Custom PC Build

I'm considering building a computer fairly soon. Currently I have this build lined up:

Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS-R ATX LGA 1150
Processor: 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 4460 Haswell
RAM: 8Gb (2x 4Gb) G. Skill Sniper DDR3 1600
Storage: 120Gb Silicon Power S60 SSD
Video cards: 2x (SLI) 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
Power Supply: 750w Corsair TX750M

This would all go in a mid-tower case with two 120mm intake and exhaust fans. The case is literally 10 years old and has never been built in. Due to financial stresses, that first-ever decade-ago build was indefinitely postponed. Since then, I've helped several people with their own builds...but have never actually built one of my own. Perhaps the time has come.

My only concern is whether or not the SLI configuration will be bottlenecked by the processor. Obviously that depends largely on the program, but I think it should perform as-intended for most games. On the other hand, perhaps 8Gb of RAM might be a bottleneck. Any input in this regard would be appreciated.

I haven't build a Custom PC, but I think its a great idea as it is strange using something everyday without having a clue how it works and is put together. best of luck to you on this. I suspect its considerably cheaper to build a high spec laptop than to buy one from a shop.

TurkeyOnRye said:

I'm considering building a computer fairly soon. Currently I have this build lined up:

Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS-R ATX LGA 1150
Processor: 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 4460 Haswell
RAM: 8Gb (2x 4Gb) G. Skill Sniper DDR3 1600
Storage: 120Gb Silicon Power S60 SSD
Video cards: 2x (SLI) 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
Power Supply: 750w Corsair TX750M

This would all go in a mid-tower case with two 120mm intake and exhaust fans. The case is literally 10 years old and has never been built in. Due to financial stresses, that first-ever decade-ago build was indefinitely postponed. Since then, I've helped several people with their own builds...but have never actually built one of my own. Perhaps the time has come.

My only concern is whether or not the SLI configuration will be bottlenecked by the processor. Obviously that depends largely on the program, but I think it should perform as-intended for most games. On the other hand, perhaps 8Gb of RAM might be a bottleneck. Any input in this regard would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Wait, wait, wait.

I am gonna save your money right now: You can't use two GTX 750 on SLI mode.

Koldo said:

Wait, wait, wait.

I am gonna save your money right now: You can't use two GTX 750 on SLI mode.

Click to expand...

Well, crap, you're right. Suddenly it all seems so clear now...it must be nVIDIA's way of adding value to the cards above the 750.

TurkeyOnRye said:

I'm considering building a computer fairly soon. Currently I have this build lined up:

Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS-R ATX LGA 1150
Processor: 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 4460 Haswell
RAM: 8Gb (2x 4Gb) G. Skill Sniper DDR3 1600
Storage: 120Gb Silicon Power S60 SSD
Video cards: 2x (SLI) 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
Power Supply: 750w Corsair TX750M

This would all go in a mid-tower case with two 120mm intake and exhaust fans. The case is literally 10 years old and has never been built in. Due to financial stresses, that first-ever decade-ago build was indefinitely postponed. Since then, I've helped several people with their own builds...but have never actually built one of my own. Perhaps the time has come.

My only concern is whether or not the SLI configuration will be bottlenecked by the processor. Obviously that depends largely on the program, but I think it should perform as-intended for most games. On the other hand, perhaps 8Gb of RAM might be a bottleneck. Any input in this regard would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Let's see...

What is the build for? Is is important to know that. I see you mentioned games, so I'll assume it is the main use.

I believe you're gonna need a traditional HDD for storage along side the 120GB SSD and keep the latter for the OS only. If you do not need storage, or managed it some other way, I highly suggest keeping the SSD for the OS only.

8GB RAM, if for games, is not gonna be a bottleneck. My reg has this amount, coupled with a GTX 680 and it does not show any problems on 1080P gaming.

If you're not into overclocking, I suggest Kingston RAM as it's been the best in terms of compatibility for me. Having special profiles for RAM over clocking is safe and it is different than traditional over clocking.

As for SLI, I suggest perusing single card setup first because sometimes games lack compatibility for SLI.

