After a haitus from pc gaming, how is my new rig?

[Aegrus]

A few months ago I sold my pc. I visited my fiance in the Philippines, got a new (better) job, and started studying game development.

 

Now Im building a new rig for gaming and indie development. Im uncertain of the gpu right now, the rest is already purchased. However, since it is all either new or open box at this point and my losses if I sold any part would be tiny, I will consider any suggestions to change any part.

 

Right now, it consists of:

 

16 gb of 1866 mhrz ddr3 Kingston Savage ram (cas latency 9)

-I would have gone 8gb for gaming, but 16 should speed development.

 

A 250 gb 850 evo ssd and a 1 terabyte 850 evo ssd.

-I know it isnt cost effective, but its silent, low power draw, and fast. Also, Ive lost mod data to physical hard drive failure before, I dont want the same to happen to an entire game. XD

 

i7 4790k at 4 ghz. (4 cores, 4 threads, boost to 4.4 ghz)

-I dont plan on replacing this cpu for a long time. I wont overclock immediately, but Im planning for this to last the generation, so I wanted to keep the oc option open. Also, its clocked .4 ghz higher than the non k version.

 

Asus Maximus VII Impact, z97 Mini ITX motherboard.

-I could have gotten a similar quality board for much cheaper, but. . . to be honest, after years of dealing with strict budgets, I wanted to go premium now that I have a good job. Not much to say about this, its a well shielded motherboard with a laundry list of ports and features that supports overclocking.

 

The case, an EVGA Hadron Air mini itx with its 500 watt gold certified psu.

-Yes, that 500 watt psu is silent and can easily power this build. It also doesnt have the noisey, whine issues of other psus of this type. Also, the way this case is set up, it fits most full sized gpus, just not the ones with super giant extended coolers, like the gigabyte gtx 970, for example. (Other 900 series cards it fits fine.)

 

 

As you may have noticed, price isnt that much of a concern for me right now, I do not have a budget limit. However, I do have a power, size, and temperature limit, as this pc might someday need to be transported overseas and used in the Philippines. (A hot country with an unreliable power grid, though one I really like nonetheless.). I went mini itx to make it somewhat portable. I got an asus mobo for the superior surge protection and shielding. I went for all ssds to make failure a non issue, while also cutting out around 10 watts of power consumption. The ssds combined take 6 watts, the ram a negligible amount, the cpu 140 watts at max load, etc.

 

Bottom line, I need a cool running gpu that takes hopefully 200 watts or less. But no gpu is off limits, and Im also open to waiting for the 20 nm Maxwell revisions, or buying a mid tier card to wait for future cards. As mentioned Im also hoping for suggestions on any other piece.

 

My uses range from gaming, to mod and game development, to emulation.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Aegrus

[envoy23]

sounds great, but maybe psu needs to be 650w min, because my 970 card needed 500w just for itself, and today the 970 or similar is the min for gaming (well at least for a few years)

now all you need is a decent game :)

[Aegrus]

sounds great, but maybe psu needs to be 650w min, because my 970 card needed 500w just for itself, and today the 970 or similar is the min for gaming (well at least for a few years)

now all you need is a decent game :)

The 970 recommends a 500 watt psu, but that doesnt mean it draws 500 watts. The benchmarks Ive seen state its power draw is 150 watts. That 500 watt recommendation on Nvidia's site is for the pc as a whole.