Thoughts on basket for Java/Python/occasional gaming.

implosiveturnip

implosiveturnip

implosiveturnip

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Hi all

I've just put together a basket for a friend who wants to move to a new system, to replace his ageing OEM dell system from the lands that time forgot...

He will be using the system for Java and Python dev, probably a couple of VM's knowing him and he also hopes to start gaming again in the not too distant future.

So after a little research, and given a maximum budget of £400 I have put this together for him:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £145.99
1 x MSI Z97-G43 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) ATX Motherboard £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Corsair CS450M 450W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020075-UK) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Silver £29.99
Total : £370.01 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Points to note and reasoning for parts selection:

  • No optical, HDD or SSD required as he's bringing those from an old system.
  • No peripherals required as will be using existing kit.
  • He plan to drop a GPU in later on down the line, won't be top tier so no silly high wattage PSU required. I've only gone for the corsair as it's a decent offer for an 80+ gold semi-modular, and will handle any single GPU in the future.
  • I would like to keep as far from the £400 budget ceiling as possible, so he can grab a 1920x1080 monitor, as his current one is only 1600x900, but it's not essential.
  • H97 or Z97 chipset is non-negotiable!

With all that in mind, am I thinking along the right lines here? Or could I do a little better?

Thanks :D
 
abui1806 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-078-AR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

I would take this instead of the teamgroup black because it matches the motherboard's colour and it has leds. Led is nice.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but we're going for function over form here, and I'd rather have the lifetime warranty handled by OCUK with the TeamGroup memory over the bling of the Avexir.

That's not to say the Avexir itself isn't a good choice - I have one of their 16gb quad channel kits and it's been rock solid.
 
Avexir does have its lifetime warranty scheme as well. And for ram, there is no noticeable difference between different modules so why don't we choose it based on the look of it?
 
Generic python & java dev work doesn't need an i5 or anything close, can go very low spec and be fine. The limitation is if he needs to run an existing stack that is heavyweight really, which isn't the case in most companies but some still do unfortunately. Not knowing what he does makes it hard to tell. I'd ideally look for more RAM in a dev machine though, especially if you're adding a couple of VMs into the mix, but can't see how it could fit into budget so 8GB will have to do :) (I'm on a i5-2540M here, 2 cores/4 threads @ 2.6GHz with 16GB RAM and normally run out of RAM before I am limited by the CPU - gaming I'd say 8GB is ample for most users. I do tend to run quite a few VMs though...) On a desktop platform he could possibly drop to an i3 to save a few bucks if that'll let him get other bits he needs into budget. (With enough budget I'd totally go for the i5, but it's a question of what else he loses out on really!)
 
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Thanks David

Well there's still a little bit a wriggle room in the budget so could probably squeeze to 16gb and still keep the i5 by shaving elsewhere, or dropping to an i3 like you suggested. I wanted to try and keep him on a true quad-core for the gaming side of things later on down the line though.

I did offer him my secondary rig (the i5 rig in my sig) for not much more than the basket up there but he wants new :P

I suppose to really save a few quid, we could drop to the anniversary ed. Pentium and plonk the multi at x40ish on the stock cooler. But then that would mean buying another CPU later on down the line anyway, as from what I can tell games are dropping support for dual cores in favor of multiple threads (battlefield, far cry 4 and some other newer games from what I've read. correct me if I'm wrong though.)
 
I would personally go for a 1155 motherboard and a Xeon E3 1230 v2 over a 1150 motherboard and a limited i5.

You can pick up the E3 1230 v2 for less than £140 on that well known auction site. It is essentially a locked i7 3770k - 4 cores 8 threads.
 
Bluntwrapped said:
I would personally go for a 1155 motherboard and a Xeon E3 1230 v2 over a 1150 motherboard and a limited i5.

