New i7 Build

[YouWhat]

In approx 2 weeks, I should be able to afford to build a new rig, mainly for gaming but bit of productivity here and there, also convert and encode lots of videos.

Anyway, I am basing my build at around the £1,000 mark, as not sure exactly how much I will be getting (long story there), so I have drawn up a list of basic componets I would like, and how much and from where, also a wish list.

CPU
i7 - 4790k - £263.36 (scan.co.uk preorder)

Motherboard
Asus ROG Maximus VII Hero - £146 (pixmania.co.uk)
Or possibly (depending on case)
Asus Z97 Maximus VII HERO Asus FrontBase £182.36 (scan.co.uk)

Memory
Corsair Vengeance Pro @ 2400MHz (Red) £126.19 (scan.co.uk)

Graphics Card
Asus ROG Striker Platinum - £227.99 (aria.co.uk)

PSU
Corsair RM Series 650W Full Modular Silent PSU 80+ Gold - £83.93 (aria.co.uk)

Cooling
Corsair H100i Performance Watercooler - £85.32 (scan.co.uk)

HDD
Samsung 840 Evo 120Gb £55.85 (pixmania.co.uk) (OS)
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB £92.00 (pixmania.co.uk) (Games)
2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 (Storage most will be put on server)

Now here is the choice I've not been able to make as of yet....

Case
NZXT H440 (Red and Black) - £91.73 (scan.co.uk)
Or possibly
Corsair Obsiaidan 750D - £121.00 (pixmania.co.uk)

Somedays I want the H440 other days I want the 750D :huh:

Now on to my wish list:-

Asus ROG Maximus VII Formula motherboard

Asus ROG Poseidon graphics card (or possibly a second Striker for SLi)

32GB ram instead of 16GB

Full water cooling loop using:-

XSPC Raystorm CPU block (with LEDs Swapped out for Red)
Phobya Balancer 150 - Black Nickel.

Using UV Blood red fluid (And add a UV LED Strip in out of sight)

Any input on this or how I can improve things is welcomed, but I do want to stick with a 4790K

 

[dalewakelin]

Everything there is good, down to personal preference really, i wouldn't preorder the CPU though because in the first month i can imagine it dropping in price by about £20 which you could put towards a larger SSD or better graphics card, also nobody needs 32GB, i thought i needed it but 8GB even suits my heavy 3D needs so 16GB would be more than enough. SLI is a waste of money just get one big card. Apart from that everything is sound!

 

[MacLeod]

Looks pretty solid to me. Not a huge fan of the new Corsair power supplies aside from their AXi series though. Theyre not bad or anything but Id prefer something a little higher end. The new EVGA Supernova G2 are my current PSU boner so much so that I just replaced an aging TX750 with their 750 watt version. Theyre based on the just excellent SuperFlower Leadex platform and best of all theyre cheaper than comparable units. They could be the best on the market right now dollar for dollar.

The main thing Id want to upgrade is the GPU. The GTX760 is a pretty good card but Id want something a little faster. A 760 is a little slower than my GTX670 and my card can play everything at max settings with the exception of Crysis 3 (have to drop Post Processing down from Ultra to High) so Im actually wanting a little more GPU horsepower. The AMD R9 290 is hard to beat right now in terms of value. Its enough to max any game at 1920x1080 but at a very reasonable price.

32GB of RAM is probably overkill unless youre doing a lot of video processing and even then it still might be. Put your RAM money towards the better GPU.

 

[YouWhat]

Looks pretty solid to me. Not a huge fan of the new Corsair power supplies aside from their AXi series though. Theyre not bad or anything but Id prefer something a little higher end. The new EVGA Supernova G2 are my current PSU boner so much so that I just replaced an aging TX750 with their 750 watt version. Theyre based on the just excellent SuperFlower Leadex platform and best of all theyre cheaper than comparable units. They could be the best on the market right now dollar for dollar.

The main thing Id want to upgrade is the GPU. The GTX760 is a pretty good card but Id want something a little faster. A 760 is a little slower than my GTX670 and my card can play everything at max settings with the exception of Crysis 3 (have to drop Post Processing down from Ultra to High) so Im actually wanting a little more GPU horsepower. The AMD R9 290 is hard to beat right now in terms of value. Its enough to max any game at 1920x1080 but at a very reasonable price.

