Motherboard and GPU aaah decisions!

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

So I'm rebuilding, looking for a bit of advice.

I considered getting myself an i7 but for my usage I would see no substantial benefit over the top model i5 so it's the 4670K for me.

I've got a budget of around $340 (£200) for a GPU and $170 (£100) for a Motherboard.

I know more about GFX than I would ever claim to know about Motherboards so I have a few options already.

AMD: R9 280, possibly the 280X or the 7950.

nVidia: I'm inclined towards AMD but if anything the 760 is within budget.

As for the mobo, I'm clueless. I have plans to overclock, my usage will be primarily gaming but I'm doing a degree in engineering so I'll be using CAD a bit too (one reason to go for an i7 but couldn't rationalize the cost difference).

There's a nice ASRock fatal1ty board, MSI G65, Asus board blah blah

Everywhere I go there are differing opinions, some people slam MSI for reliability whereas others love 'em. I dunno, whatever it's over my head.

So basically, just give me your opinions on this stuff and try to reason it rather than just pasting in a link. I'm picky when I build PCs, I wanna know why I'm choosing something.

EDIT: Also another thing to bear in mind when selecting the board would be the clearance between the memory slots and the CPU, the heatsink I've got is rather massive and putting in my brother's budget PC it swallowed one of his slots.

CTurbo · May 4, 2014

Ok what is the budget? and what parts do you already have?

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

Here's a nice pairing:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£102.01 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£198.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £300.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-05 02:52 BST+0100)

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

I don't actually have anything yet so technically it's all in the air. I'm getting:
i5 4670K as I said
128GB SSD and a 1TB SATA III
8GB of Vengeance Pro @2133
GPU: ?
MOBO: ?
Cooling: Budget water cooling or the Enermax ETS-T40 (supremely impressed with the performance of this piece of kit)
PSU: Whatever takes my fancy around the time of order.

I guess my budget is going to be around £800 or $1300

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

Nice combo above in your budget.

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

Alright appreciate it but questions from me here would be:

Would it be worth going for the 280X? What reason would you chose the R9 series over the nVidia alternatives or the 7950 for instance?

What makes you choose that Asus board over any other alternatives (and there are a lot of them in my budget range).

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

I only build with ASUS boards , they are the best , built my 1150 with the ASUS HERO.

CTurbo · May 4, 2014

You didn't mention case, but I'll let you pick your own

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3E4y4
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3E4y4/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3E4y4/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H87-G43 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($84.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($73.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X Video Card ($419.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($76.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1024.17
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-04 22:00 EDT-0400)

CTurbo · May 4, 2014

If you didn't know, the Xeon e3-1230v3 is the same chip as the i7 4770 except the 1230v3 is downclocked 100mhz and lacks integrated graphics. It still would be perfect for you if you'll be using CAD. I am not a fan of overclocking and feel it is mostly a waste of money. The 1230v3 + H87 mobo is actually much cheaper than a 4670k, Z87 motherboard, and liquid cooler.

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

Okay so I'm starting to think it might be pointless to overclock, I'm not going to really be using the PC much for CAD to be quite honest with you so if that is what is throwing your decision to pick the Xeon series then I'm interested to know what other ideas you might have. Also, is buying a Z87 board also completely unnecessary?

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

Z87 is only need if overclocking.

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

What's your opinion on the processor situation here?

Downgrade to a lower i5 or a Xeon and go for an H87 with a better GPU or stick with the 4670K, OC it and stick with the 280X?

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

If your not overclocking , there's no need for 4670k or Z87, the XEON and the H87 board are a great combo.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.86 @ Newegg)
Total: $352.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-04 22:31 EDT-0400)

CTurbo · May 4, 2014

The Z87 offers two major advantages... overclocking and SLI support. If you will be doing neither, a H87 or B85 motherboard is all you need.

And for the record, an i5 4570 + R9 290 would outperform a heavily overclocked 4670k + R9 280x in gaming

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

Alright thanks for all the help in such a short space of time, got lots to take in and decisions to make now!

Probably swinging for the Xeon now, since I've looked at performance and the v3 can outperform an OC'd 4670K anyway. Problem I have now is the fact that the 290s are $500 in England and there is no deal like that Sapphire for $419!

Dark Lord of Tech · May 4, 2014

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (£301.60 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £301.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-05 04:01 BST+0100)

CTurbo · May 4, 2014

Ouch! You may have no choice but to drop to a GTX770. You should still be able to get a 4GB 770 for under $400 usd

stephenneill112 · May 4, 2014

I figured the 290 is out of reach, even on sale we're not gonna see reductions in the scale like that. So really it's 280X or 770.

Motherboard and GPU aaah decisions!

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