PC for gaming + music production

bassey

1. What is your budget? €1500-2000

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming and music production, would like to be able to play games on high settings, the likes of Skyrim, Company of Heroes, Simcity, Sims. Also will be running Ableton

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Not sure but I reckon it'll do

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard and mouse bit can be left for a while

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Don't want to have to

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? February

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? North Dublin


I've never built a PC before but I cobbled together this part build, it's probably overkill and it doesn't include a tower, PSU or fans. Reason I've gone for the high end of CPU and RAM is I want it to be fast as possible for the budget

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-4930K, 6x 3.40GHz, bx|€502.47
ASUS SABERTOOTH X79, Sockel 2011, ATX, DDR3|€288.62
ASUS GTX650-DCT-1GD5, GeForce GTX 650, 1024MB DDR5|€112.40
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 Dominator Platinum, DDR3-2400, CL11-13-13-31|€270.77
WD RE 2TB SAS 6Gb's|€244.90
Mach Xtreme 16GB SATA DOM SSD, MLC, 7-PIN, Vertical|€27.94
LG GH24NS Retail schwarz|€24.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1490.27

batman88

Processor is overkill. (Processor is overkill and way overpriced, a Xeon is a better choice if not overclocking)
Motherboard too expensive (One for 60 would suffice if not planning on overclocking)
Graphics card is crap. (Very weak card for the budget)
Don't need that much Ram. (8GB is more than enough for gaming and for Ableton)
Don't need a SAS hard drive. (Only really needed for servers)
Thats a 16GB SSD, need bigger than that. (Need a 128GB for operating system and your main programs.)

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150, ohne Kühler|€215.27
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€74.66
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€82.99
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.19
be quiet! PURE POWER L8 600W|€70.20
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€62.86
Sapphire Radeon R9 290, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, full retail|€357.34
Nanoxia Deep Silence Two Anthracite, ohne Netzteil|€83.10
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1016.60

bassey

Thanks a million, I really don't know much about builds at all just thought I should at least have a go at something meself.

Looks pretty solid, probably a stupid question but how do the USB ports on the tower link up to the board?

Is the drive I picked out alright? Wouldn't really be using discs for anything much just burning the odd time

batman88

Yea its grand, could go with a cheaper graphics card if you wanted to but the one in the above build is a beast! Probably overkill. Actually good drop the Xeon and just get this instead

You would install the operating system and your main programs you use to the SSD for extra speed. Is the monitor you currently have 1080P. Could get a nice 24inch one for around 140

bassey

The beastlier the better I reckon, I think the one I have now is 27" and 1080, I'll have the check it out when I get home

bassey

Okay I checked and this is the monitor I've got at the moment

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&sku=s2309wp

Up to scratch?

bassey

I also have a Samsung HD 103UJ and a WD2500AAKX in the old PC, would either of these be any use?

Luck100

That monitor should be fine, but you can certainly upgrade. It's a 23", 1920x1080 TDT panel with 60HZ refresh. Upgrade options:

1. More size (27" is pretty common now).
2. Better color (IPS panels are better than TFT for color).
3. More resolution (2560x1440 or 2560x1600 for now, 4k panels are silly prices)
4. Faster (120 Hz or higher, good for very fast FPS games).

What you prefer depends on your tastes/needs.

BloodBath

That's a good build by batman there. I'd hold out for a better cooler on the r9 290 though. They are out in January.

You may need 16gb of ram depending on what audio editing you are doing. If you are dealing with big audio files like flac you might want a 2tb drive for storing your audio files. Keep the 1tb hdd for games and the 120gb ssd for windows and all your small programs.

Consider a decent sound card as well.

bassey

Thanks for the info!

Well it'll more than likely be early February when I'm buying so no problem holding out for it.

It's mostly midi based work on the music side with some sampling but it can get pretty intensive that's why I was gonna go overboard on the RAM, 1TB shouldn't be a problem, I've also got the 1TB HDD from the old computer if more storage is needed.

I'll be upgrading my external sound card soon, is there any major advantages to having an internal soundcard?

bassey

Right so I've been watching a tonne of youtube videos and reading loads of articles trying to educate myself about this stuff and I've come up with these two builds from HWVS and Dabs respectively.

Going on from the build batman put together for me:

I like the look of the Xeon E3 CPU but it doesn't come with a cooler from HWVS so I went with the i5-4670 from there, also the R9 290 looks the business alright but it requires a 750W PSU so that's why I've gone with the 1KW PSU in both builds. Also one thing I don't really understand from what I've been reading is talk about reference models with regard to the graphics card.

