Building a new PC

[FirehawkV21]

Hello, this is my first post and I need help on building a new pc for some hardcore gaming, game development and a bit of video editing. While I was browsing at a local eshop in Greece, I've ended up with this configuration:

 

CPU: Intel Core i5 4690

GPU: The on-die GPU (for now, later on with MSI GeForce 760)

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengenance

Motherboard: Gigabyte H97-D3H

PSU:Corsair CX600 600W

Case: Corsair Graphite 230T

HDD: WD Caviar Black(?) 1TB

Mouse/Keyboard: Microsoft Internet Keyboard / Microsoft Mouse (I actually have these already)

ODD: maybe a 2006 Philips DVD-RW drive from 2006 otherwise I'll buy a new one.

Screen: Samsung SyncMaster P2470HD (or something

OS: Windows 8.1 x64

 

The buget that I'll spend on the basic parts (tower and internal parts, additionals such as the external GPU and Wifi card will be added later) is 500-600 euros.

 

The following questions are:

1. Will I be able to create a UEFI + SecureBoot installation with the following config? If yes, will I be able to upgrade without any hassle? If not, why and how can I fix it? Do every Windows compatible motherboard comes with all the needed certificates for secure boot?

2. Recently, MSI released the H97 Gaming 3 motherboard and it looks pretty temptng on features. But is it worth to pay additional 20 euros just because it has Quallcom Atheros Killer 2200? (Note that I'll be using Wifi as connectivity to the router most of the time.)

3. Do the newer motherboards have the TPM module? I'm thinking of buying Windows 8.1 Pro and the feature that I would use the most is probably BitLocker.

4. I was thinking of adding an SSD (smaller than the HDD) to boost the performance of the computer. Can you recomend me ways to use it? Should I buy an M.2 or SATAe compatible one?

5. Since I'll use Wifi Adapter, I want to have great coverage and decent speeds. Should I buy a USB or PCIe variant?

6. Does placing  an external Audio card (for example a Creative Soundblaster Audigy RX) make any diffrence?

7. Does MSI GPU supports HDMI 1.3?

8. Will buying 4690K CPU worth it?

9. When they bring here new monitors with Nvidia GSYNC, should I buy one?

 

That's all of my questions for now. Thank you for any help.

[FlakeyBanana]

if you intend to stay on stock cooling forever there’s no point getting a K series

[Guest]

Hello, this is my first post and I need help on building a new pc for some hardcore gaming, game development and a bit of video editing. While I was browsing at a local eshop in Greece, I've ended up with this configuration:

 

The buget that I'll spend on the basic parts (tower and internal parts, additionals such as the external GPU and Wifi card will be added later) is 500-600 euros.

 

The following questions are:

1. Will I be able to create a UEFI + SecureBoot installation with the following config? If yes, will I be able to upgrade without any hassle? If not, why and how can I fix it? Do every Windows compatible motherboard comes with all the needed certificates for secure boot?

2. Recently, MSI released the H97 Gaming 3 motherboard and it looks pretty temptng on features. But is it worth to pay additional 20 euros just because it has Quallcom Atheros Killer 2200? (Note that I'll be using Wifi as connectivity to the router most of the time.)

3. Do the newer motherboards have the TPM module? I'm thinking of buying Windows 8.1 Pro and the feature that I would use the most is probably BitLocker.

4. I was thinking of adding an SSD (smaller than the HDD) to boost the performance of the computer. Can you recomend me ways to use it? Should I buy an M.2 or SATAe compatible one?

5. Since I'll use Wifi Adapter, I want to have great coverage and decent speeds. Should I buy a USB or PCIe variant?

6. Does placing  an external Audio card (for example a Creative Soundblaster Audigy RX) make any diffrence?

7. Does MSI GPU supports HDMI 1.3?

8. Will buying 4690K CPU worth it?

 

That's all of my questions for now. Thank you for any help.

 

1. Win 8 uses it by default, yes, pretty much all modern motherboards that aren't <$50 will support those.

2. No. But people do prefer the look of MSI Gaming boards that's why they buy them. I would suggest you buy another board; MSI does not have any support for Sata Express.

3. Hm Im not sure about this one

4. SSDs and HDDs do not comply with more than one SATA standard. Pretty much 100% of the HDDs and SSDs you'll find today are SATA3 (SATA 6Gbps). There are no SATA Express drives yet, but a bunch of M.2 drives have been announced at Computex and should be coming soon.

5. USB ones are rather unreliable, get a good 802.11ac PCIe variant.

6. Depends if you're an audiophile. If you're not then most ALC1150 integrated setups will do just fine; I don't have any issues with ALC892 even though a lot of people say it's bad. You should not even be thinking about a discrete audio card before you have a GPU.

