Good custom rig for gaming?

CPU-Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core

CPU Cooler-Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing

Thermal Compound-Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g

Motherboard-Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150

Memory-G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866

Storage-Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid

Video Card-MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V

Case-NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower

Power Supply-EVGA 850W ATX12V / EPS12V

Optical Drive-Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Operating System-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Sound Card-Asus Xonar Essence STX

Wired Network Adapter-Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1

Case Fan-NZXT Air Flow Series 83.6 CFM 140mmNZXT Air Flow Series 83.6 CFM 140mm

Keyboard-Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013

Mouse-Razer Taipan Wired Laser

the number one question people are going to ask is if you have a microcenter near by

Its good, you dont need 850w psu unless you plan on sli'ing later

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8991515&CatId=8586

or http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8992471&CatId=8586 (which comes with a wireless adapter)

- 25 dollar coupon = 165 dollars. Its a great MB

You mean unless he's going to triple SLI later with those 970s.

500Watts are enough for 2x 970s.

It's good but you should pair a better mobo with that CPU. Go for Z97X-UD5H instead.

Thats not advisable, because then you would be using around 90% of the psu at full load with a typical setup. That will shorten the psu life span. its best to stay below 70%psu usage if you plan on getting the most out of your psu.

All I'm saying by reviews and calculating how much those 970s take - you're good to go for the next 3 years or even more with that configuration.

Now you could buy a 600Watts bronze rated by EVGA at almost the same price.

Still a 850Watts PSU for 1 GPU or even 2 of those brand new maxwell GPUs is overkill.

Ya I do plan on adding one or two more 970's in the future. So a better motherboard for that CPU?

Also, if I sli 2 of those GPU's together running it on 1080p how many fps do you think I could get. Let's say on battlefield, or call of Duty?

Why do you need 2 network adapters?

And no SSD, so its lame anyway.

Yeah, you should get a better mobo with that CPU. One of these would be perfect with that CPU: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H, ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark2, MSI Z97-GD65 Gaming, ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Professional.

It would be an overkill @ 1080P. You shouldn't SLI unless you're at least running a 1440P monitor. Even two of my R9 290's are overkill @ 1440P. I use just one R9 290 a lot of the times and get 60+ FPS and GTX 970 is about 4% faster then R9 290. So two cards are way too much power for 1080P.

No, your MOBO is great for SLI/Corssfire.

That's for 1440p, with 1080p you'd get more than 120fps.

@PredatorRules: Sweet. Thanks for the info. Definitely going to Sli them.

The 970 is more than 4% faster.

The 970 is pretty close to the 780ti and a lot of the times neck and neck with some games running better on the 970.

@insane_metalist: Well I have a 144hz monitor. So I would be running it at 1080p and trying to get as many fps as I can out of my monitor with 2 GTX 970'S.

Plus, my monitor is only a 1080p monitor.

Swap the sound card for an SSD.

@kraken2109: wouldn't I need a sound card for if I wanted to listen to the game audio say plugged up to my computer through my headset?

Stop kidding yourself. Just because you own 970's doesn't make them fastest cards out there. GTX 780 Ti is definitely faster then 970. The only thing 970 has on 780 Ti is one 1GB of VRAM.

Even with immature drivers and at 1080. Stock GTX 970 is only 6% slower then a 780ti, and still 7% faster then a 290x. Non reference 970's tend to be around 10% faster then 290x's. they also kick the heels of the 780ti. At 1600p GTX 970 and 290x are virtually the same being around 10% slower then 780ti. 780ti isnt much faster, and has 1gb less vram and was a $700 (now $500) with 250w tdp. Compared to 970 being nearly as fast, having 1gb more vram and being $350 with under 180w tdp.

At 1440p my version of the 970 is pretty close to the 780ti and the 970 can overclock to 1600mhz to even surpass the stock 980.

And these benchmarks are done on the earliest versions of drivers for the 970 so newer drivers will help performance even more.

@PredatorRules said:

@Jr14 said:

Ya I do plan on adding one or two more 970's in the future. So a better motherboard for that CPU?

No, your MOBO is great for SLI/Corssfire.

@Jr14 said:

Also, if I sli 2 of those GPU's together running it on 1080p how many fps do you think I could get. Let's say on battlefield, or call of Duty?

That's for 1440p, with 1080p you'd get more than 120fps.

Later drivers have improved performance for SLI 970s.

At 1440p with 4xMSAA I am getting close to what this benchmark is getting which uses 2xMSAA.

@RyviusARC said:

@PredatorRules said:

@Jr14 said:

Ya I do plan on adding one or two more 970's in the future. So a better motherboard for that CPU?

No, your MOBO is great for SLI/Corssfire.

@Jr14 said:

Also, if I sli 2 of those GPU's together running it on 1080p how many fps do you think I could get. Let's say on battlefield, or call of Duty?

That's for 1440p, with 1080p you'd get more than 120fps.

Later drivers have improved performance for SLI 970s.

At 1440p with 4xMSAA I am getting close to what this benchmark is getting which uses 2xMSAA.

Question is, 4xMSAA is perfect IMO for 1080p, while people say that on 4K you don't need any - is 2xMSAA on 2.5K is good enough?

@RyviusARC: You're forgetting that 780 Ti can achieve good OC as well.

I never said it couldn't my point was against the 290 comment.

Are you also forgetting that 290 has gotten better drivers as well..? 290 overclocks as well. I've already achieved better performance then a 290X with a mediocre OC that I prefer to keep as my daily.. with a high OC 290 is well above 290X.

And a high oced 970 is well above that.

All motherboards have sound cards built in. For most users a dedicated sound card is not necessary.

@kraken2109: ok thank you that's what I was needing to know.