Recommendations on new build (Specifically CPU) - 4790k

[thomascoote]

Hi,

 

I'm building a new system next month mainly for 3D work at home, so I can work on personal projects in my free time and bring my work home with me when needed instead of having to stay at the office to finish up.

 

These are the specs I have put together:

 

Asus B85M-E Socket 1150 Motherboard

 

Intel Core i7 4790k quad core

 

16GB Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR3 RAM

 

2GB Palit GTX750 Ti

 

2TB 7200RPM HDD

 

Now the main thing I've been looking at here is the CPU. CPU Benchmark gives it a very competitive placement overall, and it's quite easy to overclock it to around 4.4ghz with air cooling.

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

The only other CPU I can see which would be within price range for a home machine would be the 5820k - but this is a newer socket type than the 4790k (the 4790k being socket 1150), meaning I would need to spend at least an extra £80-100 on the motherboard alone, aswell as using DDR4 RAM which again is a significant price leap.

 

Am I missing anything here, or is the 4790k my best bet without having the price leap up too much? For the parts that I listed here I'm looking around the £650 mark, which is all I want to spend on a home machine - to be honest I can't afford to part with much more, especially if it isn't going to get me a big rendering boost.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this, or is the build I listed the best way to go?

 

Thanks.

[Nikolaos M]

Start with a 1TB hdd and a cheaper dual kit RAM (G.Skill, Crucial or Kingston at 1600-2133MHz would be cheaper than Vengeance) and put the money you save (20-30£ or more, I can't really know the prices there) in a better motherboard. It's not advisable to combine a 4790K with an older motherboard like the one you mentioned (BIOS issues, lack of newer features etc.), plus the fact that you don't really need to. Buy an entry level Z97 motherboard and let the i7 run at stock. It will be fast either way. I suggest that you see something between a Gigabyte Z97-D3H and an Asus Z97-K. As for the gpu, try a firm that gives a 3 year warranty. I think Palit is giving 2 years (not sure). Oh, and don't forget to include an aftermarket cooler for this cpu. It runs hot at full load (rendering etc.) and the stock cooler isn't efficient in any way. See a Rajintek Themis Evo as a minimum, if you don't intend to oc.

Edited February 7, 2015 by nikolaosm

[joelmcwilliam]

I would try to put a ssd in the system.

 

B85 and i7 4790K is fine. And with some/most B85 mobo you can overclock. However gigabyte and asrock do have a cheaper z97 mobo. With the z97 mobo you will have more options for finetuning the overclock. And z97 asus and msi mobo do have a lot of goodies in the bios to play with and finetune your system.

 

You could first try the iGPU of the cpu and see if that's fine for you. Cheapest route would be b85 mobo (please make sure it has everything you need) and i7 4790K and use the iGPU. If the iGPU isn't up for the task (I don't know what software you use and what sreen you have) you can always buy a dedicated GPU later.

 

See of any of the given links in this topic is of any use for you:http://forums.cgarchitect.com/77746-need-advice-making-rendering-pc.html

 

Hope this helps.

[aristocratic3d]

Dont constrain yourself within 650

Not a great decision. Quadcore means you cannot upgrade. Buy a cpu with latest mobo.

 

I dont know very well about it. But i bought 5820k recently.

 

A rendering that would take 4 min in 4790 takes 3 min 10 sec now. Not great improvements but you can upgrade to eight core any time. Just change the processor.

[deadkaiser]

4790k is a great cpu however i would not worry about ocing it since it already has a boost speed of 4.4Ghz

 

However with that sort of budget you best bet is to try and get a second hand or clearance 4930k I know no one likes getting second hand but its easily the best performance you will be able to get and if your not in to much of a rush you should be able to get the part cheap. otherwise i'm sure you would be happy with a 4790k.

[Dimitris Tolios]

If you are dealing with quick renders & tests, scalability suffers a bit: certain parts of the rendering process, including the initial setup of the rendering engine, packing the assets / textures etc, remains exclusively or heavily "single threaded". So even if you would drop a 16C CPU in there, you would not be "4x" faster (or 3x, whatever the GHz aggreagate would suggest).

 

Time savings are getting more substantial the longer the rendering time / load gets, as this initial single threaded "overhead" becomes a smaller % of the total time needed, and the we start seeing the aggregate difference (cores * sustained clock speed) predicting performance gains pretty well (for same architecture CPUs).

 

As for overclocking, I agree that the 4790K is pretty fast @ 4.4GHz for single threaded stuff (e.g. modelling in any 3D program, exporting straight from Sketchup etc), but the speed for all cores @ 100% is limited to 4.0GHz (tho turbo-boost now does spread to all 4 cores depending on the temperature, it cannot do 4.4GHz on more than one @ the stock Vcore).

So, overcloking and going 4.5GHz or more for all cores, does bring some goodies for multithreaded stuff (e.g. rendering), although it probably won't be noticeable in single threaded heavy workloads.

[thomascoote]

Thank you all for the replies.

 

I've decided to up it to 32GB RAM now with a Z97 Mobo.

 

I can't really get a 5820k however, as that would require me to buy DDR4 RAM - which pushes the cost of the machine way above what I want to spend for a home machine - Gonna have to stick to socket 1150.

 

Been doing a bit of research myself the past few days and now I'm pretty happy with going for the 4790k. Will be putting an after market cooler on their aswell and giving it a slight OC.

 

I don't think I mentioned either this machine is mainly for rendering stills, I won't be rendering any animation.

[Nikolaos M]

Thank you all for the replies.

 

I've decided to up it to 32GB RAM now with a Z97 Mobo.

 

I can't really get a 5820k however, as that would require me to buy DDR4 RAM - which pushes the cost of the machine way above what I want to spend for a home machine - Gonna have to stick to socket 1150.

 

Been doing a bit of research myself the past few days and now I'm pretty happy with going for the 4790k. Will be putting an after market cooler on their aswell and giving it a slight OC.

 

I don't think I mentioned either this machine is mainly for rendering stills, I won't be rendering any animation.

 

I think you made a good choice. If you intend to oc your cpu you must be careful when choosing motherboard and cooler. Pick a motherboard with not less than 8+ vrm phases and a good cooling system on board. A motherboard in the price range between 140 and 170$ is a minimum in this case.

 

If you intend to buy an air cooler, be sure that your chassis has enough space (=clearance) to fit the one you choose. Noctua, Phanteks, Cryorig and Be Quiet are some of the best firms in cooling solutions. If you are thinking to try an AIO liquid cooler, don't go for a cheap solution. Good AIO's cost and you must see as a minimum, coolers like Corsair H90, CM Seidon 120V, NZXT X41 and other similar products. Good air coolers cost less and are usually better than entry/mid level AIO's, plus the fact that they produce less noise.

Edited February 10, 2015 by nikolaosm