I don't even know what price range I'm looking at, I don't have a sound knowledge of building a computer…I just don't know where to start basically.
Any help appreciated!
Looking for a beast PC for gaming and possibly video-editing. Advice?
The Gent on 30/07/2014 - 14:01
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Nice, thanks for that base - you definitely reckon building yourself then?
I don't have a budget because I'm unemployed at the moment and will wait until I get a job.
I'd be willing to spend around $2,000 all up. Maybe that's including peripherals, but I'm not sure.
Do I have to worry about compatibility when buying internal parts?
Edit: are there any guides you would recommend for a PC build? I might be able to rope in a more tech-savvy friend to help, but just to give me an idea. I have done it once, but I was about 13 and my dad was just telling me to screw things in and where…
Definitely build it yourself. Leaves you room to get better prices and will give you the experience of learning to build a pc yourself.
The only compatibility issues would be motherboard and cpu sockets, psu power requirements and ram speed.
Check out www.reddit.com/r/buildapc and its sidebar for the best tips and guides.
Here's a newegg video on putting it all together:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls&feature=youtu.be
Here's a part guide:
http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/wiki/partsguide
Lifehacker's build guide with a $1200 example build:
http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for…
Here's some post build stuff:
http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/wiki/finishingtouches
Also, if you make a build thats an Intel CPU and Gigabyte Motherboard setup, you can run OSX on it (if the parts match). Check out www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh for more info.
Guides are all over the internet. This Youtube dude, BuildaPC subreddit, and Whirlpool.
If in doubt, ask WP or Reddit.
If you've never built a pc before you can watch videos showing you how.
Also have a look at http://www.hardware-revolution.com/
Has builds based on budget as a guide but gives options and some reasoning behind why each item is selected.
I will add that it would be wise to consider looking at /r/hardwareswap and /r/buildapcsales on reddit because you can find some real bargains there.
Noting that a lot of USA sites will not ship PC goods here.
That's true at many don't ship to Aus but Newegg and Amazon do with many of their offerings. Additionally, there is the option of making use of one of the many mail-forwarding services out there such as Shipito which I use myself.
@abbztract: The savings (if any) in doing it this way are fairly minimal. Shipping costs on components are relatively high due to their bulky nature and ever increasing USPS costs. So even if you saved $250 on your $2000 system, you then have to deal with the likelihood of DOA components which you need to send back to the States. 4+ week turnaround for a replacement, plus potentially more shipping costs. Same deal for warranty repairs. Out of the dozen or so PCs I've built over the last dozen or so years, I've never felt the need to buy from overseas.
@johnno07: fair enough. Its just that when I built my last rig last year (4770k, GTX780, 16GB RAM and 750GB total SSD), I found it considerably cheaper to get the ram, SSD and GPU from overseas. The savings were in excess of $500.
Don't get the Xeon, get an i7. Xeon does not have Intel Graphics whereas an i7 does, and not only that the Intel Graphics of an i7 has QuickSync which will dramatically give you faster video encoding - useful if you plan to do video editing. Discrete Graphics Cards (AMD/Nvidia) don't have this. For Gaming/Server but no video editing, Xeon would be valid.
Last time I looked at performance difference between 2600 i5 and 2700 i7 it was 6%. The i5 was $250, the i7 was $350, there is no way I would get the i7.
I agree and usually go with i5's over i7 for exactly this reason.
But there is a specific reason for Video Editing - QuickSync, look it up.
It is an i7 FEATURE (NOT raw CPU Performance) specifically for Video Editing that i3/i5/Xeon doesn't have.
It makes a huge difference as it it a dedicated area on the CPU die optimised precisely for encoding/decoding, not implemented in the general CPU cycles.
For Gaming go with an i5.
Don't forget hyper-threading. That's a 20% speed increase over an i5 for video encoding.
OP wants to video edit. i7's better.
i7 will allow OP to have more videos running simultaneously (my client doubled his video streams). i7 also transcodes far faster than just 6%. It depends how the OP works. A high end AMD might be better.
@The Land of Smeg: Appreciate the response Smeg, but I think I may have over-stated my want to video edit. It would not be intensive editing it would be very simple. Above all this is a gaming PC, but if I can fit i7 within the budget once I've tinkered with everything, I'll absolutely consider it
I didn't think QuickSync was as widely supported as say Cuda (nVidia) and OpenCL (AMD).
