Gaming PC for Skyrim - max. 2000EUR/2200USD

[guk]

Hello my fellow Loverslabbers

 

I am going to buy a new gaming PC, and i need your advice. What i'm looking for is a configuration that allows me to run Skyrim in acceptable framerates and without stuttering or freezes under these conditions:

• high-end ENB setups (category Tranquility / K ENBs or similar)
• 4K or 2160p Downsampling
• 4K/8K textures + parallax where available
• high uGridsToLoad (at least temporary for landscape art)
• hi-poly mesh replacers and flora mods

and whatever else you can get for grade A screenarchery.

The absolute price limit would be 2000 EUR (2200 USD) for everything including monitor, keyboard, mouse and operating system. This is just my personal pain threshold for the budget, but so far i never paid more than ~1750€ for an entire PC that is supposed to last a few years. So keep that in mind for the pricing.

 

Just talked to a friend who is always up to date with everything PC-related, but he knows nothing at all about Skyrim-specific requirements and that's where i need you guys.

Preliminary config looks like this:

• GeForce GTX 970 4GB (Sapphire suggested) - 390€   (AMD is not an option for ENB, and SLI seems to be problematic)
• Intel® Core i7-4790K - 350€
• G.Skill DIMM 16 GB DDR3-2400 Kit - 135€
• ASUS Z97-DELUXE - 290€

--------

~1165€ for the core parts

 

 

I also need a monitor suitable for (photo)graphic work, so criteria like color fidelity are important than 20 gaming presets and zero reaction time. Now i heard that the fancy 144hz gaming monitors have issues with low framerates, gonna need the verdict of screenarchers who tried this with extreme ENB setups.

2 random suggestions have been this:

• BenQ XL2411Z (144hz) - 300€
• Acer G246HLBbid (60hz) - 140€

Further i need suggestions for the rest:

• SSD
• HDD
• Cooler / Fans
• Case (so far NZXT Phantom 820 Ultra+ Tower (250€) or NZXT H440 - Midi Tower (140€) have been suggested)
• Mouse / Keyboard
• Soundcard
• Whatever else i might have missed

And i guess Windows 7 is still mandatory for gaming and Skyrim in particular. I also have a Sennheiser PC350SE headset which is probably the only thing that i want to keep from my old PC.

 

 

 

Hoping for good input, thanks in advance

[Killing Joke]

For 4k downsampling the GTX 970 won't be powerful enough, especially with an enb. Apart from that, that's my rig (i7 4790k + GTX 970 + benQ 144hz) and I'm more than happy with it. But for color fidelity, you can forget gaming oriented screens, I have yet to see a computer screen with great colors AND 144hz, you will have to make a choice. I guess it's too niche of a market for manufacturers to propose both, gamers and graphists overall must have different tastes and needs.

[ousnius]

I have an overclocked GTX 980 and almost the same CPU, and I can barely run 1440p with a decent ENB (K ENB with disabled DoF - 40 fps) and grids at only 7. My PC was 1400€ and maybe more with upgrades. So, 4K is completely out of the way, even with a 980 I'm afraid.

 

Personally, I would wait for the next generation of graphics chips with their new architecture. They will have HBM memory, which makes that part of them way faster.

AMD will probably be first with HBM memory, but NVIDIA will follow right after closer to the end of this year.

 

Same for CPU's. Intel's Skylake generation is very near.

 

About monitors, I would definitely go for a 144 Hz one. However, most gaming monitors (144 Hz and similar stuff) aren't all that good at displaying good colors.

So I went with the ROG Swift which is 800€ and has very good speed and very decent quality of everything else, though the colors are obviously not as good as on an IPS monitor - because I can.

 

The problem with most current IPS monitors is that they aren't quite as responsive yet.

 

Definitely go for an SSD and Windows 8.1/10. I consider this one of the best upgrades I ever did. It's purely wrong that Windows 7 is mandatory for anything. While Windows 8 sucked, Windows 8.1 is better in pretty much everything once you got used to it. There's also programs that bring the start menu back for you, if you really can't let go of it.

 

I got the Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB as my choice of SSD. While a bit more expensive than others, they're very stable and last long.

