New Haswell Build for Friend

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ianj14

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May 21, 2011
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I've been asked by a friend to put together a new Haswell PC, budget around GBP 1000, and I'm wondering if anyone here would be willing to give constructive feedback on how good/bad the value is, and also whether there are better components for the price which could be used instead.

Currently I have two specs, a high and a low. These are based on prices at ebuyer as a starting point.

High:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H £190
Mobo Accessory: Gigabyte Bluetooth/WiFi Addon card (GC-WB300D) £35
CPU: Intel i7 4770K £264
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Tactical Memory (BLT2CP8G3D1608DT1TX0) £106 ea, x2=£212
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (MZ-7PD256BW) £180
HDD: Western Digital 4TB 3.5" SATA 6gb/s (WD4001FAEX) £210
Case: Corsair 600T Mid Tower Graphite (CC-9011020-WW) £150
Cooling Unit: Noctua NH-D14 £63
Power Supply: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 550W (RS550-80GAJ3-UK) £60
TOTAL: £1364

Low:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H £190
Mobo Accessory: Gigabyte Bluetooth/WiFi Addon card (GC-WB300D) £35
CPU: Intel i5 4430 £146
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3 1600MHz (CMX16GX3M2A1600C11) £95
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 128GB (MZ-7PD128BW) £109
HDD: Western Digital 2TB Green 3.5" SATA 6gb/s (WD20EZRX) £77
Case: Antec VSK-4000E Mid Tower (0-761345-92041-4) £25
Cooling Unit: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo (RR-212E-16PK-R1) £26
Power Supply: CoolerMaster B Series 600 (RS600-ACABD3-U1) £44
TOTAL: £747

TIA
 
Solution
tiny voices
I would go with an i5 4570 and h87 motherboard.

What will the system be used for? Unless there is programming, coding, rendering, encoding, 8gb ram will be more than enough and wouldn't ever even be fully utilized.

Be positive the change those PSUs.
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ianj14

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No gaming so no GU needed at moment, although mobo chosen on basis of being able to add in future if needed. The rig has to last five years plus, so most components have been selected with some degree of overhead in mind.
 
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tiny voices

tiny voices

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Sep 6, 2012
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I would go with an i5 4570 and h87 motherboard.

What will the system be used for? Unless there is programming, coding, rendering, encoding, 8gb ram will be more than enough and wouldn't ever even be fully utilized.

Be positive the change those PSUs.
 
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ianj14

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Noted re PSUs.

Some rendering and coding will be done, so 8GB will look weak in two-three years. 16GB now covers till then, and further 16GB can be added either now for better matching, or later if budget is not flexible enough.
 
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ianj14

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Taking the High spec, I've modified it to reduce some initial costs and also to use an Antec PSU instead:

Notes:

The Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H seems to be one of few Haswell mobos that support dual monitors on the same connection type (2 x HDMI), so it pretty much has to stay as a dual monitor arrangement is needed.

The Z87 allows for overclocking at a later date, so as the CPU/Mobo advance in age it will be possible to squeeze out a bit of extra performance. If we go for H87 now, that later capability will be missing.

The choice of the Noctua also added overhead for later overclocking, though I've now left it out initially as I've downgraded the CPU for now and will use its stock cooler until a later upgrade to a 4770k can be justified.

The rest of the components are pretty much the same, keeping some level of robustness to do later upgrades on top of this initial build.

My friend still needs to choose a case to his liking, so I've put in an 'expensive' one to act as a placeholder until I know what he wants.

Also, no additional fans, etc, are currently budgeted for, so I'm thinking a contingency of about £100 should be considered for such bits and pieces.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H £190
Mobo Accessory: Gigabyte Bluetooth/WiFi Addon card (GC-WB300D) £35
CPU: Intel i5-4430K £146
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Tactical Memory (BLT2CP8G3D1608DT1TX0) £106
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 128GB (MZ-7PD128BW) £109
HDD: Western Digital 4TB 3.5" SATA 6gb/s (WD4001FAEX) £210
Case: Corsair 600T Mid Tower Graphite (CC-9011020-WW) £150
PSU: Antec 650W Earthwatts Platinum (0-761345-04761-6) £84
SUB-TOTAL: £1030
Contigency: £100
TOTAL: £1130
 
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