PC build help

[Cornelius]

I know there have been a couple threads like this recently, but I'm not a regular on any hardware sites, so would feel a little weird bringing my queries there. I may do that anyway, but there seems to be some good help available here, too.

So anyway, I've been picking up components as they come along at good prices over the last couple weeks. Here's what I've got so far (and in the order bought, I think):
Seasonic 650W PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118) - $60
PowerColor 7850 2GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131473) - $125
Adata 4GB RAM (x2) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211795) - $27
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147193) -$195 (not from newegg)

And then today I stopped at Micro Center and picked up:
i5 4670k with...
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H Socket LGA 1150 ATX ---> $315 + tax

I probably got ahead of myself chasing deals, and I realize I kind of did things in the wrong order and had very little planning. I still have to pick up a HSF and case (may use an old one I have to start out). Maybe an optical drive depending on what case I decide on (hoping to put this in a HTPC-style case).

What I'm most wondering is if I went overboard with the Mobo. It seems like a really nice one, but I'm afraid I'll never really use its features too much. Wish I'd been on top of things last week, because this same combo was even cheaper at MC. I plan to do some overclocking somewhere down the road, but it has been years since I was into that, so it won't be right away. My current PC was given to us and is doesn't have those options. Since it was from Micro Center, a return is pretty easy for me if this was a mis-fire.

And then the other question is if I'm going to be able to have a fairly quiet machine with this build. It is going in my family room. For gaming I'm not too worried about it getting a little noise, but it'd be nice not to notice it while watching a movie. Planning on a Noctua cooler to help with that.

So for cases I'm looking at this one: Silverstone HTPC case (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007X8TQW0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER) - $135

But today I was tempted by the idea of this mini-ITX (obviously would have to switch mobos): Fractal Design Node 304 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=9g7l3ga0EeODFZIUqMwukQ4v37_me3g3_ cdO_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=11-352-027&cm_sp=) - $50
Worried about heat more with this mini-ITX, not to mention assembly frustration.

So yeah, trying to reach the end here and I'm second guessing everything and looking for advice, recommendations, etc.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yeah, you went overboard on that motherboard. Are you really going to use TEN USB ports? I would've gone with this, myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131995

[Gamevet]

You should have gotten a less expensive motherboard and used the savings to get a better graphics card. The 7850 is rather weak.

Over-clocking the latest Intel CPUs is child's play. I had a bitch of a time OCing my old C2Q Q9650, while my i5-2500k was easily over-clocked to 4.7 Ghz with less than an hour of tweaking.

[Ed Oscuro]

4GB of RAM is lousy as well, at least for many applications. 6GB or even 8GB can be had cheaply and will pay off if you do anything remotely taxing in terms of multitasking. Your internet browser can (unlikely, unless you're an insane tabs user like me) use 4GB all by itself. 4GB is definitely tight for today's applications. I'm happy now that I have 16GB :) In fairness, you can probably buy another set of sticks cheaply if you feel you need 'em. I would've gone with two 4GB sticks instead, though.

[Gameguy]

4GB of RAM is lousy as well, at least for many applications. 6GB or even 8GB can be had cheaply and will pay off if you do anything remotely taxing in terms of multitasking. Your internet browser can (unlikely, unless you're an insane tabs user like me) use 4GB all by itself. 4GB is definitely tight for today's applications. I'm happy now that I have 16GB :) In fairness, you can probably buy another set of sticks cheaply if you feel you need 'em. I would've gone with two 4GB sticks instead, though.
I can't see how an internet browser can use 4GB or RAM by itself, I have 4GB of RAM and right now 11 tabs opened with several being various youtube videos. I often have more tabs open than that and often have a media player running as well while switching between everything. I have a few different antivirus/security applications running too just to make sure one by itself won't fail.

Sure, having more RAM is better than less but it really depends on what you'll be doing with the PC and how long you plan to keep it. For extensive video and graphic editing, you'll need more RAM. Is it just me or does that hard drive seem a bit small in size? Is 256GB still normal to have in new computers? My PC came with a larger drive and I've had it around 4 years already, I don't think mine is solid state though.

