New PC Build Advice

[Arekkz]

Hi there!

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, or isn't the right way to do this but my friend suggested I post on here to get some advice on parts for a PC I'd like to build.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to building a PC, and while I'm confident I can manage the assembly part of it, it's the choosing of parts that I'd appreciate some help with.

I do a lot of video editing, and my current PC (Alienware X51) is slowly dying, so it's about time I upgrade. I'd also like to use it for gaming, so in my mind I'm specing it out as a gaming PC and then assuming it'll also be good for the video editing side of things.

As it currently stands, my list of parts includes:

• Phantom NZXT Case
• MSI Z87-GD65-GAMING ATX Motherboard
• Intel Core i7 4770K

Suggestions for the rest of the parts would be greatly appreciated! My budget is around £750-£1000, but obviously the lower the better

Thanks in advance, any help and advice will be greatly appreciated!

-A

 

[Mandrake4565]

What resolutions do you game at?
Which is more a priority Video editing or Gaming? Reason I ask is the following, if you play at high resolutions and want to play at high settings you're going to need to get a high end Gpu and fitting a 4770k may not be possible in your budget and can get a 4670k to save some money. If editing is primary the 4770k will work better for it as well as getting 16g of memory. I may be wrong on this point but I believe video editing will work faster when it's accompanied with more ram. If you're not playing higher then 1080p then you should be able to meet both goals within budget.

 

[Arekkz]

What resolutions do you game at?
Which is more a priority Video editing or Gaming? Reason I ask is the following, if you play at high resolutions and want to play at high settings you're going to need to get a high end Gpu and fitting a 4770k may not be possible in your budget and can get a 4670k to save some money. If editing is primary the 4770k will work better for it as well as getting 16g of memory. I may be wrong on this point but I believe video editing will work faster when it's accompanied with more ram. If you're not playing higher then 1080p then you should be able to meet both goals within budget.

I'd say video editing is my priority as I do most of my gaming on consoles, but would like the option to PC game if I want to. As for resolutions, I'm not worried if I have to turn the settings down - I'm not looking to play the likes of BF4 on ultra or anything, so for resolutions I'd say 1080p.

Thanks!
-A

 

[Mandrake4565]

Ok thanks will put something together later today and post it.

 

[Arekkz]

Ok thanks will put something together later today and post it.

Thank you very much!

 

[Mandrake4565]

Put this together, I also forgot to ask another question. Do you already have the parts you listed above? I put it together with the parts you listed except the case because I didn't know which Phantom case you were referring to. A few thoughts if you do not have the parts listed already. You do not need that motherboard, you can save some money and get something like an Asus Z87 A motherboard. I also was unsure if you needed an operating system, so I didn't put it in the list. If you can find any of the parts cheaper or buy them in combinations then do so, as I didn't look for combo deals. After these things are figured out we can add additionally memory if still under budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£127.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Beast 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£59.94 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£46.86 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB TurboDuo Video Card (£136.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.52 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £717.21
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-26 22:01 BST+0100)

 

[wingman99]

+1 if you have not purchased the motherboard the Asus Z87 A is a good board.

 

[Arekkz]

Put this together, I also forgot to ask another question. Do you already have the parts you listed above? I put it together with the parts you listed except the case because I didn't know which Phantom case you were referring to. A few thoughts if you do not have the parts listed already. You do not need that motherboard, you can save some money and get something like an Asus Z87 A motherboard. I also was unsure if you needed an operating system, so I didn't put it in the list. If you can find any of the parts cheaper or buy them in combinations then do so, as I didn't look for combo deals. After these things are figured out we can add additionally memory if still under budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£227.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£127.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Beast 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£59.94 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£46.86 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB TurboDuo Video Card (£136.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.52 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £717.21
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-26 22:01 BST+0100)

Thank you so much, this is really helpful!

In answer to your questions, I don't actually have any of the parts I listed, that's just as far as I got when planning parts.

Also, as for the Phantom, it doesn't have a number after it as one of the Phantoms is just called 'Phantom' - http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/34-phantom.html. But then I did also look at the Phantom 410 (http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/95-phantom-410-mid-tower-case) - assuming everything fits perhaps I'd be better with the smaller one?

Also, you've currently got 8GB RAM above, shouldn't I go for 16GB? And also for storage, if budget permits, would I be better off having multiple SSDs as opposed to an SSD and an HDD?

Oh and good shout, I don't have an OS so I'll need to get that (but don't count that into the budget).

 

[Mandrake4565]

Ok well more questions, do you plan on overclocking it?

If you are going to OC then a aftermarket heatsink would be a good purchase as well.

