1 week of research. Tell me what you think before I buy

[Sergiu Ghita]

Hello.

I was planning to get 280x, but it's out of stock everywhere.

Build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2lY4P

Future modifications to the build:
1. Buy h100i and OC the CPU
2. Buy a better GPU (i.e. gtx 780, r9 290x)

My concerns:
1. PSU - Will the PSU be enough for OCing the CPU and changing to a more powerful GPU?
2. MOBO - I've read that you can OC on z87m pro4 to 4.6 Ghz. Do i have to buy a more expensive mobo to OC?
3. Dimensions/Compatibility - Will it all fit in the case and on the mobo? (including the newer GPU and h100i)
4. Thermal Paste - Should i replace the paste on the CPU stock cooler with Arctic Silver 5?



Thank you!

 

[g-unit1111]

You can do better than that for $1300. No reason to buy extra thermal compound - you are throwing money away doing that.

This is what would be far better:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($222.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($52.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($151.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($86.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($339.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1184.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 18:59 EST-0500)

That gives you a much better rig with a much better video card and $200 for whatever monitor you want.

 

[Guest]

Just a tip, I would just go ahead and buy the better GPU (gtx 780, r9 290x) rather than buying a decent GPU and upgrading later because you in turn end up losing a bunch of money..

Anywho,
1. Yes, it will. For stock configs you usually want 100w of headroom but you have ~250W+ of headroom so you are definitely fine.
2. Better motherboards lead to better overclocking capabilities. That motherboard should have room to overclock pending on how high you want to push it.
3. If it says it can fit in a microatx case/motherboard, then it will be fine. Just check the specifications. The newer GPU should be able to fit, but the h100i might be a problem and pending the case you may have to do a bit of case modding.
4. Sure, I replaced my stock CPU cooler thermal paste with an aftermarket paste which was only $5. If you feel you need to cut corners and not spend that $5, don't do it. But achieving a cooler 5 degrees may in turn help out (example).

 

[geofelt]

1. It is the graphics that drives the psu. 600w is fine, but I might overprovision a bit to 650 if you anticipate a stronger card in the future.
2. Once you have a Z87 based motherboard, you can overclock to the limits of your particular cpu chip. More expensive motherboards are really not needed unless you are a competitive overclocker.
How high you can oc a 4670K is highly variable, and depends on your particular chip. You might expect 4.0-4.4 out of most.
Adding liquid cooling like a h100 may increase by .1-.2. That will increase the level of noise, and I do not recommend it.
I would use a phanteks or noctua nh-d14. google "h100 leak"

3. The motherboard will fit.

4. The noctua supplied paste is fine.

added thoughts:

5. Samsung evo will perform the same, and is cheaper.
If you can go 240gb, defer on the hard drive, you may never need the added space.

 

[Sergiu Ghita]

Response for g-unit1111 :

Thanks for the suggestion, but your build costs more than the original where i live (about 160$ more). And also according to this article the RAM you've suggested is of lower performance and the cost is not significantly less http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/10

To geofelt:
It's cheaper if i go non-modular if i'm chosing 650W. I never had semi/full modular PSUs anyway so I don't think I would mind. What do you think? Is semi modular worth the extra money? (>30$ extra)

Regarding the GPU: I am still contemplating if i should pay 60% more for a 15% increase in performance.

I might lose more money in the process of selling the GPU and buying a new one later, but at least i will have enough money to spend on that particular upgrade at that time.

EDIT: Also didn't the PRO version have a longer warranty than the EVO?
EDIT2: I think i'll drop the 1TB and go for the single storage 250-256GB SSD as you've recommended

 

[g-unit1111]

Response for g-unit1111 :

Thanks for the suggestion, but your build costs more than the original where i live (about 160$ more). And also according to this article the RAM you've suggested is of lower performance and the cost is not significantly less http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/10

I might lose more money in the process of selling the GPU and buying a new one later, but at least i will have enough money to spend on that particular upgrade at that time.

EDIT: Also didn't the PRO version have a longer warranty than the EVO?
EDIT2: I think i'll drop the 1TB and go for the single storage 250-256GB SSD as you've recommended

Oh well you should say where you live next time as that will help to suggest local availability. There's a sticky at the top that lists stores for all over the world that I've compiled and that will help find deals in your country.

