Pc build / full system advice

[Moman]

Hi,

I have been reading these forums for a while and would like some advice on a PC spec as my head is spining!

The PC is needed for Photoshop (i do a lot of photography), video editing and some casual gaming (Ie BF4). I also run building energy models for work. I have a budget of £1000 but could stretch a little further if needed. All I need is the system and the OS (I have a monitor, keybord and mouse). I would like it to last as long as possible!

What is better / value between an i5 and i7? My understaning is the i7 might be beeter for modelling / photoshop but will not make much of a difference for gaming. Which is the better OS Windows 8 or 7? (my old machine is on XP and I have no knowledge of either system)
Is 16gig memory recommended for future proofing and what is the difference between 1600Mhz and 2133Mhz?

I would be prepared to have a go at self build if it means I get more value, but am concerned about lack of warrenty (like the ones Ocuk have on the pre built machines). I liked the look if the titan machete but think it might be OTT for my needs. I would look to expand in future to.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I tried to add my basket to this list but I cannot work out how...

 

[deFiniLoGy]

Are you prepared to do any future upgrades or will this be a one off purchase?

 

[Fulax]

What resolution is your monitor?

Here is the OcUK basket app: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18371076

You get warranty on the individual items if you buy the separately. The downside is that if you run into a problem you'll have to identify the exact source yourself, and potentially take the whole system apart. But you will have warranty.

If you're video editing you'll see the benefits of an i7, and probably of 16gb RAM.

This build would give you the possibility of adding another 280X in the future:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £245.99
1 x Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £99.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £65.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black (CC-9011014-WW) £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £41.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,060.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[Moman]

Hi guys

Thanks,Yes I guess future upgrades would be required as parts become outdated. I have a 1920x1080 23 inch Asus full hd monitor.

Is AMD better than NVidia?

 

[Moman]

Hi Fulax,

I made a couple of tweeks, do you think this makes it better?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle £327.98
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020015-UK) £73.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1003FZEX) HDD £59.99
Total : £1,123.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[lee32uk]

Hi Fulax,

I made a couple of tweeks, do you think this makes it better?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle £327.98
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020015-UK) £73.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1003FZEX) HDD £59.99
Total : £1,123.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).

No case ?

The Seasonic M12II Evo, or Superflower in the spec above is a better psu than the Corsair one.

The WD Black isn't really worth the extra over the Caviar green.

 

[Fulax]

Well you don't have a case in your basket, which is potentially problematic. Also, the PSU isn't nearly as good and those WD Black hard drives are loud and expensive. They are faster than regular hard drives, but we have SSDs for speed now. The h100i is a great cooler, but it is three times the price of the Matterhorn for not much more performance. It certainly looks better than a big air cooler, but if your case doesn't have a window that isn't necessarily a problem.

There isn't much between a 770 and a 280X in terms of performance, but the 280X's extra gigabyte of VRAM swings it for me. You'd be happy with either, I'm sure.

Considering you're spending an extra £125 (as you don't have a case) you're getting very little in return, apart from a bigger SSD. The h100i would probably get a bit more out of your 4770k (depending on the chip), but not much.

If you're willing to spend that much I'd probably just keep my spec but with a 290 instead of a 280X. Comes to around £1150.

 

[Moman]

Hi,

Thanks, yeah completely forgot the case in that! I have noticed some overclocked bundles on with the same motherboard,cooler and memory with an i7 processor and cooler which appears to make things cheaper (than when bought separately) .Are these bundles better value than buying everything individually? Or is scaling down the cooling better?
I have reverted to your power supply and the Caviar Green. Would the 4 gig 770 be better to push to than the r280? The case you selected looks good. It always seems you can spend a lot more than first intended!

Really appreciate the advice, as I do not have much clue.

 

[Fulax]

Nah, the 4GB 770 is pretty pointless considering the price. A 290 is only £30 more, and is easily the superior card.

Looks like the bundle is cheaper than buying everything individually as it is on offer. (I assume you mean the ReAct MSI Z87 SLI bundle). If you get that, just go for the Brocken cooler (the standard one). You get the same overclock as with one of the more expensive options.

