PC Build for Gaming and Video Editing

Jaystar

Jaystar

Jaystar

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Joined
19 Feb 2014
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19
Location
London
Hi guys, I am on my way to build my first beast machine.

Trying to come up with a system primarily used for gaming and video editing. I want this pc to be able to run all current/new gen games on ultra/max settings, and run software like adobe premier very well, and also other common things like browsing and watching movies etc. I want this system to be as future proof as possible, my budget is £800-£1000. I would like components to be overclockable, and so far I have come up with:

- Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

- MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

- MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

- SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black

- Corsair Force LS Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

- Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

- Aerocool Strike-X Advance Midi Tower Case- Red/Black

- Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD

- Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp

- Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail)

Total : £992.33

Is this too much? Would it be wise to change anything like mobo socket and cpu? is the 2gb graphics card enough to run literally every game incl. Battlefield 4, Crysis 3 on max. Will this machine be decent for video editing or its more powerful than I need?
 
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A single 760 will give you decent performance. It's just that if you expect it to run absolutely every game maxed out (with really good frame rates) you'll be disappointed. To run all the newgen games maxed out on 1080p you'd need a more powerful card like a GTX 770 or R9 280X.

If you also make your build SLI/Xfire ready, then if you want/need even more gaming performance in the future you can add on a second card.

You may not need a sound card. Unless you're absolutely sure it's what you want, I would try the onboard sound on the mobo first. If you want the best quality, then the Gigabyte Sniper's audio reviews are probably the best.

For video editing you also want 16GB RAM ideally. But start off with 8GB as you can just add more in the future and focus on other bits right now. And a larger SSD (180-250GB) would also be ideal, to work with large video files before storing them in the HDD, as well as have some room to store your favourite games on (if possible).
 
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As Danny said 16GB RAM is ideal, however I'd stick to even 1 stick of 8gb and just whack another one in when need be, so you can get it up to 32gb in the distant future if it is ever needed (unlikely.)
Here's what I'd go for;

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD316G1600HC9DC01) £115.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £986.41 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
@Danny75

Thanks for the advice, I swapped the 760 series for the same gaming msi card in the 770 series. I don't intend to use sli. I have a monitor and a HDTV. I would be using the HDTV@1080p to play games or watch movies and work and browse on my monitor.

@Shivy011

Thanks, I will check out some of these parts after work and see if swapping any of them with mine will save me some cash without losing performance! And yes I agree I should be getting 16gb ram for v editing, I am going to see how I get on with 8gb and upgrade to 16 later.
 
Tbh it's probably better to go for the i7 and a gtx 760 than an i5 and a 770 for video editing.
 
OK. How about these options:

16GB RAM + R9 280X GPU:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
1 x Asus B85M-G Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £947.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



*OR*

8GB RAM + R9 290 GPU:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
1 x Asus B85M-G Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £914.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Personally I would be inclined to go for the 2nd choice as the 290 GPU is a fair bit more powerful than the 280X so better for gaming, plus it is cheaper overall build. I don't know what sort of size videos you will be editing so whether or not 8GB is enough for you I don't know, but imagine it should be plenty. Both these options are cheaper than your initial spec and in my opinion, are better. Yes you don't have a soundcard but onboard mobo audio is usually fine these days and I have skimped on the case and mobo but neither of these affect performance greatly (although the mobo might not allow great CPU overclocking capability). I can personally vouch for the Bitfenix Comrade case which is very well built, spacious and plenty of room for extra fans etc...

EDIT: No OS included as you didn't spec it in your OP and you can use Windows 8.1 free for 60 days I believe. You may want to go for a better mobo, and the 2nd quote I did leaves budget for this.
 
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^ B85 motherboards? Lol, no real point in the 'K' processor, those don't allow any overclocking whatsoever - Also why mATX? :D Otherwise look nice, change to a Z87 and you're done
 
3rd option:

16GB + R9 290 + i7 (locked multiplier, more suitable for the cheap mobo)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
1 x Asus B85M-G Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £957.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Shivy011 said:
^ B85 motherboards? Lol, no real point in the 'K' processor, those don't allow any overclocking whatsoever - Also why mATX? :D Otherwise look nice, change to a Z87 and you're done
Click to expand...

yeah I know, I was just trying to save as much money on mobo and case - you are right though which is why i posted a 3rd spec with a locked multiplier i7 - or just change the mobo of course
 
I didn't realise I specced a reference 290 gpu in the above quotes, deffo change this for the MSI gaming edition or Sapphire Tri-X

4th option if you can spend a little more (better mobo and non-ref 290):

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £71.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,047.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Yeah that looks quite nice ^ Especially 16gb RAM and that nice graphics card

I can personally vouch for that mobo, it's very good (built with one)

EDIT: Maybe an aftermarket cooler on top of that?
 
Meh, you can get a decent one for like £20, worth the investment, to me having a stock cooler is just the same as having a H81-type motherboard!
 
Firstly thanks to all for your time and advice.

@WaldenX

Dude thanks for all those bundles you made me!! Very interesting I will look into those parts tonight, is 550w PSU really enough? I used some online calculator which suggested a 650w minimum and 700w recommended.

@Shivvy011

I agree I think z87 with a OC i7 is a great match.

About 4gb graphics cards, I done some research last night that indicated only two games (eg battle field 4 and crysis 3) would only utilise more than 2gb VRAM and that's with AA set to highest. Do you guys really think 2gb 770 series is a regrettable choice over a 4gb?
 
Right now 2gb is perfectly acceptable, next year or two it might not be - in your position what I'd do is get a 4gb GTX 760 (hear me out) and then when you have another £160-£170 to spend whack in another and SLI it - then you'd have a beast set of GPU's with 4GB VRAM for the newest games. However, a 2gb card is definitely not going to be 'slow' by next years standards, so no it's not a regrettable choice.

As for the PSU, 550W is the perfect spot for a build like that, those PSU calculators always add overhead into account (you can run some SLI setups on 700W!)
 
I would get a better case than the Bitfenix Comrade if you are going to stick a 290/4770K in it. The case only has 1 rear fan mount and 2 front fan mounts.
 
@Shivy011

Thanks for clearing that up for me you raise same good points

@lee32uk

In the spec list I posted first, do you reckon that case is good enough? (Aerocool Strike-X)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Adata XPG SX910 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASX910S3-256GM-C) £119.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £79.99
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Black (CC-9011042-WW) £66.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
2 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIR) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Red £44.98
Total : £1,086.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).




250GB SSD - 2TB HDD - Overclocking - 16GB RAM - Quality 650w PSU - Video card can be boosted to 1240MHz with just a couple of clicks using included MSI Gaming App, without even having to open Afterburner or similar.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Adata XPG SX910 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASX910S3-256GM-C) £119.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Black (CC-9011042-WW) £66.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIR) £49.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Red £44.98
Total : £1,016.81 (includes shipping : £12.50).





8GB RAM and quality 550w PSU to stay closer to budget. However, given RAM prices are generally on the rise; if you want 16GB, now might be one of the rare occasions where you can get 16GB for £100. And 550w can handle that setup, it's just that adding a bit more wattage will always strain it less.

As Walder mentioned, you could use a free 3-month Windows 8 free trial.

Yes, I've gone above budget with both baskets but they are well balanced and would cover your needs/wishes (overclocking, maxed out gaming at 1080p, and video editing).
 
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