Potential Rig for University Work and Gaming

[Hutch]

Budget
£900-1000 including platinum warranty but excluding peripherals and operating system

Intended Use/Additonal Information

• University work utilising various software and game engines i.e. 3DS Max and Unreal Engine 4
• Gaming at 1080p, I play a bit of every genre
• Watching blu-ray movies
• I plan on upgrading eventually but only after three-four years
• Not currently planning on over-clocking

Case
NZXT PHANTOM 240 WHITE GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81-Gamer: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 150Mbps PCI-E CARD

Thank you for taking the time to read through these specifications, any advice/help is appreciated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would swap out the V300 for any other model as the V300 suffers serious performance issues:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

I'd also up the HDD to a caviar black or even an SSHD if you can afford it.

If you're planning on upgrading in 3 or 4 years, then I'd consider a larger PSU to allow for it, perhaps a 550 minimum or 750 if you might think of SLI'ing the 970's in the future.

 

[Hutch]

Thank you for the feedback, SpyderTracks. I think I be able to afford swapping the SSD and HDD to the 120GB HYPERX Kingston SSD and 1TB Caviar Black HDD along with upping the PSU to 750W.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you for the feedback, SpyderTracks. I think I be able to afford swapping the SSD and HDD to the 120GB HYPERX Kingston SSD and 1TB Caviar Black HDD along with upping the PSU to 750W.

Good plan, that opens up a lot more ongoing potential and will save you some cash when it's time to upgrade.