Help New PC time!

[Raven]

Time to get a new PC. Once again I find myself out of the loop when it comes to what is best bang for my pound...

Is the below all present and correct?

I have had a couple of Maximus mother boards in the past and been extremely happy with them, I know they cost a little more than they should but imo they really are rather good.

What are the other bits like? I have plenty of existing storage so the SSD is just for the boot drive and a couple of favourite games, I have a 1tb Samsung HD...I could add another couple of TB HDs but not entirely sure I need them at the moment, something I could always add in the future.

As a base point, would this be any good?

QtyDescriptionQuickFind StockPriceTotal
Intel Core i5 4670 3.40GHz Socket 1150 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor46763757 in stock£157.29£157.29
Asus Maximus VI HERO Z87 Socket 1150 HDMI ATX Motherboard51754261 in stock£146.98£146.98
Sapphire Vapor-X R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 OC Dual DVI HDMI Displayort PCI-E Graphics Card57935834 in stock£164.00£164.00
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO - SSD only539151> 99 in stock£68.99£68.99

Corsair Vengeance Pro 16gb (2 X 8gb) Memory Kit Pc3-17066 2133mhz Ddr3 Dram Unbuffered (sliver)52298114 in stock£136.53£136.53

Corsair CX 750W PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified39312089 in stock£69.16£69.16
Save as ListCart total inc vat:£742.95

 

[TdC]

having recently invested in a new PC myself I went the AMD route and got a 4GHz AMD cpu (8350) with an Asus mobo (M5 A99X), also after long deliberation I got 8GB of the Corsair goodness, saving a few bucks. tbh if you have no real need for more ram you can also go 8GB and save yourself some beer money / get a bigger SSD (if you don't have external storage).

 

[ileks]

Looks good to me. I find this comparison really helpful.

 

[Overdriven]

Honestly, there are a few things you could do to save money..

- Go down the AMD route (as @TdC said) - Probs save you £100.
- Drop the PSU down to 550/650 or so (Unless you plan to go SLI/X-Fire in the future)
- Drop to 8Gb RAM unless you're rendering/doing work which needs the boost. Gaming does not require more than 8gig.

If you want to keep the PSU@750W - get a better GPU with the monies you save if you go down the AMD route.

Last minute edit:

- There are differences between the I5/83xx i7/9xxx series chips. Depending on how anal about performance you are etc. I'd wait a month, new chips are coming out and the i5/7 set will drop in price a bit.

 

[Raven]

The money isn't (that much) of an issue. My non smoking money pot is getting big and the wife is so pleased I have stopped smoking she was easy to talk round

I have 16 gig of 1600mhz RAM now so taking a step back to 8 seems a little wrong somehow. Normally I would just wang the stuff I have now into the new one but I am turning the existing PC into an under the TV gaming/media centre. For the sake of £60 I think I will just go for 16gig again, it was more the compatibility of RAM vs Mobo I was concerned with, they seem to have changed all the names for everything since I last build a PC, 2 years or so ago.

I might leave it 6 months though if new CPUs are coming out and see what happens.

 

[Overdriven]

The money isn't (that much) of an issue. My non smoking money pot is getting big and the wife is so pleased I have stopped smoking she was easy to talk round

I have 16 gig of 1600mhz RAM now so taking a step back to 8 seems a little wrong somehow. Normally I would just wang the stuff I have now into the new one but I am turning the existing PC into an under the TV gaming/media centre. For the sake of £60 I think I will just go for 16gig again, it was more the compatibility of RAM vs Mobo I was concerned with, they seem to have changed all the names for everything since I last build a PC, 2 years or so ago.

I might leave it 6 months though if new CPUs are coming out and see what happens.

Nah, not even 6 months. If you look at the new 48XX/49XX Intel chips, they're bringing the prices of the I5/7 down. My CPU (4770k) dropped by about £20 a few weeks after getting it

 

[TdC]

I have 16 gig of 1600mhz RAM now

dude, you srsly won't need that unless you're coding / rendering / doing database work that is all in-ram. Besides, you can always get *more* ram. Likewise the PSU, which I didn't notice earlier. I deliberately bought a 650W *gold* rated PSU, as I expect to be using between 30 and 70 percent of it's output and PSU's are usually most efficient when loaded approx 50% of output. It's actually more expensive than some of the 700/750's I looked at, but will gradually earn itself back, and also is super stable. The main draw besides the CPU obv is currently my Nvidia card, and the entire computer uses something like 350W under load. If I upgrade the GFX card and the Watts go over 500 I will consider upgrading the PSU, but until then...sitting pretty tbh!

 

[Scouse]

BUY IT NOW @Raven!

If you're not strapped for cash saving 20 quid on the next gen i5 won't matter a jot tbh. Specs are good.

If you never use 16gb then just go for 8. Pointless money to spunk. I've got 12Gb in my rig and I can run a variety of VM's at the same time, a browser, a number of programs and a game (or two) and it doesn't fill the 12 gig...

 

[BloodOmen]

Have to agree with TDC on this one, I have 16gig of ram myself and I've literally never to date seen it go above 7gig of use, not once... not even playing memory hogging games. Only got my 16gig because it was buy one get 1 free offer

 

[caLLous]

I got 32gb for my current main PC when I put it together because RAM was dirt cheap at the time. Never used a third of it. I took two of the 8gb sticks out and put them in my media server with a pair of 4gb sticks instead.