If you haven't purchased the parts yet then get the Asus Z87 A board, unless you're buying the Msi board for looks, it is your build and you should like the way it looks. That said the Asus board will do everything the Msi board does and it's 60 euro less.

The case is also a personal choice and any of the NZXT Phantoms would be good. They are quality cases, up to you on which one you choose.

Yes I selected 8g of ram, this is what I'm thinking. In most instances when editing and rendering videos it will help speed up your times by having more available ram. The increase is about 10% from what I've read. So if the budget allows for it then yes 16g should be purchased and should be helpful in speeding up your editing/rendering.

As far as SSD'd go it depends on your storage needs and if the budget permits it. Figure out how much data you will need to store on a drive and it will determine whether an additional SSD is a viable option. That said a SSD is probably the single best performance increase you can get for a pc. When I use my rig's that don't have one and am copying large files it is painful to use a HD now.

After you get back to me on the questions above, I'll put some time in and post a final build that you can review and or change.

 

[Arekkz]

Ok well more questions, do you plan on overclocking it?

If you are going to OC then a aftermarket heatsink would be a good purchase as well.

If you haven't purchased the parts yet then get the Asus Z87 A board, unless you're buying the Msi board for looks, it is your build and you should like the way it looks. That said the Asus board will do everything the Msi board does and it's 60 euro less.

The case is also a personal choice and any of the NZXT Phantoms would be good. They are quality cases, up to you on which one you choose.

Yes I selected 8g of ram, this is what I'm thinking. In most instances when editing and rendering videos it will help speed up your times by having more available ram. The increase is about 10% from what I've read. So if the budget allows for it then yes 16g should be purchased and should be helpful in speeding up your editing/rendering.

As far as SSD'd go it depends on your storage needs and if the budget permits it. Figure out how much data you will need to store on a drive and it will determine whether an additional SSD is a viable option. That said a SSD is probably the single best performance increase you can get for a pc. When I use my rig's that don't have one and am copying large files it is painful to use a HD now.

After you get back to me on the questions above, I'll put some time in and post a final build that you can review and or change.

Thank you very much, here's the answers to your questions:

1. I don't have any plans to overclock it

2. I had no particular reason to go for the MSI other than the fact that it was recommended to me, but if the Asus will do the same job then I'm all for it.

3. Ah that's alright then, I'll probably go for the Phantom 410 as it's slightly smaller.

4. I think I'll definitely go for at least 16gb of RAM, and depending on the budget at the end I might even consider 32gb.

5. As for SSDs, again depending on budget, I initially thought about potentially having 3: 1 for the OS, 1 for all my programs and 1 for all my data/files/etc. - so perhaps the 120gb you suggested could work for the OS, then I could nab a couple of 1tb drives?

Oh also, the Phantom comes with 1 fan inbuilt I believe, but would you recommend an additional one?

Thanks again for all your help so far!
-A

 

[Mandrake4565]

Arekkz, I will give this a look later on today, Sundays are a bit busy for me so I will not have the time to really look through it until later or tomorrow morning. Will report back when I get the time.

 

[Arekkz]

Arekkz, I will give this a look later on today, Sundays are a bit busy for me so I will not have the time to really look through it until later or tomorrow morning. Will report back when I get the time.

That's quite alright, no trouble at all, take your time and enjoy your weekend!

 

[Mandrake4565]

Ok had some time, this is what I put together. I selected the Asus motherboard, changed the ram to 16g and also added a aftermarket heatsink. My thoughts, you could save money going with a I7-4770 non K because you said you weren't going to overclock. I feel for the few euros more you should just get the K version, that way if down the road you need more performance you can overclock it if you want. The K version will also have better re sale value down the road if you want to upgrade and sell the 4770k. The aftermarket heatsink isn't necessary but if you want to overclock down the road you will need it. Additionally it will be quieter when the chip heats up compared to the stock heatsink. You mentioned fans in the case, I looked at the specs and it comes with 1 140mm in front, 1 140mm up top and 1 120mm in the rear. That should be enough airflow for your needs, if you find that the components are running hot you can always add an additional 140 up top. As far as the storage goes, I was a bit confused by this statement.

1 for the OS, 1 for all my programs and 1 for all my data/files/etc. - so perhaps the 120gb you suggested could work for the OS, then I could nab a couple of 1tb drives?

Did you want to do 2 1tb drives? Obviously you are talking about 1tb platter HD's correct? 1 Tb SSD's would blow the budget out of the water. So yes if you wanted 2 1Tb HD's you could and if you wanted you could use the SSD for the OS and some programs and the have the 2 1tb HD's in raid for redundancy and speed depending on what raid it was set up in.

