Few questions regarding gaming PC build

[slh28]

PSU calculators always overestimate your power requirements. There's nothing wrong with a bit of overprovisioning but a non-OC Haswell CPU + GTX 770 + one HDD won't consume more than 300W under load so 750W really is a bit excessive.

The normal 840 uses TLC nand which is especially bad for lower capacity (120GB) drives because it will degrade quicker. Considering the M500 is cheaper there's no reason at all to go for the non-Pro 840. To be honest I think you should go for the M500 even over the 840 Pro considering the price difference and I doubt you'd be able to notice the performance difference.

 

[Obzoleet]

I personally think you should get the 7950 over the GTX 760, it comes with 3 free games and will be a bit better in gaming over the 760 (It is ranked around a 660ti from last gen ive seen and the 660ti was below a 7950).

I was in the same thinking for awhile but after looking at some game benchmarks it seems that the 7950 doesnt work as well as GTX on higher resolutions,

Since I will be using a 1920x1080 screen I decided to go for GTX 770 since it seems to be a really good card and still at an affordable price,

You can see my full setup in the amazon wish list I posted a wee bit up in this thread, if you see anything I can change for the better or just have any tips that would be appreciated

 

[Obzoleet]

PSU calculators always overestimate your power requirements. There's nothing wrong with a bit of overprovisioning but a non-OC Haswell CPU + GTX 770 + one HDD won't consume more than 300W under load so 750W really is a bit excessive.

The normal 840 uses TLC nand which is especially bad for lower capacity (120GB) drives because it will degrade quicker. Considering the M500 is cheaper there's no reason at all to go for the non-Pro 840. To be honest I think you should go for the M500 even over the 840 Pro considering the price difference and I doubt you'd be able to notice the performance difference.

I see... yeah I would assume that they would overestimate it with a few W...

Ah well, I have decided to go with 600W then atleast, its only 10 pounds cheaper then 750 so not saving a lot there.

But the SSD you mentioned was 30 pound cheaper than the 840 so I decided to go with the m500, it got some great reviews, I basically just wanna store some games on it and my operating system.

but when I have changed this, do you think its a solid setup? I do know how to put a computer togheter but could there be anything in this build that I should give some more thought before ordering and trying to install?

Thanks!

 

[slh28]

Looks like you're all set, I think you'll be happy with the gaming performance. Just make sure you read a few guides/watch youtube videos of how to put the PC together. You don't have many components so should be pretty straightforward.

 

[GhostRyder]

Well I thought you were at first looking at a 760 not a 770, that sortta changes things in that reguards. A 7970 and a 770 are roughly on par in gaming benchmarks, since your looking at a 770, you can save some money and get a 7970 GHZ edition and get a better card. They about perform on par in most cases, but the 770 is essentially an overclocked 680 with a higher memory bandwidth.

As for the 840 pro vs non pro, I have a 512gb 840 pro and I have a 256gb non pro. The major difference between them is the Write speeds which are slower on non-pro editions. I would save the money personally at your budget and get that because the Pro is a little excessive for your needs as the read speed is going to matter more to you after things are installed and the write speed is plenty fast.

 

[Obzoleet]

Well I thought you were at first looking at a 760 not a 770, that sortta changes things in that reguards. A 7970 and a 770 are roughly on par in gaming benchmarks, since your looking at a 770, you can save some money and get a 7970 GHZ edition and get a better card. They about perform on par in most cases, but the 770 is essentially an overclocked 680 with a higher memory bandwidth.

As for the 840 pro vs non pro, I have a 512gb 840 pro and I have a 256gb non pro. The major difference between them is the Write speeds which are slower on non-pro editions. I would save the money personally at your budget and get that because the Pro is a little excessive for your needs as the read speed is going to matter more to you after things are installed and the write speed is plenty fast.

I was looking between the 760 and the 7950 but later decided to put more money into it, the reason why I decided 770 over 7970 is because the 770 did better on the gaming benchmarks

regarding the SSD I decided to go for an M500 since it was cheaper and had some nice reviews

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Care to link the power supply you've chosen?
I myself would probably get the 7970 given the choice but they're actually all good cards with similar price/performance ratios.

