ok so this seems to be my finalized build

any comments? concerns? criticism?

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZDLDTW

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/rx7hZL

If you're going on 4k gaming, the 290x may be a tad better

Other wise, go with a 970

what exactly is 4k gaming?

like i want to get a nice monitor and stuff but don't want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks

great build, my only comments

1. your video card is going to be your bottleneck for gaming by far, you may wish to consider downgrading the rest of your setup slightly and/or going for a GTX 980 or a dual-card setup (2x 290, 2x 290x, or 2x gtx 970)
2. get windows 8, windows 7 mainstream support is ended and windows 8.1 will have the best compatibility going forward; you can make it 99% identical to windows 7 so there are no drawbacks

And my most important recommendation is to make sure you think it's worth it to spend that much money on a PC. I find that it's almost always better to underspend, since obviously PC components so rapidly drop in price... personally I think there are very few situations where spending over $1,000 on a gaming PC is wise but it depends on the person and their financial situation. If you make over $100,000 a year though then go for it



It's gaming with a 4K resolution. I'd stay away until it becomes more affordable.

This post was edited by Voyaging on Feb 3 2015 09:19pm

thanks for the info

i actually was going to go with windows 7 because I have a copy lying around which can save me $100

i figured i would just upgrade to windows 10 when that became available

would you prefer one GTX980 or 2 x 290x/290/970?

well i'm hoping this will last me a very long time, hopefully at least 5 years with the option of minor additions/tweaks, up until now i've been buying my computers from best buy and stuff without doing much research

so selecting my own parts is kind of nice.. and by selecting my own parts i mean more along the lines of having people tell me what to buy haha

This post was edited by BB_MelloYello on Feb 3 2015 09:24pm

Win 7 phone support is ending. Win 7 Updates will be around till 2020.

I wouldn't get a 290X, get the 970 or the 980.

man so many people have different opinions on this!

it's the most frustrating thing to decide upon

i think 980 is kind of out of my budget right now, considering it'll run me around $600

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355


/e The cards are about equal, until you get down to the power draw and temperature results.

This post was edited by Ghot on Feb 3 2015 09:31pm

Oh ya if you already have a copy of Win7 then just use that for now

Imo $1k is the sweet spot for upper-tier gaming pcs, my personal recommendation is spend around there and upgrade as major price drops occur or new tech comes out, but if you'd rather just spend more now and have the income your build is good

2x Gtx 970>2x 290x>2x 290, I'm not sure how each compares to a single GTX980 you may want to look at benchmarks for the games you intend to play

The site I always recommend to ppl building their pc's as a reference is http://www.logicalincrements.com/ , it's a goldmine, they give balanced builds for each budget so there are no major bottlenecks (select your country in the dropdown box at the top of the table)

This post was edited by Voyaging on Feb 3 2015 09:34pm

then why would you recommend i go with the 970 instead of the 290x if they are about equal?

i believe i can get the 290x for cheaper than the 970 which would be nice



well i do have the means to buy this right now, cost isn't a huge issue for me at the moment, but at the same time i want to be smart with my money

do you think you could help me choose a build more in line with what you're describing?

i mean forget 4k gaming and that stuff i can live with 1080p

basically i want to be able to play dota2, sc2, gtaV, h1z1, etc on the highest settings

and maybe some new games coming out soon

This post was edited by BB_MelloYello on Feb 3 2015 09:34pm