To answer your questions:

1. I think both drives have the same warranty.
2. It's better to get the 128GB SSD - 1TB HD because SSDs have a much more limited shelf life than mechanical hard drives do. You can only have so many read - write cycles in the span of the life of an SSD where a mechanical HD can hold more and take a lot more punishment.

 

[Sergiu Ghita]

From my experience with HDDs, when they start to tick they're pretty much FUBARed. In regards to SSDs, I have no idea how they behave when they start to die. I'm somehow thinking about buying the SSD with 5 years warranty and hoping it dies before the 5 year mark. The questio is, can it start to malfunction / decrease in performance and not be able to replace it under the warranty? Could it become slower than a HDD and not be able to replace it under the warranty?

I do not expect and nor do I have the pretention that a storage device will last more than 5 years. I do not care of the risk of losing information stored on the device either.

This is why i was thinking of SSD only and not SSD+HDD combo, even if it gets more "punished", unless that performance drop and non warranty coverage situation appears.

Can you enlighten me?

EDIT: I am in Sweden, Stockholm. I use prisjakt.nu as a search engine.

The cheapest shop for the parts i selected is CDON.se

 

[geofelt]

I find modular/non modular to be a non issue.
With a properly sized psu, you are going to be using most of the leads anyway.
For the rest, there is always someplace to lay the unused leads out of the airstream.

On the graphics card, realize that it is THE engine in gaming. Buy the strongest card your budget will allow.
Personally, I prefer the nvidia drivers. Look at a GTX780. It will run cooler and quieter than the equivalent R9 cards.. I like the stock titan cooler which sends the hot air directly out the back of the case. EVGA makes good ones if they are available to you. A single GTX780 will run any game well, even on a larger 2560 x 1440 monitor.

The main advantage of the PRO over the EVO is endurance or longevity.
Under heavy desktop usage, the pro might last 15 years, the evo only 10.
Larger ssd's have better endurance.
They also perform a bit better.
A ssd may lose performance when it nears full. It takes more work to find a free nand chip for an update.
If you stay at less than 90% full, there is no issue.
It is a moot point since both will be obsolete long before then.
If, by chance you ever run out of update capability, the ssd will still be readable, allowing you to copy it to a new drive.
Anything can fail, but with no moving parts, SSD's are less likely to do so.
The return rates for good ssd's is 0,5%, for hard drives 1.5%
http://www.behardware.com/articles/881-7/components-returns-rates-7.html

 

[g-unit1111]

From my experience with HDDs, when they start to tick they're pretty much FUBARed. In regards to SSDs, I have no idea how they behave when they start to die. I'm somehow thinking about buying the SSD with 5 years warranty and hoping it dies before the 5 year mark. The questio is, can it start to malfunction / decrease in performance and not be able to replace it under the warranty? Could it become slower than a HDD and not be able to replace it under the warranty?

I do not expect and nor do I have the pretention that a storage device will last more than 5 years. I do not care of the risk of losing information stored on the device either.

This is why i was thinking of SSD only and not SSD+HDD combo, even if it gets more "punished", unless that performance drop and non warranty coverage situation appears.

Can you enlighten me?

EDIT: I am in Sweden, Stockholm. I use prisjakt.nu as a search engine.

The cheapest shop for the parts i selected is CDON.se

Well it's kind of hard to explain in a paragraph or two why SSDs slow down like they do after about a year of owning one. I'll go dig through some articles and see what I can find.

In the mean time here's a build that you could check out:

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - 885 kr
PSU: Seasonic Platinum 660W - 1425 kr
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H - 1310 kr
CPU:

3.4 GHz Intel Core i5-4670K - 1685 kr
Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B - 420 kr
SSD: 128GB Samsung 840 Pro - 1035 kr
HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST 7200 RPM - 560 kr
Optical: Asus BD-R Burner - 540 kr
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 Windforce 3X - 2790 kr

Total: 11435 kr (USD $1749.88)

 

[AxlFone]

Order parts from here.
http://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware.html

https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/9e3aee2200e771e6b447a7dfd7c14b3ffdde905fe82d1c52f55