22ndSAS PC Gaming Clan

UPDATE 14/02/15: BUILD COMPLETE - Link
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Having admitted to myself that FarCry 4 is the first game my PC cant run on HIGH settings smoothly it is time to consider a new PC build.

Current system at stock values (no overclocking for me lol):

:: Intel i7 930 CPU @ 2.6Ghz
:: Gigabyte X58A-UD5 Mobo
:: 6x2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24 (TR3X6G1600C8D)
:: 1GB PCIe Sapphire HD 5850 Vapor-X
:: 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (Sata 2) & 128GB Samsung 840 SSD (Sata 3)
:: Corsair TX650 PSU
:: GigaByte Poseidon Case (black)

New build spec as follows (not 100% nailed down):

:: Intel i7 4790k 4Ghz 'Devils Canyon' (socket 1150)
:: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H / Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 / Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK
:: 4GB Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming (PCIe 3.0)
:: Corsair TX650 PSU (retain my current one) RM650 (80+ Gold)
:: Corsair 330R Case (to accomodate the 13" gigabyte GPU)
:: Corsair Hydro Series H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
:: Corsair DDR3 2400MHz 16GB (11-13-13-31) Vengeance Pro

Not sure on RAM or CPU cooler yet, the Cooler Master 612V2 looks ok for an air cooled solution, or I may look at a contained liquid one.

Cant decide on the mobo, I'm a fan of Gigabyte Ultra-Durable series as I have one currently and its been sound. However, the Asrock gets good reviews (as does the Gigabyte).

Your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

Having done more reading I've opted for the Gigabyte Z97X-UD5 board, the Asrock board appears to be suffering from some BIOS issues, the other 'Black Edition' Gigabyte UD3 board is a lesser spec than the UD5.

I have ordered the parts to my new rig, not far off your spec actually same card and processor

Case : CORSAIR CARBIDE SPEC-03 usb3 CASE
Power Supply : COOLERMASTER 600 WATT PSU With Power Cable Supplied
Motherboard : GIGABYTE Z97P-D3 usb3 sata3 gen3 10/1000 lan port
CPU : Intel I7 4th Gen 4790K Quad Core CPU 4Ghz (4.4Ghz Turbo)
Hard Drive : 120GB SATA 3 SSD AND 1000 GB SATA 3 7200 RPM
2nd hard Drive: 120gb SSD
16gb DDR3 1600mhz Corsair Gaming Memory
Graphics Card : GEFORCE 970 GTX 4GB DDR5
Optical Drive : 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer

Nice spec Godz

Today my GPU and Case arrived so I thought I'd do a 3DMark comparison between the 2 cards to see how far things have come in 4 years:

Cards - AMD Radeon HD5850 (1GB) & Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming (4GB)

FireStrike:
- HD5850 > 2419
- GTX970 > 8788

SkyDiver:
- HD5850 > 8479
- GTX970 > 20169

Cloud Gate:
- HD5850 > 13521
- GTX970 > 18804

Ice Storm:
- HD5850 > 95235
- GTX970 > 108589

Overall, the HD5850 was better than 24% of all 3DMark results, the GTX970 was 83% better than all 3DMarks results. Both benchmarks were performed on the same settings.

My current mobo is limited to PCIe 2.0 standard, the GTX970 supports PCIe 3.0 so I'd expect even better results on a mobo capable of PCIe 3.0.

Just played an hour on FC4 with settings on highest - smooth as butter

I think my MB supports PCIe 3.0 so i should get some good results

Yeah i think all intel z97 mobos have PCIe 3.0 mate. Let us know your bench results if you do any

lol you will have to tell me how to. I have also ordered the Intel i7 4790k 4Ghz 'Devils Canyon' fook knows what it does but sounds nice

Devil’s Canyon is the codename for a new revision of Intel’s 4th Gen Core processors, based on the Haswell microarchitecture, that features a high performance polymer thermal interface material (TIM) in addition to an array of additional capacitors to smooth power delivery to the core.

In other words, they're better for overclocking than the previous 4th Gen Haswell CPUs.

Read more at http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Devils-C ... rdcholZ.99

Let us know once your sysrem is built and I'll tell you how to benchmark it

Now go get an overpriced G-Sync monitor ... (I really wan't one)