HWVS:
Item|Price
Gigabyte H87-HD3, ATX|€81.45
Intel Core i5-4670 Box, LGA1150|€188.00
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case, Military Green, ohne Netzteil|€105.03
Sapphire Radeon R9 290, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, full retail|€353.49
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€115.99
WD Black 1TB SATA 3 8,9cm(3,5")|€72.44
LG GH24NS Retail schwarz|€24.18
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€136.62
Corsair Enthusiast Series RM1000, Modular, 80 Plus Gold 1000 Watt|€164.17
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1260.36

Dabs:
Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 S1155 3.30GHz 8MB|€211.71
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX|€119.91
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case Gunmetal Black|€108.11
Sapphire Technology AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI|€370.27
Samsung 250GB 840 EVO Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive|€172.63
WD 2TB Enterprise Raid SE SATA 6GB/s 64MB 7200RPM 3.5"|€133.89
Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) Vengeance Pro Blue DDR3 1866MHz CL9|€97.57
Corsair 1000W RM1000 RM Series Power Supply|€161.57
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional w/SP1 - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English|€139.48
Samsung 8x DVDRW Slimline SATA OEM Black|€15.49
Shipping|€0.76
Total|€1,531.39

I'd really appreciate any input on the above builds.

Also I'm probably gonna need a copy of windows 7 so where's the best place to pick up an OEM copy of that?

marco_polo

You are definitely overspending on the PSU, Unless you are planning on getting two of them even a good a 550-600W PSU is almost perfect for a single R9 290, while gaming both of these systems were drawing well under 400W from the wall, so the actual DC load on the rails would be about 15% under this again after accounting for PSU efficiency loss. Honestly something like the CX600M would do you just fine.

http://www.techspot.com/review/736-amd-radeon-r9-290/page8.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/the-amd-radeon-r9-290-review/15

Even the factory overclocked Tri-X would be absolutely fine on such a PSU.

Non reference cards tend to have improved PCB designs but more importantly much better cooling so they will run quieter, and if you have no interest in over clocking yourself you can also get a better performing factory overclocked model.

I'd just pickup a budget CPU cooler and stick with the Xeon (Even something 1/2 the price of the 212 would be fine on a non overclockable Xeon).

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Intel+AMD/59387/Cooler+Master+Hyper+212+EVO++-+Intel+AMD.article

bassey

Thanks!

Happy days about the psu, I was thinking 1 kW was a bit mad alright, I was just going by the 750w in the the specs

Any ideas when the 290 with the better cooler will be out? Also is the sapphire 290 the one to go for yeah?

Another stupid question but do 3rd party CPU coolers come with thermal paste or do I need to get some?

bassey

I'm having great craic putting builds together!

Hopefully this should be the last build, depending on when this 290 with the better cooler comes out and stuff comes into stock on HWVS.

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150, ohne Kühler|€217.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.99
Gigabyte H87-D3H, ATX|€93.08
Sapphire Radeon R9 290, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, full retail|€353.49
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case, Military Green, ohne Netzteil|€105.03
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€115.99
WD Black 1TB SATA 3 8,9cm(3,5")|€72.44
LG GH24NS Retail schwarz|€24.18
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€136.62
Corsair Enthusiast Series RM650, Modular, 80 Plus Gold 650 Watt|€98.55
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1265.60

marco_polo

bassey wrote: »

Thanks!

Happy days about the psu, I was thinking 1 kW was a bit mad alright, I was just going by the 750w in the the specs

Any ideas when the 290 with the better cooler will be out? Also is the sapphire 290 the one to go for yeah?

Another stupid question but do 3rd party CPU coolers come with thermal paste or do I need to get some?

There are listings up on US sites like Newegg etc so hopefully they should be available within a couple of weeks at most.

The Sapphire just so happens to be the first non reference one reviewed (just today) and the exact retailed price has not yet been unveiled, there are almost certainly more vendors to follow so by February the best value options should be clearer. I'd say expect the better ones to start around the €370 mark but a decent one will definitely be worth the minor premium over reference models.

The CPU cooler should have a tube of thermal paste so no need to get any more.

marco_polo

bassey wrote: »

I'm having great craic putting builds together!

Hopefully this should be the last build, depending on when this 290 with the better cooler comes out and stuff comes into stock on HWVS.

