Hey all, thank you for reading this but I really need some help.
I have a once in a lifetime chance to spend a tonne of money on a PC for myself. I am a YouTuber and streamer using crappy gear so this is a big deal for me.
Here is where I'm stuck, I could get an X99 platform with GTX 980ti or even 980ti in sli or the latest R9 Fury, I could get 32gb of DDR 4 memory I could go ape and build a crazy rig.
BUT
For what I am doing what should I be building? I was thinking the MSI Gaming 7 Mobo with the i7 4970K with 32gb or ram, water cooled and with the best graphics card out now but I know that is overkill FOR RIGHT NOW, but how long will it be overkill? How long until I wish it was a bit quicker etc I won't be able to do this again so it has to be now, it has to be am amazing rig now but also has to be great for as many years to come as possible.
The RAM and platform is the most confusing thing I am trying to understand. Some benchmarks show that DDR3 is better than DDR4. The i7 4790K is better in single core performance than the i7 5820 so what platform should I get.
Here is what I use my PC for.
1) Gaming, I want to play the latest games on ultra for many years to come 2) Video editing, I am pretty restricted on what I can do right now because rendering a complex video takes DAYS. 3) Streaming, I have the Avermedia HD gamer lite and xsplit, is there a better solution? 4) Music production and making intros so rendering those etc 5) porn obviously.
So what should I build, what would you build, give me specifics, if you recommend X99 over Z97 tell me why, what will it mean to real world performance and particularly moving forward.
I feel this is a real neckbeard issue and I will never have this much information in my tiny mind. I'm in the UK if that matters.
If you have to do it now and have no budget just go get a 5960x and dual titan x cards and 128G of DDR4 and let that be that. IF you have a budget then please let us know so we can better help you. If it needs to be now, then we need the time limit as well until doomsday.
I would say go for the X99 platform for the longevity, more cores for video editing, and also can support up to 128GB of DDR4, also better for editing and rendering. I wouldn't worry about the single core performance to much. The 4790K single core performance is mainly to due to the fact that the factory clock is 4.0 ghz that boosts to 4.4. You should be able to get similar single core performance if you are lucky enough get a chip that's a good overclocker.
Also when it comes down the the x99 plat having lower single core performance, it still is not enough to affect games in any meaningful way. Yes the 4790k might be slightly better for single threaded tasks, but not enoght to matter at all anyways.
Right I have around £4000 that I can do what I want with. One thing I don't want to do is spend £2000 more on an X99 build for an extra 5fps in games and an extra two minutes saved when rendering. I don't want to spend all the money on a system but I want to spend exactly the right amount to get the right system that will last as long as it can. I will not have this opportunity again so its important I get it right. I will add some parts from part picker but I would love some guidance on the right board.
Is that even the right place to start?
And I am away on Friday for 5 weeks, when I get home the first thing I am going to do is order the parts to build my system.
Well, since you have a healthy budget, I'd recommend investing in X99 for the longevity as mentioned previously.
Here's a starting point: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jTFQsY Things can obviously be swapped out. I don't have an X99 system myself, so looking for other folks' input. Also, you'd have a better idea of your storage needs, especially with rendering/video editing, so I havent included any SSD/HDDs other than an OS/small storage drive.
I'm partial to ASRock boards. I've had several boards that performed well that don't break the bank and come with a lot of features for the money. I have the X99 Fatal1ty Professional in my system now. The base X99 CPU, 5820k, with six cores would probably enough since you are only planning on using 2 GPU's. It's on sell at Microcenter in the US for $299 but I don't know if they ship to the UK.
The porn is most important part, you need x6 4k screens with 1billion trillion gigs of RAM for that and 600 Fury X GPUs as well as 10 trillion cores!!! but yeah. Anyways I presume you are using Adobe, so RAM I would say is fine at 32GB, for either streaming or editing. For rendering offload the pressure to the GPU, so get a good GPU, I am a bit unsure of which GPU would be best, I currently use AMD and have no complaints at all, but the 980Ti is also brilliant, so just pick what is cheaper, I would say for your needs a 980ti just cause GPU drivers are up to date compared to Fury X, but if you can wait then Fury X, just cause its sexy as hell. For the CPU a i7 pref, AMD for streaming but the new 5k series intel will do fine, settle on a 6 core it will do fine. I always use gigabyte for motherboards, I have never ever had issues with them but they cant get pricey but they are good, other manufactures are also great, pick a price and have fun.
Do you stream console games? if not then just use XSplit gamecaster, I did it worked brilliant and I offloaded the pressure to my R9 290 while playing games with minimal FPS drop, maybe 5FPS tops. Also X99 because dat 6 core!! REKT!
As ever this is the best forum for information. You guys have the information and the opinions that set me on the right path. It doesn't seem as though the extra horsepower for the X99 platform is worth the extra money right now in real world test compared to a like for like comparison.
I hope this is the right decision because I feel that there isn't enough of a jump in performance to warrant the extra cost but then I also won't have this opportunity again. I guess on that I am saying I don't mind spending money but I don't want to waste it.