 

[Obzoleet]

Care to link the power supply you've chosen?
I myself would probably get the 7970 given the choice but they're actually all good cards with similar price/performance ratios.

I chose the Corsair Builder Series CXM 600W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU , it came with good review,

I will make the purchase in 2 weeks, if nothing changes until then it would seem that I got my final build, I am hoping that the prices will drop until then

 

[slh28]

AMD are releasing their new generation GPUs within a month so keep your eyes peeled and there might be a price reduction soon. Prices of the other components won't change much though, in fact the price of RAM has slowly increased recently.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Right in that case lookout for the 25th.

 

[GhostRyder]

Yea, thats the day to wait for change, I mean right now AMD cards are dirt cheap and come with free games!!! I cant imagine how low they will go after this annoucement.

I was looking between the 760 and the 7950 but later decided to put more money into it, the reason why I decided 770 over 7970 is because the 770 did better on the gaming benchmarks

regarding the SSD I decided to go for an M500 since it was cheaper and had some nice reviews

That depends whose reviews your looking at and what games, truthfully the 7970ghz edition outclassed the 680 in most agmes as of recent drivers and updates. Many games perform the same or better on a 7970ghz edition, plus its cheaper, has more ram, and comes with free games. But im not trying to convince you to change your mind, just showing that the option exists and you can grab 7970's in CFX for less than 600, get 4-8 games free (Depends on the company and what card), and be a pretty solid contender for quite some time.

The 770 is a great card especially considering the price compared to the other offers from nvidia at the moment. Its probable their best bang for buck card while being competitive in games right now in my opinion. But I believe the 7970 cant be beat right now when I look at the benchmarks and the price.

 

[Obzoleet]

Yea, thats the day to wait for change, I mean right now AMD cards are dirt cheap and come with free games!!! I cant imagine how low they will go after this annoucement.


That depends whose reviews your looking at and what games, truthfully the 7970ghz edition outclassed the 680 in most agmes as of recent drivers and updates. Many games perform the same or better on a 7970ghz edition, plus its cheaper, has more ram, and comes with free games. But im not trying to convince you to change your mind, just showing that the option exists and you can grab 7970's in CFX for less than 600, get 4-8 games free (Depends on the company and what card), and be a pretty solid contender for quite some time.

The 770 is a great card especially considering the price compared to the other offers from nvidia at the moment. Its probable their best bang for buck card while being competitive in games right now in my opinion. But I believe the 7970 cant be beat right now when I look at the benchmarks and the price.

The reviews I referred to was regarding the M500 SSD all the graphic cards has good reviews,

However the 7970 GHZ directcu ll is 60 pounds more expensive then the 770 one which I currently have chosen , but there are other 7970 that is cheaper too but I heard directcu ll is good cooling and the 770 one is reduced to 300 poundish atm.

Oh and are there any clocking possibilities for this build? ( I know I should go with another processor if I wanna clock but still) I have never clocked and im not sure I ever will but it does sound interesting.

Oh and , abit off topic here, my girlfriend just bought an GS70 Stealth MSI laptop for her gaming and of course, I need to beat her with my stationary, however I don't have 1,6k pounds to put in a computer, I only have 1k.

Do you think the current computer setup would be able to beat her laptop?
I have tried to explain to her that a stationary is unbeatable in performance to a laptop so now of course, I will have to show this in practice ^^

The laptop has a GTX 765 GPU 2GB and a i7 4700HQ CPU , 2 ssd and 1Tb HDD.

If would be abit embarrassing if I would not be able to beat her laptop after all our discussions

Thank you for taking time on this ^!

 

[Obzoleet]

Also, um, have I missed a soundcard here?

 

[slh28]

Oh and , abit off topic here, my girlfriend just bought an GS70 Stealth MSI laptop for her gaming and of course, I need to beat her with my stationary, however I don't have 1,6k pounds to put in a computer, I only have 1k.

Do you think the current computer setup would be able to beat her laptop?

Easily. Mobile GPUs are trimmed down and underclocked versions of desktop GPUs due to the obvious heat issues.

