Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Need an opinion on a PC build

Tags:
  • parts-list
  • Build
  • Components
  • PC gaming
Last response: in Components
Share
June 26, 2013 11:17:50 PM

How do you guys like this build?
I put it together for a friend for his first gaming PC.
Well technically he will have to put the parts together himself since I don't live near him.

Some of the parts I picked because they had some good deals but I didn't add the promo codes in the screenshot which should drop the price by another 100USD.
He already has a mouse so I didn't add that into the list.
Gave him a higher wattage power supply for the chance to SLI 2 GTX 770s.

I also want an opinion on whether to go OEM vs retail.
OEM WIN 7 is at best 90USD on amazon and the retail is 160USD.
I heard OEM has lots of issues if you switch any hardware.
So what should I go with?

More about : opinion build

June 26, 2013 11:32:57 PM

Build looks great to me. It's definitely expensive and it'll render Photoshop and play games at Ultra.
If this is for gaming then drop down to a i5 and ditch the expensive cooler.

I'd buy OEM. Save the money. Issues are overrated.
m
0
l
June 26, 2013 11:37:26 PM

OEM is just fine; even if you switch the motherboard for a totally different one, all he'll have to do is reinstall it and call microsoft to reactivate it.
m
0
l
Related resources
June 26, 2013 11:46:48 PM

envy14tpe said:
Build looks great to me. It's definitely expensive and it'll render Photoshop and play games at Ultra.
If this is for gaming then drop down to a i5 and ditch the expensive cooler.

I'd buy OEM. Save the money. Issues are overrated.


Well It's for gaming but also for future proofing I went with the i7.
When the PS4 and Xbox One are released I think more developers will start to utilize more than 4 cores/threads.
The i7 already receives a performance boost with hyper threading in games like Crysis 3.

I purchased the cooler because my friend might OC his CPU by a bit and I wanted him to have one of the best air coolers.
I put together a build for another friend in 2011 with a Noctua NH-D14 heatsink and it kept the temps down by quite a bit.
It's good to have a high end CPU heatsink during summer if you live in a hot area.
m
0
l
June 26, 2013 11:47:13 PM

DarkSable said:
OEM is just fine; even if you switch the motherboard for a totally different one, all he'll have to do is reinstall it and call microsoft to reactivate it.


So it's not much trouble to get it reactivated?
m
0
l
June 27, 2013 12:10:00 AM

RyviusRan said:
DarkSable said:
OEM is just fine; even if you switch the motherboard for a totally different one, all he'll have to do is reinstall it and call microsoft to reactivate it.


So it's not much trouble to get it reactivated?


Nope, you just call them, explain that it's a homebuilt computer and you had to replace the motherboard, and you're fine.


However, envy14tpe got it completely right - the i7 is a waste of money, for several reasons.

1) It's only advantage is hyperthreading, which isn't going to be used for games in any but the most rare cases; it only affects double precision processing, when almost all data games request comes from floating point, or single precision, processing.

2) The current gen consoles have between six and eight cores. The cruddy console PORTS are barely able to run on two threads, and that's for a good port. Why do you think that's going to change?

Even if it ends up being useful to have an i7 in the future, that'll be far enough away that an upgrade will be due anyways. For now, don't waste the $100.

As for the heatsink, I completely agree with you, but there are again two points to remember:

1) An ivy bridge chip that's overclockable has a TDP of only 77w. A LGA 2011 chip can go up to 140w.

2) Unless you have a very hot chip like that or are overclocking to the very point of failure (which you wouldn't want to do anyways, especially not on air), you don't need a cooler like that. A Hyper 212 EVO will easily get him up to 4.2 GHz, where haswell starts crapping out anyways.
m
0
l
June 27, 2013 12:26:21 AM

DarkSable said:
RyviusRan said:
DarkSable said:
OEM is just fine; even if you switch the motherboard for a totally different one, all he'll have to do is reinstall it and call microsoft to reactivate it.


So it's not much trouble to get it reactivated?


Nope, you just call them, explain that it's a homebuilt computer and you had to replace the motherboard, and you're fine.


However, envy14tpe got it completely right - the i7 is a waste of money, for several reasons.

1) It's only advantage is hyperthreading, which isn't going to be used for games in any but the most rare cases; it only affects double precision processing, when almost all data games request comes from floating point, or single precision, processing.

2) The current gen consoles have between six and eight cores. The cruddy console PORTS are barely able to run on two threads, and that's for a good port. Why do you think that's going to change?

Even if it ends up being useful to have an i7 in the future, that'll be far enough away that an upgrade will be due anyways. For now, don't waste the $100.

As for the heatsink, I completely agree with you, but there are again two points to remember:

1) An ivy bridge chip that's overclockable has a TDP of only 77w. A LGA 2011 chip can go up to 140w.

2) Unless you have a very hot chip like that or are overclocking to the very point of failure (which you wouldn't want to do anyways, especially not on air), you don't need a cooler like that. A Hyper 212 EVO will easily get him up to 4.2 GHz, where haswell starts crapping out anyways.


The Xbox 360 had 3 cores with 2 threads per core.
The PS3 had only 1 core with 7 SPEs and only 6 being functional.
Both consoles were using much different CPUs than what was on PC.
Next gen consoles will be using a CPU similar to PCs so I think more games will utilizes 4+ cores.
Intel doesn't seem to be making any massive leaps in CPU performance until 2016 so it might be good to have the extra hyperthreading for those 3 years.
He certainly won't be doing any major upgrades until then.
He might get another GTX 770 for SLI and the hyperthreading will help there.

Also I know the Hyper 212 EVO will be enough since I have one for my Phenom II x4 965 but I wanted to keep his CPU at low temps and Haswell CPUs are said to run quite a bit hotter than Ivy Bridge when OCed.
I don't want to be just under the temp threshold I want to be far under it.
m
0
l
June 27, 2013 1:14:21 AM

That's fine - if you think it's worth it, then buy it.

As for the cooler, they run hotter when PUSHED. A mild overclock performs just like Ivy, and the temperature cliff you have to hit because of voltage is too severe for anything but custom watercooling.
m
0
l
June 27, 2013 11:28:48 AM

DarkSable said:
That's fine - if you think it's worth it, then buy it.

As for the cooler, they run hotter when PUSHED. A mild overclock performs just like Ivy, and the temperature cliff you have to hit because of voltage is too severe for anything but custom watercooling.


I just remember my friend's i5 2500k at 4.2ghz getting around 62C (on the hottest core) on prime95 with a Noctua NH-D14 after a long stress test in the summer.
That is around what I would want to see on this PC build.
I also heard that with hyperthreading on that the i7 CPU will run hotter.

With the hyper 212 heatsink I use on my Phenom II x4 965 build (not even OCed) I reach 52C during hot days in the summer and this CPU has much lower temp limits than any of the recent intel CPUs.

I know it's around 45USD more for the heatsink in my friends build but since it's his first gaming PC I wanted to be extra safe.


Thanks for all the extra input though.
I've told my friend to get the OEM version of Windows 7 64 home premium since it was on sale for 85USD.
m
0
l
!