QuickSync is a fixed hardware encoder. If OP wants higher quality encodes, OP would be better off using the CPU.
QuickSync is only used for the encode part of video editing, Once most of the work has been done. Unless OP intends to rip movies or host their own videos with ton's of sizes, QuickSync may only save the OP 2 minutes a day.
QuickSync doesn't support x265 or VP8 on current CPUs either.
If you dont have a sound knowledge, there are generally some places where you can get relatively good deals without making it yourself.
Im always iffy about getting something from UMART or MSY since their warrenty is basically a big FU as far as they can get away with under the consumer law. But realistically your not going to get a better warrenty unless you go for one of the big brands, in which case you will be paying more.I am a fan of ASUS ROG's line, but you are paying more, just nowhere near as bad as alienware.
You do need to worry about compatibility, but there are usually up to date guides on whirlpool or something that will tell u a bunch of parts that work well together etc.
Also note UMARt and MSY do have premade PC packages that they sell (do have a bit of an upped price due to the labour costs but ykno).MSY do have premade PC packages
don't buy the premade pc packages, they are not worth getting since the parts you get to choose from are all the 'slow moving stock' (unpopular stuff).
Any computer shop these days will build to order a computer for you. You simply specify the parts (well, just add everything into the cart) and then email them with your order details and say you want them to put it together for you.
wat do u guys think of cpl? (they usually have a sale on a system that would cost less than buying all the parts at msy/pccg.
I'm contemplating buying a prebuilt i5 pc from them or something similar to the All-Round Home System on the ozbargain custom build suggestion page.They do offer genuine deals. I cannot comment on their after sales service though, I've never bought from them.
Build it yourself, its pretty simple. Its just putting the pieces where they need to go and being careful but not pussy footing it. Nothing really difficult. Worst comes to worse while building, there are plenty of us on here who can help you, we are only one Skype call away.
Hell, if you lived near me I could just stop by and help you build it.
Other then that, the parts you want will vary depending on your budget and what exactly you want to do. Gaming and video editing? How intense is the video editing? Multiple video files and audio files to be matched together? Don't skimp out on your core, more so gaming and light editing? Scrimshaw's suggestion is similar to what I recent built for my cousin and mate, they are enjoying it. Not my preferred core choice but nothing wrong with it.
It would be mostly gaming. I'd like for it to be able to handle recording game footage though as I do a bit of squadplay in DayZ and Arma 3 and would just like to put my perspective up alongside my mates who already do it. So not complicated editing, I wouldn't say.
My main concern is plugging some bloody thing in backwards or whatever and frying something that cost me hundreds of dollars or bending a pin or whatever.
I understand putting it together is basically lego, but still…
It's very hard to put anything in backwards/upside down etc. Things generally only fit where they are supposed to go, and in the position they are supposed to sit in. I.e. you can't put a RAM stick in your PCI slot, and you can't put a RAM stick in the RAM slot backwards/upside down - it just won't fit.
The main point of annoyance in a build for me personally are the front panel connections (the cables running from the front of your case (power, lights etc) to the motherboard). Tiny little cables going to tiny little headers. Pretty hard to wreck them, but super fiddly.
Pretty much this and putting the CPU into the motherboard can be a scary thing. The cooler needs a fair chunk of force and the board will flex which will make you pooh your pants a little the first time it happens.
@heywes: Haha this is true. The securing of the CPU into its socket requires a not insignificant amount of pressure on that lever - which makes you think you're doing it wrong. I know my local Umart offers to install your CPU free of charge these days - must have had a lot of people wrecking them.
While I was with a company pulling pcs apart, building and fixing them it was something I disliked. You avoided touching the core. Avoid touching it like the plague, luckly you only really touch it when it was a new build or mobo/cpu died which wasn't often. But when it was :(
If you don't want to build the computer yourself, umart.com.au has a promotion where if you purchase each part for the computer from their website, they will assemble the computer free of charge.
I used this promotion and have no problems with my build, here is my order list. http://imgur.com/7HCBhaL
It is a great gaming computer, I don't do that much video editing though.If you get an idea of each part you wish to purchase and don't wish to build it yourself, try adding everything to your cart on their website to see if it will be cheaper for you overall.
A 1TB SSD for scratch… come on man, be realistic
Its $485 which is nothing for a 1TB nothing. I paid $679 for 2 a while back. Maybe stop being so cheap?