I tested Crysis 3 on highest settings and found that the graphics memory reached 2.5GB on my 4GB GTX 680 so if you are into heavy gaming, I suggest having at least 3GB video cards to avoid a bottleneck. In case you are not aware, graphics memory in SLI'ing does not add. They both have to be in the same amount and that amount is gonna be the calculated, not the total.

Back to over clocking, you'll gonna need an aftermarket CPU cooler, if you are into it.

I guess this all for now

Smart_Guy said:

Let's see...

What is the build for? Is is important to know that. I see you mentioned games, so I'll assume it is the main use.

I believe you're gonna need a traditional HDD for storage along side the 120GB SSD and keep the latter for the OS only. If you do not need storage, or managed it some other way, I highly suggest keeping the SSD for the OS only.

8GB RAM, if for games, is not gonna be a bottleneck. My reg has this amount, coupled with a GTX 680 and it does not show any problems on 1080P gaming.

If you're not into overclocking, I suggest Kingston RAM as it's been the best in terms of compatibility for me. Having special profiles for RAM over clocking is safe and it is different than traditional over clocking.

As for SLI, I suggest perusing single card setup first because sometimes games lack compatibility for SLI.

I tested Crysis 3 on highest settings and found that the graphics memory reached 2.5GB on my 4GB GTX 680 so if you are into heavy gaming, I suggest having at least 3GB video cards to avoid a bottleneck. In case you are not aware, graphics memory in SLI'ing does not add. They both have to be in the same amount and that amount is gonna be the calculated, not the total.

Back to over clocking, you'll gonna need an aftermarket CPU cooler, if you are into it.

I guess this all for now

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input.

I am looking to "future-proof" the setup, so to speak. And currently, I am looking to play games at 1080p 60fps on max settings, likely with mods. As you advised, I am leaning towards a single-GPU setup. While theoretically I could get a better price-to-performance ratio getting two weaker cards, in the future I'll simply be left with two crappy cards. While on the other hand, if I got a single high-end card now, I could slap another one into the setup later and be back running.

I'm still not so sure whether or not 8Gb RAM will be satisfactory. Web browsing alone takes up a lot of room, and will continue to use more and more as web-browsing becomes more and more complex and nuanced as time goes on. Granted, I am using Chrome, which is a memory hog.

TurkeyOnRye said:

Thanks for the input.

I am looking to "future-proof" the setup, so to speak. And currently, I am looking to play games at 1080p 60fps on max settings, likely with mods. As you advised, I am leaning towards a single-GPU setup. While theoretically I could get a better price-to-performance ratio getting two weaker cards, in the future I'll simply be left with two crappy cards. While on the other hand, if I got a single high-end card now, I could slap another one into the setup later and be back running.

I'm still not so sure whether or not 8Gb RAM will be satisfactory. Web browsing alone takes up a lot of room, and will continue to use more and more as web-browsing becomes more and more complex and nuanced as time goes on. Granted, I am using Chrome, which is a memory hog.

Click to expand...

You're welcome

I'm following the same approach as yours for the single GPU thinking. I do have the room for another GTX 680 now in both PCI-E availability and PSU power and compatibility. I'm using 4 monitors by the way and Nvidia Surround sometimes.

I'm not against more RAM, but I'll just share my personal experience. I had 16GB before and due to technical problems I used them and returned to 8GB I had in stock. I used Firefox for browsing and open tons and tons of beefy tabs and the max I reached was a little over 50% of RAM usage of the 8GB I currently have. The only instance I felt I needed more than 8GB was running more than one virtual machines of heavy OS's. I haven't noticed any difference otherwise comparing 8GB and 16GB. You can actually make a test. Open as much as you can of programs and windows then run the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and check how much Physical Memoroy is used at the bottom. You can also start games and go to window mode. I hope this helps

Smart_Guy said:

I'm not against more RAM, but I'll just share my personal experience. I had 16GB before and due to technical problems I used them and returned to 8GB I had in stock. I used Firefox for browsing and open tons and tons of beefy tabs and the max I reached was a little over 50% of RAM usage of the 8GB I currently have. The only instance I felt I needed more than 8GB was running more than one virtual machines of heavy OS's. I haven't noticed any difference otherwise comparing 8GB and 16GB. You can actually make a test. Open as much as you can of programs and windows then run the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and check how much Physical Memoroy is used at the bottom. You can also start games and go to window mode. I hope this helps

Click to expand...

