2K Spec Check - I'm here to learn!

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

Spacedeck

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Joined
14 Sep 2007
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West Yorkshire, England
Hey,

Looking for advise and all that with a new build I'm due to purchase. I'm getting as much advise now to learn before I'm able to buy. I'll be buying in a couple of weeks.

Needed: full tower build, monitor, OS (speakers if budget fits).

I currently have a Deathadder and a Logitec G110 which I will use for now until I decide to upgrade these. I also have a BluRay drive which was from my old PC. Before anybody asks, no I will not be using old parts from the PC. My aim with that PC is to replace the parts for cheap and build a family PC to replace the pre-built rubbish they bought!

Did I miss anything?

Firstly a few things: I'd like to game at 1440p, preferably Gigabyte G1 980 (I would be buying another within the next year), budget wise is around £2000. Also note: I will be OC'ing once I've researched enough about it.

Since this is going to be mainly a gaming PC, with maybe some work on Photoshop here and now, with very little video editing.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £499.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £409.98
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD316G2666HC11CDC01) £149.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £129.95
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 850W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £119.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £104.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1003FZEX) HDD £62.99
Total : £1,555.86 (includes shipping : ).



So from my own build I put together, it comes outs at around 1.5k without a monitor. Now I was very interested in the ROC Swift.

I've been playing around with specs for around 2/3 weeks nows. Reading up on the forums and watching other spec threads. I might be a newbie when it comes to purchasing and building a PC but I'm here to learn as much as I can also.

I can't be sure AMD will release any new cards or monitors by the time I actually purchase the PC, I've already got the time booked off work so I need to time the delivery for the start of my holidays.

Thanks.
 
How about adding a cooler?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £439.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £409.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £129.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £93.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £86.99
1 x Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £61.99
Total : £1,500.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Do coolers make a considerable difference to the temps?

What are the differences between the two cards? G1 and Windforce? I notice the Windforce is considerably cheaper.

The actual system does look nice, I notice you have taken things as more or the same (or slightly below) spec for a cheaper build?
 
Coolers make a big difference to temps and noise. The stock coolers will probably (allow the CPU to) hit 80C during load easily. The one stupid specced would probably only get to 60C (at stock clocks) and with less noise. At 80c the stock cooler is quite loud.

Also these aftermarket coolers allow for CPU over clocking which is a great way to get some free performance out of your PC (and it is safe).

Stulid spec overall is much neater (he has done 1000's, like myself, so its bound to be).

The GPU. The G1 is an overclocled version of the windforce (basically). So high core speed. You can also OC the GPU yourself using a programme like MSI afterburner or EVGA precision, so don't let the lower clocks pit you off, its money saved. Overall the 970 will easily handle 1080p and even 1440p.

The case is also a better choice, great design and build quality.

Believe me or not (I don't actually know why you would, because its a fact) but the superflower and EVGA specced are the same internally. Superflower are the OEM for the G2 series... Interesting eh? The EVGA is cheaper.... Currently.

The SSD is a tough call. The MX100 has great read speeds 500mb/s+ (up there with the EVO) but low write speed. For gaming and general work this isn't an issue as its all read based but if you were doing a lot of work which involved writing to the hard drive. The mx100 wouldn't be great. In this instance though it works well....

As hard drives the WD blacks aren't great value. You will hardly notice the extra 'speed' you are playing for.

Your spec wasn't bad, at all... But stulids is better...
 
Doomedspeed said:
*snip*

Your spec wasn't bad, at all... But stulids is better...
Click to expand...

I don't doubt his specs. I've been around browsing long enough to know his specs are highly regarded :cool:

Thanks for the extra information, I'm glad you piped in :p I wondered why the GPU had a higher clock speed. It does make sense to save the money and put the OC on myself. In regards to GPU's, what does it means when a graphics card is named as a reference card?

I'm guessing the same situation was also for the RAM? As in my RAM was just OC'ed where as it can be done myself? RAM speeds is something I'm not really sure on, is the higher the number, the faster the RAM performs?

Main reason for picking out the WD is that the make are well known and I have a mate that recommends them.

The SSD, what sort of tasks require the higher write speed?

Oh and monitor/speaker spec at 1440p?
 
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He is allowed to get away with it.

@Spacedeck.

A reference card is one that is based on a Nvidia own design, then either later on or immediately companies such as ASUS will make their own designed boards to improve on this to help overclocking even more or add additional features.

This for example - http://www.oclab.pl/art/xa//EXTREMEOC/gtx980matrix/IMG_5209.JPG

Is a GTX980 Matrix platinum, as you can hopefully see the PCB has a lot going on, extra power phases to get better and higher voltages, voltage monitoring points to add a digital multimeter, just more and more features for extreme overclockers who use liquid nitrogen for example.


RAM, well the ones you listed are faster speed out of the box, they will be using single sided HynixMFR chips which are good if you want to get a max memory validation in CPU-Z, but in realworld benchmarking will not be as good as say dual sided Samsung ICs

http://hwbot.org/newsflash/2125_the...kill_tridentx_8gb_ddr3_2933_memory_kit_review

The Kingston beast is still more than likely using HynixMFR, it is just that they were cheaper and black to match the board.

