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2014 Desktop PC System: A Quiet Windows Gaming and Linux dual booting Desktop PC System

Vendors: Newegg - Amazon - Frys - Micro Center - ZipZoomfly - Mwave - CrazyPC - eWIZ - Tiger Direct - Directron - Meritline
Case + Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 - 3dgameman video review - Overclockers review - pureoverclock review - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter

or
Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (limited access to back side of motherboard CPU cooler area) - AnandTech review - Newegg - Amazon - Frys - Microcenter
or
Antec P100 - HardwareCanucks video review - Benchmarkreviews review - bit-tech review - Amazon - Newegg - Frys
or
Corsair Obsidian 350D - AnandTech review - Amazon (windowed side) - Amazon
or
NZXT H630 CA-630F-M1 Matte Black Ultra Tower Silent Case - AnandTech review - Newegg video review - Newegg - Amazon
or
NZXT H2 H2-001-BK (Black) - Newegg
or
Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case CC-9011030-WW - Black - AnandTech review - Newegg - Amazon
Motherboard + Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark2 (5 year warranty) - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter - Frys

or
Asus
Gryphon Z97 (5 year warranty) - Newegg - Amazon
Maximus VII Hero - Newegg - Microcenter
Z97-Pro - Microcenter - Amazon - Newegg
Z97-A - hardocp review - Hexus review - Amazon - Newegg
Sabertooth Z97 Mark1 (5 year warranty) - Amazon - Newegg
or
ASRock
Fatal1ty Z97 Killer - hardocp review - Newegg - Microcenter
Fatal1ty Z97X Killer - Newegg
Z97 OC Formula - AnandTech review - Newegg
Z97 Extreme6 - Phoronix review
or
Gigabyte
GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter
GA-Z97X-UD5H Black Edition rev.1.1
GA-Z97X-UD3H
Z97X Gaming G1 - hardocp review
or
MSI
Z97 Gaming 5 - Hexus review

Socket (LGA) 1150 Z97 - Newegg listing - Microcenter listing
Tom's Hardware Top Oct. 2014 motherboards - Hexus reviews
Intel X99 chipset = Avoiding due to high cost and power usage for more cores but lower speed which uses socket LGA2011-v3 which supports Haswell-E Intel Core i7-5960X, i75930K, i7-5820k
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC1150
CPU + Intel i7-4790K (Socket (LGA) 1150) (Haswell) - Troubleshooting overheating - AnandTech review - Tom's Hardware review - Newegg - Amazon - Micro Center

or
Intel Haswell CPU - wiki
i5-4690K (Socket (LGA) 1150) - Frys - Microcenter
or
Future:
Intel Broadwell (ETA: 2014/2015) - wiki
Intel Skylake (ETA: 2015) - wiki

Processor Operation Temperature FAQ - Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (64-bit) - Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel XTU) (Download)
AnandTech CPU Bench comparison - CPU Benchmarks - CPUBoss
CPU Cooling Hardware + Noctua NH-D15 - Guru3d review - TechPowerUp review - Overclockers review - TweakTown review - Xbitlabs review - Bit-tech review - OC3D review - Techicize video review - OC3D TV video review - PC Componentes video review (Spanish) - Newegg - Amazon

or

Noctua NH-D14 - TweakTown review - Guru3d group test review - Guru3d 2009 review - HardOCP review - pcper review - Tomshardware review - Tomshardware review 2 - Newegg - Amazon
or
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan (OCCT 65C max CPU temp when disabling hyperthreading and turbo and setting fans to turbo) - AnandTech article - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter - Frys
or
Noctua NH-U14S - Amazon - Newegg
or
Arctic Freezer i11 - Newegg

or
Water Cooling Options:
Swiftech H220-X - Techpowerup review
or
Corsair Hydro H110 - Techpowerup review
or
Corsair Hydro H105 - Techpowerup review review
or
Corsair H100i
or
Kraken x61

AnandTech CPU Air Coolers
Best Thermal Paste Application Methods - 33-Way TIM Comparison Test
Video Card - AMD Drivers + Gigabyte GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD - Guru3D review - Tiger Direct - Newegg - Amazon - Microcenter

or
NVidia GTX 980 - AnandTech review - guru3d power consumption - Frys - Newegg - Microcenter
Gigabyte GTX 980 options
or
MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G - Guru3D review - Newegg - Microcenter
or
Asus Strix-GTX980-DC20C-4GD5 - Guru3D review - Newegg - Microcenter
or
NVidia GTX 970 (Coil noise issues?) - Frys - Microcenter - Newegg
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 GV-N970G1GAMING-4GD - Guru3D review - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Overclocked GV-N970WF3OC-4GD (reviews complain of "coil whine") - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter

