Couple things regarding a new build

[calvindsy]

Hey everyone,

I had a couple of questions that I neither know the answer to nor know how to find out. I'm building a new desktop, revolving around the i7 4690K. I'll start off at 8GB RAM until I have the budgeting to upgrade--it's one of the more simple installs and doesn't require throwing any ram away if you have the right motherboard.
I'm building this thing to be able to both 3D model and game--I'm a moderate gamer, but I do some pretty fun video editing stuff as well as some solidworks and autocad work.

My first question is this: My first intention for graphics was the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 with 4GB of dedicated ram. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125685). My graphics budget is roughly $350, and this fits well. I was then curious as to if two GTX 750Ti cards would perform better? I realize that this would up my power supply but I'm not sure if it would significantly upgrade performance.

Secondly, I'm curious as to the physical proportions of the graphics card. I've got a Cooler Master HAF 912 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233) in my cart currently, and it's an ATX mid tower. Although it'd be great to have this question answered, I'm also curious as to how you find this out--do graphics cards just all fit, or what? I've never purchased a card with 3 fans before and it seemed from the pic to make it substantially larger than the other cards.

I'd like to also be certain that my mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128672) will work with my current idea for the card (the 970, link above). It seems like it'd work fine, the card requires a PCI express 3.0 and the motherboard has a slot as such--but it'd be nice to be sure.

My fourth question is a little off the selected topic, but if you will, how does the Intel i7 4690K with 3.5ghz and 4 cores rate higher than the price comparable AMD 9590 with 4.7/5ghz and 8 cores? I know that numbers (evidently) aren't everything, but it confuses me.


Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the ability to check some of my doubts before spending money on all this.

Yours,
Calvin

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Hello

Two 750ti are not as powerful as a GTX 970 and are more complex. The reference and mildly overclocked ones actually use less power as a pair than the GTX 970. My GTX 750ti is overclocked to 1.13Ghz but does not need another power connector, so uses about 60W, whereas a GTX 970 uses about 150W.

Manufacturers make cards any size that they think will fit. They make small for factor GTX 970s with very short boards. This review http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/09/27/cooler-master-haf-912-plus-review/1 shows that the case will handle 280mm boards with the drive caddy, and 410mm without. Your planned card is about 310mm long. It will fit with the drive caddy out of the way.

The i7 4690K is an overclockable processor with an unlocked voltage multiplier. The motherboard you have selected is unsuitable for overclocking. If you bough the CPU because of it's 4.0Ghz clock and have no intention of overclocking, I understand. In any case, I would be using a different motherboard. If you do not want to overclock, then this is what I would do.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $837.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-21 11:25 EST-0500

The motherboard will handle two more sticks of RAM and the case was changed to give you USB 3.0 ports on the front and to handle your GPU no matter what.

If you want to overclock, then you need something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($102.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $891.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-21 11:28 EST-0500

There are still more things like SSD, HDD, and most importantly PSU that need to be bought. Do you have an OS?

The Intel i7 4690 is significantly better than the AMD 9590 for many things. Here's a thread on this. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2362533/amd-9590-core-4690k.html PM meteorsraining for his expert information.

In benchmarks, when the AMD chip is overclocked to the max and all cores are utilized by the benchmark software, it performs well, but that takes an expensive motherboard, great cooling, a huge power supply, and much more heat to be removed from the case. In most real-life applications, the significantly more powerful single cores of the Intel chip are better. If you have specialist needs, ask the specialist community how the 9590 works for that specific task.

The cores in Intel and AMD are not directly comparable because of architecture differences. It's like comparing cars based on number of cylinders and max RPM.

 

[calvindsy]

Thanks!
I had the Corsair 80+ Bronze ATI 500W Power Supply selected, it had good reviews--I don't really know what to look for in a power supply. Windows 7 is my selected OS, I guess I could succumb to 8 if I have to. I also have a 2TB hard drive in my card from Western Digital.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

This http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html is our thinking on power supplies. Get Tier 1 or 2