[Anatriax]

Hello my fellow Loverslabbers

 

I am going to buy a new gaming PC, and i need your advice. What i'm looking for is a configuration that allows me to run Skyrim in acceptable framerates and without stuttering or freezes under these conditions:

• high-end ENB setups (category Tranquility / K ENBs or similar)
• 4K or 2160p Downsampling
• 4K/8K textures + parallax where available
• high uGridsToLoad (at least temporary for landscape art)
• hi-poly mesh replacers

and whatever else you can get for grade A screenarchery.

The absolute price limit would be 2000 EUR (2200 USD) for everything including monitor, keyboard, mouse and operating system. This is just my personal pain threshold for the budget, but so far i never paid more than ~1750€ for an entire PC that is supposed to last a few years. So keep that in mind for the pricing.

 

Just talked to a friend who is always up to date with everything PC-related, but he knows nothing at all about Skyrim-specific requirements and that's where i need you guys.

Preliminary config looks like this:

• GeForce GTX 970 4GB (Sapphire suggested) - 390€   (AMD is not an option for ENB, and SLI seems to be problematic)
• Intel® Core i7-4790K - 350€
• G.Skill DIMM 16 GB DDR3-2400 Kit - 135€
• ASUS Z97-DELUXE - 290€

--------

~1165€ for the core parts

 

 

I also need a monitor suitable for (photo)graphic work, so criteria like color fidelity are important than 20 gaming presets and zero reaction time. Now i heard that the fancy 144hz gaming monitors have issues with low framerates, gonna need the verdict of screenarchers who tried this with extreme ENB setups.

2 random suggestions have been this:

• BenQ XL2411Z (144hz) - 300€
• Acer G246HLBbid (60hz) - 140€

Further i need suggestions for the rest:

• SSD
• HDD
• Cooler / Fans
• Case (so far NZXT Phantom 820 Ultra+ Tower (250€) or NZXT H440 - Midi Tower (140€) have been suggested)
• Mouse / Keyboard
• Soundcard
• Whatever else i might have missed

And i guess Windows 7 is still mandatory for gaming and Skyrim in particular. I also have a Sennheiser PC350SE headset which is probably the only thing that i want to keep from my old PC.

 

 

 

Hoping for good input, thanks in advance

 

Don't waste your time with a GTX 970. If you're spending that kind of cash already, spend the extra 50-60 and get a 980, also don't go Sapphire. Get ASUS. The new STRIX cooling system is one of the most efficient on the market, and ASUS makes a kick ass card (Like the do EVERYTHING).

 

Don't worry so much about uGridsToLoad. With TESVLODGen, you don't have to worry about it much at all. (Check out some of the screenshots in my guide).

 

While Intel does make a good CPU, I'm more of an AMD fan. Why? With proper cooling you can overclock them to the moon and back, and get more performance out of a cheaper CPU. (I've had my FX 8120 OCed from 3.1gz to 4.1 for nearly 3 years with a liquid cooling unit, and I'm totally stable. I paid $130 for it.)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8324286&CatId=11857

 

Acer makes total shit, in everything else but monitors. Their monitors are quite solid. 

 

DDR3 is becoming a thing of the past. DDR4 is where it's at now.

 

 

[ousnius]

ASUS custom cards are good, but in the case of the GTX 980, MSI's has received better rating across reviewers and the big fans it has cool them just as well and quiet (so I got that one and can't complain, I can OC it to hell without the temperatures going even near 70°C air-cooled).

 

In my opinion, AMD CPU's aren't even worth talking about. Not having hyper-threading and having less per-core performance makes them worthless for the next generation of games alone to me (which will have more multi-threading due to the new console generation). Their GPU's are alright, but unless they revamp their desktop CPU's entirely, I'm not gonna be a fan of them.

[guk]

Thanks for your replies so far, i'll go through most points in random order:

 

First off, waiting for a new GPU generation is not an option unless that comes out in the next 1-2 weeks and starts at similar prices like the current high-end cards ;-) Translation, i need the new PC pretty fast because i already waited too long with replacing this one.

Also for further mutual understanding, when i say "K ENB" i mean the "Extreme" version, so it's not about gameplay but the interactive render studio.

 

Asus or MSI GTX 980 sounds like a solid choice, i know that Graphics Cards are nothing to save money with. I also appreciate good custom coolers, all the stock coolers are just a death trap for dust and make a lot of noise. My friend only suggested Sapphire because they are supposed to be great in this generation, but i know ASUS has always been top notch quality. Don't know about MSI though, gonna check out the reviews for those.