I'm thinking a 120GB Samsung Evo and a 2Tb seagate HD. Cost is too exclusionary for such a large SSD for me, though I agree with your point of value and quality.
2GB of Vram will be enough for me, I reckon. The game of the minute is DayZ SA which is much more heavily CPU-intensive.
Maybe stop being so ridiculous? It sounds to me that this PC is going to be 60% gaming, 35% general use, 5% video editing. Spending nearly half a grand on a scratch disk is just not worth it in this context.
We'll compromise on a 240GB ;)
OCZ Vertex brand because they're a little faster…or so I am lead to believe.
nm
Depends on the resolution of the monitor and if OP wants to use graphics mods.
Remember, OP's unemployed right now…
I'd also look at tomshardware for performance guides and their testbench PC configuration information.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.h…
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-under-1600,3…
I also like the SilverStrider Silent power supplies..the high-end versions have modular plugs so you only plug in what you need instead of being left with a bunch of cables you need to hide somewhere…not cheap…around $200-$300
Start building your computer here: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/
Also, i just finished this: http://www.gumtree.com.au/m-my-ad.html?adId=1052560806 maybe you are interested.
Pcpartpicker is great, it gives a list of most of the Australian retailers to buy parts from (except for MSY), and it also advises you of most incompatibility issues.
There are lists of computer builds from other users so you can also get an idea of what your budget will get you, and these builds can give you an idea of what to do.
Zappy, you beauty I just used it and picked a friend's brain about what parts are within the price range and came out with a build (http://i.imgur.com/hLoZ61h.jpg).
Thanks man, that really helped me out.
Last gen mid tier GPU - look at getting GTX760 or 270X, get a better PSU, drop the liquid cooler for a CM Hyper Evo 212, drop to 8GB ram, get WDN4800,
Gaming, that one ? really?
GTX660: Power requirement 450 W
CPU: 84WPSU output: 500W … lol
That build is pretty sh***y…
the recommended GTX660 450W is accounted for CPU etc as bare min……..
the card itself is 140W.
Alienware is good I hear
Har har.
yes, I agree, just stay away from iMac, the extra software you need might cost you a lot more.
Yes buy a Mac as a gaming machine… sounds like a super duper idea.
Hahahaha.
Yeah, I have more knowledge than that, bro.
Well friends, I think I've decided on a build: http://i.imgur.com/hLoZ61h.jpg
Might swap the power supply for a Silverstone Strider ST75F-GS for the gold status for an extra $15-ish.
$2107 in total, but I think I might be able to find a more OzB price for the monitor ;)
Still need to find a keyboard, so any recommendations taken gratefully - mechanical only for me and, goes without saying, a great deal.
EDIT: actually, swapped the monitor out for an Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor and saved myself a couple of hundred bucks!
I'd suggest putting in some of that money you saved on the monitor towards a faster graphics card. The GTX 660 will probably struggle in newer games to hit more than 60 FPS, which defeats the purpose of the 144Hz.
I concur with cheng - the 660 is a smidge underpowered. I'd also go for a slightly larger SSD (like a 250GB) - it's handy to have a bit of extra space and you'd be surprised how quickly it fills up.
Yeah, I'd suggest this. Got it myself a few weeks ago and it's great to have that freedom of 250gb~ whenever I need it. For about $40 more it's worth the investment imo.
Also @OP I would highly consider Windows 8.1 if I were you. People may neg me for it, but under the hood it is much better than Windows 7 and no one can deny that. The tile crap is disable-able, by using a great program called Classic Shell (makes the start menu exactly like windows 7/xp/whatever you want). Windows 8 was a massive improvement for boot times and overall performance, especially with SSD.
I would recommend 8.1 as well. Took some getting used to (I hated it at first), but I think it's great now. The explorer search is particularly excellent. Booting Win 8 with an SSD is also wonderful.
Don't go with the 660, I think you'd be better off with a 760 for not that much more.
The liquid cooler is a waste of money because your CPU can't be overclocked. Your CPU's come with a cooler that works fine.
You should get an i5-4480. It's only 0.1GHz slower. You will never notice the difference.
Power supply is overkill. A GOOD 550W will be more than enough (even if you upgrade the video card to a 770). I run two 770's of an 850W power supply. Make sure to go brand name.
Like everyone else said, invest in a better GPU. The AMD R9 280X is similar to the 770 but with 3GB RAM.
If you upgrade your GPU you may need to put a fan on the door panel of your case to stop the wireless card from overheating.
