Check my specs - 4790K or 5820K - Which one?

MarcLister

MarcLister

MarcLister

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My current PC has an Intel Q9650, 8GB RAM, an HD 7850, an Intel X25-M 160GB and is roughly 6 years old. Games like FC4, Wolfenstein: The New Order and FM are starting to cause me problems and I think it's time to upgrade.

Typically I can't decide between an Intel 4790K or 5820K. I will be using my PC for gaming but I'm also slowly ripping my Blurays and DVD to MP4 using MakeMKV and Handbrake. This is the current limit of any 'rendering' or video conversion I am planning to do at the moment. I can understand that the 5820K is the more future proof route to take seeing as it has 2 more cores compared to a 4790K and as games/apps are coded to take advantage of hex cores I would be in a good place with a 5820K. However whilst my head says 5820K my heart says 4790K; the fact that the 5820K uses 140W compared to the 4790K's 88W makes me learn towards a 4790K system. My Q9650 is 6 years old so even the 4790K will blow that out of the water when it comes to Handbrake.

I have therefore created two specs; one for a 4790K system and an identical spec for a 5820K system but for the CPU, MB and RAM. Please suggest whether I should go for a 4790K or 5820K and comment on my specs. I have several questions regarding both specs:

  1. Do I need a dedicated sound card? My current is an Asus so I thought I'd get the Xonar D2X but it seems that the Creative Sound Blaster Z is the current market best. So Asus, Creative or onboard sound? I could potentially save £25 if I got the Sound Blaster Z or £85 if I use onboard sound.
  2. Is it worth getting an SSD for Steam games? I already have a WD 4TB Green that I will use for other files. I would like to have a separate drive for Steam regardless so if not a 500GB SSD then I'll get a 1 or 2TB HDD.
  3. Should I get Windows 7, as I'm used to it and like it, or should I get Windows 8.1 as that will have a bit more in common with Windows 10? I know Microsoft are having a Windows 10 press event on 21st January where they are expected to announce a release date and, potentially, pricing and whether Windows 8.1 users will get free or cheaper upgrades to Windows 10, like Apple do now with Mac OSX. To make this decision a bit easier I plan to leave the purchase of the parts until after the Windows 10 event so I know if there's any advantage in getting Windows 8.1 or not.
  4. I have a Pioneer BDC-207D Blu-ray drive that I will use for this PC. Is there a better Blu-ray ROM drive out there?
  5. Is 850W enough for my system? And if I wanted to add another Galax 970 at a later date, would 850W still be enough? I would rather get a PSU that can cope with 2x Galax 970s in SLI now even if I won't use the PSU to its max potential right away.
  6. Will the cables with the EVGA G2 850 be long enough for the Corsair 750D?
I don't want to change the CPU (so either 4790K or 5820K) nor the Corsair 750D case or the Galax GTX 970. Everything else I am prepared to change if there's a better option out there, either in terms of performance or saving a bit of money. I've decided to go for the Samsung 850 EVO as the premium for those over the 840 is not that much more to pay. I prefer the EVGA G2 over the SuperFlower for its longer warranty. I have two Dell 24" monitors that I will eventually take to work and I'll probably get two 27" 1440p monitors to replace them at home but that will be a separate purchase for a later date, probably Easter at the absolute earliest.

Oh and, finally, have I forgotten anything obvious? :D I will be building this myself. I haven't bothered with any 120/140mm fans as the Corsair H100i will deal with the CPU and the Corsair 750D comes with 3x140mm fans which I hope will be OK? Budget is £1,800 max I would think but if I can come in around £1,700 that would be nice. :) Thanks in advance for any kind fellows who take the time to read this and offer some advice and suggestions. :cool:

4790K spec

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £281.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £142.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £139.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £104.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £84.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £8.99
Total : £1,616.84 (includes shipping : ).



5820K spec

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £299.99
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £281.99
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £191.99
1 x Crucial 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-17000C16 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit (CT4K4G4DFS8213) £169.99
1 x MSI X99S SLI Plus Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £104.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £84.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £8.99
Total : £1,708.84 (includes shipping : ).
 
Hi,

Here are a few better alternative items,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £387.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution £79.99
Total : £567.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



You dont need thermal paste as they all come with it.

The bundle saves cash.

============================

1) You can add one later, the best onboard audio I have heard is from boards such as the Sniper that has a good sound chip/audio section.

2) SSD are highly recommended

3) Win8.1 is a faster OS and will be supported for longer than 7.

4) Not sure.

5) Yes 850W is plenty for SLI on either setup.

6) yes.
 
Hi stulid. Thanks for the reply. I'd hoped you would be one of the people who would take the time to reply. :)

Forgot about that bundle. I know there's the CPU + MB + RAM + PSU bundle but the SuperFlower isn't modular! :)

I suppose I could use the onboard sound to begin with and then put my current Xonar D2 in and see if that sounds better. If it does, I'll decide then whether to get the Sound Blaster Z or the Xonar D2X.

I agree that W8.1 makes sense. IF Microsoft offer free or discounted upgrades to W10 it'll only be from W8.1 I reckon. I don't think Microsoft want another XP-Windows 7 situation again.

Any particular reason you suggest the Corsair H105 over the H100? Don't want to spend an extra £1.99 if I don't have to! :D

With your suggestions the new cost of the 4790K spec is about £1,518 which is good news. Guess you would go 4790K then over the 5820K?
 