Any questions or modifications you want to do let me know. Again if you find any combo deals that will save some money go for it. I also didn;t include the OS because I wasn't sure if you wanted to do Win 7 or 8.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvnc]PCPartPicker part list
View attachment 143179

 

[Arekkz]

Ok had some time, this is what I put together. I selected the Asus motherboard, changed the ram to 16g and also added a aftermarket heatsink. My thoughts, you could save money going with a I7-4770 non K because you said you weren't going to overclock. I feel for the few euros more you should just get the K version, that way if down the road you need more performance you can overclock it if you want. The K version will also have better re sale value down the road if you want to upgrade and sell the 4770k. The aftermarket heatsink isn't necessary but if you want to overclock down the road you will need it. Additionally it will be quieter when the chip heats up compared to the stock heatsink. You mentioned fans in the case, I looked at the specs and it comes with 1 140mm in front, 1 140mm up top and 1 120mm in the rear. That should be enough airflow for your needs, if you find that the components are running hot you can always add an additional 140 up top. As far as the storage goes, I was a bit confused by this statement.
Did you want to do 2 1tb drives? Obviously you are talking about 1tb platter HD's correct? 1 Tb SSD's would blow the budget out of the water. So yes if you wanted 2 1Tb HD's you could and if you wanted you could use the SSD for the OS and some programs and the have the 2 1tb HD's in raid for redundancy and speed depending on what raid it was set up in.

Any questions or modifications you want to do let me know. Again if you find any combo deals that will save some money go for it. I also didn;t include the OS because I wasn't sure if you wanted to do Win 7 or 8.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3zvnc]PCPartPicker part list
View attachment 143179

Amazing, thank you so much!

Oh and apologies for the confusion, this is where my being a computer parts novice shows, haha, I didn't realise the price on a 1tb SSD drive. But I can definitely work with your suggestions and put the OS on the SSD and then just get 1 or 2 HDDs.

Do you have any recommendations for a blu-ray drive as opposed to the one that's currently in this list which (I hope I'm correct in thinking) is a DVD drive?

Also, apologies if this is a silly question, but will I need any additional cabling, or will the parts come with everything required?

And as for OS no worries on that front, I'll get that from work, but I'll got Windows 8.1 x64.

Thanks again!
-A

 

[Mandrake4565]

Never used a Blue Ray so no suggestions but if you look in PC part picker you can find one that I'm sure will fit your needs.

No you shouldn't need any additional cables.

One requirement is you post pictures of the build when it's done.
Good luck with it and post back if any issues arise!

 

[Arekkz]

Never used a Blue Ray so no suggestions but if you look in PC part picker you can find one that I'm sure will fit your needs.

No you shouldn't need any additional cables.

One requirement is you post pictures of the build when it's done.
Good luck with it and post back if any issues arise!

Ah fair enough, no worries, I'll take a look, thanks!

Also, one more thing (sorry for all the questions!) - out of curiosity why did you go for that graphics card over an nVidia equivalent?

And don't you worry, I am the sort of person that will photograph the entire process and make videos of it for my YouTube channel so there'll be plenty of coverage!

 

[Theocnoob]

With all due respect, a Hyper 212 is utterly worthless on a 4770K. Do you know how hot those chips run? The stock cooler will be fine for stock operation. The provided Intel fan is surprisingly quiet. It won't be any louder than the Hyper 212 IME.

I do suggest the Z87-A and I do suggest the 4770K, but for the possibility of future overclocking, you should get a serious heatsink. No need to buy it now. Get the cpu and set it up with the stock heatsink. When the computer starts to show it's age in 3-4 years, overclock it to get some extra juice out of it. Or you can overclock it right away. It's really up to you. I suggest an NHD14 cooler for the 4770K. Or a Corsair H100i (make sure you have a dual fan layout in the roof of the case).

If you are doing video editing, I strongly suggest an Nvidia card. Nvidia cards speak a language called CUDA and a lot of heavy video editing suites support it. It is more efficient (faster) to encode with CUDA than it is to encode on a CPU, and the more powerful the GPU is for CUDA, the better.

I suggest swapping out to a 2GB GTX 760. Cheapest one you can find.

 

[Arekkz]

With all due respect, a Hyper 212 is utterly worthless on a 4770K. Do you know how hot those chips run? The stock cooler will be fine for stock operation. The provided Intel fan is surprisingly quiet. It won't be any louder than the Hyper 212 IME.

I do suggest the Z87-A and I do suggest the 4770K, but for the possibility of future overclocking, you should get a serious heatsink. No need to buy it now. Get the cpu and set it up with the stock heatsink. When the computer starts to show it's age in 3-4 years, overclock it to get some extra juice out of it. Or you can overclock it right away. It's really up to you. I suggest an NHD14 cooler for the 4770K. Or a Corsair H100i (make sure you have a dual fan layout in the roof of the case).

