Help with new system spec please

[Snowy2012]

Hi all,

I am about to buy a new system and I am torn between 2 specs and wondered if you have any advice please ?

I am based in the UK and my budget is £1700-£2100 including tax and shipping.

I will be buying every single part APART form keyboard/mice and monitors.

I run two monitors - both 27" at 1920x1200 resolution.

I want to buy the system pre-built with on-site warranty ideally and was planning to use http://scan.co.uk (their 3xs systems).

My usage is as follows :

WORK USE :
I am a coder / web developer so my main "daytime" use is for coding/maintaining servers/web dev/some graphics work etc...
An average work session will see, perhaps, Notepad++ open with maybe 10-15 documents. Outlook 2010 with 15 different email accounts. Maybe 2 instances of Firefox with about 10 tabs on each and the same with Chrome. FTP is usually running with active connections to 5-10 sites. Skype is always running with normally around 5 conversation windows open (and very regular calling and desktop sharing).
Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks will sometimes be open as well (but not doing anything complex, just editing images at usually less than 800x600) and possibly Word and Excel 2010. There are always one or two random folders open and I run Avast and Spybot. Google drive is always active too. I often also have a WAMP stack running for testing PHP code.

GAMING USE :
At night, I want to be able to run the latest games at max settings where possible. However, it is worth noting that I only game on ONE monitor - I use my primary monitor full screen (1920x1200) for gaming and my secondary monitor will be displaying Skype and some status stuff etc for me to monitor during gameplay.

My priority is a stable, fast work system followed closely by a good gaming system.

I don't really do any heavy video work - I may record the odd training video using Camtasia and do some basic editing and rendering but nothing too heavy and only occasionally.

I have narrowed it to two configs from Scan. Both of them with onsite cover (important for my business) and both of the pro overclocked by Scan themselves. The overclock is also covered by their 3 year warranty.

Both configs share some similar components as follows :

1. Samsung 512gb Evo Pro SSD and 2Tb WD Green storage drive
2. EVGA GTX 980 SC Single vid cards
3. 750W Corsair RM Modular Silent 80PLUS Gold SLI/Crossfire PSU's
4. Corsair Graphite 780T case
5. Corsair H100 wartercooler
6. Basic DVD-RW
7. Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Then the two configs differ as follows :

CONFIG 1
1. CPU : i7-4790K Pro OC'd to 4.7Ghz
2. RAM : 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro, 2133MHz, CAS 11-11-11-27, 1.5V
3. MB : Asus Z97-P, 4 SATA 6Gbps, 1 PCI-E M.2, SATA RAID, ATX

CONFIG 2
1. CPU : i7-5820k Pro OC'd to 4.2Ghz (or I can have 4.4Ghz but thought 4.2 might be best for stability)
2. RAM : Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) Vengeance LPX, 2666MHz, CAS 16-18-18-36, 1.2V
3. MB : Asus X99-A, Intel X99, S 2011-3, DDR4, SATA III 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), ATX

Config 2 is, obviously, the more expensive system but cost isn't an issue as it is still within the budget (and it gets offset against tax anyway).

I have read many comparisons and reviews and I can't decide which way to go - The faster clock of the 4790k or the extra cores (and newer platform) of the 5820k.

For example, given the type of desktop stuff I do (work time) - will the 5820k give me any advantage over the 4790k (I guess I do a lot of multitasking but, even so) ?

Will config 1 blast config 2 out of the water for gaming or will not notice any real world playability difference? I am not worried about running benchmarks or anything - I just want to know will I get just as great a gaming experience from Config 2 as I would from Config 1 (in real world play).

HELP please I need to get this ordered tomorrow !

 

[charold]

I personally would go with extra cores seeing as the multitasking you are doing. I don't think you'd notice the extra 500mhz, plus the extra cache on the 5820k will offset some of the performance difference additionally. Both would suffice just fine. Just as an example, for my work machine I have the following specs

i7 3770 (stock speeds)
32GB RAM
600W P/S
128gb + 256gb + 3TB Mech Drives
Cheap video on 27" 1440p + (2) 1200P monitors

I run on average 100 tabs between Firefox, Chrome, and IE combined
Lotus Notes with avg of 10 tabs open
Cherry Tree running SQLite on about 5mb database
2-10 putty sessions
Blackberry Link
Vcenter Vsphere
3-5 VMs (1 Win 7 with 4gb ram, multiple Linux boxes with 512-2GB RAM - hence 32GB of ram)
AD Tools (Users, GPMC, DNS, DHCP)
Excel + Word docs

Thats usually running at any given time, and I never notice a slowdown at all. The 4790k overclocked would definitely be faster, let alone that i7-5820k. Either way you should be more than fine.

 

[Snowy2012]

Thanks charold - that's given me some confidence on the 5820k for my work needs - now... what about gaming ?

I'm not following you though on this : " The 4790k overclocked would definitely be faster, let alone that i7-5820k."

So are you recommending the 4790K or the 5820k ?

 

[charold]

Thanks charold - that's given me some confidence on the 5820k for my work needs - now... what about gaming ?

I'm not following you though on this : " The 4790k overclocked would definitely be faster, let alone that i7-5820k."

So are you recommending the 4790K or the 5820k ?

Sorry for the lack of context. I was referring to them being much faster than my stock i7 3770

I would still recommend the 5820k, additional memory bandwidth, more PCI-E lanes, more cores, more cache, slightly less clockspeed (which will be slightly offset by additional cache anyways). Assuming it's not too much more cost wise that is.

Quick Links

Overclock 3d 5820k Gaming

Anandtech 1080p Gaming

Kitguru 4790 vs 5820k with OC

The 4790k will have a slight advantage in gaming, but personally, I don't think it'd be enough to sway me from all the other bonuses. I'm also assuming slightly higher power usage is not a concern, correct?

 

[charold]

Just using my work machine as an example with multitasking, I have those apps open plus windows explorer, a pdf or two, and whatever else may be running at the same time, and I'm using about 18GB of RAM, but when I close my VMs it drops to 10GB or less.

 

[rive22]

The standard 4/8 i7 will handle your workload perfectly fine without a doubt. Depending on the cost difference and how long you want the rig to last, I would choose the 6/12 core rig. Without a doubt.

 

[Snowy2012]

Thanks charold for the clarification Much appreciated. I'm not really worried about power usage BUT noise could be a factor ????

rive22 the cost difference is about £250 but it doesn't matter at all as it is a company purchase and we offset it against tax anyway. I am tending to agree on the 6/12 rig.

However... What I am worried about is whether the 5820k will be vastly inferior for games or not - IE: Would I really notice it in real world usage?

For example : Losing 20fps is a big difference if the FPS's you are talking about are 10fps compared to 30fps BUT if the FPS's you are comparing are 70fps vs 90fps - would you notice that mid-game when you are immersed? I doubt it.

 

[Dangman]

Thanks charold for the clarification Much appreciated. I'm not really worried about power usage BUT noise could be a factor ????

Noise is only a factor depending on what case, fans, and HSF you're planning on getting.

A good quiet case, fan. and HSF doesn't really care what CPU you have.

However... What I am worried about is whether the 5820k will be vastly inferior for games or not - IE: Would I really notice it in real world usage?

At the resolution you're talking about, not really.