You will NEVER notice faster ram with this CPU. Save $20 and get the cheapest 16G kit.
Cheap Cooler Master cases used to have a few sharp edges around the HDD/DVD cage. Heads up.
Shipping is going to kill you. Pick a store. Order and pick up. U-mart's good that way. If you need to get stuff shipped, D&D computers has always charged me $13 flat for shipping, even with a case.
MSY is always missing something. Go with someone who knows computers to help you pick substitute parts.
PCCG is great for specialty parts, but shipping/CC surcharge and insurance kills you. Mwave is generally $10 more expensive per part compared to everyone else.
Edit: If you get a 144Hz 1080p monitor, you need a $500+ GPU to get the most out of it.
This Guy knows what he's talking about.
just to stir it up a bit, what software do you intend editing with? That answer will impact the CPU and GPU choice. A properly multi-threaded encoder will prefer the six core socket 2011 i7…
Also, consider another HDD and putting them in RAID0. Particularly if editing video.
Okay, so you said that your budget was $2000. Of that $2000, once you get a decent monitor, keyboard and mouse, you should be left with $1600 or so. This is what I would recommend with alternative options and explanations as to why I chose what I did. I hope that it'll be helpful.
Prices from MSY as they have generally good prices and there should be one near you.
CPU - Intel i7-4790 - $337
There's an unlocked "K" series which you can overclock at $400 or so, but it's not worth it at that much of a premium. You'll get a nice overclock, definitely 15% faster, given these Devil's Canyon chips overclock very well, but all up, I wouldn't bother with an unlocked multiplier here because the price difference is too great. A step down would be the i5 4690, which is a great choice at around $100 less, you sacrifice hyper-threading which is useful for video editing, but not useful for much else. Since you have a big budget, I'd say go with the i7 4790. If you want something more beefy, the 4930K has 6 cores instead of 4, but it's around $670, so not worth it.Motherboard - Gigabyte H97-D3H - $135
The motherboard is important, get something that has all the expansion slots you need. Since we're not overclocking, there's no need to go with a Z97 board, H97 should do just fine. I picked this one because it's nice and affordable and Gigabyte are generally known to be quite reliable. Other alternatives include basically any H97 board around this price range. If you like ASUS, the ASUS H97-PLUS is a nice board. If you prefer something with a little more features, I'd go for the Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H, which is $197. Anything more expensive than that is a waste. Anything cheaper than this $135 board will probably be lacking in key features. Again, you have a beefy budget, so don't be hesitant to spend.RAM - 16G Kit 1600 (8Gx2) G.Skill-NT - $175
16GB is the new standard for PCs which will be gaming and video editing. Any kit of RAM will do, don't worry about the speeds and stuff too much, there's no benefit.GPU - R9-290 Gigabyte-WF3 - $440
The GPU is the most important component for gaming. You'll want a beefy GPU, since you have a healthy $1,600 budget, I've allocated around 30% of it to the GPU, which is what I usually recommend. The alternative here is an nVidia GTX 780, which I would recommend against at the moment as the R9 290 is better value due to its lower price. Again, Gigabyte is a good brand.PSU - Corsair CS650M - $138
You don't need anything bigger than 650W. This is a nice PSU that is gold rated and overall quite nice.SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB - $144
HDD - WD Green 3TB - $126
I think 250GB is the new sweet spot for SSDs. You generally won't need more than this, so anything more is a waste. I'll pair it with a nice 3TB HDD for general mass storage.CPU Cooler - Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212 EVO - $37
A nice CPU cooler which will keep your CPU cool and quiet. It'll stop your CPU from throttling and it will potentially increase the lifespan.Case - your choice
This is personal. Choose what you like.All up - $1532. Not including the case.
The Intel stock heat sink will be fine. The stock cooler is silent compared to GPU and case fans. For the CPU to throttle OP will need to run something silly (for him) like prime95.
Dusting the heat sinks every six months will do for for lifespan than a CPU cooler.
I will update with my final build decisions tomorrow. Had a lovely chat with a new friend, Liam who conveniently used to professionally build gaming rigs.
I did type the bugger all out, but OzB didn't behave and I lost a post I worked like 20 minutes on :(
It comes in at $2066.99 (plus currently unknown postage on some items).
I saved big on the monitor by just relaxing with it and realising the internals are more important, allowing me to improve my CPU, RAM, Videocard (to a 770 as suggested) and SSD storage/ speed (as suggested).