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150, ohne Kühler|€217.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.99
Gigabyte H87-D3H, ATX|€93.08
Sapphire Radeon R9 290, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, full retail|€353.49
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case, Military Green, ohne Netzteil|€105.03
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€115.99
WD Black 1TB SATA 3 8,9cm(3,5")|€72.44
LG GH24NS Retail schwarz|€24.18
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€136.62
Corsair Enthusiast Series RM650, Modular, 80 Plus Gold 650 Watt|€98.55
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1265.60

Looks good I'll just add a few final optional cost saving suggestions which could shave off up to €70, I'd get the Pro4 rather than the Gigabyte board (unless it has a particular feature you need that I have missed), all you are losing out on is a additional PCIe x16 slot (which can only operate @X4 speed) and you wont really need anyway as you are going for single card, and a handful of extra USB ports etc.

Also despite being the more mainstream consumer drive the 1TB WD blue is actually faster than the Black as it has been refreshed more recently with a denser single platter, so aside from a shorter warranty warranty is arguably the better al round HDD.

Finally the case is obviously up to your own personal preference but from a functional point of view but the Deep Silence two is also a really good silenced case as well and a good bit cheaper that the C70.

Finally might as well get 2X of this 8GB DDR3-1600 sticks instead of DDR3-1333, won't make a huge difference but its about the the same price so might as well.

bassey

Thanks a million for the replies, you've been really helpful, I've switched out the HDD and the RAM for your suggestions but I've become kind of attached to the C70.

So thats all the parts picked, just going to wait for a non-reference 290 to show up and I'll be ordering.

Been toying with the idea of going to whole hog and getting a new monitor while I'm at it, any suggestions? Price not much of a problem as long as the quality is there.

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150, ohne Kühler|€217.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.99
Gigabyte H87-D3H, ATX|€93.08
Sapphire Radeon R9 290, 4GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, full retail|€353.49
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case, Military Green, ohne Netzteil|€105.03
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€115.99
LG GH24NS Retail schwarz|€24.18
Corsair Enthusiast Series RM650, Modular, 80 Plus Gold 650 Watt|€98.55
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.27
2 x 8GB G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€136.98
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1244.79

marco_polo

You can get a €350 1440p korean monitor after customs charges (but slightly risky and difficult enough to return etc, but great value to be had), it's about €500 for something similar a UK/Ireland based retailer.

If you are happy enough with lower resolutions the 1200p 24" Dell Ultrasharp U2412M or 23" 1080p U2312HM are staple recomendations of mine.

bassey

I think I'll pick up the 24" Dell Ultrasharp U2412M it's €250 on Komplett, anywhere else I should look for one?

I'm probably starting to get annoying but any recommendations on a good keyboard and mouse? Up until now the extent of my pc gaming has been Age of Empires, Sims, Hitman and Company of Heroes so I don't really know much about peripherals

marco_polo

bassey wrote: »

I think I'll pick up the 24" Dell Ultrasharp U2412M it's €250 on Komplett, anywhere else I should look for one?

I'm probably starting to get annoying but any recommendations on a good keyboard and mouse? Up until now the extent of my pc gaming has been Age of Empires, Sims, Hitman and Company of Heroes so I don't really know much about peripherals

No problem at all, I'd certainly recommenced a mechanical keyboard if you can afford it. There are a couple of different switch types (red, blue, brown) so I'd read up on them to see which might appeal the most.

The CM Quickfire is pretty popular around these parts as it is offers pretty decent value. It is quite compact though so you might prefer something full size (Its the only mech keyboard I have ever used so beyond that I can't offer much help on alternatives , I'm sure the other guys will have more suggestions).

Hard to recommend a mouse as everyone prefers something different but the Logitech G500 and Razor deathadder are two of the more popular not insanely expensive gaming mice. But you can also get fairly decent alternatives for a good bit less either.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-G500s-Laser-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B00CJAEZ78/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1388785576&sr=1-1&keywords=g500

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-Deathadder-Ergonomic-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B00ABS62C6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388785630&sr=8-1&keywords=death+adder

Burkie94

So any ideas when the Sapphire Tri X R9 290 will be for sale in Europe? I assume that's the one to be going for?

Edit: Woops, on my brothers laptop

marco_polo

Burkie94 wrote: »

So any ideas when the Sapphire Tri X R9 290 will be for sale in Europe? I assume that's the one to be going for?

Edit: Woops, on my brothers laptop

Its up on OCUK now with an ETA of 17/01/14. Although it is carrying a hefty €450 price tag. :eek:.

They are known for being pretty expensive though so I'd expect it to be a decent amount cheaper elsewhere like HWVS when it shows up (Most GTX 780 are roughly €30 cheaper on HWVS by my reckoning).

marco_polo

Few more r290 appearing in the last day or so including Gigabyte Winforce, MSI Lightning/Twin Frozers and Asus CUII to name but a few so you'll likely be spoilt for choice come mid January.

