Does this build match my intended use? Any suggestions to improve it?

[allisoneandstuf]

I am going to use this PC for software development (mainly using Eclipse and Visual Studio), running a virtual machine (not more than one at a time) and have a million tabs open in a couple of browsers.

Gaming: In the future I will add a good GPU for playing games like Battlefield 4 and GTA 5 on medium graphics so this PC should handle that.

Budget: I already exceeded my initial budget 🙂
Currently trying to make it a little cheaper.

Brands: Open for suggestions. I lean towards quality over good price.

Storage: I don't archive a lot of data so the 250GB SSD should be more than enough.

Operating System: Dual boot for windows 8.1 and linux.

Overclocking, SLI/Crossfire, Accessories, Reuse old components, Preferred Stores, Purchase software: Nope.

Resolution: Current monitors resolution is 1680 x 1050. Will get a ~26 inch display in the future.

Location: I am buying the PC in Israel (for ease and speed of parts replacement) so everything is more expensive here. The build I included at the bottom is 300$ more expensive here!
I would post a link to the store but its all in hebrew and the prices are in NIS...

When am I buying: in a couple of days.

Noise and dust issues: It has to be quiet and have as many dust filters as it takes to maximally reduce the dust build-up inside the case. I consider to change the case to Nanoxia Deep silence 1 if that will considerably lower dust build-up and noise.

There's a good chance that another stick of 8GB RAM of exactly the same model will be added in a couple of months.

The goal is to buy a PC that will run smoothly for at least 3-4 years.
Please explain if you think its wiser to lower the specs and upgrade the PC when parts will become cheaper. For example to buy 120GB SSD instead 250GB, use it for at least six months or until I'm near 75% capacity and then buy another one when the same volume SSD becomes much cheaper. What do you think?

What I came up with so far:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vRn84D

CPU: Intel Core i5 4690 3.5Ghz 6MB L3 Cache s1150 - Tray
CPU COOLING: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
MOBO: Asus H87-PRO
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL10 - 1.5v - PC3-12800 - HyperX Fury Series - 8192MB - HX316C10F/8
SSD : Samsung 840 EVO Series MZ-7TE250BW 250GB SSD SATA III
PSU: SeaSonic S12G-550 550W Gold Active PFC 12cm Fan PSU
CASE: Antec P100

Would love to hear what you think about it. Are all parts compatible with each other?

Suggestions to make it a little cheaper while still meeting my needs and any tips on how to achieve what I mentioned above will be greatly appreciated.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Kingston's "Fury" line is basically their rock bottom garbage line in my opinion. You will note the stick you have there has a CL of 10. that's garbage for 1600Mhz. 7 or 8 would be good, 9 would be average. Anything above that is garbage.

Also I suggest you buy 2x4GB to give you dual channel operation from the get go, then add another 2 sticks later when funds become available.

 

[DesiPower]

Good build overall, leave the 250GB SSD in, 120GB is not not going to save you much. I would go with a Z series mobo, the overall performance of the system should be faster, specially as you are planning to add GPU for gaming later.

 

[allisoneandstuf]

There are a couple of extensive tests showing that the performance difference between two sticks of say Y (dual channel of course) and one stick of 2Y is negligible in everyday use.
I wanted to leave more free slots for future upgrades but you got a valid point.

Thank you for your comment. I will look for a CL 9 or lower. Is there a model you recommend in the same price range?

 

[Torn Mind]

16 GB of RAM is the way to roll if you're the type who has a gazillion tabs. Latency hardly matters, since the con of slower latency is simply a slightly longer time to complete tasks.

 

[aigomorla]

ugh.... I don't think u can do better since u honestly exceeded your original budget.

if u could invest a bit more id say get more ram ... 16GB if possible... then if u had a bit more flexability, get a i7 which has hyper threading.

Also for SSD's look at the new crucial MX100 series as they are fairly cheap right now.

 

[mfenn]

Location: I am buying the PC in Israel (for ease and speed of parts replacement) so everything is more expensive here. The build I included at the bottom is 300$ more expensive here!
I would post a link to the store but its all in hebrew and the prices are in NIS...

It's really hard to give you a cogent recommendation on reducing prices without knowing what prices you're paying, what parts are available to you, and what your target is. Post your budget and site, and I think you'll find that people here are more resourceful than you give them credit for.

Kingston's "Fury" line is basically their rock bottom garbage line in my opinion. You will note the stick you have there has a CL of 10. that's garbage for 1600Mhz. 7 or 8 would be good, 9 would be average. Anything above that is garbage.

If you're going to throw out claims like that, you're going to have to back them up with facts. In real world applications, the difference between CAS 9 and CAS 10 is very small, single digit percentage points.

