Help with selecting components

captainh00k · Feb 12, 2015

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/hF3BWZ

This is a build I am making for a new PC. Im a complete newb with this and am not sure if this will work. I would just like to know if it will, and whether you think it would be good for gaming. cheers!!!

okcnaline · Feb 12, 2015

Neigh... For the price, you should be able to fit an i5 in there.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£111.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£53.05 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Core Edition Video Card (£116.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.16 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £598.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-12 22:21 GMT+0000

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

This will be way better for gaming. A GTX 970 blows an R9 280 out of the water and an i5-4440 is significantly stronger than an FX-8350 for gaming. Also it uses a Seasonic OEM power supply (I think all XFX PSU's use Seasonic designs, and Seasonic PSUs are great) and a case with great build quality. The NZXT Source 220 is way more solid than you would think given its reasonable price. The only downside is you need to add some dust filters later on if the computer will be in a dusty area.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£49.36 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£55.32 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£258.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£45.49 @ CCL Computers)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.83 @ Aria PC)
Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic F12 74.0 CFM 120mm Fan (£3.83 @ Aria PC)
Total: £625.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-12 22:26 GMT+0000

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

dirtyferret :

Yeah, the Z97 board and the overkill PSU make no sense for this build.

okcnaline · Feb 12, 2015

The PSU's among highest quality, and it'll be an upgrade path to an overclockable i5 when it comes to be.

captainh00k · Feb 12, 2015

Which build would you say is better then? is an i5 better than the AMD even though the AMD is 4GHz? I am very new to building and have only really started looking in to it this evening?

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

okcnaline :

That makes no sense, an i5-4440 isn't a placeholder CPU that's going to be obsolete in a year like a Pentium G3258 or something. It's ridiculous to go for such an expensive motherboard to open up the chance to sidegrade to an i5-4690k in a couple of years. Much better to just buy a locked Cannonlake i5 in 2017 and whatever cheap H-series board needed to run it with the money you'd be wasting on a Z97 board now and a 4690k later on. Though I bet an i5-4440 will still be a really good gaming CPU in 2017 and there will be no sense to upgrade to it. As for the huge PSU, graphics cards and CPUs are getting more efficient not less, so that's a waste of money too.

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

captainh00k :

To measure how fast a processor will run your game, encode your video, and so on, you need to look at instructions executed per second. IPC is instructions per clock cylce and clockspeed is clock cycles per second, so we have

INSTRUCTIONS PER SECOND = IPC x CLOCKSPEED

So even though the AMD chip has a higher clockspeed at 4.0GHz vs the i5-4440 at 3.1GHz, the i5-4440 has much better IPC, and thus executes more instructions per second in workloads optimized for four cores, like most games.

captainh00k · Feb 12, 2015

Ahhh that actually makes complete sense Homer haha nice one. So we are definate on the i% over the AMD. Is this still AM3+ Fit? Why the better graphics card but cheaper Mother board?

okcnaline · Feb 12, 2015

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£134.97 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£75.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£53.05 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.45 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£179.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£68.19 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £605.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-12 22:51 GMT+0000

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

captainh00k :

There is no need for an expensive motherboard to run a locked i5; it's only an 84W CPU. As for the better GPU, that's by far the most important part of a gaming PC. The R9 280 is a really nice GPU, but the GTX 970 is on a whole other level. It's the third or fourth best single GPU you can buy right now, only behind the GTX 980 and GTX 780Ti, and roughly even with the R9 290x.

I personally run a Xeon E3-1231v3 (very close to a locked i7-4770) and a GTX 970 on an even weaker H81 motherboard (Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2V), and it is an incredible gaming system, as can be seen from my Firestrike score.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5870553

Also, you'll need an LGA 1150 motherboard for an i5-4xxx, as AM3+ is strictly for AMD FX chips.

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

Here is an idea of what kind of gaming experience to expect with an i5-4440 and GTX 970:

Shadow of Mordor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6v6MLTQWyk

Far Cry 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7Tr8b9Rko

Note how the GPU usage is usually around 98% as soon as they turn VSync off. That tells you the i5-4440 isn't bottlenecking the video card at all.

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

Here is the kind of Firestrike score to expect in that setup:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4811621

With a small overclock on the video card you'd pretty easily get it past the High End Gaming PC score.

captainh00k · Feb 12, 2015

Ok Homer, is there no need for a CPU cooler then?

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

captainh00k :

I wouldn't expect you to need anything more than the stock cooler that comes with it. If you get temperatures in the 70C range and above while gaming then you probably should get an aftermarket cooler. I'd be surprised if you did though. You'd definitely want to buy a CPU cooler if you got an i5-4690k or an i7-4790k for overclocking (but you'd also need an expensive Z97 motherboard), but for locked i5s I don't think you'd need one unless you just got really unlucky with a badly binned i5. But that's the silicon lottery, you never know for sure until you get your CPU and test it.

captainh00k · Feb 12, 2015

Ok mate much appreciated. Im going to go with that build you posted I think. You seem to know your stuff and the proofs in the pudding with those videos.

HomerThompson · Feb 12, 2015

captainh00k :

I think you'll really enjoy the system. I like the B85 board over an H81 board since you get 4DIMMs for RAM, a PCIE-3.0x16 slot (though PCIE-2.0x16 is like 99% the speed, in fact my system uses a PCIE-2.0x16 slot), and I think you get front panel USB 3.0 with it. And the Source 220 is a really solid case. The only reason I don't have it is because the case I got (Antec GX500) went on sale for $25 and it was too good a deal to pass up. But the NZXT Source 220 is awesome. Make sure to install your video card drivers from Nvidia's website to get the newest version. And I didn't include a CD/DVD drive since you can install Windows off a USB flash drive.

Those videos show a somewhat better GTX 970 (the Gigabyte Gaming G1). When I say somewhat better I mean it's usually capable of overclocking to a 1500MHz boost clock. But even at a 1350MHz boost clock, which should be easily reachable on any 970, the card is a monster. And those videos are right in line with my performance with an EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 at its stock 1317MHz boost clock (though my CPU is a little stronger than an i5, though almost identical for most games).

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