 

Downsampling:

 

 

Downsampling with ENB doesn't have to be playable @60fps, but operable for screenshot sessions. It's just that my current PC gets so slow in 2180p with K ENB that i can't even type in the console and scripts plain stop working (screenshot assist SKSE hotkeys mostly). That is after looking at the loading screens for a couple of minutes,  which are 3-5 secs with Grim&Somber ENBs in 1080p.

I guess having 15-20 fps in detailed outdoor scenes in 2180p would be good enough, that's about what i get right now in 1080p with 2K Parallax, SFO 2 and Tranq ENB.

 

 

OFF-TOPIC

 

 

Sidenote - actually Tranquility ENB looks almost perfect in 1080p without downsampling, while K ENB is only designed for downsampling (it simply looks not half good in 1080p).

Also the DoF in K ENB is complete crap, and doesn't even have an in-game GUI. No idea how screenarchers can work with this. Just made this screenshot yesterday with help of the adjustable auto-focus in Tranquility ENB:

 

 

Note that the girl and the rocks/trees to the left are in focus, while the crap in the center is blurred. This works by setting the autofocus anywhere you want on the screen, so you don't have to fiddle around with the manual focus and "hope" that you get the focal length right.

K ENB doesn't even have a manual focus last time i checked.

 

But yea if you really want to play the game in 1440p, you may want to disable DoF by default and only turn on for screenshots. The best DoF can cost 50%+ performance. Ideally replace it with Kingeric's DSLR DoF if you know how to customize it.

 

 

 

 

 

GeForce vs. AMD:

 

 

I had a Radeon 7950 3GB-OC card the past 2.5 years, and i'm not going to buy another AMD card any time soon.

 

1. ENB is tailored for Nvidia, there's no way around this

2. Catalyst has become a joke with 1 update every 6-9 months (they used to update every month back in the golden ATI days)

3. You can't even force things like FPS limit or Downsampling all of which are standard for nvidia drivers

4. Their hardware has become B-Ware, no other way to put it (coming from a formerly faithful ATI-customer)

 

 

 

uGrids:

 

 

AFAIK uGrids are taboo for actual gaming, but essential for pure screenarchery. All the LoD mods and tweaks are nice, but the only way to have the game render exactly the textures and meshes you have installed over long distances is to force large uGrids and adjust the grass settings accordingly. Of course the performance takes a huge hit by doing this, but that's something to take into account for the hardware power.

 

Definitely gonna have a look at that TESVloadgen, thanks for the hint. It's just that mods like the high quality LoD meshes are a nightmare because you can't create your own texture setups without spending hundreds of hours customizing everything.

 

 

 

Monitor choice:

 

 

So far i had a BenQ XL2420 (120hz + 3D support), sort of wasted half the money because i never used the 3D feature or the gaming modes, and the color fidelty in sRBG mode is barely acceptable for screen art. I also don't expect more than 40-60fps in Skyrim with the really heavy ENB / mod setups, so the 144hz monitors are probably off the table.

 

Thing is that most screen art looks already great on this monitor, but

A) a plain colored screen doesn't look plain (backlight)

after proper calibration everything looks too dark

C) all the "gaming" and "cinematic" modes are useless gargabe, as mentioned you never want anything else than sRGB mode anyway

 

Still hoping anyone has particular suggestions for affordable photo-grade monitors? 24" and 1080p are probably enough, downsampling is just for special screenshots in Skyrim and for other games that run with high fps in 2180p or 4K.

800€ however is definitely too expensive - Might rather buy three of the 60hz monitors for half the price of that ;-)

 

 

 

Windows 8.1:

 

 

I'll trust you on that

 

Assuming that all the trouble where games simply don't work with Windows 8 doesn't apply to Windows 8.1 at all?

Would hate having to use the injector version of ENB because of that. For older games i would at least have my old PC then.

 

 

 

SSD:

 

 

I'm a bit torn here. Right now i have a Samsung 250GB with only Win7 + Skyrim + Blizzard Games on it (which is always full since i switched to MO, Skyrim folder grew from 30GB to  103GB), but with all the daily billions of read/write accesses that comes with Skyrim modding it is sort of a dilemma of loading times vs. durability/safety.