If you want Samsung ICs then these are more likely to be using them,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Avexir Golden Blitz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001008G-2BZ1SE) £139.99
Total : £149.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Notice the timings are that bit lower, which is again better.


SSD and write speeds will help with video editing and creativity, gaming is more read speeds as you are loading maps and data.
 
stulid said:
RAM, well the ones you listed are faster speed out of the box, they will be using single sided HynixMFR chips which are good if you want to get a max memory validation in CPU-Z, but in realworld benchmarking will not be as good as say dual sided Samsung ICs

http://hwbot.org/newsflash/2125_the...kill_tridentx_8gb_ddr3_2933_memory_kit_review

The Kingston beast is still more than likely using HynixMFR, it is just that they were cheaper and black to match the board.

If you want Samsung ICs then these are more likely to be using them,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Avexir Golden Blitz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001008G-2BZ1SE) £139.99
Total : £149.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Notice the timings are that bit lower, which is again better.
Click to expand...

Interesting, in regards to the GPU I'm unsure what I'm looking at. I've never seen a 980 graphics card naked to compare.

This is a quote from that RAM article:

there are only two things I find impressive about MFR-based kits. One, getting the highest frequency record, something mostly (only) extreme overclockers are interested in. Two, having the highest clocked mass-production memory kit available in the market.
Click to expand...

So looks like the single sided MFR kits are mainly for those looking to overclock everything to the max? Is there an easy way to identify between MFR and Samsun IC's when shopping on the product page? Will IC's generally be more expensive or cheaper?

stulid said:
SSD and write speeds will help with video editing and creativity, gaming is more read speeds as you are loading maps and data.
Click to expand...

My video editing won't be on a regular basis, just now and again when I feel like it. So the read speeds should be more important over the write speeds. So I could easily sacrifice a bit of write speed to save a little extra.
 
Generally anything such as 2400MHz CAS 10 or 9 will be Samsung.

Yes MFR are for that high clock record etc.

Reference design boards from Nvidia have two 6pin power connectors, anything that is 6+8pin or 8+8pin will be a custom design in some way or another so will be an improved design with better power delivery and limits.
 
Looks like the Windforce is currently on This Week Only at £431.99.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £431.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £409.98
1 x Avexir Golden Blitz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001008G-2BZ1SE) £139.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £93.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £86.99
1 x Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £61.99
Total : £1,492.86 (includes shipping : ).



+8 for difference in the cards price now and later:

Total would be £1500.86. Even though I can't purchase all items just yet, wold it be worth purchasing if these items come on sale like the Windforce? or just wait and buy in bulk?

So a system build for £1500. What can be done about a monitor/speakers?
 
That's a saving of £60 on that monitor :eek:. How much of a difference does it make being on a 4ms monitor rather than a 1ms?
 
Spacedeck said:
That's a saving of £60 on that monitor :eek:. How much of a difference does it make being on a 4ms monitor rather than a 1ms?
Click to expand...

I believe 4ms is still good for gaming,, I have a 1440P Asus monitor that uses a Samsung PLS panel and was not disappointed when using it for gaming, but I now have a 2nd screen which is 1080P and 144Hz 1ms and it is noticeably better then the Asus for gaming, but then when you have same image on both its murdered by the Asus in terms of picture quality.
 
I guess it wouldn't matter too much for me, maybe. Games I'll be playing on the off once built are games like WoW and Skyrim. So games which aren't going to be FPS based.

I guess I could get this monitor. Considering I only currently game on a 32" Samsung LCD TV with a pretty high input lag. Think it might be around 6/8ms. So compared to this it should feel like a big improvement, right?

Then later on I can purchase a ROC Swift to use as my primary. Maybe I'm just overthinking this situation :rolleyes:

Any experience with the various speakers OCUK offer?
 
Stulid, already bought my monitor and looking to buy the GPU tonight!

Currently the Windoforce can be had for £429.95, and the G1 is available for £469.99. I understand you said that is pretty much just an OC'ed version of the Windforce but I was wondering something. What difference / is there to gain from having a card with a backplate?

I'm still leaning to the Windforce unless the extra could provide considerable amount extra.
 
With a backplate you get additional cooling of memory on the rear of the PCB ifm there is memory on the rear of the 980 pcb which I dont think there is.

P.S also looks nicer.
 
Thanks, I've tried doing some research around the Gigabyte 980 cards. Discussions regarding the 980's aren't all too easy to find but I found a comparison somebody was asking about the 970's Windforce vs the G1 editions:

No backplate, no binning, lower clocks, plastic cooler vs metal and less heatpipes. Thats about it.
Click to expand...

Is this the same situation for the two different 980's?

Since I already saved on my original budget and I still have money left over, I'm tempted to go with the G1 for the ease of mind.
 
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Without digging around and checking reviews I can't say if that is all true.

Yes the G1 uses a metal cooler shroud.

Yes the clock speeds are suppose to be higher. But the way that GPU boost2.0 works means the card bases its speeds on temperature.

So my G1 for example runs at stock at a higher boost speed than what gigabyte claim it should out of the box anyway.
 
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