Any advice for this gaming build?

[commentrobot]

Looking to put this together soon, wondered if anyone would mind sharing their thoughts?

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KqGy
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KqGy/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KqGy/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£159.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£106.04 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For £100.00)
Storage: Crucial M4 512GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (Purchased For £200.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 4GB Video Card (£189.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£53.77 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£49.95 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.96 @ CCL Computers)
Headphones: Razer Carcharias Headset
Other: Razer BlackWidow Tournament Stealth Edition (£69.99)
Total: £980.38
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-30 23:31 GMT+0000)

 

[aevm]

You could save money with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. The use the saving to upgrade the GPU to 280x.

I'd change the PSU to something better too.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650snlb9

 

[commentrobot]

You could save money with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. The use the saving to upgrade the GPU to 280x.

I'd change the PSU to something better too.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650snlb9

Already purchased the RAM and SSD. Thanks for the advice with the PSU, will make changes with that.

I was deliberating over the 280X, mostly as it has twice as many shader cores. Reviews of the 2GB 270X indicate it handles 1080 gaming well, so the 4GB version must be pretty hefty on that, right?

 

[aevm]

The 4GB help especially at 2560x1440, or on multiple monitors. Even there, however, a R9 280x 3GB will beat a R9 270x 4GB. The raw power of the 280x matters a lot more than the extra RAM on the 270x.

 

[commentrobot]

The 4GB help especially at 2560x1440, or on multiple monitors. Even there, however, a R9 280x 3GB will beat a R9 270x 4GB. The raw power of the 280x matters a lot more than the extra RAM on the 270x.

That's as good a reason as any, thanks!

I have to ask - price-wise, the 280X sounds like a fantastic amount of power for the price (~£225 for a Gigabyte 280X), but is there any advantage to getting a GTX 700 series instead? (760 or 770?)

 

[aevm]

GTX 770 > R9 280x > GTX 760 > R9 270x (in both speed and price). There are exceptions, of course, for speed depending on game/resolution/settings, and for price depending on where you live.

Here's an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx/13

With your CPU you can have any of those cards without any bottlenecks.

 

[commentrobot]

GTX 770 > R9 280x > GTX 760 > R9 270x (in both speed and price). There are exceptions, of course, for speed depending on game/resolution/settings, and for price depending on where you live.

Here's an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7400/the-radeon-r9-280x-review-feat-asus-xfx/13

With your CPU you can have any of those cards without any bottlenecks.

Thanks for the link and the hierarchy; I don't mind shelling out the extra money for the differences as they seem worth it. I'm now thinking the following:

Gigabyte R9 280X 3GB (£223.66) -----> Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB (£242.90)
MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming (£106.04) -----> ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (£83.62)

Result: £329.70 ----> £322.89

Saving pennies makes me happy. Any comments on the changes would be well appreciated.

Incredible - so even with 2GB vram and 1736 cores, the 770 is more powerful? Is that a result of the faster memory?

 

[aevm]

Its' a result of a different architecture, maybe different clocks. The memory speed and amount matters too, but it's not the most important factor.

You can't really figure out which card is faster by counting the stream processors in a R9 280x and the CUDA cores in a GTX 770.
They are different things, even if they do eventually serve the same purpose.

The most reliable way to compare an AMD card with an nVidia card is to benchmark them. As in, actually try them both, with a strong CPU (the same for both, to keep it fair). Or to read reviews, if you're a customer rather than a tech site employee. Even then, you may find a combination where the AMD wins in a game and the nVidia wins in another -- it happens a lot...

 

[aevm]

About your proposed changes - they're good ideas IMO.

The new GPU is a bit better.

The new MB has fewer PCI-E x1 slots but it has PCI slots and eSATA. That is, feature differences are insignificant and they are in your favor anyway. Both MBs are high-quality.

 

[sora]

You could save money with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. The use the saving to upgrade the GPU to 280x.

I'd change the PSU to something better too.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650snlb9

Already purchased the RAM and SSD. Thanks for the advice with the PSU, will make changes with that.

I was deliberating over the 280X, mostly as it has twice as many shader cores. Reviews of the 2GB 270X indicate it handles 1080 gaming well, so the 4GB version must be pretty hefty on that, right?

The 770 and R9 280X pretty much have VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE in performance. If you're planning to play BF4 I'd personally get the R9 280x.

 

[commentrobot]

The 770 and R9 280X pretty much have VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE in performance. If you're planning to play BF4 I'd personally get the R9 280x.

I will be playing BF4, but is the difference on *one* game going to be worth it? I know the 280X is also cheaper, but will I be limited in other games?

I've also been reading that Nvidia releases "more stable drivers" for their line. Is this a real issue?

 

[commentrobot]

I've gone well and truly down the rabbit hole here, and need some help straightening everything out.

I'm settled on the 3570K to overclock in the future, and depending on whether I pick the 280X or the 770 I'd like a mobo with an extra slot for a second card later, and it'd be nice to have temperature-based fan control from the mobo. Mantle reviews show minimal increases for the 280X, and NVidia has Maxwell round the corner which might influence the prices (though that'll be Q4 2014 at the earliest, I imagine?).

Based on the money I've spent, should I just go all out and GTX770 is, swap to a 4670K (for no real gain other than it's newer), and pick a £100+ mobo, or pick the 290X and a sub-£100 mobo with a crossfire slot?

Cheers in advance for the help.