More toppings!

Hello PC specialists!

I've put together the below build and would be massively grateful to receive some feedback on it please.

General info about usage: Almost solely for gaming, but I would like (almost) everything to run smoothly on the highest settings. I may wish to upgrade to an SLi set-up and possibly also 4k in the future.

Things I'm unsure about (Warning! I have no expertise in the field of PC hardware, so apologies in advance for any stupid questions.):

Kingston vs Samsung SSD - are Kingston SSDs worth the (small but noticeable) increase in price?
Caviar Black vs SataIII - The 1TB Caviar Black is the same price as the 2TB SataIII, I don't understand why?
Is the motherboard I have chosen decent?
Finally, what would anyone advise as to Windows 8 vs Windows 7? I hear Windows 8 is good for gaming but I do not like the way it looks or behaves... would getting Windows 7 be a mistake?


Thanks, George


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ AIR 540 GAMING CASE

Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-PRO GAMER: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item: FREE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Game with Select GTX 9 Series GPUs!

1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£69)

Processor Cooling
Corsair H55 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card
ASUS Xonar DSX - Bring Hi-Fi spirit to your Music, Movie & Games (£39)

Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

Price - £1,422 (inc. VAT)
 

Karnivore

Active member
If it's solely for gaming, drop down to an i5, you don't need an i7, and presumably you're not going to be overclocking anyway. You don't need 16GB of RAM unless you plan on doing some heavy video editing, and you don't need 2133MHz (again, presuming you don't want to OC). In terms of your graphics card, the GTX 970 is your best bang for buck for 1080p gaming, but if you're thinking about 4K then you need to invest in a GTX 980, and somewhere down the line you'd more than likely need two of them for stable frame rates. Investing in a 4K monitor will probably be more your concern by that stage though.

Re SSD - I've found Samsung to be alot more reliable than Kingston, that comes down to personal taste, the 850's are very good though, and as for the Cavier Black's, they offer better performance over your standard HDD.

Here - i've added an 850W PSU for you in case you do decide to go SLI for 4K. Windows 8.1 isn't bad when you get the hang of it, and it's quicker than Windows 7. You'll get a free upgrade to Windows 10 anyway which is due out later this year, so you can't go wrong with either 7 or 8.1. Tinker with the case if you wish.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
InWIN G7 BRUSHED EFFECT DARK GREY CASE
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 3: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, XFIRE/SLI
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT Game with Select GTX 9 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£109)
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,292.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/PEkyPm26T6/
 
Last edited:
Great. Thanks for the feedback. Good to know about the Samsung SSDs.

Thanks for putting together that build too, very helpful. I was under the impression (wrongly no doubt) that a processor was highly important for gaming, but you're saying an i5 would give the same performance as an i7?

Also I listen to a fair amount of music (just listening though, no element of producing) and wonder if a better soundcard would make a noticeable difference?

Thanks again
 

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Thanks for putting together that build too, very helpful. I was under the impression (wrongly no doubt) that a processor was highly important for gaming, but you're saying an i5 would give the same performance as an i7?
For most games, they are dependent on the CPU not the processor, so for a lot of games going from an i5 to and i7 wouldn't really make any difference.
If you know the games you play are processor intensive then they benefit from an i7, but as a I say for a lot of games it won't really make a difference _ I think I may be repeating myself here :)
 
OK. I'll be open and say that I've pretty much only ever played three games extensively on PC, DotA, GTA Vice City and Fable TLC. I'm interested in trying things along the lines of ARMA and some of the recent AAA single player games. Would an i7 be better than an i5 for this type of thing? The PC I've been using is an eight year old stock one from HP (sorry if not supposed to mention manufacturers) and runs pretty much every game only on the absolute lowest settings. I would like to flip this and run everything on the highest; would the CPU and RAM quality/size make a difference to this?

Also, and forgive me because this will be hilariously obvious to most, isn't the processor the CPU (did you mean GPU)?

Could anyone advise as to the worth of a SLi set-up with 970s please? Reading around it seems like it would outperform a single 980 but I feel like it might become redundant quite quickly... especially if the release of the Titan drops the price of the 980.

Thanks again for the help - at some point I think I will just have to hit the buy button, I feel like I could ask questions forever!
 
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