About to pull the trigger on my build, any last advice?

I've been researching the last couple months, and today there are so many deals it looks like I might be pulling the trigger tonight within a couple hours:

newegg shell shocker deal: i5 4590 +z87 asus-a NFC-express edition+ 1x8GB mushkin enhanced stealth =$299.99 after tax -35 Mail in rebate

Amazon GPU- Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 =$385 after tax - $30 mail in rebate

PSU: Seasonic M12II 620W Bronze: $92 after tax

Case: NZXT s340 $85 after tax

SSD: Samsung Evo 850 $110 after tax

Extra case fan for positive airflow: NZXT 140mm front fan

Total ~$970 after tax plus $65 in mail in rebates

Any complaints or red flags I should be aware of?

*Edit* The one other option for a GPU is an MSI gtx 970 for $300 from GPU shack, which is used. I did not go this route because the G1 was better reviewed, not used, and comes with a Witcher 3 code (which is $54 pre-order), and since I was already planning on getting the Witcher 3, I figured costs were similar so I went with the new better reviewed card.

It looks ok, Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 has the best cooler you can get.

Are you going to get a hard drive?

+1.

It has also the best VRM cooling and one of the higher default factory clocks I ever seen (mine reaches 1405!!!(yeap thats 20% more than the reference 1178) mhz while playing GPU heavy games while it remains under 60C...).

And since you wanted the witcher 3 too, its a win-win situation...

+1 too.

You need an HDD. If you are not using an old one, better get an $50 1tb WD Blue and then later add an SSD than getting only a 250GB SSD.

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ps: People might didn't notice but you are getting a Haswell refresh CPU with Z87 motherboard (i5 4590 +z87 asus).

Z87 motherboards need update to bios in order to get Haswell CPUs.

Be sure to ask them if the bios is updated for i5 4590 and if its not, ask them to update it.

Went through with the purchase, now just need to wait for it all to arrive, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!

@Coseniath: I got the SSD for the boot drive, and I was planning on getting a HDD with the mail in rebate money once those are filed. I highly doubt I'm going to fill up 250GB anytime soon.

As for the CPU and motherboard complication, should I contact Newegg about the motherboard bios? Updating it yourself is a little risky, right? Because it can brick the motherboard of something goes wrong?

PS as for the G1 gaming, it's been between that and MSI since I started planning. It seems to be a pretty remarkable card!

That is famous last words when it comes to Hard Drive space. With games being anywhere from 30-60GB these days it doesn't take long.

@Arthas045: I realize that, though I am planning on playing older games for the time being and catching up with the games I have now. I can always uninstall a game if I have to!

Cool deal, its all personal preference. Some people just keep a couple games installed at a time... I have game ADD sometimes, so I just keep a bunch of stuff installed lol... Enjoy the PC!

Updating Bios nowdays is quite easy ( with my msi i download the bios file into usb reboot into the uefi/bios screen and i select the bios located in the usb to update from there ) plus its pretty much fail safe nowdays since most decent motherboards have a fail safe mechanism ( such as dual bios in case the main bios fails they use the second until you flash the main bios again )

The only problem might be that you wont be able to boot into windows to download the updated bios so probably you are gonna need to download it from a different computer

As for hard drive trust me 250gb are borderline acceptable now days so you probably gonna want to add either a second SSD or a big HD soon

@Arthas045: I've been more of a completionist, finishing one game before starting another (except for MP games), which is why I feel comfortable with what I have at the moment!

@adamosmaki: I was looking into that, and it seems that my board is one of three Asus boards that don't allow the USB install on boot. I contacted Newegg support but they were useless since I haven't received it yet. So I guess I just need to hope it comes with the updated bios so there isn't an issue.

Like I said, I was planning on using the mail in rebates to get more storage space. I'm also re-purposing my dead laptop's 160 GB HDD into an external HDD, so if I'm really worried about space I can always use that for files I don't need quick access to.

Looks great. have fun with your new build!

make sure u download this game, "age of kungfu" after u bought your com.

So they don't know what version of bios has the motherboard they are selling and they are offering it with a CPU that needs updated bios? lol...

Big fail from newegg support here...

@Coseniath: I told them it was misleading and the guy just said "We're sorry you felt mislead, but until you get it there is nothing we can do, once you get it, we are here for you" paraphrased of course. He also said something about returning it (it being the motherboard) if it doesn't work, so I used that as an opportunity to ask if I can trade in just the motherboard and not the whole bundle, and they avoided that question.

Luckily that's all I got from Newegg, I heard they've been going downhill, but I'd rather pay a little more for Amazon's customer service if that's what I'm going to get as a paying customer. Hopefully they will be a little more helpful once the motherboard arrives and we can see if the bios needs updating or not...

Hell Tigerdirect did that to my father with a cpu mobo combo with the FX 8310 and 970 series mobo. Took me almost hour to figure out it was nothing that he forgot to do. Had to take his old Athlon to update the bios before the mobo booted with that new FX cpu.

