Questions on custom build

CruelCoin

Hi All.

Thanks for the suggestions below. I have taken advice on board to come up with the following component list for a self build. never built before, but am motivated by the £300ish (based off pcspecialist) i stand to save by building myself.....

I have selected some components, and am looking for suggestions on how i could change parts for better optimisation/value/etc.

My budget is in the €1600 region, absent peripherals (screen, mouse, keyboard). All this comes to £1250 so i'm at budget with this.

Bits for building myself:
Arctic Silver AS5 3.5g, High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound
£6.98

Startech 11 Piece PC Computer Tool Kit with Carrying Case
£12.98

Novatech Adjustable Anti-Static Wrist Strap
£4.98


Components:

Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
£124.99

Cooler Master Cosmos SE ATX Case Mesh Side Panel Edition (Black)
£133.99

Coolermaster SickleFlow Red Case Fan - 120mm
2 x £5.99

Corsair Hydro Series H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
£74.99

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 4690K 3.50GHz Socket LGA1150
£179.99

GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) Motherboard
£129.98

Samsung 224DB 24x DVD Re-Writer - SATA - Black - Retail
£13.98

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750G - 750 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Rated Power Supply
£79.99

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z
£77.98

Western Digital VelociRaptor 500GB 64MB Cache Hard Drive Serial 6Gb/s <4.2ms 10,000rpm - OEM
£99.98

Samsung 840 Evo Basic 120GB Solid State Hard Drive 2.5" Desktop Upgrade kit (bracket/screws, Sata Data Cable, USB2 to Sata Connector) - Retail
£83.99

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 770 OC 2GB GDDR5
£229.99

frozenfrozen

CruelCoin wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm looking to build a new gaming system for myself shortly and am looking for some advice.
I think i am right in my assumptions below, but please let me know if i have anything wrong.

1 - Given that the 770 2GB will run pretty much everything at max settings very comfortably, outside of CAD modelling, is the extra memory of the 4gb model worth the extra dough? I'm not certain that my eyes can spot the difference between 60fps and 80fps.

VRAM will only make a difference if you're using a large resolution, eg a 4k monitor, 1440p monitor, etc. Won't effect the fps on a 1080p monitor.

2 - Is there a visible difference in the speed boost between 1600mhz Ram and 1833 or 2133Mhz Ram? Or is performance largely down to a question of capacity?

You won't notice a difference outside of benchmarks.

3 - I am looking at either a i7-4770k or i7-4790 for a processor. While the 4790 is better at single core performance, the 4770k does have better multi-threading. Do you reckon games development in the near future is going to make better use of multiple cores (in which case i will go 4770k) or will it remain largely on single core (in which case i will go 4790).

both i7's will have hyperthreading so that 4 cores = 8 threads. The K stands for unlocked, or able to be overclocked. You'll get more performance out of the unlocked version because you can OC it. There's no need for an i7 for gaming as most games won't make use of the extra threads.

4 - If i go with an SSD as storage for the OS and common programs, does the speed of the data hard-drive matter much?
i.e: Should i be going fast SSD + fast HD or can i go fast SSD + slow HD without losing too much performance?

You'll have fast access to the stuff on the ssd, and slow access to whatever is on the HDD. You'll have all your applications and operating system on the ssd, so everything will feel fast and responsive, then pictures, videos, etc etc can be on the slow hdd. You won't really notice the difference between a slow and fast hdd when you've got an ssd already, as anything else will feel slow in comparison. Go for reliable, quiet drives.

5 - I have no idea on motherboards. suggestions? Once a motherboard is compatible with all the components listed above, does it matter much which i get? The cost between boards is huge, so would love to save cash here if benefits are marginal.

Choose whichever board has the right socket and the features you need. I.e. enough pci lanes, usb 3, bios that allows overclocking, warranty.

Genghiz Cohen

CruelCoin wrote: »

I'm not certain that my eyes can spot the difference between 60fps and 80fps.

You should only aim to render what your screen can display, you probably have a 60Hz monitor so you should try to get a consistent 60FPS from your games and apps.

CruelCoin

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

You should only aim to render what your screen can display, you probably have a 60Hz monitor so you should try to get a consistent 60FPS from your games and apps.

Hi. Do you mean try to achieve and limit to 60fps? Or try for minimum 60?

CruelCoin

Question:

Is the Sound card overkill? As i am only ever going to have a 2 speaker set (no sub). Do i need the extra oomph here, or can i settle with a cheaper Asus xonar alternative?

Genghiz Cohen

CruelCoin wrote: »

Hi. Do you mean try to achieve and limit to 60fps? Or try for minimum 60?

If you could get a minimum of 60, that would be perfect.

DERPY DERPFACE

You don't really need a sound card, the onboard audio on the motherboard is usually alright.

Serephucus

You can replace the "bits for building myself" with "screwdriver". If you really want, get MX-4 rather than AS5, as it doesn't need to cure, but the thermal paste that comes with Corsair's AIOs is actually really good anyway.

If it's just gaming, you can drop to 8GB and be fine. You can always add in RAM later, and DDR3 prices are pretty damn high at the moment.

