Italian needs help building his first custom PC

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1

Hello everyone!

Short intro, since it's my first post; I'm a 23 year old Italian college student who's been into tech since my first GameBoy at the age of 6. I've always played on console, a lot of handheld too, and I've always been a fan of Apple in terms of computers.

If you want to cut to the chase, I don't blame you, but I'm gonna expand a bit on my background story.

In the past I've done quite a lot of graphic design, and since starting college (Digital Communication degree) I bought a MacBook pro, with with I've been very happy with. I've started to work as a VJ, and my Mac does wonders to do anything I needed it to.
Now though, I found myself having way too much stuff to manage for my MacBook to handle without occasional hassle considering it's now three years old, and live VJing is becoming a bit sluggish.

I wanted to upgrade my MacBook to work better, but thanks to TekSyndicate, TotalBuscuit and a little magic thing called log, I decided to just build myself a machine.
I want to build a custom PC to free up the clutter of programs on my Mac, so basically it will be just for my live work, and the PC will have all my programs to do whatever else, and of course to game, since I'm sure I won't be spending money to "upgrade" from an Xbox 360 to another console.

All this is to admit that I realise I'm a total newb when it comes to PC parts. I know what specs reflect on what part of the performance, but I find myself incapable of finding a point of reference in the ocean of parts that are available.

What I'm looking for

I'm just gonna go through the sticky topic's questions.

Disclaimer if you didn't read the intro

I'm a total newb when it comes to PC parts. I know what specs reflect on what part of the performance, but I find myself incapable of finding a point of reference in the ocean of parts that are available.

  • Where do you live (what country, don't post specific details), and what currency do you use?
    I live in Italy, currency is Euros.

  • Budget. How much are you willing to spend?
    My budget is pretty flexible, since originally I was planning to upgrade to a new MacBook Pro, but I still want to save money.
    Around €1200-1500 is good, if it's worth it even a bit more

  • Is there a retailer you prefer?
    No preferences. I have Amazon Prime so if it's available and the same price there, I might just use it for convenience, but that's just a side note.

  • Do you need or already have peripherals?
    I already have:
    – mouse (Razer Abyssus 2014)
    – monitor (LG M2280D, will be upgraded in the future, for now it's ok)
    – speakers (one of the basic Logitech 2.1 systems, does it's job I usually use headphones anyways)

  • What will you be using your Glorious computer for? [I'm gonna include how I'd like it to perform here]
    If you read the intro you might have guessed.
    Mostly for rendering, graphic design, movie editing, but I also want to game, I play League of Legends and would love to play console games better than on consoles.
    Some software examples:
    – Photoshop
    – Cinema 4D
    – After Effects
    The main thing for me is knowing that the GPU and CPU will last me a few years, the more the better.
    I'm thinking, performance-wise, to be able to hold 60fps on High settings for AAA titles, but feel free to chime in on what I should look for given my budget, I really have little idea.

  • Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking?
    I have absolutely no clue on why or how I would do this. If you can convince me on why I should, I'm pretty good at toying around, I could give it a try.

  • Do you plan on going for custom water-cooling now, or in the future?
    If it's worth it, absolutely.

  • Operating System. Do you need a new one?
    I know my way around almost any major OS, but for gaming reasons, I'd stick to Windows, so maybe some help in picking which one is better at the moment, I haven't really used it since Vista.
    I'm also gonna make a small partition for a Linux OS, but I can manage alone with that.

Thank you in advance for everything, as soon as I start getting suggestions, I'll make a PCpartpicker to ease the whole process.

I look forward to being bred into a PC mustard rice warrior.

Yours truly,
Mike

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Ciao welcome to the Forum, i hope you have a great time with us.

Firstly i want to say kudos for providing such a detailed "op" about the upcomming build you are looking for.

According to your needs, i think that a Haswell-E 5820K system based on the X99 platform would be the best way to go,
since you are looking for a productivity + gaming machine.
The reason for this is that that the i7-5820k is a 6 core 12 threads cpu, unlike any other mainstream i7 like the 4790k or Skylake 6700K which are only 4 cores with 8 threads.

I made a quick list of parts which i think would be realy good base line for your needs.
Of course it depends a bit on the product availability in Italy.

Here is what i came up with: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/2ZHGpg
I used the German partpicker since it lists more hardware then the Italian version.
Psu is unfortunatly not on the price list.

For the gpu i mainaly choose for the GTX970 because of its cuda cores.
Since the program´s you use especialy adobe can benefit from cuda acceleration.
But the 5820K basicly offers enough render horsepower aswell

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Also made these 2 options.

But the 5820K Haswell-E platform would probably be a better benefit for you.
More cpu work horsepowers, and better expendability.

