Advice on a new PC

Wizardskills

Wizardskills

Wizardskills

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25 Feb 2007
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Bedfordshire
I'm looking to upgrade my existing main PC. The core components in this are really showing their age now (QX6850, DDR2, X38 775 Mobo etc...). I haven’t been studying the hardware market too much for quite a few years so I'm looking for some advice on what to get.

The computer will be used for the following:

1) Gaming
2) Programming – Web, Windows and App (Visual Studio and SQL – A database server will be installed)
3) General Office stuff and web browsing
4) Light Image Editing

Here are the components I will be keeping from my current machine

1) GTX580 (This will be replaced once I have some more cash)
2) Storage Drives and Old SSDs
3) Optical Drives
4) Sound Card
5) Fans

I'm aiming to keep this PC for around 5 years so I’m looking for something that will last but also be good from an upgrading perspective (I don’t want to invest in a CPU socket that is going to be discontinued etc...). I’m also not looking to go into major overclocking on this machine. Something in the region of 10% - 20% is about all I would do. Cooling also has to be good as the room the machine will be in is south west facing and gets quite hot in the summer evenings.

Here is an initial spec I have come up with.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Asus Z97 Deluxe Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £194.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX 860W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020044-UK) £149.99
2 x Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX16GX3M2A1600C11) £129.95 (£259.90)
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060014-WW) £91.99
2 x Corsair Force GS 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F128GBGS-BK) £76.99 (£153.98)
Total : £1,252.33 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Is there anything you would change in this spec?

I do have an old Corsair 1000W power supply (A HX1000 which I got in 2008) but I'm not sure if it is compatible with newer motherboards. Does anyone know if it is?

Also, I’m not sure if I should be going for a 2011 socket Ivy-Bridge CPU (4930K) over a 1150 Haswell CPU? Would I notice any difference in performance?

The budget is not set in stone but something around the price I have come up with would be ideal as I obviously don’t want to spend more than I have too.

Any guidance you can offer would be appreciated.
 
First off, your HX1000w is fine to use with haswell: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/blog/2013/may/haswell-compatibility-with-corsair-power-supplies

I think the haswell CPU, 4790k is perfect, no need to go for 2011.

As for a small OC and keep the CPU cooler an air cooler would be fine. :) Though all the good ones are sold out and there are some cheap 240mm WC's...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£35 Saving** £356.98
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/16-OC) £125.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
2 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £60.00
Total : £842.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Doomedspeed said:
First off, your HX1000w is fine to use with haswell: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/blog/2013/may/haswell-compatibility-with-corsair-power-supplies

I think the haswell CPU, 4790k is perfect, no need to go for 2011.

As for a small OC and keep the CPU cooler an air cooler would be fine. :) Though all the good ones are sold out and there are some cheap 240mm WC's...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£35 Saving** £356.98
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/16-OC) £125.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
2 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £60.00
Total : £842.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Click to expand...

Damn Doom, that's a sweet spec!

@OP - if you've budgeted £1200 and Doom has given a superb alternative at a £400 saving, I'd grab a 280/290 to stick in that build. You wouldn't have to wait to upgrade the graphics card then ;) :p
 
snips86x said:
Damn Doom, that's a sweet spec!

@OP - if you've budgeted £1200 and Doom has given a superb alternative at a £400 saving, I'd grab a 280/290 to stick in that build. You wouldn't have to wait to upgrade the graphics card then ;) :p
Click to expand...

Thanks mate,

Did you notice the cheeky extra 240GB? :p

The powercolour 290 is a silly good price currently:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £275.99
Total : £285.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
 
Firstly, thanks for the feedback guys. I've got a couple of questions which I hope you can help me with.

1) Are the number of SATA ports the main difference between the Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming and Z97X-UD3H-BK? If that is the only difference I may go for the gaming one as it offers more and I have quite a lot of HDDs
2) I have always previously used Gigabyte boards but a year or so ago a friend of mine said they are nowhere near as good now. I take it this is not the case and that they have improved again?
3) Is there any performance difference between the Antec Kuhler 280 and the Corsair H110?

Again, thanks for the info, it looks like you guys will have saved me around £400 which I’m sure the GF will put to “good use” :p
 
Wizardskills said:
Firstly, thanks for the feedback guys. I've got a couple of questions which I hope you can help me with.

1) Are the number of SATA ports the main difference between the Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming and Z97X-UD3H-BK? If that is the only difference I may go for the gaming one as it offers more and I have quite a lot of HDDs
2) I have always previously used Gigabyte boards but a year or so ago a friend of mine said they are nowhere near as good now. I take it this is not the case and that they have improved again?
3) Is there any performance difference between the Antec Kuhler 280 and the Corsair H110?

Again, thanks for the info, it looks like you guys will have saved me around £400 which I’m sure the GF will put to “good use” :p
Click to expand...

1) I don't think there is a huge difference. The SATA ports is one of them.

Also the Gaming 7 doesn't have an M.2 Slot (Not an issue)

They both have the same audio chip from what i can see.

The gaming 7 has GbE Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201. The UD3H has Intel GbE Lan. I am not sure how much of a difference that is (If any).

The UD3H has 5 year warranty. The Gaming 7 has 4 years.


2) Gigabyte make the best (Along with Asus) boards imo. They also have one of the best in terms warranty support (UK based).

3)The Antec Kuhler 1220 Is that the one you are referring to ? is very good value for money. It won't be quite as good as the Corsair H110, but it won't be a million miles off. It will cope fine with the i7.
 
In any case, don't get the H110 - it's great but the fans are quite noisy and it's hard to find decent replacement 140mm static pressure fans
 
Shivy011 said:
In any case, don't get the H110 - it's great but the fans are quite noisy and it's hard to find decent replacement 140mm static pressure fans
Click to expand...

Yea, this is why i ended up not going for it. The only real choices in my mind were the noctua 140mm fans.
 
As above, finding 140mm static pressure fans isn't easy/cheap so sticking to a 240mm rad would be better.

The difference between the performance is very minimal too.
 
 
Thanks guys. I think I'm going to go for a hybrid of the two specs given. The gaming bundle as it will offer me more SATA ports and the duel 240 Gb SSDs as I'll run them in raid 0 for the OS drive.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £361.98
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £124.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX21C11T3K2/16X) £119.99
2 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £60.00
Total : £841.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).



I'll put the money saved into a new gen card when they come out as the 580GTX is still fine for my needs.
 
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