 

At least my friend greatly suggested to ONLY have Windows on the main SSD due to the durability, and if necessary add another one for special games and programs. Of course this would be another big hit on the budget.

 

 

[turbobanana]

Stick with a 980 like has been mentioned.

A  K-series Intel i5 is your best bet to save money now and maybe worry about a big i7 later down the road.

Look into AsRock motherboards, as good as ASUS but generally cheaper.

The only monitor you want for any kind of color work is an IPS, you just need to find one in your budget.

Any case from a reputable name will do you, NZXT, Corsair, Fractal all have mid towers under $100 U.S.

Cooler Master's air cpu coolers work great for cheap, I've got a hyper 212 evo and it keeps my 3770k under 65 degrees with a 4.5ghx clock on it...cost me $30.

 

 

You aren't looking for framerate so there's need to go overboard with everything. Things like DDR3-1600 might save you a few bucks and outside of benchmarks will be the same as the faster ram.

 

If you have windows 7 now, keep it. You'll still get a free upgrade to windows 10.

[ousnius]

Right, keep Windows 7 for now, but do upgrade to Windows 10 (unless it manages to have some serious issues). Windows 8.1 works just fine for anything for me. I can use the ENB wrapper version, I can play Skyrim, I can play old RPG's from 2001, I can play The Lost Vikings in DosBox, I can play WarCraft 3.... etc. So I don't know where that trouble comes from. Maybe people are doing the wrong things.

 

Sometimes you have to use the DirectX web installer or similar things or make sure your admin rights are where they are supposed to be (or even just disabling UAC), though. Windows 10 most likely won't be too different in that department.

 

If you want to be future proof, I do still suggest you wait just a while longer. This is not like any of the other "next gens", this is a true jump with Skylake, HBM memory, PCI-E 4 and DX12. I know it's tempting and I can't blame you for that, I'm the same.

 

About your example with K ENB Extreme at 2160p. You will get just about 5 fps outside with its DoF enabled - hell, I get 15 inside at 1440p. And 30 fps already annoys me, even for screenshots. 

[guk]

I see.. well i need to buy a new OS anyway, unless i'd sell my current 2nd PC without its Win7. All the reported issues and complaints in the past have been about Windows 8, which had the reputation like Vista or ME to be contraproductive for gamers. With the unwritten rule that every second OS by MS is garbage

But if Win 8.1 is actually a better Win7 as you describe it, i'll check it out.

 

About waiting for the new hardware, it would probably be unaffordably expensive as the latest hardware always is (losing 50% value within the first year), and i would buy the same hardware generation that is already out now. So i'd just save money while wasting time being frustrated over my current hardware. Not a very good deal either, and the time wasting part is literal with the massive increase of loading screen times and stuttering when installing the high end ENBs.

 

i5 vs i7 - been reading about this, probably not worth the i7 unless i wanted to record gameplay videos. Definitely need to save some money somewhere in the config. Only thing i wouldn't consider are the asrock products, because i need hardware that lasts for several years with many many thousand hours of operating time.

 

 

Thanks again guys, getting some good insights. I used to read hardware magazines every month back in the 1990's and early 2000's, but at some point lost interest and only check up on the situation when i need to buy a new rig.

[afa]

390x and 980Ti could very well get officially announce and date in the next 1 to 2 weeks.

And with a budget like $2000+ I don't see a reason for you gimp on the video card department, not for the 970, and not with these requirement.

 

There's currently no exceptional single card solution for 4k gaming. Even the almighty Titan struggles with it depending on the game, and quite frankly with this budget Titan isn't that out of reach dollar per performance aside.

 

Skylake is...well, not that impressive on its own, but rather what it brings in terms of possibilities of other hardware, which will no doubt cost a pretty penny if they all hit at once.

On the other hand Skyrim being unusually CPU intensive needs all the boost it can get.

DDR4 would be a boon, but motherboard cost will likely go up along with it might be a little rough.

 

Monitor is up to your eyes. I don't know how useful 60hz+ is going to be since hitting that frame rate with this kind of graphic settings consistently is dubious also doesn't hdt acts weird when it goes above 60?

