Non-gaming build

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13 Jan 2015
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I've decided that it's time to replace my now aging system, which is:
Pentium D 915
ASRock 4Core1600-GLan
3GB Crucial Ballistix (Was 4GB but it doesn't seem to like all 4 sticks these days)
GTS250 GPU
Corsair CX430M PSU (is only about 1 yr old)
500GB Hitachi HDD
120GB Maxtor IDE HDD
Old cheap and nasty case.

Among the main uses will be encoding with Handbrake, and I want to get into doing stuff with Photoshop/Lightroom.

I don't need it for gaming as I do that on consoles (and have enough games stacked up on my backlog to keep me going for quite a while).

Initial budget is circa £1k, but can go up. I only need the tower, don't need a keyboard, mouse, monitor or OS.

For an initial build, I'd thought of something like:
YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 750W PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £566.96
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £109.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
Total : £890.99 (includes shipping : £11.75).



I'd put the 850Evo in for the faster write speeds to use it for the scratch disk in PS, though it probably wouldn't make a huge difference dropping to something like the Crucial BX100.

With the 4790K I could live without a GPU initially, though can add one at a later date to help with PS performance.

Given the Handbrake/PS use I then thought about maybe going X99/5820K.

I had been looking at something like:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£20 Saving*** £469.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (TPKD416GM2400HC16QC01) £125.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £109.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
Total : £1,007.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).



But then with the new MSI bundle available I've priced that up as well:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI X99S SLI Plus - TeamGroup 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 Intel X99 Motherboard Bundle **£40 OFF** £255.98
- 1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £319.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £109.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
Total : £987.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Now I know these 2 builds need a GPU and a cooler adding, but I wanted a direct comparison of the price compared to the 4790k build.

As an X99 build would need a GPU, it wouldn't need to be anything too special. I'm currently using an old 19" 4:3 monitor, but will want to add a 2nd widescreen (1440p or 4k) in the future. I'd guess that something like this would be sufficient for PS without breaking the bank.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £133.99
Total : £143.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Though for not a lot more, this may be better.
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI AMD Radeon R9 285 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
Total : £149.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



As far as a cooler goes, I quite like the idea of going with a custom water setup, but I don't know if I can justify the cost atm. A quick play at a spec gets me to:
YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 100 (incl. pump) £105.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO £49.99
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Chrome £24.95
1 x Three Fan Bundle - Overclockers UK & SilverStone - 120mm FQ121WC Watercooling Radiator Fan £20.99
1 x Mayhems X1 Blood Red Coolant £7.99
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99
Total : £275.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I know I could shave a little off the cost, but it wouldn't be a huge amount I think.

Going down the air cooling route, I guess I'd be looking at something like this to give me good performance when overclocking:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black £69.98
Total : £75.96 (includes shipping : £4.98).



Alternatively I could go with an AIO water cooler.

Any and all comment welcome.
 
I've been thinking a bit more on this, and definitely thinking of going the X99 route. Playing around and putting a complete custom water cooled list together I get:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 - Intel Core i7 5820K Six Core CPU & Motherboard Bundle ***£20 Saving*** £479.98
1 x MSI AMD Radeon R9 285 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (TPKD416GM2400HC16QC01) £119.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x Three Fan Bundle - Overclockers UK & SilverStone - 120mm FQ121WC Watercooling Radiator Fan £20.99
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Red £19.99
1 x Mayhems X1 Blood Red Coolant £7.99
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99
Total : £1,372.79 (includes shipping : ).



I've swapped to the BX100 to drop the price slightly. I can drop it a further £20 if I went with the MSI bundle. I'm not really sure of the benefits of one of these boards over the other :confused: So I may be better asking over in the motherboard area, and also whether it is worth pushing the boat out to a Gigabyte X99 SOC Champion Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £218.99 that seems to be well regarded on here, but it does push the price up by £70.

On the GPU front, I've proabably gone with a higher spec card above than I really need. I was digging around and have a 5770 (I think it is) sat in an old Dell PC that was setup to run Kodi (it doesn't tend to get used anymore in favour of a Pi) that I could use initially, and then upgrade later if I want to.
 
I'd go for an nvidia card possibly as you can make use of CUDA acceleration, though a lot of programs do use OpenCL too...
 
Stick with Gigabyte, they have good support/warranty.

The SOC champion is amazing, but you should do it some justice and give it better DDR4 such as 2666Mhz.

