My computer! Feedback would be great!

[Ogawdspider]

Hello everybody. I am building a PC (Who would have guessed right?) I have been doing a lot of research. I have been a PC gamer for a while so i knew a thing or two i was just more out of the loop than anything. I know there isn't a case listed but I already own a Fractal Design R4 (saw it on sale and purchased it up already) I also already have a mouse & monitor.

What i truly want to know overall is for people who have streamed/video edited (because i never have but want to) will this system perform in a way most people would describe as "Above Average"? I will mainly be playing WoW/LoL but I also enjoy First person shooters (CoD/BF/etc..) I will not however stream or record FPS. I also want to know if my choice in PSU is a good one.. that's the only part i have not 100% decided on but i have read good things about the XFX Pro series. My total budget is 1650$ I will be Overclocking which is why i went with the H100i because i know haswell runs at higher temps. So keeping it in a good 85-90 degree area @ 4.5-4.8 isn't easy.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($159.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($58.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($100.41 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1303.82
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-06 17:29 EDT-0400)


Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[Punisher]

It seems to be a good build, your PSU is haswell-certified, which is good.
You may want a higher capacity SSD, but its up to you.

I personally wouldnt be picking a cavier black for a second drive, more like a green/blue, for power consomption and you don't need this performance for a storage drive

[Ogawdspider]

You may want a higher capacity SSD, but its up to you.

I was thinking that as well. Just kind of setting the 120 in there for now to see if people who have streamed a lot would suggest an i7 over an i5.

I personally wouldnt be picking a cavier black for a second drive, more like a green/blue, for power consomption and you don't need this performance for a storage drive

I cannot give you a source but i read that having the higher quality HDD when video editing is an advantage... but i could be wrong.

[Punisher]

I understood that you did not wanted to stream, sorry about this. If you stream/record a lot, (or plan to) yes, a i7 could be a better choice. For the storage, you might also want to save your data on your SSD (higher write speeds) and backup on a HDD.

---------- Post added 2013-06-06 at 06:36 PM ----------

I dont know the exqct consomption of a 770, but 750 watts might be too big

[a21fa7c67f26f6d49a20c2c51]

The performance gains for video encoding for hyperthreading are real but small (on the order of 5-10%). Streaming is sort of like healing in warcraft - it's not like DPS.
You need to encode <x> amount of video in <y> amount of time -- kinda like you need to heal <x> amount of damage in <y> amount of time. If you can heal more than that you're got resources to spare - likewise if you can record more than that amount then you've got resources to spare. In the case of streaming you could use that to offer slightly better image quality by doing better compression or you would have more of a 'buffer' for CPU intensive parts of the game. The i5 is perfectly keeping up with the demand of a good quality stream while also playing warcraft with very high quality graphics.

I've had both (3570k, 3770k, and now 4770k) and while I don't make it a habbit to stream I've done enough testing to find that the difference is marginal in warcraft. If you've got $100 to blow; go nuts, but it isn't required to have a very good result.


For editing, more disk bandwidth is better. Fortunately, a single 1080p low data-rate channel + 2-3 channels of audio isn't very demanding. It's unlikely that you'll tax a tax a modern 7200 RPM disk o the point of being frustrated. It's not until you're dealing with 2-3 cameras + assets + 3-5 audio tracks where you're going to start saying 'man I wish this disk was quicker'. For the sort of <20 minute projects that gamers tend to work with you'll get a better experience from more ram than multiple fast hard disks.

For capture things change a little. Disk bandwidth is in short supply and it's pretty easy to cap out an SSD for bandwidth with uncompressed 1080p60. Fortunately, there's almost no reason to capture that kind f quality. You can get very high compression for relatively tiny amounts of CPU time. 360mbyte/second down to a very manageable 50mbyte/second is easy -- and once this stuff is on youtube it'll be impossible to detect a quality loss. TO handle stuff in the 80mb/s range you only need a single reasonably quick hard disk (any good 7200rpm drive will do it). I like to record to raid sets because it's a cheap way to double the effective bandwidth. 2x1TB is preferable to 1x2TB and the difference in cost is few bucks. Having more bandwidth that you need is preferable because if the disk can't keep up with the recording then that data is lost: the recording will look laggy and there's no way to fix it when the data never gets written to disk in the first palce.

