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do I need a video card for this Core i5-4690K build

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  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 18, 2014 1:17:52 AM

My church has been limping along with a couple of old XP computers (Athalon 64x2, 2.11 GHz 960MB DRAM) and is finally willing to replace them. No games (to speak of) are played on these machines. Mostly MS Office, QuickBooks 2014, a little Photoshop (CS3, I think) and Publisher or something like it. Frustrated at their penchant for equating the cheapest thing at office supply stores with a “good deal”, I opened my mouth before my brain was in gear and volunteered to build them for the cost of parts. They wanted a NTE price, and I told them $700 each. I’ve done a few builds and I have some decent HDDs & memory sticks I can spare and I figured I might get by without a graphics card. It took some convincing because a $400 box from Best Buy was on the table for a vote.
Now I’m stuck and will need to eat anything over the $700 (times 2). But I have this problem of liking like good stuff. My builds are typically around $1,200, but (as I pointed out to them) my old core 2 duo 6800 system I built about the time they got their bargain machines still runs fine for my wife. Sure, there have been upgrades (SSD, etc.), but that’s kind of the point.
Here’s the system I plan to build and want to know if it’ll be OK without a video card (for now at least). Intel touts the great advances they’ve made with their onboard graphics, but I’ve never built a system without a graphics card. The cpu is overkill (for now), but it’s so cool and I found such a great deal I already bought two. The case & mobo selections are mostly because I’ve never built a micro ATX system and wanted to try it. At current prices, the build price is currently at $706 with tax & shipping. That doesn’t include the memory (a build that didn’t happen) & HDDs (too small for me), which I am providing at no charge. I welcome comments on any of the choices (but I already bought the cpus).
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
WD Black 500GB
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Update: Thanks to all who answered. Based on your collective input, I am leaving the graphic card out of this build, switching to the H97 and dropping to a 500w PSU. Thanks again!

More about : video card core 4690k build

a b U Graphics card
September 18, 2014 1:19:15 AM

No that i5 does not need a dedicated GPU to function.
I'm at work so didn't bother to read the rest.
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September 18, 2014 1:23:08 AM

ImperialistMillitant said:
No that i5 does not need a dedicated GPU to function.
I'm at work so didn't bother to read the rest.

I know it will "function", but will it function well enough for the fairly non-demanding apps I mentioned?
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a b U Graphics card
September 18, 2014 1:51:15 AM

mikepark said:
ImperialistMillitant said:
No that i5 does not need a dedicated GPU to function.
I'm at work so didn't bother to read the rest.

I know it will "function", but will it function well enough for the fairly non-demanding apps I mentioned?


No you wouldn't need a Graphic card for things you mentioned.
If you want to cut the cost further, you can always opt for a H87 board with a non-K processor, as I am assuming you will not overclock the CPUs.
(most h87 boards can house and support an i5-4670k)
The CX600Watt would be overkill for the build, you can opt for a decent 400W or 500W PSU if not using a dedicated GPU and not overclocking much(that would also save money).
And maybe getting a 120GB ssd with a 1TB HDD would be better (but it all depends on the usage, what they need more speed or more storage).
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a b U Graphics card
September 18, 2014 1:51:49 AM

Yeah it will run pretty good, the HD 4600 is more than enough for Office, Quickbooks and Photoshop.
The computers at my school have only i3's with HD 4000 and Photoshop etc is used often.

Agree with above, cut down the board to something like the H97M PRO 4.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97M%20Pro4/
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September 18, 2014 1:53:45 AM

It will function, however for Photoshop it will be slower without a graphics card. RAM makes a big difference to photoshop performance, as does having a seperate hard drive partition just for photoshop so that it can write its virtual image files to (effectively without any clutter is the simplest explanation though its more in-depth than that)

SSD would also be a nice performance increase
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September 19, 2014 1:07:29 AM

freakout918 said:
mikepark said:
ImperialistMillitant said:
No that i5 does not need a dedicated GPU to function.
I'm at work so didn't bother to read the rest.

I know it will "function", but will it function well enough for the fairly non-demanding apps I mentioned?


No you wouldn't need a Graphic card for things you mentioned.
If you want to cut the cost further, you can always opt for a H87 board with a non-K processor, as I am assuming you will not overclock the CPUs.
(most h87 boards can house and support an i5-4670k)
The CX600Watt would be overkill for the build, you can opt for a decent 400W or 500W PSU if not using a dedicated GPU and not overclocking much(that would also save money).
And maybe getting a 120GB ssd with a 1TB HDD would be better (but it all depends on the usage, what they need more speed or more storage).


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September 19, 2014 1:07:54 AM

Thanks for a simple and direct answer to the question I asked. I suspected as much but was having second thoughts.
I won’t overclock the CPUs for now, but we’ll probably use these computers for 7 years and don’t know what demands lurk in the future. I figured since it only cost $20 more for the Z87, why not buy a little extra future capability. You’re likely right, though and the H87s get good reviews. I tend to get into this “well, it’s only a little more” mode, but those can quickly add up to $100 over budget. Same thing with the PSU. I should probably drop that to 500W. Even if we add a graphic card later it won’t be the kind that would bring demand over the 500W. I’ve had people I built systems for with the 120GB/1TB storage solution fill up the SSD and leave the 1TB HDD nearly empty, even though I set them up with default save location on the HDD. Thanks again for your input. It is very helpful.
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a b U Graphics card
September 19, 2014 2:38:26 AM

mikepark said:
Thanks for a simple and direct answer to the question I asked. I suspected as much but was having second thoughts.
I won’t overclock the CPUs for now, but we’ll probably use these computers for 7 years and don’t know what demands lurk in the future. I figured since it only cost $20 more for the Z87, why not buy a little extra future capability. You’re likely right, though and the H87s get good reviews. I tend to get into this “well, it’s only a little more” mode, but those can quickly add up to $100 over budget. Same thing with the PSU. I should probably drop that to 500W. Even if we add a graphic card later it won’t be the kind that would bring demand over the 500W. I’ve had people I built systems for with the 120GB/1TB storage solution fill up the SSD and leave the 1TB HDD nearly empty, even though I set them up with default save location on the HDD. Thanks again for your input. It is very helpful.


The overclocking in the future would cost you an additional heatsink and if you are building multiple systems the amount you save or spend extra on a system is multiplied by the number of systems you are building. In my personal opinion any system older than 5 years is probably out of date and needs upgrading (but different people have different opinions based on their requirements, for example my father would not feel a huge difference going from core 2 duo to an i-7 and hence he would be spending more for less performance gain if he decides to upgrade). You just have to consider all possibilities and current as well as future requirements then see what would be a better option.
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