Need help picking a PC build!

Hey everyone.

So, I find myself in need of some technical counsel regarding a complete PC build I’m putting together; my goal is to have this machine up and running no later than sometime next week, if all goes according to plan.

Here is the configuration I’ve drafted up so far.

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K
CPUcooler: Corsair H105
HDD: WD Red 1TB (storage)
SSD: Samsung 850 120GB SSD (for Windows)
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VII Hero
RAM: Corsair Vengeance PRO red 16GB 2400 CL11
Case: Corsair Carbide 540 air Black
Power Supply: Corsair RM750W Gold

Now, there are a few specific points where I could really use your expertise:

At the moment, this entire endeavor is going to be quite a significant financial undertaking, which means I won't be able to pull the trigger on a dedicated graphics card just yet; however, I am planning to pick one up next month—most likely a GTX 970 or a 980—and my budget for that component will be 622 miles, though I can't actually purchase it until next month when it becomes available.
Regarding the power supply, I’m wondering if this Corsair RM750W Gold will provide enough headroom for the future; I have absolutely no intention of attempting any extreme overclocking on either the CPU or the GPU, and I’ve also heard some rather dubious claims suggesting that it might actually be detrimental to run a high-capacity power supply if you aren't actually utilizing its full potential, so I'd love to know if running the PC without a GPU present will cause any issues.
My primary use for this machine is professional work—specifically modeling and rendering—though I certainly intend to squeeze in some gaming during my downtime.
Then there is the matter of the motherboard; I was thinking about trimming the budget slightly and was wondering what the actual trade-offs would be if I swapped out the ASUS Maximus VII Hero for an ASUS Z97-PRO.
Ultimately, I just need to know if it’s perfectly fine to rely on a 750W unit for a while without a graphics card, and once I finally do install one, will this specific power supply still be sufficient for the system's long-term operation?

There’s actually a PDF that covers all those kinds of questions

Hey there, buddy!
Edit:
By the way, just out of curiosity, how much would a build like that run me here in the States if I wasn't including a graphics card?

You're overspending—honestly, even a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 is more than enough for your needs. Plus, if you aren't planning on overclocking, why bother with a high-end CPU, a premium motherboard, and liquid cooling? It just doesn't make sense. Even that power supply is complete overkill. Those newer Maxwell GPUs should only be pulling about 150W, so a solid 450W unit would get the job done easily, let alone a 750W one. You could also find cheaper RAM—plenty of components can be picked up for less—which would allow you to shift that budget toward storage. For instance, maybe grab a 2TB hard drive if you need the space, or a 250GB SSD...

Jack Alvarez said:There’s actually a PDF out there that covers all these kinds of questions

Hey there, buddy.
Edit :
By the way, just purely out of curiosity, what would a build like this run me in the States if I wasn't including a graphics card?

In the US, you're probably looking at around 2486 miles maybe $5333
though, if it helps anyone, I actually just placed an order for all of this yesterday from a shop over in Germany for about 1400 bucks. That's without the GPU, obviously.

Timothy Kim60 said:That motherboard is way overpriced—honestly, even a single Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 would be plenty for you. But if you aren't planning on overclocking, why bother with a K-series CPU, a Z-series motherboard, and liquid cooling? Even the power supply is total overkill. Those newer Maxwell GPUs probably only pull about 150W, so a high-quality 450W unit would be more than enough, let alone a 750W one. You could grab cheaper RAM—there's plenty of stuff that's much more affordable—and redirect that cash toward storage, say a 2TB drive if you need it, or a 250GB SSD...

I have had some questionable experiences with Gigabyte in the past, so I tend to put my trust in ASUS when it comes to motherboards. As for the K-series CPU, I am actually planning on doing a bit of overclocking—nothing extreme, mind you, since it already runs at 4.0GHz with a turbo boost up to 4.4GHz—but I might try to push it toward 4.7 or 4.8GHz. Plus, the new GPU draws about 50W to 70W less than the GTX 700 series. I already have a 2TB HDD sitting in my rig, so I'll just migrate that over, and I’m thinking about picking up another SSD so I can run two 120GB drives in RAID 0.

+1 for Kimberly Gomez34

Gigabyte is actually the second biggest player in the motherboard market—they're only trailing ASUS by a tiny percentage... So, if you decide to go with the Z97X gaming, you really can't go wrong there. You could probably even save a little cash on the power supply side—maybe pick up an XFX TS 550W gold instead?

