Spec check before I buy please

[Rainmaker]

I'm finally getting around to building a new system! I heavily multi-task and need a combined general desktop (surfing/email) that will double as a downloading / streaming media rig as well as handle various virtual machines etc. I don't game much, but do like the odd play (Half Life 2, Rust, maybe I'll try some GTA V). I'd need it to handle high speed encrypted networking (160Mbps over AES256 OpenVPN), multiple torrent seeding, a couple of virtual machines at once, very high bitrate 1080p movies, transcoding and media serving etc etc.

Having spent the day playing around with various specs (i5, fx6350 etc) I've managed to sacrifice some flash storage and a higher end graphics card to get a better mobo and 16GB of DDR3 2400 RAM (rather than 8GB 1600) which I think works out better for my needs on balance.

Does this spec look OK for the cash? I'm planning to add in some 2TB storage drives later, and will be running Linux (probably Debian testing with a 4.1 kernel and the latest MESA).

Intel Core i5 4690k Devil's Canyon
Asus Z97-P (ATX Z97)
16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro Series Red, PC3-19200 (2400)
Cooler Master Seidon 120V Version 2.0 Water Cooling Kit Quiet with Compact 120mm PWM Radiator
2GB MSI Radeon R7 370 GAMING 2G
250GB Samsung Evo 850 SSD
650W XFX XTR Series, Full Modular, 80 PLUS Gold
Aerocool Cyclops Advance Black Mid Tower Computer Chassis with Window

I'm not over the moon about the case but I'm running out of budget. I'd rather have had dust filters (OcUK have a nice case for the same price that includes filters, but Scan don't sell it and Scan are a bit cheaper overall). The Aerocool case has native 2.5" hard drive mounts also, meaning no need for an SSD bracket.

The grand total is £680 though which is the top end of my budget (I stretched slightly). I'm still debating on not getting dedicated gfx and seeing how I get along with the inbuilt HD4600 on the i5. For general desktop usage and HD movies I'm sure it's fine, but I'm less sure on how it'd handle games like Half Life 2, Unreal Tournament 3 and Rust etc.

Can anyone chime in with any suggestions, improvements or comments regarding the gfx dilemma? Can't wait to finally have a decent system again! Thanks in advance.

[MrJim]

I'd be inclined to wait a few weeks & see how Skylake CPUs perform, rather than buying now. Socket 1150 is pretty much a dead end now too, so if you want an upgrade path, it might be worth waiting.

[Rainmaker]

The few figures available seem to show that Skylake will be a very minor boost over the latest Broadwells, and this rig will likely have to last me a few years as-is. The outgoing system is an AM2 dual core, for reference... lol. So Broadwell v Skylake shouldn't make much difference to me in theory, I don't think?

[Domestic_Ginger]

The 370 is a 7850. Should be loads of previous gens available reasonably cheaply. I would leave it for now and see if a good deal comes along. HL2 must be at least 15 yrs old by now I would hope igpus would be able to run it!.

16gb ram is about £70 for the slower stuff. Could be a bit of a saving, not sure if it will impact performance..

A smaller psu may save a few pounds, don't think you need 650w.

[Rainmaker]

The 370 is a 7850. Should be loads of previous gens available reasonably cheaply. I would leave it for now and see if a good deal comes along. HL2 must be at least 15 yrs old by now I would hope igpus would be able to run it!.

16gb ram is about £70 for the slower stuff. Could be a bit of a saving, not sure if it will impact performance..

A smaller psu may save a few pounds, don't think you need 650w.

The 370 was recommended to me as a compromise. I'd originally been deciding between an Nvidia GTX970 and 750Ti and they said the 370 was a mid-ground between the two for less money. My son likes his games (at Grandad's house) and just told me that he 'needs' Batman Arkham Night and some others, though I don't know how gfx intensive they are. I've always been a software compiler not a gamer.

PSU wise you're right - I have no clue on what wattage I need. I picked the one I did because it's modular, gold rated for efficiency and mid-ground wattage wise. I may get away with 200w or need 1000w (not really), I have no clue lol.

