Building a new PC

[Wapwap]

With GTA V coming out soon and my current PC starting to struggle with the newer games it's times to build a new one. My current system is over 6 years old and apart from a memory upgrade, new videocard because the old one died and a new PSU nothing was changed.

This is what I have in mind:

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K
Motherboard: MSI X99S GAMING 7
Videocard: MSI Radeon R9 290X GAMING 4GB or MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4GB
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport BLS2C8G4D240FSA (16 GB DDR4)
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
Hard drive OS: Crucial M550 128GB (SSD)
Hard drive games: Crucial M550 512GB (SSD)
Hard drive storage: Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB
PSU: Sea Sonic X-650 v2 (already owned)

I am a little bit uncertain about the videocard whether to go for AMD or Nvidia. I've always owned ATI/AMD cards for the past 10 years or so, but it seems that Nvidia just makes the better cards these days. Also, i'm uncertain if I shouldn't go for a higher-end videocard as the selected cards might be a bottleneck in some way. There's quite a price gap between the Geforce 970 and 980 for instance.

As for the SSD drives; i've chosen two 'smaller' drives as SSD storage is still a little bit pricey. The motherboard has a fast M.2 SSD slot, so i'm planning to add a drive when these drives are getting cheaper.

Any thoughts?

 

[Kitlope]

Looks great, I'm looking at putting together a Haswell-E system too this year, and as you know it's not cheap. Nothing wrong with a 6 core Intel, been using mine for over 3 years and could still get another 2 or 3 years I'm sure, but for half the money you could grab a 4 core 4790, reuse the DDR3 ram and take the small performance hit and snag a 280 instead. But who am I to say, I love the Enthusiast stuff myself. I don't think you'll have a bottleneck using any one card, I would go with NVidia myself.

Looks like you're going balls deep!

 

[Daunt]

Yeah man looks awesome. Sparing no expense. If it makes you feel any better, I have an AMD card (nothing major, the 2 GB HD Radeon 7850) and haven't had a single issue with it. It performs very well.

When I look to upgrade down the line though I will look at Nvidia, just because of the sheer popularity of it. It has a good chunk of the market and for good reason.

 

[ElektroVodka]

I am every bit positive about the AMD R290x, but i suggest going for a newer nvidia. The R290x is already old compared to the recently released nvidia's.
And sadly fanboyism runs the gpu market so expect more games to be optimized for Nvidia rather than AMD

Apart from that i am blank on suggestions, as that looks like a well thought over system already.

 

[Kenadian]

If you plan on using Adobe products such as Premiere Pro then the advantage is with an NVIDIA based solution.

CUDA has been used since 2011 (maybe earlier) to speed up certain effects and rendering within Premiere Pro.

For AMD/ATI users OpenCL support was added in CS6 however it cannot process some effects as quickly as CUDA can:
http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html

http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2011/02/cuda-mercury-playback-engine-and-adobe-premiere-pro.html

Also, for games that support PhysX you wouldn't get some of those effects on an AMD/ATI solution.

 

[little P]

Looks great Wappy, what a beast!

If it's any help at all I have a Gigayte G1 Gaming Edition GTX 970 4Gb and it runs everything at ultra settings and beyond at 1920 x 1080. I run all my games using x2 DSR to double the resolution and it still runs well above 60fps consistently. DSR just makes everything look better

So if you need first hand experience of the 970, there it is. It runs any game out there at it's highest settings with ease.

I dabbled in overclocking too. With my conservative overclock settings (no voltage increase etc.) it runs stable, no artifacts, and well below the temperature threshold and I got better performance than a stock 980 (consistent with all the professional overclocking results I read) with testing it by benchmarking and fps stress testing in the most demanding games. This card is just built so well it's barely breaking a sweat even with factory overclocks. I do not run overclocked (ie. more than the factory overclock) at all as no game needs it yet and there's no need to risk shortening the life of the card at all, but it's nice to know that headroom is there when the time comes. For the difference in price I would go 970 every time instead of 980. And I know a few people don't like SLI but these cards scale incredibly well according to all the professional tests, and Nvidia's support for SLI is second to none, so I will be SLI'ing the 970 if and when the time comes.

I actually considered it to be able to run x4 DSR (which is 4k) at over 60fps (this card does it but only at around the 30 fps mark). SLI they run great at this level but I would need a new case and a new psu to support them as I had to hacksaw my current case to get the 970 in, it's huge.

x4 DSR does look absolutely beautiful though, it's hard to describe unless you've seen it. Incredible, but pricey to achieve!

 

[HaJa]

To confuse even more this is my setup
OS Win 8.1 (as of today)
MB : MSI Gaming 5
RAM: 16GB DDR3
CPU: Intel i7-4790K
GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 980 4GB
SSD: 60 GB Force 3 for OS
SSD: 250 GB Crucial for the games
HDD: 2x150 GB 7200 in RAID 0 for programs
HDD: 500 GB for data

I run DCS, BoS and RoF amongst other all maxed out at 50-60 fps
with DSR 1,5 enabled and VSYNC on (2351x1323). No overclock at all.

