Welcome to the July & August 2014 edition of the gaming pc builds over here at Newb Computer Build. Summer time fun has gotten in the way of a prompt July build article, so I have combined both of the months of July & August in to this particular build article.
Devil’s Canyon has now been rolled out and you will see the new Intel 4690K processor featured in the both $1500 and $1000 builds. You will also notice in those two builds, that the graphics cards were pumped up to give you even better gaming performance. You may also notice the the builds this month are a tad MSI crazy, however this is only because, MSI has priced their GAMING 5 motherboard and each builds respective graphics cards perfectly this month.
Each build has qualities that each budget oriented individual can respect so I urge you to take a look at each one of them and decide which you think you belong. If you have any questions with regards to these builds or one that you are trying to customize for yourself, please leave a comment below and I will try to respond as soon as I can.
July & August 2014 PC Builds ( $1514 )
Gaming PC Build Recipe:
Game with Extreme settings at resolutions of 2560×1600
We have quite the amazing $1500 build this month, in my honest opinion. Starting off, the included processor is the quad core Intel 4690K i5 processor, a part of Intel’s newest “Devils Canyon” line of processors. There are several new benefits to Intel’s newest line of processors, of which can be read here in AnandTech’s article review.
The included motherboard is the MSI z97 Gaming 5 motherboard, a great board for any enthusiast gamer and at a great price – as I was going to include this board last time, however cost dictated otherwise. The MSI z97 Gaming 5 motherboard has a ton of features such as (from MSI.com) –
Supports 4th and 5th Gen Intel® Core™ / Pentium® / Celeron® processors for LGA 1150 socket
Supports DDR3-3300(OC) Memory
M.2 + USB 3.0 + SATA 6Gb/s
Audio Boost 2: Reward Your Ears with True Quality
Killer Ethernet: Kill Your Lag
USB Audio Power: Surve Stable 5V Power & Better Signal Transmission over USB
XSplit Gamecaster: Show off Your Skills and Achievements
Guard-Pro: Improved Protection and Power Efficiency
Gaming Device Port: Optimized with Triple Gold-plating for High Polling Rate Gaming Devices
The next change in the $1500 build this time around, is the change to a Radeon R9 290x graphics card and the MSI one featured above comes in at a great price and benchmarks quite well, as seen in this guru3d.com article.
The power supply has also been switched up to a EVGA SuperNOVA 750G2 – which was released in April 2014 or so. This power supply is 80Plus Gold certified and features all modular cables, high-quality Japanese brand capacitors and all for only about $109. This power supply is a performance and value combination purchase and if you would like to read a very in depth review here is one by pcper.com.
I did choose a liquid cpu cooler this month, the Cooler Master Seidon 120M. I think this is a great choice for an affordable liquid cooler, however if you do want to save about $35, you could also suffice with an air cooler such as the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo cpu cooler.
The last change to the$1500 build this time around, is the pc case – where I have chosen the Corsair Carbide Series Air 540. This is a unique cube shaped pc case that I am quite fond of. You can read a full review here at anandtech.com.
$1500 Gaming PC Build Additions / Alternatives
If you have a little extra to spend on the $1500 build, then below are a few suggestions. If you want to dedicate more storage space solely to your SSD, then perhaps a larger 512GB Samsung PRO SDD is a worthy upgrade – you could even skip on the Western Digital Black hard drive above and dedicate some cash for a bigger SSD (like the Samsung 840 PRO 256GB or 512GB versions).
We also have an Intel 4790K i7 (the newer Intel Devil’s Canyon edition) for those who want to use their PC for functionality besides gaming. You could also pump some extra cash into more graphics power by either going with a single card like EVGA geForce 780 Ti or by doing crossfire with another MSI Radeon R9 290X.
