Build list ready, could use input

[nickkarma]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming, ideally I want a PC that will play Witcher 3 when it comes out at at least medium range settings and play high on the current games now. I build new PC's on average every 3 years in this price range (currently actually at 4.5yrs)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

~$1,000 USD. Will go to max $1,100 or so if it's really worth it.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
US

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. NOPE

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, NOPE

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Can do either, looking for best bang/buck

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
I believe it's 1920x1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Tonight or tomorrow I'd like to place the order.

Now with that taken care of here's my build I've got selected.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H87-G43 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.18 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY Optima 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY Optima 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($335.85 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ TigerDirect)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $963.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-21 13:45 EDT-0400)

Anyways, I'm debating on dropping the two 240gb PNY drives and grabbing this instead, just not sure if that $ will be worth it or not so advice there would be appreciated as well. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st480hm000

I'm mostly looking for input where I can improve my money to performance ratio. So if there's something I can get slightly cheaper for a very minor hit to performance I'd do that, or if there's something that spending an extra $50-100 would be an awesome improvement I'd do that since I've still got a bit of room to play with.

Thanks for any input you can give!

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'd advise against putting two SSDs in RAID, unless its RAID1 for drive failure protection. Outside benchmarks you're never going to notice any difference in performance, and you have twice the possibility of failure. Its better to just get a single large capacity drive.

If you're serious about SSD performance, you should be looking at the new H/Z97 mainboards with an M.2 slot or SATA-Express. There are few drives currently, but that should change over summer. You could just get a cheap 120GB 840EVO or M500/550 to tie you over until then.

Other then that your build looks pretty solid.

 

[nickkarma]

I am not really planning to put the SSD's in a raid format, so much as I just wanted ~340+ GB of SSD space. I was looking at a 120GB SSD for C drive (OS & misc programs like firefox), then another 240GB for my games. That SSD I found seems the best deal so I just selected two. I'm just slightly unsure of how they benchmark against the EVO's since they don't seem to be around on here or Toms. I'm willing to up the cost there if it'll get a much better drive performance.

Do you have any links to example motherboards you are mentioning? I'm not the most knowledgeable for hardware and mostly built my list by comparing a lot of different builds I found online over the past few days.

 

[Termie]

Right off the bat, you should know that H87 boards likely cannot boot a 4690 out of the box. They'll need a BIOS update. For that reason, you really have to get an H97 board if you want the 4690. So factor in the price of an H97 board - the Gigabyte H97M-D3H is a great pick and comes in at $90.

Also, I'd strongly encourage you go to with a 280X over the 770. The 3GB of VRAM is going to be increasingly important, and Witcher 3 will likely need it for maximum settings.

One more thing - forget about maximum SSD performance in your price range. The boards you'll be looking at don't come with M.2 slots. Also, I'd just go for a much better 840 Evo 500GB over those low-grade Optimas. It's $240 at Amazon right now.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I am not really planning to put the SSD's in a raid format, so much as I just wanted ~340+ GB of SSD space. I was looking at a 120GB SSD for C drive (OS & misc programs like firefox), then another 240GB for my games. That SSD I found seems the best deal so I just selected two. I'm just slightly unsure of how they benchmark against the EVO's since they don't seem to be around on here or Toms. I'm willing to up the cost there if it'll get a much better drive performance.

Anandtech has covered both very well, so I'll just link to their review. Especially the 840EVO is highly recommended having good performance for the price and being reliable.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7864/crucial-m550-review-128gb-256gb-512gb-and-1tb-models-tested
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7173/...iew-120gb-250gb-500gb-750gb-1tb-models-tested

Do you have any links to example motherboards you are mentioning? I'm not the most knowledgeable for hardware and mostly built my list by comparing a lot of different builds I found online over the past few days.

Its a little difficult to link to directly as all manufacturers have different page layouts and search functions. But you should be able to find specifics on their web-pages.

