First time building a Pc

Ichirau

Hi, So i'm looking for some help on building a new Pc. I'll be using it for gaming but nothing high end like running Crysis 2 on max settings, at most being able to play black ops or battlefield.

I'm a complete noob at this stuff so i'll need everything, including a windows vist/7 operating system. My budget is around 550-650, but i'm not bothered about a monitor at the moment i'll hook it up to my tv to start off with. I was looking at websites where to get the parts and the best 2 i found were

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/index.php
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/home.jsp

Last thing, would i be able to put it together myself? i'm afraid that i'd put things in the wrong place and fry the whole desktop : /. So thanks in advance!

Kadongy

I used the first one and found them good. I have seen peolpe on this site speak positively of the other one. Amazon and Komplett are also worth checking out.

You would be able to put it together yourself. I assembled one for the ifrst time recently and was wary I would damage it, but in general it is unlikely, because most of the wires only fit the places they are supposed to go anyway

Vicxas

Komplett are good but their stock levels are abismal lately, Overclockers are great for premium stock and hardwareversand are cheap as hell, but ive heard some bad stories about them.

Connavar

Just put my first pc together last week and it was quite easy. Just make sure to ground yourself and you will be fine.
I used hardwareversand and had no problems with them.

Jonny7

hardwareversand - very good rep, and they'll build it for you for 20 euros

johnmcdnl

hardwareversand - built my first pc a few weeks back and absouelty no trouble at all with them...

build it yourself - it's well worth it and makes you feel like a clever ****er

but seriously - it's really easy - everything plugs straight into where it's supposed to go - it's nearly impossible to get it wrong because it won't go in anywhere unless it's right... really is straightforward and well worth doing yourself

Ichirau

Thanks for your input guys. I've been looking on overclockers and there's 100's of parts to choose from, i don't know which would be best value for the money. Also i don't even know how many things you need to build a Pc. I'd end spending all my budget then forgetting to buy a cooling fan or something : /

Is there anyone here that can build me a gaming pc for around 550/650? I don't understand all these fancy name processors and motherboards lol

KilOit

Jonny7 wrote: »

hardwareversand - very good rep, and they'll build it for you for 20 euros

How do they ship it if they build it, do they send you empty boxes and all the loose bits?

I built 4 pc's so far but for 20quid that sounds like a bargain if im getting everything in the tower. yes i'm lazy.

KilOit

Ichirau wrote: »

Thanks for your input guys. I've been looking on overclockers and there's 100's of parts to choose from, i don't know which would be best value for the money. Also i don't even know how many things you need to build a Pc. I'd end spending all my budget then forgetting to buy a cooling fan or something : /

Is there anyone here that can build me a gaming pc for around 550/650? I don't understand all these fancy name processors and motherboards lol

it does look more complicated than it is, main thing is getting the cpu to fit in the right motherboard since they have different sockets, and the correct ram goes into the motherboard.
everything else fits in no problem.

Threw this one together for an idea on amount of stuff you need if starting at scratch without a monitor.

Little over budget and probably overkill on what you want it for, would play crysis 2 with ease, but not even the best machine maxes the god awful black ops, nah i kid, ****ty optimized game though.



Forgot to add Windows 7, forgot some people buy that and
a set of headphones wouldn't go astray, unless you're deaf

Ichirau

Thanks Kiloit, i don't need a keyboard or mouse so that'll save me 70 :P, also do i need an i5 to play games, can't i get an i3 then just get an extra stick of ram or something?

Oh and don't i need like a copy of windows and a case to put all those parts in?

deconduo

Heres another build, similar specs but more withing budget. Also has windows :P On a tight enough budget you can just grab a cheap mouse and speakers, they do the job just fine. Don't get a keyboard from HWVS or it will be in a german layout, get one from adverts or something.

Total build cost: €638.35 + €30 shipping
Club 3D Radeon 6850 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6850, PCI-Express €122.99
Xigmatek Asgard, ATX, ohne Netzteil, schwarz €31.61
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.45
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €171.98
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €99.95
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.47
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ) €33.59
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) €74.51
4GB-Kit Kingston ValueRAM PC3-10667U CL9 €25.18
Logitech B110 optical USB Mouse OEM €4.79
Wintech SPU-25 USB Multimedia Lautsprecher €4.83

Ichirau

Thanks aswell deconduo , that's alot for windows 7 i could probably look around the shops for a cheaper version. Also what's the difference between the 32 & 64 bit version?

KilOit

I think it's worth spending that little extra on the i5 2500k, it's pretty cheap for what you get out of it, an i3 would cost 50€ cheaper but wouldn't be a patch on the 2500k.

KilOit

Ichirau wrote: »

Thanks aswell deconduo , that's alot for windows 7 i could probably look around the shops for a cheaper version. Also what's the difference between the 32 & 64 bit version?