@04dcarraher: If I could do that it wouldn't be a problem. The only old desktop CPU I have is a Pentium 4 with HT, so unfortunately I don't have that option!

@Zlurodirom:

Look at the manufacture date of the motherboard if its made after july of 2014, if it is you should be ok.

@04dcarraher: Yeah that's what I've gathered. I'll just cross my fingers until then.

Get yourself another 8 GB ram so you can run in dual channel. You could also get 2x4 GB but I presume you can't do that with the deal.

I was about to tell you the same that best thing to do is cross your fingers and I believe most motherboards that they are for sale, are updated.

We just needed from newegg to verify the compability just to be sure.

So lets hope that newegg didn't offer this mobo cause it was old and they wanted to get rid of it...

+1.

Whenever you can grab another 8GB ram, go and get it just be sure to be the same model (with speeds, timings and voltage) to avoid compability issues.

Today with Haswell, if the RAM is fast enough you can get away with 1 stick though...

pe: My RAM is so fast that even 1 stick could provide enough GB/s as Sandybridge dual channel (16GB/s):

@Coseniath: from what I've gathered the dual RAM config is no longer needed or doesn't play a huge role in normal tasks/gaming these days. Which is why I'm ok getting just a single 8GB stick.

The motherboard arrived, and it looks like it was manufactured in July... Hopefully that's late enough... The PSU comes in on Monday so I think I can test things out.

@Zlurodirom: Well there are programmes that benefit from dual channel, but the difference is like 1%-5% so I guess you can skip it at the moment.

As I said before Haswell's memory controller is way ahead so you might not need it after all. The 1 stick is in the offer so you cannot do anything anyway...

The good thing is that the i5 4590 was released at 11th of May 2014 so your motherboard should be updated.

So no worries here...

@Coseniath: I can try a first run if I have just the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and PSU and use integrated graphics to display onto a monitor, right? I wouldn't have to wait for my video card to test compatibility between the CPU and the motherboard?

What about if it doesn't work and I try to update the bios through USB (according to ASUS the model doesn't support it, but some people on the internet claim it has worked)? Would nothing display because the CPU isn't compatible and the integrated graphics cant be used?

@Zlurodirom: Yes you can run it with mobo, CPU, RAM and PSU (an HDD/SSD would also help :P) in order to check if its updated.

If it doesn't work, you need either an other CPU in order to update it (maybe from a friend), or you can try to update it by usb. But since Asus said that the model doesn't support it, why they would hide an extra feature?

The 2 best options would be to use DOA cause that's what happens here and the 2nd would be to visit a local store to ask them update it for you.

But I think since its been manufactured 2 months after 4590's release, you will have no problems.

On a side not.. Mail in rebates need to DIE.. This is 2015, mail in rebates SHOULD NOT EXIST.

@Coseniath:

I did a POST outside of the case, everything worked so I decided to build. After building I started installing windows, and when it restarted, the CPU_LED turned red on the motherboard (indicating CPU issues, which made me worry about compatibility issues). Then I turned off the PSU switch, turned it on again, powered the computer up and windows just kept installing. I got into windows fine and everything was running dandy. Some program asked for a reset, and I clicked "ok" and the same CPU_LED thing popped up after powering down and it didn't power back on until I flipped the PSU switch off and then on again, then it kept working fine.

I then decided to check online for ASUS BIOS versions, and it has a BIOS version from 2013 (version 1602), so it didn't get the updated BIOS, but is working with my Haswell refresh CPU, weird. Everything else is working fine in the 4ish hours I've been using it besides not restarting 2 times. Do you think it is worth it to update the BIOS to the July 2014 version (it's the latest version), or should I just stick with this since it appears to be working except for restarting?

@sSubZerOo I agree. I tried to just ignore them in my price calculations. I've read some shady results from people sending them in.

@Zlurodirom: I think you should update your bios.

I normally don't recommend an update but at your case its needed.

Also new bios updates improves stability.

Z87-A BIOS 1707

1. Improve system stability.

2. Support New 4th-Generation Intel Core Processors

3. Before using the new Intel 4th Gen Core processors, we suggest that you first download the BIOS updater for new Intel 4th Gen Core Processors and then update the BIOS using this tool.

As you can see you need 1707 and later to be sure.

But this seems to be very stable since it wasn't been updated for months:

Version 2005

Use this one :).

Thanks for recommending I update the BIOS. I was afraid of doing it initially in case somehow it stopped being compatible. But I just updated the BIOS to version 2005 and it restarted on it's own, no need to use the PSU switch! Then I restarted Windows and it worked also!

I ran memtest86 last night and it came back clean. Any other diagnostic tests I should run (I read prime95 was good for something?). I did a benchmark with Unigine Valley and the clock speed displayed was 1519mhz, though GPU-z said it was 1393 at the same time period (don't remember exact number but in the 1390s), is that the core (1393) and boost (1519) clock?

Thanks again!