 

I would go lower on the case. I know many people swear by full tower. But I would not spend more than a $100 on a case unless you are SLI/Crossfire and/or water cooling. Also think about case + fan as a whole unit. Number of case fans you want, their size, how much they cost each and then add that onto the case itself.

[ousnius]

390x and 980Ti could very well get officially announce and date in the next 1 to 2 weeks.

And with a budget like $2000+ I don't see a reason for you gimp on the video card department, not for the 970, and not with these requirement.

 

There's currently no exceptional single card solution for 4k gaming. Even the almighty Titan struggles with it depending on the game, and quite frankly with this budget Titan isn't that out of reach dollar per performance aside.

 

Skylake is...well, not that impressive on its own, but rather what it brings in terms of possibilities of other hardware, which will no doubt cost a pretty penny if they all hit at once.

On the other hand Skyrim being unusually CPU intensive needs all the boost it can get.

DDR4 would be a boon, but motherboard cost will likely go up along with it might be a little rough.

 

Monitor is up to your eyes. I don't know how useful 60hz+ is going to be since hitting that frame rate with this kind of graphic settings consistently is dubious also doesn't hdt acts weird when it goes above 60?

 

I would go lower on the case. I know many people swear by full tower. But I would not spend more than a $100 on a case unless you are SLI/Crossfire and/or water cooling. Also think about case + fan as a whole unit. Number of case fans you want, their size, how much they cost each and then add that onto the case itself.

 

True about the 4K thing.

 

Yes, for Skyrim you have to lock your frames to 60 with the NVIDIA drivers or ENB. Skyrim's V-Sync would "lock" your fps to 144 with a 144 Hz monitor, which doesn't work with its physics engine. In other words, Skyrim is completely bugged when you have a 75+ Hz monitor and don't know you have to limit its frames.

 

I'm just kind of being worried that an i7 and a GTX 980 from today will not last thousands of years. I mean I'm already struggling playing World of WarCraft at 60 fps 1440p in bigger fights.

1080p no problem, but 1440p and 2160p are huuge hits.

[LizabethE]

A few pointers from someone that just had my computer built earlier this month.  My out the door cost was $2097.53 not including over $100 in rebates, so under the price tag you're shooting for.  Also, my setup has some stuff you could save on.  For example my CPU is overkill for Skyrim, but I need it for multitasking.

 

1) Regardless of what you buy, use PCPartPicker.com to put it together.  Not only will you make sure all parts are compatible, but it will suggest combos, rebates, and discounts among the top distributors so you get the best price.

 

2) This is my setup: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CKfdP6. I didn't pay as much as it suggests.  I caught a lot of these parts on special.  Monitor for example I paid $600 for, not the current $760.  It also don't show combos like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1814667 I purchased.  But every little goes a long ways in the purse.

 

3) Don't pay full price for Windows.  I went to Microsoft's website, find the "Student" version.  Its Win 8.1 Professional for $69, almost a third of the cost.  If you're not a student, get a buddy to help you out.  Just need an e-mail or ID, even if its old or no longer attending.

 

4) I agree with what others have said about graphics cards.  Originally I wanted to upgrade my 3 screen display to three 4k screens.  I quickly found that was insanely not an option/tech isn't available/realistic, and downgraded to the hopes of 3 2k screens.  However, right now I just use one 27" screen, it has plenty of screen real estate, and I am comfortable waiting for the new 300 series graphics cards to buy my second two monitors.  The BenQ XL2730Z I have has excellent picture quality, so I respectfully disagree with others on that, and it has a very handy "puck" that allows instant different configurations, but it will take time to get those settings configured right.  I have it set for work (lower brightness, softer whites, etc), gaming, and movies.  The bezels are a little bigger than I prefer, but you didn't mention you were looking for multiple screens, so that won't bug you.  If you're dead set on a 4k screen though, good luck.
 

[nutluck]

I have been looking at building my next PC so I have been researching stuff. Right now you are right a i5 is good enough the i7 makes very little difference in performance over the i5. With that said though there is a good chance that is going to be changing in the next couple of years a few games are starting to take advantage of the i7 hyperthreading ability. Until more do it's not worth it but something to consider.

 

As for the mother board I personally would like at the MSI Z97A gaming 7, IMHO it has similar stats to the one you are looking at and a little cheaper.

