Budget 90k+ 4K HTPC Upgrade

[m-jeri]

Questions

1. What is your budget?
   • Not yet decided.
2. What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
   • CPU - A6 3500
   • Motherboard - MSI A75MA-G55
   • GPU - Onboard
   • RAM - 4GB DDR3
   • Monitor - Dell S2440L
   • PSU - CM Real Power 750
3. Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
   • Monitor - Dell S2440L for now
   • PSU - CM Real Power 750
4. Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
   • CPU - Any i5?
   • Motherboard - Asus RAMPAGE V EXTREME Motherboard
   • GPU - To drive a 4K Display without any any hiccups
   • RAM - 16 GB DDR4??
   • PSU - Upgrade required?
5. Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
   • 
     No
6. Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
   • Open to online purchase
7. Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
   • No
8. What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
   • Watching HD Movies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   • Gaming
   • Browsing
   • HTPC
9. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
   • Ones with good ASS.
10. If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
    • Strategy - Civilization 4/AOE etc
    • Racing - NFS high settings
    • FPS Games at High Res
11. What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
    1. Gaming - 4k Medium??
    2. Desktop - 4k
12. Are you looking to overclock?
    • Never
13. Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
    • Windows 8.1 to Windows 10
    • No Linux as of now. Never Mac OS

 

[m-jeri]

Any inputs?

 

[Crapmypants]

The biggest bottleneck here will be the 4k resolution so you will have to focus on some serious graphics power.
To game at 4k an sli/xfire system (either 2 gtx 970/980's or 2 r9 280x/290x's) would be the recommended approach. the minimum would be a gtx 980 or titan. the 290x and the older 780ti will also be able to hold their own at 4k but barely.
The rest of the system can be pretty standard (as gaming systems go i.e.) since its purely a matter of pushing out a massive number of pixels.
a standard core i5 with 8gb of ram will be fine.
Switch to a better psu like the seasonic s12/m12 II. The reason for the psu upgrade here is more to do with the quality rather than the wattage capacity.

Btw, new gpu's will be out in a month or so if you have the patience. the 390x was recently used to demo occulus virtual reality so it should be able to handle 4k with ease. (although i feel they might price it against the titan).

 

[m-jeri]

Ah. Glad you talked about Occulus. I am getting the consumer version as soon as I can. So yea, this rig should run that. easily.

Are you saying in one month new gfx cards are out?. It is ok by me, since this is a very expensive upgrade and this should serve me for the next 2 or 3 years I want to be as patient as possible before plonking my money down.

I picked this motherboard for its connectivity options. I am ok with any motherboard if it can give me I/O options like this or more.

 

[Crapmypants]

Yep, the new radeon 300 series are to be announced on june 18th and the 390x on the 24th. i'm expecting the 390x to be the gpu you are looking for however i have a bad feeling it will be really expensive (like 70-80k).
the 980ti is also expected sometime around then.

 

[m-jeri]

Did you mean 70-80k for GPU alone? Are you being serious?

 

[Crapmypants]

Yes it's for the 390x only but my 80k price prediction is just speculation.
A TE member posted some freight shipping forms that listed customs value for the 960 at just under 16k and the 390x at a little over 75k.
the pricing for the 960 was pretty close to it's current market price so i'm assuming the same for the 390x.
Ultimately the fiji gpu will have double the memory, 4 times the bandwidth (HBM), nearly 1.5 times more cores/tmus/shaders/rops than the 290x and is speculated to be at least 50% faster than hawaii.
It's basically amd's attempt at a titan(killer) so given the specs, a $1000+ price tag doesn't seem to be out of place.

 

[m-jeri]

Is there a "budget" way to get perfect 4K?

 

[toxicdrift]

yes u can do a media player + 4k tv many do hardware x265 but with hdmi 2.0 coming out by november .. its a wrong time to spend hard core in the 4k market.. so best not build a pc for now atleast

 

[m-jeri]

NO MEDIA PLAYER. NEVER. I hate those little things.

I want a proper PC. Ah yea, I heard about that. And also the USB Type C connectors. But how much will it impact me? If i get a display and the PC, I am done. No change.

 

[whatsinaname]

Is there a "budget" way to get perfect 4K?

If you want to game on the system at native resolution and max settings, not really. If you are ok with medium settings at 30fps, you can manage with a GTX 970 or higher (from the current generation) - which is still a $300 card.

The other option is to buy a monitor/tv that has a good scaler. You can game at 1080p which will look decent on a 3840x2160 screen if the scaler is good.

 

[m-jeri]

Ok. I think I get the points you guys are trying to say.

What if 4K Desktop Mode and 4K movies are my only requirements? and 1080p max gaming on that? Possible now in a budget?

 

[Crapmypants]

Is there a "budget" way to get perfect 4K?

another option i can think of would be perhaps sli/crossfire older gpus like gtx 770, hd 7970 or used gpus such as gtx 970, r9 280x etc.
If the price of the 390x has put you off then don't worry, the 380x will be properly priced in the 30-40k bracket.[DOUBLEPOST=1432044807][/DOUBLEPOST]

What if 4K Desktop Mode and 4K movies are my only requirements? and 1080p max gaming on that? Possible now in a budget?

