Rate this build : gaming computer

[TruckWEB]

So, my neighbour wants me to build him a new computer for his 2 teens (age 13 and 15).  It's going to be used for homework, Internet and gaming.  The budget is CAN $1700 before taxes.

 

If you have any suggestion that does NOT bust the budget, please tell me.

 

Case : NZXT Source 210 black ($69)

PSU : Corsair CX750W Modular ($115)

Motherboard : ASUS Z87-PLUS, S1150 ($189)

CPU : Intel i7-4770K 3.5Ghz ($356)

RAM : Kingston HyperX Blu 1600Mhz DDR3 16GB Kit ($175)

GPU : Sapphire R9 280X 3Gb Lite ($359)

SSD : Samsung 840 EVO 240GB ($189)

HDD : Western Digital Black 1TB ($95)

DVR : ASUS DRW-24F1ST Black OEM ($25)

Sound : Creative PCIE1X X-FI Xtreme Audio OEM ($49)

 

TOTAL : $1621

 

They will keep the current Samsung 22" LCD that does 1080p.  They only have 1 monitor.

 

Any suggestion?

[Draconian Guppy]

are they planning to overclock? If not K variant is pretty useless imo.

[TruckWEB]

are they planning to overclock? If not K variant is pretty useless imo.

 

I don't think so, it's going to use the stock cooler.  But it's just $25 between the K and non-K version...

[Draconian Guppy]

Oh in that case K version, as they are supposedly "cherry picked and tested"

[xendrome]

Oh in that case K version, as they are supposedly "cherry picked and tested"

 

K is unlocked multiplier and Non-K is not., they aren't cherry picked or tested anymore then any other CPU.

 

And that case is OK, but I'd ditch the soundcard, use the onboard and add the $49 to a higher end case. I have the white version of that case sitting right here next to me and It's OK, but I am not impressed at all.

[farmeunit]

I hardly see the point in getting an i7 in most cases.  I'm running an i5 and a Radeon 7870 and can run most if not all my games on Ultra or at High at 1920x1080.

 

If you've got the money, go for it, but I would buy a little more hard drive space, or possibly put it towards a slightly bigger monitor.  I went from a 22" Samsung to a 25" HP xi25 and love it.

 

Of course it's your call.

[LaP]

I hardly see the point in getting an i7 in most cases.  I'm running an i5 and a Radeon 7870 and can run most if not all my games on Ultra or at High at 1920x1080.

 

If you've got the money, go for it, but I would buy a little more hard drive space, or possibly put it towards a slightly bigger monitor.  I went from a 22" Samsung to a 25" HP xi25 and love it.

 

Of course it's your call.

 

I must agree wit this. My core i5 750 oced is still doing the job just fine ...

[Draconian Guppy]

K is unlocked multiplier and Non-K is not., they aren't cherry picked or tested anymore then any other CPU.

 

And that case is OK, but I'd ditch the soundcard, use the onboard and add the $49 to a higher end case. I have the white version of that case sitting right here next to me and It's OK, but I am not impressed at all.

There was a AMA over at reddit from an intel engineer that said just that!  here:

 

ad to hear about the gaming rig.

SKUing is a sensitive topic. Once the fuses are blown, it's not reversible. So no on the unlocking portion for the time being. For us as architects, we have a team dedicated to putting in overclocking features into the designs and tests in place to cherry pick those parts to box and sell as such. So you are getting parts on the good side of the normal when you buy K CPUs.

Integrating chipset and CPU has absolutely no performance benefit. It actually makes things harder because there are a lot of IOs in the chipset that you need to move into lead process that do not benefit in performance, i.e. SATA3 and USB3 run at fixed BW.

Fabs are unbelievable. Sadly these days there's too much automation for humans to do much except get hurt. There is a lot of nasty stuff in there.

