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Thread ID: 135586	2013-11-21 00:04:00	Thoughts on New PC Components	MrRandom (17197)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1360408	2013-11-21 00:04:00	Hi I'm building a new PC for a friend and wanted to get a second opinion on the components I have selected. This PC will be used primarily for gaming. Although the components may seem overkill for a gaming only pc they need to last a very long time (5 years at-least but probably more) without the need for an upgrade while still providing upgrade options if that becomes an option in the future. I have tried to select components that offer a long warranty as well as a good feature set and good over-clocking potential. Parts list: Intel Core I7 4770K (www.computerlounge.co.nz) Asus Gryphon z87 mATX Motherboard (5-year warranty) (www.pp.co.nz) (I have yet to decide whether or not to recommend the Armour Upgrade (www.computerlounge.co.nz) however it is a nice feature) G.Skill ARES 1866Mhz 2x4GB RAM (limited life time warranty) (www.pp.co.nz) Corsair Hydro H100i Water Cooler (5-year warranty) (www.pp.co.nz) Coolermaster HAF-912 Combat Case (www.computerlounge.co.nz) Corsair HX Series HX850V2 850w 80+ Gold PSU (7-year warranty) (www.pp.co.nz) Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD (www.computerlounge.co.nz) ASUS DVD RW (www.computerlounge.co.nz) My friend already owns a copy of windows 8 and an internal 7200RPM HDD that we will use for mass storage. I have not decided on a GPU yet but was thinking about a R9-290/290x once the non-reference coolers become available. Any input on the components above or what GPU I should recommend for this build would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :)	MrRandom (17197)
1360409	2013-11-21 05:29:00	since there seems to be a pretty big budget for a gpu I would recomment going with the nvidia 780 or 780ti... however if the 780ti is out of the price range then an asus mars 3 (dual 760) when overcloced will preform better than the 780ti at stock and it isnt much more expensive than the 780. But currentlly the 780ti is the most powerful gpu out. Until next year the new range of amd gpu's should be avoided like the plauge. They are all either rebrands of previous ones that you can pickup cheaper or in the 290's case they havent allowed aftermarket cooling and the thing sounds like the jet engine whilst running at temps of 90 and up. If it comes down to only just being able to afford the gpu then you could easily cut down on the cpu and skip the armour upgrade on the mobo. The armour is really just an asthetic thing but if you happen to hit your mobo with a hammer then it would probably help.	Slankydudl (16687)
1360410	2013-11-21 07:08:00	since there seems to be a pretty big budget for a gpu I would recomment going with the nvidia 780 or 780ti... however if the 780ti is out of the price range then an asus mars 3 (dual 760) when overcloced will preform better than the 780ti at stock and it isnt much more expensive than the 780. But currentlly the 780ti is the most powerful gpu out. Until next year the new range of amd gpu's should be avoided like the plauge. They are all either rebrands of previous ones that you can pickup cheaper or in the 290's case they havent allowed aftermarket cooling and the thing sounds like the jet engine whilst running at temps of 90 and up. If it comes down to only just being able to afford the gpu then you could easily cut down on the cpu and skip the armour upgrade on the mobo. The armour is really just an asthetic thing but if you happen to hit your mobo with a hammer then it would probably help. Price isn't too much of an issue (with the current components there is still around $1000-1200 for a GPU) so it really comes down to performance, warranty and heat output. I heard that non-reference coolers for 290x cards (www.techpowerup.com) should be available by early next month and I heard that the non-reference designs will also be eligible for the Battlefield 4 promotion (linustechtips.com). Based on current prices the 290x (www.pp.co.nz) is around $300 less than the 780ti (www.pp.co.nz) and only performs slightly worse (based on these benchmarks) (www.hardocp.com) Do you think that getting the price saving (which could be put towards a second/larger SSD), free game and ability to use mantle (not sure whether this will catch on or not) with a non-reference 290x makes it worth losing some performance? or is it just better to get the superior card despite the price difference/lack of game bundle? Either way it looks as though I will have to wait for both the 290x and the 780ti non-reference coolers before I decide as (although the 290x's cooler is worse) both the 290x and 780ti stock coolers look pretty lack lustre. Thank you very much for your reply :)	MrRandom (17197)
1360411	2013-11-21 17:01:00	I like the armour for the static protection it gives against rough handling but you don't need it. Good system specs all round, no real issues. If you went for an i5 over the i7 there are currently no games that really benefit from the hyperthreading so there'd be no performance difference. maybe within the 5 years there would be but who knows. In fact I've seen overclocking and game tweaking guides suggest turning hyperthreading off for max performance which effectively makes the i7 into an i5. Normally I suggest 8Gb of RAM is all anyone needs but by the time 5 years is up that may not be true and RAM tends to get more expensive once the next version takes over so 16Gb may be worth considering. Also a gaming PC lasting 5 years is ambitious if games keep escalating hardware needs the way they have in the past.	dugimodo (138)
1360412	2013-11-21 17:54:00	HiThis PC will be used primarily for gaming. Although the components may seem overkill for a gaming only pc Intel Core I7 4770K G.Skill ARES 1866Mhz 2x4GB RAM Corsair HX Series HX850V2 850w 80+ Gold PSU (7-year warranty)[/URL] Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD (www.computerlounge.co.nz) ASUS DVD RW (www.computerlounge.co.nz) Overkill??? You do realise there isn't much else other than gaming that pushes a PC? This is what drives hardware .....games. It sure isn't spreadsheets or youtube. It's not in the slightest overkill, in fact I'd bump up the RAM to 16GB. And remember GPU is the single most important component in a gaming PC.	pctek (84)
