An i5 build

[jeffnc]

Just an FYI on what I recently bought to build, with prices I found. Comments welcome too, though.

I bought the components on Black Friday from my local Tiger Direct, although it was more or less coincidental - it was just a day off I had and I was ready to buy anyway.

CPU: i5 4690K - $200
- standard price I think

MB: ASUS Z97X-AR - $100
- with rebate. The main difference between this board and the A version is this one only has HDMI and DisplayPort, I believe. This is actually kind of annoying because I don't have my video card yet, so I'll need an adapter to connect to my display and do the build. But I didn't know that when I bought it, but at the price I suppose I might have anyway

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8G - $130
- they seemed to be saying this was on sale, but I remembered it being $120 and the receipt says $130 so I'm not sure I got such a great deal. I'm not sure this is great memory, but to start out with 16G on the computer for this price seems like a good deal. I plan to overclock the CPU, but don't know if I'll bother to try the memory

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $35
- for overclocking the CPU. Plus it's cool. Geez, this thing is big!

PSU: Corsair RM750 - $90
- more expense, power and features than I really need, but that's $40 off and it should be cool and quiet. I returned the Ultra PSU I originally bought due to suggestions below, and the options for replacement were limited in my local store

Case: Corsair Graphite 230T - $50
- The only version they had was orange with a window, which is OK, can't believe I just bought an orange case. $80, $10 instant off, $20 rebate

SSD : Crucial MX100 512G - $213
- going with just a SSD for now. I've read the larger drives are actually faster, and this amount of space will do fine until I need to add a HDD later maybe

Optical: Samsung 24x DVD - $30
- got retail box of this over ASUS OEM for $22, no real good reason except I was more familiar with seeing Samsung in online recommendations

Video: Sapphire R9 270X - $135
- they didn't have this in stores, so I ordered it online (TigerDirect). Comes with 3 free games, but I'm not sure how you get them. This price includes a $20 rebate, and $25 discount for using PayPal. Price does not include shipping or tax (you might or might not pay tax by buying online, I paid because there is a TigerDirect locally).

OS: Win 8.1 Home - $90

= $1,078

The price does not include tax, as I wanted to buy local rather than wait for mail order.

The nice thing about building your own is you can prioritize over the "recommended builds" in the online sites. For example, this could easily be a sub $1,000 build by dropping the RAM to 8G and swapping the SSD for a standard 1T hard drive, which is exactly what most builds would recommend at this price point. I'd be fine with 8G right now, but I did want a faster drive. Even the more expensive builds that include a SSD and HD have a smaller SSD (which is slower). Putting in a 512G SSD is not only a little faster, but also eliminates the need for a HD for me, for now.

 

[mfenn]

You got pretty decent deals, but it might not be great depending on the sales tax differential.

The main problem with your build is the power supply. Ultra power supplies are quite simply trash. It probably won't blow up your PC immediately, but it's definitely not what I would choose if I were spending $1000 on a PC. I'd return it and pick up a quality unit like this Antec HCG-620M for $40 AR.

 

[jeffnc]

Now that you mention it, I recall from years ago Antec getting solid reviews.

They don't have them in my local retail Tiger store. I can still return the Ultra unopened, but I plan on doing this build today. Any others recommended? Here are a couple options that appear to be available.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...633&CatId=2533
(more than I wanted to spend)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...402&CatId=1079
(500 should be enough?)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...124&CatId=1483

 

[nsafreak]

Power supplies are one area of a PC build that you definitely don't want to skimp on, if it goes *poof* with the smell of your PC releasing its "magic smoke" then it's quite likely to take other parts with it. Looking through TigerDirect I would probably go with this Corsair CS-650M power supply. There are better deals available online but if you want to do the build today and TigerDirect is local then this is your best bet IMO.

 

[jeffnc]

Unfortunately, they didn't have the CS650 in my local store. I went ahead and bit the bullet and got the RM750. Maybe more than I needed and not the greatest value for my build, but on the plus side, it does seem like quite a nice PSU. Don't know if they measure these things with peak or average loads, but if I'm understanding this right, the fan isn't even going to come on until the system is drawing more than 300 watts anyway, so it obviously should be quiet.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/rm-series-rm750-80-plus-gold-certified-power-supply

I updated the prices in my OP. I added $60 for the PSU, but reduced for the case. I went back and showed them the receipt so I got the $10 back, plus it has a rebate I didn't even know about.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...483&CatId=1509

So that is $30 less.

If you are interested in the case, there is even a better deal here, even if you throw away the extra fans.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7&Sku=C69-0023

 

[escrow4]

I would never go RM:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/13/corsair_rm750_750w_power_supply_review/9

They failed it, and Corsair had to physically redesign the guts to fix it. Did you get an old model or the new one? I'd pass on Corsair and focus on Seasonic or Antec but Seasonic built.

 

[mfenn]

I would never go RM:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/13/corsair_rm750_750w_power_supply_review/9

They failed it, and Corsair had to physically redesign the guts to fix it. Did you get an old model or the new one? I'd pass on Corsair and focus on Seasonic or Antec but Seasonic built.

