System build check

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 20:57

Hi guys

I was just looking at systems and thought I'd actually have a go at building myself one (I haven't for the last 2 but thought I may have to have a bash for a laugh), can you check this spec and let me know any components you'd change

Asus Radeon R9 290X ROG Matrix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (MATRIX-R9290X-4GD5) £245.99
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £199.99
Asus Maximus VII Gene Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £159.95
Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e Gen3 8Gbps x 4 Solid State Drive (MZHPV256HDGL-00000) £155.99
Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/16-OC) £119.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £67.99
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £44.99
OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £44.95
Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £41.99
Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler £39.95
Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £6.98

Looking forward to your advice

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 20:58

Hi,

What is your maximum budget? what is this to be used for? what resolution is your monitor?

The Zalman case doesn't fit the GFX card for a start, but I can amended this with an awesome stulid certified spec.

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 21:11

It's mainly for gaming, always liked the case so that's why I picked that.

Budget is around £1500 but this worked out at just over £1200.

I used to build my own and mates PCs (Back in the PII days) but haven't had time recently, now the missus is working in London Monday to Friday I have some time to kill of an evening as I can't go out on the lash every night :-P

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 21:12

Here is an immediate improvement,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £393.98
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X ROG Matrix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (MATRIX-R9290X-4GD5) £245.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £99.95
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £59.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Antec VSP5000 Silenced Tower Case - Black £39.95
1 x Alpenfohn Ben Nevis CPU Cooler - 120mm £19.99
Total : £1,186.76 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

This case fits the card, has three fans with speed controllers.

The PSU is made by superflower, 10 yr warranty and can power two of these GFX cards.

The motherboard is full size ATX.

--------------------------------------------------------

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£25 Saving** £393.98
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £99.95
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - Black / Red £89.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
1 x Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD External BluRay-RW / DVD-RW Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £1,308.50 (includes shipping : £14.75 Ex.VAT).

The GTX970 comes with two free games.

Everything colour matches for the windowed case, the case has no external drive option hence the USB drive.

--------------------------------------------------

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £399.98
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £109.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £99.95
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £59.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
Total : £1,386.41 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

This board has a 5yr warranty and a 2for1 upgrade offer.

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 21:42

Loving the 3rd build, any reason to go for a Sata SSD when it has a M.2 slot on board?

I'm also having second thoughts on the second Hdd as I have a 480Gb bigfoot in my current rig that I can use as a steam drive and have a 2Tb NAS that I can use for storage.

Can't believe the BDRW is so cheap either

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 21:47

The SATA drive is cheaper and still quick.

Your pick I suppose

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 22:06

Cool cheers, I do have 3 other SSDs but I don't think they are as good as a Samsung one:-

OCZ Agility 3 120Gb (Thinking of giving this one to my mate)
OCZ Vector 256Gb
Kingston V300 240Gb

This is why I was thinking of the M.2 as it's something quicker and smaller/neater than a traditional SSD.

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 22:09

The Vector is unlikely to work as it has an early Sandforce controller - http://www.overclock.net/t/1413096/...ntroller-ssds-are-not-compatible-with-haswell

And Z87/97 I think are essentially the same when it comes to this.

128GB OCZ will get filled up quickly. GTAV is 60Gb just by itself.

dacads · 11 May 2015 at 22:21

Well the new range of Samsung M2 SSDs have just been introduced, take a look:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18670541

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 22:25

Think I'll go with option 3 then Stulid, thanks for the advice been a massive help.

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 22:27

dacads said:
Well the new range of Samsung M2 SSDs have just been introduced, take a look:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18670541

Yeah that was the 256Gb one I selected in my initial spec but it's £155 as opposed to £89.99 for the SSD

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 22:31

I was have a mess around with other cases too and deleted the HDD,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £399.98
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £109.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Nepton 240M AIO Cooling Solution £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £79.99
1 x Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD External BluRay-RW / DVD-RW Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x NZXT Source 340 Midi-Tower Case- Black Window £59.99
Total : £1,311.36 (includes shipping : £13.75 Ex.VAT).

And Phanteks Enthoo is another £90 case with window and will take an external DVD/BluRay drive.

Maundie · 11 May 2015 at 22:43

Guess I've a bit of time to mull it over as the motherboard is out of stock, problem is if I hang about too much I find myself questioning bits and then have to re-spec, I've nearly bought a new PC 3 times this year already!!

What about a Cooler Master CM-690 III case (comes with a free Cooler Master Seidon cooler well)?

stulid · 11 May 2015 at 22:51

Nice looking case.

It claims to fit the G1 Gaming (might have to remove the 2.5" cage but there is a place on the rear of the tray for a 2.5" drive) but this is moot if you get the m.2 drive.

Maundie · 12 May 2015 at 09:43

Mind made up, thanks for your input Stulid, it is much appreciated.

Pieced it all together and it comes to £1,355.86 with the M.2 Hdd as i managed to save a few quid by having the cooler master case with the free AIO cooler.

Really impressed with the spec and can't wait for it all to turn up to build.

stulid · 12 May 2015 at 09:56

Maundie · 12 May 2015 at 10:54

Ordered and got my receipt for £1,355.86 but just checked my order and it's in the warehouse queue but with this at the bottom:-

FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day): £0.00
VAT: £1733.95
Order Total: £3209.65

Hmmmm......

stulid · 12 May 2015 at 10:54

Contact customer services.

Phone or make a post in the CS section.

You didnt click twice on any item did you?

Maundie · 12 May 2015 at 11:26

No it's all good on my receipt 1 of each item, quite alarming that the VAT is quoted at £1,733.95

Would have to spend a lot more than £1,355 for that amount of VAT.

I'll ring CS and see what they advise as I think it's just reporting wrong as my receipt is how much they've charged my card.

mahius · 12 May 2015 at 12:07

Oof, that pricing error is a bit difficult. But a pretty good build for ~£1300, the same budget I'm aiming at in a few weeks. I was always planning on going for the old i7-4790k/GTX 970 combo too. On the topic of SSDs, I'd agree with a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB. It costs much less than an M.2 and the price to performance is much better. I'm still wondering about that AIO cooler though, IMHO the better AIO water coolers are £100+. I would recommend a Noctua NH-D15 air cooler instead, but it seems I'm too late to the party on this one. I hope you enjoy your build!