Advice on £700-740 PC build exc.GPU?

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Hi, I've been looking into making a PC (with parts from SCAN on a £700-740 budget, £760/70 incl. scansecure) that'd have some decent video and photo editing capabilities (primarily video - in Vegas pro or After Effects and Photoshop), and would be able to handle a bit of 3D modelling & rendering (in programs like blender). I'd like to be able to do a bit of gaming on it too (Kerbal Space Program, Skyrim, Arma II, BF3, BF4, Borderlands, etc). I'd be getting a GPU a bit later on (in a couple of months - December/January) on a seperate £200-250ish budget (would probably go for a gtx760/770 or maybe a 970 if I can push the budget a bit).
The reason I'm going down this route is because I kind of need the PC sooner than later, and from what I've read, it shouldn't cause any problems.
I'd like to have the option to go SLI and don't really need that many drive bays (I'd be content with two HDDs and SSDs).

Anyway, here's the specs (the links are to their product pages at SCAN):

CPU: i7 4790k
Cooler: Corsair H100i
RAM: 8GB 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 Corsair Vengeance
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45
HDD: 1TB WD blue 7200RPM
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W G1

I already have a spare copy of windows, also I'm also getting a disk drive from samsung as I'll be putting photos and videos onto CDs, and I have some old games that are on disks.

Here's some main questions I have about this that'd be great to have an answer for unless what I'm planning is completely stupid:

    1.Is it worth upgrading to some 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 RAM? Is there better out there for the same price?


    2.Should I go with that EVGA PSU or this Corsair CX750, bearing in mind that the case is an air 540 so I can easily hide away all the additional cables? Or would you go for a different PSU completely?


Other than that, is anything you'd change about this? Am I being a total idiot? Have I missed something being incompatible? Is getting the GPU later OK or should I wait until I have the money for the whole build and do it all at once?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Eximo
You could just build it with the stock cooler and upgrade the heatsink later. Since you won't have a GPU for a while you won't be pushing the CPU that much. That way you get your SSD and don't have to re-install or migrate windows to an SSD later.

I would ask what CPU your friend was using. It can be a good upgrade for processors that have some room to overclock. Hyper Evo 212 is a good value performer, but by no means the best heatsink out there. Something like a Phanteks TC14PE or Noctuta NH-D14 would perform just as well as an h100i for slightly less money.

Those motherboards offer pretty much the same features. I agree the MSI looks a little nicer. Gigabytes heatsinks are just a little too red. Matched with some gaudy red ram and...
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Eximo

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Don't really need the H100i unless you plan on overclocking the i7-4790k, personally don't think it is worth it. A cheaper H60 or H55 would be fine if you are water cooling. An even cheaper Hyper Evo 212, Xigmatek Gaia or similar would be fine.

With the savings, I recommend an SSD.

1866 memory with a CAS of 9 at 1.5 volts should be easily within budget, rather then comparing CAS8 and 9 1600.

If you plan on SLI in the future, you need to look at 850W Gold rated supplies. XFX 850, Corsair AX 860i, etc
 
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So, this RAM (1866 9-10-9-27 Corsair Vengeance) and this PSU (EVGA SpuerNOVA 850 B2)? That PSU pushes me a bit over budget, but I can probably make it. Brings me up to £780. 70 max is what I'm aiming for here. Would I be able to get away with 750W for SLI?

I'd rather stick with the h100i because I'd like to overclock the 4790K a bit, and adding an SSD is an easier upgrade than swapping the H60 for a H100i.

Thanks for the quick reply btw, sorry for mine taking a while.
 
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Eximo

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No worries.

Both solid choices. There is cheaper ram, but if you like the looks, go for it.

Depends on your video card choice really. A pair of GTX970s would only cost you 330W which a 750W could handle. A pair of AMD 290X and I would say an 850W would be a better choice.

The reason I say such a powerful cooler isn't needed is that you can only get marginal performance gains out of an i7-4790k. At stock it will run at 4.4Ghz boosted. Adding voltage above 1.25 to get it to go faster will rapidly run into a wall and you might get 200Mhz for your trouble. (For a comparison, my i7-4770k takes 1.2894 volts to reach 4.3Ghz) $100 cooler just isn't worth it with this chip. It is essentially already overclocked. Only extreme overclocking can make a difference and get you around 4.8Ghz, but at drastically reduced CPU lifespan. For that you would need custom water cooling.
 
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logainofhades

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You do not need to look at gold rated PSU's for SLI. An evga B2 750w is enough for SLI GTX 970's. Drop the H100i for a CM 212. Motherboard a Gigabyte Z97x gaming 5. This would be a good setup for you, then add a GTX 970. You won't be gaming much at all without a GPU though. I included the cheapest THG recommend GPU, so you can at least try to do some gaming until you get your better card.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£270.77 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.94 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£61.70 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.39 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 730 1GB Video Card (£42.88 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case (£63.52 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.60 @ Aria PC)
Total: £744.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-17 15:31 BST+0100
 
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Don't really NEED to game on it, it's just something I'd like to do and I don't mind waiting until January/late December to be able to, so getting that GPU there is just throwing money away really. Without a GPU I should be able to get away with doing bits and bobs on less intensive games that I can already run on my laptop (inc. Minecraft, HL2, KSP, Skyrim, Borderlands etc. - the laptop's a dual core 2GHz (Intel pentium B940) with 4GB RAM, the speed of which, god knows... seriously).