 

[allisoneandstuf]

The store will be one of these (each store has quite a few parts they don't supply so it's still open):
http://www.iqpc.co.il their pc builder interface is here
http://www.ksp.co.il their pc builder interface is here
http://www.plonter.co.il/ their pc builder interface is here

The leading local price comparison website:
http://www.zap.co.il/cat.aspx?cat=comp

You can let your browser translate the website from hebrew but the prices are still in NIS.
Browser extensions that auto convert currency inside the web page:
Firefox
Chrome

On another note, for my use case, if I gett a h97 chipset motherboard instead the h87 one I chose (Asus h87 pro) will it show a noticeable performance difference or benefit me in any way? I saw some conflicting views on that.

 

[mfenn]

The store will be one of these (each store has quite a few parts they don't supply so it's still open):
http://www.iqpc.co.il their pc builder interface is here
http://www.ksp.co.il their pc builder interface is here
http://www.plonter.co.il/ their pc builder interface is here

The leading local price comparison website:
http://www.zap.co.il/cat.aspx?cat=comp

You can let your browser translate the website from hebrew but the prices are still in NIS.
Browser extensions that auto convert currency inside the web page:
Firefox
Chrome

Thanks! That's the first half (where do you shop). What about the second part? I.e. what's your budget and how much are you currently looking at?

On another note, for my use case, if I gett a h97 chipset motherboard instead the h87 one I chose (Asus h87 pro) will it show a noticeable performance difference or benefit me in any way? I saw some conflicting views on that.

There is no performance difference between H87 and H97 (or H81 or Z87 or Z97), the only difference is features and guaranteed Haswell refresh support in the 9 series.

 

[allisoneandstuf]

My budget in NIS is 3500.
I went over it and the current build costs at least 3750 NIS which I can maybe live with.
Still pretty sure I can cut some corners here cause I probably put parts with higher quality/performance than I actually need or notice.

1. I see people recommend g.skill, corsair and crucial over kingston claiming kingston use lower quality modules. What's your take on this?

2. I found very few 1x8 GB RAM sticks here in the local market. Most are CL 10 and above.
Now it's really hard for me to imagine right now I'll want to go above 16 gigs of RAM in the next year or two but I will most likely upgrade to 16 in a few of months.
So which option is preferable for that:
A. buying 1x8 GB of slighly slower RAM today and getting the exact same stick later making it 2x8 GB.

B. buying 2x4 GB kit of slightly faster RAM today and getting another kit like that later making it 4x4 GB.
or
C. buy the cheapest solution of the above because its insignificant and barely noticeable.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

1. I see people recommend g.skill, corsair and crucial over kingston claiming kingston use lower quality modules. What's your take on this?

That depends on what you define as "lower quality". Standard Kingston RAM works just fine at stock and has excellent compatibility, but you're not going to get something that can do a hefty overclock...

2. I found very few 1x8 GB RAM sticks here in the local market. Most are CL 10 and above.
Now it's really hard for me to imagine right now I'll want to go above 16 gigs of RAM in the next year or two but I will most likely upgrade to 16 in a few of months.
So which option is preferable for that:
A. buying 1x8 GB of slighly slower RAM today and getting the exact same stick later making it 2x8 GB.

B. buying 2x4 GB kit of slightly faster RAM today and getting another kit like that later making it 4x4 GB.
or
C. buy the cheapest solution of the above because its insignificant and barely noticeable.

Generally CL doesn't matter much anymore, the performance difference is too small to be noticed outside benchmarks. Its only in the order of a few percentage points. Some good quality DDR3-1600MHz with CL9 or, in a pinch, CL10 is just fine. The only thing to avoid is DDR3-1333MHz and below at CL11.

For RAM you can mix'n'match DIMMs to suit your needs. They do not necessarily have to be the same size either.

You can buy a 2x4GB kit now and add f.x. a 2x8GB kit later without problems (which would give 24GB total). Just make sure there is the same capacity on both memory channel (f.x. 1x4GB and 1x8GB DIMM) else Intels Flexmemory kicks in and maps any excess capacity for single channel operation... 😉

 

[mfenn]

My budget in NIS is 3500.
I went over it and the current build costs at least 3750 NIS which I can maybe live with.
Still pretty sure I can cut some corners here cause I probably put parts with higher quality/performance than I actually need or notice.

1. I see people recommend g.skill, corsair and crucial over kingston claiming kingston use lower quality modules. What's your take on this?

2. I found very few 1x8 GB RAM sticks here in the local market. Most are CL 10 and above.
Now it's really hard for me to imagine right now I'll want to go above 16 gigs of RAM in the next year or two but I will most likely upgrade to 16 in a few of months.
So which option is preferable for that:
A. buying 1x8 GB of slighly slower RAM today and getting the exact same stick later making it 2x8 GB.

B. buying 2x4 GB kit of slightly faster RAM today and getting another kit like that later making it 4x4 GB.
or
C. buy the cheapest solution of the above because its insignificant and barely noticeable.