That article is from 2013, and it sounds like Corsair recalled the first run. So I imagine that the OP's unit would be fine. The issues also only manifest under extreme abuse. Still I agree there are better choices than Corsair RM, especially for the price.

 

[jeffnc]

The retail for the CS650 is $110. There is something goofy (at least today) with the Tiger Direct page for it (see link in nsafreak's post), but maybe that will be fixed by the time you read it. I believe the price in the store was $100, or possibly $90. But there weren't any in stock in my local Raleigh, NC store.

The retail for the RM750 is $130. But they did have it in stock at my local store for $90 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...633&CatId=2533)

Since I was definitely buying that day, I thought it was a no-brainer. I just assumed the more expensive line was "better". Hopefully it is as mfenn says, and according to that review it sounds like any such issue has been fixed.

I can tell you this - at least it's more power than I really need, so it shouldn't be stressed. I haven't done any hardcore gaming on the machine yet, but I can tell you that as far as I know, the fan hasn't come on in 2 days. The PS is barely lukewarm to the touch. But my case has "good" airflow and room temp is prob <=70. I haven't challenged and it hasn't been in use long, but it seems great so far.

In an overclock.net forum post, a Corsair rep had this to say:

"I'd like to thank Paul at HardOCP for finding this issue for us. In all the real world testing we did, we never identified it. It's been addressed, and all production units incorporate a fix at this point. It's likely there are some older units still in the channel - if you buy one and it has this issue, we'll replace it for you. But we can't recreate the issue without effectively putting the PSU in an incubator sans airflow. At this point, months after launch, we still do not have a single verified case of failure in the field due to this issue aside from people specifically trying to recreate it.

Again, only affects the 750W and 850W variants.

That being said, it's still embarrassing. It's one of those things we're not real happy about, as you may imagine, but everyone can make mistakes or ship a product with a bug now and again.

The RM series is still the quietest PSU out there, and remarkably well-priced for that, in my opinion.

For those saying we "killed the TX" series for it, far from it. You guys killed the TX series, because it's not very competitive in its price range and sales have slagged off. Bronze certification with industrial grade components and 105C japanese caps, with a semi-modular option worked great a few years ago. Now it's budget stuff and they want Gold at that price point. We have HX for that. RM was a reaction to where people were buying parts - and if you guys don't like it, that's understandable. But it's a very good product nonetheless.

Feel free to purchase a product you're comfortable with. If it's not RM, I understand. But there's no reason I wouldn't use an RM PSU in my home system."

 

[jeffnc]

Pics

 

[Charlie98]

You guys killed the TX series, because it's not very competitive in its price range and sales have slagged off. Bronze certification with industrial grade components and 105C japanese caps

Interesting read. I have a TX750v2 in my primary build... absurd overkill for what it powers, but it has been a great PSU. Now that I see Corsair has a handle on the RM, I would consider it, but if the RM and a Seasonic were close, apples to apples, pricewise... I'd take the Seasonic.

 

[nsafreak]

Nice build. From the pics it looks like a kindof burnt orange, which is the kind of orange I like, with black accents which makes a good color combination. Doubt I could stand the case if it was a bright orange. Overall it looks like a solid build, the only change I might've made would've been to get an R9 280X online for just a bit more but as long as the games aren't too demanding then a 270X should be ok.

 

[jeffnc]

Now that I see Corsair has a handle on the RM, I would consider it, but if the RM and a Seasonic were close, apples to apples, pricewise... I'd take the Seasonic.

Keep in mind the context of my info, by the way - what was available in my local store, since I had a bit of unexpected money and 2 days of unexpected time, so I wanted to build and install Windows that weekend. I wouldn't have gotten the same things if I had more time to plan online shopping.

The only exception was the video card, because I didn't need it to get everything installed and working. So I could have gotten the 280X as nsafreak suggested. He calls it a "bit" more, but the Sapphire 270X was $150 and I'm seeing at least $100 more for the 280X. Maybe there were some deals I could have gotten during Black Friday weekend that aren't showing now.

Performance-wise, on my older Windows Vista machine with 2G RAM and standard HD, it takes Photoshop 21 seconds to load. On this machine it takes 1-2 seconds. Using CS6 was one of the performance priorities.

 

[jeffnc]

They call it "Rebel Orange". Not usually my style - bought it on a whim - but I admit it's growing on me. I always do boring black so I said what the hell. My 10 year old son loves it of course

 

[mfenn]

Looks good, nice wiring!

 

[jeffnc]

Thanks - I guess I kind of took that for granted - don't know what those holes are called in the frame to route the wiring behind the motherboard, but I figured most cases had them these days. And if not, well then that's another thing I like about the case

 

[Charlie98]

Thanks - I guess I kind of took that for granted - don't know what those holes are called in the frame to route the wiring behind the motherboard, but I figured most cases had them these days. And if not, well then that's another thing I like about the case

I like the orange as well... it's not so bright that it looks like it's hooked into the PSU...

I've got a Fractal Core1000 with no wire management... it looks like a rats nest in there...