If you're recording uncompressed video then 1TB goes by very quickly but for a sane recording format (like Lagarith YV12 @ 1080p30) it's enough to record for 5 or 6 hours. So long as you clean up and re-compress the stuff you want to keep at the end of the day you don't really need more.

Overall the system you've built looks perfectly serviceable for what you're looking to do. If it were my money, I'd spend the $100 that an i7 would cost on more ram, a bigger SSD or a discrete sound card (multiple audio channels make your captures more flexible). If I was the sort of person who played FPS games then a more powerful GPU would also be a good way to spend that money. An i7 would be pretty far down my list of priorities unless my budget was closer to $2000. In fact, I'd argue $100 for a bottle of scotch to drink while you're building it would be the best use of your money - but then, who wouldn't?

[Punisher]

Or you could get a capture card or something like a live gamer portable

---------- Post added 2013-06-06 at 07:42 PM ----------

Oh and what are your internet speeds?
Link us a speedtest

[Deleted]

Made a few changes to your original system:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: NZXT HAVIK 140 90.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-K ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($107.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($163.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1311.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-06 19:36 EDT-0400)

CPUHS - The Havik 140 or maybe the Phanteks PH-TC14PE will save you some money and still perform great.

Motherboard - Really don't need to spend more more than that. If you actually have a Microcenter near you i guess you can get one a little more expensive or simply save the $40.

RAM - changed to low profile to fir with the CPU heatsink change and 16GB.

SSD - Double the capacity, less micromanaging in the future.

PSU - 550W good quality is all you need (modular as well)

[Punisher]

PSU - 550W good quality is all you need (modular as well)

quality is all you need, all you need is quality

[Deleted]

quality is all you need, all you need is quality

Quiet silly

[Ogawdspider]

In fact, I'd argue $100 for a bottle of scotch to drink while you're building it would be the best use of your money - but then, who wouldn't?

Truly thank you for the knowledge. It is very much appreciated. I am assuming you referred to Raid 0 for performance. I am going to consider this because i truly do want to do some video making / editing. I will also be upgrading to 16 GB of Ram instead of 8. TY for suggestions. btw- i am pretty sure i am going to put this quote as a signature because not only do i agree with the statement but it's probably the best advice anyone has ever received in regards to building a computer

Oh and what are your internet speeds?
Link us a speedtest

Well ya see i am currently deployed and in the middle of the ocean on a U.S Navy Vessel so i will not be able to do it. Back home though i had fairly good internet speeds.

Motherboard - Really don't need to spend more more than that. If you actually have a Microcenter near you i guess you can get one a little more expensive or simply save the $40.
RAM - changed to low profile to fir with the CPU heatsink change and 16GB.
SSD - Double the capacity, less micromanaging in the future.
B]PSU[/B] - 550W good quality is all you need (modular as well)

Thank you very much for you time in looking up different parts and the advice. I will be upping the SSD to a 250GB because i agree that it will create less hassle in the future. I am also going to change to the Modular PSU, i have heard wonderful things about them and you confirmed my suspicions in multiple posts. For the motherboard i was wondering if the Asus will still be able to OC as well as say the Asrock Extreme 4? I know these z87 mobos are new and there isnt a whole lot of info out there yet but the Extreme 4 does have a wonderful track record for OC potential.

[Punisher]

Well ya see i am currently deployed and in the middle of the ocean on a U.S Navy Vessel so i will not be able to do it. Back home though i had fairly good internet speeds.

No problem

As long it is better than my shitty canadian internet, it should be okay

Thank you very much for you time in looking up different parts and the advice. I will be upping the SSD to a 250GB because i agree that it will create less hassle in the future. I am also going to change to the Modular PSU, i have heard wonderful things about them and you confirmed my suspicions in multiple posts. For the motherboard i was wondering if the Asus will still be able to OC as well as say the Asrock Extreme 4? I know these z87 mobos are new and there isnt a whole lot of info out there yet but the Extreme 4 does have a wonderful track record for OC potential.

Yeah, modular PSU are nice (I got a fully wired edition you know)
Can't help you with this Asus motherboard, I don't know it and I can't find anything on it, but they usually make good quality stuff

[Ogawdspider]

Yeah, modular PSU are nice (I got a fully wired edition you know)
Can't help you with this Asus motherboard, I don't know it and I can't find anything on it, but they usually make good quality stuff

What do you mean by fully wired edition?

