Alphasus

If you live near a Fry's you can put games on a USB stick(Best Buy works too), and test them there. They have multiple monitors, and those are plugged into computers that you can test with. Use the USB stick, and play a game like Minecraft(not really important, CS Source will show much more difference). KSP can be tested the same way if you move your steam library on list. Separately, 1440p 60 is just about is demanding as 1080p 144hz. 1440p 60 will benefit more from the 980 because it uses more VRAM than the 970 if you make that decision(it might need the fast VRAM). So, the 60 Hz will need the graphical grunt. What tech stores are you near?

Pros: 144hz is very smooth in games that support it... of which there are very few 144hz desktop experience is neat. everything moves and re-sizes so cleanly Seems solidly built. Stand and adjustments are great. Cons: Colors: they suck. After calibration (custom color profile and some osd menu tweaking) they are better, but still not good. Contrast: yuck. Calibration does little to help this. everything always seems to bright or too dark, too washed out or too muddy. 1080p resolution: yes a i know it's a budget 144hz, but if you're on a budget you probably wont be pushing over 60 fps anyway. Other Thoughts: 144hz gaming is amazing... for a few hours. If you are on the fence choosing between this and, say, a 1440p or an IPS, ditch this monitor and go for the higher resolution or better colors instead. My other monitor is a 1440p IPS by LG and it is superior in every possible way (except the 144hz thing). Review from the Newegg site for that monitor. @KocLobster

I still think that 1440p + IPS is definitively better than TN at 144Hz.

You can change the refresh rate.http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/correct-monitor-flicker-refresh-rate#1TC=windows-7

OK then. Your build, your monitor. But, I will say that many people swear by 60Hz IPS over 144Hz TN at the forums of toms hardware.Tom's Hardware on your issue. They pretty much say it is your choice, and that you wouldn't recognize the 144Hz.

i3 4170, looking for an i5 4690 Asus Strix GTX 970 16 GB DDR3-1600 RAM 850 EVO 120GB 1TB Caviar Blue Cooler Master N200 This is gonna be upgraded, but it is pretty high end. It does play XCOM 2 as well though, so that is the 2nd purpose of the machine. The 970 helps to render in Blender too.

To be fair, however... all those monitors are TN. IPS will look better for you, and the colors will be more accurate. Also, 980s wont always max out games, especially not in future. Then the IPS will look far better than the TN improved FPS, once a 980 can't do 144 fps. 980 vs 780 Bench 780 is 2 years old, and 2/3 as fast in FPS already. So you will see about 96 fps instead of 144 from the GPU. In 4 years, maybe 1/3 of the speed, 1/2 if lucky. So between 72 and 48 fps. IPS will look better the entire time, which is my point. Also... if you are willing to buy from Amazon...25" 1440p Monitor Or from Newegg:25" 1440p Monitor Newegg You will benefit from both of those, and can push them. You can choose between them, but at that price, 1440p is an option.

Not all games can be capped, but thanks for clarifying.

One problem. When the 980 can't do 144 fps, it will look HORRIBLE. Inconsistent frame rates are much worse than a consistent, lower frame rate. Look at constant 30 fps vs 60fps inconsistent. It looks absolutely horrible.

I was talking about specifics...

The R9 Nano is smaller than the 980 with a 175W TDP vs the 200W 980.... R9 Nano in specific is also faster.

Newegg charges too much for 980 ti GPUs. It's like a $75 overcharge. Couple that with the monitor that is $100 more, and there you go. If you used Amazon for the same video card, and dropped the monitor for something cheaper, you could get a 980ti. Of course, that is ultimate overkill, but you will see all 144 fps on most games with max settings.

Umm that is haswell-e. The enthusiast series. The reason I mentioned it is because it makes it easier to just pop a new video card in to supplement your other one(SLI). I mentioned AMD because they perform better vs the 980. Go above the 980, 980ti, and then we will talk. Nvidia has the high end crown. Also, you could go hexacore and r9 nano as far as I know. Like I said, in the 400-500 price range, AMD makes sense. They have smaller, cooler running, and faster cards for the same price tag. EDIT: you could try SLI GTX 960s. That would give you 4 GBs VRAM, and more graphical grunt than a 980.

