£1200 gaming/work station pc build advice needed

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bitesand

Reputable
Jul 12, 2014
4
0
4,510
budget - £1200
usage - writing essays, watching movies, playing mmos 4 hours a day, 3D rendering/sculpting
parts not required - keyboard, mouse, monitor

CPU - intel core i7 4790K 3.6GHz quadcore
GPU - GTX 780ti 3GB
RAM - 16GB
Hard drive - 250GB SSD
Motherboard - Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150
Power supply - 750W corsair ATX12V
Cooling - cosair H55 57CFM liquid
OS - vista (im used to vista but very undecided, would love input)

I've been running the same pc for 8 years now. I've been gaming mostly on ps3 but that broke recently. I've got a strong interest in blender but my current pc cant render cycles (nvidia 6200 im not kidding). This will be my first ever build. I need advice on this.

Should I go for water cooling or stick with 3*80mm fans?
Is the 750W power supply overkill? will this be more expensive long term than a 600W one?
Would i be better off with a GTX 970 4GB GPU? which card is visually more powerful?
Can i SLI the motherboard with a GTX 970 and GTX 780ti together?


 
Solution
galactigus
I would go for the 970 it's not worth the price of upgrading to the 780ti.
Psu is fine your not going to notice a huge difference on your power bill.
If you are overclocking you should definitely either water cool or buy an aftermarket cooler of some sort if not the stock cooler is fine.
No don't even try to sli two different cards it's a bad idea.
Windows 7 for sure newer is better in this case.
Hope you have an HDD laying around that SSD's going to fill up quick.

I suggest an ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer nicer board imo and all 5 egg reviews with people who bought the 4790k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157501
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galactigus

galactigus

Honorable
Jan 4, 2014
707
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11,160
I would go for the 970 it's not worth the price of upgrading to the 780ti.
Psu is fine your not going to notice a huge difference on your power bill.
If you are overclocking you should definitely either water cool or buy an aftermarket cooler of some sort if not the stock cooler is fine.
No don't even try to sli two different cards it's a bad idea.
Windows 7 for sure newer is better in this case.
Hope you have an HDD laying around that SSD's going to fill up quick.

I suggest an ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer nicer board imo and all 5 egg reviews with people who bought the 4790k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157501
 
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Solution
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bitesand

Reputable
Jul 12, 2014
4
0
4,510
thank you for responding. i had no clue about the sli thing and different cards. yeah i've got a external 2TB hard drive i watch my media from so thats no problem. is there a huge difference between i5 and i7 performance? i've just had a look at the prices and now im reconsidering..
 
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Lurr7

Reputable
Nov 13, 2014
20
0
4,510
I just had my build finished with a slightly lower budget than yours (about 1k). I realize that you're going for rendering so I won't say much about the 16GB ram except not to overspend on speed there, diminishing returns and all. That mobo gets relatively bad reviews, shoot for a MSI PC Mate x97. Save $20 and have something with a more modern chipset for less. There's also a Newegg rebate that brings it down to $80 total if you're okay with that.

As far as your OS goes, I strongly recommend W8 - it has the same compatability as W7, but with some quirks. The main reason I suggest it is that pretty much everyone has a friend in college - if you know anyone with a .edu email address, you can get a full retail version (not OEM, so it can be transferred between mobo's) for $70, cheaper than you can get W7 OEM right now.

GPU- Go with a 970 over the TI. They're neck and neck, but more modern games prefer the 9 series, so it's a matter of future proofing. One quick note here - if you go the EVGA route, go for a FTW or nothing, the SC / SCC / Standard have heatsink issues and coil whine like nothing else (Upgraded my SC to a FTW, runs about 5c cooler and no whine now). Note that if you go with a 9 series, there's no need for a 750w PSU - a 550-600w will suffice, saving you a bit there.

Delay the purchase of your aftermarket cooler - see how your rig runs at stock, and decide if you need additional performance based on that - it's a big investment in cooling that could potentially be better spent in other areas.

If you have limited programs that you'll be using for rendering / regularly, consider dropping down to a 120 SSD (OS+drivers left me with about 90 GB left) and invest the extra cash in something simple for more storage. I personally picked up a 1TB WD Blue for $55 off NewEgg with free shipping. If you'll never need extra storage though, stick with the 250.

the i7 is a great choice for what you plan on doing, I personally stuck with the i5 4690k but don't have the same processing requirements you do.

 
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