Mid Gaming Rig

[Muska]

Good evening ladies and gents. I have been beating around the bush for a new build as mine is 5 years old already and has not been upgraded in the last 3 years bar an ssd.
So I need your help again, the only parts I am carrying over from my rig is the ssd + hdd. My budget is 500-600.
Main concerns are - size, noise, heat and power consumption.
I have mainly decided on the build, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MQgDnQ) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MQgDnQ/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690) | £154.39 @ Aria PC
**CPU Cooler** | [Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h55) | £49.00 @ Amazon UK
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/giga...oard-gah97md3h) | £63.12 @ CCL Computers
**Memory** | [Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cors...z8gx3m1a1600c9) | £61.67 @ Amazon UK
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/sapp...ard-112170120g) | £119.00 @ Amazon UK
**Case** | [Corsair 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cors...se-cc9011028ww) | £69.00 @ Amazon UK
**Power Supply** | [Corsair RM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cors...r-supply-rm550) | £71.98 @ Amazon UK
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £588.16
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-02 00:25 BST+0100 |

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Get 2X4GB sticks of RAM so they run in dual channel.

[Muska]

Single channel was selected for future upgrade potential as RAM (Christmas) and GPU(1+ year) will most likely be the only parts that I am going to upgrade. But many thanks for reminding me of dual channel vs single I have completely forgotten that. I have also decided to go for a Z97 chipset over H97 as the price difference is negligible.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Aria will sting you for postage.

Not sure if the CPU will oc. How does it compare to the comparable xeon?

If no OC; drop the liquid cooler for a cheaper air one and get the 280 instead. There are meant to be deals at £138.

[Bonebreaker777]

The Corsair 350D is quite a chunky case for being mATX. Warning! Take your time to make sure you are happy with the choice. One of my clients choose it previously and now he is going to sell it or give it to his children.

You wanted 16GB of RAM? Any practical use for it?

Also I can't see any storage. Will you recycle or make a separate purchase?

[Muska]

Good point about Aria - will shop around.
Cooler was chosen mainly for silent operation and future proof (most likely will be carried over to the next build).
I have SSD + HDD if you have missed it in the first post.
Not sure if 280 (£20 difference) warrants a huge increase in power draw over little performance increase - please elaborate more on this front guys.
I am not going to overclock the CPU thus not going for the K version.
Case was selected after some major research due to build quality, noise and ambiguous buttons (small kids in the house ) so unlikely to go for another.
Thinking about 16GB was mainly "just in case" scenario, I usually run a few games plus different programs at one time, so will see if I end up needing it.

Thanks for the input guys, really appreciate it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Single channel was selected for future upgrade potential as RAM (Christmas) and GPU(1+ year) will most likely be the only parts that I am going to upgrade. But many thanks for reminding me of dual channel vs single I have completely forgotten that. I have also decided to go for a Z97 chipset over H97 as the price difference is negligible.

In theory you could move the two 4GB sticks into one channel, and put an 8GB stick in the other channel to get dual 8GB channels.

OTOH, if you find that come Christmas time 8GB is more than enough and you are stuck with single channel, then you will feel rather foolish

[mynameissi]

Aria will sting you for postage.

Not sure if the CPU will oc. How does it compare to the comparable xeon?

If no OC; drop the liquid cooler for a cheaper air one and get the 280 instead. There are meant to be deals at £138.

Agreed; never buy from aria, I've had too many bad experiences with them, and I know of others that also have.

His cpu does not overclock. The k versions overclock.

Muska: You are speaking a lot about "future proofing" your computer, so if you can afford your parts in the future, why not save up for a bit longer and just buy everything later?
If you can't wait, then I echo the advice of getting 2x4. You still have 2 slots available, which could have another 8gb in them (2x4) or you could do some shifting and get a pair of 2x8
I doubt you'll need more than 16gb of ram for a good few years anyway, let alone 16gb now. I have 8gb and run games on max with other programs open comfortably, and do a bit of video editing as well.

The gfx card: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-280-vs-Radeon-R9-270X
To be taken with a pinch of salt, I believe this link shows the differences fairly well.
I would get the r9 280 if it is indeed only £20 more
I ended up with the 780ti over the 780 because I saw it for only about £20 more

[Muska]

I will re-post this since it seems people skip it
Main concerns are - size, noise, heat and power consumption.
I am not going to overclock the CPU thus not going for the K version.

My latest research (tonight) into single vs dual channel shows little if any advantage.
Going for 270x due to reasons above.

Many thanks for the input everybody, ordering tonight.

[mynameissi]

I will re-post this since it seems people skip it
Main concerns are - size, noise, heat and power consumption.
I am not going to overclock the CPU thus not going for the K version.

My latest research (tonight) into single vs dual channel shows little if any advantage.
Going for 270x due to reasons above.

Many thanks for the input everybody, ordering tonight.

The noise difference between the 280 and 270x will be really small honestly.
So is power.