Some easy places to make cuts for little noticeable difference:
- CPU: The i5 4690 is 963 NIS for the tray version, but there is really no difference between it and the i5 4430 is 400 MHz clock speed (about 10%) and the i5 4430 costs 802 NIS. You'll never notice the difference in performance outside of comparing benchmark numbers, but you save 161 NIS.
- Motherboard: With the ASUS H87-PRO, you're paying a lot for the ASUS brand name, 578 NIS to be precise. You can get an equally good board like the ASRock H97M-Pro4 for 458 NIS, saving 120 NIS
- SSD : The 840 EVO 250GB is a very nice drive, but it is also expensive at 669 NIS. You can get the Crucial MX100 256GB for 550 NIS, saving 119 NIS. It's not quite as fast in benchmarks, but you won't notice a difference in day to day usage.
- PSU: The S12G-550 is another entry in the "nice but expensive" category at 371 NIS. You can get the Antec Neo Eco 520C, which is also built by Seasonic, for 321 NIS, saving 50 NIS.

Overall, this saves you 450 NIS, and leaves you with a PC that is imperceptibly different from the one you're currently looking at.

For RAM, I think the 1x8GB kit you have picked out now is fine, you can upgrade it later to 16GB.

 

[allisoneandstuf]

Wow, I really appreciate you did that, mfenn. Very beneficial. Thank you!

Another tip I got is not to buy an extra cooler and just look if the stock cooler is cold and quiet enough; if not, buy a cooler later. Arctic freezer i11 is also good & quiet.

One thing I see conflicting views on is the importance of quality of mobo derived from the chipset the mobo has.
The guys at logicalincrements "recommend Z-series mother boards over others because of the higher technical quality of components, more reliability and are therefore better for long-term builds" and I do want a good long term build.

Now that thanks to mfenn there's a little spare budget left to put a better board and go with quality over price IF it makes noticeable difference like longer life, reliability, performance...

Also, some say ASRock is lower quality than Asus, Gigabyte and MSI and if possible to stick with the last 3 unless going budget.

What's your take on this?

Which option would you pick if you were me:
1. If ASRock is practically almost the same quality as Asus then get: ASRock H97M-Pro4 or ASRock Z87-Extreme4 or a Z97 chipset ASRock better yet.

2. IF what they say is right and Z-Series are considerably higher quality and more reliable + Asus and Gigabyte are considerably higher quality than ASRock then increase the budget a little and go with a more expensive Z97 Gigabyte board like:
GA-Z97-D3H
GA-Z97-HD3
GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
GA-Z97X-Gaming 5
GA-Z97X-SLI
GA-Z97X-UD3H

Their specs are all compared here
Can anyone explain their differences beyond this spec comparison in terms of build quality,reliability..?

 

[DSF]

I've owned boards by AsRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, DFI, Biostar and MSI. For a basic computer that isn't going for a crazy overclock they'll all last longer than the useful life of the machine provided that they were defect-free when installed and they aren't subjected to abuse.

You choose a motherboard based on the features and connectors you need. Once you've identified what you need, spend as little as possible to meet that need. Motherboards account for almost none of a PCs utility (or rather, the difference between motherboards in terms of performance is negligible) and so any money that can be saved on the motherboard nets greater performance (or soundproofing, or cooling, or aesthetics, or whatever you're spending money towards).

 

[mfenn]

Wow, I really appreciate you did that, mfenn. Very beneficial. Thank you!

You're welcome! 🙂

Another tip I got is not to buy an extra cooler and just look if the stock cooler is cold and quiet enough; if not, buy a cooler later. Arctic freezer i11 is also good & quiet.

The processor you picked out is a "tray" processor, which means that it doesn't come with anything other than the CPU itself, so you must get a cooler in that instance. I tried to load the web site that I linked last night, but it is timing out right now, so I can't tell if the one I linked is a tray processor or a retail one with cooler.

One thing I see conflicting views on is the importance of quality of mobo derived from the chipset the mobo has.
The guys at logicalincrements "recommend Z-series mother boards over others because of the higher technical quality of components, more reliability and are therefore better for long-term builds" and I do want a good long term build.

Now that thanks to mfenn there's a little spare budget left to put a better board and go with quality over price IF it makes noticeable difference like longer life, reliability, performance...

Also, some say ASRock is lower quality than Asus, Gigabyte and MSI and if possible to stick with the last 3 unless going budget.

What's your take on this?

I don't think there's any real significant difference in assembly quality or overall components selection between ASRock, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS. They all build their boards in big factories with overall high quality processes. In my opinion the H97-Pro4 is of very similar quality to the alternatives you picked out.

As DSF pointed out, the only real difference is that the more expensive motherboards have more features. So if you don't need any of the features of the more expensive boards, then you don't need to get one.