Advice/opinion of component choices

[Sion Rees]

Hi all. I want to build myself a computer that can handle top end gaming and demanding software that will last me 5 years plus. I would only upgrading the ram and graphics card if necessary. This is what I have come up with.

CPU - AMD FX 9590
MoBo - Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX AM3+ Motherboard Rev2
Case - Xclio XC-630 Pro Large Tower Case Black w/o PSU
RAM - Corsair Memory Vengeance Blue 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9-10-9-27 Dual Channel Desktop
CPU COOLER - Corsair CW-9060009-WW Watercooler Cooler for Intel and AMD Processors CPU Cooler H100i
Graphics card - XFX HD 7970 GHz DD Edition AMD Radeon Graphics Card with Ghost Thermal & Hydrocell- 3GB
C: Drive - 240GB Kingston SSDNow V300, 2.5" SSD, MLC-Flash, Read 450MB/s, Write 450MB/s, 85000 IOPS 43000 IOPS Max.
D: Drive - Western Digital WD20EZRX 2TB Green SATA 3 - 6Gb/s Hard Drive 64MB Cache 8ms OEM
PSU - AKASA AK-PA075AM01-UK Venom Power 750w modular PSU 80% efficient[/i]

Have I made any glaring mistakes? Is there anything you would change?
I've priced this for about £1100 and I wouldn't like to spend much more. Thanks in advance!

 

[X79]

What will your resolution be on your monitor?

And what kind of software are we talking about?

5 years is a lot to demand. Too much I dare say.

 

[Sion Rees]

I will have to get back to you on the resolution, im buying a second hand monitor off my mate, its going to be quite high though. Software will be things like MAYA, Photoshop with some high res pics and probably video editing software like Premier.

I know 5 years is a push but I wanted people to be thinking future proof lol . I am hoping that operating systems to come will be able to take better advantage of an 8 core CPU, but its a gamble.

Also Im going ot be using an oculus rift with it once they are out.

Thanks

 

[Sion Rees]

The monitor will be 1920 x 1080

 

[X79]

The only glaring mistake you made was the PSU.

As for 1080p, that's quite fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£137.00 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.90 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£131.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.64 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£93.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£106.26 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1068.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-19 20:01 GMT+0000)

Something along these lines would be good because it's not over the top and has some quality parts.

The PSU for instance, will last you quite a bit I think. Meaning it might even see you through to your next build.

The motherboard is SLI/CF ready, meaning you can add another Nvidia or AMD GPU as you see fit. This is a question

of adding some long-term possibilities to your build. The CPU is quite a beast in itself and as I believe you pointed out,

most programs don't utilize all cores equally well yet. The same is true for games. I picked an Nvidia GPU so that you'll

have a greater chance of having the GPU help out the CPU with the workload in some of your professional programs.

Furthermore, I've selected the Pro version of Windows, as I don't know the full extent of professional software you use

and some of this software can't run on Home editions on windows. I added more RAM, which is just a good thing in general.

However games nowadays don't need more than 8GB for sure; thus with 16GB you've got a bit of longevity left. Not to mention

that it's terrific if you multi-task alot. The SSD is one of the best lines of SSDs there is and 250GB is the sweetspot, from which

if you pass it, diminishing returns set in rapidly. You've also got a performance-minded HDD; unlike the more balanced Caviar

Blue or the abysmal Caviar Green. The casing is a bit up to you; but a good case can last you many builds; hence I was tempted

to go for a Full Tower. Lastly, it has an optical drive. However many people get by using solely USB, yet I don't know how you

feel on the subject. Luckily optical drives aren't expensive.

 

[Sion Rees]

The only glaring mistake you made was the PSU.

As for 1080p, that's quite fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£137.00 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.90 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£131.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.64 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£93.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£106.26 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1068.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-19 20:01 GMT+0000)

Something along these lines would be good because it's not over the top and has some quality parts.

The PSU for instance, will last you quite a bit I think. Meaning it might even see you through to your next build.