Any standard mid to high end gpu should be able to do that.
it's only gaming at 4k that's the problem.
if going with nvidia then a gtx 970 and above will do the job.
if going with amd then an r9 280x and above will do the job.

 

[m-jeri]

380X * 2 is still 80k mate. That too for Gfx Card? Even spending ~1.3L on this upgrade has made me go nuts. And you want me to spend just 80k for Gfx. . that will push my budget way high. I still need to get a 4K Display.

Which most probably will be a Dell one.

Did you mean, a single Gtx 970 will be able to put a 4K desktop and 4k movies without any hiccups?

Isn't 4K movies and games almost the same? FPS and all? I am clueless here.

What about Occulus Rift? That I cannot compromise. I used their SDK 2 and was blown away.

 

[whatsinaname]

Ok. I think I get the points you guys are trying to say.

What if 4K Desktop Mode and 4K movies are my only requirements? and 1080p max gaming on that? Possible now in a budget?

Any 1080p gaming rig you build will easily run 4K Desktop and 4K movies.

Again, "1080p max gaming" means different things for different people. A single GTX 980 is unable to run Witcher 3 at 60fps at max settings.

I think the way you should approach it is this -

1) Fix you budget
2) Finalise your 4k display
3) Create a new thread and ask for recommendations for 1080p gaming at the cost of (Total Budget minus 4k Display Cost)
4) Decide if you think the best system recommended will satisfy your graphics settings needs.

 

[Crapmypants]

You wont need to get two 380x's.
currently the gtx 970, r9 290x, r9 295x2, gtx 980 and gtx titan can all handle 4k gaming without needing sli/xfire.
4k gaming is expensive but you wont need to blow 80k on a multi gpu set-up.
e.g. a gtx 970 can handle 4k just fine and costs 25-30k.
if you want something faster then get the gtx 980 (~40k)
if you want something even faster then get two 970's in sli.
bottom line is that a 25-30k gpu can work for 4k gaming.

if you want only 1080p gaming and everything else at 4k then even cheaper and slower gpus can be considered (gtx 960, r9 280).

Btw, i thought you had budgeted for the 4k monitor separately. even a budget 4k gaming capable system with the monitor included is easily going to be over a lakh.

 

[m-jeri]

You wont need to get two 380x's.
currently the gtx 970, r9 290x, r9 295x2, gtx 980 and gtx titan can all handle 4k gaming without needing sli/xfire.
4k gaming is expensive but you wont need to blow 80k on a multi gpu set-up.
e.g. a gtx 970 can handle 4k just fine and costs 25-30k.
if you want something faster then get the gtx 980 (~40k)
if you want something even faster then get two 970's in sli.
bottom line is that a 25-30k gpu can work for 4k gaming.

if you want only 1080p gaming and everything else at 4k then even cheaper and slower gpus can be considered (gtx 960, r9 280).

Btw, i thought you had budgeted for the 4k monitor separately. even a budget 4k gaming capable system with the monitor included is easily going to be over a lakh.

1.3L for the system in this thread. 4K display will be a separate thing.

Gotcha. I think a 970 will work just fine for my usage.

Any 1080p gaming rig you build will easily run 4K Desktop and 4K movies.

Again, "1080p max gaming" means different things for different people. A single GTX 980 is unable to run Witcher 3 at 60fps at max settings.

I think the way you should approach it is this -

1) Fix you budget
2) Finalise your 4k display
3) Create a new thread and ask for recommendations for 1080p gaming at the cost of (Total Budget minus 4k Display Cost)
4) Decide if you think the best system recommended will satisfy your graphics settings needs.

I understand. I said budget is flexible because I plan to get the monitor from here to India. Only PC Components I want to get from India. Again, there the budget is around 1.3L. Optimal.

4K Display, I haven't yet figured that one out.

Thoughts on this budget.???. 4K Desktop and 4Movies without any any issues. And 1080p Gaming. This comes very close to my budget as well.

Intel® Core™ i7-5820K Processor
Asus GeForce GTX 970 Strix Version 4GB
G.SKILL 16GB (4GB X 4) DDR4 2400MHZ RIPJAWS 4
SEASONIC SS-1250XM2 X-SERIES 1250W
GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD5 WIFI LGA 2011-v3

And this is the ONLY panel I can find in India for 4K.

SAMSUNG LU28D590DS/XL

 

[Crapmypants]

btw, radeon 300 series being announced on june 3rd.

 

[Jasku]

@m-jeri - I am not sure if this the right time to upgrade to 4k, I am sorry, do you guys find enough content in 4k out there? If you do please PM me the links. The only reason it would make sense at this point is gaming, which I gather isnt your top priority and you are happy with gaming at 1080p. Please re-think the timing of the upgrade, you could save up and upgrade when 4k content is freely available?

 

[m-jeri]

Hmm. I do only have around 2TB of offline content.

And my thinking was Netflix and Youtube. I watch a lot of them. And there you find lot of 4K content. Anyways, I do agree with you on most counts. Comparing to my content 2TB of 4K is less than 5%.

Let me think about this more. Until then, thanks for all your inputs. Appreciate it.