PC for develop and game

[Aarkham]

Hello

I'm looking for building a new PC. It will be used for developing software professionally for Android and PC games as hobby. Also, I like to play from time to time.

I have chosen this components (I live in Spain and is a spanish shop):

Intel Core i7-4770 3.4Ghz Box 202.48€
Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI 97.52€
Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 54.50€
G.Skill RipjawsZ DDR3 1866 PC3-14900 16GB 4x4GB CL9 129.75€
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB SATA3 64MB 56.98€
Samsung 840 Evo SSD Series 250GB SATA3 93.39€
BitFenix Prodigy Blanca 56.20€
Corsair CX750M 750W 80 Plus Bronce Modular 70.21€
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC 2GB GDDR5 185.95€
Asus DRW-24F1ST Grabadora DVD 24X Negra 12.81€
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64bits OEM 70.21€


www.pccomponentes.com/pccly/6c354e07

I have no experience at this, so I have copied one of the configurations of this shop and adapted it a little. I will reuse keyboard, mouse and monitor.

I prefer Intel and Nvidia, for the rest I don't care. I do not intend to overclock and I'd like it to not be noisy. The resolution I'm using is 1920x1200.


I have also looked at this http://www.dell.com/es/p/xps-8700/pd?oc=cdx8703&model_id=xps-8700 and buying a graphic card.


What do you think? Thanks in advance.

 

[BrightCandle]

Java development (Android) is heavily dependent on an SSD and the fastest single core clock speed you can get. The Haswell processors seem to cope much better with the high branching compilation process than the Ivy Bridge 6 cores so tend to be better for that type of development. C++ on the other hand (games development) tends to benefit from having more cores with visual Studio and cares a lot less about the individual core speeds although it too can benefit from the Haswell cache and execution increases.

So processor and SSSD are spot on, 16GB is more than enough RAM for most development activities for Android and games, you could do that with a quarter of the RAM if you wanted to.

 

[Ken g6]

I see several issues here.

Intel Core i7-4770 3.4Ghz Box 202.48€ - That's not the price the site shows for this processor alone. Is this some kind of bundle? A 4790K would be better, even without overclocking, but it's >300. Unless there's some kind of bundle.

Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI 97.52€ - A mini-ITX Z board with built-in WiFi. Do you need all of that? You were looking at desktops, which would be cheaper, and you could get an H97 or lower board since you're planning on getting a non-overclocking processor.

Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 54.50€ - If you don't OC, you don't need an aftermarket cooler. Certainly not a water cooler.

G.Skill RipjawsZ DDR3 1866 PC3-14900 16GB 4x4GB CL9 129.75€ - Your mini-ITX board only takes 2 sticks of RAM. You should either get fewer sticks, or a bigger board, or both.

(The drives are fine.)

BitFenix Prodigy Blanca 56.20€ - A mini-ITX case, but a large one. A larger, micro-ATX or ATX case opens up more possibilities.

Corsair CX750M 750W 80 Plus Bronce Modular 70.21€ - If you're pumping 750W into a mini-ITX case, you're probably doing something wrong. (I'm sure it's possible, but it would take a lot of cooling.) Your GPU won't need this much. Maybe 550-650 max? Minimum 25A combined on the 12V rail(s).

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC 2GB GDDR5 185.95€ - This doesn't say whether it's a blower design or not. A blower design would be good for a mini-ITX case, but loud.

Does this save you enough to get a 4790K yet?

 

[BrightCandle]

You can get away with a lot less powerful SSD for compilation. I have found no difference on Java between an Intel 80 GB Gen 1 SSD and a Crucial M4. You can buy a cheap MX100 instead of splurging on more expensive ones if compilation performance is the goal.

 

[mfenn]

G.Skill RipjawsZ DDR3 1866 PC3-14900 16GB 4x4GB CL9 129.75€ - Your mini-ITX board only takes 2 sticks of RAM. You should either get fewer sticks, or a bigger board, or both.

Probably both. Certainly you shouldn't be looking at 4GB DIMMs for anything other than an 8GB config.

 

[Aarkham]

Hello

Thanks for your suggestions!

The prices I quoted are without VAT, you need to add 21% to get the final price.

For the configuration I took this as base:

http://www.pccomponentes.com/pccom_...ing&utm_campaign=promopccom&utm_content=62029

and reduced it a little. The reviews say that it's fast and quiet so I copied it.


I prefer to have Bluetooth to connect to the mobile phones, so I did choose a motherboard with it.

What do you think of this adjustments?


