Thanks to all the forum members who are helping me with my new build. This should be of interest to persons who are planning a high-end HTPC build also. My use is mainly high-level photo editing and I am also not interested in over-clocking.
The availability of motherboards and CPUs based on the Haswell processors are going to get better this month. But given the restricted offerings at the moment (at the one or two small online shops I have checked), I have a couple of questions. These questions are also because I cannot find appropriate reviews as yet or if they are available, I am not able to understand them.
1. My choices regarding CPUs are either the Intel i7 4770 at Rs. 19,000 (overkill as I do not need an i7 machine) or the i5 4430 at Rs 12,000. The latter is a basic CPU but I am not clear, as I cannot understand the specs, whether this is adequate for my purposes. The advantage of the latter is that with the difference in the price I could get myself a basic graphic card.
If the suggestion is to wait, then which 4th gen i5 should I wait for? The 4570r looks sweet as it has an IRIS GPU on-board, but I am not sure when it will be available and at what price.
2. Which Z87 based motherboard to go for? There seems to be two budget offerings at the moment. The Intel DH87RL which is about Rs. 7,000 and the Asus Z87 (basic model) Rs. 11,000. I cannot understand the differences in the specs and what I will be giving up with the basic Intel board.
Apparently the Haswell chips perform very well and run cool and efficiently at base speeds and overclocking them leads to various issues with over-heating etc. This is a moot point as I do not need to go down that route. I was about to pull the trigger on a 3750k machine (a favorite with gamers, I hear) but was advised, as I was doing a new build, to go with the latest technology as 4th gen chips at virtually the same price as 3rd gen processors were just round the corner and although there was only a little gain to be had in performance, there were some more meaningful benefits of using the new 1150 motherboards. Additionally the on-board GPUs (Intel HD 4600 and Iris particularly) were better.
Hope someone can chime in with ideas and this thread will develop as new board and chips become available in India through this month.
The availability of motherboards and CPUs based on the Haswell processors are going to get better this month. But given the restricted offerings at the moment (at the one or two small online shops I have checked), I have a couple of questions. These questions are also because I cannot find appropriate reviews as yet or if they are available, I am not able to understand them.
1. My choices regarding CPUs are either the Intel i7 4770 at Rs. 19,000 (overkill as I do not need an i7 machine) or the i5 4430 at Rs 12,000. The latter is a basic CPU but I am not clear, as I cannot understand the specs, whether this is adequate for my purposes. The advantage of the latter is that with the difference in the price I could get myself a basic graphic card.
If the suggestion is to wait, then which 4th gen i5 should I wait for? The 4570r looks sweet as it has an IRIS GPU on-board, but I am not sure when it will be available and at what price.
2. Which Z87 based motherboard to go for? There seems to be two budget offerings at the moment. The Intel DH87RL which is about Rs. 7,000 and the Asus Z87 (basic model) Rs. 11,000. I cannot understand the differences in the specs and what I will be giving up with the basic Intel board.
Apparently the Haswell chips perform very well and run cool and efficiently at base speeds and overclocking them leads to various issues with over-heating etc. This is a moot point as I do not need to go down that route. I was about to pull the trigger on a 3750k machine (a favorite with gamers, I hear) but was advised, as I was doing a new build, to go with the latest technology as 4th gen chips at virtually the same price as 3rd gen processors were just round the corner and although there was only a little gain to be had in performance, there were some more meaningful benefits of using the new 1150 motherboards. Additionally the on-board GPUs (Intel HD 4600 and Iris particularly) were better.
Hope someone can chime in with ideas and this thread will develop as new board and chips become available in India through this month.