£1000 build

RadeonHDx

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So I've been away from PC's and hardware for a while now and just wanted to have a sanity check before I recommend this build to a friend for £1000.

i5 4690K
GTX 980 Windforce
8gb 1866 Kingston Fury RAM
Z97S Krait Edition mobo
CM 212 Evo
EVGA Supernova GS 550
Samsung 850 Evo 250gb
Seagate 2TB HDD
Fractal Design Define R4

All that comes out to about £1050 which is probably about as high as he can go.

If I've missed anything then please tell me and if you think I can get a better component anywhere then just say!

It's good to be back.
 
Something to think about + new cpu architecture platform

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/hLLPZL

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£203.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£86.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z170 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£103.43 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£76.02 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.79 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£62.40 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (£264.97 @ Aria PC)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£72.46 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£89.38 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1018.42
 
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Looks good to me! Only thing is, does the 390 have similar performance to the 980? If so then that build looks great but if not he is going to be doing 95% gaming and I think he would prefer the extra frames in demanding games to the slight bump in CPU performance.
 
I think the official equivalent to the 980 is the 390x, but they're all very close together. If the budget allows it I'd bump up to the 390x, but the 390 is not far behind. Of course there are some reviews for you to look at on here ;)
 
Thanks Feronix, I probably should have looked at more than just one review before deciding n the 980 so quickly. Looks like that will be the build I go for then with the 6600k and 390.

Thanks guys :).
 
Please do be aware that those reviews are of the 390, not the 390x but as I said, they're very close together as they're basically rebadged 290 and 290x cards with a nicer overclock and 8GB VRAM.
 
Please do be aware that those reviews are of the 390, not the 390x but as I said, they're very close together as they're basically rebadged 290 and 290x cards with a nicer overclock and 8GB VRAM.

Better memory chips too. That's probably the biggest difference on these cards. 8GB memory and better memory chips. If you can find a 390x for less than a 980 then i'd get that 390x. If the 980 is cheaper, then get the 980.

Also I'd reallllly recommend getting either the Define R5 or the Define S. I'd had the R4 and can tell you while it's a great case it simply doesn't hold up to the newer ones.
 
Better memory chips too. That's probably the biggest difference on these cards. 8GB memory and better memory chips. If you can find a 390x for less than a 980 then i'd get that 390x. If the 980 is cheaper, then get the 980.

Also I'd reallllly recommend getting either the Define R5 or the Define S. I'd had the R4 and can tell you while it's a great case it simply doesn't hold up to the newer ones.

Cheers NBD, I think he will be having a nice, new R9 390x then, any particular cooler you'd all recommend? and as for the case, I might be ordering 2 then because I'm thinking about finally changing my case :).
 
The difernce between a 390 and a 390x is a nat's c*ck your looking at a 1/3 fps difference considering the 'x' is a lot more money only a fool or a show off would buy it over the standard card, consider uping to a furry if you whant to put more in to the video card IMHO.
 
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Cheers NBD, I think he will be having a nice, new R9 390x then, any particular cooler you'd all recommend? and as for the case, I might be ordering 2 then because I'm thinking about finally changing my case :).

Out of the Define R5/S I'd say the S is probably a better case unless he wants pure silence. They tend to sell for less in the States so that's what swayed me to get that over the R5.
Out of the 390x cards the top card imo is the MSI Gaming. The next two best ones would be a really close tie between the Nitro and XFX. I feel all the other variants are basically equal after these 3. If your friend ever plans on going for a liquid cooling setup, the MSI uses a custom PCB iirc so keep that in mind.

The difernce between a 390 and a 390x is a nat's c*ck your looking at a 1/3 fps difference considering the 'x' is a lot more money only a fool or a show off would buy it over the standard card, consider uping to a furry if you whant to put more in to the video card IMHO.

I would disagree in this case. His friend originally planned on a 980 which generally is little more expensive than a 390x so it's not like he's spending more for little gain but rather spending either slightly less or the same for the same performance. Now if he was going from a 390 to a 390x I would agree it's not worth it.
 
Out of the Define R5/S I'd say the S is probably a better case unless he wants pure silence. They tend to sell for less in the States so that's what swayed me to get that over the R5.
Out of the 390x cards the top card imo is the MSI Gaming. The next two best ones would be a really close tie between the Nitro and XFX. I feel all the other variants are basically equal after these 3. If your friend ever plans on going for a liquid cooling setup, the MSI uses a custom PCB iirc so keep that in mind.



I would disagree in this case. His friend originally planned on a 980 which generally is little more expensive than a 390x so it's not like he's spending more for little gain but rather spending either slightly less or the same for the same performance. Now if he was going from a 390 to a 390x I would agree it's not worth it.

I think I will go for the Define S as it's much cheaper and AFAIK the airflow is slightly better when you take out the drive cages in the front.

As for the 390 vs. 390x, I have noticed in the majority of benchmarks and reviews the 390 falls slightly behind the 980 and 390x by a small but noticeable margin. There is still time before the parts are bought and the build begins so I will ask him how he feels about the extra money.
 
I think I will go for the Define S as it's much cheaper and AFAIK the airflow is slightly better when you take out the drive cages in the front.

There are no drive cages in the Define S, all drives mount behind the motherboard tray ;)

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There are no drive cages in the Define S, all drives mount behind the motherboard tray ;)

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And this is where it begins to show that I haven't been paying attention recently ^_^, thanks Wraith! I specced him out 1 SSD and 1 HDD so that should do nicely I'm sure. When I asked what he wanted for a case he just said whatever I think is good so hopefully the Define S is 'good' enough for him.
 
And this is where it begins to show that I haven't been paying attention recently ^_^, thanks Wraith! I specced him out 1 SSD and 1 HDD so that should do nicely I'm sure. When I asked what he wanted for a case he just said whatever I think is good so hopefully the Define S is 'good' enough for him.
I've been over every inch of the Define S for the Project CJ build :) it's a great case and fantastic airflow, though I'm feeling a bit dumb now as my Mech drive is mounted horizontal :eek: ooopsy
 
Define S is defientaly good enough. Love this case! Get 3 fans for the front intake and put them all on 5v/7v and you still get great airflow with no noise.
 
I love my Define S ^_^

I have done a boneheaded move i mounted my rad in the front but i think now since i'm using a AMD GPU i will end up moving the rad to the roof and adding more fans to the build since it's now summer here.
 
In the US the WHOLE Amd lineup got MSRP price reductions of about $50 from the 380 and up. I don't know if that will transfer over to other countries but it's really worth keeping an eye on! They are steals at those prices.
 
Fractal Define S is just AWESOME! Worked with it a few times and really, i am ITCHING to get one my own, room for 3 HDD, 2 SSD's which is more than enough imo, great room for cablemanagement. The inside looks slick, not to full nor to empty even with SLI/crossfire.

GPU wise, as said before the diffrence between a 390-390x is not worth the money, knowing you can OC you 390 to the same performance as an X version which makes it pretty close to the 980, though most of the reviews i found where very one sided imo :/
 
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