[Ed Oscuro]

Firefox has gotten a lot better than it used to be - "load tabs only when switching to them" can save a lot of space (and a lot of bandwidth for sites you would use with tabs). Currently I'm over 2GB for it, which is still very high. Chrome will handle this situation much more poorly because every tab is its own process.

Low RAM might not be crippling for many kinds of situations, but keep in mind that if you tend to use many files on the computer regularly, Windows 7 will keep a lot of that in memory for nearly instantaneous access, instead of requiring another fetch from the hard drive. Games have been at the 32-bit address limit for a while now, and it's not clear when games will start making the jump - but with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One just around the corner, both having pretty large amounts of RAM used per game (more than 4GB) we might be at that point very soon. Of course, multitasking is the other reason to have a good amount of RAM.

That being said, I haven't been playing anything (the latest game I've bought is Rise of the Triad's remake, which isn't well optimized yet) that really suffers from the somewhat old graphics card I've got - the Asus EAH 5850 CU. Yet I do a variety of things which can make use of the graphics card for general computing. It generally comes down to what you're doing.

Perhaps the wise thing to do with this build is have a serious think about what it's going to be doing and not digging the hole any deeper (buying more expensive stuff) until it's certain it's needed. In that, I'd admit that it's a good idea to hold off on 4GB until it seems useful. It should also be noted that DDR4 will end up coming sooner or later and perhaps console ports are going to be at a disadvantage on most machines with DDR3 installed, at least as far as memory goes.

[Cornelius]

Thanks for the discussion, folks. If you look back at my list, next to my RAM purchase there is a "(x2)". So 4GB x2.

I also did some more poking around for a cheaper mobo, but even going with the one Kitsune posted I only save $15. Similar results with others that are recommended. If I could save $50 and still get a well-regarded, reliable board, I might switch, but I'm not seeing that with the Z87 boards.

For the 256GB SSD Gameguy brought up, yeah, that's small if it is all you have, and I didn't mention anything else, but I'll be moving a 1.5 TB and maybe a 1 TB drive into this machine from my current. The point of the SSD is for your OS and most used applications to have that super fast access. OS should boot up in about 10 seconds from what I've read. A lot of people now are just have the SSD in their HTPC and then having the main storage in a networked computer elsewhere in the house since drives make some noise. This is my plan eventually. I got the larger size SSD both because I got carried away and because I'm planning on having my games (Steam) on that drive. Since I don't play a lot of different games at the same time, I don't think that will be a problem.

My logic with the graphics card (7850) was that it should run everything right now at max settings. And I'm willing to drop a notch or two over the next couple years and then another $100 to upgrade should have me back up to max. I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy.

So yeah, I'm probably aiming a little higher than I need to, but I don't get a new PC often (especially in gaming terms), so I need this to last. My current machine was new in '05 I think, and before that I built one in 2000(?). So that's my logic for choosing the newest chipset and a quality mobo.

Case and cooler hopefully arriving today. Once again, I splurged <embarrased>.
Fractal Design Node 605 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352028) $150 (bought on amazon, newegg had better listing) Love what I've read and seen about this case, and I've decided to forego an optical drive. Figure a can use an external one if really needed.
Noctua Ultra Silent CPU Cooler Cooling NH-U9B SE2 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0065SFEE8/ref=ox_ya_os_product) - $52

More comments definitely welcome!

[Gamevet]

My logic with the graphics card (7850) was that it should run everything right now at max settings. And I'm willing to drop a notch or two over the next couple years and then another $100 to upgrade should have me back up to max. I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy.

More comments definitely welcome!

It depends on what kind of frame-rates you are comfortable with, while running games with all of the eye-candy. The old GTX 480 will run games better than the 7850, and it's over 3 years old. And old games like Crysis will run under 30 fps with max settings using either of those cards. I'd suggest getting a 7950, 7870 or a GTX 660 for about $50 more.


http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html