Which computer is the best bang for my buck

[Deleted]

Hello guys,

I am currently thinking of buying a new computer there's two builds I am looking at right now they stand at:

System Specification

- Case: NZXT Phantom Enthusiast Gaming Case - Black
- Power Supply: Super Flower 750W PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core Haswell Processor overclocked to 4.3GHz
- Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Sniper Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
- Cooler: Alpenfohn CPU Cooler
- RAM: up to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hard drive
- Secondary Hard drive: Samsung 120GB 840 Evo series solid state drive
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX Graphics Card (GTX 770 2048MB) configured in SLI
- Sound: High Definition 7.1 Onboard Sound Card

This computer stands at £1153 the more expensive option the second option below is £1100

- Intel Core i7 4770K @ 4.2GHz
- Case: Bitfenix Prodigy Micro ATX Gaming Case - Blackbr /> - Power Supply: Premium 600W 80+ Rated Power Supply
- Motherboard: Asus Z87 Gryphon Micro ATX Gaming Motherboard
- Cooler: Intel CPU Cooler
- RAM: 16GB 2133MHz DDR Dual Channel Memory
- Hard Drive: Seagate barracuda 1TB 7200RPM
- Secondary: Samsung 120GB 840 series solid state drive.
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 770 2048MB.
- Sound: High Definition 7.1 Onboard Sound Card - Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit with GeForce Experience Pre-Installed

Mainly using computer for gaming Warcraft, Swtor and a few other games. Which system would you guys say is best value for money and best for performance?

Thank you for your time
Kindest Regards,
Daruler

[Titheon]

RAM is cheap, go with 16GB.

[Eroginous]

A few things to go over:

1. Unless you want portability with your PC, you shouldn't be trying to use micro ATX or Mini ITX cases. It's difficult to know how well parts will fit together inside them until you have the parts in hand and you don't want to be dealing with returns/exchanges on opened products when you are on a budget. Bigger air coolers might not fit in the case you listed in your i7 build and if you plan on OCing you definitely want something better than the intel cooler. Also, the NZXT is probably a better value for it's price.

2. The difference between an i5 and an i7 is hyper threading and 2mb of cache. Otherwise they are virtually identical in features and specs. Hyper threading enables the use of virtual cores that effectively doubles the number of threads you can have running at any given time (from 4 on the i5 to 8 on the i7). This is great for productivity tasks such as rendering or video editing, but is not utilized for gaming (yet). Most games on the market will have trouble using more than 2 cores on a CPU and the few that will use all 4 will not use the extra 4 you get from hyper threading. This means that if your goal is to build a gaming rig, you can save money on the CPU and go with an i5 without sacrificing any performance.

3. The difference between 4gb and 64gb of ram typically ends up being the amount of productivity you can do at any given time (rendering/video editing). For gaming, most of the time you will never need more than 8gb of ram and games like Wow, SWTOR, D3 will not even use all 8gb, even with other programs running in the background. I've got 8gb in my machine and I can barely use more than 4gb at once even with multiple games running at the same time. The important part of ram is the speed and latency. You want lower CAS latency and higher MHZ speed (CAS 9 and 1600mhz is pretty much the gold standard atm, though AMD systems running on board video will benefit from faster system memory like 2400mhz).

Right now, the difference between 1600mhz and 1800mhz ram will be CAS latency and the overall performance in gaming will be negligible.

4. SLI vs Single graphics card does not provide you with a noticeable difference in performance unless you plan on utilizing multiple monitors or resolutions higher than 1080p. If you are running a single 1080p monitor you might as well take the money you would have spent on a second card and put it on a GTX 780 ti.

5. K parts and coolers: Both the CPUs you linked are K model CPUs, meaning their core clock speeds are unlocked and can be pushed higher than their rated speeds. On the i7 build you are showing a stock intel cooler (which will be fine for a non overclocked build) but you also have an OC capable i7 listed. On the i5 build you have a nice air cooler listed. It seems to me you are unsure whether or not you want to OC. If you don't plan on OCing, you can save a few dollars by buying a non K CPU and can stick with the intel stock cooler. However, if you plan on sticking with K parts, I suggest going with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo air cooler or an all in one water block.