If you want to overclock you need to upgrade to a 4670K, a Z87 motherboard and an aftermarket cooler which overall will probably cost around £70 more. You probably won't notice much difference when gaming, but if you can spare the extra cash it could be a good future proofing idea.

Also, um, have I missed a soundcard here?

You don't need a soundcard unless you have expensive speakers to go with it.

 

[Obzoleet]

Easily. Mobile GPUs are trimmed down and underclocked versions of desktop GPUs due to the obvious heat issues.

If you want to overclock you need to upgrade to a 4670K, a Z87 motherboard and an aftermarket cooler which overall will probably cost around £70 more. You probably won't notice much difference when gaming, but if you can spare the extra cash it could be a good future proofing idea.


You don't need a soundcard unless you have expensive speakers to go with it.

Alright, ty for the info, seems like I am all set then!

 

[GhostRyder]

The reviews I referred to was regarding the M500 SSD all the graphic cards has good reviews,

However the 7970 GHZ directcu ll is 60 pounds more expensive then the 770 one which I currently have chosen , but there are other 7970 that is cheaper too but I heard directcu ll is good cooling and the 770 one is reduced to 300 poundish atm.

Oh and are there any clocking possibilities for this build? ( I know I should go with another processor if I wanna clock but still) I have never clocked and im not sure I ever will but it does sound interesting.

Oh and , abit off topic here, my girlfriend just bought an GS70 Stealth MSI laptop for her gaming and of course, I need to beat her with my stationary, however I don't have 1,6k pounds to put in a computer, I only have 1k.

Do you think the current computer setup would be able to beat her laptop?
I have tried to explain to her that a stationary is unbeatable in performance to a laptop so now of course, I will have to show this in practice ^^

The laptop has a GTX 765 GPU 2GB and a i7 4700HQ CPU , 2 ssd and 1Tb HDD.

If would be abit embarrassing if I would not be able to beat her laptop after all our discussions !

In order, I see so the 7970 is more expensive for you? Odd, I have only seen it constantly cheaper, but I guess it depends where you have to shop. The Direct CUII are very good coolers, I personally live the EVGA ACX cooler better as with a recent review put it at the top in terms of cooling performance.

As for the 4570 (Non k or K variant) compared to your GF's laptop, heres the deal in that area. The 770 you have outclasses the GPU in it significantly, the 765m can be more closely related to a 650-650ti range (It ranks right in between them) which is way below the GTX 770.

As for the 4570 vs the 4700QM, that's a different story.
i7 4700QM

i5 4570

The i7 mobile does benchmark higher than the i5 on desktop, however a lot of that is attributed to the extra threads. In gaming performance, they will probably be about on par, however overall, you will see the i7 as being more powerful even though its a mobile processor.

 

[Obzoleet]

Hello , I have been looking around and found a website where I built a computer, you can check the build here >

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/saved/659259

I think I could save some money here by ordering everything except the GPU, If I order the GPU from cyberpowersystem it will cost more, and I get a random NVidia one.

If I go to amazon I can order the asus directCU ll instead which is cheaper and should be better

If I order this from the cyberpowersystem I do get to pay a little more but not much at all, my wallet can handle it, I would get a better case, more cooling, an overclocked 4670k and liquid cooling, also I wouldn't have to put it togheter myself.

Can you take a look at the build and tell me what you think I should do?

What would the pros and cons be?

Thanks!

 

[Obzoleet]

Nevermind my latest reply, prices was calculated ex VAT...

 

[GhostRyder]

Lol

Well as far as Cyberpower goes, one of my friends built an machine with a i7 2600k and a GTX 580 back a few years now and its running strong and a very nice machine. For the money, cyberpower can be a little pricey in some areas, but they are a good deal for a gaming desktop.

Also unless im misreading that, you didn't select the GPU, which by your post im guessing you wanted the machine just the way it was, then adding a GPU of your own choosing from amazon.

My only complaint with Cyberpower is they are very strict about messing with your system. They have lots of limitations and my friend also ordered the pre-overclock setup and when it came, the first thing that came up when he powered the machine up:
"Overclocking Failed"
So it went straight to default settings and he had to call to get there overclock settings back (Which became irrelevant later as I just overclocked it two weeks later to 4.8ghz lawlz).

