PC Refresh / Build
 

Hello,

Just spec'ing up a PC refresh and so far I've got this:


System Board: ASUS X99-A Intel X99 (Socket 2011-3) Motherboard ASU-X99A Novatech £199.99

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail IL-I75820K Novatech £290.00

Graphics: MSI Radeon R9 270X TWIN FROZR GAMING OC 4GB GDDR5 MSI-270X4 Novatech £159.98

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit CSR-V2616B Novatech £262.81

Total is around £900 - didn't really want to go that far - I was looking around £500 - £600.

Main aim is for photo editing hence lots of RAM and I want to go and get Alien Isolation. My current PC would just about run it but the graphics lets it down at the moment.

Any suggestions for getting the price to a reasonable level?

---------- Post added at 16:46 ---------- Previous post was at 16:45 ----------

Forgot to say - may need to replace the PSU as well...

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

why don't you buy from chill blast or mesh computers ?

building your own computer cost even more. plus you get headache and worried if things go wrong.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

I can build it myself - not a problem.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

You wont get closer to your budget without compromise on the hardware

Obvious place to cut costs a little is an i5 rather than i7 CPU, or at least go down to a quad rather than 6 core i7 CPU?. Depending on your software that might perhaps hurt the photo editing, but very very few games are that multi threading.

Also seems to be quite a high priced motherboard. You might not actually see a difference if you looked at something a bit less?

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

IMO the Haswell-E platform (X99/i7 5xxx) is poor, overpriced and poor value for money.

For anything that uses up to 5 cores or less (read: all games and almost all photo editing functions) you will get better performance out of an i7 4xxx for half the price. If you really need the extra cores, buy a Haswell-EP Xeon, it has the same core with more features, runs faster, uses less power, and is cheaper. Plus you could double the RAM for less money on a DDR3 Haswell, which will make a much bigger difference than a measly 15% more CPU power if your workload is memory bound.

Either way an i7 5xxx is a complete waste of money, especially when you consider the excessive mainboard and RAM costs on top.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

I can compromise on the board - how about this:

ASUS Z97-PRO Intel Z97 (socket 1150) Motherboard (£145)

and

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 4790K 4.0GHz Socket LGA1150 (£262)

Not sure what RAM yet...

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

Much better value for money, and a good processor too. RAM and mainboard choice depends on if you're overclocking or not. I personally wouldn't bother, as modern Haswells don't overclock that well and suck a lot more power while doing it.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

OK - that'll probably be what I go for - what about the graphics I spec'd - will that work with that board?

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

The card will work fine, yes. Although it seems rather mid-range compared to your other components, then again, it'll play most games like Alien at 1080p and maximum graphics quality, so it's a decent choice if you're not an uber-hardcore gamer.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

I don't play games but the Alien Isolation game takes my fancy as I love the Alien films.

The potential board - ASUS Z97-PRO - has built in graphics but I assume they will just be very basic and not capable of running modern games?

Also - I see the board has M.2 support - I'd be silly not to buy a M.2 SSD for the OS at the time of build - any tips or pitfalls to lookout for?

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

Yes, the built-in graphics is just about incapable of modern games except at the lowest resolutions and minimum settings. In that respect, a lower-midrange card is probably a good choice for you then, as it's not worth a higher-end card if you'll only be maybe playing one game.

I wouldn't bother with M.2 in a desktop, you have plenty of SATA slots and space as it is, and M.2 SSDs are generally smaller and/or more expensive. A standard 128-256GB SATA SSD is the best value for money right now.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

Mesh are shocking. I know this from experience as I had one of their PC's years back before I changed to a Mac

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

What RAM would I need for a "ASUS Z97-PRO Intel Z97 (socket 1150) Motherboard"?

Not really up on RAM technology at the moment - I've seen cheap RAM and expensive RAM - the more expensive is faster I guess so need something middle ground.

Any recommendations?

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

Just go for some 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24 or 9-9-9-24 not really much difference.

The only time you will see the need for faster ram is benchmarks and possibly photo editing, but not 100% sure about the last part.

If you can get some 1866Mhz or 2133Mhz for the same price as the 1600Mhz then grab some of that.

Re: PC Refresh / Build
 

9 times out of 10 it is cheaper to build than buy - what do you think the manufacturers do? they build a system and add their mark up to it