Hardware & Technical New computer build - could someone glance over and see what they think please?

kizcat

K
Quick bit of background - I've been laptop gaming forever, and finally have enough room for a computer!! :D Although it's been a loong time since i last built one.

My budget is £1000 with a theme of blue (I was gonna go green but green components are a lot harder to come by it seems).
I'm more or less starting completely from scratch. I have a mouse (woo???), and was going to use my TV as a monitor for now.
(I'll just add, I did look in the other similar thread from Jacksy, but they seem to have some things to start from :S)

I've ended up with this -mostly from looking around Amazon, any input or adjustments/changes or even complete overalls/advice are welcomed.

Motherboard: MSI Z97-G43
Processor: I5 4690k 3.5Ghz Quad-Core
Wireless TP-LINK: TL-WDN4800 N900
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz
Graphics: Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 480
HDD1: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
HDD2: Toshiba P300 2TB 7200rpm
OS: Windows 10 Home 32-64bit (ew windows 10)
PSU: Corsair CP-9020097-UK VS550 ATX/EPS Vs Series 80 550Watt
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-4 4g Thermal Compound
Cooling Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
Case: CiT Vanquish Gaming Toolless Case
DVD: Drive LG GH24NSD0 (just a basic cheapy DVD drive)
Keyboard: TeckNet Kraken LED

Total cost: £1055.63
 

GJ51

GJ51
It's ok, but I'm going to wait until the next generation of chipsets and Intel CPU's get released next year.

I'd highly recommend thinking about an Nvidia card. I was a long time ATI guy, but once I switched I became a convert.

I'm also going to use an M.2 SSD for my boot drive, Speed improvements are dramatic.
 

Gully Foyle

Gully Foyle
I like it. That i5 is awesome for OC.
This is for Win10 64 I am assuming.

Personally I prefer ASUS or Gigabyte MBs, but one of my comps does have a MSI one.

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GJ51 said:
It's ok, but I'm going to wait until the next generation of chipsets and Intel CPU's get released next year.

I'd highly recommend thinking about an Nvidia card. I was a long time ATI guy, but once I switched I became a convert.

I'm also going to use an M.2 SSD for my boot drive, Speed improvements are dramatic.
Click to expand...

I save a lot on hardware if I buy the year old stuff.
 

Porina

Porina
There's little good reason to go for a Haswell system if building new right now. i5-6600k, a Z170 chipset mobo and DDR4 ram is not going to cost significantly different and will be two generations newer. Kaby Lake is literally around the corner so if you're not actually building this year, it is worth seeing how that unfolds, and AMD Zen might be around then also.

PSU wise, from memory the Corsair VS series isn't rated highly. The CX-M is considered better built even if it means you go for a lower wattage model like the 450. The difference between a 450 and 550 wouldn't make a difference on this proposed build, unless you're looking at going SLI GPU in near future but a bit more power would be wise if that was a consideration.

You can save a few £ by using the thermal compound that comes with the Hyper 212. It isn't going to make a difference worth worrying about.

M.2 NVMe SSD drives can be much faster... in benchmarks or during big file copies. Not so much real world difference otherwise so even a decent SATA model is plenty fast enough.
 

Porina

Porina
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/VCKvqk

If it helps, above is a hypothetical build based on Skylake including what I could of the original general spec, with following comments on choices:
I don't know anything about the specific MSI mobo so some further research is suggested there and you might consider a more expensive model.
I've upped the ram to 16GB. 8GB is ok, but 16GB means you don't have to worry about being short for a long time.
For SSD I picked the Crucial MX300 as a lower cost per capacity drive. It isn't the fastest, but again in the real world you wont notice the difference between a fast SSD and a not so fast SSD. In either case both are much faster than a HD.
On the HD, I picked a 3TB model since they're really not much more than a 2TB one. I didn't pay particular attention to performance, since if that is important for an application you would install to SSD anyway.
Random cheapest DVD writer selected.
Keyboard isn't listed so not included.

So again, I'm not suggesting anyone buy the above, but it is to illustrate that getting a much newer generation CPU is possible on the same price ball park. Component choices can of course be varied further to suit.
 

Zenith

Zenith
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/LGzQf8

This is based on Skylake generation, and is in fact similar to my setup.
The motherboard has the capability to upgrade the CPU (to i7), the RAM up to 32GB using 8GB modules or 64GB with 16GB modules, and the graphic card is good enough to get you going but still be able to take a 1080 in the future if you wanted.