If you are doing video editing, I strongly suggest an Nvidia card. Nvidia cards speak a language called CUDA and a lot of heavy video editing suites support it. It is more efficient (faster) to encode with CUDA than it is to encode on a CPU, and the more powerful the GPU is for CUDA, the better.

I suggest swapping out to a 2GB GTX 760. Cheapest one you can find.

Thanks for the suggestions! And good shout on the card, I completely forgot about CUDA.

If I were to make those changes, would that power supply still be sufficient, or should I be looking at 650w or something?

Edit: did a bit of shuffling and this is an updated list - thoughts? http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Arekkz/saved/4vdN

 

[Theocnoob]

Thanks for the suggestions! And good shout on the card, I completely forgot about CUDA.

If I were to make those changes, would that power supply still be sufficient, or should I be looking at 650w or something?

Edit: did a bit of shuffling and this is an updated list - thoughts? http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Arekkz/saved/4vdN

You would be better served, if you want to spend extra money on the PSU, by going to an 80+ silver certified 550 or 600W PSU. 750W is unnecessary for this build. 500 would be my minimum for such a system, even though in reality it would run on a 440W. I like a margin of safety. Who knows if you're going to run that same PSU on a system with 10 hard drives or a more powerful GPU somewhere down the line?

I understand if you are infatuated with the Phantom case, but really, there are more practical, sleek, professional looking chassis out there for less money. If you want to spend the same amount you're looking at for the Phantom, but go in a more ergonomic direction, Corsair's 450D is a great choice.

Having said that, I'd like to point out to you that with the kind of system you're looking at putting together here, you can easily downsize and get a very attractive, tiny, and cute system.

Google some pictures of EVGA's Hadron, Corsair's 250D, Bitfenix's Prodigy, Silverstone's FT03 mini. These are ITX cases.

With an ITX board you can get all the functionality, overclocking capability, and general connectivity of an ATX board, but in a much smaller space. If ITX systems have one drawback it's the sincle PCIEX16 slot. But, for people like you who want a single GPU system, they are a very good choice.

Here's what a system like yours would look like inside a Hardron. Very space efficient. The Hadron comes with a gold certified PSU making it very energy efficient. It's what I'd buy if I were in the market for a new PC right now. If you want to go with this form factor all you have to do is drop the PSU, change to an ITX motherboard, and make sure your GPU is short enough to fit in the ITX case you're looking at.

Here is a video of the Hadron showing you can even fit a decent sized tower style CPU cooler for overclocking.

If you're interested in this let me know and I'll put together an ITX parts list for you.
SFF is the future.

 

[Arekkz]

You would be better served, if you want to spend extra money on the PSU, by going to an 80+ silver certified 550 or 600W PSU. 750W is unnecessary for this build. 500 would be my minimum for such a system, even though in reality it would run on a 440W. I like a margin of safety. Who knows if you're going to run that same PSU on a system with 10 hard drives or a more powerful GPU somewhere down the line?

I understand if you are infatuated with the Phantom case, but really, there are more practical, sleek, professional looking chassis out there for less money. If you want to spend the same amount you're looking at for the Phantom, but go in a more ergonomic direction, Corsair's 450D is a great choice.

Having said that, I'd like to point out to you that with the kind of system you're looking at putting together here, you can easily downsize and get a very attractive, tiny, and cute system.

Google some pictures of EVGA's Hadron, Corsair's 250D, Bitfenix's Prodigy, Silverstone's FT03 mini. These are ITX cases.

With an ITX board you can get all the functionality, overclocking capability, and general connectivity of an ATX board, but in a much smaller space. If ITX systems have one drawback it's the sincle PCIEX16 slot. But, for people like you who want a single GPU system, they are a very good choice.

Here's what a system like yours would look like inside a Hardron. Very space efficient. The Hadron comes with a gold certified PSU making it very energy efficient. It's what I'd buy if I were in the market for a new PC right now. If you want to go with this form factor all you have to do is drop the PSU, change to an ITX motherboard, and make sure your GPU is short enough to fit in the ITX case you're looking at.

Here is a video of the Hadron showing you can even fit a decent sized tower style CPU cooler for overclocking.

If you're interested in this let me know and I'll put together an ITX parts list for you.
SFF is the future.

Thanks for the advice! I couldn't find a silver certified, but I assumed if silver> bronze, then gold > silver, so I found a Corsair RM 650 (http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Arekkz/saved/4vdN).

Also, I'm actually coming from a compact PC (Alienware X51), but to be completely honest I am somewhat fixated on the Phantom case, plus with this being my first PC build the extra space will give me some breathing room to work in.