 

[Raven]

I think I am going to save some money and just upgrade my graphics card. I have these atm

16gig of http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl - it was half that price when I got it!

With an I5 2500k

Graphics card is an HD6870

So now to deliberate endlessly about which one!

 

[BloodOmen]

Best bang per £ atm is

AMD R9 280 @ £199 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-347-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

GTX 770 @ £250 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-178-GW&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

AMD R9 290 @ £299 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-321-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Personally i'd say try and find a GTX 770 on the cheap somewhere, will prob last you ages still using my GTX 670, runs 99% of games at max detail without issue still.

GeForce GTX 780 Ti
8,662
$689.99
Quadro K6000
8,138
$4,719.95
GeForce GTX 780
8,026
$474.54
GeForce GTX Titan
7,982
$999.99*
Radeon R9 290X
6,631
$599.99
Radeon R9 290
6,403
$469.99
GeForce GTX 770
6,202
$309.99
Radeon HD 8990
5,940
NA
GeForce GTX 680
5,711
$490.00
Radeon HD 7990
5,541
$1,000.99
FirePro W9000
5,415
$3,590.33*
GeForce GTX 670
5,380
$387.40
GeForce GTX 690
5,168
$999.99
Radeon HD 7970 / R9 280X
5,121
$299.99*

 

[Scouse]

I think I am going to save some money and just upgrade my graphics card.

What for? I've got a 7870 and I can't think of a single game that doesn't run fine in 1920x1080 at full everything...

 

[Raven]

Binned it all and going for the following, my existing PC will go under the TV and a cheapish case to become a media centre

Asus R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card £249.99 - Seems best performance to price at the moment, bit of a AMD fanboy when graphics cards are concerned.
Intel Core i7 4770 3.40GHz Socket 1150 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £210.59 - No point going for the K version as I have no intention of overclocking
Asus Z87-C Socket 1150 HDMI D-Sub DVI 8-Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard £90.53 - Should do exactly what it says on the tin.
Kingston Hyper X 16GB 2400MHz DDR3 CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Beast Series £122.12 - I know I probably don't need 16gig but I have 16 now so kind of feels odd going down to 8
Crucial 240GB M500 SATA 6Gbps 2.5 SSD £85.98 - Have a 60gig but will stick it in the media centre
Seagate 3TB Barracuda Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA-III - 7200RPM 64MB Cache £81.99 - Bargain now the 4tbs are out
Corsair RM 650W Fully Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply £86.98 - 650W should be more than enough, not had a modular PSU before.
Coolermaster CM Storm Quickfire TK Stealth Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Cherry MX Brown £57.99 - one of the feet on my G15 broke so forced to buy a new keyboard
Total £986.17

Will all go in my Cosmos-S, thought about getting a new case because this ones an arse for size but the wife had said that I have to keep it under 1k, the cheap shit case I found to put my existing PC in and to go under the TV is a shocking £12.17 but has a cut out bit inside to fit large graphics cards so my Saphire HD6870 will fit. Will be behind darkened glass in the unit, on its side so it wont really be visible. Got a crappy old MS wireless keyboard and mouse for it.

 

[BloodOmen]

Binned it all and going for the following, my existing PC will go under the TV and a cheapish case to become a media centre

Asus R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card £249.99 - Seems best performance to price at the moment, bit of a AMD fanboy when graphics cards are concerned.
Intel Core i7 4770 3.40GHz Socket 1150 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £210.59 - No point going for the K version as I have no intention of overclocking
Asus Z87-C Socket 1150 HDMI D-Sub DVI 8-Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard £90.53 - Should do exactly what it says on the tin.
Kingston Hyper X 16GB 2400MHz DDR3 CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Beast Series £122.12 - I know I probably don't need 16gig but I have 16 now so kind of feels odd going down to 8
Crucial 240GB M500 SATA 6Gbps 2.5 SSD £85.98 - Have a 60gig but will stick it in the media centre
Seagate 3TB Barracuda Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA-III - 7200RPM 64MB Cache £81.99 - Bargain now the 4tbs are out
Corsair RM 650W Fully Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply £86.98 - 650W should be more than enough, not had a modular PSU before.
Coolermaster CM Storm Quickfire TK Stealth Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Cherry MX Brown £57.99 - one of the feet on my G15 broke so forced to buy a new keyboard
Total £986.17

Will all go in my Cosmos-S, thought about getting a new case because this ones an arse for size but the wife had said that I have to keep it under 1k, the cheap shit case I found to put my existing PC in and to go under the TV is a shocking £12.17 but has a cut out bit inside to fit large graphics cards so my Saphire HD6870 will fit. Will be behind darkened glass in the unit, on its side so it wont really be visible. Got a crappy old MS wireless keyboard and mouse for it.

I'd have got the 4670k over that 4770 personally, save yourself £50 or so and prob won't even notice a difference in performance, rest looks fine.

 

[TdC]

dude, dat ram. in a mediacenter? please just get some kingston value ram and save yourself 80 squids or so. together with the 50 blood just saved you things start to add up.

 

[Raven]

Nah thats all for the new pc. Sticking my current 16gig of ripjaw 1600 into the media centre.

Wifey is possibly starting full time teacher training in a year or so so trying to future proof as much as possible.