GAMING PC Specs ADVICE URGENT!

Resision · May 23, 2014

Hi,

I'm looking into buying a custom PC (they will build but I chose the parts) which is currently on sale, however the sale will finish tomorrow. These are the specs, could you please tell me if these will work well together and what sort of capability would the PC have.

CPU: i7 - 4790
RAM: Crucial 8GB 1600mhz
Mobo: ASRock Z97 Extreme4
GPU: Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X 4gb
Hard Drive: Seagate 2TB Barracuda SATA3 7200RPM
PSU: Cooler Master V - Series 650w Gold
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912

I am planning on upgrading to 16gb RAM, adding an SSD and possibly picking up a second 290 for crossfire, would this build and power supply support that?

Thanks heaps in advance,
Chris

Rationale · May 23, 2014

I wouldn't worry about the extra RAM; 8GB is easily enough for any games of the next couple years. Wait until you either need it, or until DDR4 matures. Until then you'd just be wasting money. Going to 16GB wouldn't hurt anything ofc, it just wouldn't actually help either.

I would not get another 290 either. Just overclock the one in that build, if you think you'll need more performance. An r9 290 is a very strong card, and crossfire has a lot of disadvantages. (micro-stutter, poor performance returns in many cases, massive heat and power consumption, mirrored VRAM)
Also, your PSU wouldn't support two R9 290s.

An SSD would be good though.

But yes, that appears to be a very good build. Should easily run anything on ultra with plenty of performance left over.

Resision · May 23, 2014

Rationale :

Thanks for the quick reply! I also plan on doing video and photo editing, and I was wondering if this PC would be capable of this. I will be gaming on a 1080p monitor, so with that in mind how long do you think I would be able to play games at ultra before needing to upgrade (e.g. 3 years or more). Thanks again

Rationale · May 23, 2014

Resision :

Yes. The i7-4790 and R9 290 are a couple of the best components for any intensive work; the i7 in particular is actually meant just as much for professional editing [and scripting] as it is for gaming. Though with that in mind, I suppose 16GB of RAM might actually help you.

As for games... Well, the R9 290 is more than twice as powerful as the PS4's GPU, so unless developers completely forget about optimization in the next couple years I'd say 3+ is a good estimate for PC focused games. Probably more like 5-6 years on console ports...

And the i7-4790 will last longer than that.

Resision · May 23, 2014

Rationale :

Resision :

Yes. The i7-4790 and R9 290 are a couple of the best components for any intensive work; the i7 in particular is actually meant just as much for professional editing [and scripting] as it is for gaming. Though with that in mind, I suppose 16GB of RAM might actually help you.

As for games... Well, the R9 290 is more than twice as powerful as the PS4's GPU, so unless developers completely forget about optimization in the next couple years I'd say 3+ is a good estimate for PC focused games. Probably more like 5-6 years on console ports...

And the i7-4790 will last longer than that.

Thanks for the reply again, also how much power would I need for the 290 crossfire? I know there are disadvantages to crossfire but I would like to have the option open to me for a few years down the track and I can upgrade to a 750w (same brand etc) for only $15.

Rationale · May 23, 2014

Resision :

Rationale :

Thanks for the reply again, also how much power would I need for the 290 crossfire? I know there are disadvantages to crossfire but I would like to have the option open to me for a few years down the track and I can upgrade to a 750w (same brand etc) for only $15.

Well... Cooler Master doesn't make that many good power supplies. Most are quite bad. The one in your build looks high quality from the reviews, efficiency, and amps, but we'd need to know the model name of the 750w version to find out if it's just as good as the 650w version, or worse. 850w is generally the recommended amount for crossfired 290s, so I really don't know what the minimum you can get away with is.

Resision · May 23, 2014

Rationale :

Resision :

Well... Cooler Master doesn't make that many good power supplies. Most are quite bad. The one in your build looks high quality from the reviews, efficiency, and amps, but we'd need to know the model name of the 750w version to find out if it's just as good as the 650w version, or worse. 850w is generally the recommended amount for crossfired 290s, so I really don't know what the minimum you can get away with is.

Thanks for the replies but due to costs I'm looking into using an FX8350 instead of the i7. Could you advise me on what sort of performance loss I would see from this.

Rationale · May 23, 2014

Resision :

Rationale :

Resision :

Well... Cooler Master doesn't make that many good power supplies. Most are quite bad. The one in your build looks high quality from the reviews, efficiency, and amps, but we'd need to know the model name of the 750w version to find out if it's just as good as the 650w version, or worse. 850w is generally the recommended amount for crossfired 290s, so I really don't know what the minimum you can get away with is.

Thanks for the replies but due to costs I'm looking into using an FX8350 instead of the i7. Could you advise me on what sort of performance loss I would see from this.

Ehm... You'd mostly lose a lot of future proofing. Either CPU can keep games above 60 fps now... but the i7-4790 is much faster and will last longer. I'm not familiar enough with video editing to say what kind of drop you'd see in that. I'd think the drop would be pretty big on anything that doesn't use 6-8 cores.

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