 

I do agree with the rest get a GTX 980, but wait a little bit the new GTX 980Ti cards will be out soon. So you can either wait and get one of them or wait and the regular GTX 980 will come down in price and save you a few bucks. Also EVGA, MSI and ASUS brands tend to all have good ratings, though from my research the MSI cards tend to be some of the best bang for the buck.

 

As for the monitor I would get one that has Gsync myself, also keep in mind you can wait on the monitor for now. As that is something that is easy to upgrade later. I would focus on spending the money on the stuff that is hard to upgrade and getting good parts there. Motherboard, CPU, Case, water cooler, being the big ones.

 

For the SSD I have been looking at these two.

Corsair Force LS CSSD-F960GBLSB 2.5" 960GB SATA III

SAMSUNG 850 Pro Series MZ-7KE1T0BW

 

Samsung is a bit more expensive but both have similar high end speed for gaming.

 

For a PSU I was looking at the Corsair AXi series AXi1200W. It is better to have a PSU higher than you need so even under a heavy load it never pushes the PSU hard which increases the life of the PSU and decreases the heat it makes, which makes the whole PC a bit cooler, plus it will lets you add SLI video cards later if you want.

 

For a case I have been looking at the Cool Master HAF 932 Advanced.

 

For sound card the onboard one on the motherboard I suggested is pretty good. But if you want a better one I have heard the ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 is a good one but expensive.

 

Unless you plan to massively overclock the CPU the CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i High Performance cooler should be more than good enough.

[guk]

Quick question, which ASUS mainboard is the equivalent of the ASUS Z97-Deluxe without the luxury gadgets like wi-fi / bluetooth etc. ? Actually i wouldn't need the onboard sound either, unless someone can show me test that the Realtek ALC1150 is equal in performance and quality to actual sound cards.

This is insane, every manufacturer has like 10-20 boards with the same chipset.

 

I definitely need to squeeze out some money without losing performance, driver quality or durability. Prices are not cheap in the EU right now, spent the past hours comparing products and prices.

Apparently it's ~600€ just for the GTX980.

[nutluck]

Honestly don't know about the ASUS. I have a ASUS is my current build and plan to switch to a MSI, the MSI mother board I listed is similar and about 100 bucks cheaper. If you want to stay with a ASUS then find another version of the Z97, there should be two or three versions of it beyond the deluxe one.

[guk]

Honestly don't know about the ASUS. I have a ASUS is my current build and plan to switch to a MSI, the MSI mother board I listed is similar and about 100 bucks cheaper. If you want to stay with a ASUS then find another version of the Z97, there should be two or three versions of it beyond the deluxe one.

Just checked this and there are 32 different Z97 boards from ASUS alone Price range from 90€ to 420€.

 

Main reason for ASUS are probably their drivers and tools, but i'm open for anything that does the same.

_____

 

edit: okay the MSI Z97 Gaming 7 looks really good in the tests and the main difference to the ASUS deluxe are the ports and software. Saving 80€ right there.

[nutluck]

 

Honestly don't know about the ASUS. I have a ASUS is my current build and plan to switch to a MSI, the MSI mother board I listed is similar and about 100 bucks cheaper. If you want to stay with a ASUS then find another version of the Z97, there should be two or three versions of it beyond the deluxe one.

Just checked this and there are 32 different Z97 boards from ASUS alone Price range from 90€ to 420€.

 

Main reason for ASUS are probably their drivers and tools, but i'm open for anything that does the same.

_____

 

edit: okay the MSI Z97 Gaming 7 looks really good in the tests and the main difference to the ASUS deluxe are the ports and software. Saving 80€ right there.

 

 

80 is a lot, if you can wait another month till the GTX 980Ti cards come out you can likely save 100 on a GTX 980 as they should drop in price a lot after the Ti version comes out.

[turbobanana]

 

Honestly don't know about the ASUS. I have a ASUS is my current build and plan to switch to a MSI, the MSI mother board I listed is similar and about 100 bucks cheaper. If you want to stay with a ASUS then find another version of the Z97, there should be two or three versions of it beyond the deluxe one.

Just checked this and there are 32 different Z97 boards from ASUS alone Price range from 90€ to 420€.

 

Main reason for ASUS are probably their drivers and tools, but i'm open for anything that does the same.

