First Major Build!

DaleH1994

New member
Hey guys i wonder if anyone could help me,

I've had a gaming computer for last 5 years now and its a mid range system which is now past its performance for me now and i want a new project by building my own system from scratch. I want my new system to be able to play most high end games on ultra on a 1080p monitor.. My top games are Skyrim and all the total war franchise including Rome 2 and Attila. My Budget is £1,400 max. I've already got a monitor, speakers, headset, mouse and keyboard. I've researched for a good month now and have come to this build... Please give any advice on how the system will perform and so on if possible. I want to learn how to config a SLI in thew future but not right now so therefore i have made this system so that i can upgrade easily in the future..

Heres my idea of my RIG so far... (Red + Black Theme)

Corsair 780t Black Full Tower Case
Intel core i7 4790k CPU
Asus Z97 Maximus VII Hero ATX Mobo
Asus GeForce GTX 980 Strix OC 4GB GPU
Corsair 2x8GB 1866MHz Vengance Pro RAM
Windows 8.1 OS
Corsair 750 CXM PSU

Would this rig be suitable for my aims for my system? Any guidance would be a blessing and thankyou for taking time out of your day to read this! :)
 
Firstly with that level of expensive hardware i'd recommend you look at higher tier PSU's than the CX series. Unless you plan to overclock heavily 750W sounds like an appropriate size for two serious cards in the future. As well as increased efficiency, improved acoustics and higher quality components a higher quality PSU should deliver more stable constant voltages which i'm sure your components will appreciate long term. I would look at Corsair HXi or EVGA/Superflower units personally if I was putting £1000 of hardware onto the receiving end of it.

I don't know if it's something you already have or have considered but I would definitely recommend getting an SSD. Out of all components they have the most significant effect on daily use of the computer (boot times, loading times...) and perceivably benefit all programs. The Corsair Neutron XT would be very inkeeping with the build and they perform extremely well.


The case, motherboard, memory and graphics card all sound great. They are all nice products. You could however make a potential saving on the CPU, if you only intend to game on the rig there isn't much of a benefit in going with the 8-threaded i7's. The devils canyon i5-4690k would be suitable and offer some good overclocking fun in the future.

It might be worth thinking about cooling, if you'll need any extra fans or AIO perhaps they do eat into the budget. It's quite a sizeable case for the scope of the build but I can completely see why you may like it/want to use it.

JR
 
Thanks for the reply Wraithguard...

Thanks JR23 for your time to reply. That is a question i would like to explore further... The i7 has really good specs to what i like however all i want to do is high end gaming, im not into 3D graphics or video editing atall... i have read that the i7 does improve a little but have read too that an i5 devils canyon would be ideal. Can you explain further into why a i5 would be better??

Another question is that i know the case is an awesome looking one however i feel like it will be too big especially while only having 1 GPU in at this time... Would a Mid tower be more suitable for this build?? Thanks in advance...
 
Of course not a problem. Quite simply they are very similar processors except the i7 has hyper threading which allows each physical core to act as a pair of logical cores giving it 8 processing threads rather than 4, each at roughly the same speed. That sounds great, twice as much power! However due to the nature of game development games are made to run nicely with an average PC, not a high end one, barely even a good one. So they don't benefit in general from 8 threads, that will no doubt change over time, but it's likely for the foreseeable future a good Quad core will still be above average and devs will continue to load the GPU heavily. With video editing/rending/simulation it's an entirely different story, professional software for time critical work utilize every bit of power the processor has.

This has to be the most helpful graphic i've seen for comparing game performance of a CPU. The testing was all conducted with a single 780Ti and as you can see once you've made it to a true quad core i5-4460 the performance increase afterwards is very small. The i5 isn't 'better' it's just MUCH cheaper!

I6mXITC.png


With respect to the case, if you truly like it and you have the space to accommodate it neatly then go for it. If it's going to be hanging on to the end of your desk or in the way on the floor probably think about an alternative. I think the interior will look fine with the Hero.

JR
 
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You know JR your posts always make for good reading :P I have a i5 4440 coming at some point, purely as a place filler to get started with GTA V, also TTL gets this Pentium back for a little bonkers mental OC time. :lol:
 
You know JR your posts always make for good reading :P

Aye, I must agree with this. Hence why I'm always am looking for JR's more "educational" posts, so to speak... :)

And in relation to the thread, in my eyes and as the big boys above has stated, the rig seems very nice indeed.
I do however agree with JR on most of his points, specially regarding the CPU aspect, an i5 4690K would be more ideal than an i7 4790K, purely for gaming.

Regarding cooling, as JR stated above, an AIO would be something to consider.

Last, but not least, is the PSU, I once again agree with JR on that aspect... to go with a bit higher quality unit, in relation to the level of hardware you've listed :)

I have personally recently purchased an i7 4790K, going from an i7 2600K, but that is mostly cause I'm doing some photoshopping and will be doing some video editing in the future. But I do also however game on my machine.
 
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To sum up all the advice that i would have given as well is to get a ssd(256GB minimum.. cheap these days), higher end PSU, and drop down to an i5 instead of an i7 since you plan on purely gaming. By doing all this, you won't spend hardly anymore simply because you dropped a large amount by getting an i5. The end result would also be a more responsive and virtually a faster rig.
 
