Looking for a affordable Gaming Rig - Australia

[Kiyoura]

Hello I'm looking to pickup a Cheap higher-end gaming desktop, and my budget isnt too great.

What I'm thinking of at the moment spec wise is something like this, but I'm looking to know what kind of performance I could expect from it, and how long until it becomes horribly outdated, and where I could cut costs if possible.
Please let me know if there are any huge errors I'll need to fix specs wise.

Note: I will be running it with three 24" monitors
Note2: Will likely be overclocked for a 10% performance increase, give or take.
Note3: I require a decent PSU incase i decide to purchase a second graphics card in the future.
It will have:
Cooling:
- Corsair Hydro Series h55 liquid cooler for CPU
- Corsair Airflow Series quiet Edition

CPU:
- Intel Core i7-4770 3.4ghz Quad core

Motherboard: (Undecided)
- Gigabyte GA-Z87 HD3 socket 1150

RAM:
- 16GB (4x4) Corsair (I think) DDR3 1600mhz, not sure which exactly is in my desktop at the moment but they are near brand new, so wont be buying more.

Graphics card:
- I require an AMD (Long standing dislike for Nvidia Cards(Also I require 2 DVI-D and one Display Port(not Mini) slots to plug my monitors into)) card, but undecided between a 7950 3GB or a 7970 3GB

and for it's Power Supply, would 750W be enough? a Corsair CX-750M

It will all be cased in a corsair 300r

Thanks in advance.

 

[PP Mguire]

You're better off with a 4670, and the CPU does not need to be overclocked. There is no reason to spend 100 or so extra bucks on an i7 when games don't utilize HT. Also, you'll need a better CPU cooler than the small H55 to tackle the heat from Haswell based chips IF you decide not to listen and actually overclock. Not only that, you need to buy a K series chip.

The GB board is fine, although not something I would personally buy, as is the RAM.

Personally, I can understand your sentiment since I have an unbiased legitimate dislike for AMD drivers, but you're honestly better off with a 4GB GTX770. The 7970 does not come in 4GB form. Also, if you plan on running those monitors in Eyefinity for gaming, you will need 2 cards to push the resolution or get used to turning the settings down.

750w is enough, but not through a cheap CX PSU. The cheapest I can recommend you go is a TX750, but if you're only going to use one GPU then a TX650 is more than plenty to save some cash.

To answer your outdated question, the only thing that will become outdated really is the GPU. The CPU, whether 4670 or 4770 won't be outdated for 3-5 years simply because Intel CPUs are so ahead of the game. I'm running a stock 2nd gen without issue and overclocking only gives me a 1-2FPS increase even in CPU demanding games. GPU on the other hand, you will need to update in about 2 years time or quicker if you plan to run Eyefinity.

 

[Kiyoura]

I see, so the H55 cooler is fine if i decide to not overclock?

Also my budget doesnt allow for two GTX770 cards as I'm a student without a job, any cheaper suggestions that have two DVI-D ports and one display port?

As for the PSU, thanks for the advice, psu's and motherboards are both things I know little about, however is there another Corsair PSU you could recommend? a HX-850 or a AX-760 perhaps?

 

[Yevrag35]

I see, so the H55 cooler is fine if i decide to not overclock?

Also my budget doesnt allow for two GTX770 cards as I'm a student without a job, any cheaper suggestions that have two DVI-D ports and one display port?

As for the PSU, thanks for the advice, psu's and motherboards are both things I know little about, however is there another Corsair PSU you could recommend? a HX-850 or a AX-760 perhaps?

1. The H55 cooler is not needed at all IF you DON'T overclock.
2. Most GTX770's, if not all, have two DVI's and usually at least one other port on the card. PP was saying if you want game at high resolutions with two (or more) monitors, having two cards would be ideal as so it would then NOT put the enormous burden onto just one card.
3. Corsair HX series PSU's are nice quality, much better than the CX's.

 

[PP Mguire]

Yes. I'm running a single fan H50 solution on my 3960x but stock. I have a custom loop for if/when I ever need to overclock. Although in your case, the stock solution for stock clocks is perfectly acceptable.

AFAIK all upper range reference GTX600 and 700 series cards have 2 DVI (one I and one D), one full size DP, and HDMI. DVI-D is only required if you are using high resolution or 120Hz+ screens. If you can get ahold of two 7950s or 2 4GB 760s that should do the trick but nothing like having two faster cards. A friend of mine has 2 2GB SLI 680s and some games make his rig struggle with 2D Surround and him buying 144Hz monitors was a complete waste. Take note, a GTX770 is the exact same cards as a GTX680 except with better power delivery. If you only intend to play on one monitor while the other 2 are for productivity, a single GTX 760, 770, or 7970 will pretty much max any game at 1080p.

I thought you wanted to save money? If you are looking for modular, the TX750m is modular and still cheaper than both. Or you can get a Seasonic Gold series, or M1211 620 or 750. Although I understand you may not have any of these at your disposal. If you can only get one or the other, which ever one is cheaper. Both the HX850 and AX760 are excellent units and I personally own the HX850. Both will run dual cards solutions easily too (as will a TX750).

 

[Kiyoura]

Thanks both of you, I do want to save money but maybe cheaping out on a PSU isnt the best way to do that incase i plan to add things later on,
All three screens would be for gaming,
Getting my hands on two 7950's would be rather easy with my budget as I have a friend who isnt using his anymore and will sell to me cheaply, as he upgraded to 3 TITANs, as for which PSU is cheaper, i can get either within 11$ of the other.

Thanks for all your helpful advice.

 

[PP Mguire]

The TX, HX, and AX PSUs will all do basically the same thing for you. All 3 sets are quality units and a TX750 will push a dual card 4670k system as easy as the AX760. Just read this post. I will never ever recommend a cheap PSU that will not properly power your rig for at least 5 years unless I have to do so within reason of budget, or you change your hardware direction entirely without posting. That being said, like I said in the previous post either way you go you'll be set for a while.

If you can get a couple of 7950s real cheap then by all means. Just know that they won't handle the Eyefinity all that well on higher settings.