Proposed PC build. Would welcome suggestions / advice

[DaveGleave]

Hi

I'm a newcomer to SPCR - very impressive and helpful site.

I'm planning to build a PC for my own use: I've not done this before and would welcome any suggestions or advice more experienced members may have.

The machine will be used for:-
Surfing net, email and streaming music and videos.
Modest amount of word processing and spreadsheet work.
Programming and use of virtual machines.
Audio editing and possibly some video editing.
I don’t expect to use it for gaming.

My proposed build is:

Case: Silverstone TJ08E

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W , ATX 12v V2.3/EPS12V 80+, (cabling supplied)

Microprocessor: Intel Core i7 4790K 4GHz Devil’s Canyon, LGA 1150 BX80646174790K, Intel HD Graphics 4600

Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX Intel motherboard, LGA 1150 SATA 6Gbps USB 3 DDR3

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X series 16 GB (4x4GB), LGA 1150 DDR3 F3-2133C9Q-16GXL

Graphics card: ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 2GB 128 Bit 2GB (2xDVI-D, 1xHDMI, 1xD-SUB), PCIe 3.0 Dual slot

Drives: SSD 500GB Crucial MX200 SATA III 6Gbps, CT500MX200SSD1


Any views welcomed. And any advice on quiet optical R/W drive would also be helpful.

Cheers

Dave

[edh]

Skylake. This changes a lot of things. I would seriously look at this instead of Devil's Canyon as it changes a great deal of things on the motherboard side too and gives you DDR4.

Do you need an i7? How well multithreaded are the applications that you will be using? Not sure what kind of programming with virtual machines you might be doing but is an i5 sufficient?

Do you need a K CPU? This is only a requirement if you intend to do extreme overclocking, otherwise it is wasted.

The S12II is an old PSU now so I wouldn't recommend it. Why are you particularly drawn to it?

The GTX 750 is great, but do you need a graphics card? If there is no gaming then the Intel graphics will do you fine.

What kind of CPU cooler were you thinking of? Top one now on the SPCR charts is the Scythe Ninja 4.

An SSD only system is good but why go for an outdated, massive, cable intensive 2.5" SATA when you can have M.2? They are also in some cases cheaper as there is far less material involved.

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

If you don't have to build the PC for a few months, I suggest waiting to do a Skylake build. The non-K parts will come in at 65W TDP and may have enough graphics horsepower in the IGP to do whatever GPU accelerated tasks you might need (Photoshop, etc).

If populating all four RAM slots, you'll want memory that doesn't have these heatspreaders poking up and possibly interfering with your TBD CPU cooler.

Speaking of which, the Scythe Kotesu would be a good fit. Or go with the Ninja for K/overclocking and...

Case: Since you don't have an HDD, you don't have to deal with clearance issues with the cpu cooler.

PSU: Yep, the S12II is long in the tooth and not that efficient for lower power loads. Still, you'll need a PSU that won't conflict with the ODD. So, 160mm long or less (cabling dependent).

[QUIET!]

I would suggest going for 2*8GB on the ram, if you use a lot of VMs you might need to upgrade to 32GB at some point and two free slots would let you do that.

If you want better graphics than an i7-4790k, you might consider Broadwell with Iris graphics.

If you want more than Iris, I suggest waiting for Skylake, the cost is similar but the Z170 motherboards have many more features that will make it much more future proof. Then wait to see how much the GTX950 costs, it might make sense or push the GTX750 price way down.

[quest_for_silence]

Case: Silverstone TJ08E

You don't have an hot graphics, so the 180mm Air Penetrator looks a bit pointless: perhaps a Silverstone KL06 makes more sense.

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430B 430W , ATX 12v V2.3/EPS12V 80+, (cabling supplied)

As already pointed out, way old design, not that quiet for contemporary standards: is anything more modern available there?

Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX Intel motherboard, LGA 1150 SATA 6Gbps USB 3 DDR3

You can't fit an ATX board inside a mATX case.

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X series 16 GB (4x4GB), LGA 1150 DDR3 F3-2133C9Q-16GXL

Ridiculously tall heatspreader for a plain 2133 DDR3, and, as already pointed out, an 8x2 kit would be preferable for future capabilities.

Graphics card: ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 2GB 128 Bit 2GB (2xDVI-D, 1xHDMI, 1xD-SUB), PCIe 3.0 Dual slot

Is it the Strix or not?

any advice on quiet optical R/W drive would also be helpful.

AFAIK there isn't any.

[DaveGleave]

edh
Many thanks for taking the trouble to comment - all very helpful.

Skylake. This changes a lot of things. I would seriously look at this instead of Devil's Canyon as it changes a great deal of things on the motherboard side too and gives you DDR4.

Yes, I hadn't really thought this through. I've had a brief look at the options here - it looks like there's only two Skylake processors available at present (i5-6600K and i7-6700K) and it'll be some time before other options are available.

Do you need an i7? How well multithreaded are the applications that you will be using? Not sure what kind of programming with virtual machines you might be doing but is an i5 sufficient?

I'm doing a part time degree in computing so use the virtual machine to run different versions of linux. The VMs run quite slowly in my current system so I thought an i7 would speed things up.

