Wondering about building a rig for gaming. Would this work?

Motherboard: SABERTOOTH Z87 http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87#specifications

Processor: i5-4670K http://ark.intel.com/products/75048/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

Graphics card: GigaByte RADEON R9 290 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4821#sp

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M 750 Watt ATX 2.31 http://www.corsair.com/enthusiast-series-modular-tx850m-80-plus-bronze-certified-750-watt-high-performance-modular-power-supply.html

HDD: SEAGATE ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB 7200rpm SATA 6Gb/s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

RAM: Corsair Vengeance® Pro Series — 16GB (2 x 8) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 http://www.corsair.com/en/vengeance-pro-series-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr3-dram-1600mhz-c9-memory-kit-cmy16gx3m2a1600c9.html

Case: Corsair Carbide Series® 500R Mid-Tower Case http://www.corsair.com/us/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html

Changed the motherboard, processor, ram, HDD and case. Decided to go for i5 after reading some topics about no point getting an i7 for gaming..

I have not made up my mind about the PSU however. It says on gigabytes website that it requires 600W. And add to that everything else. Are you sure there's no point in getting 750 PSU?

Thank You!

Go for it; I wouldn't recommend on getting SSD, not a 120Gb anyway; And 750Watt is too much for 290, I'd get 550-650 max.

And wouldn't go full tower with 1 GPU

Looks good. You can probably get a better deal on 2 x 8gb of RAM than 4 x 4GB and you would have more space to work and also better air flow and if you wanted to maximize memory later on. Might look into getting a non-stock cooler/heatsink for your CPU too. Nothing wrong with the stock but you can get better for not too much.

Yeah I was thinking about non-stock cooling. Are there any compability issues, like the physical shape of the heatsinks or are there specific heatsinks for specific motherboards/CPUs?

there is specifics but they make most of them to be compatible with multiple processors of that brand for example most heatsinks designed for intel will work for i5 i3 i7 etc.... and so on... just read the specifications before you order and REVIEWS. check out newegg sometime.... will save you a lot of time scavenging all the manufacturers websites.

You can get 750 if you're into Crossfire, 600-650 will do

Going with a high wattage psu allows you longer lifespan and options for multi gpu's. 750w is more then enough but you can get away with a good 550-600w.

You've got a fantastic build right there. Though you should wait for third party coolers for the R9 290. That's what I'm doing :D. Seriously everything seems very good. You might want to invest in an SSD though, just for Windows and frequently programs, as well as games.

That's what I was thinking actually :P. I'll have to hold off on the SSD for now though, since I also have to get a monitor. I hope to get started with first parts right after Christmas.

The stock cooler isn't that horrible folks. Its like moderately bad at the worst. It is a horrific design, yes (literally one intake and one exhaust... fucking genius), but I have yet to have any problems with playing games and it being too loud. I actually have the fan set to cap at 65% and even at 65% fan speed its not too bad. Just don't crank it much past that.

Hey. I probably won't do any overclocking, and probably won't go SLI/Crossfire. Would there be much point for me to get full size mobo? Will I be needing 4 RAM slots in the near future, because if not, miniATX would be best for me to get? I would be happy if the mobo had headphone amp, since thats what I play with mostly. The more graphic BIOS would be nice too.

Anyway, would I be good with 50$ mobo, or should I look the more expensive ones?

If you won't go with OC go with i5 4670 and not the K version will save you 10$, and I recommend either this http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h81mhds or http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-h81mp33

No need to go over 50$ for MOBO if you're not planning OC, extreme RAM speeds or more than 1 GPU

That just looks beautiful, as predator says i doubt you will need that mobo but by god its a looker.

SSD gets my vote as it is easily the best change i made on my last build

Yeah I thought so too, but now, the more I look at it, the less nice it seems. There was another mobo with similar "armor" which looked a lot nicer, but I don't remember what mobo it was...

I think I will get the "K" since it's only 10$, just incase maybe someday when I've had this PC for a while I might try and OC. That's also why I'm getting an aftermarket cooler for CPU aswell.

I'm planning on getting a 24" 1080p monitor, so one GPU should be more than enough.

