Partpicker help

crpgnut

SasqWatch
RPGWatch Donor
Original Sin Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Alright, the advice in my PC crapping out thread has made me decide to buy the parts. I would love to get some suggested builds from the tech savvy amongst you. This site prices all the components for you and lets you buy cheap from a variety of websites.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Anyone want to go there and give me some suggested builds? I'm an Intel/Nvidia guy, but the rest is totally open. I'm hoping Jonnik, Drithius, figment, JDR, and hopefully Maylander if he sees it, will give me some suggestions. I know we have a lot of IT folks here, so I hope to see some good suggested builds. Thanks in advance to anyone who gives it a shot. Please link your builds here!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
What a fun little app ;)

I can't really suggest you go one way or another with specific parts - that's more of a personal decision based on your own research. What I can link you is my current system with which I'm happy: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3tU5T

...except for the video card; I have a 2gb EVGA 670 FTW - I've been content with it, but, if it's in your price range, I'd recommend something along the lines of the 780 or overclocked 770 w/ 4gb VRAM.
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,978
Location
Florida, USA
I think what you have there is good. If you live near a Microcenter you can get your MB and proc for $70 less. Also might want to check newegg on some of the other prices.

Heres my build as close as I could get it. I have a supernova 1350 for PSU but they don't list it. Also they dont list custom watercooling parts.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3u4Ur
 
Yep, looks good. Seems like a good price too as far as I can tell.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
1,734
Save money with
Slower RAM, 8GB is enough
Smaller SSD
No windows home

Spend money with
8MB L3 cashe CPU (eg. 4770k) or better.
2TB 5400 or 7200rpm storage disk

Other thoughts
☺No idea how good that CPU cooler is, but the stock intel ones are pretty bad if you want to actually use your CPU so definately get something.
☺Wait a little bit longer for geforce 800s since the GPU in the 770 is 2 year old technology and the first of the new Maxwell chips has already appeared for the low end gtx750.
☺Wait for new CPUs, 14nm Broadwell, 8core, etc. (coming Q2 2014) At the very least a cost reduction on the Haswells.
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
2,974
Location
Australia
The Cooler is pretty good, have used it on my brother in law's PC. It might even be good enough to decently OC his 2500K and it should be more than adequate for the 4670K (probably not for anything more than a very small OC though).

If crpgnut wants to wait for the maxwells (or the price drop for the Keplers) he could use whatever he had in his old PC if its not fried for now I guess. But I really couldn't tell you when the high end Maxwell parts will actually hit the market with any decent availability..
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
1,734
I installed the 256 SSD into my old computer and am slowly loading up Oblivion and the mods. This will tide me over until I can buy all the parts and put a new machine together. Going to wait a few more days to start ordering, to see if anyone else chimes in with build suggestions. I've also emailed iBuyPower my parts list and asked if they can come up with something comparable. I really hate building my own :)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Processor : Intel has more power, I think, but AMD is cheaper, as far as I know. But I have lost track of that, I must admit.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
For a long time you got more power per dollar from AMD and I always went that way, but mid last decade Intel got a decisive upper hand and I couldn't justify AMD. AMD seems to have recaptured done of their value though. I actually wanted AMD for my last HTPC build, but couldn't find what I wanted locally. My desktop and server both run FX8650s though and for the money they were much more value than Intel
 
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
4,353
Location
Austin, TX
Save money with
Slower RAM, 8GB is enough
Smaller SSD
No windows home

Spend money with
8MB L3 cashe CPU (eg. 4770k) or better.
2TB 5400 or 7200rpm storage disk

Other thoughts
☺No idea how good that CPU cooler is, but the stock intel ones are pretty bad if you want to actually use your CPU so definately get something.
☺Wait a little bit longer for geforce 800s since the GPU in the 770 is 2 year old technology and the first of the new Maxwell chips has already appeared for the low end gtx750.
☺Wait for new CPUs, 14nm Broadwell, 8core, etc. (coming Q2 2014) At the very least a cost reduction on the Haswells.

I've been out of the PC building scene since about 2008. I will probably start building a new PC in the coming months. I don't overclock, so do I really need to get a custom cooler? I have used the stock one on my Wolfdale and had no problems.

BTW thanks for the links, that's a pretty cool app.
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
491
I've been out of the PC building scene since about 2008. I will probably start building a new PC in the coming months. I don't overclock, so do I really need to get a custom cooler? I have used the stock one on my Wolfdale and had no problems.

