Building another PC from a friend who is switching from console. $1500 budget, but cheaper is fine with him.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sfxG23 is what I have at the moment. He plans on using it for gaming on high settings at a high FPS and game recording. OC'ing is a definite plan. He plans on getting a fairly large monitor in the future (24-40" range, 1080 or 1440p). Any recommended changes to the build I selected for him?
Is he just gaming, or using the PC for other tasks? f it's just for gaming, you could save some on RAM (going from 16 to 8GB) and beef-up the GPU or expand the SSD for his game storage. You could also save some money on the H100i, as you can easily overclock Intel on a decent fan cooler.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9y9rpg
CPU: Changed the i7 to an i5 4690K. Much cheaper. He doesn't need the i7 unless he is planning on doing serious productivity work as well. Then I would probably recommend he go X79/X99.
CPU Cooler: Ditched the H100i. It is kinda meh IMO and loud. The Noctua does a very good job, maybe 2-3 degrees warmer if that, and is much quieter. Plus it is cheaper.
Mobo: Changed it to an Asus Z97-A. More features and a nicer board overall.
Memory: Ditched the Corsair Vengence. Shit is way overpriced. The 16GB kit I used is fine but he could even get away with 8GB.
Storage: Kept the SSD but changed the HDD to a Caviar Blue. Just as good and cheaper.
GPU: Ditched the 760. If he wants to max games at 1080p and 1440p he is going to need more horsepower. The R9 290 is significantly more powerful and with the extra VRAM it will perform better at higher resolutions and with better textures. The DirectCUII from ASUS is one of the best 290s around but there are ones for cheaper (around $340) that also do quite well. You do lose ShadowPlay which I do admit is awesome by going with AMD but the performance is so much better that I would go with the 290. If you want a nVidia GPU that competes with the 290 you'd need to get a 780 and even that is a tiny bit slower and more expensive.
Case: Subjective but I love the Define R4. Built so many rigs in this damn thing and it is just great Good looking, good airflow and great acoustics.
PSU: Changed for a slightly higher quality and slightly less powerful 550W 80+ Gold rated PSU from Corsair.
ODD: Ditched it. You don't need an optical drive.
OS: Windows 8.1. It is faster, better with SSDs, games run better in some cases, general improvements like the new Task Manager and multi monitor support and with StartIsBack it is basically Windows 7. Plus it will have support for longer.
+1 sick Blue build DK
CPU: From what he told me, he does plan on using programs like Sony Vegas and Photoshop at some point. He also runs a flight sim that is very CPU intensive and can take advantage of the extra cores.
CPU Cooler: How would the Hyper 212+ compare to that? I've had that in the past and it worked great. Does the Noctua have any major pros/cons when compared to it?
Mobo: May go with it. What useful features does it have in comparison with the G45? How easily does it OC in comparison?
RAM: May go with it. How's its performance when overclocking?
Storage: Still going with black just for the longer warranty
GPU: He wants an Nvidia card for shadowplay.
Case: May go with.
PSU: Any recommended ones for 600w range? Just so he has enough for any future power hungry upgrades. Always good to have that cushion of room.
ODD: Still keeping one just because he has some old games on disc he doesn't feel like buying online again.
OS: He can't stand 8.1 and wants 7. Plus the flight sim he runs horribly on 8.1 compared to 7.
Overall, a solid recommendation. I just forgot to mention some limitations in the original post.
He wants to use Sony Vegas and Photoshop at some point, too. The SSD is just going to hold the OS, so not too worried about its size. I may switch it to an air cooled CPU.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7HKpD3
The Hyper 212 is nothing to a Noctua, The noctua is not as good as a custom water loop But the Noctua is VERY quit and very effective
Modified the the build to focus on overclocking the Asus Max Hero is a ROG board and has an 8+2 powerphase.for overclocking.
16 gigs of 1866 will render better than slower ram speeds.
the water loop is at the bottom, but makes the price go over budget a bit (without the noctua of course)
It is important to note that the i5 doesn't have hyperthreading and the i7 does. The i7 does not have more cores than the i5. It is still a 4 core CPU but thanks to hyperthreading it can handle 8 threads meaning less CPU idle time. In Sony Vegas the i7 can be faster but Photoshop and most games don't take advantage of more than a few cores and don't use hyperthreading. So in PS and his flight sim performance the i5 and i7 will be the same.
