NEW RIG PURCHASED!!

[DaddyO]

Ok guys, I am looking at getting back into the game and will need a new rig more than likely. Therefore I am looking for advice on such . I have always built my own systems, and my current is a water cooled, but I am feeling lazy and considering just buying one of the rack. Give me some advice on specs and such to look for.
Thanks,
Mark
AKA: =GzR= DaddyO

OK guys and gals, I finally decided to go further into debt and get the new rig. I looked at parts vs buying built and for the difference in price, to me, it was worth just buying it built. I have 2 PCs to build for family and I really have enough on my plate already, yeah I got lazy!

So I went with CyberPower PC, Which I used before on a PC for my living room a few years ago or so. So, without further ado here are the specs:
BLUETOOTH: None
CABLE: None
CARE1: Professional Wiring for All WIRING Inside The System Chassis - Minimize Cable Exposure, Maximize Airflow in Your System [+19]
CAS: Corsair Carbide AIR 540 w/ USB 3.0, Dual Chamber Direct Airflow, Full Side Panel Window [+114] (White Color)
CASUPGRADE: None
CC: None
CD: LG 14X Internal Blu-ray Burner, BD-RE, 3D Playback DVD+RW Combo Drive (Black Color)
CD2: None
COOLANT: Standard Coolant
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K 4.0 GHz 8MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150 (All Venom OC Certified)
CS_FAN: Default case fans
DOCKINGSTATION: None
ENGRAVING: Skull Design [+19]
FA_HDD: None
FAN: Deepcool Captain 240 240MM CPU Liquid Cooler [+43] (2 x Standard 120MM Fans)
FLASHMEDIA: None
FREEBIE_CU: FREE $50 VISA Gift Card with All Intel Core I7 and Intel Core I5 Desktops and Laptops
FREEBIE_VC1: FREE! Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Game Coupon [+0]
FREEBIE_VC2: Free 3DMark Advanced Edition Coupon [+0]
HD_M2PCIE: None
HD_M2SATA: None
HDD: 256GB SANDISK SSD + 1TB SATA III Hard Drive Combo (Combo Drive)
HDD2: None
HEADSET: Corsair Raptor HS40 7.1 USB GAMING HEADSET Gaming Headset [+49]
HS_HANGER: None
IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
KEYBOARD: None [-5]
MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/2133MHz Dual Channel Memory [+74] (ADATA XPG V3)
MONITOR: None
MOPAD: None
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Z97-K ATX w/ Intel GbLAN, 2 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 2 PCI, 1 x M.2, 6x SATA 6Gb/s [+3]
MOUSE: AZZA Optical 1600dpi Gaming Mouse with Weight Adjustable Cartridge
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
NFC: None
OS: Windows 7 Professional [+31] (64-bit Edition)
OVERCLOCK: Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [+19]
POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts - Thermaltake Toughpower - 80 PLUS Gold, Semi Modular Power Supply [+50]
RUSH: Standard Process Time: Ship within 8 Business Day
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR [3 Year Labor, 1 Year Parts] LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SLI_BRIDGE: Standard SLI/Crossfire Bridge
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: None
TEMP: None
TUNING: Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel [+29]
TVRC: None
USBFLASH: None
USBHD: None
USBX: None
VIDEO: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 [+15] (Single Card)
VIDEOCAMERA1: Logitech C615 Full HD 1080p Webcam [+73]
WNC: TP-LINK Archer T8E AC1750 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Card [+69]
WTV: None
_PRICE: (+2001)

I hope to see you guys in game again soon!!!!!!
DaddyO (AKA Mark)

[nervustwitch]

If I were to build one right now,I would do this....
-ASUS MOBO
-At least an i5 but I would go i7 CPU,either fastest or next to it.I never go under 3ghz
-no less than 8gb DDR3 1600 ram but would get 16gb
-EVGA 980 vid card,but if money was tighter I would get no less than a 970...thats just me
-At least a 750w PSU,its what I use now and its more than enough.I like the Corsair's
-HD I only use Western Digital Blacks.
-I would def get a SSD,least a 250gb for OS. For gaming it makes the maps load faster but I think thats about it as far as performance.

-Monitors I would want a 120hz and the lowest ms I could get and minimum 24"
-Blu Ray DVD for me,I think its just a matter of time before games start using the disks....games are starting to get big.I think GTA5 is around 7-8 dual layer disks.On e game studio is claiming their game will be about 100gb download at release...Star Citizen.

