Dark Souls II
Hello readers! This week's Build of the Week is all about my most anticipated game of the year thus far: Dark Souls 2. The title releases on consoles this coming Tuesday, March 11th and on PC April 25th. If you have never heard of Dark Souls just know that it is a very difficult, but accurate and rewarding game set in a dark and hostile world. You are undead and your goal is to regain your humanity through gathering souls.
The color theme this week is black and gold. The gold depicting the fire within the darkness, the black, well I think you get the idea. I threw any sort of budget out the window and just tried to make this as bad ass as possible without making it ridiculous. So without further ado let's jump into this build!
The color theme this week is black and gold. The gold depicting the fire within the darkness, the black, well I think you get the idea. I threw any sort of budget out the window and just tried to make this as bad ass as possible without making it ridiculous. So without further ado let's jump into this build!
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
For the CPU I chose the i5 4670K from Intel. I don't think anyone is going to argue that this isn't a great gaming CPU. This is the latest and greatest generation of CPU from Intel on the 1150 socket. It has the amazing single core performance you need and true quad core power you want. Coming in at an unlocked 3.4 GHz you will have no problems playing any game at the highest settings available. Being that this is an unlocked CPU it makes it very easy to overclock and really crank the performance out of it. You should be able to easily obtain 4.2-4.5 Ghz with a high end cooling solution.
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 w/ 2x Bitfenix Spectre Pros
This is an all-in-one 280mm liquid CPU cooler from NZXT. I personally use this cooler and have found its' performance to be very satisfactory. It keeps my CPU temperature safely within a cool range even when under maximum loads. The NZXT logo on the cooling block lights up. You can then use included software to fit the color of your choice. Set the color to a gold hue and away we go. My only complaint with this system is that the stock fans are very loud. I have replaced the original fans with much quieter. For this build I am going to replace the stock fans with a pair of Bitfenix Spectre Pros. These are 140mm PWM fans meaning that they can be software controlled and are high pressure optimized for pushing air through the thick radiator. I chose the black version to keep the black/gold theme intact.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H
This board stood out for my theme instantly. The all black PCB and gold heatsink designs just made it impossible to pass up. Gigabyte has grown to become my favorite and go to brand when it comes to system building. They lack zero quality when it comes to even their lowest end boards. They also make plenty of boards to choose from on both the Intel and AMD side. When it comes to motherboards this isn't for the faint of heart. This is a high end board that has too many features to give it justice here. For a full list of features check it out on Newegg. They also have a lovely video featuring Paul, my favorite reviewer!
RAM: ADATA XPG V2
The memory for this build is a 2x4Gb kit of ADATA XPG V2 in gold. With no budget I would grab two of these kits to jump up to 16 Gb. That much memory is not needed for gaming, but having all the dimm slots occupied looks better. This is a quality kit that is flashy while not being ridiculous. The specs on these are 1600 mhz and CAS 9 latency. Those being very standard numbers you shouldn't expect too much of a performance gain from higher speed, higher priced RAM. I think that the gold heatsink with black PCB accents the motherboard perfectly!
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB - Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB
This system's storage will consist of two drives. The Samsung 840 EVO, being a lightning fast SSD, will serve as the primary boot drive. This drive will store the operating system and any of the primary programs you use on a daily basis. They are virtually silent and put off very low amounts of heat. The second drive will store all of your games, music, movies, and any other large files your aquire. The Caviar Black is a very reliable drive with a 5 year warranty. 2TB of storage is more than enough for most people, but when you have a large game collection you can run out of room fast! You can easily grab another drive and run a RAID setup to either boost the performance or have an automatic backup.
GPU: Sapphire R9 290 Toxic
This time around I wanted to go for a big graphics card. The Sapphire R9 290 Toxic Edition is just that. It features a custom cooling system boasting a three fan design and a sweet black and gold color scheme. On the opposite side of the card a Sapphire logo glows with a white LED for just a pinch of flair. The 290 is tiered towards higher resolutions than 1080p, like 1440p, 1600p, or multi-monitor setups. That being said you definitely don't need this much horsepower to play Dark Souls 2, but I couldn't help myself! Expect to blast through any game with ease and achieve that 60+ FPS haven that makes PC gaming so elite.
Case: Rosewill Throne w/ NZXT Air Flow Series
The Rosewill Throne is a full tower chassis that depicts a giant shield and features an awesome clear windowed panel to show off the color scheme. If you've played Dark Souls you will know that having a shield makes the game more manageable so I thought this case made sense. The only thing I don't like are the red lights. To keep true to the gold and black theme I would replace all of the red fans with NZXT Air Flow Series fans. These are 140 mm fans with high air flow in mind to keep cool air moving in and hot air moving out as efficiently as possible. I have a few of these fans in my own system and they have been working great!
PSU: Cooler Master V700
The power for this system is coming from a Cooler Master V700. I chose this unit not only for its' all black with gold lettering, but also due to it's amazing performance. This is a tier 1 unit, meaning that it is the baddest of the bad when it comes to having the highest efficiency and reliability. It comes with an 80+ gold rating so you can expect your electrical bill to stay calm. This system will be pulling close to 500 watts at full load so 700 watts will leave plenty of extra headroom for overclocking. Lastly this is a fully modular PSU, so you only need to attach the cables you need, as you need them. This makes cable management very easy, but also allows for fully sleeved cables in the color of your choice. If I were building this system I would likely go with an all black set or mix it up with black and gold sleeves.
Conclusion & Prices
All in all this would be not only an amazing gaming system, but it would also be a joy to build. Keep in mind that this is a high end gaming system. You do not need this much horsepower to play games on a PC. This is just one of those "see what we can do" type of builds. With Dark Souls 2 releasing on console this coming Tuesday, I'm excited to see what it is all about. With the PC release in the later part of April, I would have plenty of time to get a system like this up and running and ready for the release date. If you've made it this far I must thank you for reading. If you liked what you saw give me a like or comment on Facebook. Every little bit helps!
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99)
CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken X60 98.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99)
Case Fan: BitFenix BFF-SPRO-P14025KK-RP 122.2 CFM 140mm Fan ($18.99)
BitFenix BFF-SPRO-P14025KK-RP 122.2 CFM 140mm Fan ($18.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($209.99)
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.98)
A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.98)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99)
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($139.99)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card ($603.98)
Case: Rosewill THRONE-Window-A ATX Full Tower Case ($159.99)
Case Fan: NZXT Air Flow Series 83.6 CFM 140mm Fan ($15.37)
NZXT Air Flow Series 83.6 CFM 140mm Fan ($15.37)
Power Supply: Cooler Master V700 700W ($124.99)
Total: $1963.59
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