Gaming PC Japan: final build

[Moidave]

Dear all, after quite a few weeks spent online and in the forums, I am closing on my PCI build in Japan.

I originally thought I would have a 500-600$ budget but it is now around 800$.

I am hoping to play at 1080P with ultra high for a while and then progressively lower it if needed until I progressively upgrade in 3-4 years.

I have zeroed in on two online stores from Japan and would like to know what you think.

Here is a screenshot of the parts list along with price. It is in Japanese but the model parts are easily recognizable.

I already have optical drive, windows 7 and monitor.

2 is the 600W Scythe PSU
4 is the R9 290 sapphire tri X OC
5 corsair memory 2x 4GB
6 is the zalman 12 plus or Xigmatek Mach (roughly same price)

Any comments or suggestions?

The price in Japan are sometimes strange since the the Nvidia cards are quite expensive but widely advertised.

The GPU is on sale, since usually, for the price I could "only" get a high level R9 280 or cheap 280X.

As for the memory: unknown brands are only 5-10 % cheaper, so I may as well go with Corsair.

Thanks!

Here is the build screenshot

http://imgur.com/Wg47eHd

 

[mfenn]

Your list looks pretty good. I would consider the following changes:

- CPU + mobo: i5 4460 + GA-H97-D3H ¥28,260 - you save ¥3,000 but only really lose a few hundred MHz of clock speed
- GPU: R9 290X ¥39,938 - about ¥2000 more and get better gaming performance. For a gaming machine, this is a better CPU + GPU balance

 

[Moidave]

Wow, you actually found the parts in the same website. That is amazing. Are in Japan too?

I just found out the case was not compatible, because the card maybe too long.

Also, I heard that brand is cheap, which is not always bad, but it uses cheap materials to reach low price. Know anything about it?

kurotoshiko

 

[Moidave]

Also, I just realized the price is insanely low for a 290X. I know this site has week end sale but that sounds really strange!

 

[mfenn]

Also, I just realized the price is insanely low for a 290X. I know this site has week end sale but that sounds really strange!

Yep, that's why I picked it out!

Wow, you actually found the parts in the same website. That is amazing. Are in Japan too?

Nope, but I did visit once. :awe: I just used search terms that I knew would be rendered in the Latin alphabet no matter what.

I just found out the case was not compatible, because the card maybe too long.

The Zalman Z12 can handle a 290mm (11.4") card. That's pretty long, and will handle "normal" length R9 290X's. It won't handle crazy long ones like the Sapphire Tri-X.

Also, I heard that brand is cheap, which is not always bad, but it uses cheap materials to reach low price. Know anything about it?

kurotoshiko

From what I've heard, kuroutoshiko is kind of a white box generic brand. The card looks exactly like a Sapphire to me.

 

[nsafreak]

I agree with mfenn in all the points he's made on this build. That is a really insane price on an R9 290X, nice work on finding it mfenn. It does look exactly like a Sapphire to me, the cooling shroud that's on the card looks just like theirs (minus the branding) and the fans look like the same size & fan blade that Sapphire uses on their R9 290X. It wouldn't surprise me at all that kuroutoshiko is one of the manufacturers of Sapphire cards and this is simply one that isn't branded Sapphire.

 

[Moidave]

Thanks guy. I have made some changes since yesterday. The corsair carbide 300r is on sale for about 70$. I found a fsp raider 650W PSU on sale too.
As for the GPU, after looking several japanese forums, it seems it performs as a 290X but suffers from heat dissipation problems. Also, a store clerk told this brand was cheap but did not have a good customer support.

 

[mfenn]

It's got the same cooler as the normal Sapphire, so it should be fine as long as you put it in a reasonable case (300R qualifies). I can see how it would overheat if you tried to stuff it in an OEM case though, but any 290X would do that.

The warranty/customer support thing is a bigger concern, depends on your comfort level. My opinion is that given the bathtub curve of failures (i.e. most failures occur in the first few days or after the card has lasted years), then you're pretty much OK. If it fails quickly, you can take the card back to the retailer for an exchange. If it fails after a few years, it would have been out of warranty anyway. Up to you though.

 

[Moidave]

Thanks. Actually, it seems the card was too popular as it is now sold out. I guess the choice is now much simpler. Thanks anyway.

 

[ragom]

thx

 

[Moidave]

After much help for the forums, I have all components best for my budget. Tricky thing since I live in Japan and the price are somewhat different than the U.S.

if I may ask a bonus question, the set core i5 4690 plus mobo has 2 options for the same price: with GA H97 or Asus H97 pro. What do you think?

Here is my final build (minus GPU)

New thread merged in here. Please keep to one thread per distinct build.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

 

[XavierMace]

A little more info would be helpful. I'm assuming line 2 is memory. Can you post the details of that memory. I'm guessing line 5 is storage but I have no idea what that is.

 

[Moidave]

Sorry, I should have explained.
Line 2 is corsair 2x4GB DDR 1600
Line 3 corsair cx 600w PSU, which I may change for a Cougar GX-S 600w
Line 5 is a regular toshiba HDD

 

[Essence_of_War]

At the same price point, if I had to choose, I'd be nudged towards the Gigabyte board for two reasons:

1) Intel vs. RealTek NIC
2) Better audio codec (ALC 1150 vs. ALC887)

But those are both sort of arbitrary, if you don't have nice speakers/headphones, and you're using wifi instead of ethernet, their other feature sets are very similar.

 

[Moidave]

Thanks. What do you mean by "wifi instead of Ethernet"? Does the Asus have wifi capabilities?

 

[Essence_of_War]

It doesn't look like either of them have built-in WiFi, but if you were planning to add WiFi either from a pcie card, or a USB adapter or whatever, that would make the Intel vs. Realtek NIC irrelevant, since you wouldn't be using the NIC at all.

 

[Charlie98]

Thanks. What do you mean by "wifi instead of Ethernet"? Does the Asus have wifi capabilities?

Wifi: Wireless connectivity to the internet (your router.)


Ethernet: Wired connectivity to the internet (your router.)

Wifi capable mobo is not necessary even if you require it... it's easily solved by a USB device or internal card (as Essence mentioned.) Personally, I prefer USB devices if an Ethernet connection isn't available.

 

[Moidave]

Thanks to all. I will go for the gigabyte.