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Need Advice on Gaming/Media Build

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October 22, 2013 1:25:42 PM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 OC Formula/ac EATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($297.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (Purchased For $79.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $44.00)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card ($447.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For $99.99)
Case Fan: NZXT FS-200RB-BLED 89.5 CFM 200mm Fan (Purchased For $17.61)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (Purchased For $86.99)
Total: $1524.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-22 16:21 EDT-0400)

I'm hoping you guys can give me clarification and help resolve some questions I have regarding my build and the parts I've selected.

Primary Uses:

Gaming, Design (Adobe Suite), and Multimedia

Questions & Concerns:

Processor - Is the i7 & i7k worth the additional money? I want to be able to play next gen games on this
Mobo - Is this an optimal board for my RAM and CPU?
RAM - Should I stick with 8GB? How much more noticeable would 12 or 16 be?
Video Card - Solid?
Wireless - I live in the city, where there are lots of wifi networks and interference. Is it worth going with the AC mobo?
PSU - This is already purchased, with this current build the higher end of the range is 468w is my 750w enough when I decide to power up games?

Overall, I want a strong base and in the future I can upgrade without too much additional cost.
Thanks in advance!

More about : advice gaming media build

October 22, 2013 1:37:10 PM

cpu - probably not. it's going to be about a 10%-15% bump in power in fully threaded games, for example an i7 gets about 9%-10% better frame-rates then an i5 in battlefield 4 beta. personally i don't think it's worth it as an i5 will net you 60fps min in any game as it is. and most games are not fully threaded meaning you won't see a lick of difference between the two.

mobo - haven't heard anything bad about it

ram - nothing needs more then 8gb yet. up to you on this one. there will be zero performance increase going bigger

video card - solid and very overpriced. Wait 2 weeks, the new r9-290/290x will be out, that will shift the prices of everything around. cause you'll be kicking yourself in 2 weeks if the r9-290 is $450, cause the early leaks about it's performance put it up around a 780.

wireless - whenever possible i perfer wired over wireless. it's not always possible, or practical, but i would rather run a cat6 to an isolated room then use wireless.

psu - more then enough
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October 22, 2013 3:47:22 PM

ingtar33 said:
cpu - probably not. it's going to be about a 10%-15% bump in power in fully threaded games, for example an i7 gets about 9%-10% better frame-rates then an i5 in battlefield 4 beta. personally i don't think it's worth it as an i5 will net you 60fps min in any game as it is. and most games are not fully threaded meaning you won't see a lick of difference between the two.

mobo - haven't heard anything bad about it

ram - nothing needs more then 8gb yet. up to you on this one. there will be zero performance increase going bigger

video card - solid and very overpriced. Wait 2 weeks, the new r9-290/290x will be out, that will shift the prices of everything around. cause you'll be kicking yourself in 2 weeks if the r9-290 is $450, cause the early leaks about it's performance put it up around a 780.

wireless - whenever possible i perfer wired over wireless. it's not always possible, or practical, but i would rather run a cat6 to an isolated room then use wireless.

psu - more then enough


First off, thanks for answering!

I have a few questions. Given the new software from Nvidia/Mantle will we see games being fully threaded in say 9-12months time?

Gaming aside, I do a lot of design work on dual monitors, would an i7 be better at helping me handle the multiple files, multiple open programs, etc?

I've always had Nvidia's, but I've heard ATI's drivers are often faulty/incompatible and not readily fixed. Will these R7-R9's be a drastic increase to what's available?

Side question: When would be a good time to purchase these core components?

Thanks again!

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Best solution

October 23, 2013 12:02:18 PM

schnmich said:
First off, thanks for answering!

I have a few questions. Given the new software from Nvidia/Mantle will we see games being fully threaded in say 9-12months time?

Gaming aside, I do a lot of design work on dual monitors, would an i7 be better at helping me handle the multiple files, multiple open programs, etc?

I've always had Nvidia's, but I've heard ATI's drivers are often faulty/incompatible and not readily fixed. Will these R7-R9's be a drastic increase to what's available?

Side question: When would be a good time to purchase these core components?

Thanks again!



1) mantle has nothing to do with multithreading, and nothing nvidia is putting out will help either. Mantle is a basecode programming thing meant to replace directx and give radeon gpus in the 7xxx family and later a significant boost in performance. Its similar to the programming codes the new console makers are using to program for the radeon gpus/apus in the new xb1 and ps4.

~ its the 8 cored AMD APUs in the heart of the new gaming consoles which will spur on more titles to be truly multithreaded.

2) an i7 will help, a little. understand programs have to be multithreaded AND written specifically to take advantage of hyperthreading. Its not the same thing as an actual extra core, it's just advanced scheduling which allows a core which doesn't have a full workload in a cycle add on a little something else. There was a time, when intel actually claimed hyperthreaded cpus were dual cored, but as anyone can see the gains from hyperthreading are minimal at best. In an ideal situation with an ideal program it can show a 30% gain in performance (very rare, i think i've only seen that in generic benches, not in actual real world programs). Generally speaking though, when it comes down to it, hyperthreading can hurt performance by as much as 5% and help it by as much as 25%...
-There is a reason why an actual 8 cored AMD cpu with 40% slower cores can pace an hyperthreaded i7 in multithreaded titles. Its because hyperthreading doesn't come close to a full core's performance.
-The short answer is, i don't see the point to an i7... unless you're getting an extreme edition one with 6 actual cores. And even then you're paying a heavy premium for only modest gains in multithreaded performance.

3) I owned an nvidia 9800gs for a while, the driver support was so good i was a little worried about going back to a radeon especially with the horror stories out there. The CGN architecture is quite mature now, and the driver support has been excellent. My 7770 has been as reliable as the 9800gs. I wouldn't argue with the assertion that radeons have had poor driver support for a bit. they still have issues with business drivers, and they haven't finished their work on the frame pacing issues in xfire. But in a single card configuration with a gaming graphics card running games they're about as dependable as nvidia.

4) when the price is right? as i said, i would wait to see what the new radeon gpus do to the price of the market before getting the gpu. I'm not telling you to get one of the new radeons, only to wait and see what it does to the price of everything else. I highly suspect the gpu you're looking at will come down in price when it comes out.
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