I agree that asus makes quality products. I have had a Asus ROG laptop for just about 3 years now and it has NEVER had a problem and done everything i wanted. But the problem of not being able to find info on current gen mobo's will just be something we have to deal with for a little while. I am sure reviews and benchmarks and what not will be out soon for them.

[a21fa7c67f26f6d49a20c2c51]

Sadly those devices (at least in my experience with the Avermedia Live Gamer HD) don't justify the cost. If you're happy with the quaity of video that they capture then you could get similar results by configuring your capture software to use 'crumby quality' compression. Also, while they do integrate with Xsplit it's only for frame capture which is such a low-demand task that it doesn't really matter. The only way that's useful to a PC gamer is if they intended to live-stream another device (like their XBox).

I briefly considered using mine stuffed into a case with an old CPU+motherboard to encode/stream video from a game that I'm playing on another computer - but I doubt the OP really plans to drop a $200 card into an ~$600 PC (because you still need a quality CPU/Motherboard/etc) just so that he can easily stream the one he's building. If that's your use case you'd be better served by something like a blackmagic card anyway (they have much better software support for professional tools).

If you're going to be doing the streaming and game playing on the same computer and you're prepared to live with the quality that the Avermedia cards put to disk (it's not great) then you can get similar recording quality and similar CPU use just by configuring your capture software to do a 'low quality' capture. I think it's very difficult to justify them for the typical gamer use-case. They're mostly foolproof, they have a big red button you can put on your desk to start/stop recording, and they do a pretty good job of recording the windows desktop (fraps and dxtory are not ideal for that) but I think those aren't very compelling reasons for the typical gamer.

Edit:

not only do i agree with the statement but it's probably the best advice anyone has ever received in regards to building a computer

If you'll allow one more recommendation, Glenmorangie Nectar d'or is brilliant on hot summer days and it doesn't break the bank either. If you want to go a little more exotic, the Japanese have put out a damn fine whiskey in the Yamazaki 18, the 12 year is nice too though a little less refined.

[Deleted]

I take back the Asus Asus Z87-K considering your overclocking needs/expectations. The K model only features a 4 phase power design.

I'd go for either of these:

MSI Z87-G45 Gaming || Review/comparison

ASUS Z87-A || Review

The Bottom Line

The ASUS Z87-A motherboard showed to be an incredibly stable piece of overclocking equipment and carried with it an "upgraded experience" when coming from working with the latest Z77 chipset equipped motherboards. If the Z87-A represent the "low end," we think that ASUS has likely nailed down a very solid footprint in the Z87 market.

ASRock Z87 Extreme3 || Extreme 3 and Extreme 4 feature comparison

[Punisher]

What do you mean by fully wired edition?

Fully wired is... fully wired, non-modular
Basically a lot of trouble in cable management
What I meant is that the modular are a dream compared to this


@Evn

I don't know for the live gamer HD, but the live gamer portable does good (in my opinion)
But yes, im fairly sure that money could be better spend somewhere else (like in alcohol


Here is a video with the live gamer portable
(MP4)



With OBS and a good internet speed, I doubt you will ever need something better than your i5-4670k to stream, unless you want higher quality, then a i7 will be worthing the cost.

You don't need a lot of horse power to stream LoL, however WoW is heavily CPU dependant,

[Ogawdspider]

If you'll allow one more recommendation, Glenmorangie Nectar d'or is brilliant on hot summer days and it doesn't break the bank either. If you want to go a little more exotic, the Japanese have put out a damn fine whiskey in the Yamazaki 18, the 12 year is nice too though a little less refined.

I don't feel like i can thank folks enough for the advice.. Sadly i am a fan of Irish whiskey.. but if i see any of these around or i'm feeling squirrelly i will give them a shot.

@Notarget.. That Asus board looks very nice with the performance i am looking for. I appreciate the input!

I believe I am going to set up a RAID 0 with 2 1TB and see where that takes me. I can afford it and i have always wanted to. Cheers to everyone and there input!

[Deleted]

You can send a bottle my may, I won't complain.

[Ogawdspider]

You can send a bottle my may, I won't complain.

I'll get right one that! One bottle or two?

[Deleted]

One is fine I'm not greedy.

[Ogawdspider]

One is fine I'm not greedy.

Sounds good bro!