I have also looked into Skylake i7-6700K 4 cores 8 threads,
but that cpu costs even more then the 5820K in Germany,
And i suppose it wont be that diffrent in Italy.
So the 6700K does not realy make much sense to look into atm imo.

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Why not a Fury instead of a 980? Better all around performance.

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I agree with MisteryAngel as it's an amazing rig and should last a very long time. I would recommending grabbing a define r5 over the r4 as it's newer and has a lot of amazing features. I'll leave a link below, if you have any questions and/or concerns feel free to ask.

Case: http://www.amazon.de/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK-W/dp/B00Q2Z143Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449762175&sr=8-2&keywords=define+r5

Edit: Sorry it the first build by MysteryAngel that I recommend.

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Because of support for Cuda rendering.
Otherwise i would have going with a Fury or a 390 yes.

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Would OpenCL not work for him?

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Maybe but in Adobe premiere for example, Cuda acceleration is way faster.
Cuda is also still more widley supported.

Open CL is slowly starting to get there aswell.
In Sony Vegas for example, Open CL seems to work better in Vegas.

Of course the 5820K on its own, will also provide decent render performance for that matter.
Way better then any 4 core mainstream i7 like 4790K / 6700K etc.

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Yeah, if rendering and whatnot is more of a concern than gaming performance, then I would go with a 5820k and be done with it. Would be a good choice all around anyway.

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5820K is indeed the best bang for buck cpu you could get for a gaming + productivity machine.
Especialy if you do allot of video editing and rendering, then those 2 extra cores will realy show its muscles over any mainstream i7.
Next to that X99 also has 8 dimm slots, more sata ports etc.
So he has more expendability in the long run.

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Even 8x pcie3 should be plenty for a multi gpu config though. And there is always the option of upgrading in the future, should it become a problem. What we really need to do is figure out what the biggest concern here is. Because if he doesn't render video too much, or is ok with waiting a little while longer when he does, and his primary focus is on gaming, then the money spent on the 5820k could be used for a 6500k and a better gpu or more ram or a better ssd or something. I am just not too familiar with the prices and whatnot to figure it all out for where he is (and don't have the time). But the point remains. We need to know which is more important. Rendering or gaming.

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Oh my god so many replies in so little time.
I truly couldn't have asked for a more lovely welcome.

Now, disregarding all the tech stuff you guys said which i'll look into with time tonight and tomorrow, I'll address the matters

What we really need to do is figure out what the biggest concern here is.

So from what I gathered, you're saying is going for a CPU with less punch (6500K instead of 5820K) to get a something better elsewhere on the system?

I'll check the prices tonight and see if I can just avoid compromise and squeeze out a few more bucks.
Also I'll reply accordingly.

In the meantime THANK YOU!
This is a great community!

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If you do allot of productivity stuff like rendering etc.
Then i would realy recommend to go just with the 5820K.

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I would second this build. It is very solid for a student and close to a power machine. Totally crushes consoles. Myself I would use a solid TV 32" to 42" at 1080p but if you have the cash a 4K TV would be awesome. Using a TV means you also have an awesome media watching if you have a comfy chair or bed in the room.

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+1 X99 for productivity. But if gaming is the main concern, and you just edit videos from time to time, then I wouldn't worry too much about it and would focus on gaming performance. Namely, getting a Fury or a 390 (which are the best bang for your buck cards at the moment). If rendering is a huge concern, then an nVidia card, or a 5820k would be a wise choice (if you use Premiere at least). Ideally, you would be able to afford both a Fury and a 5820k (as well as sufficient ram and a decent sized ssd). However, a no compromises build is costly. That is why I want to know the primary focus here.

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Im all for switching out the GFX card to ATI. I think Freesync is getting a lot more traction in displays and would be the better options. Myself I might buy ATI next year for that reason if they come out with a solid desktop card.

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Greenland should be pretty kick ass considering the massive jump from 28nm to 14-16nm.

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Grouping all questions in 1 reply

To be honest, gaming isn't a concern, it's just good for it to work well.
I like the very first build, it seems well rounded and tailored to my needs.

What I would like to understand is if there get to be compatibility issues by mixing and matching different parts.

Thank you all again for being so helpful, this is really what I needed.

Oh another thing:
is there anything extra I'll need to buy for assembly?
I'll be following the TekSyndicate video when building it, it doesn't seem to feature any particular extra stuff, but i wanna be sure.

Also is it better to go 2x8 or 4x4 RAM wise?

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Some form of backup. If you're a student you could use the cloud (Google, Apple, Microsoft are all free for decent Gigs) or an external HD / USB Stick which might get stolen with a PC in a robbery anyway.

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I have 48 gigs in the cloud with Copy and a hard drive that I always have on me, plus all the important stuff will stay on my mac as well. :)