Guru3D reviews

OLD:
Sapphire TRI-X Radeon R9 290 - AnandTech review
or
Sapphire TRI-X Radeon R9 290X
Video Card Cooling Hardware default
Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier existing
Memory + Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL8 Desktop Memory Kit (Two 8GB Memory Modules) - Amazon - Newegg - Microcenter

or

Crucial - Crucial Advisor
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model BLT4K8G3D1608ET3LX0 - Amazon - Newegg
or
G.Skill RAM Configurator
G.Skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX (16 GB (2x8GB) 2400 CAS 10) DDR3 10-12-12-31-2N 1.65v - Remove Fin - Video unboxing - Video unboxing 2 - overclockersclub review - Newegg ($174.99) - Amazon ($199)
or
Corsair CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R or CMY16GX3M2A2400C11A 11-13-13-31(2) - Unboxing - Amazon (Red) - Amazon (Gold) - Newegg (Red) - Newegg (Gold) - Microcenter (Red) - Microcenter (Gold) - Frys (Red)
or
Corsair Memory Finder
Corsair Vengeance Pro Series
Corsair Vengeance Pro Series — 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 DRAM 1866MHz C9 Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A1866C9) 9-10-9-27 1.5v - Frys - Newegg - Amazon - Microcenter
or
Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP - Newegg - Microcenter
or
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Gaming Memory Model BLT2KIT8G3D1869DT1TX0 - Newegg - Microcenter?
or
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB 1866 BLT8G3D1869DT1TX0 9-9-9-27 1.5v - Newegg
or
Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1866 MT/s (PC3-14900) CL9 @1.5V UDIMM w/XMP/TS 240-Pin BLE2CP8G3D1869DE1TX0 - Amazon
or
Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB Single DDR3 1866 MT/s (PC3-14900) CL9 @1.5V UDIMM w/XMP/TS 240-Pin Memory BLE8G3D1869DE1TX0 - Amazon
or
ADATA XPG V1.0 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600W8G9-DB 9-9-9-24 1.5V - Newegg
or
16 GB DDR3 1866, 2133, 2400, or 2666 MHz
or
16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 ?
Corsair memory speed testing - AnandTech - CAS Latency and Speed comparisons
Case Fans: Quiet 140mm x 25mm
Noctua NF-A15 PWM - Newegg

Quiet 120mm x 25mm
?
Power Supply + Rosewill SilentNight-500 500W Continuous @50°C, Intel Haswell Ready, 80 PLUS PLATINUM, ATX12V v2.31 & EPS12V v2.92, SLI/CrossFire Ready, Fan-less Active PFC Power Supply - Silentpcreview - Overclockers review - Newegg video overview - Newegg - Amazon

or
Rosewill TACHYON-550 550W Continuous @ 50°C, Intel Haswell Ready, 80 PLUS PLATINUM, ATX12V v2.31 & EPS12V v2.92, SLI/CrossFire Ready, Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg video review - Newegg - Amazon 650W - Amazon
or
SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready - Newegg

At least:
500+ W w/2x6-pins GPU power connectors
Newegg 80 Plus Platinum 2x6+2-pin or 4x6+2-pin Modular
Newegg 80 Plus Platinum 2x6+2-pin Modular
Boot Drive 1 - SSD + Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256GB - AnandTech review - Frys - Newegg - Amazon - Micro Center

or
Sandisk Extreme Pro 240GB - Newegg - Amazon
or
Samsung EVO - Microcenter - 840 EVO 250GB @ Microcenter - AnandTech review - Samsung 250 EVO = 3 year warranty
or
Intel 530 - Intel 530 = 5 year warranty - AnandTech review - Microcenter options - Newegg - Microcenter
or
Intel 730

Samsung SSDs
Intel SSDs
AnandTech Recommended SSD 2013
Data Drive 2 - HDD + Western Digital Red 6TB (got for discount at $239) - AnandTech review - Newegg - Amazon - Frys

or
Original 1st choice: HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5" 6TB 7200RPM 3 year warranty - HGST GPT Disk Manager - simply reviews review - Newegg - Amazon
or
HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5" 4TB 7200RPM 3 year warranty - Newegg - Amazon

Hard Drive Reliability Update - Sep 2014
Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer/Reader (SATA) + Pioneer BDR-2209 SATA 16x BD/DVD/CD burner (Cyberlink software) - Newegg - Amazon

or
Pioneer BDR-209DBK SATA 16x internal BD/DVD/CD burner (no software) - Pioneer BDR-209DBK-KIT 16X Blu-Ray Writer Drive + Nero 12 Essentials Burning Software + SATA Cable Kit - Amazon - Newegg - Amazon BDR-209DBK
or
LG BH16NS40 Super Multiblue Internal SATA 16X Blu-Ray Disc rewriter - Amazon
Operating System(s) Windows 7
or
Windows 10

and

* Fedora Linux

Avoiding:
Windows 8.1 Home Premium
* = Actually owned, used, and recommended.
+ = Most likely to buy

Pre-Built system options:
Falcon Northwest Tiki - AnandTech review

Things to keep an eye on:
Fusion-io

Old:
2011 built PC system
2011 built PC system - other options
2008 built PC system - 2008 built PC system - other options
2006 built PC system

Page updated: February 20, 2013