Mid-range gaming build - Comments?

[judgechuck]

Hi all,

I've been reading Hexus reviews for many years, but this is my first post on the forums!

I'm looking to replace my aging gaming PC with a new one and have settled on the following components:

1 LN45354 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £99.16 £118.99
1 LN45978 240GB Corsair Force Series GS, 2.5" SSD, SATA III- 6Gb/s, SandForce 2200, MLC, Read 555MB/s, Write 525MB/s, 90k IOPS Max £129.24 £155.09
1 LN51045 Samsung SE-506BB/TSWD Slim White USB2.0 External 3D Blu-ray Writer Retail £51.38 £61.66
1 LN51655 2GB EVGA GTX 760 Superclocked ACX, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1072MHz, Boost 1137MHz, Cores 1152 £164.76 £197.71
1 LN52894 750W Corsair RM Series, Full Modular, 80 PLUS Gold, 1x135mm Fan, ATX v2.4, PSU £77.75 £93.30
1 LN56491 Intel Core i5 4690, S 1150, Haswell Refresh, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 35x Ratio, 84W, Retail £133.15 £159.78
1 LN57073 MSI Z97-G45 GAMING, Intel Z97, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA) DVI-D HDMI, ATX £87.97 £105.56

I'm not looking to build a massively high-end PC, so have selected components that (hopefully) give good "bang for the buck".

I am re-utilising my Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case, as it has served me well and I see no reason to replace it. I may also keep my OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply, if it is up to powering this new PC. I believe it should do. Finally, I have additional data drives, which I will be re-utilising as well.

Any comments?

Thanks,

JC

[BattFink]

Looks good, I'm planning on building a very similar setup for my nephew in the next couple of weeks

Normally I would question if you need 16GB of RAM for gaming, but for the price you may as well

I'm not seeing a CPU cooler listed, are you planning to use the stock Intel one?

[RDGnome]

I see you have a Z97 chipset motherboard with a CPU which won't allow for much overclocking. If you're not going to overclock, you might as well go for H97 board which might be cheaper.
Also, I don't think that SSD is as good as its rivals such as the Samsung 840 Pro, it has an older controller and does not perform as well in benchmarks.
And as Battfink says, that amount of RAM is certainly not necessary and you could get 8GB saving you £50.
GPU is a very solid card though, I do recommend it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is your budget and what games do you want to play?

[Programming_Lif]

I would say reduce RAM to 8GB
Either change the CPU to an overclockable one OR change the motherboard which does not support overclocking.
Along with the SSD, add a 1TB HDD just for good measure.
Upgrade the GPU to a higher one - like a 770 or 780.
Use money saved (if any) for more tea or coffee whilst gaming.

[Noxvayl]

As CAT says, a budget and idea of what games you are expecting to play will help with component specification.

Looking at what you have chosen I would make the following recommendations as alternatives:
£125.09 240GB Intel 530 SSD or if you would like to save a bit extra the Crucial M550 or SanDisk Ultra Plus. Intel is my first choice because their reliability is a lot better than the others, the Marvell controllers found in SanDisk and Crucial drives are next best with Sandforce being the most unreliable currently. If you are happy to spend extra I would recommend the Intel 730 or the Corsair Nuetron GTX. IOPS is more indicative of good general performance and the Corsair Nuetron GTX is the best at the moment but I mention Intel because of their reliability.
£119.71 Corsair AX760 it is not a good idea to get cheaper alternatives when selecting a power supply. Corsair's RM series has a reduced warranty compared with their HX and AX series because they use manufacturers that cut corners to enable them to hit the lower price point. The Seasonic components in the AX series are top notch and come highly recommended from reviewers and PC enthusiasts. You don't need 760W to be honest so I'd be inclined to get the Seasonic branded 660W Platinum certified supply for a few quid less. Choosing the Intel 530 SSD would help pay for the better quality PSU which would be my favoured option.

[judgechuck]

Thanks for replying!

Normally I would question if you need 16GB of RAM for gaming, but for the price you may as well

Agreed, RAM is so cheap now!

I'm not seeing a CPU cooler listed, are you planning to use the stock Intel one?

I was going to do so, yes, but would definitely consider an upgraded one. I have a Zalman CNPS9700-LED CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) in my current PC, so might look at something similar, though probably no as expensive.

[judgechuck]

Thanks for replying!

I see you have a Z97 chipset motherboard with a CPU which won't allow for much overclocking. If you're not going to overclock, you might as well go for H97 board which might be cheaper.