You can pick up the E3 1230 v2 for less than £140 on that well known auction site. It is essentially a locked i7 3770k - 4 cores 8 threads.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Doesn't leave much of an upgrade path though, dead socket. At least on z97 he'll have the option of 4770k, 4790k and Broadwell too.

That and a decent z77 board is hard to come by cheap, he'd be paying the same for older tech that he couldn't upgrade from without forking out for another platform.
 
That's true, but in the interest of keeping the cost down this would give him the best bang for buck in the mean time. Any 1155 motherboard will be fine with a BIOS update so it wouldn't have to be Z77.

By the time anyone needs to upgrade from 1155, the 1150 platform will be long gone.
 
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Bluntwrapped said:
These two are pretty close to the 3570k. Slightly lower clock speed but 4 cores / 4 threads:

http://ark.intel.com/products/65734/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1220-v2-8M-Cache-3_10-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/products/65733/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1225-v2-8M-Cache-3_20-GHz

Not sure about price though. The 1230 v2 was quite popular so chances are you'll get the best deal on that model.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I'll have a look at pricing. Will see if OCUK have any decent 1155 boards in b-grade/clearance too. Shame I don't have MM access yet ;_;

Ronald said:
I'd use http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-003-SF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2057 as a PSU.

450 is a bit tight for the fairly conservative 970 GTX. Most midrange cards will actually use more, as AMD still has to catch up on the efficiency, and nvidia's midrange are older gen.

The Corsair CS don't get any Gibbo/8Pack love... You'll loose modular, but you quickly end up using most id not all leads anyway, especially on a low power PSU.
Click to expand...

a 450w gold is going to be more than enough for a non-overclocked system with just about any GPU. TTL did an article and video here with an overclocked 4670k and an Asus 780ti DCII and it was fine:

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/power_supply/how_many_watts_do_you_actually_need/1

And who said anything about dropping a £300+ GPU in here? We're probably looking at a second hand 670/770 at most, or maybe the 960 if it comes in at a good price. Will see what's on the 2nd hand market when the 960 drops; I see a lot of people picking one up if they get the launch pricing right, and that *could* mean an influx of cheap 2nd hand 660/660ti 270x/280 if the performance is there on the 960. But I digress.
 
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implosiveturnip said:
And who said anything about dropping a £300+ GPU in here? We're probably looking at a second hand 670/770 at most, or maybe the 960 if it comes in at a good price. Will see what's on the 2nd hand market when the 960 drops; I see a lot of people picking one up if they get the launch pricing right, and that *could* mean an influx of cheap 2nd hand 660/660ti 270x/280 if the performance is there on the 960. But I digress.
Click to expand...

well the 970 would actually require much less power than a 770 for example.

A 970 is 150W whereas a 770 (like I have) is rated at 230 but mine often pulls about 250W. I have that superflower 550W and its excellent.

Though tbf to you, if you are thinking of waiting a bit you'd be able to get a 960 (about to launch) which would draw way less power and give you the performance of the 770. In 9 months or so you'd be able to get in second hand very cheap too :) and the 450W psu would be absolutely fine :D
 
implosiveturnip said:
And who said anything about dropping a £300+ GPU in here? We're probably looking at a second hand 670/770 at most, or maybe the 960 if it comes in at a good price. Will see what's on the 2nd hand market when the 960 drops; I see a lot of people picking one up if they get the launch pricing right, and that *could* mean an influx of cheap 2nd hand 660/660ti 270x/280 if the performance is there on the 960. But I digress.
Click to expand...

Right, what I meant to say: Cheaper cards actually use more than the 970 (145W)... 660 = 170W, 770 = 230W. The AMD's are at least similar.

Personally I wouldn't want to run the PSU at very high percentages of rated power... especially on less than great PSU's... Peak efficiency is normally at around 50% as well, so a 550 is perfect...

450 will do, but not a lot of spare... check with OCUK when the Superflower 450 is back in stock as it is not just a bit better for the same price of the CS 450...
 
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