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which would be better

iamnoob
Level 7
first of all i'm a total noob (firstimer) on DIY computers. sorry for my noobness.

im planning to build a pc sometime this year. im not on a tight budget but i want to get the best out of my money.

so here it comes:

4770k + sabertooth z97 + asus 780ti dcII oc (i want the Gold stickers to match the color of the board)

or

4770k + maximus 7 hero z97 + matrix 780ti

and if i swapped hero with formula how much would it boost the system?

i want the nzxt phantom 530 (white preferably) for my case, 32gbs of ram and a water cooler for the cpu (kraken x60 maybe?).

any suggestions about PSU and the water cooler?

p.s. this will be a workstation/gaming computer. i dont know how to overclock yet but im planning to overclock it.

thanks in advance guys and gals.
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9 REPLIES 9

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
Hi iamnoob 🙂

I think the Maximus vii Formula will pretty much be the top platform for gaming. The hero is good too but the Formula is positioned higher in the lineup and I presume has more features...though of course it has not been presented yet!

Also the next lot of CPUs from Intel is almost here so i would frankly wait a bit to see what haswell refresh offers at the high end....Devil's Canyon.

I think for a mix of gaming and OCing though it would be a very nice board...looking at current and past Formula models.

The PSU I would advise get the best you can...it is the heart of the system and an often overlooked part of the build....Seasonic make great PSUs or Corsair AX series...

RAM...whatever size kit you get make sure it is one single kit...don't mix kits even of "same" make and model. I put same in commas because they are not..one kit is binned to work as a kit not with other kits so to fill all slots get a 32 GB quad channel kit.

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
Hi iamnoob 🙂

I think the Maximus vii Formula will pretty much be the top platform for gaming. The hero is good too but the Formula is positioned higher in the lineup and I presume has more features...though of course it has not been presented yet!

Also the next lot of CPUs from Intel is almost here so i would frankly wait a bit to see what haswell refresh offers at the high end....Devil's Canyon.

I think for a mix of gaming and OCing though it would be a very nice board...looking at current and past Formula models.

The PSU I would advise get the best you can...it is the heart of the system and an often overlooked part of the build....Seasonic make great PSUs or Corsair AX series...

RAM...whatever size kit you get make sure it is one single kit...don't mix kits even of "same" make and model. I put same in commas because they are not..one kit is binned to work as a kit not with other kits so to fill all slots get a 32 GB quad channel kit.


thanks for the input. how about the sabertooth vs hero? Since i wont be water cooling the whole system, i think i shouldn't use formula to save some $$$

kkn
Level 14
well to watercool or not, formula does both.
it works as good on air as it does on water, but water is a bit bether when doing high OC.

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
Sabertooth as far as I know is a bit of marketing to the survival nutter types...sure it has longer lasting (tuf...tough spelt wrong) components to survive nuclear war in your bunker but well, if that happens will you have electricity...

In fact the whole board name is also spelled wrong...Sabretooth...

😮 err... maybe you can tell I don't know much about that line of boards...

iamnoob
Level 7
thanks for the inputs guys. what about asrock's extreme 4/6 or gigabyte's ud3h? any thoughts on them? so far i've come up with this parts

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($197.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($83.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($724.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom 530 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($124.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.98 @ Best Buy)

iamnoob
Level 7
thanks for the input guys. any thoughts on gigabyte ud3h-bk or asrock's extreme4/6?

i am building around the nxzt phantom 530's white and black theme.

FearBunny
Level 7
For starters, 32 GB of ram will be a costly investment because you'll never get a chance to use it all up, UNLESS you ran a bunch of VM's or heavily use RAMDISK or even throwing a bunch of RAM into java apps you possibly run (Minecraft 16 gb's, why not?). 5 years ago, after spending $460+ I discovered I would at any time use a maximum of 10-11 gb's, even when I was running a 2 VM's to hog up 4 gb's of ram each, while multi-tasking everything else. Now-days 16gb will be way more realistic, and can put that money towards buying another GPU, which will have greater performance gains in terms of First build experience. If you insist on 32 gb's in the future, if you ever require, expansion is always an option using 2x8 sticks, but as also noted above, buying a set of 4x8gb sticks together guarantees they'll work together nicely.

PSU: buy a beefier PSU (850 -900 watts) for any future "GPU expansions", best PSU's out there would be Seasonic and buying a good PSU will also lead to a more stable system overtime as every PSU degrades eventually, but by how much depends on quality parts etc. I've personally been using Corsair PSU's (plantinum 1000 watt still kicking after 5 years in another older system), but most people would still recommend Seasonic for PSU.

abvolt
Level 11
I have owned gigabyte boards in the past with many issues so many that I'll never go back, The board on your list that I like is maximus 7 hero with that 780 ti should be a winner. Good luck on you're build..
Current: MSI Xpower Gaming Titanium | 7700K | G Skill Ripjaws V 3000 16Gb | 960 EVO 500Gb | Intel 730 480Gb | Seasonic 1000 Platinum |
NZXT X62 | Acer XB270HU | EVGA 1080 ti FTW3

Secondary: R4BE | 4930K | G.SKILL 2400 16GB | Corsair AX 1500i
Intel 730 240GB + 480GB | EVGA GTX780 ti sli kpe | Custom H20

iamnoob
Level 7
okay here is the revised setup



CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 98.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($135.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($197.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($186.55 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($83.71 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($724.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Phantom 530 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($124.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $1929.05


anyone can jsutify which of these boards would be the best fit in terms of durability and performance asus z97-A / asus z97-K / gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK / z97 sabertooth. i am inlclined on taking the gigabyte because of the color. however does the gigabyte board have the 1 click optimization or something for overclocking. i dont know how to OC so yeah OC4noobs pls.

p.s. i wont be doing SLI as of now.

thanks