First time build- any advice would be great!

[TheSheriff]

Hi, so I'm new here and am currently planning my first build. Any advice/tips/suggestions you guys could give would be great as I'm pretty new to this!! I'm going for a solid gaming rig which would also be good for running simulations from time to time. Price around £850 and running Windows 8.

My current plan is this:

CPU - Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz
Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard - Asus Z87-Pro ATX LGA1150
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
SSD (for the OS) - Seagate 600 Series 120GB
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
GPU - MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR
Case - Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU - Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

So yeah, what do you guys think, anything glaringly wrong with this or any suggestions?

[MrJim]

Firstly, it's probably going to be worth waiting a week until the Haswell 'refresh' CPUs are released, which should give a small bump in performance together with better overclocking, for about the same cost as current Haswells. Z97 chipset motherboards will be available shortly thereafter, the main benefit being faster storage interfaces like M.2 & SATA express.

These days you can get 1866 RAM for much the same price as 1600Mhz, so I'd always go for the former, e.g:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-BLT2...productDetails

I'm not so keen on Corsair's more recent PSU, their quality has dipped a bit IMHO. I'd look at an XFX 500W unit, or other Seasonic made PSU myself.

[TheSheriff]

Yeah, I've heard of the new CPU's coming out, wasn't sure whether it's worth it or not tbh! So will the overclocked processors be coming out at the same time or are they likely to be a while? Sorry, as I say, I'm pretty new to this, not sure how these releases work. I guess the i5 4690 is the successor to the 4670 so that's the one I'd want, although preferably the overclock unlockled version!

In terms of the motherboard, would I need to go for the z97 chipset then if I have one of the new processors? If so will any of the other components need replacing due to this?

[Goobley]

I agree with Jimbo, but I may also suggest switching your HDD out for a Western Digital or other brand, as I've been hearing a lot about Barracudas failing *much* faster than they used to.

[TheSheriff]

I agree with Jimbo, but I may also suggest switching your HDD out for a Western Digital or other brand, as I've been hearing a lot about Barracudas failing *much* faster than they used to.

Interesting, initially I picked both seagate HDD's as I'd heard they were the best but recently I've heard a few people saying similar things to you. Perhaps it's time to widen the search then!

[DanceswithUnix]

Are the simulations you are going to run important?

Overclocking a gaming rig is fine, but if you have to rely on the results being OK then that is when I stopped overclocking.

[MrJim]

'Devil's Canyon' is the codename for the unlocked Haswell refresh CPUs which will the improved thermal interface material, & which should prove to be better overclockers than previous Haswells. They're supposed to be out at the beginning of June, I think. Yes, you'll need a Z87 (with updated bios) or Z97 motherboard if you're planning to overclock. None of the other components should need to be replaced, but your choice of cooler might need revising - although the Hiper 212 Evo will physically fit, it might not be the best choice, depending on your budget...

[TheSheriff]

Many thanks for all the help guys!

None of the other components should need to be replaced, but your choice of cooler might need revising - although the Hiper 212 Evo will physically fit, it might not be the best choice, depending on your budget...

Any recommendations for decent coolers? I'm looking for something around the £20-£30 mark but which should work well! I picked the EVO as it seemed well recommended but I'm open to new ideas!

Are the simulations you are going to run important?

Overclocking a gaming rig is fine, but if you have to rely on the results being OK then that is when I stopped overclocking.

What are the problems with overclocking for simulations? I'm not running anything important, mostly n-body type simulations currently for fun but that may well broaden in future. I'm planning on getting into C++ properly this summer so who knows where it will go from there!

[DanceswithUnix]

What are the problems with overclocking for simulations? I'm not running anything important, mostly n-body type simulations currently for fun but that may well broaden in future. I'm planning on getting into C++ properly this summer so who knows where it will go from there!

Your CPU is tested to work up to its rated frequency. Beyond that all bets are off.

If you totally overdo it, then the machine hard locks or crashes. But it you push it just that tiny bit too far, then it will *appear* to work by might throw out the occasional wonky result. If you are playing a game, then that probably just means a momentary glitch on the screen and next frame it is gone so it doesn't matter. If the results actually matter, then turn off the overclock.

For now it sounds like you are just playing, but if you find one of your 'n' bodies suddenly speeds off at warp 6 then you might want to turn the clocks down. OTOH, I used to do electric field relaxation mesh calculations, those are pretty much self healing so it all depends on what you do.

[TheSheriff]

Okay thanks I'll bear that in mind then! Worth knowing about in case I do start doing anything other than playing around!