Hey guys. Seems like the best forums to ask such a thing in the UK, so hi! Last build I did I spent a lot of time researching the perfect parts and while it was a lot of fun, I need to save as much time as possible this time so going to put this to those of you that are already in the know of what's out there, and would enjoy helping a brother out I've been out the loop since I build my last powerhouse nearly five years ago. Any help much appreciated. Parts not required: Apart from my three monitors, mouse and keyboard, Yeti microphone and webcam I'll be starting totally from scratch. Budget: £2000 - £2500 I've included a 500 buffer, but for that extra 500 I'd expect a drastic increase in performance. It might be at that point it's already subject to diminishing returns. Also might need the extra for more advanced cooling. Main uses of intended build: Gaming. Game design (UE4 editor will be used a lot). Video editing (Sony Vegas). So pretty CPU / GPU heavy tasks. Storage requirements: A 512 SDD would be fine as a boot device and to run my main apps, games on. As for extra storage an extra 2TB would be more than enough for me for now. Extra information about desired system: Not really an over clocker. I might do some simple overclocking but won't be attempting to push things to the max. I'd like it to run as quite as possible and don't mind spending out a bit extra on advanced cooling to achieve this. That said I'll be building it myself, so the easier it is to install the better, I have no prior experience with watercooling for example. It needs to be an Nvidia card (So I can take advantage of the Shield streaming) I don't plan to attempt SLI right away, but having the ability to down the line might be a good idea for the sake of testing our game builds. Are dedicated physX cards still a thing? Cause I'd go for one of those if they don't cause too many complications. I don't mind having a bigger case if it aids cooling and makes maintenance easier (my current is a Coolermaster ATCS 840 so used to massive cases) A blueray burner would be nice, although I seldom use it so won't not need to be the fastest thing out there. I'd like fairly top end parts of course, but I'm sure things are the way they have always been, where at some point the price of the next best component skyrockets but the increase does not represent the improvement in performance. Last thing I'd like to say is I'm not in a massive rush to build this PC, I have a good 3 months before I really need it, but I'm starting to think about it now. Thank you in advance for your time in helping me out.
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case £120 Intel 5930K £430 Asus X99-A Intel X99 Mobo £195 Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB DDR4 £390 Asus GeForce GTX 970 Strix £300 Samsung 512GB SSD 840 PRO £265 Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB £75 Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler £65 Asus Xonar DSX 7.1 Sound Card £45 Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu Ray £55 ....£1950'ish (OCUK prices used)
One thing, why would you get a 512GB 840 PRO when you can get a 1TB EVO for nearly the same money? Makes little sense to get half the capacity. SLI is definitely something I'd be looking at as well. One card may struggle. Dedicated PhysX cards are a thing of the past, and they now hinder performance as it is mostly done on the CPU.
£430 for a processor? Is that really good valve for money over a cheaper option? Seems crazy expensive. Also thanks @TheMadDutchDude for the info regarding PhysX cards, I really am out the loop it seems. Nah, I don't use three monitors for gaming right now it's just for the extra real estate while working, never had a problem on my current set up with running three.
Seemed a bit overboard, but I think this is the kinda thing you were looking for. With a high end case and a great air cooler to keep things quiet and cool. With two GTX 980 cards for a smidgen under your top end. Not forgetting you two free games courtesy of the cards and free software with the CPU.
Darkwisdom that's a really nice build, credit were it is due that is really nice. Personally I would be sticking in a really nice all in one water cooler here, like a Corsair Hydro H105 and i'm interested why you have not put that in? I still have a Hydro running some ... what is it 3 years later with a 4.2ghz OC, they are awesome. Just ranting here. Drop the storage and put the money towards a 1TB SSD, your C drive is important? Go with 1x 980 and see how you go. any issue put a second unit in? A quality high rated PSU is what we want here, nice. Personally here I would be looking at basing my build around a Asus x99 Dulux. Look at it.. most beautiful system board I have seen, brings you into DDR4 land as well. If x99 is available how do we not buy it,
Indeed, especially as he intends to use it for video editing as well.... extra cpu cores to the rescue.
Personal preference. I don't like Hydro coolers because I don't want to use any cooler that has even a slight chance of failure. Air coolers don't really fail unless you have a faulty fan which is incredibly rare. I like air cooling, it's quiet and just as effective as a Hydro cooler. Plus I love the look of a tower cooler. I didn't think of x99 because it is still new and incredibly expensive, seriously very expensive. If he put x99 parts in there with 16GB of DDR4, he's going to have to make cuts in the GPU department to keep it under that price point. I was thinking of the best possible system that reaches under that price, that would yield maximum performance. Edit: Actually, looking at prices, if you left out a second GPU it's pretty doable. With that Mobo you mentioned plus 16GB of DDR4 with a 5820K. You have to think if the exclusion of a second GPU is worth it though.
PhysX cards are no longer a thing. Ever since Aegia was bought by nVidia it has been incorporated into the GPUs. You can however use a regular nVidia GPU as a dedicated PhysX card. Whether it is effective or not I do not know for sure. I did a small test with my GTX 680 last year when I had a GTX 460 OC lying around. Gains ranged from 1 to 40 fps with the average at 10 fps gained. Several things could be argued. In no particular order: generation gap, the 460 held back the 680, PCIe bandwidth issues, under powered (PSU, story for another time) and possibly some other reasons which don't come to mind. You can view my data here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WITftthfm15OuqfIxFo-vbDoAgrgnAEAuIlRlx_mAcQ/edit?usp=sharing I know it doesn't help answer your build specs question but I thought you might appreciate the tidbit of information.
going from your build: 5820k + £40 DDR4 + £70 X99-S Mobo + £85 Loose the optical drive and windows license (they don't exactly go bad, so can be re purposed from whatever he has now) - £130 Swap the 1300W Psu for a 1000W one (even that is overkill with 2 gpus) - £20 Swap the Case for a Lian Li PC-A75A - £140 X99 Upgrade paid for.
..you want it for video editing, I would have thought a 6 core, 12 thread CPU giving a 50% speed up would have been worth it to you.
Don't bother with the 5930K cpu, get the 5820K which is only £290, so effectively only a £40 premium for two extra cores compared to the 4770k.
That could be true actually, guess I need to see if Sony Vegas can and will make use of that. Although it will already be so much faster than what I'm used to, I'd probably be okay with the other suggestions. Thanks for the feedback everyone you've saved me a ton of time.