Look, hitting 4.7 - 4.8 GHz is a pretty massive overclock if you actually pull it off. Your temperatures are going to be absolutely brutal, so you definitely need to budget for either a liquid cooling setup or a high-end air cooler. Since this chip already clocks 500MHz higher than the i7-4770 at stock settings, I can see why you might feel like that isn't such a huge jump

http://www.pcekspert.com/clanak/inte...yon-je-stigao/

If you're dead set on an ASUS board, there are plenty of more affordable options like the Z97-C or the Z97-A, or you could look at the ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 etc...

That SSD idea is solid; traditional hard drives are basically the bottleneck in every single PC anyway.

Timothy Kim60 said:Look, hitting 4.7 or 4.8 GHz is actually a massive overclock if you can pull it off, and let me tell you, the temperatures are going to be absolutely brutal, so you really ought to budget for either a liquid cooling setup or a very high-end air cooler. It’s already clocked 500MHz higher than the i7-4770 at stock settings, which is probably why you're underestimating just how aggressive an overclock this actually is.

http://www.pcekspert.com/clanak/inte...yon-je-stigao/

If you are dead set on going with an ASUS board, there are plenty of more affordable options out there like the Z97-C or the Z97-A, or even looking toward the ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 and its ilk...

That idea regarding the SSD is actually quite sound, considering that traditional hard drives are essentially the primary bottleneck in almost any modern PC build.

I am well aware that it isn't a small jump, but a friend of mine is running that exact same CPU paired with an H105 in a push/pull configuration on an MSI motherboard—I believe it's a Z97—and he manages a rock-solid 4.8GHz across all four cores, topping out at maybe 78°C during an Intel burn test at full load, while idling somewhere between 29 and 33°C.
Though, honestly, for the type of work I do, 4.4GHz with Turbo Boost will be more than enough for my needs, so I likely won't touch a single setting.
As for the SSDs, they are an absolute necessity for any workstation, primarily to handle system boot times and ensure all the heavy software I rely on for my job runs smoothly.

Best regards.

My buddy did a solid job pulling those numbers, though hitting over 70°C is definitely running hot. Take this specific review as an example:

Initially, our unit easily hit 4.5 GHz at 1.3V, which was right on target. It remained perfectly stable during extended OCCT stress tests, with total system power draw climbing to about 180W. Moving forward, we bumped the voltage to 1.35V and set the multiplier to 47. This pushed the clock speed up to 4.7GHz, where the processor stayed stable, even as temperatures climbed toward 88°C. During this, we maintained the VRIN voltage at 1.9V, the RING voltage at 1.175V, and kept the System Agent, I/O Analog, and I/O Digital voltages at +0.1V above nominal. The chip actually managed to wake up at 4.8 GHz, but while it passed all the benchmarks, it crashed during stability testing after just 25 minutes (OCCT). Consequently, the absolute stable OC clock is 4.7GHz, making it objectively worse than our old 4770K, which hit 4.9GHz.

It really just comes down to individual hardware variance and, obviously, the cooling setup used.

Timothy Kim60 said:His buddy did him a massive favor by pulling that one, because hitting over 70°C is definitely pushing things into the red zone, and you can see exactly what I mean if you look at the thermal data in that review linked above.

It really just boils down to the specific hardware you’re running and, obviously, how robust your cooling setup is.

I went ahead and read that entire review from top to bottom.
Look, I realize there isn't a night-and-day difference in raw performance when you compare a 4770K to a 4790K, but it's well documented that the 4770K tended to run even hotter under pressure.
Personally, I have zero interest in overclocking right now. I'm planning to just run my CPU at stock speeds paired with a solid Corsair H105 liquid cooler, mostly just so I can sleep easy knowing everything is stable. When I think about overclocking, I look at the actual utility of it: since this rig is primarily for modeling and heavy rendering work, if an overclock only shaves five or ten seconds off a render time, then it honestly provides me with absolutely no real-world value. It's the same logic with gaming; if I'm only gaining maybe three to eight extra frames per second, the effort just doesn't justify the heat.
At the end of the day, I just want a reliable system with high-quality components—a good motherboard, decent RAM, and a dependable CPU—and then, come 2015, I can always swap the processor out for a Broadwell chip if it actually delivers a meaningful jump in performance.