Yet another system spec to check

Dagon

Dagon

Dagon

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2 Jan 2007
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Well it's been 7 years since I last built myself a pc, and as XP won't be supported after April I figured now was a good time to get stuck in to a new build. I've been out of the loop hardware-wise for a while now, so what better than to ask the advice of you knowledgeable people.

Here is my tentative spec:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X DEVIL 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £161.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9K2/16X) £127.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 650w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £119.99
1 x Silverstone SST-SG10B Sugo SG10 USB3.0 - Black £109.94
1 x Asus Z87 GRYPHON Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-06949) £106.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £79.99
1 x Creative Sound Blaster Z High Performance Gaming Sound Card - OEM (30SB150200000) £53.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £43.99
1 x LiteOn DL-8ATSH Slim SLOT Black 8x DVD-RW SATA Optical Drive £26.99
1 x Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £25.99
Total : £1,166.44 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Any suggestions, comments, improvements welcome. I'm especially interested to see if people think it will all fit together as it's a small form factor case. Also I'm not sure about what fans/cooling I'd need/would fit.

Also, this may be a ridiculous question but I assume that CPU is 64-bit? I can't seem to find out googling.

FYI I'll be using the machine for listening to music, watching fillums, and playing games. On 1 monitor.
 
'Course it's 64bit.

That looks like a good spec,
That PSU is a bit on the expensive side, maybe go for a cheaper one;

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
Total : £129.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).






You won't need 16gb of RAM, 8gb is more than enough for your uses it seems and great for games etc - only if you are video/photo editing will you need to up the RAM up a bit.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
Total : £177.73 (includes shipping : £6.45).



Cheaper, OEM CPU with no stock cooler but a good chunk less money. Also, you'll want to get your hands on an aftermarket cooler to get the best overclocking potential possible.
 
You can get much better than a 270X for £1150:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £148.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light £77.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming White/Black Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £65.99
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
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
2 x Enermax Cluster UCCL12 120mm Fan £9.98 (£19.96)
Total : £1,146.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The motherboard has excellent onboard sound, so you won't need a sound card unless you're a real audiophile.
 
Good stuff so far.

digitalx - both 270X, both 2GB, both get good reviews, yes that looks like a good swap.

Shivy011 - yes I did wonder whether I'd over-egged it with the PSU.
 
Me again. Googling around it would seem that 16GB RAM is perhaps overkill. Do you think it would be better to get 8GB RAM and spend a little more on the GPU?
 
Dagon said:
Me again. Googling around it would seem that 16GB RAM is perhaps overkill. Do you think it would be better to get 8GB RAM and spend a little more on the GPU?
Click to expand...

Most definitely, Fulax's spec looks very good.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £139.99
1 x MSI Z87I Gaming AC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £134.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x BitFenix Colossus M Mini ITX - Black £69.95
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
1 x Deepcool GAMMAXX 300 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £16.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre PRO 230mm Fan - All White £16.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Red £4.99
Total : £1,166.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
This should help you decide for yourself. :)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1068

That comparison is for reference cards though, so both pre-overclocked models will be a little bit quicker. And ignore the temperatures too.

Also @ Lee32uk, I dont mean to be "that guy" but your spec has a black and red GPU and motherboard, a black and green case, gold RAM, a blue fan on the CPU cooler, and red braided fan adapters. I think I'm going to be sick. :p

Also if going with the Colussus M I'd get the M-ATX version so that you can get more motherboard for your money. :)
 
Last edited:
acme15 said:
This should help you decide for yourself. :)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1068

That comparison is for reference cards though, so both pre-overclocked models will be a little bit quicker. And ignore the temperatures too.

Also @ Lee32uk, I dont mean to be "that guy" but your spec has a black and red GPU and motherboard, a black and green case, gold RAM, a blue fan on the CPU cooler, and red braided fan adapters. I think I'm going to be sick. :p

Also if going with the Colussus M I'd get the M-ATX version so that you can get more motherboard for your money. :)
Click to expand...


I am pretty certain that the case doesn't have a window :p so unless you have x-ray eyes ? :D

The M-ATX case doesn't have a front fan mount. The ITX version does.
 
It's arrived! Good service from OCUK as usual, plus Haribo to boot. I have a couple of questions before I unpack it all (I'm itching to get the stuff unboxed).

1) The cooler is the Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-037-AL&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2337

The Overclockers website says it's compatible with 1150 but the back of the box only mentions 1155. Googling around it appears that 1155 and 1150 coolers are interchangeable. Am I OK with this for my 1150 Haswell?

2) The box for the R9 290 says it needs a minimum of 750W PSU. I've got the Seasonic G series 550w http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383 - have I got enough oomph to power the card?
 
In answer to your questions...Yes and Yes :)

Socket 1155 and 1150 have the same mounting holes.

The gpu manufacturers always overestimate the psu requirements. A 550W will be fine for a single 290.
 
Cheers lee32uk I just needed a bit of reassurance. Exciting stuff - I expect I'll be back with more questions over the next couple of weeks as I build it (I'm taking it slow, the box for the case says "Designed for advanced PC builder, higher degree of assembly skill recommended :eek:).
 
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