Images

Assembly Video

Person wanted a rig that would kill games and the budget was around $1800 in parts. This build offers the ability to overclock an amazing processor capable of amazing multi-tasking, and it provides overkill firepower for 1080p. This build would be able to handle most games smoothly at 1440p.

Note: At the end of the assembly I noticed a lot of bubbly noises coming from the Thermaltake cooler. After running the build through my normal battery of tests, the bubbly noises went away completely.

(Amazon links to parts are my personal affiliate links – every purchase helps!)

CPU – Intel 4770k

Haswell offers the best single-threaded performance on the market right now. That makes it a great choice for gaming, as many games still do poorly in regards to multi-threading. The fact that this offers hyperthreading also makes it a good candidate for streaming, as programs like OBS and Xsplit definitely take advantage of multi-threaded processors. It’s also good for programs that do 3d-modeling, as they often utilize mutli-threaded processors well.

Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme

I’m starting to switch away from the h100i. I still love that CLC, but this one offers comparable performance with much quieter fans.

Motherboard – Gigabyte UD3h

Gigabyte was the king of Z77, so I’m still a bit partial to their UD3H boards. This board provided excellent OC support for me, and has plenty of features for extra USB/SATA ports, as well as support for crossfire. I don’t see myself moving away from this board any time soon.

RAM – Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB

RAM is RAM. 8GB was fine for this build.

GPU(s) – PowerColor 7970 X2

Two 7970’s in Crossfire are one of the strongest cost/performance options available on the market for 1440p gaming. Cheaper and better than a 780, these things are amazing.

Storage – 840 EVO 250GB & Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5″ 7200RPM

The 840 EVO’s are priced really nice compared to the amount of storage they offer, and the 840 controller is one of the best on the market at the moment, making this SSD an excellent choice. The Seagate Barracuda’s are priced really well compared to the amount of storage they offer as well.

Case – Fractal Design Define R4

Still love this quiet case. It’s small, it looks nice and clean, it’s not “plasticy”, it has padding on the inside to dampen sound and there’s plenty of room inside for managing cables. I absolutely love this case.

PSU – Rosewill 750w Hive

Good PSU, good price.

DVD Drive – LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer

Just a standard optical drive for reading DVDs.

Images

Assembly Video

This build was a bit more original in regards to what the person wanted from their machine. Gaming wasn’t a top priority, but working with music in DAWs was. As a result, we made some choices in regards to parts that were uniquely suited to this machine. There were a few things I’d have wanted to do, but this budget was pretty strict, so we did the best we could.

CPU – Intel 4770

While overclocking wasn’t really possible at this price point due to the increased cost of a Z87 motherboard and an aftermarket cooler, the hyperthreaded 4770 was still in range. DAWs are typically very good at utilizing multiple threads, and an i7 ensured excellent performance while working on audio projects.

Cooler – None

No aftermarket cooler was needed in this build since we’re not overclocking.

Motherboard – ASRock H81M-DGS H81

All we need for this build is a motherboard to hold the parts. The H81 chipset is fine because we don’t need a ton of features from the board, and we have no plans to overclock. Saving money here lets us invest it into other parts as well.

RAM – Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600

While loading a ton of samples and VSTs inside of a DAW it’s possible to use a ton of RAM. 16 gigs ensures that the producer will never get bottle-necked, even when working with a large number of plugins etc…

GPU(s) – PowerColor HJD 7870 XT

The 7870 will do fine for gaming in this system. As I said earlier, gaming wasn’t the focus, so we went with a really well priced, budget series card.

Storage – Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5″ 7200RPM

I actually used a Toshiba 2TB HDD here because it was cheaper at the time of purchase, but any 2TB HDD will do.

Case – NZXT Source 210 (Black)

Again, to save as much money as possible, we went with the cheapest case possible. The Source 210 is my favorite budget case because it’s cheap and it gets the job done well enough for these budget builds.

PSU – Antec BP500U ATX 12V 500W

Decent quality PSU given the wattage, and perfect power for this build.

DVD Drive – LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer

Just a standard optical drive for reading DVDs.

Images

Assembly Video

This build was relatively straight forward. The person ordering this machine wanted a rig that could play any games at 1080p at 60fps on high settings, along with something that would be good for streaming and 3d modeling.

CPU – Intel 4770k

Haswell offers the best single-threaded performance on the market right now. That makes it a great choice for gaming, as many games still do poorly in regards to multi-threading. The fact that this offers hyperthreading also makes it a good candidate for streaming, as programs like OBS and Xsplit definitely take advantage of multi-threaded processors. It’s also good for programs that do 3d-modeling, as they often utilize mutli-threaded processors well.

Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme

I’m starting to switch away from the h100i. I still love that CLC, but this one offers comparable performance with much quieter fans

Motherboard – Gigabyte UD3h

Gigabyte was the king of Z77, so I’m still a bit partial to their UD3H boards. This board provided excellent OC support for me, and has plenty of features for extra USB/SATA ports, as well as support for crossfire. I don’t see myself moving away from this board any time soon.

RAM – Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB

RAM is RAM. I think at the time the 1 stick version was cheaper so we went ahead with that.

GPU(s) – EVGA GTX 780 3GB

A 780 will destroy everything you throw at it for 1080p, and it fit in the budget of this system.

Storage – 840 EVO 250GB & Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5″ 7200RPM

The 840 EVO’s are priced really nice compared to the amount of storage they offer, and the 840 controller is one of the best on the market at the moment, making this SSD an excellent choice. The Seagate Barracuda’s are priced really well compared to the amount of storage they offer as well.

Case – Zalman Z11 PLUS HF1

I would not recommend this case, heh. The customer wanted to give this case a shot for this particular build and we went ahead with it, but there were a few problems (which you’ll see in the video) that came up. The side fans are a bit excessive (for cooling the HDD bay) and, more importantly, there is no support in this case for a 120mm radiator. The workout for this was sticking the fans on top of the case and removing the fins. I could also make some complaints about the cable management in the case, but those weren’t major.

PSU – SeaSonic M12II 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified

Good PSU, good price. Could have skimped a bit here, maybe 620 or 600W, but this is fine for this build.

DVD Drive – LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer

Just a standard optical drive for reading DVDs.