New Gaming / Work rig - Part list overview/issues?

Happy new year everyone!

I am putting together a replacement for my 4 year old system. It still handles everything well, so I'm hoping to put together something that can last another good stretch of time. Here's my current thinkings, but some have multiple choices and I've aimed for a solid system that isn't over priced.


Usage:
Gaming mainly, also graphic design work. My current system handles things fine in Photoshop and After Effects as I have a lot of patients, so this new spec should really be a breath of fresh air. I don't normaly OC a system, but I don't rule out the option either.


Build:

CPU:
Xeon E3-1230 v3 Quad Core Haswell

Mobo:
Asus Z87-PLUS
Asus Z87-A
MSI GAMING Z87-G45

RAM:
16GB Crucial 1600 CAS8 Ballistix Tactical Memory

GFX:
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3072MB - £265
or another manufacture depending on the deal/stock around.

SSD (for boot + main program/game installs):
Samsung 840 EVO 256GB

If I find a deal on the PRO model, I'll grab that, but there doesn't appear to be any big noticeable differences in it.

PSU:
Corsair CP 550/600W Gold rated

Any sugestions OR recomendations from the options I have or your own would be really welcomed!

Thanks for your time peeps,
Tizz

You need to decide if you are going to OC really, that makes the CPU choice automatic.
The main difference is not the CPU but whether you need a CPU cooler and Z87.

Don't spend loads on the motherboard unless you actually need a specific feature.
Decide what features you need then the choice becomes really easy.

The Dominator Platinum stuff is just for looks really.
Personally I'd get something like this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-BLT2...words=16gb+ram
1600 but with faster timings than usual, so better than the standard corsair stuff.
It also looks really nice IRL.

Graphics wise:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-m...048-streams-hd
If it comes in stock..

Both SSDs are fine, get the cheaper one. Do try and get 256 if you can afford it, I think you can save a lot elsewhere.

PSU:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...-12v-fan-atx-v
Gold rated and a good price.

Which CPU? Depends if you want to overclock or not really, K if yes, otherwise the other one. But if you are going to overclock, definitely get a nice aftermarket cooler.

Which Mobo? I personally think the ROG is a bit superfluous for your needs, and would either go for the Asus Z87-Plus or the MSI Board

Which RAM? Well you have to bear in mind that the higher the frequency the bigger latency... So think of it this way, the bigger your rams throughput, the longer it'll take to respond to a new task, and as Linus shows in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4 - higher frequency ram might really not be worth it, especially considering the price premium.

Which Graphics Card? Personally I'd go for the radeon as you're going to be wanting the compute power, and as we know AMD/Radeon is far better at that than Geforce.

Which SSD? Why not get a Samsung 256GB Evo?

Which PSU? I guess a nice Gold rated PSU or even better a platinum if it's within your price point would be great. You can check how big of a power supply you need over at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/p...ulatorlite.jsp but bear in mind you'll want something bigger than what they say normally, and as always, how steady the voltage supplied by the PSU is more important than the total rated wattage... Unless of course it's tiny then... ye...

Thanks a lot for both replies! You're both saying similar things and makes sense so I've updated the OP to reflect some decisions. Oh and thanks for the Video link too, that was useful to know and cleared that up!!

With the motherboard, I've always gone for something pricey/overkill in the past... and it's hard to break away from that. I have a LED display on mine for bug testing (Number code = a type of fault) which has come in handy over the years. Are mobo's more equipped for this in other ways these days?

Unless you really are going to overclock I would get this CPU instead:

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

You could then go with a cheaper motherboard.

Regarding the PSU,I would get a Seasonic G 550W for around £10 more than the Corsair. However,TBH,an XFX PRO 550W would probably be fine.

I also favour the Plextor M5S and Crucial M500 over the 840 EVO. The M5S has more capacity for the same price and the M500 is cheaper.

It shouldn't be had to work out errors using logic, or the manual!

Unless you need the features on the Z87-Plus I'd take the next one down the Z87-A, if you can't think of a reason before you buy it, you won't find one after.
The MSI is fine too, or the Gigabyte (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...b-(vga)-dvi-d-), I have the mATX version in my current rig, works perfectly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Unless you really are going to overclock I would get this CPU instead:

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

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Ahh crap I forgot about the Xeon again! Yeah the HT may actually be a big help with the bits of animation work I do when I have to take my work home.. hmmm, looks like the CPU you listed also works on a lot of the MOBO's i was looking at!

The Z87-Plus is only £6 more than the Z87-A so I'll look into comparing what the differences are and make a choice on that, as they all seem to be around the £100/£120 mark.

Are you going to add a hard drive for storing your work? I don't think a 256Gb SSD will be big enough for games and work files.

As CAT said, if you go with the Zeon you don't need a Z87 board at all.
Motherboards are all about features, not performance, if you don't need the features, which most people don't, then just get the cheapest board from a reputable manufacturer.

I always find newegg quite useful just to compare features:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...24%24%24%24%24

The Plus swaps a couple of USB2 for USB3, has an extra fan header and a power button.
Although Amazon do have it cheap at the moment, so £6 isn't much.
But if you don't need overclocking you can get a perfectly good board for £50.

Does the design software you use support OpenCL & / or CUDA? If the latter only, then you'll need an nVidia graphics card. You might want to consider whether you really need 16Gb of RAM...for gaming 8Gb is enough really, but if you're editing high resolution images or video, 16Gb might be worth the extra.

SSD-wise, you could also look at the Sandisk Extreme 2, which uses a Marvell controller like the Plextor & Crucial drives mentioned previously, & has a 5 year warranty. Amazon have the 240Gb for about £155 at the moment...

Yeah, I'd also back the Extreme 2, which you did list originally.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bluecube

Are you going to add a hard drive for storing your work? I don't think a 256Gb SSD will be big enough for games and work files.

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Yeah, got two 1TB Drives here for all my work, scratch disks and cat pics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jimbobgod1969

Does the design software you use support OpenCL & / or CUDA? If the latter only, then you'll need an nVidia graphics card. You might want to consider whether you really need 16Gb of RAM...for gaming 8Gb is enough really, but if you're editing high resolution images or video, 16Gb might be worth the extra.

SSD-wise, you could also look at the Sandisk Extreme 2, which uses a Marvell controller like the Plextor & Crucial drives mentioned previously, & has a 5 year warranty. Amazon have the 240Gb for about £155 at the moment...

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It's just Photoshop, Indesign and After effects. PS + AE take advantage of both the CPU & GPU for rendering, but the only feature I'm aware that is purely CUDA is Ray trace rendering in AE. This is something i've never had to do and don't forsee using it either at home. It can still use this feature.. just it will be slower. And yeah, need the ram for these software mainly, not the gaming side :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Willzzz

As CAT said, if you go with the Zeon you don't need a Z87 board at all. // Yeah, I'd also back the Extreme 2, which you did list originally.

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Yeah fair point, that is a good site for seeing everything side by side. There are some interesting features on the models I've looked at. I just need to read up them properly and make a decision.

Also with the HDD too, I do feel like i'm nearly there and can finally get something new this week haha! :)