New Build Query - Unreal 4 Engine Dev machine

Wolfsbane2k

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Messages
228
Hi.

A friend of mine wants to get into game dev, and is looking at a machine capable of running the Unreal 4 engine. He' not a hardware bod, so asked me for some help, but i'm not a dev...

So:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Unreal 4 Engine Development for PC and Android above all else.
Epic Recommended HW list: https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Recommended_Hardware

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
£600 all in.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
UK

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Motherboard, Memory, SDD/HD, PSU, GFX,


5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have an old Monitor, ATX case and a spare keyboard/mouse.

6) Will you be overclocking?
If suitable.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1080p

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a month,.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
None Specific.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No.
 
Got a specific model for that case?

I'm assuming the kb/mouse is USB?
 
Any particular online UK store you plan on buying from?
 
Any particular online UK store you plan on buying from?

Novatech.co.uk is just around the corner from me so store pickup/support there is good, if the prices match.

Otherwise,
Scan / Ebuyer / Dabs/Amazon are companies i know and have had good dealings with, but it's not limited to these companies only.
 
Last edited:
Case:
Full ATX or Micro-atx compatible : Coolermaster Centurion 5 (http://www.coolermaster.com/case/mid-tower/centurion-5/)

I strongly recommend getting a completely new case:

That Centurion 5 has very poor airflow by today's standards because it has only a single 80mm fan for intake and only a single 120mm fan for exhaust - and it cannot accept any larger fans or any additional fans without major (possibly severe) modifications to the metalwork. What's more, it is relatively cramped on the inside, especially from front to rear, making it very difficult (if not impossible) to accommodate long graphics cards or even front-edge-mounted SATA ports on the motherboard.
 
I've put together the following spec from Novatech.co.uk

Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £66.98
GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) Motherboard £49.99
Novatech Cougar ATX Case with PWM Fan £24.98
Samsung 224DB 24x DVD Re-Writer - SATA - Black - OEM £12.98
XFX ProSeries 550W Core Edition Power Supply - 80 PLUS Bronze Certified £46.99
Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Operating System - OEM - 64 Bit £79.98
MSI Radeon R9 280 TwinFrozr IV GAMING OC 3GB GDDR5 £149.99
Radeon Gold Rewards - Choose 3 Free Games £0
AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 3.50Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £104.99
Western Digital Caviar Green Power 2TB 64MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATA 6Gb/s <8.9ms - OEM £65.99
Total: £686.86 inc VAT

G.skill has just dropped a £1 so getting that instead and for stock reasons thinking the fx8350 and changing to a 760.

Any PSU recommendations would be appreciated as the xfx is a 5 day lead item.
 
Yeah that setup isn't that good for several reasons:
- That case isn't any better than your current case. The cheapest case that I can recommend that would be better than that Coolermaster case is this Fractal Design case:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/fd-ca-core-2300-bl.html

- That Green drive is pretty slow and considering that more than likely you're storing a bunch of heavily worked on content on the secondary, I recommend this faster hard drive:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata2tbto2.5tb/st2000dm001.html

- At £150, stick with the R9 280 if you can as it's faster than the GTX 760 and its extra VRAM should help with your UnReal development.

- As for the CPU, if you can afford the FX-8350, you might as well go with the faster Core i5 4460:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intelhaswell1150/bx80646i54460.html

See here (The Core i5 4670K is roughly equivalent to the 4460) to see what I mean:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/837?vs=697
 
Arggh, I started the build with a i5 4460 in the mix, but couldn't get it in for under £700. Friend then uppedit by £100 for next day pickup of parts and went fx8350 instead, alonsdie a 770gtx for cuda and physics support, and we've just picked it all up.

As for the case, agreed. Were currently in front of the fractal in the store nd considering the change.
 
Arggh, I started the build with a i5 4460 in the mix, but couldn't get it in for under £700. Friend then uppedit by £100 for next day pickup of parts and went fx8350 instead, alonsdie a 770gtx for cuda and physics support, and we've just picked it all up.

As for the case, agreed. Were currently in front of the fractal in the store nd considering the change.

I hope you got that GTX 770 for around the same price as that R9 280. Otherwise it wasn't worth getting at all even for CUDA and PhysX support since the GTX 970 is close to the price of the GTX 770 and better than it in every single way possible besides availability.
 
he inadvertantly picked the 770 4gb at £230 so we have now changed to the r290 for £3 less.
Means we are slightly imbalanced, but gives us some grunt for a 1440p screen in a few more months
 
I got the specs of the 780 and the 770 mixed up, forgot the 780ti existed.

Ah well, we've still got a cracking PC for less than a pre build
 
Nope, went 760 and an extra 8 GB of ram in the end.
Too bad you couldn't go Intel as that would have balanced the system in the long-run. I hope your friend plans on doing a ton of work with DX12.
 
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