32GB of RAM is probably overkill unless youre doing a lot of video processing and even then it still might be. Put your RAM money towards the better GPU.

So essentially are you saying get the Poseidon then instead of 2 ROG stryker cards? Or if I am lucky and come across a 780ti for about the same money get that instead?

I would really like to try and lower the build cost if possible, but I guess I am too picky, currently I have an old rig I messing bout on to play some games, and another system that is used for downloads, and server, also productivity stuff like office.

The i7 will be a major leap up for me to what I am currently using, as current system specs are

(Upgraded Acer M3802)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
8GB OCZ DDR2 800MHz
64GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD
Radeon HD4350 512MB

And a few hard drives for storage (1.5TB, 2TB x 2, 640GB Western Digital for User space (registry edited and windows setup through Audit mode)

Windows 7 x64 Enterprise Edition

The other machine is made up from bits and pieces from various places, I call it Frankenstien (Will post picks of it if anyone wants a blast from the past!!)

Motherboard - Asus ROG Crosshair AM2
(http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR/specifications/ if you want the complete specs on it)

Cpu - AMD 64 x2 5200+ @ 2.6GHz
Memory - 6GB A-Data Vitesta Extreme Edition DDR2 @ 1066MHz
GFX Cards - Nvidia gForce 7900 GS 256Mb DDR3 Memory x2 in SLi

3 x Seagate 160GB drives running in raid 5 (OS)
2 x Seagate 500GB drives running in raid 0 (Games / Steam etc)

Again running Windows 7 x64 Enterprise Edition

So as you can see, the i7 will be major upgrade for me, as I not been able to afford to upgrade for several years now, and I am likely not going to be able to upgrade again for several years to come again once I have built this up, which I why I looking for opinions and suggestions to help improve and build a better rig.

And yes, before anyone asks or wonders, it is a legit vlk key I have for Win 7 Enterprise(technet subscription)

If anyone would like to put forward a complete redesign of system I am more than willing to try as I would love to get the cost of it down if possible.

Thanks to those who have replied and for your suggest Macleod, I will def go for the single card route I think instead.

 

[kbalaz]

when I built my system I thought 16GB would be enough (photoshop work), yet here I am finding myself dipping below the 100% efficiency mark more than once while working on images. Adobe products are always more is better so I say go ahead with 32GB. While building my system based on Adobe's spec and requirements, they also don't recommend SLI either. So, check the software you are using and see if they have any recommendations on what to use and what to avoid.

Everything there is good, down to personal preference really, i wouldn't preorder the CPU though because in the first month i can imagine it dropping in price by about £20 which you could put towards a larger SSD or better graphics card, also nobody needs 32GB, i thought i needed it but 8GB even suits my heavy 3D needs so 16GB would be more than enough. SLI is a waste of money just get one big card. Apart from that everything is sound!

 

[YouWhat]

Well after the new review on the twins (Asus ROG Striker cards in SLI), my mind has been made up, I will definately be getting the twins! 2 x Asus ROG Striker cards, I been advise by TTL to got for a 850 Watt psu so as I got some overhead where power is concerned, so the system is about decided on now, just the case issue is left, I am really torn between the H440 in red and black to go with the system colours, but also drawn to the 750D and can then use the Asus FrontBase with the motherboard (Scan.co.uk motherboard and frontbase bundle)

Talking about parts, for those interested in getting a 4790K in UK, this is cheapest price I have found

And ust want to thank everyone who helped me with this.

 

[YouWhat]

Today I have ordered the bits and pre-ordered my 4790k cpu

Should get everything but the cpu tomorrow.

Final list was as follows

i7 4790K (oem from overclockers uk as they have earliest date on stocks arriving)

Asus Maximus VII Hero
Asus ROG Striker 760 x 2
Asus Frontbase (I like the look of it)
Asus DRW-24F1ST x24 DVD Writer (as the other half burns off a lot of music disks)

Corsair Obsidian 750D
Corsair H100i
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2x8) @ 2400 (Red)
Corsair RM 850

Samsung 840 Evo 120gb

So all being well, should have the 4790K in system by 24th this month!!