[kalniel]

and just told me that he 'needs' Batman Arkham Night

Save the money and buy a console if that's a requirement. It's awful on PC.

[DanceswithUnix]

How much is the 370 graphics card you were looking at?

You can get a 285 for £130 http://www.ebuyer.com/715613-vtx3d-r...-285-2gbd5-dhx

which is around 370 pricing, but newer silicon. That card maker seems to be a sister company of PowerColor.

The water cooling kit seems an unnecessary luxury if you are scrimping elsewhere.

[EndlessWaves]

The water cooling kit seems an unnecessary luxury if you are scrimping elsewhere.

Yeah, the PSU stood out for the same reason. If you can't get all the computing performance you want then splashing out £70 on an Gold Modular PSU seems excessive when you can get a perfectly reasonable EVGA 500W non-modular for £35.

Samsung haven't managed to keep up with the SSD market this year. Right now the 250GB model on scan is £20 more expensive than the competition! Unless you're need a particular feature I'd go for whichever make is price competative when you buy.

I would wait for skylake personally. Although the performance on standard instruction kits isn't great you're the sort of user that's likely to benefit from the big performance jumps new instructions bring. For a start it wouldn't surprise me to see improvements in video encoding/decoding.

[peter_gray95]

for the cooler: you could go for a refurbished Corsair H90 (LN65874) ( basically like new) for £45 - think they look awesome, not much more than the seidon.

as others say, you can easily get away with a smaller and cheaper psu

[EndlessWaves]

for the cooler: you could go for a refurbished Corsair H90 (LN65874) ( basically like new) for £45 - think they look awesome, not much more than the seidon.

I'd spend £20-25 on an mid-range air cooler. Unless you're moving the case around a lot or are a keen overclocker than a £50 closed loop cooler seems like an extravagance too.

[Bonebreaker777]

I would change the PSU for something around of 300-350W (be quiet! L8 300W is an excellent PSU, very quiet and on low consumption excellent efficiency).

Do you really need that much RAM?

How about Crucial instead of Samsung? Every little helps to re-balance your stretched budget.

Is that the AiO cooler which been on offer for around £37 last week? I was looking at it too, reading reviews. With serious intension to buy.

[Rainmaker]

Sorry guys I didn't get further email notifications. I made some tweaks, pushed the budget a bit and went AMD to spend more ££ on gfx instead of the CPU. I will use the 16GB RAM as I run virtual machines and encode HD video a lot so for £35 it seemed silly not to get the 16GB instead of 8GB. I settled on this in the end and really agonised over the Radeon v Nvidia side but AMD support Linux drivers for longer so they swayed it in the end.

AMD FX-8350 octacore (currently at 4.5GHz and 1.35v but I've not really played around properly yet)
CoolerMaster Seidon 120V v2
Asus M5A99X Evo r2.0
16GB TeamGroup Vulcan RED DDR3 1600MHz
PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB
Samsung Evo 850 250GB
Toshiba 2TB 7,200rpm storage drive
BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Blue

It came in at £700 in the end which I'm happy with given the components. It's currently humming along almost silently, and holy heck it's SO fast compared to what I'm used to. I've installed Windows 10 Pro x64 and Sparky Linux 4.0 (direct from Debian testing). Were there choices I could have made differently (less of this, more of that, GTX960 instead of R9 380, Core i5 and lesser gfx instead of FX-8350 and better gfx etc)? Well yes, but it's the balance I settled on and it's working out great so far.

I figure in a year if I get itchy I can sell the CPU + mobo (and maybe gfx) and grab something else, even Intel. I already have all the other components so it's no big deal.

[Pullock]

I'd spend £20-25 on an mid-range air cooler. Unless you're moving the case around a lot or are a keen overclocker than a £50 closed loop cooler seems like an extravagance too.

One of the best budget Air cooler's in this price is the Hyper 212 Evo a friend of mine has one and loves it, works well to cool his 8 core FX-9590.