BTW thanks for the links, that's a pretty cool app.

No, stock cooler will be fine if your not overclocking.
 
I've been out of the PC building scene since about 2008. I will probably start building a new PC in the coming months. I don't overclock, so do I really need to get a custom cooler? I have used the stock one on my Wolfdale and had no problems.

I haven't seen the cooler the Broadwell come with, but from the Sandys onward what you get stock is much like what you have now if it was only 1cm tall. The enthusiast 6 cores don't come with a cooler at all.

For someone going for the K version, therefore clearly interested in overclocking, the 1cm cooler is pretty bad. The "K" chips are made to be overclocked but the cooler isn't made to be suitable.

For your build I really couldn't say until I learn more about the new chips. I'm sure they'll have technology to automatically underclock themselves before they do any damage, so you'll get by. But you could get a nice cooler and be on the safe side and at worst you have some leeway to overclock. (which is very simple, these days.)
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
2,974
Location
Australia
Sigh. I should've posted this sooner, but my browser crashed halfway through (I'm at work so I have to rely on an older version of IE). Here we go again, though I'll keep it slightly shorter this time.

How fast do you want this PC? Or need, rather. The GeForce 800-series is on its way. GeForce 770 GTX is an excellent card when it comes to getting the most bang for you bucks, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a card with significantly greater performance for the same price within 3-5 months.

Beyond that, I have a few comments to make.

Intel Core i5-4670K + Cooler Master CPU cooler
The first thing that pops into my head when I see this setup is its huge overclocking potential. The setup practically screams overclocking. The i5-4670K is excellent for overclocking, and getting it to 4 - 4,4Ghz should not be particularly risky or complex. If you have no intention of overclocking, you can just stick with the stock cooler, and maybe even get a slightly different CPU (depending on your budget).

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H
Same as with the CPU: This is an excellent motherboard for overclocking. Spot on really. I'd probably stick with a more basic Asus or ASRock if there's no overclocking going on.

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB
Should be fine. If I recall correctly, it's slightly cheaper than the Corsairs and of similar quality. Doesn't have the overclocking potential of the Kingston HyperX series, but I can't even recall the last time I felt like overclocking the RAM.

Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
An excellent choice. I'd pick this myself if I was going to upgrade right about now. Good performance and a lot of storage space.

NZXT Phantom
A solid case. It should be easy to achieve low temperatures with this case.

Overall, it's a very solid set of components. However, I would personally wait a bit due to the upcoming 800 series. Yes, new graphics cards often have various issues right after launch, but a few driver patches later it tends to be fine. The potential gain is considerable.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
Yep, a couple other folks have told me to bide my time too, so I just bought a 256 gb SSD and replaced my dead drive in my old system for now. I will address my pc needs later this summer.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
I installed the 256 SSD into my old computer and am slowly loading up Oblivion and the mods. This will tide me over until I can buy all the parts and put a new machine together. Going to wait a few more days to start ordering, to see if anyone else chimes in with build suggestions. I've also emailed iBuyPower my parts list and asked if they can come up with something comparable. I really hate building my own :)

iBuyPower doesn't have the greatest reputation based on reviews... Anyone who has run into problems has complained about their terrible customer service. If you decide to go with an online custom PC builder, I'd suggest either Digital Storm or MagicMicro.

I got my current PC from MagicMicro- they initially shipped it with the wrong video card... but when I contacted them they quickly shipped me the correct graphics card along with a postage paid envelope to ship back the wrong one, so I'd say their customer service was decent. It cost me about $100 more than it would have to buy all the parts on Newegg but I actually bought it through their eBay store so I got $50 in eBay bucks. All in all the extra 50 bucks or so I ended up spending was worth the potential headaches and time involved in building my own.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
2,315
Location
PA
glad you posted this, daveyd. When I do finally build this, I'll give those two sites a looksie.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
Right… I had no better thing to do so am trying to combine something…
Any complaints or suggestions on this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3Mhm3

Not planning to overclock anything, thus didn't add an additional cooler.
Also, getting two cards in SLI mode is out of the question, I don't want to mess with that now, maybe in the future I will.

[EDIT]
No comment? Okay, I've decided to drop i7 for the sakes of i5-4670K. Why? I've studied random comparisions on internet and paying 100€ more for i7 is not rational, you get 2-3 more FPS which is pretty much irrelevant. For example:
http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1061&page=14

Won't update the partpicker list yet, maybe some other part is also too much.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Back
Top Bottom