Build Check - Media + Gaming PC

Twincharged · 24 Nov 2013 at 00:22

Hey guys, me again

I've gone from having never touched a PC component to building my 5th PC this year.... I inquired about this build last week but due to being snowed under with work I didn't get around to ordering. This has now given me more time to think and doubt what i should go for.

Basically I am a half of a 3D modelling/graphic design partnership, going from working on £400 laptops to dual Xeon based machines in under a year.

The Xeon workstations are permanently in the office, and now It's time to treat myself to a nice new PC for home use.

What i require of this PC is for it to be highly capable if i need to do any 3D/rendering/design work when I'm at home and also able to play the latest games at 1080p, I don't want to upgrade it for some time after my initial purchase, hence the possibly unnecessary GPU power.

I've come up with a spec below and would like some input/thoughts.

-The motherboard seems to be nice and feature packed, wifi is a bonus but I'm more than open to a cheaper alternative.

-Cheaper option for the memory would also be appreciated, seeing as I'm looking at an 8 slot motherboard I'd rather make use of them, is 1866 worth the extra cost? Maybe go for 2x(4x4Gb) kits instead?

Many Thanks

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780Ti 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £529.99
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74930K) £439.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 64GB (8x8GB) PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX18C10AT3K8/64) £439.99
1 x Gigabyte X79S-UP5-Wifi Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £284.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX 860W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020044-UK) £167.99
1 x SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDHP-256G-G25) £124.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-05955) £106.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White (CC-9011013-WW) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £44.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £23.99
Total : £2,351.27 (includes shipping : £17.85).

ExRayTed · 24 Nov 2013 at 13:23

That is a beast of a machine that will last and last. I'd be tempted by a more powerful PSU for future SLI goodness.

The Seagate you've spec'd can be a bit loud so if noise is an issue I'd be looking elsewhere.

Other than that I can't see anything else I'd change that would make a discernible difference.

Twincharged · 24 Nov 2013 at 16:37

Brilliant, I pretty much wanted to double check everything was ok in terms of size and compatibility.

Better psu is something I had in mind.

Any thoughts from anyone else?

stulid · 24 Nov 2013 at 16:39

Looks like a beast as already mentioned, many X79 boards may need a BIOS update to recognize the IB-E CPU as they pre-date this CPU.

But this depends how old the board is in stock.

Twincharged · 24 Nov 2013 at 16:54

Is a bios update simple enough to do? I assume it's jut a case of grabbing a file from the motherboard manafacturers website?

Pretty excited to get this ordered

stulid · 24 Nov 2013 at 16:57

It is easy via QFlash which is found in the BIOS, place the BIOS file onto a USB drive and point QFlash to this file.

But, you need a SB-E CPU to get the PC to run in the first place, this is of course all depending on the age of the stock.

Maybe Gigabyte will flash it for you? they have a place in Milton Keynes.

Twincharged · 24 Nov 2013 at 17:23

Do you think this is a possible issue regardless of which 2011 motherboard I go for? I guess i will be able to confirm the bios compatibility by calling OCUK and speaking with them

stulid · 24 Nov 2013 at 17:31

Twincharged said:
Do you think this is a possible issue regardless of which 2011 motherboard I go for? I guess i will be able to confirm the bios compatibility by calling OCUK and speaking with them

Pretty much apart from the Asus Rampage IV black edition and X79 deluxe as I think these are newer designed boards.

Doomedspeed · 24 Nov 2013 at 18:34

Looks decent..

Are you going to overclock this rig much? You could afford a nice custom loop aswell if you want?

One thing i would sugges thtough is getting a different SSD, id go for the eVO:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Laptop Kit - (MZ-7TE250LW) £149.99
Total : £159.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

And if you were happy with a h100, id spend the extra on the H100i..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
Total : £108.65 (includes shipping : £7.25).

Ethermaster · 24 Nov 2013 at 19:45

My 2 cents

YOUR BASKET
1 x PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000 Graphics Card - 2GB - GDDR5 SDRAM £719.99
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74930K) £439.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 64GB (8x8GB) PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX18C10AT3K8/64) £439.99
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 770 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £239.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £109.99
2 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99 (£173.98)
1 x Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower Case - Black £74.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x NH-U12S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-F12 Fan £52.99
Total : £2,579.27 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Twincharged · 24 Nov 2013 at 22:40

Ethermaster

Showing my limited knowledge here, didn't know you could sli different cards so a gaming and workstation card in sli is an attractive option.

Or of curiosity, when I'm using software that would make use of the workstation card I'm assuming the software will know what to do in terms of utilising the correct hardware. Would the gaming card also be utilised?

Ethermaster · 25 Nov 2013 at 08:09

You can use an GeForce and a Quadro in the same system, you may have to change which is the primary card tho to switch between them for there specific tasks, this can bne done via the hardware manager in the control panel. For your rendering the GeForce will not be a problem and may even a benefit if used just a Phsy-X card/ CUDA. It will be just games that you may have a problem with the Quadro so I would prob just disable it for when I want to play them

Remember that Quadro support 10-bits monitors which will give you a much better colour recreation.

Twincharged · 25 Nov 2013 at 10:53

Definitely an interesting prospect.

Planning to order today but having issues finding a suitable motherboard that will avoid the BIOS issue.

This would be ideal but out of stock:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-488-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2174

So what are peoples thoughts on this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-489-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2174

I understand that i can reflash the BIOS on an ASUS board without a compatible CPU, is that correct?

Ethermaster · 25 Nov 2013 at 11:22

Correct, that is why I speced one

Twincharged · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:06

Makes sense. heres an updated spec, waiting for a bank transfer to clear so I can place the order!

Basically went through and made savings where I could.

Already have CPU cooler and I'll use the copy of Windows 7 I already have. Went for a cheaper motherboard but I still think it will do the job?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 780Ti Superclock 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (03G-P4-2883-KR) £559.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 64GB (8x8GB) PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX18C10AT3K8/64) £439.99
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74930K) £439.99
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £199.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White (CC-9011013-WW) £99.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £23.99
Total : £2,049.79 (includes shipping : £19.10).

PanchoVilla · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:17

Just curious, what are you going to run on this that would benefit from all that power?

Ethermaster · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:24

Where has that lovely Quadro gone

Twincharged · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:35

Ethermaster said:
Where has that lovely Quadro gone

My plan is to go with the 780ti initially, then once i have her all set up and the CPU and GPU at a nice everyday overclock I'll look into adding a Quadro.

Although it seems I don't have a budget as such I do wan't to keep the cost down if i can

Doomedspeed · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:35

PanchoVilla said:
Just curious, what are you going to run on this that would benefit from all that power?

If you read the OP he says hes part of a 3D modelling design partnership.

I assume he uses CAD software and rendering packages.

a lot of technically modeling and rendering use a lot of CPU power (cores/threads) and rendering alone uses a ton of RAM for complex graphics.

Throw simulations into that and the need massively increases.

My work PC is a daul 6 core xeon with 32GB of RAM and a Quadro GPU (i think its a 2000) and it still struggles with some models we thrwo at it, due to their complexity (we don't do any rendering)...

Ethermaster said:
Where has that lovely Quadro gone

It vanished.

Ethermaster · 25 Nov 2013 at 17:52

You do realise that some professional 3D modelling applications do not see Geforce GPU's so you will be relying solely on the CPU, I would check that the applications you use before completely removing the Quadro.