PC Build - mid-high end

[TAE]

Hi,
I was told that I should come here to ask for a review on this PC build. I will mainly be using this PC for the following:
Running virtual machines
Web Development/Programming
Security Testing (running OSs like Caine and Kali Linux, but mainly on VMs)
A bit of gaming, but not necessarily at top performance

The following are the components I've looked at (prices include delivery):
CPU: i7-4790k - £239.99
(ebuyer.com/645546-intel-core-i7-4790k-4ghz-socket-1150-8mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-bx80646i74790k)

Motherboard: Asus z97 Maximum VII Ranger - £126.98
(novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intelsocket1150/z97chipset/maximusviiranger.html)

Memory: Corsair 2x8GB 2400 - £133.16
(scan.co.uk/products/16gb-%282x8gb%29-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-pro-series-gold-pc3-19200-%282400%29-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-11-13-13)

SSD: Kingston V300 120GB - £43.88
(amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM - £42.90
(amazon.co.uk/Seagate-7200RPM-Cache-SATA3-Drive/dp/B004KRLWBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406244661&sr=8-1&keywords=Seagate+Barracuda+1TB+7200RPM)

Video: EVGA Nvidia GTX 750 SC 1215MHz - £91.09
(amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IGQ4ZDS/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE)

Case: CIT Vantage Type-R Midi Mesh (includes case fans) - £32.98
(ebuyer.com/501604-cit-vantage-type-r-midi-mesh-gaming-case-black-interior-4-fans-3-8818r)

PSU: Coolermaster GM-series 750W - £67.44
(ebuyer.com/584150-coolermaster-gm-series-750w-semi-modular-80-bronze-power-supply-rs750-amaab1-uk)


Total cost: £778.42

I will add a cheap optical drive and also add a wireless card, but I may have both of these lying around and upgrade later on. I will also start with 1 HDD and one SSD, but plan to add a further 2 HDDs over time, as well as potentially adding more RAM over the next few months.

Do you think that this will work/run smoothly, or will there be any bottlenecks/incompatible parts? I think it should all be Ok...

I don't really want to spend any more than that at the moment on it, but if there's anything major/anything that's pretty cheap to make better, I'll consider it.

Thanks for looking it over

TAE

[sgtfluffybutt]

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZHjD7P
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZHjD7P/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£209.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£65.45 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£114.24 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£54.02 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£153.59 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.81 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £735.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 09:04 BST+0100

Much better build.

Doesn't look like you'll be overclocking so dropped you down to the non K version and a good h97 board.
cheaper ram but still good.
Much better ssd. Kingston changed the controller in their ssds and made them worse.
Case I think is nicer but feel free to do whatever you want.
You don't need 750w for this build

[TAE]

Thanks. I'll take a look at those parts then

I was thinking that if I went for the 750W it would allow for future upgrades, but 500W shuold be loads I guess!

(Oh, and I didn't realise there was a UK partpicker - I used the US one, and then searched prices/made changes manually!)

[talus]

Doesn't that lose the OC possibility on the i7?

[kalniel]

Doesn't that lose the OC possibility on the i7?

Why would he want to overclock?

[talus]

If you assume that the i7 will never be the bottleneck for the machine's lifetime then I guess he wouldn't. However the application was partially programming where a quicker clock speed could potentially save substantual amounts of time.

[kalniel]

If you assume that the i7 will never be the bottleneck for the machine's lifetime then I guess he wouldn't.

I think that's a fairly safe assumption for his given usage.

However the application was partially programming where a quicker clock speed could potentially save substantual amounts of time.

Not in my experience. Depends on the field I guess, but most of the time I spend programming is.. well time I'm spending programming. I don't compile locally though. If you do, and find the time to be mission critical, I'd recommend jumping to an enterprise CPU like Ivy Bridge-E (Xeon E5-14xx v2 and Core i7 49xx). Compilers can be quite sensitive to overclocking so I wouldn't recommend it.

[TAE]

I doubt that I'll need to oc at all. The programming will be a very small amount of what I do, mainly being web programming like php (I might run wamp server) but a small bit of python/java/c#. It will be a lot faster than my laptop anyway!

[mynameissi]

If you dont need to OC theres no point getting a k processor
get the base 4790

[TAE]

If you dont need to OC theres no point getting a k processor
get the base 4790

I probably will then - save a few quid

Is the off-the-shelf performance between the 4790 and 4790k negligible then? It was the clock speed that swayed me when looking initially.

Thanks for all the advice - it's my first build.

[Extinc]

I probably will then - save a few quid

Is the off-the-shelf performance between the 4790 and 4790k negligible then? It was the clock speed that swayed me when looking initially.

Thanks for all the advice - it's my first build.

At stock there the same exact processor, the K is there to tell you that one has an unlocked voltage to allow for overclocking.

[kalniel]

At stock there the same exact processor, the K is there to tell you that one has an unlocked voltage to allow for overclocking.

At stock there is a 400mhz speed difference, and the K means there is an unlocked multiplier, not voltage.

TAE, the speed boost for the 4970K over the non-K is significant, though unless you are number crunching a lot, probably not that noticeable unless you were comparing back to back (as you say, either would be a lot faster than an old laptop!). Just a question of whether you could put the money saved towards a better component elsewhere.

[mynameissi]

Similarly you could just pocket the money

[MrJim]

A Xeon like this might be an idea:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...che-80w-retail

It's cheaper than a 4790K, but a bit slower, and still has 8 threads, but lacks an IGP. I'd put the savings towards a M500 or M550 SSD instead of the V300, which I think is Sandforce?

[Dareos]

Thanks for all the replies to this thread guys, TAE and I are volunteering at the commonwealth games together and he mentioned he was speccing a new system. I pointed him here as I knew there woul be some good advice.

Keep it coming

[TAE]

Yeah, thanks for all the advice (and thanks for sending me over here Dareos!) The speed diference probably won't be noticable for what I'll use it for then. I'll take a look at the Xeon too - I've not looked at them much before as all I know about them is that they tend to be used in servers!