The Red Shift Build Log

[Holford]

THE BUDGET

I'm working off a £900-1000 budget at the moment (or USB$1400-1700 / CAD$1800-2000). This budget doesn't include peripherals or non-OS software, as I'm keeping my existing set of kit in order to minimise my initial cost to this project. 

 

THE AIM

The goal here is to create a 5-year system - one upon which I can continue to upgrade & build upon to meet the increasing demands of my professional software (such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, RAW Photo Editing, and Cinema 4D), as well as maintain an ability to run AAA titles at 1080p resolution and still be able to hit (or exceed) 60fps. The final build will be a minimal, well cable-managed solution, with definite (but subtle) red highlights from sleeved cabling, on a black surrounding, with silver accents from the RAM modules. I plan on expanding past the list of components below (in particular, with the addition of a more powerful GTX 980 Ti - or possibly two, in SLI - later next year), in order to match my evolving workflow needs, especially in CUDA based operations.

 

THE PARTS

These parts are the result of almost 20 hours of researching component prices online & one the forums reading up on other builds, as well as responding to your feedback in my other posts. They may be replaced with other, better parts over the next 12-18 months as my budget increases, but for the initial build out, here is the list:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£177.00 @ Amazon UK)

• CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£96.41 @ Amazon UK)

• Motherboard: Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)

• Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)

• Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£73.13 @ Amazon UK)

• Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

• Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card  (£260.37 @ Amazon UK)

• Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£136.21 @ Amazon UK)

• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)

The full PartPicker list can be found here, if you want to check out when I updated components down the line.

While not included in this parts list, I am also going to be making use of the Corsair Sleeved PSU & SATA Cable bundle (in the red/black colour scheme) for my main cabling needs.

 

THE REASON

I'm switching back to PC, after almost 5 straight years of using a Mac as my daily driver. My most recent machine was a heavily upgraded, and thoroughly worn-out Mac Pro. However, after two new graphics cards, and over a dozen new RAM modules in the last 4 years, I'm switching back to PC to achieve maximum performance-to-pound ratio.

This will also be my first from-scratch PC build in almost 6 years, and quite honestly, I'm super excited to actually get my hands in-and-on new components again.

 

THE REST

So as this is going to be a potentially drawn out build, as I'm unsure when certain components can be obtained / delivered, I'll likely update this thread with pictures & any issues I run into along the way. I may also update my YouTube (link in my bio) with a video, after the build's completed, and I've managed to test it for a few weeks with various tasks.

I know it's not the most exciting or outlandish of builds, but I'd love any feedback from you guys on the parts I've chosen, advice you may have on avoiding any common issues, or suggestions for how to make the final product get the most from its hardware.

 

THE PROGRESS

• Update #1 - First arrival from Corsair...
• Update #2 - So it's been a while... Here's the finished build!

 

Updated Sunday 10th January 2016 @ 18:34GMT - Update #2 link added

[Holford]

okay, for a start, get a 4690k or a 4790k, otherwise you're gonna spend a lot on getting them later. You'll need the overclock ability so you can make them keep up

 

don't get a corsair RM series, the second stage capacitors are shit. Get a corsair RMi or AX, EVGA G2, XFX or SeaSonic.

 

Updated with a 4690k, Seasonic, and Hyper X to match my budget.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

[jimakos234]

If you plan to upgrade later on, i would suggest getting a skylake cpu (6600k) and a mobo, ddr4 ram.

Also change the psu, the ones mentioned before are very good, i would also add antec and super flower.

[Holford]

If you plan to upgrade later on, i would suggest getting a skylake cpu (6600k) and a mobo, ddr4 ram.

Also change the psu, the ones mentioned before are very good, i would also add antec and super flower.

 

My hope was to manage 5 years on haswell (or as long as possible) as the new 6th gen processors & motherboards, and accompanying DDR4 RAM modules fall outside my budget - at least with regards to where I've seen them.

 

I'll check out those two as well - thanks

[jimakos234]

@Holford

 

If You can wait 1-2 months, there will be skylake mobos with hybrid ddr4/ddr3l support (to save some money), since good ddr4 ram kits are expensive (low cas latency with high clock speeds) and get away with lower voltages ddr3l.

[Holford]

@Holford

 

If You can wait 1-2 months, there will be skylake mobos with hybrid ddr4/ddr3l support (to save some money), since good ddr4 ram kits are expensive (low cas latency with high clock speeds) and get away with lower voltages ddr3l.

 

The issue I have is that I'm without an editing rig at the moment, and have projects coming up as soon as September, with a turn-around for October.