_____

 

edit: okay the MSI Z97 Gaming 7 looks really good in the tests and the main difference to the ASUS deluxe are the ports and software. Saving 80€ right there.

 

 

Cut features, things like usb ports, pci express slots, things of that nature. I still stand by the ASRock recommendation for the value..I'm still running an ASRock Z77 board after 2.5 years that's now pushing 2 Titan X in 3DMark within spitting distance of people with X99 builds.

[guk]

80 is a lot, if you can wait another month till the GTX 980Ti cards come out you can likely save 100 on a GTX 980 as they should drop in price a lot after the Ti version comes out.

Chances are that it takes a month before i have verified all parts, problem ATM seems to be that many prices are stagnating or increasing. Dollar/Euro exchange course is pretty bad for us right now.

 

 

Cut features, things like usb ports, pci express slots, things of that nature. I still stand by the ASRock recommendation for the value..I'm still running an ASRock Z77 board after 2.5 years that's now pushing 2 Titan X in 3DMark within spitting distance of people with X99 builds.

What about their software? My last mobo and videocard were by Gigabyte and their tools are simply horrible compared to ASUS or MSI. Customer support didn't seem helpful either after looking at their forums.

[turbobanana]

 

80 is a lot, if you can wait another month till the GTX 980Ti cards come out you can likely save 100 on a GTX 980 as they should drop in price a lot after the Ti version comes out.

Chances are that it takes a month before i have verified all parts, problem ATM seems to be that many prices are stagnating or increasing. Dollar/Euro exchange course is pretty bad for us right now.

 

 

Cut features, things like usb ports, pci express slots, things of that nature. I still stand by the ASRock recommendation for the value..I'm still running an ASRock Z77 board after 2.5 years that's now pushing 2 Titan X in 3DMark within spitting distance of people with X99 builds.

What about their software? My last mobo and videocard were by Gigabyte and their tools are simply horrible compared to ASUS or MSI. Customer support didn't seem helpful either after looking at their forums.

 

 

Depends what you need, I've had zero issues with the UEFI, drivers and a few utilities. Anything outside of that I've just used whichever software worked the best. And fpr what it's worth, ASRock used to be part of ASUS. They were spun off years ago for more entry level stuff but have since caught ASUS in engineering / quality with the higher end pieces. Again, not really trying to sell you the board, but options are options when you're scrapping for every cent (Euro?) as it were.

[Vortec]

 I've been using Tom's Hardware for some 20 years as a guide, might want to check it out http://www.tomshardware.com/

[nutluck]

 

80 is a lot, if you can wait another month till the GTX 980Ti cards come out you can likely save 100 on a GTX 980 as they should drop in price a lot after the Ti version comes out.

Chances are that it takes a month before i have verified all parts, problem ATM seems to be that many prices are stagnating or increasing. Dollar/Euro exchange course is pretty bad for us right now.

 

 

Cut features, things like usb ports, pci express slots, things of that nature. I still stand by the ASRock recommendation for the value..I'm still running an ASRock Z77 board after 2.5 years that's now pushing 2 Titan X in 3DMark within spitting distance of people with X99 builds.

What about their software? My last mobo and videocard were by Gigabyte and their tools are simply horrible compared to ASUS or MSI. Customer support didn't seem helpful either after looking at their forums.

 

 

I agree ASUS and MSI have the best motherboard software in my experience. As I mentioned I have a ASUS now and I have no complaints. Just when I looked at them I found I could get pretty much the same things I wanted with a MSI board for less.

 

As for the video card I don't know exactly when the GTX 980Ti's are coming out but all indications are they are coming soon as they have already released some of the data on them. Once they do come out give it 2-4 weeks and the regular GTX 980 cards should drop in price.

[guk]

Temporary Rebuild, could use more opinions on this:

• MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G - 590€
• i5-4690K - 215€
• MSI Z97 Gaming 7 - 170€
• G.Skill TridentX DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR3-2400, CL10-12-12-31 (F3-2400C10D-16GTX) - 140€
• SanDisk Ultra II 240GB, SATA 6Gb/s (SDSSDHII-240G-G25) - 95€
• Western Digital WD Red 2TB, 3.5", SATA 6Gb/s (WD20EFRX) - 90€
• Thermalright HR-02 Macho PCGH-Edition - 40€
• Antec Edge 650W ATX 2.4 - 100€
• ASUS BW-16D1HT (BluRay) - 70€
• NZXT H440 - 120€
• ASUS VX279Q, 27" - 230€
• Win8.1 Pro x64 - 125€
• Mouse - ?
• Keyboard - ?
• Soundcard - ?