Can't wait to share it with you :)
It's not dissimilar to @paulsterio's build, but with a few modifications…
Thanks, you guys are awesome for the help, I'll update tomorrow.
Okay, so we have:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Storage (SSD): OCZ Vertex 460 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage (HDD): Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Memory: G Skill 16G(4X4G) DDR3 1600MHZ PC3-12800
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card
Tower: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case (open to suggestions for cases around that price point or lower - $52)
Power Supply: Antec 650W True Power Classic. 80Plus Gold
Wireless Network Card: TP-Link TL-WDN3800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor: Samsung S24D390HL 24" (the big cost saver)
Keyboard/mouse: MB24 Keyboard/ CM Storm Devastator MS2K Gaming mouse
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer (Don't use bluray, this drive will hardly get used as it is)
EDIT: forgot to mention some Arctic thermal paste too.I' still in the process of trimming the fat - will save $15 by going to MSY for a few parts - but all up, the build should come to around $2066.99.
- Don't go for a Z97 board, you're not running a K series CPU.
- Don't go for a 480GB SSD, it's too big, what do you intend to store on it?
- Go with a 2 x 8GB kit, not a 4 x 4GB kit, gives you room to upgrade
- Don't go with a 770, go with an R9 290, better value. Alternatively, go with a 280X if you can't spend more.
- Go with Windows 8.1, it's a better, faster operating system. W7 is extremely outdated now, it's last-gen technology and even if you prefer W7, W8.1 is heading in the future direction.
- You don't need thermal paste. Should come with the cooler.
Point taken about the SSD - downgraded and saved $150, tyvm.
As for the motherboard, it allows me room to upgrade if I choose to do so.
The 4x4GB is so that the computer can access the RAM more efficiently which is what I need over more than 16GB RAM.
I trust the 770 more based on my friend's opinion - he repairs and builds gaming rigs for a living and he steered me away from problem models.
I'm not touching Windows 8. Windows 7 is what I want to use; it just works how I want it to, I don't like the direction of the new OS.
I'm just covering all bases with the paste - it'll cost $9 from MSY, so I'm not breaking the budget on that one.
Cheers for the feedback though, man!
I used to think that way for the mobo upgrade, but by the time, 3 years later u wanted to upgrade the mobo is outdated too, not worth it. just get something good will do.
the paste thing is more for overclocking, cooler by 1-2 degrees….. drool……. nah….. just a gimmick….
for GPU, nvidia always has better driver support…… ATI always has optimised driver for certain games when they support it….. very specific towards it.
windows - i believed you could configure your 8.1 looks like windows 7. i'm still using windows 7 so can't comment much, but my personal feeling, ultimate seems to run faster than Pro, and Pro run faster than home…….. (i might be wrong here)
Also 4x4 can affect CPU overclocks. Instruction stacking will cause computer slow down (not that many can feel it), it always being recommended bigger ram less banks in dual………
I'll have a chat with my man about the mobo then, reaffirm why he suggested that one. You raise a good point about the upgrades - are you saying I would see literally no difference between these two motherboards or that the difference I would get wouldn't be value for money?
I'm not going to overclock as, has probably been made clear in this thread, I don't know enough about it.
EDit: also, I'm pretty sure I don't need a 4GB video card for what I'm going to be doing, but again I'll ask a couple of mates about it.
if not overclocking, you see no difference in the mobo. (just make sure you choose the one you have enough sata 3, PCIE (SLI capable or not, if you intend to have 2 video cards in the future as upgrade, if so, you need bigger power supply)
4GB video card? try to search for the video card review. most card (or games actually) wouldn't utilise the 3GByte ram at all, just marketing gimmick again…….
the 4x4 memory is system memory i'm referring to, better off using 2x 8 gig.
@Andy-Laa: Hey, not meaning to criticise your knowledge or anything, just trying to give you some helpful pointers.
Anyway, with regards to the motherboard, a more expensive board won't really give you more room to upgrade. It's still the same socket, it still supports the same stuff, it'll give you a lot of features that I personally don't think you'll really need.
4 x 4GB is not more "efficient" than 2 x 8GB, all LGA1150 CPUs have dual-channel RAM which means that they can only access two sticks at the same time. There's no reason to go with 4 x 4GB over 2 x 8GB, you lose upgrade potential.
The 770 is a fine card, but I still honestly think the R9 290 is a better card for your money, but I understand it's a personal choice.