32bit doesn't use more than 3.5gigs of ram, always get the 64bit.
wasting your time with the 32bit

Fluffy88

If you are a student or have a family member that is a student you will be able to get windows cheap from http://www.software4students.ie/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_64_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx

Ichirau

Fluffy88 wrote: »

If you are a student or have a family member that is a student you will be able to get windows cheap from http://www.software4students.ie/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_64_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx

That's the upgrade edition, i need the full version. I'll just shop around for a cheap version :P

Fluffy88

You can use that version to do a clean install. A quick googling will help you find out how to do it.

I found this, not sure if it's the best article on it, but it's a start.
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media

gooch2k9

Fluffy88 wrote: »

You can use that version to do a clean install. A quick googling will help you find out how to do it.

I found this, not sure if it's the best article on it, but it's a start.
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media

+1. That's the one I used, tells you everything you need to know. Very easy to do.

Ichirau

deconduo wrote: »

Heres another build, similar specs but more withing budget. Also has windows :P On a tight enough budget you can just grab a cheap mouse and speakers, they do the job just fine. Don't get a keyboard from HWVS or it will be in a german layout, get one from adverts or something.

Total build cost: €638.35 + €30 shipping
Club 3D Radeon 6850 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6850, PCI-Express €122.99
Xigmatek Asgard, ATX, ohne Netzteil, schwarz €31.61
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.45
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €171.98
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €99.95
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.47
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ) €33.59
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (SB-Version) €74.51
4GB-Kit Kingston ValueRAM PC3-10667U CL9 €25.18
Logitech B110 optical USB Mouse OEM €4.79
Wintech SPU-25 USB Multimedia Lautsprecher €4.83

So is this all i need to build the pc. Do i not need a sound card or another cooling fan or something?

Fluffy88

With modern motherboards they come with sound built-in so you don't need a dedicated sound card unless you have good reason for it, professional audio recording or whatever, which I assume you won't be doing much of.

You can get an aftermarket CPU heatsink if you want to overclock but your CPU comes with it's own heatsink, which is capable of mild overclocking, so unless your looking to do some overclocking again you won't need it. Although they do look cool :P
This is good
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731&agid=669
Or
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28345&agid=669

And you can get case fans, but that case comes with one at the front and when you have your PSU in it acts as an exhaust fan so unless your in a very hot part of Ireland or plan to do overclocking you don't need those either.

Ichirau

Fluffy88 wrote: »

With modern motherboards they come with sound built-in so you don't need a dedicated sound card unless you have good reason for it, professional audio recording or whatever, which I assume you won't be doing much of.

You can get an aftermarket CPU heatsink if you want to overclock but your CPU comes with it's own heatsink, which is capable of mild overclocking, so unless your looking to do some overclocking again you won't need it. Although they do look cool :P
This is good
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731&agid=669
Or
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28345&agid=669

And you can get case fans, but that case comes with one at the front and when you have your PSU in it acts as an exhaust fan so unless your in a very hot part of Ireland or plan to do overclocking you don't need those either.

I don't even know how to overclock so i think i'm ok there. As for the heat, my room is pretty small and with my tv & xbox in there it gets really hot.
I suppose i could get that extra fan you linked for 15.

Also will 4g ram be enough, would i be able to get another 2g stick ram?, i have no idea if it'll be compatible with the original ram or enough space to fit it in the motherboard or wherever it goes :P.

Fluffy88

deconduo knows his stuff so if he gave you 4GB of RAM you can be very sure it's plenty. And in my opinion 4GB is loads in normal use you will never need half of that.

If your not overclocking you shouldn't need the aftermarket heatsink. The i5 comes with it's own heatsink so unless you are overclocking the stock one will do great. With the 2500k overclocking is very easy and safe to do so if you got the aftermarket heatsink you would have the option of doing it. But like I said before the stock heatsink can handle small overclocks too.

Ichirau

Would i need to overclock to run games at a decent fps? I'll mainly be playing minecraft, fallout and other steam games. But i'd like the option to play some online shooter games at medium/low settings

I was asking about the ram for future reference. Is it better to buy the 1 4g stick or 2 2g sticks? Finally, how do i sign up the that website, i changed the language to English but i still can't understand the registration screen lol

Fluffy88

The registration is pretty straight forward, enter your email, password, name & address and phone number that's it.

The 2500k is a beast at stock performance and should do damn near anything you ask it. For games the CPU isn't all that important it's more got to do with the GPU and deconduo has given you a good one there, I don't know much about graphics cards but I think that should run any game at, at least medium settings but don't quote me on that

For the RAM your best off going with 2x2GB. It's dual channel memory so it's meant to be run in pairs. If you wanted to upgrade the RAM a bit later you could get another 2x2GB of RAM and run it along side the other two, or get 2x4GB of RAM and replace the 2x2GB.

Ichirau

Thanks for your help I'll start ordering them items soon. Do you know how long delivery takes?, all the items in my basket have 4 green bars saying "ready for dispatch". I hope it won't take longer than a week or 2

Fluffy88

It seems the normal time from hwvs is about 8-10 days so once all your items are like you said 4 green bars then you should have it within the 2 weeks.

