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Help Me Choose CPU & GPU

Notgower
By Notgower
in New Builds and Planning
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To start off, I know that there is a different board on the forums to talk about GPUs but I'd rather not make two separate posts!

So, I am building my first gaming PC and I really just need help deciding what CPU and GPU to choose from. I've narrowed it down pretty well but I don't know whether to go with the less expensive or the more expensive, yet better hardware. I am on a budget of $700 - $750. I'd like to save money but at the same time I want to be fully satisfied with what I decide to get.

 

Let me give you some insight on what kind of games I will be playing. Yes, they are not very demanding like newer high end games - but take note that I do live stream on twitch while at times will be recording with Camtasia at the same time as live streaming with OBS. I also run programs like Sony Vegas, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, Maya 3D modeling, Unity, and more.

 

 

 

Games

Oldschool Runescape - This game is browser based so it is pretty demanding on the CPU and not very much the GPU. This is the main game I'll play and my goal here is to be able to run 2 clients at once maxing at 50 FPS while live streaming using OBS and possibly recording with Camtasia at the same time.

 

Heroes Charge - This is a mobile application game that I will be using an emulator to play and live stream using OBS.

 

HearthStone - Another not so high end game.

 

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - I'd like to have a minimal of 120 FPS while live streaming this game. 

 

League of Legends - I just want to make sure it runs smoothly while live streaming at max FPS.

 

 

 

Now, to get on with what CPU and GPU I am considering and what you think I should go with to be completely satisfied with the least amount of money spent. If you'd like to look at what I currently have for a complete build you can go to this link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LP8Q23Feel free to change up the hardware (CPU, GPU, MOBO, PSU) if you think you can find better options for what I need for the price. If you take the time to do this please make sure the overall price is less than $750.

 

 

CPUs

 

Intel Core i7-4790K - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74790k

This CPU is 100$ more than the one I currently have on my PC build (link in paragraph above) so if I go with this I would be over my $750 budget and would have to go for one of the cheaper GPUs. But this CPU goes .5 GHz faster at stock speed and also has multi-threading when comparing to the second CPU I will list. Will the .5 GHz make a huge difference, and is multi-threading worth 100$ extra?9 

Intel Core i5-4690K - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k

This is the CPU that runs .5 GHz slower and doesn't allow multi-threading. But for the price of saving $100, will it surely suffice for everything I stated above that I plan to be doing?

 

 

 

GPUs

 

GeForce GTX 960 - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx9602gd5toc

Now if I go with the Intel Core i5 CPU then I could fit this in my budget. This GPU is very noticeably better than the next two listed below from what I've seen for benchmarks. But really what I need to know is if this GPU is necessary for what I've stated I plan to do. Keep in mind that the game I play and live stream the most is browser based meaning the GPU doesn't matter as much as the CPU (this is what I've been told by everyone. Correct me if I am wrong).

 

Radeon R9 270X - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9270xhawk

This GPU doesn't have SLI support if I ever decide to add more and also has less display ports when comparing to the GTX 960. But at the time of this posting, this GPU has a $25 off promo - plus it already being cheaper than the GTX 960 by about $15, it might be worth it saving that $40.

Radeon R7 260X - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r7260x2gd5oc

This will be my last option. The R7 260X falls substantially behind when comparing to the R9 270X. Though, it would save about $80 when comparing to the GTX 960 and $40 compared to the R9 270X. So again I'll ask, is this more than enough to meet my goals for the not-so-high-end games I will be running?



Let me know,
Thanks,
Notgower

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Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($71.98 @ Newegg) 



Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X OC Video Card  ($242.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($35.00 @ Newegg) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($15.49 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $732.41

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-15 09:45 EDT-0400

 

i7 is not worth the money.

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Gould Belt, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Milky Way subgroup, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, Observable universe, Universe.

Spoiler

12700, B660M Mortar DDR4, 32GB 3200C16 Viper Steel, 2TB SN570, EVGA Supernova G6 850W, be quiet! 500FX, EVGA 3070Ti FTW3 Ultra.

