Hi guys,
Going to buy things bit by bit, hopefully scoring some bargains on eBay etc., so I'm interested mainly in the parts themselves, not so much in where to buy them.
Usage is exclusively, and filthily casual, playing Warlords of Draenor, viewed on a Dell UP2414Q at 3840x2160. Like that's not enough, everything has to go into a Bitfenix Prodigy M.
Overclocking, yes. Water-cooling, nope. I'd like to keep the price as low as possible, while not compromising performance so much as to drop below 60 FPS (outside of large player groups, 'cause there you pretty much cannot get 60 FPS).
Now this is what I've come up with so far:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£165.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£64.78 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£140.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£259.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£259.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Midnight MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£64.79 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1500W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£266.05 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1263.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-19 15:22 GMT+0000
And a little catalogue of questions to go with it:
1. Despite the game being excessively CPU-bound, according to the benchmarks an i7 only brings about 7% more performance. Chance to save some money by going i5. Anybody got different insights?
2. If I did my job properly, then this motherboard should be the only mATX one, that still leaves one slot open between two GPU cards in SLI. The PCIe8x is at the very bottom, i.e. 4th slot, and the case supports 5 slots. Do you guys know of an alternative? Ideally even with a Z97 chipset?
3. In terms of GPU make: Am I still forced to take blower versions for both cards, despite the choice of motherboard? Or do you reckon one blower is fine? Or both open ones? And does anything change when taking into account that the GPUs hang upside down at the top of the case?
4. 2x 4GB RAM with 1600MHz and decent latency seems to be the consensus for OC and gaming. So, I'll probably just grab a cheap pair without compromising too much latency. Anybody differ? Is there some kind of cut-off point for latencies?
5. Initially planned to cool with the NH-D15, but it doesn't let me pick it. So I assume it doesn't fit in the Prodigy M? Anybody got experience with this? Should I simply revert to the NH-D14, or is there a better choice in this situation?
6. Well, PSU. Frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing here, just used it as a placeholder. What do the experts suggest?
Best regards,
strm
Going to buy things bit by bit, hopefully scoring some bargains on eBay etc., so I'm interested mainly in the parts themselves, not so much in where to buy them.
Usage is exclusively, and filthily casual, playing Warlords of Draenor, viewed on a Dell UP2414Q at 3840x2160. Like that's not enough, everything has to go into a Bitfenix Prodigy M.
Overclocking, yes. Water-cooling, nope. I'd like to keep the price as low as possible, while not compromising performance so much as to drop below 60 FPS (outside of large player groups, 'cause there you pretty much cannot get 60 FPS).
Now this is what I've come up with so far:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£165.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£64.78 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£140.34 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£259.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£259.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Midnight MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£64.79 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1500W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£266.05 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1263.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-19 15:22 GMT+0000
And a little catalogue of questions to go with it:
1. Despite the game being excessively CPU-bound, according to the benchmarks an i7 only brings about 7% more performance. Chance to save some money by going i5. Anybody got different insights?
2. If I did my job properly, then this motherboard should be the only mATX one, that still leaves one slot open between two GPU cards in SLI. The PCIe8x is at the very bottom, i.e. 4th slot, and the case supports 5 slots. Do you guys know of an alternative? Ideally even with a Z97 chipset?
3. In terms of GPU make: Am I still forced to take blower versions for both cards, despite the choice of motherboard? Or do you reckon one blower is fine? Or both open ones? And does anything change when taking into account that the GPUs hang upside down at the top of the case?
4. 2x 4GB RAM with 1600MHz and decent latency seems to be the consensus for OC and gaming. So, I'll probably just grab a cheap pair without compromising too much latency. Anybody differ? Is there some kind of cut-off point for latencies?
5. Initially planned to cool with the NH-D15, but it doesn't let me pick it. So I assume it doesn't fit in the Prodigy M? Anybody got experience with this? Should I simply revert to the NH-D14, or is there a better choice in this situation?
6. Well, PSU. Frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing here, just used it as a placeholder. What do the experts suggest?
Best regards,
strm
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