Liberator X4

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Hello,

I am looking at this product on the site:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-017-OG

I currently intend to upgrade to 16gb Ram and upgrade to the GTX 960.

I do not have much experience with gaming computers however I have the following questions:

1. Will the CPU bottleneck the GPU?
2. The total comes to £567, this is the maximum I can spend. Do you have any further recommendations?

Thank you in advance.
Saj
 
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What do you intend on doing with the PC? Rendering video etc or just gaming?

16GB RAM is not required for gaming, so you could spend less money there.

I think for £567 you can do a bit better, possibly an i3 + 960 setup even. The FX 4300 isn't a great CPU to be honest, if you get a spec going I believe Overclockers can build you that spec for somewhere in the region of £60 :)

Do you need an OS, keyboard/mouse and monitor?
 
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What do you intend on doing with the PC? Rendering video etc or just gaming?

16GB RAM is not required for gaming, so you could spend less money there.

I think for £567 you can do a bit better, possibly an i3 + 960 setup even. The FX 4300 isn't a great CPU to be honest, if you get a spec going I believe Overclockers can build you that spec for somewhere in the region of £60 :)

Do you need an OS, keyboard/mouse and monitor?

Thank you for your reply.

My intentions are related to gaming (preferably in high settings), editing in Photoshop, general work.

I would like to future-proof my PC for at least the next 5 years.

In regards to peripherals, I only require a simple keyboard. No OS needed.
 
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Thank you for your reply.

My intentions are related to gaming (preferably in high settings), editing in Photoshop, general work.

I would like to future-proof my PC for at least the next 5 years.

In regards to peripherals, I only require a simple keyboard.

Okay, so 16GB RAM would be nice

I think good single and dual thread performance is important for photo editing, so an i3 or Pentium K would be nice, but this may change very soon

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Mini OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DND8VZ) £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £77.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x MSI H81M-E34 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £24.95
1 x Gigabyte K6800 Multimedia Keyboard £10.99
Total : £503.98 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



+ £60 would give £563 for example


or a Pentium K (overclockable on this motherboard with the right BIOS)

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Mini OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DND8VZ) £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £49.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £41.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £24.95
1 x Gigabyte K6800 Multimedia Keyboard £10.99
Total : £517.97 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



and an SSD included :)


In either of these, you could happily drop in a locked or unlocked i7 in the future no problems, a new GPU and you will be fine :)
 
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Okay, so 16GB RAM would be nice

I think good single and dual thread performance is important for photo editing, so an i3 or Pentium K would be nice, but this may change very soon

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Mini OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DND8VZ) £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £77.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x MSI H81M-E34 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £24.95
1 x Gigabyte K6800 Multimedia Keyboard £10.99
Total : £503.98 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



+ £60 would give £563 for example


or a Pentium K (overclockable on this motherboard with the right BIOS)

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Mini OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DND8VZ) £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD316G1600HC11DC01) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £49.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £41.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £24.95
1 x Gigabyte K6800 Multimedia Keyboard £10.99
Total : £517.97 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



and an SSD included :)


In either of these, you could happily drop in a locked or unlocked i7 in the future no problems, a new GPU and you will be fine :)

Thank you very much for taking the time to do that for me my friend.

Unfortunately due to my lack of experience, I cant figure out how the two set ups you posted compare to the 'pre-built' one on the site!

I do have the following questions however:

1. Can OC provide an overclocking service as well? As I will not be confident in doing this myself.

2. I notice that there are different brands of the same components e.g. nvidia vs KFA2. Is there a significant difference in choosing between one or the other except for price?

3. Can this case be used for both configurations?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-162-NX
 
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Thank you very much for taking the time to do that for me my friend.

Unfortunately due to my lack of experience, I cant figure out how the two set ups you posted compare to the 'pre-built' one on the site!

I do have the following questions however:

1. Can OC provide an overclocking service as well? As I will not be confident in doing this myself.

2. I notice that there are different brands of the same components e.g. nvidia vs KFA2. Is there a significant difference in choosing between one or the other except for price?

3. Can this case be used for both configurations?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-162-NX

1) They may be able to overclock for you, but might charge extra, so it might be worth ringing them up or asking in the customer services forum

2) Basically, nVidia make the bare GPU design, architecture, give the specifications out to AIBs (board partners) such as Gigabyte, KFA2, Asus and so on. These AIBs then put their own coolers and custom designs onto these cards, so the Asus cards will have their "Strix" cooler, the KFA2 has their "Mini OC" cooler and so on. They are mostly all decent coolers, all have different features, for example the MSI has a feature where the fans will not spin when it is under idle loads so therefore there is no noise. They may also have different core clock speeds

3) Yes, that case is fine for them both :)

Here is a quick CPU for CPU benchmark for the FX vs the i3

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/700?vs=1192

Basically, the i3 mops the floor with the FX
 
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1) They may be able to overclock for you, but might charge extra, so it might be worth ringing them up or asking in the customer services forum

2) Basically, nVidia make the bare GPU design, architecture, give the specifications out to AIBs (board partners) such as Gigabyte, KFA2, Asus and so on. These AIBs then put their own coolers and custom designs onto these cards, so the Asus cards will have their "Strix" cooler, the KFA2 has their "Mini OC" cooler and so on. They are mostly all decent coolers, all have different features, for example the MSI has a feature where the fans will not spin when it is under idle loads so therefore there is no noise. They may also have different core clock speeds

3) Yes, that case is fine for them both :)

Here is a quick CPU for CPU benchmark for the FX vs the i3

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/700?vs=1192

Basically, the i3 mops the floor with the FX

Thank you for your reply.

In regards to gaming being a priority, which option would you say is ideal?

i3 vs pentium k vs pentium k overclocked?

EDIT: just saw your updated post, I will check out that site.
 
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Thank you for your reply.

In regards to gaming being a priority, which option would you say is ideal?

i3 vs pentium k vs pentium k overclocked?

EDIT: just saw your updated post, I will check out that site.

To be honest I'd take the i3 - the extra threads can make a decent impact for gaming :)
 
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To be honest I'd take the i3 - the extra threads can make a decent impact for gaming :)

So this is what I have so far then:

I've found a spare keyboard, however do you see any further way that the total price can be reduced?
potential%20build_zpskyp0iu1z.png
 
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This ssd https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-055-CR&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394
Unfortunately out of stock though

I think the only thing I can see is the case, £50 seems a bit steep for a system of this price range. Are there any others that catch your eye for less money?

Also, is 256GB space enough or would a 1TB HDD be a better idea? A HDD can always be added later on though :)

I have just looked around and it seems this is the case I prefer. I have chosen this case purely for its aesthetic appeal really.v:p

256GB is enough space for now :)
I think a final question which may put my mind at ease is, in comparison to other 'pre-built' systems available at this price range on OC, e.g. Titan Machete, Liberator X6 and Titan Bayonet, what do you feel about the current set up we have?


Titan Machete:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-001-OG&groupid=43&catid=2475

Liberator X6:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-019-OG&groupid=43&catid=2475

Titan Bayonet:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-004-OG&groupid=43&catid=2475
 
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The two titans only come with R7 240, which is quite a low power card - considerably slower than the 960 GTX

The liberator comes with a 750Ti, again not a bad card but not nearly as fast as the 960. Also, currently I'd take an Intel setup simply because you have an upgrade path to i5 or i7 in the future
 
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