sharath_83 :
Hi all,
Am looking to upgrade my desktop pc, and i would like to know if the configuration am going for, is good enough for Design, Music production and Gaming?
For design i will be using: Photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, coreldraw
For music composition, i will be using: Ableton live 9, FL studio 12 (with plugins), Traktor dj and few others.
Gaming: GTA games, FPS games majorly.
Later might use Adobe after effects and 3ds max.
So the configuration am planning to have is:
MoBo: Gigabyte Motherboard 85mb3h
Processor: INTEL 3.1 GHz LGA 1150 i5 4440 4th Generation Processor
RAM: 8 GB DDR3 RAM
Graphic card (have already): ATI Radeon 6770 (3D ready) 1GB DDR5 PCI express
HDD: 250 GB SSD for C drive alone
HDD 2: (have already): 1TB Toshiba hard disk
Is that a best Configuration, were in will be paying 488 USD. Or any suggestions?
Hello sharath_83,
I presume that you're on a tight budget and looking to upgrade your PC for Rs. 31000 ($488). For a budget build that's decent and yes it'll serve you for Design, Music Production and Gaming.
But with regard to gaming with 6770 1GB GDDR5, you may need to keep the graphical fidelity to Normal @1440x900. to get decent frames of 30+ FPS. So playing modern titles like the GTA V, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt etc are possible.
Check the following video in which the guy plays GTA V with FX 6300 (your i5 4440 will be far better than that), 12GB RAM (8GB RAM is more than enough), 6770 1GB GDDR5, to have an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZzEgUZ7t0
This guy gets a solid 40+ FPS @1440x900 with normal graphical fidelity, which is decent.
If at all any changes needed, I would suggest this:
Even when you build a PC on budget, always try to get the parts that meets your current requirement at the time offers great future upgrade path. So keeping that in mind, here are the parts I suggest:
All prices based on local retail market (Online retail pricing are high, so its better to avoid. Get it the parts from local retailer in electronic market and save some bucks):
Intel i5 4440 Rs. 12600
Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H Rs. 9700
Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD - Rs.8500
Total Rs. 30800
- The quality Z97 chipset based Gigabyte motherboard will give you the option to upgrade in future without any BIOS updates, to any of the Haswell/Haswell Refresh/Broadwell [with BIOS update] overclock i5 4690k/i7 4770k/4790K processors, when you need more performance power for your design and music production needs.
- Also the Gigabyte Z97 D3H has pretty good on-board audio solution, with 6 audio ports in the rear, ideal for your music production work as well as gaming.
- B85 chipset may require BIOS update for it even recognize Haswell Refresh Processors, overclocking not possible/very minimal for i5 4690k/i7 4770k/4790K, and they do not support Broadwell processors.
- Gaming wise the performance difference between i5 4440 and any other i5/i7 are high negligible or non-existent.
- Radeon 6770 1GB for 720p/900p gaming with medium/normal graphical fidelity on modern titles will do for now. But you may need a better card in future for any meaningful smooth gaming experience.
Why Gigabyte Motherboard?
Because they make stable, durable and performance oriented Motherboards with lowest RMA %. See the images below:
Gigabyte with least RMA percentage over the past two years
Major Motherboard and Graphics Card Manufacturers RMA Ratings
Read the full article here -
Reliability report: Gigabyte top for motherboards, MSI for graphics cards
Update:
Haswell Processors: i5 4440/4570/4670/4670K, i7 4770/4770K
Haswell Refresh Processors: i5 4430/4460/4590/4690/4690K, i7 4790/4790K
Broadwell - There are only two products for desktop in the market, with better power efficacy and greatly improved on-board graphics. But more Broadwell may be released. So forget about this for now.
B85 chipset based motherboards:
- Support all the above mentioned "Haswell" processors without any BIOS updates.
- Also support all the above mentioned "Haswell Refresh" processors but only after BIOS updates.
- But in future if you upgrade to any of the overclock K processors i5 4670K/4690K or i74770K/4790K, the overclocking potential of those processors on B85 chipset boards will be very limited.
- They don't support Broadwell processors.
Z97 chipset based motherboards:
- Support all the above mentioned "Haswell" & "Haswell Refresh" processors without any BIOS updates.
- In future if you upgrade to any of the overclock K processors i5 4670K/4690K or i74770K/4790K, the overclocking potential of those processors on Z97 will be pretty good, will allow you to squeeze every drop of performance out of those processors.
- They support Broadwell processors after a BIOS update on these boards.
Since you're going to use this PC for next 3-4 years, in your line of work, there is good possibility that you may require any of those overclock K processors in future.
What your hardware guy says is only partially right. Yes Intel releases new processors every now and then with only minor changes. But in terms of huge architectural change in its processor or motherboard design, that only happens once every 2-3 years. So getting a Z97 makes sense.
Speaking of new tech:
The Haswell / Haswell Refresh / Broardwell processors are based on LGA1150 socket and will work only on motherboards with LGA1150. So the LGA1150 sockets had been around for 2-3 years now.
Intel's next huge architectural change is expected in Q3 2015, named "Skylake" processors which will have LGA1151 socket and will work only on LGA1151 100 series motherboards.
Intel no longer produces motherboards by itself. It gives the reference design to major players like Gigabyte, MSI, ASUS, ASRock etc. and they will produce the motherboards on behalf of Intel. So hereafter you won't see any exclusive Intel labelled motherboard boxes coming out. Though the underlying technology will be based on Intel design, but will come with major motherboard manufactures label on it.
I just went into details just to let you know that hardware people only tell what they want to tell, to push whatever product they currently have in their stock and make some quick money.
With regard to graphics card, if you already own it stick with it. Otherwise, let know what pricing your hardware guy said for both the Radeon 6770 & Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H. Based on that I'll suggest you the right one.
Edit: My Final Thoughts;
If you already have Radeon 6770 stick with it. If not, I suggest you to get a better one from current generation rather than getting that 4 year old 6770, which was released way back in 2011.
For older cards, both the card manufacturers and game developers may not optimize the drivers. So for some current and upcoming modern games stability might be an issue.
So given the circumstances, I suggest you get this solid card that can play all games with medium/high graphical fidelity @720/1080p resolutions and also serve you good for design work:
MSI R7 260X 2GD5 OC 2GB Rs. 9500
(OR) for tighter budget, can even consider the MSI R7 250X OC 1GB GDDR5 Rs. 7250, which is slightly better in performance than the 6770, but was released in 2014, has great support for latest and upcoming technologies.
Both these cards support:
- GCN Architecture -
http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/gcn
- Supports the upcoming DirectX® 12, Vulkan™ & OpenGL® 4.5 APIs.
- Windows 10 Compatible.
- AMD TrueAudio Technology -
http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/trueaudio [Again great for music production as well as gaming]
Motherboard - If you don't plan to upgrade to any overclock K processors, stick with Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H, else get Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H.
Cheers!
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