McAtk

Tank you brob. Okay I read both articles very carefully in their entirety. Here are my thoughts and I would love some feedback if possible. It seems that the R9 290X is a much more mature and the only new card in the AMD range for this year. There seems to be a lot of improvements in terms of PCB design, GCN 1.0 vs 1.1 etc. Also a lot more hardware processing units have been added. However what i got from the review is that there is no new notable "functional" difference. Such as DirectX version support, or anything else that a regular user like myself might need ( not a developer, neither a scientist ). There seem to be new instructions but again i do not see them as anything i might require. Now the performance tests look absolutely impressive i will admit that but i find it tough to rationalize buying this considering that most of their tests were done in very high resolutions. It seems like even anandtech did not think that this card is for 1080p gamin ( 1920x1080) as most of their tests were done on higher resolution. At the same time the R9 280X seems to be a re brand but ... with slight improvements here and there and most of their tests in the 270X review where they showed 280X performance as well show very good performance on 1080p. So ultimately i now understand the landscape much better so again thank you brob! So now my current feeling is that considering that for the next 2 years i will NOT move to anything above 1080p not will i move to a multi display setup is there honestly any point in getting a 290X ? How can i justify the price difference ? Also can someone explain to me why can i find a 290X in amazon the same price as some 280X ? This confuses me even more ... Example: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-TRI-X-Graphics-Card-PCI-E/dp/B00HFA44YQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409560401&sr=8-1&keywords=r9+290x http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Toxic-1100MHz-Express-Graphics/dp/B00FOQZZ9G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409560411&sr=8-4&keywords=r9+280x Again help much appreciated ... Also if you recommend one or the other option can you point me to a manufacturer version of the card i should be looking at ... there is such a vast price difference and design difference my head hurts.

This is it i am losing my mind. Realized 280X 270X is just a re brand ... NOT a fan of this. Quite frankly i hate re branding ever since Nvidia first did it what a decade ago now ? Can someone please please tell me what to do. I want to keep it budget friendly HOWEVER i am willing to go the extra mile is someone reasonably explains to me what a new architecture / expnsive GPI will bring to the table ? How better is the new AMD architecture i.e. 290X to the rebranded 78xx ? Is nVidia perhaps the way to go or are they too over priced ? Do i get something with nvidia that i do not get with AMD for the extra price !?!! I am literally tearing my little left over hair over the GPU the rest i have pretty much figure out and started on

And so it begins, After some souls searching and ebaying this is the current state of affairs. As recommended found myself a Fractal Design R4, while going to pick it up from the guy from ebay he mentioned that he had an Antec TruePower 750W Gold Certified Semi-Modular PSU so you can see what happened ... both assembled and waiting for further components. Bought MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Mobo in the end. I am not overclocker neither will i begin to be so no need for OC centric mobos. And i got myself a cpu and cooler here they go: CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard I am still mulling over memory: How much to start with ? And also VGA: I am looking for something to keep up with 1080p for the next 1 year i am very happy to spend more money after that on a bran new and scrap this one. So literally i need something to run current gen at 1080p on high details and not a future proofed one such as 290X. Is still 270X a good choice or it has to be 280X ... I am still shooting for saving some bucks where they are not needed.

Okay i have to ask isn't 290X overkill for 1080p gaming? Also the dual ethernet was a nice to have more than necessity. While I am a huge fan of the Asus deluxe product line, I have had 4 of them in the past, the price is quite steep and i am not sure what more do I get compared to the msi mpower. The case looks good i will consider it. The memory is there any point in getting higher speed ones like 1800 2100 etc. Also i am a fan of corsair Kingston and mushkin but just corsair has like 5 different product lines... I am so confused what is the difference and which I bebi get there is like Vengeance, dominator, dominator plus, vengeance pro, xms3, and all with numerous speeds this completely confused me now. Last time I built a pc it was corsair, corsair Xmas for slightly better and corsair dominator for enthusiasts

Okay this all makes very good sense I know now what I won't mostly. Next question ... I want to add some nice touches to the case. 1 question: probably I am going with the yellow MSI empower mobo what color led will make it look nice combined 2. What sort of LEDs do I get for the fractal design define r4 case 3. How the hell do I install these things Is there any tricks and tips that I need to know. Never done aesthetics on case hence the stupid questions.