1360413	2013-11-21 20:27:00	I'm with pctek, bump up the RAM (We are looking ahead for 5 years), perhaps skip the water cooling, spend the $$ on the GPU and case-fans instead.	Chilling_Silence (9)
1360414	2013-11-21 20:50:00	I like the armour for the static protection it gives against rough handling but you don't need it. Good system specs all round, no real issues. If you went for an i5 over the i7 there are currently no games that really benefit from the hyperthreading so there'd be no performance difference. maybe within the 5 years there would be but who knows. In fact I've seen overclocking and game tweaking guides suggest turning hyperthreading off for max performance which effectively makes the i7 into an i5. Normally I suggest 8Gb of RAM is all anyone needs but by the time 5 years is up that may not be true and RAM tends to get more expensive once the next version takes over so 16Gb may be worth considering. Also a gaming PC lasting 5 years is ambitious if games keep escalating hardware needs the way they have in the past. To be honest the ram is quite cheap so it shouldn't be hard to work an extra set into the budget and it is a better purchase (performance wise) than the armour kit. I know 5 years is ambitious but unfortunatly in this case there is no telling how much money will be avaliable for pc upgrades (if any) during this time, I have tried to leave some options open (e.g. ability to overclock with watercooling system, the extra PCIex 3.0 slot for SLI/Crossfire, support for more SSD's in RAID0 etc.) however whether these will be options or not i'll have to wait and see Overkill??? You do realise there isn't much else other than gaming that pushes a PC? This is what drives hardware .....games. It sure isn't spreadsheets or youtube. It's not in the slightest overkill, in fact I'd bump up the RAM to 16GB. And remember GPU is the single most important component in a gaming PC. I probably should have been more specific when I said overkill, currently my friend is using a standard 60Hz single monitor set-up so having this hardware (which seems geared towards multi-monitor/120hz/4k HD set-ups) probably is a little over the top for his current set-up. However he has said that he wants to sort out the pc with the best now and worry about the peripherals later and I wanted to make sure that this build will also work well with whatever monitor(s) may be purchased in the future (whenever that may be). Thanks for the advice everyone I really appreciate it. :D	MrRandom (17197)
1360415	2013-11-21 20:56:00	since there seems to be a pretty big budget for a gpu I would recomment going with the nvidia 780 or 780ti... however if the 780ti is out of the price range then an asus mars 3 (dual 760) when overcloced will preform better than the 780ti at stock and it isnt much more expensive than the 780. But currentlly the 780ti is the most powerful gpu out. Until next year the new range of amd gpu's should be avoided like the plauge. They are all either rebrands of previous ones that you can pickup cheaper or in the 290's case they havent allowed aftermarket cooling and the thing sounds like the jet engine whilst running at temps of 90 and up. If it comes down to only just being able to afford the gpu then you could easily cut down on the cpu and skip the armour upgrade on the mobo. The armour is really just an asthetic thing but if you happen to hit your mobo with a hammer then it would probably help. While the Mars dual 760 is probably more powerful than the 780's, its limited by its vRAM of 2GB...BF3 and certain BF4 will use all the vRAM. The 290s are a great GPU, however not a great product IMO, aftermarket cards will be much better, however Im not sold on AMDs half arsed attempts, if if not crap 3 gen old coolers, its XF drivers or some other bug...DX9 is still fuber!...Unless you mate is happy spending half his gaming time fiddling to get the card right for each game, I would just go premium and get either a Ghz 780 or the Ti and be done with it...	SolMiester (139)
1360416	2013-11-21 21:13:00	I'm with pctek, bump up the RAM (We are looking ahead for 5 years), perhaps skip the water cooling, spend the $$ on the GPU and case-fans instead. Currently I have budgeted for a couple of extra case fans and the budget for a GPU is up to $1000. I really do like the idea of the water-cooler being tucked away at the top of the case where it wont hinder anything (like some large, albeit cheaper, air coolers I was looking at did (specifically the Thermalright Silverarrow which is about $70 cheaper)). Do you know of any other air-coolers that wouldn't obstruct the RAM slots that performs well for a cheaper price? the case has up to 175mm clearance for CPU coolers so that shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the help :)	MrRandom (17197)
1360417	2013-11-21 22:02:00	The Hyper 212 EVO is pretty much the default cooler option on a budget, there are other very similar ones around that price also. In my system (not my gaming rig, that uses stock cooling) it just clears the RAM slot, as in stops within a couple of mm of them. You could turn it around so the fan was on the other side in a pinch but that might make for some sub optimal air flow. I've used a small closed loop water cooler before as well and might go back to it next time. It was actually more expensive and didn't cool as well compared to the EVO but it was virtually silent and very tidy in the case and still superior to the stock cooling by quite a bit. Coupled with an Asus GTX580 at the time I had a gaming beast you almost couldn't hear which I rather liked. Current setup is definately noisier.	dugimodo (138)
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