Ive not read through to see if anyone has said this but Id honestly get an RM650 for the PSU as a minimum - it will be much better than your chosen one - Id even look at the HXi's if your budget can stretch that bit further
 

Thats a pretty cool graph except the data doesn't appear to be correct in certain regards. The 9590 is much lower than it should be, especially with Battlefield (as an example). Proves the point you don't need an i7 for gaming though.

i5, Rm650/superflower equivilent and put the spare towards a better SSD/other thing.
 
just a query why only 1866 ram?

Ive read alot into RAM speeds and it seems that there isnt much difference in speed towards gaming performance... so wen with this 'middle speed RAM. Please correct me if im wrong... thanks for the reply!

-----------------------

Of course not a problem. Quite simply they are very similar processors except the i7 has hyper threading which allows each physical core to act as a pair of logical cores giving it 8 processing threads rather than 4, each at roughly the same speed. That sounds great, twice as much power! However due to the nature of game development games are made to run nicely with an average PC, not a high end one, barely even a good one. So they don't benefit in general from 8 threads, that will no doubt change over time, but it's likely for the foreseeable future a good Quad core will still be above average and devs will continue to load the GPU heavily. With video editing/rending/simulation it's an entirely different story, professional software for time critical work utilize every bit of power the processor has.

This has to be the most helpful graphic i've seen for comparing game performance of a CPU. The testing was all conducted with a single 780Ti and as you can see once you've made it to a true quad core i5-4460 the performance increase afterwards is very small. The i5 isn't 'better' it's just MUCH cheaper!

I6mXITC.png


With respect to the case, if you truly like it and you have the space to accommodate it neatly then go for it. If it's going to be hanging on to the end of your desk or in the way on the floor probably think about an alternative. I think the interior will look fine with the Hero.

JR

Thankyou JR for such an in depth response! i understand each advice you have given me! So an i5 would be more suitable for my build.. I mean i don't mind spending an extra £100 on an i7 if it performs a little better and future proofs it. I think the total war franchise relies on the CPU more than other games and really want max settings on these to enjoy it to the full... Thanks guys for all the help really really appreciate the help!

-----------------------

I've taken on all your advice from you guys and i have adjusted some selected components... Take a look and any advice would be awesome! Thanks in advance.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Hqy2f7
 
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v1 - should you decide to move to 1440p in the future.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£180.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.85 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£86.02 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£262.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£262.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£87.13 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£90.11 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1196.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-10 14:47 GMT+0000

v2

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£259.59 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£86.40 @ Kustom PCs)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.85 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£86.02 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£476.80 @ Aria PC)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£87.13 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£90.11 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1288.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-10 14:56 GMT+0000

v3 -

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£259.59 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£86.40 @ Kustom PCs)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.85 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£86.02 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£262.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£262.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£87.13 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£90.11 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1337.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-10 14:59 GMT+0000

*get your OS from g2a, its cheaper

@tinytomlogan did it for him ;)
 
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Thankyou JR for such an in depth response! i understand each advice you have given me! So an i5 would be more suitable for my build.. I mean i don't mind spending an extra £100 on an i7 if it performs a little better and future proofs it. I think the total war franchise relies on the CPU more than other games and really want max settings on these to enjoy it to the full... Thanks guys for all the help really really appreciate the help!

If you want to go all out I can completely understand why you may opt for an i7, I was just suggesting it might be a sensible area to compromise if you need to free up some budget for the PSU/SSD's etc as it won't have much effect on game performance. Looking at the recommended specs for TW they only suggest a 2nd gen i5 so the 4690k is right on the money being a little faster and better performing per core.

Additionally I forgot to mention before, 16GB RAM isn't really necessary, I doubt you'll ever use anything close to all of it. Just go for 8 and again put the saving into a bigger SSD.


Just seen you've posted the parts list as I wrote that.

i5-4690k
Asus Maximus VII Hero
Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB 2400C11
Corsair Neutron XT 480GB
Asus GTX980 Strix
Corsair 780T
Corsair HX750i
No optical drive
W8.1

(£1383 total) That's what I would go with, a 240GB + HDD if you need the space, everyone is different with storage I guess. You know what you use already. 120GB SSD's are bordering on pointless IMO, once you have the OS, couple of programs it only leaves room for a couple of big games at most.
 
Okay guys been reading a huge amount of material and youtube reviews and so on and have decided to spend a little more and have come up with this build.. Can you guys please answer a few points for me?

-Will this system run Rome 2 and Attila on max easily?
-Will there be any bottlenecking?
-Will this system be a strong suit to run for the next few years?

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£259.59 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£142.80 @ Kustom PCs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£110.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£53.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card (£479.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 780T ATX Full Tower Case (£146.03 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£92.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.09 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1401.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-10 15:04 GMT+0000

All your help is much appreciated, yet again thank you for your time. Dale.
 
-Will this system run Rome 2 and Attila on max easily? - Yes
-Will there be any bottlenecking? - No (please don't get folks started on that subject)
-Will this system be a strong suit to run for the next few years? - Yes
 
-Will this system run Rome 2 and Attila on max easily?
-Will there be any bottlenecking?
-Will this system be a strong suit to run for the next few years?

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£259.59 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£142.80 @ Kustom PCs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£110.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£53.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card (£479.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 780T ATX Full Tower Case (£146.03 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£92.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.09 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1401.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-10 15:04 GMT+0000

-Will this system run Rome 2 and Attila on max easily? Rome 2 yes, Attila on the other hand it won't run as well but still get the job done.
-Will there be any bottlenecking? Noob question tbh... no it won't.
-Will this system be a strong suit to run for the next few years? Sure, always throw in another 980 too(just won't help Attila though).
 
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