A good example of such boards is the ASUS H97M-E or Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H. Manufacturers have models for pretty much every need and every wallet. If you need specific functionality, just let us know and we'll try to advise.

If you don't need more then a fairly basic board, there is also the option of going with a cheaper H81 or B85 based board. They don't have as many features, but cost a lot less. Since you're going with a non-overclocking (e.g. "locked") CPU, there is no reason to get a Zx7-based board, unless there is some specific feature you need.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

One more thing - forget about maximum SSD performance in your price range. The boards you'll be looking at don't come with M.2 slots. Also, I'd just go for a much better 840 Evo 500GB over those low-grade Optimas. It's $240 at Amazon right now.

Well, most ASUS H97 boards come with an M.2 slot, and they're not -that- much more expensive...

 

[vailr]

You should maybe re-think your motherboard/CPU combo.
The i5-4690 requires an Intel series 9 chipset to run. AFAIK, it wouldn't work on an H87 board, unless a bios upgrade was performed first on it.
For overclocking: only "K" series Intel CPU's (such as i5-4670K) can be overclocked.
H87/H97 boards cannot overclock any CPU.
So: H87 board + (any non-K) socket 1150 CPU; double-check the board's CPU compatibility list first. (non overclockable)
Or: H97 board + 4690 CPU. (non overclockable)
Or: Z87/Z97 board + any "K" series socket 1150 CPU (overclockable).
Exception: "Devil's Canyon" CPU's supposedly won't ever be compatible with Intel's series 8 chipsets.

My advice: wait a few weeks until Intel's new socket 1150 "Devil's Canyon" CPU's are released.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)

overclockable parts, codenamed "Devil's Canyon", would employ a new and improved thermal interface material (TIM), which would improve their overclocking potential as something that had been problematic since the introduction of Ivy Bridge.

 

[crashtech]

Right off the bat, you should know that H87 boards likely cannot boot a 4690 out of the box.

I thought CPUs like the 4690 were just a speed bump and not even a different stepping. Is it a foregone conclusion that installing any Haswell refresh CPU will require 8-series board owners to perform BIOS updates?

 

[nickkarma]

Thanks for all the input all!

I've adjusted my build to the suggestions here. Went with the EVO SSD, got the ASUS H97 with an M.2 slot, and switched to the 280X. One question I have is would it be a lot better to get the lower i5 chip that can be overclocked instead of the 4690? I've typically never overclocked so I'm thinking most likely not since that'd increase the chip cost, motherboard cost, and probably require a fan on top.

Also as to waiting for the "Devil's Canyon" - will that reduce my costs, or keep them the same for better performance by a good margin?

Anyways here's the updated list, let me know if there's any other small adjustments that should possibly be made. Thanks!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($239.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($298.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ TigerDirect)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1013.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-21 16:07 EDT-0400)

 

[Termie]

Don't worry about Devil's Canyon - if you're not already a serious overclocker, it won't be worth the significant additional expense (or the wait).

As for going with a 4670K and a z87/z97 board, it's up to you. Getting a 10% boost in performance is a fairly simple undertaking, and doesn't really require additional cooling. A lot more than that would indeed require an aftermarket fan, and is a YMMV kind of thing.

I'd probably just be happy with the 4690, which happens to be available at a great price right now.

 

[mfenn]

You can nip and tuck that build here and there by taking advantage of combos.

i5 4590 + ASUS DVD Burner combo $212
ASRock H97M Pro4 $82 - don't need full ATX for a single-GPU system
Team DDR3 1600 8GB $66
PowerColor R9 280X 3GB $270 AR
Crucial M500 480GB $230
Antec Neo ECO 620C $42 AR
Crucial 200R $45 AR
Total: $947 AR

 

[nickkarma]

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate the suggestions! Went ahead and submit the order last night. Should get it all by Tuesday for building

 

[mfenn]

Let us know how it goes!