What do you have against Windows 8, I'm not trying to convert you, if you don't want to touch it, that's fine, but a lot of people who say that have never even tried Windows 8 and are completely unaware of its advantages over Windows 7 including better performance in applications and games. Most of the "hate" about Windows 8 comes from the "Metro" interface, but apart from that it's actually a far superior OS to Windows 7. I've used Windows 7 for many years. I've used Windows 8 since launch and I find it to be faster and generally more intuitive to use. But it's all a matter of choice I guess. I just find it strange for people to stick to using old operating systems. Windows 7 is already 5 years old.
@paulsterio: I didn't feel that way, mate - you're just trying to help and I don't have a lot of knowledge I've only picked this up in the last 24 hours to be honest.
Looks like I may switch over to the 2x 8GB given what you said about only being to access 2 sticks. I was unaware of that.
What motherboard would you recommend for the same performance, without the ability to overclock?
I just can't justify the extra $60 on the card which wouldn't really help me that much as I really don't play next-gen games at ultra settings. It would be awesome, but I've got to sneak it past the missus!
I have tried Windows 8, it didn't grab me in the same way Windows 7 did. I don't find it intuitive in the least, I don't want to pay more for it and I just feel like it's not designed for desktops - it's feels all too tablet-y with those stupid widgets instead of menus.
While Windows 7 is older…to me that just implies more stable. It is a solid OS that I know very well. My analogy: when they went to the moon, it was on tech that was over a decade old. The reason being that it had been thoroughly tested for years to make sure it could do the job it needed to.
Well the motherboard you went with is a Z97 model, you'll want to look at the H97 models. If you like Gigabyte, the Gigabyte H97-D3H for $135, there's also a similar ASUS one, the H97-PRO, I think. You might like to have a look at my big post above ^^^ not sure if you saw it or not, I wrote out some stuff in quite a bit of detail.
And yep, 2 x 8GB is definitely the way to go these days!
Sorry, I did miss that somehow. Weird.
Any difference between the "Gigabyte GA-H97-GAMING 3" and the "Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H" for the same price?
they appear to be completely the same specs, for the same price but perhaps there's something I misunderstand…
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gigabyte-motherboar…
@Andy-Laa: They do look very similar. My guess would be that the Gaming model has more of a gaming look to it with the "eye" logo on the chipset heatsink as well as a red colour theme, whereas the H97-D3H is more for a mainstream user, so it doesn't look too "hardcore gaming".
For your purposes though, basically any motherboard will do because you're not running a whole lot of expansion cards, so you don't have to worry about PCI and PCI-e slots…etc. I would say all ATX motherboards have enough PCI-e slots these days and unless you have legacy stuff you want to use with PCI, I wouldn't even bother.
Anyway, I should just point out that you should consider a 3TB drive instead of a 2TB, it's only $25 more or something like that and you get 50% more storage, so it's much better value (lower cost per GB) and you can't ever have too much storage.
Also, I'm not sure about you, but you might want to consider a better monitor as well. If you're spending a great deal of money on a PC, you'd want the component you're looking at the most to have decent image quality. 24" is a good size, I feel that 27" is ideal for me, but it's a little on the big side. You might want to consider an IPS panel if you're video editing, you'll appreciate the more accurate colours.
1.Don't go for a Z97 board, you're not running a K series CPU.
I think you will be pleased to know that overclocking has been enabled on almost all LGA1150 chipsets.
GA-H97-D3H
Intel LAN chipGA-H97-Gaming 3
Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 LAN chip
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3 gaming audio suite (both motherboards use same codec, this is just a toy)
DisplayPort out for intergrated graphics (useless for you)You won't be able to do SLI with either board, and if you get the PCIe wireless card you won't be able to do crossfire.
Went with a better monitor (for cheaper, coincidentally) in the end, and Windows 8.1 as literally everyone eho has mentioned OS has screamed at me to get 8.1 haha.
The final final build is below. The 2TB will truly be enough for me - films and such are on an external and would never get watched on that computer anyway!
If you're just gaming, the i5 4690 CPU is OK but since you also want to encode videos, I'd consider the Xeon 1231v3 mentioned earlier for $50 more which has hyper-threading enabled and basically the same clock speeds. Even the i5 4690k for $30 more is not bad at all - definitely worth it if you can get help overclocking.
Otherwise, as mentioned by many others, there's no point getting a motherboard with all the overclocking bells and whistles and a fancy cooler when your CPU is locked.