I'm actually currently running OS X 10.10 Yosemite, so it's not really an oranges-to-oranges comparison. In any case, I can easily sink the RAM if I want to test it. In fact, I use the Memory Clean app to keep watch of RAM usage on a day-to-day basis. While running Chrome, my RAM will inevitably fizzle-down into the megabytes if not managed properly. For a long time, I simply delt with it because I liked the browser so much. However, I'm currently test driving Safari 8, and so far, I'm liking it quite a bit. It also seems to be a little more conservative with memory usage.

Right now what I have open: Safari with 11 tabs (including youtube tabs), iTunes, and a Word document. I have 1.36Gb free out of 8Gb. I wouldn't even think about running a 1080p movie or video game on top of all this. Call me crazy, but I don't have faith that Windows 8.1 will manage my setup any better.

[EDIT] It's now down to 944.68Mb.

TurkeyOnRye said:

Power Supply: 750w Corsair TX750M

Click to expand...

Do you think it's enough with 750w? My son is building a game computer right now, and he's using a 1200w PSU.

Ouroboros said:

Do you think it's enough with 750w? My son is building a game computer right now, and he's using a 1200w PSU.

Click to expand...

I think a lot of builders buy power supplies that are far and above what their actual requirements are because they want to play it safe and not damage their hardware. Having said that, I couldn't possibly comment on your son's setup because I have no idea what he's building.

TurkeyOnRye said:

I think a lot of builders buy power supplies that are far and above what their actual requirements are because they want to play it safe and not damage their hardware. Having said that, I couldn't possibly comment on your son's setup because I have no idea what he's building.

Click to expand...

Take the 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750, it requires 400w just by itself. You have two. Doesn't that mean you need at least 800w just for the graphic cards?

TurkeyOnRye said:

I'm considering building a computer fairly soon. Currently I have this build lined up:

Motherboard: Asus Z87-PLUS-R ATX LGA 1150
Processor: 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5 4460 Haswell
RAM: 8Gb (2x 4Gb) G. Skill Sniper DDR3 1600
Storage: 120Gb Silicon Power S60 SSD
Video cards: 2x (SLI) 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
Power Supply: 750w Corsair TX750M

This would all go in a mid-tower case with two 120mm intake and exhaust fans. The case is literally 10 years old and has never been built in. Due to financial stresses, that first-ever decade-ago build was indefinitely postponed. Since then, I've helped several people with their own builds...but have never actually built one of my own. Perhaps the time has come.

My only concern is whether or not the SLI configuration will be bottlenecked by the processor. Obviously that depends largely on the program, but I think it should perform as-intended for most games. On the other hand, perhaps 8Gb of RAM might be a bottleneck. Any input in this regard would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Get a K version of an I7, it is faster, more efficient while providing necessary future-proofing. It will also give you a larger overhead for SLI due to factory speed and later overlocking. I have a 2500k, 3.3 overclocked, 4.5, and it bottlenecks my 780 all the time just as a single card. You can not overclock your CPU thus your SLI will find a cpu bottleneck. It is also slow compared to high-end speeds these days. K's are unlockable but only do so with an aftermarket cooling unit. Intel's is not enough.

Get more than 8gb of ram since the combination of games, browsers and bloatware people have these days is getting close to the capacity. You should have no paging file on your SSD as it will just shorten the life span thus no virtual memory to use unless you have a secondary HDD, which you should buy for games and a paging file.

Buy a newer card so you can step up to SLI, a 900 series or similar ATI model. 750s are mid-range now thus is obsolete no matter if you SLI or not. SLI is not combining the capabilities of two cards into one, it is resource management thus is about efficiency not performance. Two 2gb cards in SLI still have the limit of having only 2gb total, this is not combined. Thus games which uses a lot of memory for textures are still limited to 2gb, Rome 2 for example.Speed restriction apply as well.

Add all your power requirements together. Include all your listed parts and include all secondary parts such as fans, dvd drive, bluetooth, etc. If combined the number is between 50-80% of your 750 you are fine. If above 80% get a 850. If below 50% get something cheaper. Although I doubt it will be below 50%. Make sure you add the requirements of your second card otherwise you can not SLI.

