Some thoughts......Best case for this rig?

[Dragosanii]

Hi guys n dolls,

Any comments on this one - only thing I was unsure about is the case.....

Case SHARKOON BD28 GAMING CASE (Green LED)
Processor (CPU) AMD FX-9370 Eight Core CPU (4.4GHz-4.7GHz/16MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard ASUS® SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/Sli)
Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 4GB AMD RADEON™ R9 290X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY 16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cool Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner)
Operating Sys Genuine Windows 8.1 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Miscellaneous FREE NSF - GOLD GAME VOUCHER with AMD R9 280 & 290 GPUs

 

[A314159]

There's a lot I would change there. i7, 16gb hyperxfury ram (intended usage????) and an nVidia GPU. WD caviar black HDD, cheaper motherboard (no difference) and unless you're overclocking a cheaper cooler. A more expensive case (£70+).

 

[TheKeir]

Well, the best case is the Cosmos 2, but I don't know your budget so it's hard to suggest anything. For around the same price though - £10 more will get you the PCS Maelstrom case, which I have and can say from personal experience that it's rather good. Neither case manufacturer is well known so I wouldn't trust the reliability - it may be more sensible to get a Coolermaster case to be on the safe side.

However, your rig would be rather high end, and settling for a cheap case when you have £1000+ of hardware inside is not the smartest of ideas. I'd personally go for a full tower to allow more room inside for cooling and better airflow. I don't know whether the R9 290X that PCS sells has an aftermarket cooler or not, but if it doesn't, then you will need all the cooling you can get your hands on. I would actually contact PCS to check that it is a non-reference cooler (I'm pretty sure they tend to use the Powercolor PCS+ series on most AMD cards but you should double check) - just ask them what specific R9 290X it is, because AMD's version is terrible and no one should buy them.

I'd also like to comment on your spec. I know you said the only thing you want to change is the case, but I do think your spec is seriously inferior to what you could be getting for the same money, so I'll say it anyway.

I'm assuming you're using this rig for gaming btw. Do say if you're also using it for photoshop, video editing etc..

- For gaming, choosing an i5-4670k (same price as the one you chose) will get you better performance for games across the board. In some cases it will be the difference between playing high settings and playing ultra settings.
- If you change the CPU to the Intel, buy the Z87-A motherboard. If you don't (but you should!) then the 990FX is overly expensive given that you will see no gain. You only need to worry about the motherboard if you are going for extreme overclocking (which you're probably not).
- Please dear lord change the RAM! D: no one needs 32GB. For gaming, 8GB is plenty. More RAM provides no benefit to games performance, it's just not a computer component that affects it like that.
- Change the big hard drive to a WD Caviar Black. It runs much faster than the stock hard drive, and if you're storing all your games on it then you should upgrade it to get much better loading times with games.
- You only need a blu-ray writer if you are writing to blu-ray (i.e. storing files and programs on blu-ray discs). If you're just using it to watch movies then you only need a blu-ray reader drive.
- The 850W power supply is overkill. Your system won't use anything near to that amount of power, so you only need to give it a 650W power supply. Unless you're planning on buying a second R9 290X in the future - but then, 850W would be dodgy and 1050W would be more sensible.
- Cut the hydro cooler and go for a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo fan cooler. If you are buying the PC with the intention of extreme overclocking then watercooling is okay, but otherwise it is unnecessary.
- Use the standard onboard sound. Onboard sound is perfectly good. Yes, I know the computer is meant to be very powerful, but sound is just not something you need to upgrade because the stock stuff is so good.
- Finally, consider if you want Windows 7 or Windows 8. Windows 8 might be newer but if you prefer 7 then stick with it.

 

[A314159]

No point getting the k variant unless overclocking........

 

[TheKeir]

No point getting the k variant unless overclocking........

He chose a watercooler, I don't think it's unreasonable to think he might be overclocking.

Anyway, I recommend the i5-4670k to everyone, because even if you don't want to overclock right now, it is a nice little piece of future proofing and when you're spending £1000 on a computer, paying £13 for that isn't much of a big deal.

 

[A314159]

True, true.

 

[Dragosanii]

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'll look to see what I can take on-board.....

I am looking to future-proof to some extent and yeah, think I made a miscalc on the power unit (I am intending on overclocking and strapping another card into the mix).

It will be for gaming for the majority of the time, and a little video creation and editing, but that's proobably about 10% of it's use....I'll also be clagging in some extra drives so thanks for the heads up on the drive type....

I also do a lot of vmware work stuff, which is why I'm throwing 32gb at it...it's in my price bracket anyway, but I appreciate the feedback, I'll probably make some changes after the kit lands.

Regards,

 

[GeorgeHillier]

What's your budget? I wouldn't go with that AMD processor, for that money you could get an i5, which will run cooler and use less power.

 

[Dragosanii]

Was around the £1800 mark.....If going for the i5, why would I not go i7 instead? Same reason (heat/power consumption?).....

Thanks in advance!

 

[keynes]

I7-4790 and the gtx 780. I wouldn't choose the fx-9370 or the r9-290x, noisier/hotter compare to an nvidia equivalent

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Was around the £1800 mark.....If going for the i5, why would I not go i7 instead? Same reason (heat/power consumption?).....

Thanks in advance!

It was just that I didn't know your budget. Obviously if you can afford the i7 then get it

Here's a build which just fits into your budget:

Case COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 8GB) You could probably get away with 16gb, but it's up to you
Graphics Card 3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready You could go for the 780 if you wanted, just put this in because you can afford it
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
1st Hard Disk 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 410MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) Get the caviar black HDD
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ MODULAR TXM-750 V2-80 PLUS® Choose the appropriate PSU you need for overclocking (this will void your warranty though)
Processor Cooling Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler For overclocking
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £1,474.17
Price £1,769.00