The GTX 770 is currently a better deal ($355) than the R9 290 ($440) which is significantly more expensive for a relatively small increase in performance (~15%). Consider an R9 280x or lower if you don't plan on gaming beyond full HD (1920 x 1080) or the playing the latest, most demanding titles.
2 x 8GB RAM is a better idea than 4 x 4GB because you can add another 2 x 8GB later for an easy upgrade.What I'd build for under $1600. I've limited the items to a few stores, in some cases going with less popular options (e.g. cooler).
When buying RAM double check prices. When I upgraded my RAM 2 weeks ago buying 2 sticks of 8GB laptop ram was cheaper than the 16GB 2x8GB pack by about $40!!
Go for Windows 7 Pro not Home Premium….I'd like to +1 to what others are saying about going to 8.1 but it is up to you of course.
Using pcpartpicker, here's what I would suggest for the tower, there are no peripherals included here:
PCPartPicker part list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/XxcJgs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/XxcJgs/by_merchant/CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($245.00 @ Mwave Australia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($39.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($139.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($199.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($93.00 @ Centre Com)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($399.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Mwave Australia)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower New 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($20.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($115.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN951N 802.11b/g/n PCI Wi-Fi Adapter ($28.99 @ Mwave Australia)Total: $1327.98
The cooler is relatively cheap and is a huge step up from stock cooling, you could remove this to trim the fat if you want to.
The motherboard you selected is fine, but it will have no noticable/relevant advantages for you, the non-K version will save you $10
Changed your ram to 2 sticks of 8gb so that you have the opportunity to upgrade later
Cheaper, smaller SSD, should still be big enough for all your programs
Personally I would choose the 280x which costs less, or the 290 which will outperform the 770 for the same price, the driver issues that were present years ago with are not an issue now
The case I chose is a personal preference, the K280 looks too much like there is a transformer sitting on my table
Switched to a modular power supply, it will keep things tidy and make building your computer easier
I would strongly recommend Windows 8 over 7, it's much faster and the windows 7 interface can be brought back with Classic Shell if you really want it, other than the slightly strange interface, windows 8 is superior to windows 7
Trust me…I do not believe it gets any better than this….
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
Price points, more information than you can poke a stick at….customisable to Australian buying conditions…..not even to mention the 'hover over part' feature for greater specifics.
Am I right?
You're welcome. :PBuild a hackintosh custom PC that runs both Mac & Windows.
If you're doing video/photo editing you'll probably find Mac software more tuned for that domain, and (probably) gaming in Windows.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/437-building-customac-buyer-s-guid…
Select between Customac budget/pro; mix and match as necessary. DO use SSD. DONT bother with a cd/dvd/bluray drive.
I edit photos in Lightroom and Photoshop through Windows and have no issues with workflow at all. I don't find Apple useful so much as "trendy".
I may have overstated the video editing I was talking about doing. It really wouldn't be intensive. Chopping out 5 minutes here and there would pretty much be the extent of it all. The gaming and sticking to budget are a far more important side of it to me.
Most professional grade software that is available for Mac is also available for Windows minus Final Cut, but who still uses Final Cut anyway?
With image editing, the de facto standard is Photoshop, which is arguably better in Windows.
I'd push for Lightroom to be honest. Photoshop for layering and removing elements in the photo, but for great broad-based editing, LR is fantastic. I use it exclusively 85% of the time.
Lightroom and Photoshop are very different, yet complimentary, programs. Paulsterio wasn't saying that PS is used over LR, rather that is the standard for all general purpose image-editing/manipulation etc.
My advice is checkout Amazon Web Services for video editing. By the time you are done doing video editing, you will have spent only 10% of the cost of a PC.
You can rent 32 Cores of Intel Xeon E5-2680v2 by the hour at ~25 cents, bundled with SSD. If you need GPU power, there is plenty available on demand. No power consumption except your laptop will have to be on for submitting jobs I guess. Transferring files may take a bit of time if the files are large. Use micro instances to transfer files to save on cost.
The days of PC are over unless you are a gamer. Don't justly getting a PC for video editing unless you don't like you own money!
Checkout pricing here:
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/purchasing-options/spot-instances/…Unfortunately Australian internet is just not fast enough for this yet.
Ok so this is basically (diff psu but same price) what I'm running (excl Monitor/kb/mouse as you really need to choose your own on that)
$1875
Okay, much debating, I have decided on an absolutely final bild.