The Cosmos SE is quite expensive, and not all that great internally. Have a look at some of Fractal Design's cases, or something from Corsair (though you pay a bit for the brand here).

PSU is massive overkill unless you're planning on adding a second GPU. A 500W unit will be plenty for that systetm, including overclocking.

Ditch the Velociraptor. They don't really perform a whole lot better than regular hard drives, certainly not in comparison to SSDs. I've found all they really tend to do is make quite a lot more noise.

Put the money you've saved into a better GPU/CPU cooler/bigger SSD.

CruelCoin

Serephucus wrote: »

Put the money you've saved into a better GPU/CPU cooler/bigger SSD.

All great advice, cheers!

So drop the 500gb 10000rpm for a 500gb 7200 and up the ssd to 240/256gb?

Not sure how much better i can get with the GPU. Massive premium on the 780/780ti for not many extra framerates.

Noise is an issue for me, so may put more into a better case/quieter fans and a fan controller.

CruelCoin

I have changed my specs based on advice above.

Bit more balance i think.

Cheers lads.

Any other advice?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£152.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£61.39 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Antec Formula 7 Nano Diamond 4g Thermal Paste (£9.60 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£151.81 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£60.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£140.50 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£63.96 @ Dabs)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£239.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case (£125.00 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.74 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DSX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card (£38.98 @ Dabs)
Wired Network Adapter: Intel PWLA8391GT 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Adapter (£25.87 @ CCL Computers)
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan (£8.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1236.52

Serephucus

You're doing it wrong. :P

I'll spec you up something tomorrow to give you a better idea. There's still lots of improvements can be made there.

miece16

drop the soundcard, drop the wired network card

thats €75 or €80 saved already

frozenfrozen

1600 euro for the build alone. :D:D:D:D:D okay lets go:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-4690K Tray,3,4 GHZ, 6MB Cache, LGA 1150, VGA|€219.90
Corsair Hydro Series H100i|€99.90
Palit GeForce GTX 780Ti Jetstream 3GB mit GeForce Experience|€599.16
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport XT Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€62.11
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB SATA 6Gb/s|€159.99
WD Red RD1000S 4TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB|€152.62
NZXT Phantom Big Tower - White , ATX, ohne Netzteil|€141.38
Corsair CX Series Modular CX750M, 750W|€81.30
Gigabyte GA-H97-HD3, Sockel 1150, ATX|€82.65
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1618.00

included: complete overkill for any game, featuring the ability to boast about your system and impress random people over the internet

Then $10 for windows from reddit software swap, get yourself a nice 144hz monitor, mechanical keyboard, nice mouse and mousepad, and a nice chair and you've got yourself a lovely setup.


I'd say don't bother getting a soundcard. I put up with the onboard sound for the best part of two years before I invested in better audio, a tube headphone amp, the best part of which is being able to route audio to headphones and speakers at the same time and control them independently. And I hate dealing with software audio faders..


You could easily knock some money off that build by going for non-k version of an i5, cheaper cpu cooler, 120gb ssd, 1tb hdd, much cheaper case, and a cheaper mobo. However I was just trying to fill the budget, and the above build would be very nice IMO.

CruelCoin

miece16 wrote: »

drop the soundcard, drop the wired network card

thats €75 or €80 saved already

My budget is 1600ish and i'm looking to spend every penny.

If i drop those to save cash, what do you suggest i improve instead?

CruelCoin

frozenfrozen wrote: »

You could easily knock some money off that build by going for non-k version of an i5, cheaper cpu cooler, 120gb ssd, 1tb hdd, much cheaper case, and a cheaper mobo. However I was just trying to fill the budget, and the above build would be very nice IMO.

Wow, thanks for the spec.

Serephucus

Don't bother with the 840 Pro. Grab an MX100 for €100 instead. (Or the 512GB version for €190. :P)

SterlingArcher

Serephucus wrote: »

Don't bother with the 840 Pro. Grab an MX100 for €100 instead. (Or the 512GB version for €190. :P)

This.

With that budget you could squeeze in an I7 4790K 4.0 GHz. just changing some stuff around.

Doing as Serephucus suggested mx100 and changing case to a cheaper but still great case nanoxia deep silence/fractal design r4. No real compromises yet you get a better CPU in there.

Serephucus

Change the PSU to this 550W 80+ Gold model as well (unless you're planning on adding a second GPU in the future. In that case, get this).

CruelCoin

Hang on just a ****ing minute, they build the thing for you for €30???

I feel like an ass for getting my previous box from pcspecialist now....

frozenfrozen

CruelCoin wrote: »

Hang on just a ****ing minute, they build the thing for you for €30???

I feel like an ass for getting my previous box from pcspecialist now....

Yep, or you could build it yourself and then know what everything is and where it goes and all that. It's fun, and you save money

HWVS won't install the gpu before it's shipped because it would get damaged when posting, but they'll put everything else in and it's just a case of slotting in the graphics card then when you get it.

Genghiz Cohen

H97 boards aren't overclockable, are they?