The motherboard is SLI/CF ready, meaning you can add another Nvidia or AMD GPU as you see fit. This is a question

of adding some long-term possibilities to your build. The CPU is quite a beast in itself and as I believe you pointed out,

most programs don't utilize all cores equally well yet. The same is true for games. I picked an Nvidia GPU so that you'll

have a greater chance of having the GPU help out the CPU with the workload in some of your professional programs.

Furthermore, I've selected the Pro version of Windows, as I don't know the full extent of professional software you use

and some of this software can't run on Home editions on windows. I added more RAM, which is just a good thing in general.

However games nowadays don't need more than 8GB for sure; thus with 16GB you've got a bit of longevity left. Not to mention

that it's terrific if you multi-task alot. The SSD is one of the best lines of SSDs there is and 250GB is the sweetspot, from which

if you pass it, diminishing returns set in rapidly. You've also got a performance-minded HDD; unlike the more balanced Caviar

Blue or the abysmal Caviar Green. The casing is a bit up to you; but a good case can last you many builds; hence I was tempted

to go for a Full Tower. Lastly, it has an optical drive. However many people get by using solely USB, yet I don't know how you

feel on the subject. Luckily optical drives aren't expensive.

First of all, thank you. This is exactly what I was hoping some one would do. Do you recommend AMDFX 8350 because there is not enough performance for the price increase? But will the amd fx 9590 stay competitive for longer? Also what is it about the nvidea card that you think will be beneficial over the amd card? Also is it possible that in the future i would be able to put in a fire pro or quatro card and use it independently of the gaming card.
And thanks again =D

 

[X79]

No problem. Thank you for the politeness.

I just don't see the point going beyond the 8350. No need to make it more expensive. It's also counterproductive to blow

all your cash in one go, because PCs are meant to be upgradeable and it's through upgrades that you stay cutting edge.

GPUs can help offload some of the workload from the CPU in professional programs. Their way of doing this is called Open CL.

Both AMD and Nvidia cards can use this technology, as it's neutral. However Nvidia also has their own proprietary CUDA technology;

thus you get "more" with Nvidia in a sense. A greater likelihood of things working out perhaps, or what have you.

GPUs like the ones you mentioned are quite costly and are not meant for gaming. They're horrible at gaming. They excel at certain

types of computation that take place in the aforementioned professional programs you might use. I doubt you could have

both kinds of GPU in one system, but perhaps if they're disabled when not in use it might work; but I don't know for sure.

 

[Sion Rees]

I know your right about the cpu, i just have that childish will to have the really really powerful one. I will look into the work cards at a later date, im not in dire need of one right now. Other wise I really like the changes you've made. As I have a copy of windows 7 in the house, your build is considerably cheaper and yet still capable of everything I need. The cpu can always be overclocked if need be, but to be honest its probably not going to be an issue for some time.

Do you think the cooler will handle overclocking? Thanks again!

Will the cooler you have chosen be able to handle the extra heat from overclocking?

 

[X79]

That's alright. We'd all like powerful hardware. That's why PC rules; it allows you to get it.

Yes the cooler will handle some OC'ing. Of course it'll depend on how far you'd like to go. Water-cooling would be useful

if you're really wanting to push things to the max. You can get some closed loop coolers. Here's an example:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£137.00 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£87.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.64 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£93.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1024.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-20 13:15 GMT+0000)

I'm glad you've got a copy of the OS at hand already. The case is a bit up to you.

I prefer Full Tower cases, as opposed to this Midtower due to

more spacing and upgrade options. As with the PSU, a great case can potentially last you many builds.

Mind you, water-cooling also makes the computer silent. Just for reference sake, I removed the OS from the last

build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£137.00 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.90 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.64 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£93.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £960.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-20 13:19 GMT+0000)

Pretty top-notch system, if I had to say so myself.

And let's say you wanted to indulge in a Full Tower case:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£137.00 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.90 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£99.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.64 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower Case (£104.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£93.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£10.78 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1014.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-20 13:21 GMT+0000)