New PC Build for Elite. Budget £700.What would you change?

[Hilight]

At 1920x1080 and max graphic settings ED utilizes ~2GB of VRAM. So I would highly recommend a 4GB VRAM GPU.

Hi Aleksej....Not that I want to go around disputing a Frontier employee...I'm just curious about the system usage of ED But here is a screenshot of ED running in the background with Afterburner monitoring software running in the foreground. As you can see, it shows my 2GB 270X using around 1.5GB...my video settings in game are at 1920x1080 with all the settings maxed out including FOV...the AA is turned off in the game and 8xEQ AA is turned on in the AMD catalyst control panel and set to override game settings...it can't be because ED is running in the background as the mem usage goes up to 1.5GB when I start ED and just stays there regardless of whether it's running in the foreground or the background




EDIT>>>>> ooopps I guess the image is really too small to see well...

 

[Cody]

Not that I want to go around disputing a Frontier employee...

Mods are usually volunteers, they're not employed by FD!

 

[Nemesis44UK]

He already has one.

Oops, my bad. I missed that.

 

[Riktar]

I will throw in that water cooling (especially if your not overclocking like crazy) is not needed. I run a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO on my computer and it is dead silent, cools VERY close (maybe 2 degrees difference) to my former AIO water cooler and it allows for further airflow over the memory/vrms/etc. that you would lose with the water cooling setup.

Take the difference you save from that and throw it into a higher rated PSU. I know there is alot of debate over how much wattage/rating you need on the PSU but the fact remains that if you are going to upgrade in the future, and you need to "upgrade" your PSU to handle the extra load, you will be kicking yourself that you didn't spend the extra money the first time.

Power supplies are the biggest PITA to swap out.

 

[passey]

With a tight budget for amd fx 6300 and up the flu to a r9 290 or r9 280x if u can afford.

 

[khaitom]

snip
...if GOD told him to use a 700 Watt PSU we can all see you standing there telling GOD he knows nothing about PSU's and how much power the OP needs.
snip

God doesn't exist, but if he did and suggested a 700W power supply for the OP when they specifically stated that they will not be upgrading that machine, well, god would be wrong.

 

[adoredtv]

Hi Aleksej....Not that I want to go around disputing a Frontier employee...I'm just curious about the system usage of ED But here is a screenshot of ED running in the background with Afterburner monitoring software running in the foreground. As you can see, it shows my 2GB 270X using around 1.5GB...my video settings in game are at 1920x1080 with all the settings maxed out including FOV...the AA is turned off in the game and 8xEQ AA is turned on in the AMD catalyst control panel and set to override game settings...it can't be because ED is running in the background as the mem usage goes up to 1.5GB when I start ED and just stays there regardless of whether it's running in the foreground or the background.

My 1GB card runs the game on max settings at well over 100fps (55 ish in RES). Elite will make use of extra VRAM by means of creating a cache, but it doesn't "need" 2GB or 4GB of VRAM to run fine on max settings. That's gotta be why it's using so much VRAM on cards that have it to spare.

In the OP's case though, I can't really see any justification for not going with a 970 anyway, assuming £700 is what he is happy to spend.

 

[Space Trucker]

Hi Aleksej....Not that I want to go around disputing a Frontier employee...

I thought this was odd myself but i wasn't going to say anything. I also know the OP old computer setup from another thread he started which led him to his decision to upgrade to a desktop ..

here's the thread of the issues he is having with his current sytem. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=129585

Also here is a DXDiag of the System.

 

[s20dan]

Personally I would ditch the Nvidia GPU and go with an AMD/ATi GPU if you ever intend on adding a second display to your setup.
All the Nvidia cards I have had (8800 GTX, 285GTx, GTX560Ti) have had annoying issues caused by a multi-monitor setup.

Power supplies are the biggest PITA to swap out.

