Haswell - £1500 Build Critique

Eilua

Eilua

Eilua

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Joined
3 Jun 2013
Posts
148
Location
Hull
Hi,

I'm going to be purchasing my first new PC in 7 years in a couple of weeks (currently using a 2008 Macbook Pro, that I bought for Uni - needless to say, this is going to be a huge upgrade for me :)) and was hoping you guys can review my build and give me the OK on my component list.

My usage is 90% gaming, mostly RTS, MMO's, RPG's with the odd FPS thrown in. I do a little bit of video editing but not enough to justify an i7 at this time.

I prefer Nvidia because of their reliable drivers and bad experiences with AMD in the past, as well as Intel because they're just better.

As well as the parts listed here, I'm going to match them with a BenQ XL2420T that I'm buying from a competitor because it's just too expensive from OcUK. :(


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 770 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO £193.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £185.99
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI HERO Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £173.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £139.99
1 x Seasonic 660w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £129.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) HDD £76.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1155 / 1150 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / LGA2011/ AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2 £76.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1600C9) £67.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Focused Flow PWM Cooling Fan £31.96

Total : £1,472.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).

1. I am unsure about the PSU. Whether to stick with the 660w Plat, go for an X-series 750w, or an X-series 650w. Also getting buyers jitters reading tons of threads about coil whine and expensive RMA returns! Help!

My upgrade path will probably be something like this: Upgrade GPU to GTX880 or GTX980 (depending on whether I feel the need / have the funds for an upgrade at the time), Double up on the ram if I need to, add a FRAPS drive, add a high end soundcard at some point in time and potentially add in an i7 Broadwell CPU if I find myself getting more into video editing.

It's unlikely I will ever go SLI, but nonetheless, I would like to invest in a power supply that will last me a good few years (and expansion). Which would most suit my goals?

2. Also, the Noctua fans are obviously being bought to replace the stock Corsair fans on the H80i for noise reasons, but are these the best-in-range Noctua CPU fans, or are there newer revisions?

Thanks in advance for any help you're all able to offer me!
 
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stulid said:
Here is a PSU that will see you into the future - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

It's actually made by Seasonic.
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Hmph, thanks for the suggestion, but isn't 1000w a little overkill for a single GPU, 2-4 stick RAM, 2 drive build?

I realise that I asked for an element of future proofing, but even with a next-gen x80 card, and one more drive installed, I can't imagine me coming anywhere close to 1000w, will I?
 
Eilua said:
Hmph, thanks for the suggestion, but isn't 1000w a little overkill for a single GPU, 2-4 stick RAM, 2 drive build?

I realise that I asked for an element of future proofing, but even with a next-gen x80 card, and one more drive installed, I can't imagine me coming anywhere close to 1000w, will I?
Click to expand...

It is OTT even if you got a second card, just thought I would put it out there.
 
Eilua said:
Hmph, thanks for the suggestion, but isn't 1000w a little overkill for a single GPU, 2-4 stick RAM, 2 drive build?

I realise that I asked for an element of future proofing, but even with a next-gen x80 card, and one more drive installed, I can't imagine me coming anywhere close to 1000w, will I?
Click to expand...

I doubt it very much. Both CPUs and GPUs are getting lower on power with every new generation I don't see it going up drastically. A good 500W PSU will power a Titan and 3770k so I personally see no reason you would need a 1kw one.
 
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Cr4zy said:
I doubt it very much. Both CPUs and GPUs are getting lower on power with every new generation I don't see it going up drastically. A good 500W PSU will power a Titan and 3770k so I personally see no reason you would need a 1kw one.
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Yeah, I thought as much. I'll probably stick around 650w - the question of course, is which model to go for..?

I'm tossing it up between:

Seasonic 660w Plat: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383

Seasonic X-series 650w: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-027-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383

Bit put off from XFX because of some users (such as the guy who rated 2* for this product: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-XF&tool=3) reports that they have had to send broken units to Canada at their own expense for RMA.

PSU's are heavy, I can't imagine that being cheap to ship across the atlantic!

Where is Seasonic's RMA base?
 
So would the 660w be sufficient for my uses (and upgrade intensions)?

Is there anywhere / anyway I can calculate the total watts usage of my build (as well as adding a bit of speculation in with regards to how much a next-gen x80 GPU might consume) in order to determine whether to opt for 660w / 750w?
 
To give you a idea my system in my sig pulls 330w from the mains with prime and Furmark running together.

Usually dual GPU'S opt for 750w - 850w and single around 550w~
 
Eilua said:
As much as it would be nice to add the i7 to my build because of their higher binned status (hopefully leading to higher OC's) and hyperthreading, I cannot justify the extra £85 on a CPU that won't be utilised by most of my applications.
Click to expand...

It can be done bud.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-2GD) £359.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £358.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £173.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £139.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £101.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,497.83 (includes shipping : £19.10).

 
honosuseri said:
It can be done bud.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-2GD) £359.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £358.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £173.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £139.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £101.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,497.83 (includes shipping : £19.10).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the example build, I'll give it a think through.