Thanks for the compliments! We all appreciate it.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/15iaet/iama_cpu_architect_and_designer_at_intel_ama

[xendrome]

Sounds like BS to me, it's an automated fabrication lab/engineering process. It's likely one flag in the CPU + Microcode that changes it so the multi is unlocked and the BIOS see's it. I'm sure Intel isn't changing their QC based upon K vs Non-K CPUs, the quality of the CPU is the same regardless of the version of the CPU.

 

The guy isn't even official as far as I can tell, I could have made the same AMA with Google, Wikipedia and Intel's spec sheets.

 

"What do you see for GMA's future?" his response "Who's GMA?", yep.. seems legit.

[Andre S. Veteran]

I wouldn't recommend the i7 for a gaming PC, the i5 is 110$ less and provides 100% of the performance in games on average. Games are not bounded by multithreading enough for hyperthreading to make any significant difference. Since the other tasks (homework, internet) are not CPU-intensive, there's really nothing to justify reaching for the i7.

 

The case looks noisy, but it is cheap. If you value silence I'd suggest the Fractal Define R4 which is usually 99$.

 

You can find DDR3-1866 for less money than what you're paying for DDR3-1600. For instance this.

 

The sound card is probably pointless for the money/drivers/compatibility unless they're using some really good speakers, onboard usually does the trick and is a lot more hassle-free.

 

Very bad deal on that video card, you can get a GTX 770 for less money which is clearly faster, or a GTX 760 for 100$ less which is only a little bit slower.

[TruckWEB]

I wouldn't recommend the i7 for a gaming PC, the i5 is 110$ less and provides 100% of the performance in games on average. Games are not bounded by multithreading enough for hyperthreading to make any significant difference. Since the other tasks (homework, internet) are not CPU-intensive, there's really nothing to justify reaching for the i7.

 

The case looks noisy, but it is cheap. If you value silence I'd suggest the Fractal Define R4 which is usually 99$.

 

You can find DDR3-1866 for less money than what you're paying for DDR3-1600. For instance this.

 

The sound card is probably pointless for the money/drivers/compatibility unless they're using some really good speakers, onboard usually does the trick and is a lot more hassle-free.

 

Very bad deal on that video card, you can get a GTX 770 for less money which is clearly faster, or a GTX 760 for 100$ less which is only a little bit slower.

 

Oh thanks, lots of good suggestion here!  Wow, Newegg.ca price are lower than my local store here (Microbytes) even with the shipping!

 

The GTX 770 is the same price as the R9 280X, $359.  It does seems to score a little bit better, I guess it's a preference between AMD or nVidia at this point.

[Draconian Guppy]

Oh thanks, lots of good suggestion here!  Wow, Newegg.ca price are lower than my local store here (Microbytes) even with the shipping!

 

The GTX 770 is the same price as the R9 280X, $359.  It does seems to score a little bit better, I guess it's a preference between AMD or nVidia at this point.

If performance/price are on par, consider also heat dissipation, energy consumption, heatsink/fan noise etc.

Sounds like BS to me, it's an automated fabrication lab/engineering process. It's likely one flag in the CPU + Microcode that changes it so the multi is unlocked and the BIOS see's it. I'm sure Intel isn't changing their QC based upon K vs Non-K CPUs, the quality of the CPU is the same regardless of the version of the CPU.

 

The guy isn't even official as far as I can tell, I could have made the same AMA with Google, Wikipedia and Intel's spec sheets.

 

"What do you see for GMA's future?" his response "Who's GMA?", yep.. seems legit.

Lol dunno about the GMA, but sounds like the sort of response you would expect. Also, this isn't the first intel has said it cherry picks its K variants, however, you do make a VERY VERY valid point.

[Andre S. Veteran]

The GTX 770 is the same price as the R9 280X, $359.  It does seems to score a little bit better, I guess it's a preference between AMD or nVidia at this point.

You're right, I've overstated that. The GTX 770 is clearly faster in Crysis 3 but in general they're pretty close.