Exactly the supposed longetivity attracted me to z97 I can get a current 4 the gen Intel and upgrade in an year or two to 5th when they get cheaper. On the VGA I am sticking even to 270 I will not go beyond 1920*1080 so should be plenty enough and also the games I play ... I am certain it will be enough my unusual roster is something like Civ 5 and waiting now for the new civ. SC2, D3, DOTA2, borderlands all of em , and stuff like that. I am currently playing on a radeon HD 5850 mobility on 1680*1050 and stuff plays reasonable if on lower settings but at least full res so considering what a big leap all of this is it will be more than enough. But me being a techie person and I used to build PCs in the past the attraction is there to have something that has staying power and I can just jack it up every now and again with better parts without having to change the whole mobo and stuff.

Hmm good question the same mpower mobo from MSI and the CPU you suggest makes negligible difference in total price. This is certainly a very good point.

So initial list ... How does that look ? CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.00 @ Amazon UK) CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£22.63 @ Ebuyer) Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste (£11.27 @ Overclockers.co.uk) Motherboard: MSI Z87 MPOWER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£107.84 @ Scan.co.uk) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£67.37 @ CCL Computers) Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB HAWK Video Card (£148.79 @ Aria PC) Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£84.98 @ Novatech) Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.83 @ Ebuyer) Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£258.29 @ Scan.co.uk) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans (£19.34 @ Scan.co.uk) Total: £969.34 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-21 02:11 BST+0100 Have I missed something? How does it look ? Opinions ? BTW is there a cheaper good 24in Monitor ? Edit: thanks again for the detailed info it helped make up my mind .

Wow, KemoKa after seeing the first two posts I started doubting myself and thinking I broke some unspoken rules of the forum hence did not reply byt hid away in my shame. Thank you so very much. All of what you wrote makes sense. I was thinking of Z87 as well just got distracted by flashy promises and good looking mobos I will check out Asus and MSI Z87 been a fan of both companies for long time. Which version of the case do you recommend an amazon search brings out a lot of different cases with same name. The VGA is R9 290 essentially an overkill according to you is there any point ? And the same question for an i7 4770 /K? I really like you suggestions as it means lighter damage on the wallet I am just curios as my past experience with hardware from long ago thought me that older gen / lower product line ( as i5 vs i7) ages very badly . Or is that not the case anymore. The rest sounds very good and I will follow. Most probably will come back when water cooling is to happen as it will be my 1st time. But thank you again for the solid advise it makes a lot of sense. Also if I may add I feel like you spotted my inclination towards good value for money I do not like paying for diminishing returns. Regards, Atk

So I am building a pc and I need you help. I was discussing it with a friend and he pointed me to this forum and said that it is full of nice, knowledgeable and helpful people so I decided to give it a go. I have some general ideas about parts that I want and I am very fuzzy on others that I need. Stuff I have general ideas about: I think a Z97 chip set makes sense with a reasonable 200ish £ CPU to go with it. I am not looking to over clock to begin with apart from the customary 5 -10 % that is no brainer. I want a single VGA that will run smooth most games on 1920*1080 on a 24 inch monitor and I will not go beyond this resolution anytime soon. I have the monitor and already have 512 GB crucial m4 ssd so no need to buy. I am not an audio freak so any sounds will make me happy but I would like to have 2 Ethernet ports and will need WiFi that will do gaming reasonably well. Fuzzy stuff: I like shiny stuff from back in my PC building days so I keep getting distracted by mobos like sabertooth, ROG etc. But quite frankly I am not sure I need them. MSI m power also caught my eye but they have much more features that I might need. But then again the idea with this build is to start with a good setup and add to it over time. So here comes the questions : Mobo which one ? VGA which one ? Case ... Needs to work now with stock cooling but in the future I want to upgrade to quiet water cooling so it has to be able to take the transition . CPU which one exactly haswell ? Memory I want to start with 8 GB and move to 16 but my brand awareness is from the time when Kingston was king of the hill so a bit old by PC building time frames. Both the CPU, VGA and cooling plus storage I will want to upgrade. VGA is it better to upgrade by adding cards in sli or buy a new better single card... These are the main questions but I am sure I will remember other stuff as conversations takes off Thanks for your time Regards, Atk