Building rig for myself for once

Hardware Build a PC
1

So I'm finally deciding to give my old mac pro 1.1 that I put a 560ti in a break after quite abit of service (Cost me $300 for the whole thing and put windows on it, deffs got my moneys worth). Now also has a 240gb SSD in it

I've got quite abit of pc building experience from making them for friends, so that's not an issue.

Our local Auzzie forum recommends this is the best build for under $1500 (Which is my max budget) 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K $275
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 X/Evo $46
Mobo: Asrock Z87M Pro4 $150
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill Ares/Sniper DDR3-1866 $109
GPU: Galaxy GeForce GTX 770 2GB $399
Case: Corsair Graphite 230T Case with Window $105
PSU: Antec High Current Gamer 520W $89

Total: $1173


(Our auzzie prices are abit dearer) 

However I'm going to modify it slightly to this:

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K $275
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i $150
Mobo: Asrock Z87M Pro4 $150
RAM: 16G Kit 1333(8Gx2) Patriot-S $170
GPU: 2G GTX 770 Gigabyte OC 2GB $429
Case: Cooler master Stormtrooper $180
PSU: Antec True Power 80Plus Gold 750w $150

Total: $1504

(I will be migrating my 240gb sandisk ssd & 1tb hard drive over)

This will mostly be used for games on my 2560x1080p monitor, abit of game and model creation with unity & 3DS Max along with a bit of video editing and surfing. I do multi-task alot and generally have alot running at one time.

Do you think this is appropriate for me? I'l explain my choices:

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670k:



Decided with this one because you don't need much more for gaming, and I don't do THAT much with my game creation/video editing these days, but I do like to play around with it.
I was really considering getting the 8350 due to the multi tasking performance, but I didn't know if it would end up being the best as the 8350 could bottle neck the 770 due to the poorer single core performance? Would cut a lot of the price if it was a good choice. 


CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i: Thought it would be good to get a really nice cooler for the cpu to prolong it's life and be able to overclock to get the most out of it? But with the added price I could probably get an i7 and a basic cooler. Opinions? 



Mobo: Asrock Z87M Pro4: Solid cheap overclockable mobo 

 

RAM: 16G Kit 1333(8Gx2) Patriot-SL: Future proofing, could it be better to get a single stick of 8 till the prices come down?



GPU: 2G GTX 770 Gigabyte OC 2GB: Benchmarks seem to indicate that it's abit faster than the 280x, and I hope to get a second one when the 870 comes out. Apparently SLI is abit more compatible then crossfire too?



Case: Cooler master Stormtrooper: Freaking love this case, I move my computer around alot, it's super sexy and so much room!



PSU: Antec True Power 80Plus Gold 750w: Thought a nice 750w gold would ensure I could SLI in the future. 




So opinions on the above? do you think there are better choices? Thanks! :)

 P.s. these are pretty much the best prices in Auzzie: http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf 

 

2

I would look into an r9 290 but your right the 770 is pretty good for the price at the moment.

My first question is what are you primarily using the rig for.

I personally don't like the sound of the ram in the second build as its only 1333mhz

 

3

Getting higher clocked will help with video rendering and 3D modeling.  1333 is a bit on the slow side.

The 8350 won't bottleneck the 770.  It should be able to handle two GTX 770s just fine.  I think for your purposes, the FX-8350 would be better.  Pick up a motherboard such as the Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 and you should be pretty good.

4

Thanks for the reply's guys!


il look in to some faster ram! But would you suggest 8gb or 16gb?


il go with the 8350 too! And using the money saved I can get the r9 290



Isn't there something where you can flash the 290's to be 290x's around the place? do we know what cards work with that?


 

5

16GB will help with video rendering quite a bit.

Flashing R9 290s to 290Xs is no longer possible.  It was kinda like a "defect" that ended up in the consumer's favor.

6

Agreed. I have an OCed 8350, I'm running 32GB of RAM though, originally had 16 but I got another 16GB for a great price (G.SKILL Ripjaws Z clocked at 1866Mhz), and the increased RAM really does improve performance when it comes to working with large video files. 16GB is really the minimum I would suggest unless you are just gaming. 

The 8350, especially with an OC, really stomps all over the i5 when it comes to rendering. At least in my experience. I had a 3570k based system, which I just sold, and with the same RAM (16GB 1866 G.SKILL) and same graphics card (GTX 670) the render times and overall editing performance in Premier was much better with the 8350, although the 8350 was running at 4.6Ghz at the time and the 3570k was only at 4.2.