Building pc need assistance

[ColdDigital]

Hi,

 

Im gonna start building my own pc, sometime this week. Im gonna do something similar to Linus's video of a compact SLI gaming pc, but Im not gonna have it in SLI (

).

 

My budget is around 1000$-1100$ including a monitor. Its a little bit low for a high quality gaming pc, but I hope you could help me somehow full fill this goal. I have gone on pcpartpicker and chose a few components I wanted to have in the pc: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NZchdC

Im not sure which cpu, motherboard, and power supply to use due to my budget... For the graphics card I am hoping to use the MSI gtx 970 4gb, as I read a couple of positive reviews about it. But if I wont be able to create a decent gaming pc that would be able to play at High settings in games such as Crysis, WoW, LoL, Battlefield 4, etc. (which I would prefer highly as I am switching over from the mac to pc after 5 years) then I will put the specs where possible down, and if I have to the graphics card as well. I wanted to use the pc to create YouTube vids and upload them, I would use my mac then to edit the clips. I hope you will be able to help out, Id appreciate it highly.

 

Thank you,

Cold

[cesrai]

Get the reference design if your going compact, you need to push the air outside not inside the case.

[ThyFeared]

Do you need windows?

[SimpleG]

Will you be overclocking?

[ColdDigital]

Do you need windows?

 

I have windows 7 prof from my father, so its fine. He had it at his work place, got it a week ago.

 

Will you be overclocking?

 

Probably, if I need some more power in my games  .

[AlwaysFSX]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($218.49 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 87.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.90 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)

Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Monitor: Asus VS229H-P 21.5" Monitor ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $1091.27

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-05 14:16 EST-0500

[ColdDigital]

Get the reference design if your going compact, you need to push the air outside not inside the case.

 

Not quite sure what you mean. The part of pushing the air outside, yes. The reference design part, no.

[Andure]

First of all, are you planning on rendering the videos on that computer too ? That would certainly change the price tag for the CPU since that will need to pack a bigger punch. In that case I would probably suggest something as the AMD FX-8320  or even the AMD FX-8350.  I would also suggest getting a motherboard which leaves you with some RAM options to upgrade as soon as possible. 
If you  plan to be gaming only on that machine than consider the recent developments the need for a huge CPU isn't that great anymore, considering things like Mantle and DX12 on the horizon, you would probably get away with a normal midrange I5. 
As for the graphics card I would follow the previous suggesstion of the XFX 290X will not only save you some bucks, but will also get you some more horsepower in games. You will lose things like shadowplay, but you can easily get a capture card for around 100 bucks, which you can then use to directly record to your computer or MAC, which one you prefer. 

The motherboard and PSU choice would then accordingly to your CPU choice be something pretty standard with 2-4 RAM slots, again if you are planning on rendering on that machine, go for that 32 GB option. 

 

The reference design means that the card has the same design as Nvidia or ATI developed it with, which in most cases means it has a cooler design where it sucks air in to cool itself and blows it out the back of the computer instead of most other air cooled aftermarket designs as MSI's, where the heat is pushed away from the radiator into the case, so that you would need some additional case fans.

[cesrai]

Not quite sure what you mean. The part of pushing the air outside, yes. The reference design part, no.

The one with the blower cooler that nvidia sells.

[ColdDigital]

First of all, are you planning on rendering the videos on that computer too ? That would certainly change the price tag for the CPU since that will need to pack a bigger punch. In that case I would probably suggest something as the AMD FX-8320  or even the AMD FX-8350.  I would also suggest getting a motherboard which leaves you with some RAM options to upgrade as soon as possible. 

If you  plan to be gaming only on that machine than consider the recent developments the need for a huge CPU isn't that great anymore, considering things like Mantle and DX12 on the horizon, you would probably get away with a normal midrange I5. 

As for the graphics card I would follow the previous suggesstion of the XFX 290X will not only save you some bucks, but will also get you some more horsepower in games. You will lose things like shadowplay, but you can easily get a capture card for around 100 bucks, which you can then use to directly record to your computer or MAC, which one you prefer. 

The motherboard and PSU choice would then accordingly to your CPU choice be something pretty standard with 2-4 RAM slots, again if you are planning on rendering on that machine, go for that 32 GB option. 

 

The reference design means that the card has the same design as Nvidia or ATI developed it with, which in most cases means it has a cooler design where it sucks air in to cool itself and blows it out the back of the computer instead of most other air cooled aftermarket designs as MSI's, where the heat is pushed away from the radiator into the case, so that you would need some additional case fans.

Ill probably be rendering on the mac, its gonna be my 'video work' comp, and just record the games on the pc, put on external hard drive, edit and all other things on mac. I was thinking of putting a intel i5 4670k as my cpu, never had used an AMD before so cant judge them... Have you had experience with the XFX 290X? Are you able to play games at high settings with it with decent fps?

 

Thanks for helping out ,

Cold

[ColdDigital]

The one with the blower cooler that nvidia sells.

Ah... Those http://cdn2.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-9801.jpg

Id probably prefer to use them, as there is a small amount of space for barely room than 1 or 2 additional fans. Have you had one or know one that could fit to my build?

