28 replies to this topic

[JohnyBlack]

Hey all,

I'm looking into upgrading from a non-gaming laptop to a gaming cube (it needs to look nice... wife...).

Currently I only play MWO, but I would look into Star Citizen later on.
I prefer to have it assembled for me, even though I probably could build it on my own.

So, this is the set-up I thinking about in the moment:

Case: Bitfenix - Prodigy white

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690, 4x 3.50GHz | HD 4600 - Refresh

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WiFi, Intel H87, Mini-ITX

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (2x 8GB)

SSD: No

Hard Drive: 1TB WD Caviar Green

Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Combo LG CH12NS30 (inkl. BluRay Softwarepaket)

Power: 600W - BeQuiet! SystemPower 7

CPU-Cooler: Scythe Katana 3

Here the link to the full build (German site):
http://www.mifcom.de...p?id=QWB3R9J59I

My main questions are:
- is the set-up good (CPU/GPU/Cooling/Power etc.)?
- do I need a SSD? What are the benefits?
- any recommendations to a German site for ordering? Mifcom is just the first I stubbled over.

Thanks
Johny

[Smokeyjedi]

JohnyBlack, on 13 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

Hey all,

I'm looking into upgrading from a non-gaming laptop to a gaming cube (it needs to look nice... wife...).

Currently I only play MWO, but I would look into Star Citizen later on.
I prefer to have it assembled for me, even though I probably could build it on my own.

So, this is the set-up I thinking about in the moment:

Case: Bitfenix - Prodigy white

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690, 4x 3.50GHz | HD 4600 - Refresh

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WiFi, Intel H87, Mini-ITX

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (2x 8GB)

SSD: No

Hard Drive: 1TB WD Caviar Green

Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Combo LG CH12NS30 (inkl. BluRay Softwarepaket)

Power: 600W - BeQuiet! SystemPower 7

CPU-Cooler: Scythe Katana 3

Here the link to the full build (German site):
http://www.mifcom.de...p?id=QWB3R9J59I

My main questions are:
- is the set-up good (CPU/GPU/Cooling/Power etc.)?
- do I need a SSD? What are the benefits?
- any recommendations to a German site for ordering? Mifcom is just the first I stubbled over.

Thanks
Johny

Other than going Z97 platform, for best possible VRM combo and dropping to 8gb of 2133 or faster ddr3.
The SSD will make boot times, and load times for everything much much faster........Infact a hell of a lot faster. size is the only negative with SSDs that and they are still more pricey than Hdds/

**EDIT**
now that I have followed your link I see how limiting this builder site is.
No WD caviar black as option????? really?

No higher than 1600mhz DDR3 as option.

yikes.......ending up with sub-optimal build is never cool

Edited by Smokeyjedi, 13 June 2014 - 03:02 AM.

[DrSlamastika]

SSD is great thing. Install system and your favourite game on it and you will by fine.

[Smokeyjedi]

Short of a shopping spree at your local major computer store to hand pick the components this site is pretty badass, just the easily selected customize options are limitless./http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

[Smokeyjedi]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4Zwkgs

**COUGHS** COUGHS**

take this, build it, use the thermal paste on GPU too, thats right peel it apart, and replace the thermal compound using alcohol and cotton swabs........drop temps by another 5 degrees celcius (srry im in CDN)

than you would have a proper gaming rig, no hype, just FPS and tire smoke!!!!

case mod maybe required for CORSAIR H60 radiator, try dropping to a H50?
case mod for 770(site said drive bay removal-chance to show off SSD) but who wouldn't jam that beast in there? you'd be crazy not to.......

in 3 months after you learn the system you OC the I5 to 4.4-4.5ghz and have literally a nasty gaming beast on your desk.

Edited by Smokeyjedi, 13 June 2014 - 03:29 AM.

[Catamount]

Hmm, I like it, Smokey.

Just one thing though, ditch the Adata SSD for this: http://uk.pcpartpick...rive-mz7te250bw

[Smokeyjedi]

I really hate to say it but if I were to ever(my mind races now after that.) build an Intel getup, That would probably be it, or the I7 devils canyon K series, but OC factor goes for poop, due to extra 4 threads.

And the Adata is seemingly solid, and cheap.<----win, but Samsung makes quality pieces always.

[Catamount]

Well the 840 EVOs are faster than other drives, overall. It's not night and day between them and the other top drives, but it definitely edges them out.

Tweaktown called it "the best consumer SSD on the market for most users" and it did blow away its competition in their tests except for the OCZ Vector, which gave it a good run.

http://www.tweaktown...ce/index14.html (Note: I think the 500GB version in that review was given a firmware update the 750 was not)



Still, otherwise I agree with the build. I mean, there's things one could nitpick about, but it's mostly price-side and those objections change with region anyways, like Europe doesn't have Rosewill power supplies (I'm sorry) so I can't object to not picking one. Seconded on Devil's Canyon, although honestly for OCers I still like Ivy bridge better.

Edited by Catamount, 13 June 2014 - 07:09 AM.

[xWiredx]

Smokey, with an Intel build DDR3-1600 is fine. Due to the better memory controller on Intel chips, especially Haswell, the bandwidth is nearly double that of a comparatively-clocked AMD chip. Unlike an AMD piledriver-based setup, where you can still see some gains after DDR3-1600, they're negligible on an Intel setup.