 

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Don't bother with the i7 for your use and budget. Get the 4690k or a Xeon if you really really want the hyperthreading. But honestly the 4690k and a simple air cooler like the Hyper 212 will do you just fine.

And go with the R9 270X. It doesn't have SLI, it has CrossFire which is AMDs version. Just get a CrossFireX capable board like a Z97-A and you'll be fine.

The 270X (even better get a 280X) is usually much better bang for the buck than a 960 depending on where you live. Sometimes the 960 comes out cheaper in which case only then is it a good idea. Also nVidias ShadowPlay is nice for streaming, so that could be a point in its favour for you.

The New Machine: Intel 11700K / Strix Z590-A WIFI II / Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 2x8GB / Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC w/ Bykski WB / x4 1TB SSDs (x2 M.2, x2 2.5) / Corsair 5000D Airflow White / EVGA G6 1000W / Custom Loop CPU & GPU

 

The Rainbow X58: i7 975 Extreme Edition @4.2GHz, Asus Sabertooth X58, 6x2GB Mushkin Redline DDR3-1600 @2000MHz, SP 256GB Gen3 M.2 w/ Sabrent M.2 to PCI-E, Inno3D GTX 580 x2 SLI w/ Heatkiller waterblocks, Custom loop in NZXT Phantom White, Corsair XR7 360 rad hanging off the rear end, 360 slim rad up top. RGB everywhere.

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Look into an hyper-threaded quad-core Xeon 1231V3 for example...those are the same as core i7-47XX but they are usualy cheaper and very efficient, they are excellent for playing games as well as content creation and streaming and they use the same cheap ''H'' series chipset motherboard with socket 1150...it's the same as the i7-4770 but without integrated graphics so if you don't need IGP go with that instead of an i5-4690K as it will cost you about the same in the end but perform better when streaming and workstation scenarios.

 

Something like this for example would be a great base for your system:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-GAMING 3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.45 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($93.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($184.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $566.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-15 10:02 EDT-0400

 

This should be within your budget if you go with a cheap but nice 50$ case, 550W PSU is all you need and 1TB HDD (SSD if you have some more to spend/future upgrade for this machine)

 

The CPU comes with adequate heatsink and fan in the box, this being a xeon it should be very efficient and run at more than acceptable temps under the boxed heatsink, you might want to consider a cheap aftermarket CPU heatsink for more quiet operation down the road...i would for example trow in a cooler master hyper 212 in the future, just so that it would be very quiet with the fan spinning nice and slow...but the included one is perfectly safe to use.

| CPU: Core i7-8700K @ 4.89ghz - 1.21v  |  Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING  |  CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 |
| GPU: MSI RTX 3080Ti Ventus 3X OC  |  RAM: 32GB T-Force Delta RGB 3066mhz |
| Displays: Acer Predator XB270HU 1440p Gsync 144hz IPS Gaming monitor | Oculus Quest 3 VR

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Look into an hyper-threaded quad-core Xeon 1231V3 for example...those are the same as core i7-47XX but they are usualy cheaper and very efficient, they are excellent for playing games as well as content creation and streaming and they use the same cheap ''H'' series chipset motherboard with socket 1150...it's the same as the i7-4770 but without integrated graphics so if you don't need IGP go with that instead of an i5-4690K as it will cost you about the same in the end but perform better when streaming and workstation scenarios.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. One huge pro and con of this. The pro, the Xeon has hyper-threading when the i5 doesn't. The con, the Xeon cannot overclock. I wanted to get a water cooling system down the road and over clock my CPU & GPU for when I felt I needed a bit of an upgrade. I also really just want to have the experience of doing that. So this is a tough decision. Is multi-threading worth giving up the ability to overclock?

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Thanks for the recommendation. One huge pro and con of this. The pro, the Xeon has hyper-threading when the i5 doesn't. The con, the Xeon cannot overclock. I wanted to get a water cooling system down the road and over clock my CPU & GPU for when I felt I needed a bit of an upgrade. I also really just want to have the experience of doing that. So this is a tough decision. Is multi-threading worth giving up the ability to overclock?

