What is the best spec'd machine you can buy (diminishing returns)

hogan1

hogan1

hogan1

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Hi All,

I was just wondering, if you take price vs performance and diminishing returns into account. What spec machine would give you the best value for money and performance. I would imagine the CPU would be the Intel core i5 4670K and for the graphics card maybe the R9 290?

Be interested to see what you all think.
 
hogan1 said:
Hi All,

I was just wondering, if you take price vs performance and diminishing returns into account. What spec machine would give you the best value for money and performance. I would imagine the CPU would be the Intel core i5 4670K and for the graphics card maybe the R9 290?

Be interested to see what you all think.
Click to expand...

Depends on the resolution you'd be playing at
 
I personally think its anything in the £1200 - £1300 region at any point in time that gets you the "best" without moving into the world of diminishing returns. If you take something like the below there isnt much it wouldnt be capable of doing, it would be perfectly capable of running a VM or two, doing some video encoding, or playing just about any game maxed out at the 1080p - 1440p region depending on the game. With that in mind though, almost every component in this rig could be improved if you wanted to spend more, and you could tailor it to be a much better performer in a specific area than the jack of all trades it is at the minute.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780Ti WindForce 3x OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N78TOC-3GD) £479.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Asus Z97-Pro Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £145.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/240G) £119.99
1 x Corsair RM Series RM 750 '80+ Gold' 750W Power Supply (CP-9020055-UK) £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
Total : £1,281.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Having said all that an argument could be made for spending more to get something like the below. This basically gives you a decent bump in the CPU and RAM area whilst also having a slightly better power supply.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780Ti WindForce 3x OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N78TOC-3GD) £479.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asus Z97-Pro Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £145.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX 760W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020045-UK) £129.95
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/240G) £119.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD316G2133HC11ADC01) £119.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
Total : £1,447.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).




In short I think the ideal spec lies somewhere between the two of these. Both could be made much more powerful by going down the SLI / Crossfire route, or you could even swapping to X79, but then your back to the question of with the massive extra cost it would add would it actually be worth it from a price to performance point of view.
 
hogan1 said:
Hi All,

I was just wondering, if you take price vs performance and diminishing returns into account. What spec machine would give you the best value for money and performance. I would imagine the CPU would be the Intel core i5 4670K and for the graphics card maybe the R9 290?

Be interested to see what you all think.
Click to expand...

Don't take into account diminishing returns. Its not a good way to buy things, the only way to get good value for resale is buying secondhand.

Just set a budget, set your goals (i want to play these games at 1080p and do some video editing) then let us do our magic.

Value for money is important, but if we don't know how much we have to play with it could be out of line with what you are thinking..
 
mightymouse said:
PC parts tend to drop like bricks when newer, better and faster kits are introduced. Might be a good idea to wait and buy last seasons? slowly accumulate parts?
Click to expand...

Unless you're going the secondhand route that's not the way to go.

What you do is buy tech that is JUST about to be replaced, so the best value CPU RIGHT NOW, is the 4670k and 4770k. They are being reduced by decent amounts as the Haswell refresh K chips are not far away and everyone has their eye on them.

Just look at the price of Ivybridge Stuff, its still as high as it ever was.

The same with GPU's, Just before the 7** series was released, the 6** series were being sold off mega-cheap ( i picked up a 670 for £160 and sold it 9 months later for £130 secondhand. :)) Those deals won't be around for a while but you have to be really lucky.

Buying parts slowly isn't good either; saving a few quid (and thats all it will be) isn't worth delaying your enjoyment by months?
 
Where the point of diminishing returns is depends on what you need it for so can't give an absolute answer. An 8350 seems a very poor answer to me though given the 8320 is cheaper and the same processor.

Anything with a 780Ti is miles past the most cost-effective point for me and I'd bet for most people, though of course the forum here is slightly skewed in favour of the extreme :p

Edit: My personal 'bang for buck' choice would be second hand, probably a 3570k (some reason the 2500k's are as expensive so may as well) and maybe a 580 or something? Not really kept tabs on the second-hand prices though, nor do I have access to the MM.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were. I suppose it's best to just set a budget and just get the best spec you can in that budget.
 
hogan1 said:
Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were. I suppose it's best to just set a budget and just get the best spec you can in that budget.
Click to expand...

That is your best bet.

Let us know what they are and we'll cone up with something special for you. :)
 
Stas823 said:
Pls don't start. They are good budget chips.
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Don't start what? What exactly did you suppose I'd be 'starting'?

Are you suggesting it's good sense to buy a 8350 for £144 when an i5 4670K is only £26 more?

As such they aren't good budget chips.

Now if you'd said the 8320 - well, now you'd be talking! £114 for a chip that will likely clock as well as the 8350, which is the same architecture as the 8350 after all. In fact, it's the same chip just clocked slightly higher.

Now that is a good budget chip. It's a great budget chip. Not quite as great as the 6300...but that's another story.
 
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