First Gaming / Rendering / Streaming Build

[MarkC]

I'm looking at building my first rig. Primarily for gaming, rendering, and streaming. I play a lot of Dota and Pinball FX2, but I also play pretty much every genre of game as well, especially top end FPS games. I need it to be fast, to not get bogged down when I record game footage with Fraps, DXTory, etc, or overheat.

 

So far, the parts I'm looking at are:-

 

Case - Nzxt Phantom 410.

GPU - Intel i7 4820K Quadcore 3.70 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011.

Motherboard - MSI X79A-GD45 Plus Intel X79 Chipset, SLI / Crossfire supported, 4 Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 8 RAM slots, Lossless 24-bit/192KHz HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe x16 & 1 PCIe x1.

Memory - 8GB (2x4) Kingston HyperX Blu w/Heat Spreader 1600mhz.

Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card.

CPU - Corsair 750 Watts CX750M Modular Gaming Power Supply, 80+.

Hard Drive - 2TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64M Cache 7200rpm Hard Drive.

Blu-Ray/DVD - Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16X BLU-RAY Burner & 16X DVD±R/±RW Drive.

CPU Cooler - Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler.

OS - Windows 7 or 8. I've always used XP, but it seems I now have to get with the times.

 

I don't know if I should get an SSD so I can keep Windows purely on that. That way, if my main hard drive goes pear shaped, I've only lost data, as opposed to the OS as well.

 

I chose the graphics card so I can go for 2 monitors in a few months.

 

Any suggestions/criticisms are more than welcome. It's similar to the Infinity White Knight sold by CyberpowerPC, but I need a lot more cooling, just to be on the cautious side, and a few other little add-ons as well. I don't know if it's best to get a water cooler, a shedload of fans, or all of the above. I just need it to be as cool as humanly possible as my last gaming PC kept overheating, and I had to rip the side off and constantly point a desk fan on it at full blast.

 

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Infinity_White_Knight

 

My main concern is me not knowing what I'm doing, and the fact that I could quite easily balls the whole thing up with fiddly jobs like the CPU cooler (it comes in about 400 pieces by the looks of it!), and the water cooler, if I ended up getting one. If I just buy it pre-made (the girly way out), at least I have a warranty, and some degree of support, but then I spend a load more cash.

 

My budget is in the region of £1400.

 

I have a mouse and keyboard already. The mouse is a Logitech G400S, and I have the Razer Black Widow Ultimate keyboard.

[Izaya Orihara]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Enjoy your stay.

There are quiet a few things wrong with this setup. 

1. The CPU: The 4820k isn't more powerful than the 4770k and can only fit in expensive motherboards that aren't great. Stick to the 4770k.

2. Motherboard: Don't go 2011 for a 4 quadcore i7.

3.Ram: 8gb is enough but in that budget brackezt you can easily have 16

4. GPU A little weak for the budget huh?

5. PSU: 80+ Bronze is okay but you can have better

6. ODD Who needs these these days? I haven't used on in ages.

 

 

Here is what I suggest: 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QNL8jX

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QNL8jX/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QNL8jX/benchmarks/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£233.99 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (£62.63 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£129.56 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£99.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£89.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£60.83 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB DirectCU II Video Card  (£529.99) 

Case: NZXT H440 (Red/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£91.73 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£64.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £1443.69

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-30 18:35 BST+0100)

[Awthunderstorm26]

your build looks good but you should go for fan cooling instead of water cooling because it is easier and less risk to your pc. you should also go for 16GB ram and above on your ram to rendering and great gaming.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608026 this link is too a noctua fan. Noctua has some of the best fans for cooling. 

[d3sl91]

Izaya has a good build there. I 100% agree with his comments on the 2011 platform versus 4770K and 1150. I have seen many benchmarks that prove that the 4770K is faster in almost everything (including rendering) than the 4820k. Its just more expensive for no good reason.

 

I have another build to look at:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£233.99 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler:  Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£83.88 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard:  ASRock Z97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£93.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 

Memory:  Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£99.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£89.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£52.79 @ Aria PC) 

Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£52.79 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card:  MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£499.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Case:  NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£79.69 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply:  Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£78.78 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£79.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £1445.47

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-30 19:31 BST+0100)

 

1. I put an Close-Loop cooler in there because you mentioned it. 

2. YES. Get an SSD. Heck, Get two at some point, one for OS and one for games.

3. I put 2 2TB 7200RPM drives. If you are recording with Dxtory, depending on settings and codecs, the faster the hard drive the better. You can then RAID the two together and remove that bottleneck. (it's probably overkill, but at least go with a single 7200rpm)

4. PC partpicker messed up the price on that asus, its actually more than 100 more, so I selected this MSI unit instead.

5. Like Izaya said, don't bother with optical if you dont absolutely need it. I personally have a blueray drive sitting in a box because I have zero use for it. 

6. I also went with a cheaper motherboard. No particular reason, I just don't normally spend a ton on motherboards unless one has a specific feature i want.

7. +1 on using a Gold-rated PSU.

 

 

 

[d3sl91]

I need it to be fast, to not get bogged down when I record game footage with Fraps, DXTory, etc, or overheat.

 

Also, heres the deal with DXtory/fraps/etc. It will always end up lowering your FPS. In fact, a common "solution" is actually using a Video Capture card to capture the video on a separate computer, eliminating the FPS drop and performance hit you will get by recording on the same computer. You will do pretty well with the above options, and even with my i5 It's still very bearable, but expect to get at least a little performance hit.

[MarkC]

Thanks very much indeed, chaps. You've been an amazing help.