I've found that not to always be the case anymore. Most PSUs these days are modular, so you can disconnect the wires at the PSU and simply swap it right out, but of course it will also depend on the case

 

[Kiblams]

Interesting factoid that I forgot to test last night, my PC draws only 150w when playing ED, so that's 183w under full CPU/GPU load and 30w less in ED. The GPU box says I need at least a 500w PSU, so surely the world is now broken and I must upgrade my 450w PSU before my house sets on fire.

I would say 2gb vram is needed as my GPU is using 250mb system ram on top of its 1gb vram.

 

[Riktar]

Personally I would ditch the Nvidia GPU and go with an AMD/ATi GPU if you ever intend on adding a second display to your setup.
All the Nvidia cards I have had (8800 GTX, 285GTx, GTX560Ti) have had annoying issues caused by a multi-monitor setup.




I've found that not to always be the case anymore. Most PSUs these days are modular, so you can disconnect the wires at the PSU and simply swap it right out, but of course it will also depend on the case

That is true if you are buying from the same company and IF they utilize the same same cable connection scheme and IF the psu is the same (full modular/semi modular) setup.

If not, well then,,,,,,,,,,,,

Another point about PSU and graphics cards: I recently upgraded to a R9 290(non x) card and was confident that my 600W PSU was more than capable of running the card. Even with the 290 running pedal to the metal, I seldom saw my wattage (whole system) go over 450 watts. I thought the manufacturer was just trying to pedal power supplies,,,,,,,

After having the dreaded/infamous "black screen" issues several times and doing some research on the subject, I opted to get a better PSU. Same brand, same gold rating, but 750 watts. And I was convinced that this was all a bunch of malarkey that I would be able to shove in the vendors face.

Guess what? No more black screens since the new PSU went in.......

 

[Non Grata]

This thread is like a Richard Dawkins vs panel of nutters video.

edit: just put in the numbers for my pc:

 

[Cody]

This thread is like a Richard Dawkins vs panel of nutters video.

<grins> Gotta love kit gurus!

 

[Mugshot]

eep adoredtv fighting the good fight Just for y'all I powered off my PC for the first time in a fortnight and plugged in my watt meter...

intel 4790k(@4.4)
Asus Maximus VII Ranger(for OP ...get the Krait get the Krait DAMMIT)
16Gb 2400mhz ram
Corsair AX860 platinum rated PSU
Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 GTX(stock I think)
3 x mechano HD
1 x SSD
Noctua double fan cpu thingy
Camera dooberry
Joystick
headset/mic
mechanical k/board
mouse type thing

Ran Furmark 1.15.whatever setup a large file transfer between the hard drives and achieved a grand total of .....

337.5W at the wall.

The AX860 was bought when i was running scrypt for 9 months using 3 7950 gpu's pulling 900W at the wall and the PSU didn't miss a beat. But obviously was stupid

MY friend over the road runs 2 G1 gaming 970 GTx with a corsair 650W(gold) and a stack of other things plugged in and previously ran 2 7950 with the same PSU and has never had issues.

Go figure. The OP hit this PSU discussion on the head 5 pages ago btw

 

[Caspar]

Ok So I'm going to take the plunge and get a Desktop. I needed a laptop four months ago and couldn't really afford both at the same time. Four months later, with the problems I have lets build a machine.

So here goes with my first selection and only some basic general research. Budget is £700. What would you change and why?

I don't need internal storage as I've already got an SSD and HDD.

Also, do I need extra internal fans?

I'll be running the game on a AOC 24" 2460 144 hz Monitor, playing in 1960*1080 at 120hrz. For sound I use headphones so I don't really need a sound card. Wifi not required as I'll connect it via LAN. I don't think I really need more than 8 Gig memory as it's only for playing games, well GAME, Elite.

Any suggestions appreciated.

PCPartPicker part list /

Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£174.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.99 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£54.50 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£169.14 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case (£37.91 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£41.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £633.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-21 22:33 GMT+0000

430 Watt PSU sounds a bit low. I'd be surprised if the card doesn't mandate 500 Watt minimum.

I run 8GB ram and don't have any issues. I suspect the card will be fine but if you're considering VR in the future then get the best you can afford.