 

If the rig can get me past the 3 year mark without worrying too much about workflow performance (I mean, at the end of the day, it's going to perform better than my last machine did) then I'm not too worried

 

The real long-term upgrade bet is on when I start working in 4K ProRes, and need to do multi-streams of that. Hopefully by that time, I can afford to do a pretty much full system upgrade, and go Skylake - but that's no sooner than 2-3 years away.

[jimakos234]

I got you a build that fills all your needs, with a black/red theme.

You cant overclock, but you have hyperthreading, that is better for rendering/editing

The gpu is nice, tho it has no backplate , also you wont be needing the aio cooler, you could get

a be quite dark rock to match the build.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£194.14 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£59.98 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£61.86 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£73.13 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  (£247.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£127.25 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£72.16 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £983.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-19 14:20 BST+0100

[Holford]

I got you a build that fills all your needs, with a black/red theme.

You cant overclock, but you have hyperthreading, that is better for rendering/editing

The gpu is nice, tho it has no backplate , also you wont be needing the aio cooler, you could get

a be quite dark rock to match the build.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£194.14 @ More Computers)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£59.98 @ Dabs)

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£61.86 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£73.13 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  (£247.19 @ Aria PC)

Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  (£127.25 @ More Computers)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£72.16 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £983.69

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-19 14:20 BST+0100

 

Oh wow, thanks dude! I'm checking through the parts now.

 

One thing though - I thought that ASRock board downclocks RAM that's over 1600MHz back down to that?

 

I'm checking out the rest of it though!  Thanks man

[jimakos234]

@Holford

 

If you mean that it doesnt support higher frequency than 1600, yes you are right. This mobo doesnt support XMP profiles.  z97/z87 mobos do, but there are exceptions i think.

[Holford]

@Holford

 

If you mean that it doesnt support higher frequency than 1600, yes you are right. This mobo doesnt support XMP profiles.  z97/z87 mobos do, but there are exceptions i think.

 

I just double-checked on the Z97 Pro Gamer from Asus I originally chose, and confirmed it handles up to 3200 - for me, as there will be days / nights when I am up late rendering-in-real-time huge projects, and working on making changes to large files (like RAW photos), I'm going to stick to the one I chose to avoid any dynamic-storage-spillover from my programmes. Especially as it will get the most out of the RAM you suggested

[jimakos234]

if you end up getting a z97 mobo, consider getting higher freq ram, like 2133-2400Mhz (with low cas, 9-11 is ok), tho you will not notice that much of a difference.

Glad i could help.

 

@Holford

[Holford]

if you end up getting a z97 mobo, consider getting higher freq ram, like 2133-2400Mhz (with low cas, 9-11 is ok), tho you will not notice that much of a difference.

Glad i could help.

 

@Holford

 

Already put the 2400MHz version of the 16GB Savage into my basket

 

Thank you much mate. Once it all arrives, I'll update this thread!

[Holford]

U P D A T E   # 1

 

Hi again everyone,

Not a super exciting update, but the very first piece of the new setup arrived, my new Corsair MM200 Extended Gaming Surface!

Hopefully more will arrive soon, but for now I'm actually ridiculously over excited for my first piece of Corsair branded merch to be delivered!

That's all for now, catch you next time!

[AyBuild]

enthoo pro/luxe for performance, nzxt h440, define r5 or silent base 800 for silence that case is for custom water-cooling as well as sli. it will be too big and a waste of money unless 4 way sli/ full watercooling is what you want in the future,

[Holford]

THE PICTURES
So I guess I should show off the finished product! There are no pictures of my complete Desk setup, as I'm in the process of actually making a custom desk for my computer and camera gear, but below are some glam shots of the internals & cable management...

 
THE PARTS
The parts actually changed a fair amount through the process of this build, due to one reason or the other (though typically it was finding parts going a lot cheaper than I thought they would be...). As it stands, the final parts used in the RIG are as follows:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  
   
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  
   
• Motherboard: Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard   
   
• Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  
   
• Storage: Intel 535 Series 240GB SSD , and a Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" SSD  
   
• Storage: WD Black 1TB 3.5" Internal HDD, and a WD Green 2TB 3.5" Internal HDD
   
• Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card   
   
• Case: Corsair Air 540 Cube Airflow ATX Case  
   
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  
   
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)

 
While not included in this parts list, I am also going to be making use of the Corsair Sleeved PSU & SATA Cable bundle (in the red/black colour scheme) for my main cabling needs.

THE REST
So it's finished! The first full build I've done in many many years. Thanks for checking out this build log. I have others planned in the future (including a home server rack based solution for my wife & I, inspired by Linus' current setup), as well as some other custom projects in mind.

 

That's all for now.

Catch you next time!