I'm still not convinced an i7 would be a good value for money for my uses. I will be gaming ~90% of the time, and I will see essentially no improvement for that purpose using the i7 over the i5, right?

Other than the potential for slightly higher over clocks.

Hmph. Decisions decisions...
 
RJC said:
To give you a idea my system in my sig pulls 330w from the mains with prime and Furmark running together.

Usually dual GPU'S opt for 750w - 850w and single around 550w~
Click to expand...

Ah right. I'll stick to the 660w Plat Seasonic then I think, it should be more than enough for my uses, based on how much your system draws. :)
 
Eilua said:
Thanks for the example build, I'll give it a think through.

I'm still not convinced an i7 would be a good value for money for my uses. I will be gaming ~90% of the time, and I will see essentially no improvement for that purpose using the i7 over the i5, right?

Other than the potential for slightly higher over clocks.

Hmph. Decisions decisions...
Click to expand...

Yes it's debatabubble bud.

The 770 GPU is a "Super 680" basically, not a GPU to be sniffed at. I managed to squeeze in the i7 but note it came with the H100i which is a better CLC than the H80i. If I were to change the fans I would look at the Corsair SP120 Quiet Editions myself.

The Plextor Pro SSD with a firmware update is a very close rival to the Sammy 840 Pro. I'd rather have the extra capacity on the storage HDD and the RAM was much faster and happens to match your prefered colour scheme.

If you aren't buying for a couple of weeks then prices are bound to change anyway as the offers do change weekly along with today only deals to consider. I look forward to seeing what you settle on in the end fella :)
 
Wether you need it or not just now you should always get the best you can afford and hono's build is exceptional and a few games are usign HT now and these will become a lot more common in the future
 
honosuseri said:
Yes it's debatabubble bud.

The 770 GPU is a "Super 680" basically, not a GPU to be sniffed at.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had opted for a 770 in my original build list too. I was veering more toward the Asus DCUII though, over the Windforce. I know the Windforce is a really good cooler, but personally I think it's ugly as sin (yeah, I feel silly even writing that down - I know it shouldn't be a factor when buying expensive hardware components I won't really see anyways). :P

I managed to squeeze in the i7 but note it came with the H100i which is a better CLC than the H80i. If I were to change the fans I would look at the Corsair SP120 Quiet Editions myself.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Couple of questions. First of all, does that bundle come with a retail 4770k or an OEM version, it isn't clear on the OcUK page. I would rather go for a retail box for obvious warranty reasons.

Also, I believe I can fit a H100i into the top of the 600T, but I think there's basically no clearance between the bottom of the radiator and the top of the motherboard heat sink / ram. That would make using 4 fans in push / pull pretty difficult, if not impossible. Would using a H100i with 2 fans only be roughly the same as a H80i with 2, or slightly better?


The Plextor Pro SSD with a firmware update is a very close rival to the Sammy 840 Pro.
Click to expand...

That seems like a pretty decent SSD but a few of my friends have the samsung 840 Pro and sing its praises. Plus it's only like £5 more.

I'd rather have the extra capacity on the storage HDD and the RAM was much faster and happens to match your prefered colour scheme.
Click to expand...

I don't need the extra storage on the hard drive really. We have a 4TB NAS setup in the house that handles most of our storage needs. All the same, the WD Caviar Blacks are a little on the expensive side, so I might look into alternatives. I mean, I could probably get away with a slightly slower model than a black considering that I will be running most of my programs / games off my SSD.

As for ram, that is quite a bit cheaper than the Corsair stuff I linking in my build, but I don't recognise the brand name, and there are no reviews for it - is it trust worthy? Also, I was under the impression that increases in ram speed yielded virtually no performance increases beyond 1600mhz outside of benchmarks?

If you aren't buying for a couple of weeks then prices are bound to change anyway as the offers do change weekly along with today only deals to consider. I look forward to seeing what you settle on in the end fella :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks again for all the help.

I'll probably write up a build log once I've ordered my parts for the forums perusal. It'll only be a pretty ABC build, nothing custom, but someone might be interested in reading it all the same.

Plus, this will be the first time I've built a PC in years, so I'll probably need you guys when I inevitably break something! :)
 
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scotsdragon said:
Wether you need it or not just now you should always get the best you can afford and hono's build is exceptional and a few games are usign HT now and these will become a lot more common in the future
Click to expand...

Yeah, I mean I know BF3 is hyper threading friendly, and I would imagine BF4 probably will be as well, but how realistic is it that a growing number of games will be in the following few years?

With the advent of the 8 core CPUs in the 'next-gen' consoles, I suppose it's not completely unthinkable that developers will start threading their applications properly.

All the same, if this doesn't happen in the next couple of years, the money might best be spent on games now / saved, and spent on an i7 broadwell if and when i7's start gaining a noticeable increase in performance over i5's.
 
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