Do you need a K CPU? This is only a requirement if you intend to do extreme overclocking, otherwise it is wasted.

Fair point, I don't need overclocking.

The S12II is an old PSU now so I wouldn't recommend it. Why are you particularly drawn to it?

One of the reviews I read recommended the S12II - but that may have been a bit old. I'll search again.

The GTX 750 is great, but do you need a graphics card? If there is no gaming then the Intel graphics will do you fine.

I won't be gaming but may be doing some video editing. I'm also planning to upgrade my two monitors to 4k. I'm assuming a graphics card would improve performance on both these areas - is that right?

What kind of CPU cooler were you thinking of? Top one now on the SPCR charts is the Scythe Ninja 4.

Helpful suggestion - I see the Skylake processors don't come with pre-installed coolers.

An SSD only system is good but why go for an outdated, massive, cable intensive 2.5" SATA when you can have M.2? They are also in some cases cheaper as there is far less material involved.

Again, good suggestion.

I'll rethink my proposal and put up another version for views

Cheers

[DaveGleave]

CA_Steve

Many thanks for replying, very helpful.

If you don't have to build the PC for a few months, I suggest waiting to do a Skylake build. The non-K parts will come in at 65W TDP and may have enough graphics horsepower in the IGP to do whatever GPU accelerated tasks you might need (Photoshop, etc).

Will a graphics card help with video editing and managing two 4K monitors?

If populating all four RAM slots, you'll want memory that doesn't have these heatspreaders poking up and possibly interfering with your TBD CPU cooler.

Good point - and I'll revise this to 2x8GB as others have recommended.

Speaking of which, the Scythe Kotesu would be a good fit. Or go with the Ninja for K/overclocking and...

Yes, I'll go with one of these.

Case: Since you don't have an HDD, you don't have to deal with clearance issues with the cpu cooler.
PSU: Yep, the S12II is long in the tooth and not that efficient for lower power loads. Still, you'll need a PSU that won't conflict with the ODD. So, 160mm long or less (cabling dependent).

I'll search for something smaller and more efficient.

Thanks again for you help, much appreciated.

Cheers

[DaveGleave]

QUIET!

Thanks for commenting, much appreciated.

I would suggest going for 2*8GB on the ram, if you use a lot of VMs you might need to upgrade to 32GB at some point and two free slots would let you do that.

Good point - I'll do that.

If you want better graphics than an i7-4790k, you might consider Broadwell with Iris graphics.
If you want more than Iris, I suggest waiting for Skylake, the cost is similar but the Z170 motherboards have many more features that will make it much more future proof. Then wait to see how much the GTX950 costs, it might make sense or push the GTX750 price way down.

I think Skylake may be the way to go. I'm going to rethink my approach and put up a revised proposal.

Thanks again

Cheers

[DaveGleave]

quest_for_silence

Many thanks for commenting.

You don't have an hot graphics, so the 180mm Air Penetrator looks a bit pointless: perhaps a Silverstone KL06 makes more sense.

Yes, the KL06 looks pretty good I'll probably go with that.

As already pointed out, way old design, not that quiet for contemporary standards: is anything more modern available there?

I'll have a look for something newer and more efficient.

You can't fit an ATX board inside a mATX case.

Good spot. Thought I'd double checked compatibility - obviously not!

Ridiculously tall heatspreader for a plain 2133 DDR3, and, as already pointed out, an 8x2 kit would be preferable for future capabilities.

Yes, 2x8GB is the way to go.

Is it the Strix or not?

Sorry, no idea what Strix refers to.

AFAIK there isn't any.

Pity

Thanks again for taking the trouble to respond

Cheers

[CA_Steve]

Will a graphics card help with video editing and managing two 4K monitors?

If you go with Skylake, it can handle 4k/60Hz monitors via Displayport.

As for video editing, my early guess is if you are working with 1080p content, there won't be much improvement going to a discrete gfx card for GPU acceleration. It might for 2160p. Depends on the program, whether it's using OpenCL for GPU acceleration, etc.. In any case, you can always add a discrete card later.

My guess is you'll see the i7-6700 (non-K) 65W parts readily available in late September/early October. I'd wait until October/Nov anyway to let whatever bugs appear be squashed/let the UEFI and driver updates to settle down.

[quest_for_silence]

Is it the Strix or not?

Sorry, no idea what Strix refers to.

ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 Strix <--- Very quiet
ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 <--- Not that quiet (comparatively)

Please, to quote other people use the

tag, instead of the italic tag, that helps readability: thanks.

[DaveGleave]

I'd wait until October/Nov anyway to let whatever bugs appear be squashed/let the UEFI and driver updates to settle down.

Thanks for the advice - I'll have another look at a new build in October and post revised proposal then.
Dave

[DaveGleave]

ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 Strix <--- Very quiet
ASUS GTX 750 TI-OC-2GD5 <--- Not that quiet (comparatively)

Please, to quote other people use the

tag, instead of the italic tag, that helps readability: thanks.

I'll look out for Strix, then.
Thanks for your help

Dave

[pcgeek]

I'm reading along, some nice pieces of advice here. THis could be helpful for when I'm gonna build my super silent pc.