I think I will go for an Asus 1440p gsync monitor at least that much I am sure about and will go for a single 980ti because it seems that it should be enough for 1440p or even 4k if I want to make the jump after seeing it.
Am I right in saying that DDR4 RAM is only very slightly faster than DDR3? There doesn't seem to be much difference in rendering times between the 4790k and the 5820k and the 4790k actually performed better for some games.
I am still confused actually aren't I? I wish I had a smaller budget to be fair because I just don't want to waste money buying things I won't use and saying I can spend what I want has blown my mind.
You can definitely pull off an X99 build, with a 5960X even, with that budget. Maybe even with SLI'd titan X's. Example: LINK
You'd probably want some decent peripherals to go with that, though. If you're on a 1080p panel it'd be silly. Dropping down to a pair of 980 Ti's and using the space cash to get some nice panels (triple 1080/1440p) wouldn't be a bad idea.
Yeah I'm on the same line of thinking as @SpaceCat. I went with X99 in the build I linked because of your large listed budget and the remarks about not being able to support a future build for a while. The build I linked is $2400, but you could easily go cheaper than that on X99. You could swap out the Titan X for a GTX 980ti and make other modifications if you didnt want to spend that much. When I hear that 4000 is the budget, I'm aiming to go all out regardless of the diminishing cost to performance ratios between higher-end products.
Well, if you drop down to 980Tis in 2 way SLI you're left with ~£660. That's enough to get some good peripherals - a 1440p panel + keyboard and mouse. Maybe even one with gsync, although if you got a panel without gsync you could probably fit in a pretty respectable set of headphones and a modmic.
Never over spend, spend for what you need and will need 2 years in future or maybe even 3, You could do fine with an i7 4770k no worries now, but a 6 core will last you longer and give you better results now, this is the route I would go. Also if you want to go 4k go AMD route, they always seem better at 4k, 1440p go for who you like most. DDR4 will have different latencies and timings, I cant personally say you will notice any difference but to be honest if your future proofing get it, if not just go DDR3, its sooo dam expensive is DDR4.
Seriously though if you got this chance use it but dont be stupid, if I was in your position I would get x2 1440p monitors for workflow, then have a i7 4730k (6 core) then get 32GB DDR3 RAM and a Titan X over the 980ti or Fury X, as a little present to my self. Also invest in a good keyboard and mouse, I cannot stress this enough, I love my K60 and CM Storm Xorent, I have been using them since 2012, I couldn't go back to a non claw mouse any more.
Just remember hardware these days is insanely fast now, to me it seems badly optimized software so they can sell more hardware. So just get 4 gen 6 core, 32GB RAM what GPU you want, you cannot go wrong and I love AMD but I wouldn't turn down a Nvidia card, this way you wont over spend.
Don't look back, I spent over a grand on my PC back in 2012 and upgraded it last xmas (New GPU) and I have never looked back, its my little electric baby :)
With a big budget jump onboard the X99 train especially if you want to edit & render heaps. Then yeah a 980ti or Fury (or 2 of em')... I wouldnt go any more than 32gb of ram, as it is 32gb is way overkill.
You should just get like 25 Intel Compute Sticks and build a super computer with them, it'll blow any X99 build out of the water.
But really depending on your budget X99 is going to be the way to go, potentially with some 1TB SSDs, and R9 Fury Crossfire, or 980ti SC SLI.
Although future proofing is still a bit of a myth since those combinations can barley reach 60fps@4K, and you'd have to upgrade later anyways if you really wanted solid 4k gaming. But for 1080p you'd be fine with any single high end GPU.
Ok, so after reading here and checking what I wanted vs what I needed vs not getting ripped off for jumping on the "it's the latest" train I went with a relatively modest build compared to what I could have had leaving a little money for upgrades down the road. I made a mistake with the keyboard and mouse but I will rectify that soon. Anyway here is my build (it's on YouTube so if the link is removed sorry) http://youtu.be/OjsGcj3pgGw
Looks very nice, if you're a sucker for aesthetics I would sort out your cable management in the back so it's more hidden behind the mobo tray or in the drive cages, swap out that blue fan for something that fits the red/black theme a bit better and take the labels off the PSU. Also if you're getting a lot of dust in, it's probably down to having a negative pressure in the case - you want more fans on intake than outtake. Perhaps take that blue fan out and take the one that's at the rear exhaust and place it in the front? That'd solve one of those points about aesthetics lol
Subbed and looked in my subscription feed, saw this, "anyway, um, if you're a kid stop watching this 'cos I swear a lot and that's 'tuff". lol
It will all happen in time my friend, right now I have to sort out the quality of my video as my rig ability has gone up my video quality has gone down! I think I am having problems rendering 2556x1440p in Movie Studio into a decent looking video.
Cables are organised now as the cable ties came after the video. Thanks for the tip about positive pressure in the case but wouldn't that make it noisier as air seeped out of crevices?