----------------

~1985€

 

Taken from a german "cheapest deals" site and rounded, so there's gonna be some plus/minus (rather plus). Basically only the gtx980 is the budget killer, and many components like the monitor are just random grabs by criteria search + ratings.

This also doesn't include Mouse/Keyboard or Soundcard yet. No idea how good the latest Realtek ALC1150 onboard chip is compared to my current Soundblaster Z?

 

Also one question about Xeon CPUs, i heard they are equivalent to the i5/i7 just without onboard graphics - which models would be interesting compared to the i5-4690K ?

 

 

__________

 

GEIZHALS links (german)

 

 

1 x Western Digital WD Red 2TB, 3.5", SATA 6Gb/s (WD20EFRX)

1 x SanDisk Ultra II 240GB, SATA 6Gb/s (SDSSDHII-240G-G25)

1 x Intel Core i5-4690, 4x 3.50GHz, boxed (BX80646I54690)

1 x G.Skill TridentX DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR3-2400, CL10-12-12-31 (F3-2400C10D-16GTX)

1 x MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G, GeForce GTX 980, 4GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI, 3x DisplayPort (V317-008R)

1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 7 (7916-001R)

1 x ASUS VX279Q, 27" (90LM00F0-B01670)

1 x ASUS BW-16D1HT schwarz, SATA, retail (90DD01E0-B20000)

1 x Thermalright HR-02 Macho PCGH-Edition (100700719)

1 x NZXT H440 schwarz/rot mit Sichtfenster, schallgedämmt (CA-H440W-M1)

1 x Antec Edge 650W ATX 2.4 (0761345-05065-4)

1 x Microsoft: Windows 8.1 Pro 64Bit, DSP/SB (deutsch) (PC) (FQC-06942)

 

 

[ousnius]

I don't suggest Xeon CPU's for gaming. They're made for completely different purposes (like high multi-threading applications (servers, rendering stuff)). i5/7 are just fine.

 

Not sure if I like the idea of an i5 without hyper threading, though. You might be losing overall system stability by having "only" 4 cores which will in turn be mostly used up when gaming.

 

Maybe you can drop Windows 8.1 because of the insane price and keep using 7 until 10 comes out and get the 4790k instead? Or do you need a new license either way?

 

For a German hardware site I suggest mindfactory, they're the cheapest yet best very often.

[nutluck]

@Cell I agree if he plans to use the PC for other things a i7 is better but for gaming right now so few games use hyper threading that there is almost no performance difference in the i7 over a i5. I did a lot of looking into this lately myself and checked a lot of performance test and on most games the difference was 2-3 fps difference and considering the huge price difference that's nothing. Now I do agree that is likely to change as their is a few games that use hyper threading and if more start using it then there will be a much bigger difference.

 

@Guk The MSI motherboard has a pretty good on board sound card. Honestly I would for now hold off and see how you like the onboard one. If you use it for a month or two and want better you can always get a sound card later but I think you will be content with the onboard one.

 

I do agree with Cell in that if you can't keep your windows 7 for now. Supposedly Microsoft is going to let owners of Windows 7 and 8 update to windows 10 for free in the first month or two after release. So that could save you a lot in the long run, even if not I would hold off and buy windows 10 when it comes out over 8. (a note I am not a huge fan of windows 8, I prefer 7 myself)

 

The one thing on your list I don't agree with is your PSU, it is on the low end. It is enough to run your system but if you ever decided you want to do SLI cards etc you might run into issues. Also the PSU will be running at near max power when the PC is under a load which cuts the life some and heats the whole computer up.

 

Personally I would wait on windows 8 and use the money from that to get a much better PSU. I personally made the mistake of going with a PSU that was good enough the first time I built a PC and regretted that decision later. Since I had to get a new PSU long before I should have when I was updating my current PC. Which I have updated about as much as possible now which is why I have started to look into my next upgrade. Most of the parts I can use off my current one, mostly cause I bought better than needed with the idea of future updates in mind.