With your case I advise getting a reference cooling version as it is sealed and pumps hot air out of the case. SLI will heat up your case thus heat up your whole system if not using a reference cooler. The other option is to get a full case so you have enough air flow fans to pump the GPU out of the case if using aftermarket or non-reference cooling.

The brands I have no issue with, just make sure you register everything as some companies have a warranty policy that is only available to customer at the time of purchase or a short grace period.

Ouroboros said:

Take the 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750, it requires 400w just by itself. You have two. Doesn't that mean you need at least 800w just for the graphic cards?

Click to expand...

If running at full power yes. Also considering a lot of GPUs have built in boost modes which automatically overclock a card one needs to consider the maximum rather than basic required power. A GPU can run in a lower power state on a weak PSU only to have it boost to full and crash a system.

Ouroboros said:

Take the 2Gb GDDR5 Geforce GTX 750, it requires 400w just by itself. You have two. Doesn't that mean you need at least 800w just for the graphic cards?

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't. The GTX 750 only draws power from the PCI-e slot, which maxes out at 75 watts. Other graphics cards, such as the GTX 980, use a six-pin connector to draw additional power, up to 300 watts total. NVIDIA recommends a 300 watt power supply for average systems that use this card.

Ouroboros said:

Do you think it's enough with 750w? My son is building a game computer right now, and he's using a 1200w PSU.

Click to expand...

This is future proofing and efficient ranges. Most PSUs using a rating of 50% power and 80% power as indicators of how well it runs under certain loads. Efficiency drops between, blow and above these ranges. There is also heat to be considered as a PSU running only at 50% is not as hot as one running at 80% or above.

Shad said:

If running at full power yes. Also considering a lot of GPUs have built in boost modes which automatically overclock a card one needs to consider the maximum rather than basic required power. A GPU can run in a lower power state on a weak PSU only to have it boost to full and crash a system.

Click to expand...

I've had systems crash on me for underpowered PSU. And it's nasty to figure out.

Also, another point is, if I want a system that can grow with time, new GPUs, more HDs, etc, then I don't want to have the hassle with upgrading the PSU as well. I rather have an overkill power supply than forget I had to upgrade that as well when time comes.

TurkeyOnRye said:

No, it doesn't. The GTX 750 only draws power from the PCI-e slot, which maxes out at 75 watts. Other graphics cards, such as the GTX 980, use a six-pin connector to draw additional power, up to 300 watts total. NVIDIA recommends a 300 watt power supply for average systems that use this card.

Click to expand...

I see.

TurkeyOnRye said:

No, it doesn't. The GTX 750 only draws power from the PCI-e slot, which maxes out at 75 watts. Other graphics cards, such as the GTX 980, use a six-pin connector to draw additional power, up to 300 watts total. NVIDIA recommends a 300 watt power supply for average systems that use this card.

Click to expand...

No it uses more than that as it requires secondary connections from the PSU itself. If it was limited to 75 no such connections would be required at all. Both ATI and Nvidia overpower their cards as a standard for safety (profit) measures.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti review - Graphics card power consumption and Hardware installation

Ouroboros said:

I've had systems crash on me for underpowered PSU. And it's nasty to figure out.

Also, another point is, if I want a system that can grow with time, new GPUs, more HDs, etc, then I don't want to have the hassle with upgrading the PSU as well. I rather have an overkill power supply than forget I had to upgrade that as well when time comes.

Click to expand...

I go for overkill myself, a PSU is not a part to be cheap on, ever. Corsair has a good warrant policy of 5 years and often upgrades parts for it's customs if it fails.

Also make sure your PSU is compatible with your GPU as per my linked article above. At time some models exclude cabling as PEG is not huge in the gaming market which Corsair caters to. The 750 PSU for your 750 card is fine. If you change to a different GPU then you need to revision your power requirements

Shad said:

No it uses at lot more than that.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 and 750 Ti review - Graphics card power consumption and Hardware installation

Click to expand...

That test is measuring system draw, not the draw of just the card.

This test shows the draw of several cards, including the GTX 750 ti, which is very comparable to the gtx 750. Even at peak performance, it never pulls more than 68 watts.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-750-ti-review,3750-21.html