 

[Caspar]

That is true if you are buying from the same company and IF they utilize the same same cable connection scheme and IF the psu is the same (full modular/semi modular) setup.

If not, well then,,,,,,,,,,,,

Another point about PSU and graphics cards: I recently upgraded to a R9 290(non x) card and was confident that my 600W PSU was more than capable of running the card. Even with the 290 running pedal to the metal, I seldom saw my wattage (whole system) go over 450 watts. I thought the manufacturer was just trying to pedal power supplies,,,,,,,

After having the dreaded/infamous "black screen" issues several times and doing some research on the subject, I opted to get a better PSU. Same brand, same gold rating, but 750 watts. And I was convinced that this was all a bunch of malarkey that I would be able to shove in the vendors face.

Guess what? No more black screens since the new PSU went in.......

I'm running an R9 280 on a 480Watt PSU at the moment ..... It's only a matter of time before it fries.

 

[bobslob]

wow, so many experts..

I would never skimp on the psu , as ive had 2 go pop over the years, lots of head room these days, and i use water cooling, not just because of overclocking,. but noise, you can run nice and quiet. i remember years ago using stock heatsinks and fans. noisey

As your getting the K chip, i am guessing you plan to overclock, my advice head over to http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/ and get some proper advice, game forums are the worst place to get advice.

 

[bAdbUd]

We all have opinions, its how we put them forward that makes us different. If the OP is in the UK I could of saved him even more money, but I do not want to be shouted down by somebody who doesn't get trade price.

I am in the UK

Wow, there has been a lot of muck thrown at Adored over night for simply holding his own on the fact that the OP doesn't need more PSU and future upgrades (except for going SLI) won't need more PSU.

I'm afraid that reading through the lot, everyone opposing Adored are the 'trolls' here, you have driven him tontbe edge and made him seem aggressive by ignoring his solid advice.

It did get a little like that.

Lol don't worry about me . I will continue to ask them for evidence of their assertions until they either admit they don't know what they're on about or give some actual solid numbers on component power draw. The truth will out one way or the other.

It's very easy for them to start given that they know all the parts of my system. Anyone who actually knows this stuff (you'd think electricians would know quite a bit about electricity right?) will have no problems coming up with the actual numbers for my system power needs.

I have no doubt about that.

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NPH6DT6XVZ) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £51.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £43.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £661.90 (includes shipping : ).


[url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/GX-001-GX_60.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/CP-532-IN_60.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/MB-262-MS_60.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/CA-003-SF_60.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/MY-033-TG_60.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/HS-000-RT_60.jpg[/URL]



My advice.

I haven't included a case because there are so many and I'm sure your tastes will differ from mine, and obviously you can get better prices on various items, but that's your job

I'm thinking of upping the GFX to a 970 now

I see no mention of a hard drive in your build.

I've got a DVD/SSD/HDD so don't need one, although I'll put them in the build to account for power consumption

God doesn't exist, but if he did and suggested a 700W power supply for the OP when they specifically stated that they will not be upgrading that machine, well, god would be wrong.

Funny that

Thanks to everyone who's commented, even those who disagreed with AdoredTV, opinions are useful, but facts are more useful. I'm going to change some parts and then post again. Please play nice people

 

[Caspar]

wow, so many experts..

OP asked 'what would you change' inviting people for a view. No need to be patronising.

 

[Mugshot]

What makes you think the posters on OcUK are experts as opposed to misguided enthusiasts Unless your taking about the store owners/employees that will punt their items with the highest margins, only time I visited the OcUK forums I was directed to the manufacturers support for advice which made sense because they didn't know the answer

wow, so many experts..

I would never skimp on the psu , as ive had 2 go pop over the years, lots of head room these days, and i use water cooling, not just because of overclocking,. but noise, you can run nice and quiet. i remember years ago using stock heatsinks and fans. noisey

As your getting the K chip, i am guessing you plan to overclock, my advice head over to http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/ and get some proper advice, game forums are the worst place to get advice.