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What's scary is I made my spec independently of the one above mine, yet they are VERY similar! :)
 

kizcat

K
Gully_Foyle said:
I like it. That i5 is awesome for OC.
This is for Win10 64 I am assuming.

Personally I prefer ASUS or Gigabyte MBs, but one of my comps does have a MSI one.

- - - Updated - - -



I save a lot on hardware if I buy the year old stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah i was gonna go with win10 64bit
but i don't have enough experience with any of the brands to have a preference (yet) :p

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GJ51 said:
It's ok, but I'm going to wait until the next generation of chipsets and Intel CPU's get released next year.

I'd highly recommend thinking about an Nvidia card. I was a long time ATI guy, but once I switched I became a convert.

I'm also going to use an M.2 SSD for my boot drive, Speed improvements are dramatic.
Click to expand...

I have tried an M.2 SSD, via my laptop, and I did have a massive increase in performance, but it was a power hog - while it was nice I ended up sending it back.

- - - Updated - - -

Porina said:
There's little good reason to go for a Haswell system if building new right now. i5-6600k, a Z170 chipset mobo and DDR4 ram is not going to cost significantly different and will be two generations newer. Kaby Lake is literally around the corner so if you're not actually building this year, it is worth seeing how that unfolds, and AMD Zen might be around then also.

You can save a few £ by using the thermal compound that comes with the Hyper 212. It isn't going to make a difference worth worrying about.

M.2 NVMe SSD drives can be much faster... in benchmarks or during big file copies. Not so much real world difference otherwise so even a decent SATA model is plenty fast enough.
Click to expand...

Hmm noted. I was looking at an SSHD, a couple of extra seconds on boot doesn't bother me (my current boot time is something like 2 and a half minutes)
My main reasons for the I5 4690k was the penitential to OC. But you make a very good case - especially with the two build above, both are very tempting.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Apart from the GPU, this is similar to what I've built - 2 years ago.

For a current build, I'll add my voice to those who suggest a 6000 series i5 and matching mainboard.

A few other comments:
- RAM: get as much as you can afford. 8 GB is minimum spec, I'd recommend at least 16. Plain RAM (like Kingston ValueRam) will do, those coloured aluminium plates are only good for their colouring (which, as you stated, is a point for you)
- mass storage: for a gaming rig, you don't need a HDD or a DVD. For a business/work rig, you'll need the HDD, plus at least one, better two, more drives and a swapping cage for backups.
- GPU: I prever NVidia, more bang for the electrical power
- OS: Win 10 is pretty much unavoidable, 64 bit it should be. However, the pro edition isn't much more expensive, but gives you the option to move to the 'deferred' path for updates. Let someone else (i.e. the 'home' users) beta test the system updates
- Thermal paste: just use whatever stuff comes with the cooler.
- Cooler: again, a lot of personal preference here, and it has to physically fit in the box. I think downblowing fans are a bit better for everything on the motherboard (like the voltage regulators), so I used a Cryorig C1
- WiFi: nope. Not for ED. Even cabled, the connection to the servers is sufficiently shaky as it is.

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Zenith said:
What's scary is I made my spec independently of the one above mine, yet they are VERY similar! :)
Click to expand...

Not reallly. Great minds and all that :p

No. Seriously - there isn't that much you can actually change around once you've decided on a CPU, and there is currently little enough choice on that. Differences between other parts are to a large part either cosmetic (which may be a point or not) or related to a manufacturer skimping on quality control.
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
Looks fine. Just a few points.

Consider getting 16GB RAM in a set of two sticks, the difference in price shouldn't be that big.

IMO you can save a bit of money by going for a smaller SSD (~120GB will happily suffice for the OS and a bunch of software); if the mainboard supports it, get a module to stick right in there.

As for the HDD, get a WD black. (Opinions vary, but hey, I haven't had a single WD fail yet including a pair of greens that ran for seven years straight, and here's me knocking on wood.)

AMD is fine, and if you want async compute at some point it's that or waiting for nvidia's next architecture :p

For coolers, I love Noctua.
 
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Shar

Shar
-16gig of RAM
-Nvidia 960 or better depending on your plans for VR.

Rest is fine although price seems high, well for Australian standard anyway.
 
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Para Handy

Para Handy
I wouldn't have another MSI mobo - their support was abysmal and they had a habit of bricking on bios updates.

Look at the ASUS Hero if you can stretch your funds to it.
 
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