Yes, that looks like a sensible suggestion. I'm not an overclocking fiend! ;-)

Also, I don't think that SSD is as good as its rivals such as the Samsung 840 Pro, it has an older controller and does not perform as well in benchmarks.

I'll definitely look into other SSD options. I think that one was suggested by a friend some time ago!

[judgechuck]

What is your budget and what games do you want to play?

I don't have a specific budget, but probably shouldn't spend much more than I have in my initial spec... ;-)

As for games, I'm playing Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3 and Bioshock Infinite, as well as those old favourites Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and The Witcher 2.

Looking forward, it'll be those kinds of game!

[judgechuck]

Thanks for replying!

I would say reduce RAM to 8GB

Borne in mind! :-)

Either change the CPU to an overclockable one OR change the motherboard which does not support overclocking.

I think that's another vote for an H97 mobo, or similar. I'm looking at the MSI H97 GAMING 3. I've got a soft spot for MSI mobos, as they've done me well for a number of years.

Along with the SSD, add a 1TB HDD just for good measure.

Yes, I already have plenty of additional storage! :-)

Upgrade the GPU to a higher one - like a 770 or 780.
Use money saved (if any) for more tea or coffee whilst gaming.

Hmm, the equivalent EVGA (again, a manufacturer that I've been using happily for some years) is quite a bit more expensive, but the £50 saving on 8GB of RAM nearly pays for that:

2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC ACX, Dual BIOS, PCIe 3.0, 7010MHz GDDR5, GPU 1111MHz, Boost 1163MHz, Cores 1536, DP/DVI/HDMI

[judgechuck]

Thanks for replying!

As CAT says, a budget and idea of what games you are expecting to play will help with component specification.

As above, the budget shouldn't be much more than what I've specced, but can be a little flexible. Games as above, currently, but I'll want to play upcoming, similar games, of course.

Looking at what you have chosen I would make the following recommendations as alternatives:
£125.09 240GB Intel 530 SSD or if you would like to save a bit extra the Crucial M550 or SanDisk Ultra Plus. Intel is my first choice because their reliability is a lot better than the others, the Marvell controllers found in SanDisk and Crucial drives are next best with Sandforce being the most unreliable currently. If you are happy to spend extra I would recommend the Intel 730 or the Corsair Nuetron GTX. IOPS is more indicative of good general performance and the Corsair Nuetron GTX is the best at the moment but I mention Intel because of their reliability.

Thanks for the suggestions. As I mentioned, I was recommended the Corsair by a friend, but I'll definitely look at the two Intels you suggest.

£119.71 Corsair AX760 it is not a good idea to get cheaper alternatives when selecting a power supply. Corsair's RM series has a reduced warranty compared with their HX and AX series because they use manufacturers that cut corners to enable them to hit the lower price point. The Seasonic components in the AX series are top notch and come highly recommended from reviewers and PC enthusiasts. You don't need 760W to be honest so I'd be inclined to get the Seasonic branded 660W Platinum certified supply for a few quid less. Choosing the Intel 530 SSD would help pay for the better quality PSU which would be my favoured option.

Good points again, but the price difference between the Seasonic and Corsair AX PSUs is really negligible, especially considering that the Corsair does supply the extra wattage. I'll do some juggling of components and see what comes out.

[judgechuck]

So, based on everyone's feedback, I've come up with the following:

1 LN45354 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £99.16 £118.99
1 LN47806 760W Corsair AX760, Full Modular, 80 PLUS Platinum, 1x120mm Fan, ATX v2.31, PSU £99.76 £119.71
1 LN51045 Samsung SE-506BB/TSWD Slim White USB2.0 External 3D Blu-ray Writer Retail £51.38 £61.66
1 LN52742 2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC ACX, Dual BIOS, PCIe 3.0, 7010MHz GDDR5, GPU 1111MHz, Boost 1163MHz, Cores 1536, DP/DVI/HDMI £224.77 £269.72
1 LN52220 240GB Intel 530 Series,SATA III - 6Gb/s SSD, 20nm MLC-Flash, Read 540MB/s, Write 490MB/s, 80000 IOPS Max £104.24 £125.09
1 LN56491 Intel Core i5 4690, S 1150, Haswell Refresh, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 35x Ratio, 84W, Retail £133.15 £159.78
1 LN57074 MSI H97 GAMING 3, Intel H97, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III 6Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), DP/HDMI, ATX £72.97 £87.56

This works out about £40 more expensive than my previous selection, but retains the memory. Savings have been made on the motherboard and SSD, while the cost has increased for the PSU slightly and a fairly significant amount for the GPU but, having looked at reviews of the 770, compared to the 760, this looks like a good spend.