If you would like a case with a window have a look at the Bitfenix Ronin.

 

[Moman]

Thanks,yes the react bundle with a the cooler.

It seems very easy to keep adding better and better components, and before you know you have a 2K machine I might be able to stretch to 1300 but that is the ultimate upper limit, I do want it to last though.

Is decent thermal paste worth it? Also in terms of the build, is using antistatic mat/wrist bands needed?

 

[Fulax]

Yea, that's pretty much what happened when I was building my PC. Started off looking at a 760, moved on to 770 or a 7970, then ended up with a 780. But my point was more that you should either stick with a 280X/2gb 770 or stretch to a 290 - the 4gb 770 isn't worth the money.

Your cooler will come with thermal paste. You'll need to buy more if you ever have to remove the cooler (for whatever reason), but otherwise just stick with the standard stuff. You'll see a few degrees differences with the better pastes, but nothing to get particularly excited about.

You don't need to wear an anti-static wristband, no. Work on something non-conductive (e.g. a wooden desk). You can ground yourself by touching something metal, like the case or the PSU. Just don't do anything silly like moonwalking on your carpet before handling your expensive hardware.

 

[lee32uk]

If you only plan on running a single graphics card


YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £245.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black (CC-9011017-WW) £69.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £61.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £41.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,162.81 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[Moman]

Cheers, Looking one card , but could consider adding in the future What the advantage? better frame rates?

if I go to a budget of 1400 can I get a lot more for my money? I think a blue ray drive or dvd drive, card reader and wifi card are needed to.

Also the 290 is on offer as a sapphire rather than msi card? is the sapphire any different or is it branding?

Is overclocking worth it?

Also I specced to the one above and it's become much more expensive a lot of the prices have gone up since Wednesday is this usual?

 

[Fulax]

The weekly offers change on Wednesday. A few of the items in Lee's spec were on offer then, but aren't any more. Hence the higher prices.

The advantage of two cards is as you would expect, really: more power, meaning more FPS.

I'm not sure how much more you would get for £1400. The 290 is as high as I would go for the GPU if you're not a big gamer. It will last you a while - even longer if you add another at some point in the future. I suppose the next step up would be to get a 4930k and an X79 motherboard instead of the 4770k and a Z87 board. The extra cores would speed up your video editing, but it would cost around £300 more than the 4770k setup.

My internet is frustratingly slow at the moment, but I'll come back with a spec updated for this week's offers if no one else does.

 

[Moman]

Thanks. Every time I go on here I end up adding more! I think getting back into pics is going to be fun.

 

[Fulax]

This week's offers are rubbish compared to last Personally I'd wait until Wednesday to see if anything comes up. As it is, nothing in this spec is on offer:

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 £245.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £67.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black (CC-9011014-WW) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,204.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



An extra £200 could obviously get you a bigger SSD and HDD, a nicer case, maybe some braided cables to make it look a bit sexier - but not much in terms of performance. As I said, anything above a 290 would be overkill, and the Matterhorn is an excellent cooler for the price (particularly if you're not much of an overclocker).

 

[Moman]

Hi Fulax,

Thanks,yeah I think I know what I want now. Pretty much the spec you have there but will wait for offers and see if I can get to a larger SSD and a nicer case. I will go for the 290 card.

Is there advantages to overclocking? Is it just beter speed but with a life expectancy loss due to higher temps?Ie if i Oc'd a i7k 3.4 to 4 would that give a better performance tha is worth it?

Andrew

 

[Moman]

Seems like there are some offers on this week...

 

[Fulax]

250gb SSD and a nicer case:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £107.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,233.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Or a more compact single GPU spec:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £107.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £101.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming Black Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,180.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).




The advantage of overclocking is increased speed, yes. Temperatures get higher as you increase volts, but a decent aftermarket cooler will take care of that.

 

[Moman]

Thanks, I will be ordering tonight or over the weekend. Hopefully I dont muck up my first ever build!!

I noticed the MSI radeon 290x is 50 pounds more today only than the 290, would that be worth it for future proofing?