MarcLister said:
Any particular reason you suggest the Corsair H105 over the H100? Don't want to spend an extra £1.99 if I don't have to! :D

With your suggestions the new cost of the 4790K spec is about £1,518 which is good news. Guess you would go 4790K then over the 5820K?
Click to expand...

The H100i link software has two issues with Win8.1 (pink LED and lack of fan control, google it.) these can be fixed but its not "out of the box" perfect.

All the other coolers I listed dont suffer from it or use that piece of software.

If it is mainly a gaming PC then I would go for the 4790K, it will still be nippy in other tasks.

===========================

I also just noticed the RAM, its not really in keeping with the colours I think,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Avexir Golden Blitz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001008G-2BZ1SE) £139.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD316G2666HC11CDC01) £109.99
Total : £389.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Theres some others, add a cheap red+black option, but the Kingstn+Avexir will match better, the Avexir even has great timings and the gold'ish LED glow I think matches the led glow from the boards audio section.
 
stulid said:
The H100i link software has two issues with Win8.1 (pink LED and lack of fan control, google it.) these can be fixed but its not "out of the box" perfect.

All the other coolers I listed dont suffer from it or use that piece of software.
Click to expand...
Cool. Just wanted to check. :)

stulid said:
If it is mainly a gaming PC then I would go for the 4790K, it will still be nippy in other tasks.
Click to expand...
People have been telling me that when 4K gaming/monitors really take off, we'll probably all need new CPUs then anyway so I'm happy to go 4790K for now. And I still can't get around the 60% more energy used by the 5820K (140W v 88W). As and when hex core CPUs come out that use less than 140W and perhaps near the 88W for the 4790K, if that is at all possible, then I'll think about moving to a hex core CPU.

stulid said:
I also just noticed the RAM, its not really in keeping with the colours I think,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Avexir Golden Blitz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001008G-2BZ1SE) £139.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD316G2666HC11CDC01) £109.99
Total : £389.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Theres some others, add a cheap red+black option, but the Kingstn+Avexir will match better, the Avexir even has great timings and the gold'ish LED glow I think matches the led glow from the boards audio section.
Click to expand...
Might save £10 by getting the Kingston RAM you've listed there. The Avexir makes me feel sick and dizzy looking at it. :p
 
Can I just double check that I don't need to buy any fans for the PC as the Corsair H105 comes with fans and the case comes with 3 fans so I should be OK cooling wise?

I can always add more fans/replace the pre-supplied fans at a later date if I need/want to.
 
The H105 comes with 2 SP120L fans, they are okay but can be a little on the louder side when at full speed, some people replace the fans if you want a quieter system. It also holds better cooling benefits from my experience. I have 4 SP120 SP fans on there as noise doesn't bother me and the cooling on my 4790K @ 4.7 is currently idling at 25C.

The link software with my H80i wasn't very good with Win 8.1 so I moved to a simple fan setup with the H105, much better.
 
stulid said:
You need no more fans.
Click to expand...
Cheers.

JOSH86 said:
The H105 comes with 2 SP120L fans, they are okay but can be a little on the louder side when at full speed, some people replace the fans if you want a quieter system. It also holds better cooling benefits from my experience. I have 4 SP120 SP fans on there as noise doesn't bother me and the cooling on my 4790K @ 4.7 is currently idling at 25C.

The link software with my H80i wasn't very good with Win 8.1 so I moved to a simple fan setup with the H105, much better.
Click to expand...
Do Corsair make some other 120mm fans that are quieter and can be used in the H105? I just wanted to make sure that my PC will be adequately cooled with the fans that I get. If I want to add more fans or replace the ones I'm getting I can do that at a later date.
 
The high performance low noise SP120's (costly but very quiet) are great alternatives.

SP's for radiators static pressure.
AF's for high air flow.

However with whatever fans, you can control them from your BIOS and make them quiet anyway.
 
They are similar, the ones you buy separately have rubber corners and changeable rings to swap colours.
 
So I put my order in and had the stuff delivered yesterday just before 9am. Waited until 10am to start building as I've got a cold this weekend and needed some over the counter drugs to keep me going!

I took it slow and finished the build at about 7pm (having had lunch and dinner) and turned the PC on before it was connected to any peripherals, just to see if I'd connected everything. DISASTER STRUCK!! I couldn't hear anything! :D It was so quiet. I visually checked all the fans and was so amazed with the quietness of the system. I went and got my brother to listen and he was gobsmacked.

Apart from managing to lose one of the screws for the side panels, which I'm sure will turn up when I sort the boxes out, and stupidly putting my 4TB drive into the holder the wrong way round which meant I had to break the individual tool free bay to get the disk back out the whole build was a huge success.

Corsair Link is telling me that the CPU is running at 28oC which is a bit higher than it was last night. Might have something to do with the fact that it's 26oC in my room and it would have been cooler last night. Obviously Corsair Link is lying. There is no way such a powerful system can be this quiet AND cool at the same time.

Thanks to stulid, JOSH86 and ThaReaperGuy for their advice and help. :) Just need to get used to Windows 8.1 (which installed stupidly fast) and work out what of the stuff running in the background I actually need etc.
 
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