I'm keeping the memory because I would have to go with 2x 4GB RAM, which would reduce my maximum possible, without replacing memory, to 16GB. I know it's probably a trivial point, but I come from a server background and I like having tons of memory... And room for expansion... ;-)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So, based on everyone's feedback, I've come up with the following:

1 LN45354 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £99.16 £118.99
1 LN47806 760W Corsair AX760, Full Modular, 80 PLUS Platinum, 1x120mm Fan, ATX v2.31, PSU £99.76 £119.71
1 LN51045 Samsung SE-506BB/TSWD Slim White USB2.0 External 3D Blu-ray Writer Retail £51.38 £61.66
1 LN52742 2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC ACX, Dual BIOS, PCIe 3.0, 7010MHz GDDR5, GPU 1111MHz, Boost 1163MHz, Cores 1536, DP/DVI/HDMI £224.77 £269.72
1 LN52220 240GB Intel 530 Series,SATA III - 6Gb/s SSD, 20nm MLC-Flash, Read 540MB/s, Write 490MB/s, 80000 IOPS Max £104.24 £125.09
1 LN56491 Intel Core i5 4690, S 1150, Haswell Refresh, Quad Core, 3.5GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 35x Ratio, 84W, Retail £133.15 £159.78
1 LN57074 MSI H97 GAMING 3, Intel H97, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III 6Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), DP/HDMI, ATX £72.97 £87.56

This works out about £40 more expensive than my previous selection, but retains the memory. Savings have been made on the motherboard and SSD, while the cost has increased for the PSU slightly and a fairly significant amount for the GPU but, having looked at reviews of the 770, compared to the 760, this looks like a good spend.

I'm keeping the memory because I would have to go with 2x 4GB RAM, which would reduce my maximum possible, without replacing memory, to 16GB. I know it's probably a trivial point, but I come from a server background and I like having tons of memory... And room for expansion... ;-)

If you do re-jig that build you might be able to get a R9 290 into it IMHO. I would also go for a Xeon E3 1230 V3 and a cheaper motherboard too.

The PSU is also OTT IMHO.

I don't have a specific budget, but probably shouldn't spend much more than I have in my initial spec... ;-)

As for games, I'm playing Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3 and Bioshock Infinite, as well as those old favourites Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and The Witcher 2.

Looking forward, it'll be those kinds of game!

TBH,those games(outside Batman) run fine on my SB based Xeon E3 1220 and a GTX660.

[Noxvayl]

The PSU certainly is over the top (OTT) but it is money well spent in my opinion. The 500-600W range doesn't have good warranties for cheap and the good quality PSUs still cost around £80 so getting the higher efficiency at load and having effectively the same efficiency at idle as lower wattage gold certified parts is worth it for the 7 year warranty. Peace of mind when it comes to PSUs is invaluable in my mind so OTT = perfect.

CAT's recommendation of the Xeon E3 1230 V3 is a good shout considering it comes with added features like Hyper Threading which could be very helpful with games becoming more thread aware.

[CNfan21]

Hmm, the equivalent EVGA (again, a manufacturer that I've been using happily for some years) is quite a bit more expensive, but the £50 saving on 8GB of RAM nearly pays for that:

2GB EVGA GTX 770 SC ACX, Dual BIOS, PCIe 3.0, 7010MHz GDDR5, GPU 1111MHz, Boost 1163MHz, Cores 1536, DP/DVI/HDMI[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with you for EVGA! But I'd strongly recommend to do this option, drop at 8 gb and get the gtx 770, IT IS WORTH IT, plus, there is NO game that recommends Higher than 8gb, this means you're good for a while.

the h97 mobo is a great choice if you wont overclock anything, and if you dont overclock, Intel's cooler WILL be enough.

So, except for the external blu-ray drive and the 240gb ssd, I really think you did a great job for the build, and keep your PSU, not worth upgrading.

Do you NEED 240gb ssd?? an 120gb is more than enough for windows and a game or 2, but dont put them all on it, it will break your SSD (limited number of read-write) and for your blu-ray will you actually use it? its not worth it if you dont have a 3D monitor to get the 3D one, plus external one's are slower on USB than internal with SATA, plus unless you backup your PC on blu-ray disk or watch blu-ray movies ON your PC, its not worth it at all... If you really want a disk drive just get a DVD super-multi for ALOT cheaper...

[ansafrahim]

I don't think anyone has recommended getting 4gb version of 770. Do yourself a favour, get the 4gb 770. You will thank me later