About to purchase - any thoughts?

[Deleted]

Hi all, about to purchase my first build which I am planning on building over Christmas.

I have a budget of £1000 and was thinking of the following build:

CPU: i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus 787-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8gb (2x4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage: 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM HD
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB
Case: Shinobi Window ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: Corsair 600W 80+ Bronze Semi-Modular ATX
Will be running Windows 8.

(uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2eWqg)

I know I have posted before and Chazus gave me some great advice. Since then I was pointed towards the AMD R9 290 and am happy to pay a little more for the extra performance (Over the Nvidia GTX 770).

If anybody can spot any compatibility problems or problem areas that would be great - Otherwise I am really looking forward to getting started!

P.S. I cant seem to find a solid answer on how valuable spending an extra £60 to get an additional 120gb SSD. Any opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the help

[deathjester]

All looks really nice. That the CX600m PSU? Should be ok on that card and chip with a slight overclock (nothing is sure on Haswell anyways past 4.3 or so).

SSD is great for boot times in games and the OS, it wont help in game speed. That said it is never a bad thing. If you do more then game on your machine they are fantastic, and boot times can be annoying. It isn't required or anything. If you mainly play WoW, you have to wait for everyone else to get into a raid anyways and most don't have SSD's.

If loading screens in other games really annoy you, you will love an SSD.

[Deleted]

Hi Deathjester, thanks for the advice

Could you clarify what you meant by "nothing is sure on Haswell anyways past 4.3 or so"? I am new and trying to understand everything haha

Really sold me on the SSD - Does it require any complex set up or is it just plug in and see the improvements?

Thanks

[deathjester]

Hi Deathjester, thanks for the advice

Could you clarify what you meant by "nothing is sure on Haswell anyways past 4.3 or so"? I am new and trying to understand everything haha

Really sold me on the SSD - Does it require any complex set up or is it just plug in and see the improvements?

Thanks

SSD is an easy install yes. Most cases have a bracket/bay for it. Even my budget Haf 912 did and it was 49 bucks. Plug it in and put the OS on it. Boot is faster in Windows 8 if you need a new OS, but it is way faster then a normal HD in 7 as well and the new direct x is nothing special as far as an upgrade. If you are buying a new OS, then yes get windows 8.1 with the SSD as it will boot a lil faster. Install Windows on it and the favorite games you are playing atm. Don't defrag the SSD ever. They don't need it.


As far as Haswell oc? It is a complete crapshoot and a "silicon lottery". Some cardinal rules if you want the chip to last? Don't break 1.25 volts on manual voltage. Never use adaptive (as the motherboard will decide what it wants to use as voltage). Use realtemp, HW monitor cpuid. For testing? AIDA 64 temps aren't horrible. Prime is. I just use Guildwars 2 WvW, as instability crashes super fast and there are lots of games like that. Prime blend isn't horrible temp wise on a I5, but these 24 hour testers are full of it or have water cooling. There is no need to test a chip that long on air, and it is stupid to be honest. Games will find instability faster then anything. BF4 will crash within 30 minutes if you aren't stable. Always use dynamic as it underevolts/clocks the chip when idle. Don't let game temps over 75 C. You might get 4.5 on the evo 212 on an I5 (not happening on a I7 usually due to hyperthreading), you might get stuck at 4.2 before temps voltage gets out of control. Some chips need 1.25 to hit 4.2. Everything depends on what voltage is required for the OC to hit stability and the ranges are pretty big on Haswell.

Try 1.1 volts with cache at 3500 at first (you can up cache later and clockspeed>cache) and clock at 42. If you can boot into windows the chip ain't bad. Other people will say go to 4.6 on 1.2-1.25 volts (again keep the cache low because most chips can't do 1:1) and see if you can boot into windows. If you can? You got a damn good chip. Do NOT stress test at 1.25 volts. That is voltage that you need a dh-14/water cooling for (imo). It might be ok for an I5 and games, but a stress test and a I7 and hyperthreading hell no.

My I7 got 4.4 at 1.15 or something on the evo which meant really cool temps. Friend needed 1.25 for 4.2. The people overclocking with 1.3v on Haswell and up? Can afford to lose their chip, or have been convinced it's safe. I don't agree, others will and someone will probably call me a moron again on this forum. Up to you. How long does the chip need to last? For me? I need it to last a while.

Here is a pretty good guide. Much better then the crackheads on youtube, telling you to go 1:1 with the cache and use adaptive voltage.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1411077/h...ith-statistics

[chazus]

The people overclocking with 1.3v on Haswell and up? Can afford to lose their chip, or have been convinced it's safe. I don't agree, others will and someone will probably call me a moron again on this forum. Up to you. How long does the chip need to last? For me? I need it to last a while.

I think people largely say that going over 1.3 is safe, because the chip from intel is rated to 1.5 (1.52?).

However, again, it's sort of a crap shoot. Some CPU's are more stable at higher voltage than others. One person's CPU might hold at 1.45v without a hitch for years. It might need some stupid cooling, but it's fine... For them. It's all a case by case basis. There's also the situation of electromigration, which is 'more likely' at higher voltages, as far as I'm aware, but there's no set "If you do X, it will do Y".

The trick is to simply find what your system seems comfortable with, and what performance you're comfortable with. If you aren't trying to push the system as hard as you can, 4.2-4.3 for Haswell seems to be the sweet spot. My Ivy @ 4.4 currently (it is stable up to 4.6) maxes out wow, so I'm happy with that.

[Deleted]

I'd make a few adjustments.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£156.87 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£49.31 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£84.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£119.90 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (£239.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN3800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£19.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£55.62 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£12.50 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£69.32 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £972.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 23:02 GMT+0000)

Better quality PSU and modular.

Cheaper motherboard, they all more or less perform the same within the same price range.

You could save a little switching to a 120GB SSD but honestly I would advice you to get 250GB because it's much less of a hassle, not having to micromanage everything.

Since nothing else was specified I will assume you game a 1080p and therefore the 280X is more than fine and really good price/performance. Also no 290 non-reference cards.

Slightly better dual-band Wireless card.

Better cooling for the CPU, if you're into overclocking you want somethign a little better and this is also really quiet.

HDD - I just prefer WD for reliability.

As for the SSD just leave the HDD unplugged and install Windows like you normally would, once done and updated plug in the HDD.