Catamount - Sandy Bridge > Ivy Bridge to overclockers. We have less thermal problems and our chips use less energy when overclocked to the same frequencies. The same is true for SB vs HW, too. I could probably pull some good numbers from a DC chip, but I'm waiting for HW-E. Finally found a real need for memory bandwidth and more threads.

[Goose]

xWiredx, on 13 June 2014 - 07:20 AM, said:

Smokey, with an Intel build DDR3-1600 is fine.

This, again?

[Catamount]

I'm more on the fence about SB vs IB, but I don't necessarily disagree. I've seen and heard of many IB chips getting really high into the 4 range, and they have a significantly lower TDP, so it can be done on much cheaper coolers, IF you're willing to de-lid (or get lucky, I did not get lucky). I realize SB can hit 5 quite often while IB almost never does, even on water.

My point was more just that Haswell sucks if you're willing to OC, because the tiny IPC difference is bulldozed over by the vastly higher clocks SB/IB can do.

I'm not sure about about Devil's Canyon. Based on the high stock clocks I'm guessing the 4790Ks are probably hand-picked, not unlike how HW review samples typically seemed to be (hence why they OC far beyond what any typical consumer chip does), but the 4790k is also looking to be very expensive.

Edited by Catamount, 13 June 2014 - 07:57 AM.

[xWiredx]

Goose, on 13 June 2014 - 07:48 AM, said:

This, again?

Yes, because as your link even shows, the only time memory speed is actually worth a damn for gaming is when you're CPU-limited instead of GPU-limited. Unless the OP is going to do a ton of zipping/unzipping for no apparent reason and running benchmarks that specifically test memory speed, there's no noticeable difference.

Catamount - Basically, what I've seen is that if you take the high-end average OC for SB/IB/HW they're all right about equal performance-wise. A DC at 4.8GhZ would be a small improvement over my SB at 5GhZ, but probably not enough to care for most things. The advantage there is that SB uses slightly less energy to maintain that performance. The problem is that the chip is running at its upper limit and in a year or two will probably start to become progressively more unstable to the point where 4.2 or 4.0 GhZ will be as quick as she can run while being stable. Right now, I think I'm using 4.4GhZ daily, but I recently retested at 5.05GhZ just fine (a few hours of benchmarking to compare against HW).

[ninjitsu]

Smokeyjedi, on 13 June 2014 - 03:22 AM, said:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4Zwkgs

**COUGHS** COUGHS**

take this, build it, use the thermal paste on GPU too, thats right peel it apart, and replace the thermal compound using alcohol and cotton swabs........drop temps by another 5 degrees celcius (srry im in CDN)

than you would have a proper gaming rig, no hype, just FPS and tire smoke!!!!

case mod maybe required for CORSAIR H60 radiator, try dropping to a H50?
case mod for 770(site said drive bay removal-chance to show off SSD) but who wouldn't jam that beast in there? you'd be crazy not to.......

in 3 months after you learn the system you OC the I5 to 4.4-4.5ghz and have literally a nasty gaming beast on your desk.

AS5 doesn't perform very well on GPU's, Check this comparison out, http://www.tomshardw...rk,3616-20.html

[Goose]

$340 instead of $310? Meh…

[xWiredx]

Tom's should have included Shin Etsu in that comparison. Stuff has worked pretty well for me.

[Goose]

xWiredx, on 13 June 2014 - 08:07 AM, said:

Yes, because as your link even shows, the only time memory speed is actually worth a damn for gaming is when you're CPU-limited instead of GPU-limited …

[Catamount]

SB does maintain OCs on a fair bit less energy than HW for sure, but IB beats both of them

Whether that's worth the risk of a de-lid or not, I'll leave up to the consumer. I wish Intel had just stuck with a non-crappy solution for attaching the IHS.

[xWiredx]

Yeah, I'm waiting for them to go full-****** and try to sell an extreme to the max enthusiast overlocker edition devil's canyon 4975X for $1000 that is really just a cherry-picked 4970K without the IHS. AMD tried this once, kind of. Obviously they didn't delid their chip or anything, but I think I still have my TWKR chip in a box.

FWIW OP, since we've definitely derailed this thread beyond belief and definitely partly my fault, RAM is easy to upgrade (I'm sure you know this) so getting the lowest RAM offering from an OEM wouldn't be a bad thing as you can easily hand-pick an upgrade later on if it's needed.

Overall, it looks like a solid build that should enable you to play MWO as very high settings with a good framerate at 1080p.

[Goose]

JohnyBlack, on 13 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

… it needs to look nice … wife … do I need a SSD? What are the benefits?

DrSlamastika, on 13 June 2014 - 02:53 AM, said:

SSD is great thing.

This: An SSD it the #1 way to convey onto a significant other money for a new system was well spent, as boot times are easily perceivable …

[JohnyBlack]

So, I'll take a 256GB SSD and remove the normal hard drive.

I'm still looking for a company which would pre-build it and sell it to me.... in Germany.

Also, searching the Internet in Germany I've only found the i5 4670K and the i5 4690... not the i5 4690K.
Does it need to be the 4690K?