Intel core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad Core Processor - $217
ASRock Z97 Anniversary Intel Z97 Motherboard - $122
Samsung 840BW EVO MZ-7TE250BW 250G SATAIII Solid State Drive SSD - $144
Seagate 3.5" Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 SATA3 7200rpm 64MB Cache Hard Disk - $93
Patriot Signature 8GB Single DDR3-1600 - PSD38G16002H (x2) - $168 (84 ea)
Gigabyte R929OC-4GD 4GB R9-290 OC PCI-E VGA Card - $449
TP-Link TL-WDN3800 N600 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Adapter - $35
Samsung SATA 22x Black DVD RW - $18
Intact READER-INT-30 USB3.0 Internal All-In-One Card Reader - $19
Thermaltake Toughpower 550W 80 GOLD PSU - $115
Coolermaster NSE-400-KWN2 N Series N400 USB3.0 Side Window Case without PSU - $59
AOC AH-IPS 23.8" I2470swq 5ms 1920x1080 SPK D-SUB DVI HDMI DP LED Backlight LCD Monitor - $215
Windows 8.1 - $112
CM Storm Devastator MS2K & MB24 Gaming Mouse and Keyboard Bundle - $57I'm sure people will suggest this or that to change, but I'm happy with this build and it comes in at $1790 with all parts available for me to buy today. :)
Also $210 left over for a gaming chair! ;)
Oh and a lot of you will be happy I changed over to Windows 8.1!
At this point, I don't want to know if you think this is last gen or that won't get me over this or whatever, I just want to be able to build a solid PC today.
Thanks for all your help gentlemen, I appreciate the input and it has been a huge learning experience for me :)
Let me know when the free Steam games roll on in, OzB! ;)
Not bad.
I don't know what it will comfortably run with, but my box for the R9 290 says it recommends a minimum of a 750W PSU.As for it being "last gen", you buy anything and within 2 weeks there's something "better" on the market every time :P
agree it's a good build but 750w for single r9 290 is also too much - i have pretty similar build & it consumes ~450 watts on the wall during furmark+cpu burn test (furmark is the most power hungry bench imo). so i guess 550w should be 'just' fine - unless OP is overvolting his gpu/cpu.
I run a 3930K + R9 290X on a Corsair RM550, so 550W is more than enough here.
Just finished. MY God that was a long day! Tomorrow will be spent making it run all pretty and installing the games and other software on it!
The motherboard drivers and Video card drivers are all set up and looking very nice indeed.
One minor niggle - I need an additional SATA port for the 2TB HD as the crappy 90 degree ones were unsuitable given what the graphics card takes up,. Bit of a bugger, but oh well. How much for a SATA and where from, gents? Preferably local…
I don't know what it will comfortably run with, but my box for the R9 290 says it recommends a minimum of a 750W PSU.
I think it's actually 650w. The PSU is all good because it's gold standard - it will run reliably at a much higher Wattage than it says on the box, just not to "gold" efficiency standards which is fine with me.
Nah the box definitely states 750W (This is on the ASUS version anyway - I'm looking at it right now) in saying that they're going to be just covering their asses and it will probably run on a 500W or something, but eh, who cares.
As for the sata port, if you've got an L shape connector, why not plug the L end into the drive then use the flat end in the motherboard instead? Can't say I've ever seen a connection with 2 L ends before.
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A good place to start is with a budget — maximum you are alloted to spend on the computer.
Helps if it's not super low like $600, but realistically you may be looking at least $1000, not including the software and Windows.
First, read up on the video editing desktop suggestions on the WP Wiki
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_multi_taski…
My suggestion for a cost effective build:
CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1231 V3 $289
Mobo: Asrock H97M-Pro4 $108
RAM: G.Skill-NT 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 $175
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB $155
HDD1: Seagate Barracuda 3TB $125
HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 3TB $125 (optional)
GPU: Galaxy GXY-GTX770-2GD5-GC GeForce GTX 770 $359
Case: CoolerMaster K350 Gamer USB 3.0 $55
PSU: Antec High Current Gamer 520W Modular HCG-520M $99
ODD: DVD-RW Drive $20 (optional)
$1510 ballpark figure (add Windows $100, or deduct $125 if only going with 1 HDD).
Where to buy from
UMART (all states)
PCCG (VIC)
Netplus (WA)
MSY (all states)