Akin to the $1500 build this month, the $1000 build is beefed up and spiffy as ever. First and foremost, we have Intel’s Devil’s Canyon release of processors and included is the Intel 4690K. Paired with this new processor, is an MSI Z97 GAMING 5 motherboard. This is a fantastic motherboard with a boatload of features of which can be seen under the $1500 builds description above (since I use the same motherboard in both builds) or you could check out the specs at MSI.com.
We have a boost in graphics capability this month switching up from the previous GTX 760, with an MSI Radeon R9 280X, which definitely outperforms the latter.
We still have the usual 8Gb of DDR3 RAM – the same Kingston HyperX Red (two 4GB Kit). However, RAM prices overall have gone up slightly in cost, so do keep a lookout for lowered priced 8GB DDR3 kits.
The $1000 as per usual has 1TB of storage using the Western Digital Blue.
The power supply unit is also a new addition to this months $1000 build, with the switch to a newer EVGA SuperNOVA 650W power supply. This is the same version, just a different wattage as the $1500 build – a great PSU with 80Plus Gold certified and features all modular cables, high-quality Japanese brand capacitors.
The PC case included is the BitFenix NEOS, a stylish, affordable and a case you can choose uniquely all your own with all sorts of color combinations to choose from. This case was released half way through May of this year and has jumped straight into the affordable Mid Tower market. The case featured about is a bland, yet stylish black and gold color, however this case comes in plenty more combinations. You can see more of what is available and learn more about this case here at bitfenix.com. You can also view the BitFenix video below for a quick case tour of their new NEOS –
BitFenix NEOS Case Tour
$1000 Gaming PC Build Additions / Alternatives
Below are some hardware additions should you have some extra cash and want to upgrade a specific piece to the above build.
You could get some serious graphics power with the Crossfire of two MSI Radeon R9 280X graphics cards, or you could even upgrade to a single better card, such as the MSI Radeon R9 290 graphics card below.
Since there is no SSD included in the base $1000 build I do suggest you highly considering one if you funds allow. The Samsung 840 PRO series is a great high quality SSD and 128GB is a perfect starting point to use is as your boot drive with some of your most used apps / games. For those that simply want more space for large sums of media etc. you could consider getting a 2TB drive (doubling your space) with the Seagate Barracuda 2TB drive.
Also, please *note that if you do decide to SLI with another GeForce GTX 760 graphics card, you may want to also upgrade the power supply unit to 850W (ie. Corsair RM 850 Watt).
The $600 build has been solid, strong, yet just the same for quite some time. We have included the wonderful AMD FX 6300 for months now and this stands to be true still – a great build for a budget gamer.The included graphics card is the Radeon R9 270, this month using the XFX R9 270.
The included motherboard is the MSI 970A-G46 motherboard, 8GB of Kingston HyperX Red RAM, 1Tb Western Digital Blue hard drive, a 500W Corsair Builder series power supply and an LG optical drive. The PC case chosen is simply a cheap container for all of this hardware, the Apex sk-393 pc case. You could spend a little more case and get a more unique case that you may find more appeal in, but it’s all up to you.
Upgrades / Alternatives for the $600 Gaming PC Build:
These upgrades and alternatives below are for anyone who might have some extra spending cash or want some ideas for future upgrades.
The upgrades and alternatives this month include an upgraded eight core AMD FX-8320 processor. Likewise you could also bump the graphics card up to a MSI GTX 760 for more juice while gaming. You could consider also spending some ore cash and style the build up a little more with an NZXT Phantom 410 White Mid Tower case or even speeding up boot and software loading times with an affordable Crucial M500 120GB solid state drive.
Hello, nice builds!
I am leaning towards the $1500 build with the addition of the Intel 4790K i7 but I have doubts about the socket since the i7 should have the 2011 but the motherboard have the 1150. What motherboard should I consider with the 2011 socket?
Awesome post, was waiting for this one to come out!
Some quick questions I wanted to ask you. I am leaning towards the $1500 build with the addition of the i7 and the 780i. Most of the time, I’ll be doing graphics work. Do you have a preference or thoughts on the following cases? Do all the parts you recommend fit?
