New Build for a workstation/light gaming

rigby93

rigby93

rigby93

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Joined
26 Apr 2013
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Location
Hyde, Manchester
So D-day is fast approaching on locking in my final build list but I'm still short on a few things particularly a mobo and case but I'd also like you're thoughts on what I've picked out so far.

It's primary use will be for software development so it will be quite memory hungry, although 8GB should be more than enough. I'll also be using it for some gaming but nothing drastic as I prefer to game on consoles. I've picked out 2 monitors already so thats £250 accounted for which leaves about £950 for the tower. No OS or K+M required. Also I wouldn't mind something like a black and white colour scheme, kind of matching the Xbox One.

Heres what I've picked out so far:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £49.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £781.87 (includes shipping : ).

 
Last edited:
Hi,

What programs are you using for software dev?

The 280X seems quite high end for a 'light' gaming rig. the 280(non-X) will be better.

Are you going to Overclock? Is it really nearly £90 on a cooler (if you won't be OCing too much).

The CPU is a good choice.

The RAM is a decent choice. though not colour co-ordinated.

SSD is a good choice

Do you REALLY need a Blu-ray player? Would a standard DVD suffice? I wouldn't bother getting a OEM Blu-ray as the software that comes with retail version is sublime and well wroth the extra, if you actually use Blu-Ray. They are £60 a pop though. See Expensive.

PSU is a decent choice.

HDD is good.

Wireless card, id suggest a USB adaptor, normally just as reliable and still leaves room in the case for airflow. Either that or invest in some Powerline adaptors.

Are you sure 16GB isn't needed? Most software dev programs eat RAM.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280X DD Black Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280X-TDBD) £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD30EFRX - OEM HDD £89.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £67.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £917.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Something like this? (the cooler is a nice deal although not having used it my self I am unsure if ram height will be an issue, although im sure one of the guys will be able to let you know) psu is over kill but is at a great price fully modular and would allow a lot of upgrade room in the future (but if you want to save cash you can drop it to the 550w super flower easily)




16gb of ram version (a lot of editing software and such benefits from large amounts of ram)

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280X DD Black Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280X-TDBD) £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £129.95
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD30EFRX - OEM HDD £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £79.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £979.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).




forgot your networking as has been said a dongle would be better but I really not a fan of wireless ( to many factors and signals can be *sniffed* have you thought of ?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Netgear XAVB5201 Nano AV 500 HomePlug Adapter Starter Kit £29.99
Total : £32.96 (includes shipping : £2.48).

 
Last edited:
Doomedspeed said:
Hi,

What programs are you using for software dev?

The 280X seems quite high end for a 'light' gaming rig. the 280(non-X) will be better.

Are you going to Overclock? Is it really nearly £90 on a cooler (if you won't be OCing too much).

The CPU is a good choice.

The RAM is a decent choice. though not colour co-ordinated.

SSD is a good choice

Do you REALLY need a Blu-ray player? Would a standard DVD suffice? I wouldn't bother getting a OEM Blu-ray as the software that comes with retail version is sublime and well wroth the extra, if you actually use Blu-Ray. They are £60 a pop though. See Expensive.

PSU is a decent choice.

HDD is good.

Wireless card, id suggest a USB adaptor, normally just as reliable and still leaves room in the case for airflow. Either that or invest in some Powerline adaptors.

Are you sure 16GB isn't needed? Most software dev programs eat RAM.
Click to expand...

Hi cheers for the reply, lets see if I can reel off these answers :p

I use visual studio mainly, usually have between 3 and 5 projects loaded up at any one time.

I went with 280X as like I said I prefer gaming on consoles but I do have a lot of friends that game on PC so I do want to see if I can get into it. Basically just covers me in the future if I decide I like it.

I will be OCing the CPU with some help from a friend guiding me through it.

Obviously I'd get different coloured RAM to match the colour.

I was torn between a usb blu-ray player or a built in one as I'll be ripping a fair few blu rays so that's still undecided although I'll take on what you said about the retails version with the software.

And finally the wireless card I'd just prefer to have built in for no particular reason other than I think it gives it a cleaner look
 
XFX do a Very affordable 280 (non x) for like 140 if you needed to cutback. It really depends on if your going to use this as your main gaming rig. If you game mainly on consoles then save yourself some money. You dont need a top end rig to run visual studio or anything. A 270 / 280 will handle most things fairly well.

Personally id avoid the wifi card. Ive used a couple in the past and found them awful, total waste of cash. Id either use a usb receiver or im buying a tlink wifi ranger extender (it has two ports for cables) that runs off the mains, and ill plug directly into that so i get wired speeds while the wife can get the boost from the wifi.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 280 TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD20EFRX - OEM HDD £73.98
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x Netgear XAVB5201 Nano AV 500 HomePlug Adapter Starter Kit £29.99
Total : £989.36 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Alittle over but squeezed in everything (I think lol)
 
Thanks for the replies. I like that build there scotsdragon although I'm still not convinced I'll need 16GB of RAM. I think I'm slowly turning towards the 280 the more I think about the games I'll be playing (maybe some F2P mmo's and some indies pc exclusives).

