What do you think about this build?

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

Hello,
I am from Romania and i want to build my first computer. I've chosen some components wich seem to be ok, but i want your help in order to get the best stuff for the money also.
I will be gaming a lot Battlefield Hardline, Battlefield 5 (when it will be released), DayZ and many other shooters, but also i will work in Photoshop and may be some 3D stuff.
Should i get the intel i7 4790k and r9 280x or the i5 4690k with the r9 290? Which combination will perform better?

Here is my build:
CPU: Intel i5 4690k
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Toxic Tri-X
Mother Board: MSI Z97 GAMING 5
RAM: Corsair DDR3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 2133MHz CL9 Vengeance Pro
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO
SSD: Samsung 840 evo 120gb
Case: Cougar Volant or something else

AMD Radeon · Jul 7, 2014

depends on your priority

your build is very good

except for PSU
read this reference : http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html
evga nex is tier 3....

go for Seasonic PSU, or any tier 1,2

maktovic · Jul 7, 2014

i5 4690k + R9 290 is the way to go if gaming is primary concern. i7 4790k will surely be faster than i5 in editing stuff but still i5 4690k won't let you down.

Alternatively you can get i7 4790/Xeon 1230v3 + H97 chipset motherboard + R9 290 or maybe even R9 290x

harry_r_s · Jul 7, 2014

It is good to go.
If you want a decent look cabinet check out these-
http://www.nzxt.com/category/products/14-h-series-cases
.
or for edgy look-
http://www.nzxt.com/category/products/12-phantom-series-cases
.
Check out Cooler master V750W too

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

Which is the big difference between the i7 4790 and Xeon 1240v3, because i don't really know anything about Xeons?

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

harry_r_s :

These are some expensive cases, i can't spend to much on one.

AMD Radeon · Jul 7, 2014

they are the same cpu with different naming

xeon lacks integrated GPU and OC ability. but it has server ECC memory support. usually cost much less than its i7 sibling

for ppl not willing to overclock, xeon offer better value

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

AMD Radeon :

Hmmm... Which one will be ok to get if i am not planning to updgrade in the next 2-3 years?

harry_r_s · Jul 7, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1240-v3-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4790
i7 4790k is good. And best buy option.

AMD Radeon · Jul 7, 2014

your original build above is better

overclocking can yield 20% more performance. more future proof

maktovic · Jul 7, 2014

The main differences between Xeon & i7 is that the former lacks iGPU & being Enterprise based supports ECC memory which also requires a workstation motherboard.

If OC'ed, the i5-K is potentially a better machine for games, but it's a lesser CPU overall, due to the lack of Hyper-threading and smaller L3 Cache. It is hard to compare the CPUs with HT to the i5.

i5 4690k + R9 290 will be better choice for gaming as far as current-gen of games are concerned in which an overclocked i5 4690k would be better performer than Xeon/ FX 8350/ i7 4790. That said i7 4790 + H97 chipset motherboard + R9 290/290x will be more futureproof in case games start using 8 cores/threads

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

I found these for a good price: http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=eng/product_a1_1_1&lv0=1&lv1=70&no=247 or http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail_print/powersupply/modular-vs-series/v650s.html
Will it be ok to have 650w if i want to overclock the CPU and the GPU at the same time?

harry_r_s · Jul 7, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

Risking PSU can damage all of your components. So don't just go for cheap. Buy with mind

maktovic · Jul 7, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

Stick with Cooler Master V650, is of decent quality. Will be sufficient for overclocking i7 4790k and R9 290

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

Meh... It still comes up to the decision of taking the i5 with r9 290 or the i7 with r9 280x. It is pretty hard to decide

maktovic · Jul 7, 2014

Games tend to be more GPU bound, so getting a more powerful Graphics card will provide you with biggest performance boost.

Also i5 4690k won't be a total loser in editing as compared with i7 4790k.

Between i5 4690k+R9 290 & i7 4790k+R9 280x, I would go with more balanced system i.e. i5 4690k + R9 290

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 7, 2014

Is there such a big difference between r9 290 and r9 280x?

maktovic · Jul 7, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

There is noticeable difference between them.

R9 280x performs quite similar to GTX 770 while R9 290 performs on the par with GTX 780 to some extent.

harry_r_s · Jul 7, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

Yes. At the hardware level, more shaders, double render processors,etc . & while gaming it gives near 10-20 fps jump!
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-290-vs-Radeon-R9-280X

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 10, 2014

Ill be thinking about it. I want to buy the PC next week so i still need to decide what am i going to do more, editing or gaming.

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 11, 2014

harry_r_s :

I will, be sure of it!

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 13, 2014

I think I'll go for the intel i7 4790k and for a gtx 770

maktovic · Jul 13, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

Good, GTX 770 is faster than R9 280x in majority of games.

For games, they generally have to be written in such a way to utilize the HyperThreading. With that said only some games see a boost from it, some see none. Even still games are more graphics dependant than CPU dependant (a good balance, but for now graphics card is more important than CPU).

For other tasks that are incredibly intensive on the CPU alone, then Hyperthreading on i7 starts to shine. This is generally video encoding/processing and rendering huge animations or scenes that are 3D in nature. Thats all calculations and the Graphics Card generally has little to do with that.

So basically you have to decide what you'll be doing more→ more Editing (i7 4790k + R9 280x/GTX 770 ), more Gaming(i5 4690k + R9 290/GTX 780)

Amzar Vladimir · Jul 24, 2014

Ive just found out that i can buy the i7 k with the R9 290, but i also heard that the AMD cards aren't pretty good, because their drivers are buggy and they have some other problems. Is this true? I want to get something that wont cause me too many problems. However i was told that the editing apps are working better with CUDA cores, but a main problem would that games like BF4 tend to use more than 2 GB. Thats where the R9 290 would advantage me a lot. This is the last problem i need to solve before buying the rig.

maktovic · Jul 25, 2014

Amzar Vladimir :

AMD Drivers are better now.

R9 290 & GTX 780 perform quite similar in games with GTX 780 being bit faster though the difference b/w them keeps shrinking as the resolution goes higher.

BF4 runs better on R9 290 because of Mantle.

Editing→R9 290 will dominate in anything that is OpenCL based. GTX 780 will be faster if you edit with Adobe PP CC that uses OpenGL. Benchmarks show that AMD's SPU's are about half as effective as Nvidia's CUDA cores. So if you use software that uses CUDA then GTX 780 is the way to go.

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