Processor or GPU?

mattygage · 31 May 2014 at 15:09

Hi. I have about £650 to spend on a pc, not including monitor. Choices are either an i5 4670k over clocked to 4ghz with an R9 270x or an FX 6300 with an R9 280x or GTX 770. The Intel machine also has a small SSD.

Will use the pc for all sorts - Office, photo editing, converting movies and, of course, gaming.

Any suggestions or know of anything better? I have thought of self build but can't seem to make them any cheaper.

Thanks.

BTW I don't currently have a pc. Will be gaming at 1080p.

mattygage · 31 May 2014 at 15:52

Thanks for that. Must also include Windows if possible. I know it's a tight budget. Sorry.

What would be the better machine across the board and be most future proof?

mattygage · 31 May 2014 at 16:38

The AMD option looks great thanks. Looks like I've got some videos to watch then on how to assemble it! Excellent spec, thank you kindly.

mattygage · 1 Jun 2014 at 13:40

Thanks for the links. Watched the videos last night. Doesn't look too scary. I'll give it a go.

mattygage · 1 Jun 2014 at 14:39

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Just notice there are loads of 280xs available. Think its a great idea. Thanks.

mattygage · 1 Jun 2014 at 15:47

Would the AMD set up still be better?

mattygage · 8 Jun 2014 at 15:25

In the end I ordered pretty much the Intel spec mentioned here. Just looking for a S/H r9 280x now and I can start to put it together. Really happy with the spec and price so thanks for all help given. Is it easy / advisable to overclock the CPU on a first build? Also, will a 550w PSU definitely be enough for the processor and card combination?

mattygage · 9 Jun 2014 at 20:37

Ended up getting an Asus R9 280x DirectCU II. Had great user reviews on here. Can't wait.

mattygage · 9 Jun 2014 at 21:40

Gone for a Corsair Carbine 200r case. Will it need any additional fans to keep the card cool? I don't plan on overclocking, just gonna keep it standard for the moment. Also, is it worth getting a different cpu cooler if I'm gonna keep it standard? Thanks.

mattygage · 12 Jun 2014 at 13:59

Ordered a Raijintek cooler. Thought I might well install it when I start my build at the weekend rather than kick myself for not doing if I want to overclock. Looking forward to the build. Managed to get Samsung 840 EVO 120GB as well. Should hopefully be nice and fast as a system.

mattygage · 14 Jun 2014 at 15:44

Build went brilliantly. All up and running without any hitches. Cabling is a bit messy as loads of cables as it's a non modular psu but not too bad. Plugged ssd into SATA 0 and hdd into SATA 1. Hdd is recognised in bios and on Windows 8 in device manager but doesn't show in My Computer. Any ideas?

mattygage · 14 Jun 2014 at 16:50

That's great. Thanks. I'll give it a go in a minute.

mattygage · 30 Jun 2014 at 23:01

Hi, I have noticed that in the BIOS the RAM is set to 1333Mhz. I am using the 2400 RAM. Can I just change it in the BIOS to 2400 or do I need to change anything else? Thanks.

mattygage · 1 Jul 2014 at 00:18

I have enabled xmp to change the speed up to 2400. It appears that my core cpu clock speed has also gone up to 3.8ghz from 3.4ghz. Is this normal or am I reading it wrong? I have a Raijintek Themis installed to cool down the cpu.