Advice on planned new build

telemachus

telemachus

telemachus

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Joined
4 Dec 2005
Posts
13
Hi all,

Although I used to frequently tinker with hardware and build my own/others PC's I'm horrendously out of touch these days after years of relying on a console for gaming and restrained/sane desktops/laptops for work.

On the eve of the PS4/XBone I've decided to splash out and dabble once more with pc gaming. I do a lot of work in home automation, which currently involves about half a dozen machines of wildly varying spec running test servers with variations of Linux/OSX/Windows etc, so my only specific concession to work is the 16GB's of ram as I'd like to run quite a few Virtual Machines at any given time.

This is what I've come up with thus-far:

-Intel CPU i5-4670K 3.4GHz Socket 1150

-Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC Intel Z87

-Corsair Memory Vengeance Blue 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz

-Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4096MB

-Samsung 256GB 840 Pro Series Basic SSD

-Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 Case

-Seasonic SS-650RM 650W

-Corsair H100i Hydro Series CPU Cooler

-Asus Xonar DG 5.1 (it's cheap and I like the idea of the integrated headphone amp as I have a nice pair of Sennheiser HD's pc output tends to struggle to drive)

Any glaring omissions or hideous miscalculations? After a weekend of catch-up research I'd happily welcome advice from those more up to speed than I! :D
 
Firstly, i agree with stulid, secondly..

The 290 is going to be hot and loud.. Id suggest either waiting for it to appear with aftermarket coolers or splash out on a 780.
 
Thanks very much for the advice, the memory frequency was one area I was lost on, thankfully the days of agonising over timings seem to have abated and I just went for the cheapest ddr3 set I could find.

I hadn't realised sound cards required enough bandwidth to gain anything from pcie but looking at the negligible price difference that's a change that makes sense.

On the video card, I'm probably going to order everything quite soon so waiting for improved coolers could be problematic, would it make sense to order now, suffer the hideous wailing of high speed gpu fans for a couple of months and procure an after-market cooler to bolt on down the line? As opposed to settling for slightly lesser card, and forever wistfully dreaming of "what if.." :D ?

Again, thanks for the assistance both of you!
 
telemachus said:
On the video card, I'm probably going to order everything quite soon so waiting for improved coolers could be problematic, would it make sense to order now, suffer the hideous wailing of high speed gpu fans for a couple of months and procure an after-market cooler to bolt on down the line? As opposed to settling for slightly lesser card, and forever wistfully dreaming of "what if.." :D ?
Click to expand...

A 780 would definitely not be a lesser card compared to the R9 290. Especially some models like the Gigabyte GHz for instance, which looks like a winner. 20% overclock straight out of the box, binned chip, nice looking back-plate and aftermarket air cooler said to be one of the best around.

Do not hotlink images.
 
Danny75 said:
A 780 would definitely not be a lesser card compared to the R9 290. Especially some models like the Gigabyte GHz for instance, which looks like a winner. 20% overclock straight out of the box, binned chip, nice looking back-plate and aftermarket air cooler said to be one of the best around.

Do not hotlink images.
Click to expand...

Ach, silly me, all the ridiculous names/refreshes they lumber these ranges with has scrambled my brain. I had 290 to 280 in my head after skimming the suggestion rather than the entirely different 780.

I'll certainly keep an eye out for a reasonably priced 780, it's a pity about the rubbish reference cooler, that 290 looked a nice price/performance nexus.
 
First of all, apologies for hotlinking. Still do that now and then without thinking.


telemachus said:
Ach, silly me, all the ridiculous names/refreshes they lumber these ranges with has scrambled my brain.
Click to expand...

Don't blame you. :D


telemachus said:
I'll certainly keep an eye out for a reasonably priced 780, it's a pity about the rubbish reference cooler, that 290 looked a nice price/performance nexus.
Click to expand...

Well, if that doesn't work out, one of the beastly 770's might be worth considering too.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/inno3d_geforce_gtx_770_ichill_herculez_x3_review,24.html

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-030-IN&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

Imo, there's not that much of a gap between ranges when you go for one of the best models in a range.
 
Last edited:
telemachus said:
On the video card, I'm probably going to order everything quite soon so waiting for improved coolers could be problematic, would it make sense to order now, suffer the hideous wailing of high speed gpu fans for a couple of months and procure an after-market cooler to bolt on down the line? As opposed to settling for slightly lesser card, and forever wistfully dreaming of "what if.." :D ?
Click to expand...

You can already buy an aftermarket cooler to attach to it, though they make the card 3-4 slots wide.. Which isn't good for SLI (as you won't be able to fit two in).

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Prolimatech MK-26 Multi-VGA-Cooler - Apache 140 Edition £81.96
1 x Prolimatech Black Series MK-26 Multi-VGA Cooler £50.99
Total : £145.25 (includes shipping : £10.25).



Andf you can't just go and buy a spare MSI Gaming (lets say) aftemarket cooler as chances are is it won't fit your reference card properly.
 
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