Thank you and it sounds like you’re going to have an awesome build! NZXT cases are awesome and I really like both the h2 and h440. Quite honestly I think you’re good either way, although I would lean towards the h440 in the sense that it will feel like a sturdier case and it has much more cooling and room for customizing how you set things up. There is a difference of about $40 of which I’m sure you know, so it really comes down to if you feel $40 is worth the difference in case quality for you. Generally for cases, I like to state that its probably 90% personal choice vs maybe 10% cooling differences / material quality and budget.
Intel Core i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) (BX80646I74790K) ($339.99) – Do more then gaming? – Then an i7 might be the right choice.
Crossfire with another –
MSI Computer Corp. AMD Radeon R9 290X Gaming OC 4GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card R9 290X GAMING 4G (+$479.99)
Get a better single Graphics Cards: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 3GB, 3072MB,GDDR5 384bit, Dual-Link DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI,DP, SLI Ready Graphics Card (03G-P4-2881-KR) Graphics Cards 03G-P4-2881-KR ($649.99) *lower price this month!
A Larger SSD: Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 512 SATA_6_0_gb Solid State Drive MZ-7PD512BW ($380.00)
Crossfire your graphics card: MSI Computer Corp. Video Graphics Cards R9 280X GAMING 3G ($296.99)
More Hard Drive Space With 2TB – Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST2000DM001 Price: $83.50
A better single graphics card with a Radeon R9 290: MSI Computer Corp. AMD Radeon R9 290 Gaming OC 4GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card R9 290 GAMING 4G ($369.99)
Processor Alternative: AMD FD8320FRHKBOX FX-8320 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition($149.99)
Alternative PC Case:NZXT Phantom 410 Mid Tower USB 3.0 Gaming Case – White ($85.59)
Graphics Card Alternative: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 OC 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card N760 TF 2GD5/OC ($259.99)
Crucial M500 120GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT120M500SSD1 ($72.00)
Comments 9
Hello, nice builds!
I am leaning towards the $1500 build with the addition of the Intel 4790K i7 but I have doubts about the socket since the i7 should have the 2011 but the motherboard have the 1150. What motherboard should I consider with the 2011 socket?
Thanks!
Author
Hello Daniel,
Both the Intel i7 4790K and the Intel i5 4690K have the same 1150 socket, so the same motherboard works.
You may be thinking of another Intel i7, such as the Intel 4930K, that does have a 2011 socket and is much much more expensive (about $580).
So if you just switch to purchasing the i7 4790K instead, then you should be fine with the exact same build.
Yay another PC build
Author
🙂
will this mini tower work for the $600 build?
Rosewill RANGER-M Dual Fans MicroATX Mini Tower
Author
Hey Devin,
No it will not since it only supports MicroATX sized motherboards and the $600 requires an ATX sized one.
yea. I figured that out after posting. Thank You
Awesome post, was waiting for this one to come out!
Some quick questions I wanted to ask you. I am leaning towards the $1500 build with the addition of the i7 and the 780i. Most of the time, I’ll be doing graphics work. Do you have a preference or thoughts on the following cases? Do all the parts you recommend fit?
http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/103-h2-case.html
http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/143-h440-performance-mid-tower.html
I do notice that the h440 has custom areas for their version of water cooling. Which would you recommend I get?
Thanks again Corey!
Author
Hello Geoffrey,
Thank you and it sounds like you’re going to have an awesome build! NZXT cases are awesome and I really like both the h2 and h440. Quite honestly I think you’re good either way, although I would lean towards the h440 in the sense that it will feel like a sturdier case and it has much more cooling and room for customizing how you set things up. There is a difference of about $40 of which I’m sure you know, so it really comes down to if you feel $40 is worth the difference in case quality for you. Generally for cases, I like to state that its probably 90% personal choice vs maybe 10% cooling differences / material quality and budget.
Best of lucking building that beast!