If you really want to overclock, then get the i5. If you don't mind giving up OCing, go with the Xeon. The i5 won't have any issues with performance even though it doesn't have hyperthreading. For what you're doing, the i5 will work, especially because you want to OC later.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 4GHz @ 1.3 volts | CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO | RAM: 8GB DDR3

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P | GPU: EVGA GTX 960 SSC | SSD: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO

HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Green | Case: Fractal Design Core 2500 | OS: Windows 10 Home

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That video card is a bit spendy compared to the ones I suggested. Any opinion between the ones I listed? Thanks.

well gtx 960 is good, but r9 290 is much faster.

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Gould Belt, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Milky Way subgroup, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, Observable universe, Universe.

Spoiler

12700, B660M Mortar DDR4, 32GB 3200C16 Viper Steel, 2TB SN570, EVGA Supernova G6 850W, be quiet! 500FX, EVGA 3070Ti FTW3 Ultra.

 

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If you really want to overclock, then get the i5. If you don't mind giving up OCing, go with the Xeon. The i5 won't have any issues with performance even though it doesn't have hyperthreading. For what you're doing, the i5 will work, especially because you want to OC later.

 

Okay Thanks. I have one more question. Right now the R9 270X is $164.99 on New Egg which is cheap comparing to $212.99 on Amazon. Plus it has a $25 off promo right now making it really cheap for $139.99. Thing is, I didn't plan on buying all the parts for 4-6 weeks since I only have about half of the money saved up right now. Should I just buy this video card right now and hold off on the other parts since it's really cheap right now or do you think in 6 weeks the price of it may drop anyways? I've never bought parts before or built a PC so I really don't know how to go about this situation :P Thanks.

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 Did you mean the 270 that I had listed or the 290? Didn't the 290 just come out like.. today? Or am I wrong about that? Lol, if so, wouldn't it be more expensive?

r9 290 is old. Can you not see the price?

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Gould Belt, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Milky Way subgroup, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, Observable universe, Universe.

Spoiler

12700, B660M Mortar DDR4, 32GB 3200C16 Viper Steel, 2TB SN570, EVGA Supernova G6 850W, be quiet! 500FX, EVGA 3070Ti FTW3 Ultra.

 

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Did you mean the 270 that I had listed or the 290? Didn't the 290 just come out like.. today? Or am I wrong about that? Lol, if so, wouldn't it be more expensive?

You're thinking 390. 290 is same family as the 270X just the bigger brother. For your applications you're fine getting the 270X at that nice low price and adding a second one down the road.

The New Machine: Intel 11700K / Strix Z590-A WIFI II / Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 2x8GB / Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC w/ Bykski WB / x4 1TB SSDs (x2 M.2, x2 2.5) / Corsair 5000D Airflow White / EVGA G6 1000W / Custom Loop CPU & GPU

 

The Rainbow X58: i7 975 Extreme Edition @4.2GHz, Asus Sabertooth X58, 6x2GB Mushkin Redline DDR3-1600 @2000MHz, SP 256GB Gen3 M.2 w/ Sabrent M.2 to PCI-E, Inno3D GTX 580 x2 SLI w/ Heatkiller waterblocks, Custom loop in NZXT Phantom White, Corsair XR7 360 rad hanging off the rear end, 360 slim rad up top. RGB everywhere.

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r9 290 is old. Can you not see the price?

 

I hadn't even looked up the 290 before I said that. I just assumed and was wrong. My bad.

 

You're thinking 390. 290 is same family as the 270X just the bigger brother. For your applications you're fine getting the 270X at that nice low price and adding a second one down the road.

 

Read up on my post #10 in reply to EpicAdom and tell me what you think! I have a feeling he may not be coming back with a response. Haha.

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For your applications you're fine getting the 270X at that nice low price and adding a second one down the road.

no what. crossfiring low end cards is the worst thing you can do...