The Hyper 212 Evo/+, while a good cooler, doesn't hold a candle to the Noctua. The Hyper 212 is more of an alternative to the stock Intel cooler. It will perform better and be quieter but decent OCs won't be possible with it. Compared to the Noctua the Hyper 212 will be hotter and louder but cheaper. The Noctua is a superior cooler and what you want if you plan to OC.
The Asus is on a newer chipset which will support future Intel Broadwell CPUs allowing for upgrades in the future, has SATA Express Support as well as M.2 and Thunderbolt support for fast storage, has some legacy PCI slots as well as more PCIE slots overall, has an Intel NIC as opposed to the Killer NIC on the MSI (The Intel is superior), Asus 5 Way Optimization for easy overclocking and fan management, better audio, better UEFI IMO, and Asus stuff is always very good quality. Been using Asus mobos quite a bit and they have all been great. Plus Asus claims that if you have a good enough CPU 4.8 Ghz should be no problem on this or any of their other Z97 boards.
RAM is RAM it is all pretty much the same when it comes to OCing and performance. I don't usually OC RAM though. Can lead to instability and you don't gain anything from it especially in game.
Fair enough a longer warranty is always good.
Ehh okay. There are alternatives for ShadowPlay but his call. I suggest at least a 770. the 760 is a bit too weak IMO for 1440p but it is still a very good card.
550W is plenty. 600-700W won't give you enough space for another GPU and that rig won't be pulling more than 450W anyway but there are a variety of them available. Corsair, Cooler Master, Seasonic. All make great PSUs just depends how much you wanna spend. I'd def recommend 80+ Gold for efficiency and long life.
Going with the Noctua. Not too familiar with mobo specifics, from what I've read ROG allows for OC'ing on the fly with an easy interface, correct? Would 16gb of 2133 be any better for rendering than 1866 since it's even faster?
Well you'd need the ROG panel if you wanted external case control.
But OCing on both boards is really straight forward. 5 Way Optimization will do it for you. Overall the interfaces are quite similar.
Also that ROG board is also on Z87 not 97 so you do lose some future upgradeability and the features I mentioned above.
It may be a little faster but nothing dramatic.
Definitely going with the Noctua in that case. What's your take on the Asus Maximus VI Hero that ProSonicLive recommended? With game recording, would it be more beneficial in the long run to go with a capture card and the R9 290? Or would the price/performance comparison be closer to the 770 since he is buying an extra component for capture? I'll add your 550w
It is a decent board but compared to the Z97A it is on an older chipset so it is missing some of the features that I listed above just like the MSI would be.
The ROG may be able to OC slightly higher but both will be capable of pushing those chips hard. You'll prob run into a brick wall caused by your particular CPU rather than a limitation of the motherboard with either the ROG or Z97A
TBH you probably wouldn't need a capture card. The 290 is so much faster than even if you lost frames when recording it would probably still be faster. Also AMD has a technology very similar to ShadowPlay anyway so do some research into that and check it out. I'm not to familiar with it so someone else may be able to help you there.
The panel seems a bit excessive for his tech knowledge. So standard UEFI/BIOS OC'ing will be the ticket. He does want to stay with Z87 and the i7-4770k. That said, any major differences other than price at that point? Or is one worth the extra cost for performance?
From this point the only thing I have questions about is the mobo and case. He case preference is something that isn't just a simple box (he likes aesthetics and performance, it's his first gaming PC what do you expect haha), that can hold everything with good cooling, and is fairly cheap in cost (not quality).
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r8k9nQ
Also, while the Noctua is a great unit, ANY air cooled unit will be the weak point while Overclocking. AIOs do no better than high end air units and are more temperamental. Get a custom loop when you can if you plan on doing that much overclocking, if you are not going to do that much overclocking a cheaper board can be had. It seems you are deadset on air cooling, but I am telling you, while you do not HAVE to have a loop to overclock, they provide higher and more stable overclocks.
Not doing any major OC'ing. Turbo boost is what we are looking at mainly. Just a bit over the base speeds, nothing excessive. I did originally have the H100i, but you and DK convinced me otherwise haha
Then go with DKs build, it is more feature rich. I was focused on overclocking. If you can find a 2133 MHZ 16gb set for the same price as an 1866, which should not be that hard, go for it.
Thanks to the help of both of you this is the build he is going with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TQ2m23
Thanks a lot! I'll post back later when it's built.
the asus r9 290 DirectCUII has spiked to $409 the gigabyte R9 290 windforce is $350
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr929oc4gd
I'd grab the 4790k personally. It is only a tiny bit more than the 4770k and has high base clock speeds and can, apparently, OC better.
Thanks for pointing that out. $5 price difference, yet a fair amount better.