Time for a new PC...

[The_Rascal]

Hi,

I've just put this 'system' into my basket, but before I press the buy button I wanted to get some feedback from the 'guru's' here first.
I've built many PC's, but the tech in this current gen seems to have escalated far beyond what I recall from my previous two builds...

Basically, will these components work ok with each other, and is there anything else I should consider?

Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM
Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI HERO Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit
Corsair RM Series RM 550 '80+ Gold' 550W Power Supply (CP-9020053-UK)
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive
2 no Seagate SSHD Hybrid 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM
Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler

All will fit into a Lian Li PC-A55A case...

The OS will be Win 7 HP 64 bit.

I use the PC for general browsing, browser gaming (forge of empires), occasional Video editing/dvd authoring and am just starting to use Solidworks for RC aeroplane design.
I am thinking about just sticking with the Intel on-board GFX for the moment, but if anyone can suggest a mid range GFX card for around £150 then I may be tempted.
I have 2 500g samsung 7200rpm spinpoints (sata 2) in my system currently, will I be able to use them in the system in a raid format as a backup? as well as the 2 seagate SSHD's?
I used to use Artic Silver 5 - is this still regarded as a decent paste?
I may overclock a bit in the future, will the Matterhorn cooler cope? I currently use an Artic Freezer Pro 7, and thought about getting the version 2, what are the opinions on that cooler?

Apologies for the wall of questions but this is a lot of money I'm about to spend and want to ensure that I'm not making some duff decisions....

Many thanks for any/all advice in advance...

 

[random_matt]

PK-1 or IC diamond, AS silver 5 is mediocre.

 

[Fulax]

For those components (not includiding case or GPU), what is the budget? By my reckoning that looks like £800-850?

The motherboard is overkill for what you'll be doing. The PSU is more expensive (and not as good) as Seasonic and Superflower PSUs of the same wattage (although it is modular). The SSD is great (I've got one) but there are cheaper ones on offer that will not give a noticeable drop in performance. Hybrid SSD/HDDs are, as far as I can tell, a bit pointless if you have the OS installed on an SSD.

With those savings you can get an i7-4770k, which will help with your video editing:

YOUR BASKET
1 x intel core i7-4770k 3.50ghz (haswell) socket lga1150 processor - oem £249.95
1 x teamgroup xtreem lv "frost edition" 16gb (2x8gb) ddr3 pc3-21300c11 2666mhz dual channel kit £149.99
1 x sapphire radeon r9 270x boost oc 2048mb gddr5 pci-express card £149.99
1 x gigabyte g1.sniper z87 intel z87 (socket 1150) ddr3 atx motherboard £119.99
1 x toshiba ssd hdts212ezsta 9.5mm 128gb solid state hard drive - retail £65.99
1 x superflower golden green hx 550w "80 plus gold" power supply - black £59.99
2 x seagate barracuda 7200rpm 1tb sata 6gb/s 64mb cache - oem (st1000dm003) hdd £47.99 (£95.98)
1 x alpenföhn matterhorn pure edition cpu cooler £29.99
total : £931.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).



i've also put a £150 gpu in there.

here's a review of the matterhorn (it's a very capable cooler): http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/alpenfoehn_matterhorn_pure_cpu_cooler_review,9.html

EDIT: The Matterhorn will not fit in the PC-A55A, I'm afraid

 

[Fulax]

[quoted myself by mistake -.-]

 

[The_Rascal]

Thank you for taking the time to help me out Fulax...
Realistically I'm looking to spend between £800 - £900, less would be preferable to my wife

The reason for the case is that we've just bought a new piece of furniture that can store my PC in as my wife was fed up of looking cables running behind my desk. Measured up the width and height of the slot and my beloved Antec P180 fitted just fine, totally forgot about the depth tho... the P180 stuck out by about 20mm meaning we couldn't shut the doors on it... the Lian Li case was the only one I could find that fitted the bill.

I liked the look of the bios in the ASUS mobo, and trust the brand... I remember the Gigabyte boards having issues in the days of the P4's, so I went for an aBit IC7-G in the end... Are they better now?

I wasn't sure that I needed the extra benefit of the i7 over the i5, so plumped for the i5 because of the price difference.

I could also drop the ram to 8GB to save me another £80... is 16gb worth the extra?

Thoughts on the hybrid drives were that when I moving large files between drives (usually captured images) I thought the SSHD would be quicker...

Are the 6gb/s ports backward compatible with sata2 connectors and drives, just so that I can move the old data across...

Thanks again,

James

 

[Fulax]

If space is an issue have you considered an mATX build? Or have you already bought the case?

Is the £900 budget for everything (case included if you haven't bought it)?

On motherboards: ASUS do make good motherboards, but the Hero is still expensive for your needs - they do cheaper ones if you'd like to stick to the brand. I can't speak for earlier generations, but Gigabyte's range of Haswell motherboards are highly regarded. I've got the mATX version of the board in the spec above and can attest to its quality. The BIOS is very user firendly, too.

The i7 is a good chunk better than the i5 for video editing and whatnot: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/6

RAM is relatively expensive at the moment. If you wanted to cut costs I suppose you could get an 8gb kit now and add another in the future if you think you could use it. In that case you'd have to either get low-profile RAM or an AIO water cooler, as most big heatsinks will hang over the first RAM slot (which will have to be filled once you add the extra 8gb).

Hybrid drives work by identifying frequently used files and storing them on the flash portion of the drive. It takes a bit of time for them to identify frequently used data. With new files they transfer data at the same rate as any other HDD. So unless you're the same files very frequently, an SSHD won't be worth the cost over a normal HDD. More info: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025...ids-which-storage-tech-is-right-for-you-.html

As far as I know, SATA is backward compatible.

 

[The_Rascal]

I already have the case Fulax... so am kinda stuck with trying to get a new system into it.

Thanks for the links - I'll do some research on everything and re-think my plans.

Thanks for your helps so far, very kind