Summarizing, briansun mentioned that the r9 fury or 980 both work. I said, why not go x99 chipset and get an i7 5820k? Hexa core CPU, that way when games want more cores, as they are slowly, you are fine.

Go with the 980 for 1080p if you think that you will need the VRAM. If not running linux, look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681420216 Or. We could take a look at x99 for you. Perhaps I could try this. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($351.98 @ Newegg) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-SLI ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($133.98 @ Newegg) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($85.55 @ Newegg) Storage: Western Digital Red Pro 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($134.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($342.98 @ Newegg) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.98 @ Newegg) Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Monitor: Asus VC279H 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($171.99 @ Newegg) Total: $1668.34 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-23 05:56 EDT-0400 That is a much more futureproof cpu, looking at the trend for more cores. All 6 cores will function nicely, and it costs as much as a 6700k skylake build. But, this build is also easily overclock-able. All 5820k CPUs can often hit 5930k speeds, which are 200 mHz faster. That motherboard also supports multiple GPUs very well, with many PCI-E lanes. Overall, this would perform well for many years beyond, because games have begun to need more cores. You can always drop in a 2nd 970, but I do recommend a 980 instead for SLI, because you will hit the 3.5 GB limit. Perhaps a R9 Nano? i7 5820k chips can support up to 3 GPUs and a PCI-E SSD.

Nothing weird about mine. i3 4170 GTX 970 EVGA 550 GS 80+ Gold PSU

OK then.Have fun! I would like to see that build, and hear how loud the NF-A15s are. Check back later! You are very welcome by the way!

I have seen noticeable differences between my friends 5400 rpm drive and my 7200 rpm drive. Usually mine will be 20% or less faster(load times on games like war thunder). Your decision, but you should by and external drive regardless and back up to that.

Camacha is providing real benchmarks, and likely has a more valid point than I. But, for whatever reason, my anecdotes disagree with benchmarks. I would recommend using RAID to mirror the Red/Red Pro and the SSD, and getting another solution for specific data.

Camacha, some interesting info: The MacBook Pro retina 15 boots in 6 seconds. The current SSD Mac Pro does it in 30. I wonder if Windows can't use the full io speed of the pci e SSDs? Because it should be a cakewalk, but it seems like Windows just won't. Maybe some Linux testing is in order, if anyone could...

Sure, go with whatever you want on the SSD. But the 950 is definitively faster in real world tests. Both SSDs will be great. And, the compatibility on the motherboard with fast SSDs will be nice in 1 year. I would recommend, in a year, tossing a now cheaper m.2 ssd in there. If you go samsung, samsung has 2 tiers: EVO and PRO 850 Pro(newegg says more reliable and longer lasting) 850 EVO(cheap, similar speed as pro, lower durability) MX-200(features Camacha mentioned) Those are the 3 options. I edited my post to keep it civil. I am sorry. Guess my testing was somewhat unbalanced.

That and O, not Q. andddd italicization of O@ghostbuzzer7Seriously sorry though, but order is something that annoys me when it's missing.

I don't believe the loading times claim. As I type this, I am working off of a Samsung 850 EVO 120 GB drive with a caviar blue. My laptop has a 950 pro, running the same OS. it has half the boot time, and opens KSP(veritably) 4 times as fast. It is most definitely far faster and noticeably quicker. My KSP loading time on the desktop is 1 minute. KSP is somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds on the laptop.

@KocLobster Is this all of it? That has the WD Red and 950 Pro. The SSD space should only be used for important stuff though. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.99 @ Newegg) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.99 @ Newegg) Thermal Compound: ARCTIC MX4 4g Thermal Paste ($7.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($155.66 @ Newegg) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($181.00 @ Newegg) Storage: Western Digital Red Pro 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($134.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($332.98 @ Newegg) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.98 @ Newegg) Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($90.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($22.98 @ Newegg) Monitor: Asus VC279H 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($170.98 @ Newegg) Total: $1706.45 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available That should be your price range...