Also, what's the difference between the MSI Z97-G45 and the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5? At SCAN, the Gigabyte board is a fiver more... and I couldn't really spot much that makes it better (I looked at it previously and decided to go with the MSI). If anything, the gigabyte looks a bit worse... that's not much of a thing really but, well, the air 540 has a huge window.

Coolingwise, I had a friend that had the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO and he switched it for a h100i later. Would kinda want to follow suit with watercooling. Maybe a H60 as Eximo suggested. It kinda leaves the question "what would I use the extra money for?" though, and an SSD I could add later more easily if I really wanted it, whereas with coolers it's a bit of a bigger task... so if I went for a H60 now with an SSD, and then later thought "I'd like a H100i" then it'd be more of a job. Also It'd cost more to upgrade the CPU cooler later than getting a 120GB SSD later. For the price of upgrading a H60 to the H100i I could probably get a 240GB SSD. Having an SSD straight off would be nice too though.

Here's what I'm thinking:

CPU: i7 4790k
Cooler: UNCERTAIN (H100i / H60 and a 120GB SSD)
RAM: 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 Corsair Vengeance
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45
HDD: 1TB WD blue 7200RPM
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 or a Corsair CX750M
 
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Eximo

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You could just build it with the stock cooler and upgrade the heatsink later. Since you won't have a GPU for a while you won't be pushing the CPU that much. That way you get your SSD and don't have to re-install or migrate windows to an SSD later.

I would ask what CPU your friend was using. It can be a good upgrade for processors that have some room to overclock. Hyper Evo 212 is a good value performer, but by no means the best heatsink out there. Something like a Phanteks TC14PE or Noctuta NH-D14 would perform just as well as an h100i for slightly less money.

Those motherboards offer pretty much the same features. I agree the MSI looks a little nicer. Gigabytes heatsinks are just a little too red. Matched with some gaudy red ram and it might work.
 
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He has an i5 4690K, which probably makes the h100i more justified. Going with the stock cooler sounds like a better idea, I like that. Gives me a LOT more money to spend on other components... Would it be able to handle the (non-overclocked) 4790K on full load though (the stock cooler)?

EDIT: Had a quick look at this article. Should be fine, stays under 80 according to their tests.

EDIT 2: Extra money would probably go towards a 240GB SSD.
 
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logainofhades

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Gigabyte boards tend to be better quality, than MSI. Also, getting a GPU is not a waste of money. It is always good to have a spare, in the event you have a failure. Personally, I would skip the overclocking altogether and go with something more like this. You would have great all around performance, right from the start. ( i am the impatient type, and could never handle gaming on IGP. :lol:)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£214.77 @ PC World Business)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£75.54 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£61.70 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.39 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card (£149.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case (£63.52 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£61.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £736.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-17 18:38 BST+0100
 
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What makes that xenon better than the 4790K? From what I've read it's worse.

Also, seagate? Again, from what I've read they're supposedly quite unreliable.

The Motherboard (MSI Z97-G45) comes with a 3 year warranty, which should be fine. I'd be alright getting 3 years out of a motherboard. Would probably want to upgrade it after that for some cRaZy FuTuRe TeLePaThIc CoNtRoL fEaTuRe.

Blender (3D graphics/animation software) doesn't support AMD GPUs btw, so they're out of the question for me anyway. Despite the fact that I'm not going to get one with the rest of the parts because I can get one later on in January and concentrate on getting a better CPU, case, PSU, Motherboard etc at the current moment in time.

CPU: i7 4790k
Cooler: Stock cooler
RAM: 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 Corsair Vengeance
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45
HDD: 1TB WD blue 7200RPM
SSD: 250GB Crucial MX100
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 540
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 or a [strike]Corsair CX750M[/strike]

Questions (sorry for having so many):

    1. Is that SSD alright?

    2. [strike]Which of those PSUs is better?[/strike]


The above takes me up to £745ish (with a disk drive), and with scansecure it'll be about £765-£770. Perfect. If I went with the corsair PSU then I'd have a spare fiver (making it £740ish, with scansecure £760-765ish) obviously.
 
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G

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The Corsair Obsidian 650D has come down to just under £100! Going for that!
Also, I'm going to go with this vengeance pro RAM which is exactly the same as the old but just, looks nicer (and it's only a £2.50-3 difference, which is insignificant and I don't mind if it benefits the aesthetics).
Also, swapping the SSD for a samsung 840 EVO 120GB. Saves me £20 and I only really want an SSD as a boot drive.

Probably ordering tonight. Tomorrow night latest. Want to do it ASAP because I really like that case and I don't want the price to change like it did with the air 540 in white from SCAN (that's where I'm getting the parts from). Want to make sure there's no unforeseen incompatibilities though so sort of torn in two between ordering tonight or leaving it till tomorrow and risking the 650D going back up in price.

EDIT: Parts ordered, arriving on Saturday. Building on Monday. Will update with build later.

Specs:
CPU: i7 4790k
RAM: 8GB 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 Corsair Vengeance pro
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45
SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: 1TB 7200RPM WD blue
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W B2

Total cost: Approx £750 w/scansecure (from SCAN)
 
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S

sora

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Or you could just go with one GTX 980 and it maximal performance gains.
 
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