 

Thanks,

Cold

[cesrai]

Ah... Those http://cdn2.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-9801.jpg

Id probably prefer to use them, as there is a small amount of space for barely room than 1 or 2 additional fans. Have you had one or know one that could fit to my build?

 

Thanks,

Cold

There are reference 970 but maybe it's hard to find now.

[ColdDigital]

There are reference 970 but maybe it's hard to find now.

Found this. Its german amazon though. (Im german)

http://www.amazon.de/EVGA-04G-P4-1972-KR-Grafikkarte-Speicher-Display/dp/B00NZUOEV8/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1420489385&sr=8-29&keywords=geforce+gtx+970

[OceaniaAE-1]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($218.49 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 87.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.90 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)

Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Monitor: Asus VS229H-P 21.5" Monitor ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $1091.27

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-05 14:16 EST-0500

I would change the GPU to a 970 but good build otherwise. 

[Andure]

I do own a 290X and provided you have the wattage needed it seriously packs a punch. As long as it's not a bad console port I've been running a stable 60 fps+ on ultra @ 1440p. With BF4 being your apparently most graphical intense game you could consider saving some bucks on your CPU as Mantle will somewhat remove that CPU overhead. I found some for around 350-400 bucks on newegg which had a reference design. The XFX DD 290X 4GB being @ 350 $, too, it's up to you if you prefer the reference cooler design or the DD design from XFX. The XFX one does have a slightly higher base clock and a lot more room for OC'ing. Mine is about 70° C at full load in a somewhat not optimal air cooling situation, so take that for whatever it is. (Being a XFX DD)

 

AMD processors are pretty fine, I have an AMD FX-8350 which runs perfectly stable @ 5,4 GHz with a self contained water cooling unit. You could probably push it to aroud 4,6-4,8 GHz with a decent air cooling solution. I use it for rendering and streaming, so I can't say anything about it's gaming performance, so might want to look up some benchmarks on it, as for gaming you mostly can't go wrong with Intel. But depending on your MAC it could be even better for rendering. But that you're using the MAC is probably due to your software of choice.

[cesrai]

Found this. Its german amazon though. (Im german)

http://www.amazon.de/EVGA-04G-P4-1972-KR-Grafikkarte-Speicher-Display/dp/B00NZUOEV8/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1420489385&sr=8-29&keywords=geforce+gtx+970

Amazing get it if you can.

[AlwaysFSX]

I would change the GPU to a 970 but good build otherwise.

Goes over budget, that's why I didn't opt for it.

[OceaniaAE-1]

Microcenter also has the 4690k for 199.00 right now. http://www.microcenter.com/product/434177/Core_i5-4690K_35GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor

[ColdDigital]

I do own a 290X and provided you have the wattage needed it seriously packs a punch. As long as it's not a bad console port I've been running a stable 60 fps+ on ultra @ 1440p. With BF4 being your apparently most graphical intense game you could consider saving some bucks on your CPU as Mantle will somewhat remove that CPU overhead. I found some for around 350-400 bucks on newegg which had a reference design. The XFX DD 290X 4GB being @ 350 $, too, it's up to you if you prefer the reference cooler design or the DD design from XFX. The XFX one does have a slightly higher base clock and a lot more room for OC'ing. Mine is about 70° C at full load in a somewhat not optimal air cooling situation, so take that for whatever it is. (Being a XFX DD)

 

AMD processors are pretty fine, I have an AMD FX-8350 which runs perfectly stable @ 5,4 GHz with a self contained water cooling unit. You could probably push it to aroud 4,6-4,8 GHz with a decent air cooling solution. I use it for rendering and streaming, so I can't say anything about it's gaming performance, so might want to look up some benchmarks on it, as for gaming you mostly can't go wrong with Intel. But depending on your MAC it could be even better for rendering. But that you're using the MAC is probably due to your software of choice.

Read a little bit about the AMD FX 8350 around the web. Majority people say thats its octa cores are just as good as a quad core i5 from intel. Also looked at a few vids of gaming, AMD vs intel, most cases intel was more powerful and gave higher frames. Probably gonna go with the i5, just the downside of the i5 is that it has no hyper threading. Would it still be worth it even without hyper threading?

[Andure]

Well as I mentioned it is productivity beast, not a gaming CPU. 

An quad core is fine for gaming, even without HP, most games don't utilize more than 2-4 Cores maximum.

[ColdDigital]

Well as I mentioned it is productivity beast, not a gaming CPU. 

An quad core is fine for gaming, even without HP, most games don't utilize more than 2-4 Cores maximum.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($218.49 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 87.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.90 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)

Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Monitor: Asus VS229H-P 21.5" Monitor ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $1091.27

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-05 14:16 EST-0500

 

Amazing get it if you can.

Did a new pcpartpicker list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wDHXdC

Good specs?

Its at around 1200$, in euros its gonna be about a 1000. So meets the budget.

[cesrai]

Did a new pcpartpicker list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wDHXdC

Good specs?

Its at around 1200$, in euros its gonna be about a 1000. So meets the budget.

Pretty good build, just swap the black WD with the Blue.