It will be cheaper to of course build your own, but I would say this is you are buying from CyberPower:

1on't pay for the Pre-Overclock, just look up someone's overclock settings and do it your self, its cheaper and easier, plus you can push it further as long as you grab a liquid cooler.
2: Watch for specials and work around them
3: Don't cheap out on components or do bare minimums, pick name brands to avoid these cheap branded parts.

That's my advice for that area, I do like cyberpower, but I would rather build a machine than have them do it because of the limitaions of expanding/adjusting parts.

 

[slh28]

Also consider that if you buy from a system builder their warranties are usually shorter than if you bought the components yourself. For example Cyberpower offers a 2 year parts warranty even though individual components will come with at least a 3 year (some even lifetime) warranties.

You're pretty much just paying someone a few hundred £'s to build the system since you already know what parts you're going to get.

 

[Obzoleet]

Small update >

I believe my build is done :

Intel Core i5 4570
8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance
Samsung 120GB 840
500GB S-ATAIII
Asus Xonar Sound card
CM Storm Stryker case
600W Corsair CX

The cost for these parts in total is 664£ which leaves me roughly with 300-400 pounds to put in a GPU.

I will wait until the end of October and buy a BF4 GPU bundle from AMD ( If they aren't ridiculously expensive)

Thank you for all the help earlier in this thread, and again if there is any tips or opinions they are welcome

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Fair choices, not sure if you'll need the soundcard or not but that's a personal choice. Most people won't notice a difference but there are plenty who will.

 

[Obzoleet]

Fair choices, not sure if you'll need the soundcard or not but that's a personal choice. Most people won't notice a difference but there are plenty who will.

As of this moment I am using headphones but am saving for some decent speakers so I would just like to have the card ready to go in my computer

Oh and I forgot to write down the motherboard,

at the moment I am torn between >

Gigabyte H87M-HD3
or
Gigabyte Z87-HD3

The first one is abit cheaper, but im not sure how much better the Z87 is or what its actually better at other then the pci slots being faster I think

what you reckon?

 

[GhostRyder]

As of this moment I am using headphones but am saving for some decent speakers so I would just like to have the card ready to go in my computer

Oh and I forgot to write down the motherboard,

at the moment I am torn between >

Gigabyte H87M-HD3
or
Gigabyte Z87-HD3

The first one is abit cheaper, but im not sure how much better the Z87 is or what its actually better at other then the pci slots being faster I think

what you reckon?

Well since your not getting an unlocked processor, if you want to save a couple of bucks, I would get the H87 variant. If you want to get an unlocked chip (a "K" Variant) definitely get the Z87.

With the choice of a sound card, I must ask why you think you need it. Now I personally have one basically because it was a gift. My board the Asus Crosshair V-Z has a very good built in sound card that can handle most things. Unless your getting like a 7.1 Surround sound system (Headphones or speakers), I would say skip the sound card and invest in either better board for a better on board one. Though that Z87-HD3 has a pretty good on board one as it is so I would not even bother if you go with that board.

 

[Obzoleet]

Well since your not getting an unlocked processor, if you want to save a couple of bucks, I would get the H87 variant. If you want to get an unlocked chip (a "K" Variant) definitely get the Z87.

With the choice of a sound card, I must ask why you think you need it. Now I personally have one basically because it was a gift. My board the Asus Crosshair V-Z has a very good built in sound card that can handle most things. Unless your getting like a 7.1 Surround sound system (Headphones or speakers), I would say skip the sound card and invest in either better board for a better on board one. Though that Z87-HD3 has a pretty good on board one as it is so I would not even bother if you go with that board.

You are probably right, I decided to skip it and invest in it later on if I still want it,

However regarding the motherboards, I will probably not go with a K CPU but according to my friend I might still want to go with the Z87 one since it has a PCI 3.0x16 , which will work better with my GPU if its a PCI 3.0x16 GPU and be able to cram out a few extra %s out of the card.

Is that so? at the moment I am kinda thinking in just going with the cheaper of the motherboard, still its only about 15 pounds difference so I would probably go with the Z87 if it would work better with my GPU.