Critique my Gaming Build

jevery

Active Member
Greetings members, I’m working on my fifth build, (thanks to Computer Forum), and my first since 2010 – So I’ve been out of the loop awhile. All my previous builds are still running BTW – Likely because this forum provided me the knowledge of quality components. This build will be for my fourteen year-old Son whom has discovered that the PC gaming experience beats the X-box One. Please critique my list and feel free to offer suggestions and/or constructive criticism. Budget is ~ $2,000 without a monitor. He will initially use a 1080p monitor, though, will likely upgrade to 1440p in the future. Will not overclock initially, though, may in the future. Also the MB supports the M2 SSD interface and I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if that would be a good option. Anyway, the list;

CPU – i7-7700K, $350

Cooler – Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, $30

MB – Gigabyte GA-270ZX-Gaming K7, $200

Memory – G.SKILL Trident Z (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 F4-3200C16D-16GTZB, $120

GPU – EVGA GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0, 08G-P4-6276-KR, 8GB, $425

SSD – Samsung 850 PRO 256GB MZ-7KE256BW, $138

HD – Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 64MB, $104

CD ROM - ASUS Burner - Bulk SATA DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS – OEM, $20

PS – Seasonic TITANIUM 650 SSR-650TD, $150

Case – Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow $180

OS – Windows 10 Home 64 OEM, $100


Total ~ $1800
 

mistersprinkles

Active Member
That case is very old and very meh. There are way better cases. I suggest a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv tempered glass edition and you can buy 2 led strips for it to pimp it out.
Does your kid NEED a titanium powersupply or a $200 motherboard? Not really. Could get away with less. Build looks good though.

If you want to go M.2 swap the 850 for a 960 EVO m.2 drive. A bit pricier but perf is way higher. 2 less cables in your build too.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
PSU is a little spendy for $150, otherwise doesn't seem too bad.

If you had a few more dollhairs you could dump the EVO as above for a M.2 960 or similar.
 

mistersprinkles

Active Member
I'm all for the 960 evo. The power supply selected is excellent. Like you, Darren, I think it might just be overkill. Still, can't fault the quality of it. If the OP has the cash to burn, by all means, go for it.

The Asus z270-a is a perfectly acceptable, somewhat more affordable motherboard which could be substituted.

By the way, there was an issue with EVGA 10 series cards cooking them selves and blowing voltage regulation modules. Not sure if that has been resolved, I know they were handing out kits to current owners so they could put heat sinks on the power delivery components Of those cards. As far as I know the coolest running VRM sections on 10 series cards are on the gigabyte windforce series such as the G1 gaming cards. I have one myself, it is nice and quiet.
 

jevery

Active Member
Double check your prices as the WD hard drive was wrong price.

You can easily spend half the price of that psu for same quality.

Hmm. HD Model# is slightly different, but specs are identical and $29 less. Could you suggest a high quality PSU?

PSU is a little spendy for $150, otherwise doesn't seem too bad.

If you had a few more dolllars you could dump the EVO as above for a M.2 960 or similar.
Thanks, Looks like I'm going the M.2 route

Get the Cryorig H7 cooler. Much better than the 212.
I like that, Thanks
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
By the way, there was an issue with EVGA 10 series cards cooking them selves and blowing voltage regulation modules. Not sure if that has been resolved, I know they were handing out kits to current owners so they could put heat sinks on the power delivery components Of those cards. As far as I know the coolest running VRM sections on 10 series cards are on the gigabyte windforce series such as the G1 gaming cards. I have one myself, it is nice and quiet.
This only affected the ACX 3.0 coolers. It's been confirmed that the failure were due to a bad batch of caps. VRM thermals were not a root cause of failures although temps were higher than preferred. BIOS update fixed the temp issue and the additional thermal mod pack reduce the vrm temps even lower. This has been solved since Late Oct/Early Nov. New EVGA cards are already preinstalled with latest firmware and thermal mod pack. The newly released ICX cooler cards do not have this problem.

All in all, EVGA recognized and issued out firmware updates within a few weeks of finding out the problem. I would say that them owning up to the problem and providing a fix within a short period of time shows that they care about their products and offered different options to levitate the problem.
 

jevery

Active Member
Well, the M.2 drives don't look very reliable at this point in time. Of the 44 reviews for the 250 GB I counted 19 with drive failures. The consensus seems to be that they don't always tolerate the heat generated by gaming GPUs. Perhaps MB manufacturers will eventually move the socket from directly over the top PCI slot. So in the interest of longevity/reliability I'll be sticking with the standard Evo for now.

Thanks mistersprinkles for the Phanteks recommendation - I like their whole lineup, but can't decide which I like best, and thanks johnb35 for the PSU recommendation. The list is starting to firm up.
 

Deadpool

Active Member
Thanks mistersprinkles for the Phanteks recommendation - I like their whole lineup, but can't decide which I like best, and thanks johnb35 for the PSU recommendation. The list is starting to firm up.

The NZXT Phantom lineup looks awesome too.
 

jevery

Active Member
Well Dammit, thought I had that decision wrapped up. Those reviews look excellent and the speed is almost unbelievable.
 

Deadpool

Active Member
Well Dammit, thought I had that decision wrapped up. Those reviews look excellent and the speed is almost unbelievable.

Which SSDs did you mean in your other post? The 960s from Samsung? If not, those are better and cost less.
 

jevery

Active Member
Yea, The 960 Evo (250 GB). They have 4/5 star rating, but a bunch of failures. To be fair some may be lack of knowledge of setup, etc. The standard SSDs took us awhile to get used to as I remember. But people are still giving them 2 and 3 stars after they fail. I guess because they're so damn impressive when they are working
 

jevery

Active Member
Just wanted to follow up on this thread. Here’s the final config as built.
Sorry for the phone pics – Too lazy to get out the good camera.


20170327_200832[1].jpg 20170327_200916[1].jpg


Case – Phanteks Enthoo Luxe PH-ES614LTG_BK Black w/RGB, $180
PS – Corsair RMx Series RM650X 650W 80 PLUS GOLD PSU, $110
CPU – i7-7700K, $350
Cooler – Cryorig H7, $35
MB – Gigabyte GA-270ZX-Gaming K7, $200
Memory – G.SKILL Trident Z (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 F4-3200C16D-16GTZB, $120
GPU – EVGA GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0, 08G-P4-6276-KR, 8GB, $425
SSD – Samsung 850 PRO 256GB MZ-7KE256BW, $138
HD – Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 64MB, $104
CD ROM - ASUS Burner - Bulk SATA DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS – OEM, $20
OS – Windows 10 Home 64 OEM, $100

Total - $1,780

Thoughts – The 7700K runs a little warm – Hitting mid 80s on Prime. Lowered CPU voltage, put a higher CFM fan on the H7, and reoriented cooler 90 degrees to avoid the warm air coming off the GPU. Also added another case fan to bring cool air down across the RAM and to the intake of the CPU fan. Brought max temp down to a little under 70 on Prime. I don’t see much OC potential on air, but that’s OK. It’s basically an OC’d chip anyway. The EVGA 1070 is awesome – Probably overkill for 1080p. My Son loves the RGB on the Case, MB, GPU, keyboard, and mouse. Overall a solid gaming system for a 14 year-old with good longevity potential. Thanks to the CF community for excellent guidance. Don’t you wish everyone asked advice BEFORE they bought.
 
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