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Gould Belt, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Milky Way subgroup, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, Observable universe, Universe.

Spoiler

12700, B660M Mortar DDR4, 32GB 3200C16 Viper Steel, 2TB SN570, EVGA Supernova G6 850W, be quiet! 500FX, EVGA 3070Ti FTW3 Ultra.

 

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no what. crossfiring low end cards is the worst thing you can do...

Lol k.

The New Machine: Intel 11700K / Strix Z590-A WIFI II / Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 2x8GB / Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC w/ Bykski WB / x4 1TB SSDs (x2 M.2, x2 2.5) / Corsair 5000D Airflow White / EVGA G6 1000W / Custom Loop CPU & GPU

 

The Rainbow X58: i7 975 Extreme Edition @4.2GHz, Asus Sabertooth X58, 6x2GB Mushkin Redline DDR3-1600 @2000MHz, SP 256GB Gen3 M.2 w/ Sabrent M.2 to PCI-E, Inno3D GTX 580 x2 SLI w/ Heatkiller waterblocks, Custom loop in NZXT Phantom White, Corsair XR7 360 rad hanging off the rear end, 360 slim rad up top. RGB everywhere.

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Lol k.

you run into problems with the amount of vram, it costs more than r9 290 and performs worse.

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Gould Belt, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Milky Way subgroup, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, Observable universe, Universe.

Spoiler

12700, B660M Mortar DDR4, 32GB 3200C16 Viper Steel, 2TB SN570, EVGA Supernova G6 850W, be quiet! 500FX, EVGA 3070Ti FTW3 Ultra.

 

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you run into problems with the amount of vram, it costs more than r9 290 and performs worse.

Seriously did you read the OP?

CrossFire scales much better with mid range cards than it does with high end.

www.tweaktown.com/articles/5984/sapphire-radeon-r9-270x-2gb-toxic-video-cards-in-crossfire/index4.html

Yes he could buy a 290 now for more and blow his budget. Or he could buy a 270X for less now and in six months pick up a second one for next to nothing.

Don't go spouting off that CrossFire "only works well for high end" before checking your facts. And at 1080p 2GB VRAM works perfectly fine.

Its OPs choice and if he likes the 270X this is a good option. If he decides to get a 290 or a 280X, that's cool too.

Hell the 960 isn't a terrible card either if you can score one for a low price and they scale quite well in SLI too.

And a 270X is not low end.

The New Machine: Intel 11700K / Strix Z590-A WIFI II / Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 2x8GB / Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC w/ Bykski WB / x4 1TB SSDs (x2 M.2, x2 2.5) / Corsair 5000D Airflow White / EVGA G6 1000W / Custom Loop CPU & GPU

 

The Rainbow X58: i7 975 Extreme Edition @4.2GHz, Asus Sabertooth X58, 6x2GB Mushkin Redline DDR3-1600 @2000MHz, SP 256GB Gen3 M.2 w/ Sabrent M.2 to PCI-E, Inno3D GTX 580 x2 SLI w/ Heatkiller waterblocks, Custom loop in NZXT Phantom White, Corsair XR7 360 rad hanging off the rear end, 360 slim rad up top. RGB everywhere.

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Okay Thanks. I have one more question. Right now the R9 270X is $164.99 on New Egg which is cheap comparing to $212.99 on Amazon. Plus it has a $25 off promo right now making it really cheap for $139.99. Thing is, I didn't plan on buying all the parts for 4-6 weeks since I only have about half of the money saved up right now. Should I just buy this video card right now and hold off on the other parts since it's really cheap right now or do you think in 6 weeks the price of it may drop anyways? I've never bought parts before or built a PC so I really don't know how to go about this situation :P Thanks.

I would wait because there is a very good chance that there will be a price drop. AMD is coming out with the R9 300 series very soon.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 4GHz @ 1.3 volts | CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO | RAM: 8GB DDR3

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P | GPU: EVGA GTX 960 SSC | SSD: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO

HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Green | Case: Fractal Design Core 2500 | OS: Windows 10 Home

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