6. Unless you plan on streaming or video capturing a lot of your game play you don't necessarily need a second 1TB HD. They are fairly cheap atm and it never hurts to have extra storage, but for storage I'd suggest a 1TB external that only spins up when you access it rather than being active the entire time your PC is on. You can get them in the new USB 3.0 standard. For just gaming I'd go with a bigger SSD (120gb is barely big enough to hold the OS and a few games, you want to leave at least 25% of your SSD free to maintain faster read/write speeds), something like this http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...rive_%28SSD%29. 500gb SSD is plenty of room and they have come down in price a lot since SSDs first entered the market. You want an SSD for games because of faster load times and smoother data execution. It makes sense to get an SSD big enough to house most of the games/programs you'll be utilizing along with your installation of Windows.

Here's a list I threw together based on your needs and budget:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3FJen
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3FJen/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3FJen/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.79 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£102.01 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.47 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.47 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£183.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (£406.99 @ Novatech)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£91.73 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.65 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1101.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-07 21:37 BST+0100)

GL and feel free to ask any questions.

[Deleted]

Thank you so much for taking the time you post such a detailed reply, It has truly helped me a lot it has really cleared up for me a few things for me. In regards to purely custom building getting my system built through overclockers. Unfortunately I can't build it myself due to work commitments, I was thinking of 250GB SSD over 120GB originally I don't think I'll need 500 can't see myself playing many games really on PC. If I go for the overclock option will defo get a better cooling system rather than the Intel.

Thank you again for such a helpful and insightful post,
Hypercutter

[Str8Tripa]

I5 4670K If you don't stream games!
I7 4770K If you do!

For motherboard i have owned all major brands say it with me Asus, Asus, Asus!

As for SLI don't do it use the money on a better single card!

Hold your horses on z87 z97 is about to become available! At an awesome price!

[Deleted]

Well i dont think you can lightly say that you can't stream with an i5 4670k. It really depends on the game, you can stream wow but it will probably have trouble at bf4 multi.

[chazus]

Moving this to the build/upgrade subforum!

[Yalingo]

OP, Eroginous hooked you up with a sweet system, the only thing I'd ask is are you running a single 1080p 60hz monitor? If so, the GTX 780 is complete overkill, unless you really want to throw money at this thing for no real gain.

A GTX 760 would more than easily handle the games you listed on ultra/max settings @ 1080p/60fps and you'll save yourself a couple hundred pounds.

[Deleted]

The only things I'd really consider changiung from Ero's build are the RAM (for these) and the Case, to the Corsair 300R. The savings can then be put into a 1TB HDD, for your music etc.

[Eroginous]

Thank you so much for taking the time you post such a detailed reply, It has truly helped me a lot it has really cleared up for me a few things for me. In regards to purely custom building getting my system built through overclockers. Unfortunately I can't build it myself due to work commitments, I was thinking of 250GB SSD over 120GB originally I don't think I'll need 500 can't see myself playing many games really on PC. If I go for the overclock option will defo get a better cooling system rather than the Intel.

Thank you again for such a helpful and insightful post,
Hypercutter

Just to be clear on the whole OCing vs not OCing thing, most motherboards come with overclocking profiles built into the UEFI that will allow you to increase performance without much risk of damage or requiring a ton of knowledge on the subject. Not only that, but the current gen Intel CPUs have turbo boost which will ramp up performance past the rated Speeds as needed anyway. It would be a good idea to go with a better cooler than the stock intel one even if you don't plan on going nuts with the overclocking, though I can understand budget constraints and utilizing the stock air cooler even if only temporarily.

OP, Eroginous hooked you up with a sweet system, the only thing I'd ask is are you running a single 1080p 60hz monitor? If so, the GTX 780 is complete overkill, unless you really want to throw money at this thing for no real gain.

A GTX 760 would more than easily handle the games you listed on ultra/max settings @ 1080p/60fps and you'll save yourself a couple hundred pounds.

Yes, games like Wow, Swtor, and D3 don't really push the envelop on graphics performance to where you need a 780. However, the build I listed easily accommodates for the 780 while giving him a lot of headroom for current generation games and future changes that might benefit from having a higher end card in the games he wants to play.

You certainly don't need a 780 to play any of those games, but if you have the budget for one, you might as well get it on the off chance you want to play games like BF3, Tomb Raider, CoD when it comes out, Destiny, Titan Fall, ect. All of which will have graphical elements capable of taking full advantage of a 780 even @ 1080p resolution on a single monitor.