Legit Reviews

So my PC got killed by lightening. The insurance company is giving me about $2500 to rebuild the machine. I'm wanting to again use water cooling but I'm leaning more towards a closed loop system for noise levels and ease of maintenance. I'm still in the designing phase and have been "out of the game" for a bit. I could use some help. This will be for gaming, I'm considering using a SSD only this time, and I'd like to keep this as quiet as possible. I'm not hung up on any motherboard vendor in specific but had excellent luck with my last EVGA FTW board.

Here's what I have so far. Any help filling in the gaps would help.

Case Corsair Carbide Air 540 $129.99
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 $159.99
CPU Intel i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz $339.99
Motheboard EVGA Z97 FTW (142-HR-E977-KR) $169.99

Total: $799.96
Budget: $2,500.00
Remainder: $1,700.04

That sucks. Did you have any type of surge strip plugged in? If so, what brand so I can avoid it!

That sucks indeed...

With a $2500 budget... Did you want to build an X99 system? The platform is testing out very nicely here and the boards are loaded with cutting edge features like DDR4, multiple M.2 slots and so on.

Sparky wrote:That sucks. Did you have any type of surge strip plugged in? If so, what brand so I can avoid it!

Have never, ever, seen a wall type surge protector survive and direct hit to the house.

I had everything in the house either on a TrippLite ISO bar surge protector or a CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD UPS including this desktop PC. I lost all my Uverse gear, a 24 port Netgear ProSafe managed switch, a Netgear R6300 router, a garage door opener, a TV, a AVR, a WD TV Live, and a BluRay player. It hit within a hundred feet of my house. My home theater installer and I are going to install Panamax devices on both the RJ-11 line in and the 220 incoming power for the whole house. Like bubba said, not a whole lot I could have done. At least my 12TB NAS is in once piece. The rig I had was built like this:

Intel i5-2500K Sandy
eVGA Z68 FTW Mobo
eVGA GTX 670 FTW GPU
Corsair HX620 PSU
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
120G OCZ SSD
2x WD 650G Black drives in RAID 0
Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium
LD BluRay burner
Corsair Obsidian 800D
Swiftech triple rad, GTZ block, and a Laning pump


I'm thinking the Z97 will do for me. I'm wanting a SSD only build this time around so I'd rather dump the money into the SSD and GPU than a newer board and DDR4 RAM which will be pricey I'm sure.

Looks like after I added up all the parts from my old rig it clocked in at $2220 MSRP. So using that budget I've come up with this:

Case Corsair Carbide Air 540 $129.99
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1 $159.99
CPU Cooler Corsair Hydro Series D100i Watercooler $99.99
SSD Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD $459.99
CPU Intel i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz $339.99
Motheboard EVGA Z97 FTW (142-HR-E977-KR) $169.99
RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $172.99
GPU EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB 03G-P4-3784-KR $519.99


Total: $2052.92

Further refinement to my build sheet.

Case Corsair Carbide Air 540 $119.99 Microcenter
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2 $169.99 Microcenter
CPU Cooler Swiftech H220-X CPU Liquid Cooling Kit $139.95 Swiftech
Motheboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 $119.99 Microcenter
CPU Intel i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz $279.99 Microcenter
RAM G.SKILL Trident X 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 $179.99 Newegg
GPU ASUS GeForce GTX 780 3GB GTX780-DC2OC-3GD5 $479.99 Newegg
SSD Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD $389.99 Amazon

Total: $1,879.88

bummer about the hit,
.Is the case toast too? obsidian is a decent one.....

The case SEEMS fine but I'm not sure if the USB ports are friend on it or not. They ARE replaceable.

With a $2500 budget I would go for a X99 system if I was you just like Nate said. I would just wait few weeks, so there is more choice of parts and prices would settle.

I get what you're saying, but is there really a reason for me to go X99? I will be using this rig 90% of the time for gaming only. I don't need a 6/12 core proc for gaming, the boards are more than twice as expensive, and the max ghz isn't really any faster than a Devils Canyon. Other than DDR4 which is, again, VERY expensive, what am I really getting by going to the X99? Bragging rights?

Ok, ordered all my parts this weekend. Here's what I came up with. Any input is def welcome.

CORE COMPONENTS
Case Corsair 700D w/ Side Window $- Have
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2 $169.99 Microcenter
Motheboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 $119.99 Microcenter
CPU Intel i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz $279.99 Microcenter
RAM G.SKILL Trident X 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 $179.99 Newegg
GPU ASUS ROG POSEIDON-GTX780-P-3GD5 GeForce GTX 780 $469.99 Newegg
SSD Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD $460.67 Amazon
Optical LG Internal 16x Super-Multi Blu-ray Writer $- Have
USB Panel Corsair Corsair Obsidian Series 700D Front Panel USB 3.0 Upgrade Kit $15.99 Performance PCS


COOLING COMPONENTS
Reservoir Monsoon Series Two Premium D5 / MCP655 Dual Bay Reservoir - Matte Black w/ Black Trim $99.95 Performance PCS
Radiator Shroud XSPC 2x XSPC 3 x 120mm Radiator Gasket - 3mm $5.90 Performance PCS
CPU Cooler Swiftech Apogee XL CPU Waterblock - Custom ROG Version $74.95 Performance PCS
Compression Fittings Monsoon Red Carbon Fiber Enhanced Compression Fittings, 1/2" x 3/4" Six Pack - Matte Black $39.95 Performance PCS
Compression Fittings Monsoon 2x Red Carbon Fiber Enhanced Compression Fittings, 1/2" x 3/4" Single - Matte Black $17.90 Performance PCS
Compression Fittings Monsoon 2x Monsoon 90° Rotary Angle Adapter - 1/2" OD - Matte Black $19.90 Performance PCS
Compression Fittings Monsoon 2x Monsoon 45° Rotary Angle Adapter - 1/2" OD - Matte Black $19.90 Performance PCS
Coolent PrimoChill 2x Non-Conductive Liquid Cooling Fluid (32 oz.) $25.90 Performance PCS
Tubing XSPC XSPC FLX Premium Grade PVC Tubing - 1/2" ID (3/4"OD) - 2 Meter - UV Red $16.49 Performance PCS
Pump Swiftech MCP-655-PW Pump $- Swiftech
Radiator Swiftech MCR320-QP 3x120mm Quiet Power Radiator $- Swiftech
120mm Case Fans Corsair 4x Air Series CO-9050029-WW SP120 120mm Red Fans $41.98 Newegg
140mm Case Fans Corsair 2x Air Series AF140 CO-9050017-RLED 140mm Red LED $33.98 Newegg
140mm Case Fan Corsair 1x Air Series AF140 CO-9050009-WW 140mm Quiet Edition $21.99 Newegg


WIRE MANAGEMENT
Grommet Kit Corsair Corsair 350D Grommet Kit $5.99 Performance PCS
Wire Management N/A 4x Spiral Wrap Polyethylene Black UVB 0.25 O.D. $1.96 Performance PCS
Wire Management N/A 4x Spiral Wrap Polyethylene Black UVB 0.50 O.D. $3.16 Performance PCS
Wire Management N/A 5x Mod/Smart 1/2in. Wire Saddle - Snap Style - Black $4.95 Performance PCS
Wire Management N/A 3x Mod/Smart SATA Snap Style Hold Down - Black $2.97 Performance PCS


Grand Total: $2,134.43USD

that's rig is looking to be the same as my next build