Intel Core i7-4770 3.4Ghz Box 202.48€
Gigabyte H97N-WIFI 82.64€
G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3 1866 PC3-14900 16GB 2x8GB CL10€
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB SATA3 64MB€
Samsung 840 Evo SSD Series 250GB SATA3 93.39€
Cooler Master Silencio 352 44.63€
Corsair CX600M 600W 80 Plus Bronce Modular 56.20€
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC 2GB GDDR5 185.95€
Asus DRW-24F1ST Grabadora DVD 24X Negra 12.81€
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64bits OEM 70.21€
Montaje y testeo de componentes internos del PC 37.19€


http://www.pccomponentes.com/presup...ed=0;1&instal_so=no;1&montado=si;1&so=60834;1

 

[mfenn]

The big question I have about that build is: why are you using a mini-ITX motherboard with a mid-tower case which can support a MicroATX board?

 

[Aarkham]

The big question I have about that build is: why are you using a mini-ITX motherboard with a mid-tower case which can support a MicroATX board?

Hi mfenn

Because I did not know better. As I mentioned I choose a prebuilt configuration and adapted it. With your suggestions I have refined it more, but I did not know about choosing a better motherboard.

I need it next week so I have ordered it, I hope that the motherboard may be suboptimal but not fatal. I will post here when I have it working.

Thanks for your help and to all that made comments, I really appreciate it.

 

[mfenn]

Hi mfenn

Because I did not know better. As I mentioned I choose a prebuilt configuration and adapted it. With your suggestions I have refined it more, but I did not know about choosing a better motherboard.

I need it next week so I have ordered it, I hope that the motherboard may be suboptimal but not fatal. I will post here when I have it working.

Thanks for your help and to all that made comments, I really appreciate it.

The mini-ITX mounting holes are a subset of MicroATX, so it'll mount just fine. The small board in a big case will look a little comical, and is higher priced for less features, but it will work.

 

[Aarkham]

Hello

I have the PC for about a week and it works fine.

The SDD is a very welcome addition. One of my Android projects (with C++ code) needed 4 mins and 8 seconds to compile and now it's only 2:40.

The graphics card is more powerful and quiet than the one I had (a 560Ti OEM). Now I can launch Unreal Engine without having to put music

There's one thing that I'd like to consult. Although it's less noisy than the previous one, I hoped that it would be less than it is. In a light web session, the CPU fan is near 1400 RPM and the system fan is about 570 RPM. Is the CPU Fan a little high or is it normal?

I attach a screenshot of CPUID, I live in Madrid and now it's about 32ºC.

Thanks

 

[mfenn]

Glad you didn't hit any major problems!

Which CPU HSF are you using, the stock one? Have you determined that it's the CPU fan causing the noise (you can stop the blades with a pen or your finger)?

 

[Aarkham]

I will look at it after the week end. Thanks

Carlos

 

[Aarkham]

Hello

You were right suspecting the CPU blades were not to blame for the noise. I have stopped it with a finger and the main source were two big fans that are in the front and the back of the case.

They are not very noisy but I was hoping that for a case called "silencio" to be almost not audible in idle.

Thanks for your help.

 

[mfenn]

Hello

You were right suspecting the CPU blades were not to blame for the noise. I have stopped it with a finger and the main source were two big fans that are in the front and the back of the case.

They are not very noisy but I was hoping that for a case called "silencio" to be almost not audible in idle.

Thanks for your help.

Ah OK. The case fans are standard 120mm size, so they can be replaced if necessary.

However, it's likely that the existing fans could be quiet if they were running at less fan full speed. I looked through the documentation for the Silencio 352 and couldn't find any mention of what type of connector the included fans have. Is it a 4-pin Molex or the smaller 3-pin fan connector?

 

[Aarkham]

Sorry for the late response.

I've looked at the fans, but I could not follow the cables to see the connector. Also I could not differentiate between a 4-pin and a 3-pin.

I've done a couple of pictures, don`t know if they are useful.

 

[mfenn]

Differentiating between 3-pin and 4-pin is easy. A 3-pin fan connector has 3 pins. A 4-pin has 4 pins.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you couldn't follow the wires? You did plug them in in the first place, didn't you? Just trace the wire with two fingers until you find the connectors.

Looking at the wires coming off of the fans, there are 3 wires molded together, so I'm betting it terminates in a 3-pin. Trace them and find out.

 

[Aarkham]

Hello

No, I did not plug them. The shop that sold me the componets did, I have changed graphic cards, updated memory... but building a complete PC it's beyond my skills.

I tried to follow the wires, but they join others and the pass behind components and I could not trace them.

Why have you asked about this? It's better a 4-pin than a 3-pin?

 

[mfenn]

If it's a 3-pin, then they might go into the motherboard at which point you can probably control them with BIOS options. But without knowing where they plug in, it's hard to say what you should do.

 

[Aarkham]

Hello

In this review they put the fans in low speed mode

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5046/cooler-master-silencio-352-review-compact-quiet-and-affordable

I will try when I return from holidays.

Also, they say that the noise levels are low, maybe I'm too sensitive to it.