I prefer Logitech keyboards and mouse.

I dont care for water cooling since I never OC.I prefer air cooled.

As for Intel vs AMD,sorry I cant help there.The last AMD CPU I had was the Phenom II 955.
And for AMD vid,I just dont like them.I hate their driver support like no other. I know a few of the new games I have got from Steam,the forums are loaded with AMD vid users pissed over the driver support not letting them play at all. I have no experience myself with current.

I guess thats all I can think of off the top of my head right now. I cant help you with pre-built PC's,Ive never bought one.

Also not sure if you know it or not but starting on July 29th,all windows 7,8,8.1 users get windows 10 free.

[nervustwitch]

I also forgot to comment about the CPU,the reason I would go an i7 now.
I know most if not all games never use more than an i5,but like I said this new game set to release in a year or so claim that they will make use of all available pc hardware,even an i7.So it could be just a matter of time before other games start this.The game I mention is Star Citizen and knowing the dev Chris Roberts,maker of the Wing Commander games this will hold true.He has always made games that current hardware could not keep up with in the past.Well for their time anyway.

[=GzR=Yak]

AMD, NVIDIA and intel have great offerings right now. I have personally have never had driver issues and I've used AMD for over 5 years. I have also built 10+ rigs for customers (I build custom PC's on the side) with AMD parts and have yet to have a complaint about them. As for GPU, the r9 290x is still the best performance to dollar GPU out there, sure there are faster cards but if you are looking for best bang for your buck get that one. Keep in mind though, AMD is coming out with a new line of GPU's on 6/16/15 so I would at least wait until those get released. I'm almost 100% sure that with the new cards coming to market we will see price drops on other cards. The newest flagship GPUs coming to market from AMD will use HBM (high bandwidth memory) which is faster and more efficient than the standard DDR5 VRAM you'll find on every card out there.

1080p gaming, 3gb VRAM will be enough for any game, but don't let the amount of VRAM fool you as it is not a direct indicator of performance. Watch youtube video's on the card you are looking at to get a good idea of its in-game performance.
Anything above 1080p resolution I would recommend 4gb VRAM minimum.
www.gpuboss.com is you friend!
For CPU's the best gaming CPU right now is the i7 4790k, Its an awesome chip and overclocks like crazy. I have mine at 5ghz on water
Anything above the 4790k is overkill for gaming. For example, Intel's 5960x has a $1000 price tag yet it has the same gaming performance as its $300 little bro, the 4790k.
Intel also just released its new skylake CPU's which are aimed towards power efficiency, lower heat production and NOT raw processing power. If you are building this rig for gaming I'd recommend staying away from those. These CPU's will get the job done but it's not the best tool for the job. You will also have to get DDR4 RAM which doesn't have much more in terms of gaming performance when compared to DDR3. DDR4 is also much more expensive than DDR3.
AMD also has some nice CPU's too. I recently built an AMD rig for a customer consisting of an AMD 9590 CPU with a R9 290x GPU and it crushes BF4, GTA 5 and basically any demanding games at 1440p.
Like twitch said don't get a cpu clocked under 3Ghz but also take a look at L3 cache. 6mb will do you good for gaming but the more L3 cache the better. 8mb L3 cache seems to be the sweet spot right now.

If all this mumbo jumbo is too much to take in...let me know the following and I'll send you links for parts that would fit your budget and needs
-Maximum amount you are willing to spend
-Resolution you want to play at
-Preference between companies (AMD, INTEL, NVIDIA)
-What peripherals you need (monitor, mouse, keyboard)
-Anything in particular like color, form factor or maybe you want it as quiet as possible?
-Besides gaming, what else will you be using the computer for?
-SSD? Watercooling? Wireless network card? Led lights? Fan controller?

If you have any other questions or concerns let me know here or message me on steam, OMG ITS YAK.

[nervustwitch]

I agree with Yak.
I would also say that my 680 vid card is only 2gb of ram and that alone keeps me from going ultra in GTA5.If I boost my texture quality from normal to high it jumps from 1700mb used to over 3000mb...I have no clue what ultra would do.My CPU still does just fine at stock,I have yet to max it.
I want a new vid card with at least 4gb of ram.

Other than that I can run all other games maxed still,just not GTA5. If it helps I have almost 400 games just on Steam and I can max them all except GTA.So I do have the games to be able to test that theory....lol.

[DaddyO]

Thanks for the replies. I am going to be shopping soon and then start the build. I may even get a new PSU and case.