Advice on computer build

LLibrarier on 10/11/2013 - 15:04

Hi everyone. Sorry. I know you get a lot of these posts, but I just want to check I haven't gone in the wrong direction - this is my first PC purchase in a long time, and I'm currently an Xbox gamer, so have only been looking at your glorious PC graphics from afar.

It will be used almost entirely for gaming. Maybe once every 4-6 months I photoshop something outside of work. I'd like to be able to play Battlefield, but don't need it to be THE BEST GRAPHICS EVAR (again, coming from consoletown)

Not going to lie, I have no real idea what I'm doing. I upgraded my Mac's ram, but the options were basically "this is the one you can buy that will work". I looked at Logical Increments/Whirlpool PC recs and stole from those using PCpartpicker, and watched a really informative 2 hour youtube video on the actual building process.

I'll be getting an SSD, probably from Amazon because I have $45 credit there… If I can find one that will ship here.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: AMD R9 280X 3GB XFX Black Edition (yup, from this post - http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/122314)
Case: Corsair 500R or Corsair C70 because they're not offensive to the eyes, and have pretty good cable management/cooling abilities.
Power Supply: Silverstone 850W (Again - no real idea other than "room to grow / people seem to recommend those guys a lot / PC people I know warned me about getting a shitty PSU)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer (I imagine I wouldn't use this a lot, so went with the cheapest I could find)

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Computing

Comments

  • p1 ama on 10/11/2013 - 16:48
    +1

    Looks fine to me, but if you're getting an unlocked CPU, you might want to look at getting an aftermarket cooler so that you can overclock it. You can get up to 20% extra performance from overclocking. If you're not overclocking, step down to a non-K series and save yourself a few dollars.

    In terms of aftermarket coolers, I recommend air coolers, such as the Noctua NH-D14 to start off with, rather than going watercooling.

    Also, that 850W PSU is absolute overkill. It's a waste of money and it will run unefficiently because it's not in the "sweet zone", I would say that a 650W PSU is way, way, way more than enough for your system. There's no chance it will draw above 500W or around about there.

    • Librarier on 10/11/2013 - 17:22

      Awesome, thanks. I originally had a lower PSU and was told I needed to go higher. I'll look into the cpu coolers too!

      • scrimshaw on 10/11/2013 - 18:32
        +1

        Look into getting 1833mhz (or above) DDR3 memory as well. They don't cost any extra over 1600mhz kits.
        Not that it provides any (observable) gaming benefits over regular 1600mhz RAM, but it does give you a little boost in other memory-related tasks.

        • Librarier on 10/11/2013 - 19:11

          Will do! Thanks

        • p1 ama on 10/11/2013 - 20:06
          +1

          Also remember that if you use 1833MHz or above memory, you have to turn on XMP in the BIOS/UEFI!

        • Librarier on 10/11/2013 - 23:52

          Thanks! I don't know what that means, but I'm really getting good at googling for answers and instructions about this stuff.

  • jzdhgkd on 10/11/2013 - 22:59
    +1

    I think an 850W psu is overkill for your setup, unless you true plan to "grow" into a crossfire setup later on.

    I've got a Corsiar 650w and it's enough for my setup:
    - i7 950 @ 3.9ghz
    - gtx 580 @ 850mhz core
    - 3x sata drives, 1x ssd
    - 5x case fans and 1x cpu fan (various sizes)

    my gpu uses roughly the same power as yours, and my cpu (according to bit-tech.net) is more power hungry, so a 650W psu would probably do you fine.

    Shit I just checked staticice and the 850w silverstone is only $20 more expensive than the 650w one hah well. might as well get the bigger psu.

    p.s. i'm not sure if you ever want to watch blu-ray movies, but it might be worthwhile to spend a little more if you do, e.g. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LG-CH12LS28-Internal-Blu-Ray-Rom-…

    • Librarier on 10/11/2013 - 23:51

      Yeah, that was sort of my original plan for the bigger one. In my own, not-knowing things derpy way. I'll probably crossfire in the future, and the 850 is not a lot more than a 650.

      Sadly, I own a bluray player that's gathering dust. Most of my viewing time is Netflix and Hulu (hooray for unblock-us) .. but that is sort of tempting. Hmm.

      • jzdhgkd on 11/11/2013 - 01:50

        Just save the money if your your current BD player is gathering dust.

        There's not even much reason for having a regular dvd drive in a pc these days, besides for installing windows. Even then you can install from a usb flash drive if you want.

        Pay a visit to the guys over a reddit to see if they've got some more good advice for you: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc

  • donkeydoc on 15/11/2013 - 06:31
    +2

    go for the i5 4670, no need for the OC version, and the motherboard you can go for the b85m asus, with RAM, ram speeds don't increase performance if anything with higher "speed," and some motherboards are "capped," ripjaws are no better than the regular g.skill RAM. 280x is a fine card, you can run 80 frames for BF4 @1080p

    CPU: http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=10808
    MOBO: http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=11034
    RAM: http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=9824

    Get an SSD with the savings, you'll be better off :)

    Also "room to grow," crossfire/sli is inefficient (overheating issues, more consumption) and you get microstutter, stick with the one card and when it's outdated replace it. My current PC runs well on a basic 1156 mobo, i5 750 and 8gb ram, just change the graphics card in future if your performance is insufficient in 3 years time.

    • Librarier on 15/11/2013 - 16:46

      Thanks for the advice! Definitely moving me in the right direction.

      • donkeydoc on 15/11/2013 - 18:45

        Did you purchase that card from that link? says expired

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join