 

[mondo]

wappy, you might find the Crucial MX100 cheaper and in practical terms they have the same performance.

 

[Daunt]

Are they planning for free upgrades to Windows 10 if you have Windows 8.1? I'd look into that if you're not sure.

 

[HaJa]

The rumour is that it will be free but I got it anyway and so far I'm not
disappointed at all. Running IOBit StartMenu8 to get rid of ModernUI.

All software works and the games work including CloD after a little magic.
It feels slightly faster as well.

 

[mondo]

It might be that 8.1 users get the same deal as 7 to 8 - the $25/£25 charge for upgrading. Might get complicated when doing a reinstall from nothing because it would be an upgrade to an upgrade to an upgrade.

 

[HaJa]

I didn't upgrade to 8.1, it was a full retail and fresh install.
The possibilities for W10 being free is the fact that 8.1 was free
to 8.0 users but for every one else was pay ware. It distributed
automatically through WStore and it would be just as easy to do
with W10.

 

[Daunt]

I'm intrigued with W10... I've not upgraded from Windows 7 yet... what's your guys' opinion on going to 10? Or should I stick with 7 until I do a major upgrade? Sorry to steal your post Wappy

 

[mondo]

10 is a way off yet anyway so I wouldn't worry to much. If you can upgrade to 8 on the cheap then it's worth it. 8.1 is definitely superior to 7.

I didn't upgrade to 8.1, it was a full retail and fresh install.
The possibilities for W10 being free is the fact that 8.1 was free
to 8.0 users but for every one else was pay ware. It distributed
automatically through WStore and it would be just as easy to do
with W10.

Mine's a 7 install, with the 8 Pro upgrade. When I reinstall I have to install 7 first, then 8, then 8.1. It's because I bought the upgrade license when it first came out. It was £25 so a pretty good deal really.

 

[Wapwap]

Thanks for all the input guys, much appreciated!

Kitlope; Yes, the parts for putting a Haswell-E system together are indeed a little bit more expensive right now. But as you say, going balls deep. Might as well go for the proper thing straight away

Daunt; Same here, i've been using several Radeon generation myself without any issues. Using a HD 7870 XT at the moment after replacing a HD 4870X2 because one the fans broke (after market cooler). And don't worry about hijacking the thread

Quick; For some reason I have some sort of sympathy towards Ati/AMD and leaning towards them. I saw they've recently released the 8GB version of the 290X. It's got the same specs as the 4GB version but with a higher memory clock speed. So, i'm also looking at that one.

Duke; I'm probably going to render some stuff, but won't be using any Adobe products to do that.

P; Thanks for the info, sounds like a very decent card!

HaJa; Nice setup! I bet you like the boot time with Windows 8.1 and that SSD

Mondo; I've looked at the MX100 as well, but the prices are nearly the same (M550 a tiny bit more expensive). The write speed of the MX100 128GB is 150 MB/s vs 350 MB/s of the M550. Read/write speed of the 512GB versions are the same, but the IOPS rate is a little bit higher on the M550.

 

[JohnnyK]

What's your target resolution/performance? 1080p @ 60 FPS?

Considered watercooling the CPU?

 

[mondo]

Mondo; I've looked at the MX100 as well, but the prices are nearly the same (M550 a tiny bit more expensive). The write speed of the MX100 128GB is 150 MB/s vs 350 MB/s of the M550. Read/write speed of the 512GB versions are the same, but the IOPS rate is a little bit higher on the M550.

I got the 512GB one a few months back, I think the M550 came down in price then or something because when I bought it there was quite a price difference. I would strongly recommend a 512GB SSD though. I use to have a 128 vertex 3 and realistically you have just over 100GB to play with. Another 20 GB for Windows and 10GB free for it to work it's SSD magic and suddenly you have no space.

 

[Kitlope]

I missed that in the initial post... agree with Mondo. Ditch the 128 Gb SSD as there just isn't enough room to do what you want to do, even if you think you will... you won't. Trust me. I have 3 of the damn things from yesteryear, 2 in my den computer, always shuffling them around and 1 on the main hosting only W8, the few programs I use and BF4 and it's almost full. At the time anything bigger was fairly costly so from 2011 onwards I bought the smaller ones... just a couple months ago I finally picked up my first 256. Hooray! But like I said, it was quite a bit of coin at the time so no wonder I never got a 256. Now that they are affordable, especially when on sale, and 512's on their way down in price too.... I wouldn't hesitate in starting with a 256 and going from there, I mean shit, you're putting together a Haswell-E pc so why scrimp on the size of the SSD? Or, at the very least, use a 120 for Windows and programs and have a 256 or 512 for games.

And I'm jealous! I drool at the thought of a new Intel 6 core but for my needs it just doesn't make much sense, even probably by the end of the year.

edit: gah I see you plan on 2 SSD's in your original post.

 

[Engnr]

6 cores, Win10, damn I'm so far out of the loop.........

 

[Wapwap]

Yes, the plan is indeed to have a SSD for the OS (128 GB), a SSD for the games (5120 GB) and a HDD for the storage.