 

[nickkarma]

Sorry for the slow response. I really appreciate all the help you guys gave me! I built it last Wednesday as newegg shipped slower than expected. and it went without any major hiccups. Minor issues I had was not having enough SATA cables, it only came with 2 and I needed 3 and that I had to order a mini-DisplayPort to normal DisplayPort cable since it only has one DVI connection which both my monitors were plugged into on my old one.

Other small issue I'm having is it seems like 1 in 10 reboots the graphics will be all jacked up and I'll have to restart again to fix it. Everything is like blurry a little horizontally (including on the bios screen/windows screens) with two sort of vertical lines in the center of the screen. Not too sure what's the issue might be with this.

Anyways here's the part list I ordered exactly. It's gone up ~$100 or so since I ordered mostly due to several things going up in cost $10-15 each. I overwrote some to newegg as well since I have free shoprunner for having an american express card and also just have amazon prime.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($264.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1126.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-02 18:06 EDT-0400)

 

[DSF]

It's a very nice machine.

With regard to the graphics the two obvious culprits are the graphics card and monitor. I'm assuming the monitor is something you've had for a while, so that's probably not the culprit.

The quick thing to try is just removing the graphics card and reseating it. Make sure it's in snugly, and do a quick check of the contacts and the slot while you have it out. I would be surprised if you actually found something physically interfering, but you never know.

 

[mfenn]

Glad the build went well! (For the most part)

Regarding the graphics issue, which monitor is fuzzy? The DVI one or the one that's going through DisplayPort?

 

[NewYorksFinest]

I built it last Wednesday as newegg shipped slower than expected.

Thats Newegg for ya!

IF you order "2 Day Shipping," it takes 4 days because that extra 2 days for processing. Why the whole extra day for processing while Amazon, a much more popular and known retailer, can process items in 3-4 hours ?

 

[nickkarma]

Glad the build went well! (For the most part)

Regarding the graphics issue, which monitor is fuzzy? The DVI one or the one that's going through DisplayPort?

The DisplayPort plug hasn't actually gotten here yet so I've only had one connected in the DVI and no second monitor yet. As I mentioned it only has this weird issue every 10 restarts or so and the monitor never had this issue on my old machine.

I'll try reseating the graphics card on it to see if that helps

 

[crashtech]

I'd try an HDMI cable, if your monitor will take it. If not, then a different DVI cable.

 

[nickkarma]

I've tried HDMI but it messes up the resolution on it as the HDMI cable cant support the monitors native resolution. It sort of shrinks it down and only stops using about an inch or two around the whole monitor. I believe I also remember having that issue happen once with the HDMI cable in there now that I think about it. So yeah just going to try replugging in the graphics card and if I still get that issue happening every so often I may try to RMA it before the 30 days since that may be the sign of issues with the card.

 

[crashtech]

So you are running 1080p @ 120Hz, then? You could switch to 60Hz temporarily in order to do testing.

 

[mfenn]

So you are running 1080p @ 120Hz, then? You could switch to 60Hz temporarily in order to do testing.

I don't remember anything being mentioned about a 120 Hz monitor, but that's a good call if the OP does have one.

Also see if the problem recurs with the DisplayPort adapter and using the second monitor instead of the first.

 

[crashtech]

I did assume it, since all versions of HDMI support 1080p @ 60Hz.

 

[nickkarma]

Sorry yes, I had forgotten my monitor goes to 144Hz. Got the DisplayPort cable in and reseated the card and all issues are now gone. Also decided to give Windows 8.1 and am liking it.

On a side note I will never believe a rebate from Corsair again. Bought that PSU for the $20 rebate making it $15 cheaper than other PSU's. They conveniently "didn't get" my UPC in the envelope I sent and won't do anything with it. From what I read I guess they farm rebates out to other groups that commonly screw people over. I'll probably avoid corsair altogether in the future if there's another option as that sort of thing just makes me hate companies.