€400 on HWVS for a Windforce.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/4096+MB/143534/Gigabyte+Radeon+R9+290+OC+Windforce+3%2C+Battlefield+4+Edition%2C+4GB+DDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

bassey

Great no I'm confused again, jut when I thought I had a grip on it.

Is the much difference between the non reference cards from the different producers?

marco_polo

bassey wrote: »

Great no I'm confused again, jut when I thought I had a grip on it.

Is the much difference between the non reference cards from the different producers?

There can be although I have only read reviews of the Trix and Windforce and in this case they are both good cards, and there is not likely to be too much between the very best models so its a simply matter of getting the best deal IMO

Gigabyte looks to run slightly hotter but quieter than the Trix (mostly due to fan profiles it seems). Probably get the trix if there was not much difference in price.

http://www.techspot.com/review/762-gigabyte-radeon-r9-290-oc/

As Gumbi pointed out in the R9 290 thread running it through http://geizhals.de/ you can find the non BF4 edition for as low as €367 on HWVS. The Trix isn't listed on HWVS yet.

http://geizhals.de/?fs=Gigabyte+Radeon+R9+290+OC+Windforce+3%2C+4GB+DDR5%2C+PCI-Express&in=

Luck100

bassey wrote: »

Great no I'm confused again, jut when I thought I had a grip on it.

Is the much difference between the non reference cards from the different producers?

Looks like the Tri-X is the one to get.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/r9-290x-case-performance,3710-3.html

Check out the red bars in the top graph - those are the ones where the cards are tested in a case. Blue bars are open-bench, and the results are quite different.

bassey

I've decided I'm going to wait on the Tri X and then order.

I just have a question I have in mind on a possible set up. I've attached a very rough sketch of my sitting room. The new build will be going where the current pc is. If I get the new monitor mentioned earlier I would put the current monitor on the spare desk. Would I then be able to have an out put to both monitors and the TV?

Luck100

bassey wrote: »

I've decided I'm going to wait on the Tri X and then order.

I just have a question I have in mind on a possible set up. I've attached a very rough sketch of my sitting room. The new build will be going where the current pc is. If I get the new monitor mentioned earlier I would put the current monitor on the spare desk. Would I then be able to have an out put to both monitors and the TV?

Looks like that card has only 1 HDMI output - you'll need that for the TV. Do your monitors have DVI or displayport inputs?

bassey

The link to my current monitor isn't working and I'm not at home so can't check it but I'm nearly sure it's a DVI, here's the link to the monitor I will be getting at some stage, http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?cs=19&c=us&l=en&sku=320-2676 It has both DVI and Display port

Luck100

Should be fine then. You might need to get longer cables but that's easy.

bassey

Sweet, now what if I for instance wanted to have a film running on the tv, have a web browser up on the 2nd monitor and be playing a game on the main monitor? Possible?

Luck100

Yes, should be possible generally. Some games may give you trouble in full screen mode. I think the mouse is usually stuck on the monitor running the game in full-screen mode, but you can alt-tab out to other stuff.

bassey

Hmm.. Just reviewing the build and for the CPU cooler it doesn't have socket 1150 listed in the compatibility, it has 1155, would this still fit? If not I've been looking at this http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=100599&agid=669&apop=0 and http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=83111&agid=669&apop=1

Any ideas on either of these?

SterlingArcher

There are a lot of coolers that don't have 1150 specified on them for some stupid reason. The hyper evo for instance. Does not say 1150 on hwvs.

But they will work. You need to look up "user"
Info not the store specs.

bassey

Grand so, thanks!

bassey

Right so I'm most likely pulling the trigger on this on Thursday, or maybe tonight after I do some sums. Fed up waiting on the Sapphire Tri X to show up on HWVS so gonna give it another week or so and if still no sign I'll pick it up from Dabs.

Here's the final build minus the GPU and after being run though the discount site

Item|Price
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€27.89
Corsair Vengeance C70 PC Gaming Case, Gunmetal Black, ohne Netzteil|€99.94
Gigabyte H87-D3H, ATX|€90.14
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€110.86
Corsair Enthusiast Series RM650, Modular, 80 Plus Gold 650 Watt|€94.40
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.32
2 x 8GB G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€135.26
Samsung SH-224DB schwarz|€14.69
MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€125.58
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150, ohne Kühler|€215.53
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€982.60

bassey

Also for anyone getting anything of HWVS here's a handy list of voucher codes http://www.gutscheinsammler.de/gutscheine/hardwareversand