Monotype

Just note that the Windows here is a German version. The English version on HWV is completely overpriced - €40 dearer now! You can use the key that you get with this one fine if you download English disc image.

Ichirau

Monotype wrote: »

Just note that the Windows here is a German version. The English version on HWV is completely overpriced - €40 dearer now! You can use the key that you get with this one fine if you download English disc image.

I don't really understand, so i'm buying a German version of windows? Is there like a language select screen when i boot it up to change to English?

Fluffy88

No what he meant was the version your buying is the German version and there isn't a language selection option when installing it, so if you use that Win7 disc your gonna have to learn German.

There is a simple solution, you must download the English version of windows from the net (deconduo always links to this one http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso) burn that image to a CD and install Windows from that disc. Then just enter the Licence Key you got with the German version and now you have a perfectly legal cheaper English version of Windows 7.

Ichirau

Fluffy88 wrote: »

No what he meant was the version your buying is the German version and there isn't a language selection option when installing it, so if you use that Win7 disc your gonna have to learn German.

There is a simple solution, you must download the English version of windows from the net (deconduo always links to this one http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso) burn that image to a CD and install Windows from that disc. Then just enter the Licence Key you got with the German version and now you have a perfectly legal cheaper English version of Windows 7.

So i don't actually need the disk that comes with the German version, i just need the license key? Paying 75 just for a license key lol, oh well it has to be done

Monotype

Yeah, pretty much. But you it gives you the option to install from USB if you want. Microsoft used to have a USB tool to install ISOs easily but they seem to have removed it. There's alternatives available or you can make it bootable manually (there's a few guides around about this).

When you have your image, check it for integrity by matching against the original hash.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx

Ichirau

Fluffy88 wrote: »

No what he meant was the version your buying is the German version and there isn't a language selection option when installing it, so if you use that Win7 disc your gonna have to learn German.

There is a simple solution, you must download the English version of windows from the net (deconduo always links to this one http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso) burn that image to a CD and install Windows from that disc. Then just enter the Licence Key you got with the German version and now you have a perfectly legal cheaper English version of Windows 7.

So are you sure that will work fine. I mean i don't want any message popping up in a few months saying this is not a legal copy or wrong serial key etc.. : /

Fluffy88

It's perfectly legal. You are buying a Licence Key and there is nothing wrong with downloading the software instead of using the disc. You won't have any issues with it.

Monotype

Your key is what makes your copy official, legal and genuine - not the disc. But if you do download the disc, you should make sure that it is the original as packed by Microsoft and not a pirated/virused/"improved" copy.

Ichirau

Ok, thanks for your help . So i was talking to some friends about the motherboard i'm getting http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43133&agid=1601

But they said get the z68 instead. There's 2 versions of the z68 i found and i don't know which is better : /

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46912&agid=1603
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46922&agid=1601

If i do get the z68 over the p67, i hope all the parts will still be compatible.

Fluffy88

The "M" stands for mini or micro. So it's a mATX board not a full ATX. Go for the full sized one as it's got more connectors and will have more space on it so RAM shouldn't be touching CPU heatsinks and that kinda thing.

Although I'm not fully sure of what the big differences are with the p67 and z68, but the z68 is the newer board.

deconduo

Fluffy88 wrote: »

The "M" stands for mini or micro. So it's a mATX board not a full ATX. Go for the full sized one as it's got more connectors and will have more space on it so RAM shouldn't be touching CPU heatsinks and that kinda thing.

Although I'm not fully sure of what the big differences are with the p67 and z68, but the z68 is the newer board.

Z68 boards allow you to both overclock and use the onboard video. Addtionally they have support for write caching, where you can use a small SSD and a normal hard drive as one complete drive. This gives the advantage of having close to the speed of an SSD on a large hard drive.

Ichirau

deconduo wrote: »

Z68 boards allow you to both overclock and use the onboard video. Addtionally they have support for write caching, where you can use a small SSD and a normal hard drive as one complete drive. This gives the advantage of having close to the speed of an SSD on a large hard drive.

I have no interest in overclocking, but should i still get it? The p67 has 2 more usb ports than the z68 aswell

PseudoFamous

Ichirau wrote: »

I have no interest in overclocking, but should i still get it?

P67 is all about overclocking too. Still, €3 for a better board, deffo.

Ichirau wrote: »

The p67 has 2 more usb ports than the z68 aswell

Easily solvable with a PCI card. Anyway, what the hell do you plan on using more than 8 USB ports for?

Ichirau

PseudoFamous wrote: »

P67 is all about overclocking too. Still, €3 for a better board, deffo.



Easily solvable with a PCI card. Anyway, what the hell do you plan on using more than 8 USB ports for?

I'll only need like 3/4 usb ports, so i'll pay the extra few euro for the board. Thanks for your help!