's on the market, or was even a serious thing.

btw, I am not colonel selene.

Help, I can't download EVE

President of the Commissar Kate Fanclub

PLEX: A Giffen good? (It's 1B?)
Mina Sebiestar
Minmatar Inner Space Conglomerate
#10 - 2015-02-28 16:41:43 UTC
why not 2x8 ram sticks so you have room for upgrade without wasting any ram modules if that happens....

You choke behind a smile a fake behind the fear

Because >>I is too hard
Hrothgar Nilsson
#11 - 2015-02-28 17:29:00 UTC  |  Edited by: Hrothgar Nilsson
Rain6637 wrote:
I don't know what you mean by edgy, I was just commenting in this thread to participate. I heard there's going to be some kind of memory module that plugs into a PCI-E slot. Dunno how far along it is, if it's on the market, or was even a serious thing.

btw, I am not colonel selene.

If I've confused the purpose of your post, or you with somebody else, then my apologies. I thought you were referring to some one-off BetaMax-type piece of tech that ended up going pretty much nowhere.

If you're referring to RAM disks, there are a few reasons why they aren't really used.
  • Volatility: RAM is volatile, flash isn't. If they're not continuously being powered, all information stored on RAM is lost.
  • Price: The going rate for 64GB (8x8GB) of flash MLC (~$3.50) is roughly equal in price to 4GB (8x512MB) of DDR3 DRAM, making DRAM 16 times more expensive. NAND is about $11 per 64GB, DRAM being 5 times more expensive.
  • Power Consumption: Unless you want to utilize insanely expensive high-capacity modules, you're going to bump up against the wattage limits of the PCI-E slot pretty quick. Standard consumption of a module runs about ~4 watts, peaking at ~10 watts utilizing 8GB sticks will see a limit of about 56GB. If you were to utilize 32GB modules peaking at 10 watts, you could get that up to 224GB, but at an out of pocket cost of $3500 for the modules. If you draw more power than that from the PSU with six-pin connectors, you can quadruple the totals, but its very impractical to run, say, 28 8GB modules on a PCI-E card. And you're still looking at $2000 at current market prices for 256GB of 8GB modules.

If you're referring to PCI-E SSDs, they're already on the market.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...
Narcotic Gryffin
Digital Mercenaries Inc.
#12 - 2015-02-28 19:16:27 UTC
Do any of you have an opinion on Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM ?? Also Im making adjustments and will edit the original post.

@ Hrothgar based on what you said and I really just want the OS on the SSD I think I'll stick with that 1tb thats on the list for now. I did take a few suggestions that were posted on here and thank you for the help.

http://www.sortius-is-a-geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/history-channel-hd-aliens-thumb.jpg
Hrothgar Nilsson
#13 - 2015-02-28 20:44:49 UTC
I've never used Crucial RAM. I can't really recommend or disrecommend them. I've been a customer of G.Skill for several years. The one time I had a problem with one of their sticks (burned out after 3 years), I shipped it back to them and they sent me a full replacement. As it was DDR2 that was disappearing off the market, I doubled my money ($40 to purchase initially, resold their warranty replacement for $90).

If you only put the OS on the SSD, you'd only be utilizing about 10% of its capacity. You should put any and all resource intensive programs on the disk (e.g. games). Less resource intensive programs (e.g. MS Office) and storage would go on the mechanical HDD.

But I do have to say, unless money is not an issue and you want to be an early adopter, I'd wait for things to mature a bit. Despite 6 months or so having passed, due to slow adoption all of the X99/2011 v-3 mobos are still the first of their type, and first of their type components typically have kinks and defects (whether from defective parts or problems in the manufacturing process) that are worked out over time in later models. I personally feel that they haven't reached that stage yet.

I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...