I'm surprised I've never heard of these wi-fi extenders before. How reliable are they and what kind of boosts can be had in terms of speeds?
 
Wifi as you know can be affected by walls and such even closing a door can reduce your signal those home plug set use existing home wiring.

Where in your home is your router and relatively your pc?

as for the ram its better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it lol but its you choice you can get the same kit with 8gb for around 40 pounds cheaper.
 
My routers on the second floor of my house kind of at the back at the house whereas my pc will be on the bottom floor at the front of the house. It's a new house, like 3 or 4 years old, so I'm not sure if that affects the wifi signal.

Also any ideas on the black and white colour scheme? I've heard that the h100i has a light on it or some such thing
 
scotsdragon said:
Alittle over but squeezed in everything (I think lol)
Click to expand...

1)*licks one finger and puts into into plug socket*
2)*licks another finger and puts it into motherboard 24 pin connector*
3) Power
4) ???
5) Profit! :D

rigby93 said:
My routers on the second floor of my house kind of at the back at the house whereas my pc will be on the bottom floor at the front of the house. It's a new house, like 3 or 4 years old, so I'm not sure if that affects the wifi signal.

Also any ideas on the black and white colour scheme? I've heard that the h100i has a light on it or some such thing
Click to expand...

These powerline adaptors are ideal, as said they use your house wiring to have a stable and fast signal. Much more reliable than standard Wifi. :)

Black and white shceme isn't too easy but i've had a go, a little over though but blinged up. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £265.54
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £129.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £60
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 550W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £43.99
1 x TP-Link AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA411KIT) £29.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050004-WW) £22
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050003-WW) £11.99
1 x Silverstone Cable Extension Value Bundle - White £10.8
1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
1 x Silverstone 4-pin Molex to 4x SATA 30cm Extension - White £6.98
Total : £1,050.59 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Added fans for looks and temps/noise. :)

Drop the extra 8GB to bring it into budget. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x GeIL EVO Potenza 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-20800C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit - White (GPW38GB2666C11DC) £69.95
Total : £78.65 (includes shipping : £7.25).

 
Ok so I've changed my spec slightly in that the colour scheme has gone to a vague black and red (not that I'm that fussed about the colour scheme that much)

Heres what I've got with a 280X and 8GB RAM:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5 - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£14 Saving** £287.5
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280X DD Black Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280X-TDBD) £199.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x TP-Link AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA411KIT) £29.99
Total : £960.32 (includes shipping : ).



Or perhaps this with 16GB of RAM and a 280:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5 - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£14 Saving** £287.5
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £149.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £129.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x TP-Link AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA411KIT) £29.99
Total : £980.28 (includes shipping : ).



I'm nearly there with the £950 budget so what are your thoughts?
 
Looks nice though you've hit upon a little 'peeve' of mine.. Mis-match sizes.

There is nothing wrong with an ATX case and a mATX motherboard, it will fit but its just something I would rather not see.. (like having 2m shelf with just 4 books on it [get a smaller shelf]).

So you can either, shrink the case or increase the motherboard size.

one will save you money, one will take money (I bet you will guess wrong).

ATX:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £274.54
Total : £284.14 (includes shipping : £8.00).




mATX:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £79.99
Total : £89.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



All the other components will still fit. :)

If I were in your boat id go for the 16GB one, with what you're doing I think 16GB will come into play.
 
Doomedspeed said:
one will save you money, one will take money (I bet you will guess wrong).
Click to expand...

So the one with the bigger component will be more.......whaaaa!? :P

So we come out with this in the end, think I've got everything covered:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £274.54
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £149.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC) £129.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x TP-Link AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA411KIT) £29.99
Total : £967.32 (includes shipping : ).



Thanks for the help :)
 
rigby93 said:
So the one with the bigger component will be more.......whaaaa!? :P
Click to expand...

I know Madness Right. :)

Another thing (this has come to light with another guy we were speccing for) the motherboard only comes with 2 SATA cables, apparently the SSD doesn't come with one... not sure about the Blu-ray drive though (the guy who had this problem had ordered a OEM DVD drive, so he didn't get one with that)..

Basically, you may need another SATA (data) cable.. :)
 
Are you going to be using Win8.1?

If so you should change the H100i to a simpler AIO that just "works" as the CorsairLINK software and Win8.1 is a pain in the rear.

Here's a nice B+W spec for a bit over,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX SSD and Memory Bundle 240GB White SSD + 16GB White Memory £229.96
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280 DD Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280A-TDFD) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £60.00
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £53.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £43.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.98
1 x TP-Link AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA411KIT) £29.99
Total : £1,017.78 (includes shipping : £12.50).





The black edition board comes with a huge 5 year warranty.
 
Doomedspeed said:
I know Madness Right. :)

Another thing (this has come to light with another guy we were speccing for) the motherboard only comes with 2 SATA cables, apparently the SSD doesn't come with one... not sure about the Blu-ray drive though (the guy who had this problem had ordered a OEM DVD drive, so he didn't get one with that)..

Basically, you may need another SATA (data) cable.. :)
Click to expand...

Ah good to know. So if the blu ray player doesn't come with a SATA cable I'll have to get just 1 more?
 
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