The R9 280 is still slightly better - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-251-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842 - more Vram and a larger memory bus.

Thanks for that. I could maybe push to the SOC champion with 2666Mhz by going with 5770 that I have already, and upgrade later (especially as I'm only really just starting with PS). Or I just get silly and do both in one hit as I don't tend to upgrade very often (as can be seen from the spec of my old machine, and the CPU in that was 2nd hand)

The other thing that I'd read on here (or thought I had) in favour of Gigabyte is that they are better for overclocking.

I'd go for an nvidia card possibly as you can make use of CUDA acceleration, though a lot of programs do use OpenCL too...

I thought I'd read that it was tending to favour AMD cards with OpenCL these days (though I could be wrong :))
 
Yes stick with AMD cards for your uses. Open CL is more supported and AMD cards have better compute power.

The SOC champion has the OC socket so you can also get the uncore up nice and high, the RAM slots have also been moved closer to the socket for better signalling.

P.S you may want to rethink your coolant colour choice with a black+orange board.
 
Why can't they do Orange DDR4?

How does this look?
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £329.99
1 x Gigabyte X99 SOC Champion Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £218.99
1 x Kingston Predator 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C13 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX426C13PB2K4/16) £215.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £72.98
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO £49.99
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Chrome £24.95
1 x Three Fan Bundle - Overclockers UK & SilverStone - 120mm FQ121WC Watercooling Radiator Fan £20.99
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Orange Coolant 1L £14.99
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99
Total : £1,549.74 (includes shipping : ).



I may still tinker with the cooling setup. And I thought about adding in something like a XSPC LCD Temperature Sensor (Orange) V2 + G1/4" Plug Sensor which will need some extra fittings and a T-piece (or add a 4-way to allow for a drain point).

I also had a quick look at orange braided cables to go with the colour scheme, but they can wait as I'm already pushing my budget.

I guess I'll have to have a look at fan control at some point as well.
 
That looks fine apart from the red+black gfx card, you could remove the stock cooler and water cool it later on and thus remove the red+black but I cant find a water block for it.

Even you go for a EVGA PSU (still made by Superflower) you can get complete braided cable kits,

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £94.99
1 x CableMod E-Series G2 & P2 Cable Kit - Black / Orange £69.95
1 x CableMod E-Series G2 & P2 Cable Kit - Orange £69.95
Total : £234.89 (includes shipping : ).




But all you do need is the 24pin, 8pin atx, and twin power for the card.
 
Got back to looking at this, and thinking I need to get some of the bits ordered this week to make use of the Intel cashback. My latest proposed setup is:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £329.99
1 x Gigabyte X99 SOC Champion Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £204.95
1 x Kingston Predator 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX430C15PB2K4/16) £199.99
1 x Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e Gen3 8Gbps x 4 Solid State Drive (MZHPV256HDGL-00000) £119.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - Black £119.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 370 Gaming 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £114.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £94.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £85.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO X99 - Nickel £44.99
1 x Three Fan Bundle - EK Water Blocks EK-Vardar F3-120 (1850rpm) £30.95
1 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Chrome £24.95
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Orange Coolant 1L £14.99
1 x Aqua Computer Ball Valve Female Thread G 1/4 without Fittings £5.99
1 x XSPC LCD Temperature Sensor (Orange) V2 + G1/4" Plug Sensor £5.99
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/11 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
2 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - Chrome £4.99 (£9.98)
1 x XSPC G1/4" 4 Way Fitting (Chrome) £3.95
2 x XSPC G1/4" 5mm Male to Male Fitting (Chrome) £1.79 (£3.58)
1 x XSPC M20 Fillcap for Reservoirs and Pumps (Chrome) £1.49
Total : £1,605.34 (includes shipping : £14.75 Ex.VAT).



I've dropped the graphics card to a cheaper option, which is probably plenty for what I want.

I've pushed the boat out to go for an SM951. I know that it doesn't run at full speed using the on-board slot, but I'm planning on using a PCI-E adapter card that "should" work from what I've read.

I changed my mind on the case, going for one that should be a bit better for water cooling. I may well go for a thicker rad than the one I've listed here.

On the memory front, do I need to go for the 3000MHz stuff, or would the 2666Mhz kit be suitable? Or even a different option?

I might add the orange cable kit, or I might leave to add later.

Anything I've missed or should change?
 
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