@iveiks:

getting the k is always a smart move

Everyone i know who has built a PC has at one point decided they would overclock to either get better performance straight away or to make the CPU last longer when its had a few years and may not handle everything like it used to

Just remember that you'll need Z mobo as well for that which cost minimum of 85$

How well can the HD7970 handle todays games vs the r9 290? At a local online store I could get the 7970 for 327€, that's the Gigabyte 3 fan cooler card, and an MSI R9 290 stock cooler goes for 381€. Which one would you get?

290 is much better for those prices.

For a 60 buck difference I would for sure get the 290.

Personally, I'd go with an nvidia GPU. They're more stable.

I'd also go with a 750w and not less. I used to have a 500w and my PC is pretty old and it started crashing all the time until I upgraded to 750w.

Your advice seems incredibly odd.

An SSD is almost a must for any high end pc, for someone who wants a super fast expereince with his expensive hardware anyway.

You ALWAYS buy a power supply that is future proof. What if he decides to go crossfire in a few years?

Lastly, a full tower is ALWAYS better as it will cool his system a better.

In closing, your advice is terrible.

Well, I searched around a bit, nvidia vs amd, and everybody that compared these, said that purely for gaming amd is more suitable. Is there a better nvidia card for R9 290 price?

Is the Corsair Carbide 500R full tower (I know it says mid-tower), or are there even bigger ones? I mean I've found bigger, but they are really big, price too. Again this question, since you guys probably know, is there a case that's better for the price of 500R?

I think the 290 is technically the fastest, but AMD has a bad habit of clocking their cards so there isn't much headroom. So, they can have stability issues because of this. That has been my experience with AMD. The only AMD card I really liked was the Radeon 9800pro and it was ATI back then.

But it's up to your really, I just value stability more than the best possible performance in a benchmark. Best advice I can give you is to go to hardocp.com and click the GPU section and read the article about AMD 280/290 and nvidia 780 and decide for yourself.

Pretty well; I'd get R9 290 only without the stock cooler.

So go for the 7970 it's basically R9 280X and you can't get 280X under 400$

So here goes.

Hardocp: "Performance-wise, the R9 290 is on par with the GeForce GTX 780. The R9 290 is a much better performer than the GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The R9 290 is providing the performance of GTX 780, at $100 less cost. The value favors the AMD Radeon R9 290 in an epic way. The Radeon R9 290 provides the most value for single-display gaming on the market today."

Asus GeForce 700 Series GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II OC: 437€ (The cheapest one that was there.)

XFX RADEON HD7970 3GB DDR5 Dual Fan GHz-Edition: 328€ (Also the cheapest Ghz-Edition one.)

Gigabyte RADEON R9 290 4GB: 350€ (I know I previously said MSI R9 goes for 381, but I checked again and this is what I got now.)

By the time I'm ready to buy a card I believe they should have better cooling on R9 too. But I've read here and there that R9 prices are skyrocketing, so maybe I should hurry up to get one for 350€...?

Edit: The links are where I got the prices, it's in my language, but if you scroll down, you will see the prices of them in different stores. Great site that.

Im not disagreeing with the r9 290 but all i have heard about it is some pretty bad opinions and reviews? Im just curious as to a direct comparison between 290 and gtx 770 which are pretty similar in price here in the uk

The GTX780 is by 10-20% stronger than the R9 290X/290 but the 290/290X is better if you're going to use multiple screens or extremely large resolutions over 1080p

Anyhow an increase of 10-20% isn't good price/performance ratio compared to the 290 which is about 100 euros less.

Yep on most reviews I've also read that for it's price it's performance is awesome, the only bad thing about it is fan noise and it runs quite hot (about 90c i think?), and non-stock coolers should take care of that. On the Hardocp review it says that it's a much better performer than GTX 770.

"The R9 290 is a much better performer than the GTX 770 or Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The Radeon R9 290 provides the most value for single-display gaming on the market today."

Hardocp.com review

In their review R9 average fps is actually better than that of GTX 780's. Same settings except Metro where GTX has PhysX enabled.

I wouldn't care that much about the heat, those high end GPUs are built to run at such degrees, even the GTX780/780ti/Titan are running at such high heat;

The noise of the stock cooler is what most concerning.