7. Probably not? I heard that HDMI 1.3 hasn't really been implemented yet.

8. Depends on if you want to overclock. The 4670K/4770K have really bad overclocking that's all over the place depending on what you win in the silicon lottery. The 4690K should be much more consistent and even the worst chips should hit at least 4.5GHz no prob. In Greece, they might carry a large price premium over the 4670K, keep that in mind.

 

A lot of your questions are good, but I think you have some misunderstandings: stuff like HDMI 1.3 and Sata Express use different connectors from HDMI 1.2 and SATA3, so they're obviously not compatible. A drive or card cannot be compatible with future versions of those standards. Except for Sata Express which one connector can be used as 2 x SATA3 ports as well if you don't have a SATAe drive.

 

The Devil's Canyon 4690K is definitely not worth getting if you're planning on getting a H97 board.

[SpyRosL]

1) Do the newer motherboards have the TPM module? I'm thinking of buying Windows 8.1 Pro and the feature that I would use the most is probably BitLocker.

2)When they bring here new monitors with Nvidia GSYNC, should I buy one

1)Right now almost every computer has TPM so you should be fine

2)Depends on how much money are you willing to spend It sure is great but a lot expensive as well.

 

Απο το e-shop.gr?

[Sauron]

I'd get z97 if I were you. It's up to you to decide if you want a k processor or not, it only depends on if you want to oc or not (you can't oc on h97 as far as I know btw). hdmi 1.3 isn't properly out yet, so no, the msi card probably doesn't have it (just check on their website to be sure). For audio, if you're not satisfied get better headphones. If you already have high end headphones, get a dac. But only after the gpu. M.2 is kinf of snake oil level if you don't use it for very heavy video editing and such. Go for a sata 3 ssd, it will be more than fine.

[FirehawkV21]

@SpyRosL, Βασικά από το Πλαίσιο. Μπορεί να αγοράσω και από εκεί άμα χρειαστεί.

Well, apparently every motherboard CPU combo that supports Intel TXT also has TPM. But if it is active, does that mean that I can't update the BIOS and the OS?

Also, is setting up the SSD as a cache drive? Or reinstall Windows there and place the programs on the HDD? (or any other way that I could utilize it)

[FirehawkV21]

Correction: Should I set up the SSD as a cache drive?

The mobile site doesn't let me edit the post. Sorry for the engrish text.

[Guest]

Correction: Should I set up the SSD as a cache drive?

The mobile site doesn't let me edit the post. Sorry for the engrish text.

 

Intel SRT can only support SSD caching to a maximum of 64GB capacity SSD.

 

If you have a 128GB or 256GB drive just use it to store Windows + important programs.

[FirehawkV21]

I guess that I'll buy an 128 GB SSD. For as long as Windows 8.1 won't mistake it as an HDD (I'm not going to use RAID anyways).

 

So the last piece is the TPM. On Wikipedia, Intel TXT uses TPM to do it's magic. But what upgrades or updates can be allowed without it raising the red flag?

[Guest]

I guess that I'll buy an 128 GB SSD. For as long as Windows 8.1 won't mistake it as an HDD (I'm not going to use RAID anyways).

 

So the last piece is the TPM. On Wikipedia, Intel TXT uses TPM to do it's magic. But what upgrades or updates can be allowed without it raising the red flag?

 

Windows 8.1 is not like Windows 7, it won't run defrag on an SSD, instead there'll be a button labeled "Optimize" which I'm pretty sure just runs the TRIM command. I do it via SSD Toolbox because I have an Intel drive (INTEL MASTER RACE) so I'm not exactly sure what the Optimize function does, I know for sure it's safe for SSDs though.

 

Personally I would shoot for a 180GB or 240/250/256GB drive because I like to store key games like BF3 for faster loading times and 128GB gets used up very, very, very quickly.

 

What's up with the big deal on TPM? It seems that laptops have had integrated TPM modules since forever, but I'm really not sure about PC. In Wikipedia it says that manufacturers like Asus, MSI and Gigabyte have done it for a long time but keep in mind that all three of those manufacturers also make laptops, so that's what they might be referring to.

[FirehawkV21]

TPM is used for measured boot, which checks if anything got tampered with. Bitlocker uses it for easy access to the hard drive (or SSD) only on the computer that got it encrypted.

Windows 8.1 also encrypts it if the new installation complies with certain conditions. Check a few articles about Windows 8.1 to see what I mean.

Moreover, a Gigabyte H87-HD3 that a friend of mine has, does have Intel TXT which according to Wikipedia includes a TPM (besides on the article that I assume you read was for TPM does refer Intel as a manufacturer of the chip).

If you're asking why, because I read about it and sounds pretty interesting and I may use Bitlocker if I can still update both the OS and the BIOS without issues.