PC Build Help

Doyler99

Hey guys, I'm currently using a fairly horrible 4 year laptop so I think it's time to get a proper PC now.
PS: On that hardwareversand site at the end when you're ordering stuff I click no thanks on the service check stuff and the price increases somehow?
And also I might get all the parts and get them to make it up for me for the extra 20 quid coz I dont know much about making up computers and can save time, Is delivery and all that same etc?

1. What is your budget? 800-1000 (inc monitor)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (dia 3, Skyrim, Bf3) perhaps some java programming too

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No have one

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. Don't really mind maybe a 20"

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? No

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless Card

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Laser

9. When are you purchasing? Week or 2

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Will not need help

Procrastastudy

Item|Price
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€101.43
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.68
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€75.93
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.19
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.88
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.54
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Intel Core i5-2320 Box, LGA1155|€170.00
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1028.98

GPU is overkill - wait until the 660ti comes down in price or go with a 7850 if you'd like to bring this in under budget.

If you want it closer to €800 you could happily drop down to an i3 - or if you think you might need the computing power - drop the SSD.

IMO Don't have HWVS build the machine - many threads on why but basically its not worth it.

Doyler99

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Item|Price
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€101.43
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.68
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€75.93
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.19
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.88
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.54
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Intel Core i5-2320 Box, LGA1155|€170.00
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1028.98
GPU is overkill - wait until the 660ti comes down in price or go with a 7850 if you'd like to bring this in under budget.

If you want it closer to €800 you could happily drop down to an i3 - or if you think you might need the computing power - drop the SSD.

IMO Don't have HWVS build the machine - many threads on why but basically its not worth it.

Hey man thanks for the build there!

Only thing is I have never built a PC before and I dont wanna wreck it :S
Yea I might go with the 7850 for GPU and also go for the i5 -3570 CPU

Are SSD really necassary nowadays? Whats the main adv of them other than putting the OS on it

Will that PSU have enough watts for everything yea? Should I increase it?

I see good reviews for them Cool master cases but more expensive so not sure!

Also what network card would you recommend? Any of them 10 quid ones would do the job?

Procrastastudy

Doyler99 wrote: »

Hey man thanks for the build there!

Only thing is I have never built a PC before and I dont wanna wreck it :S

UPs are much more likely to wreck it shipping it built. HWVS arent the best at building machines either tbh. Any PC head (load advertise on adverts.ie) will build it for €50 - guys here would build it for free (maybe a few beers)

Doyler99 wrote: »

Yea I might go with the 7850 for GPU and also go for the i5 -3570 CPU

Not sure I'd go for Ivy on stock cooling. The sandybridge CPUs (i5-2XXX) run cooler. Not really much difference in clock speeds unless you are overclocking - you'll have to make the value judgement yourself. What I will say is people tend to overestimate CPU needs and under estimate GPU needs.

Doyler99 wrote: »

Are SSD really necassary nowadays? Whats the main adv of them other than putting the OS on it

I find BF3 unplayable (well frustrating) on a HDD. Having the OS on it will make the machine seem more nippy. Comes down to personal choice. If it came down to a choice between dropping it for GPU/CPU or beer I would. Otherwise I'd go for one.

Doyler99 wrote: »

Will that PSU have enough watts for everything yea? Should I increase it?

PSUs are a topic in themselves. 450w for a machine with no over clock and a modest GPU will be loads. Assuming you get a good one like the amazon ofc.

Doyler99 wrote: »

I see good reviews for them Cool master cases but more expensive so not sure!

If you're not over clocking theres not much difference in cases.

Doyler99 wrote: »

Also what network card would you recommend? Any of them 10 quid ones would do the job?

Probably - I've never looked into them tbh. Be careful to get one that will fit into a slot on your mobo

Bloodwing

Doyler99 wrote: »

Only thing is I have never built a PC before and I dont wanna wreck it.

When the lads here put together a spec for me I had never built a pc before and had zero experience of computer hardware. I watched the Newegg how to build a PC videos and went from there. Now I have a fully water cooled system and I'm regularly swapping bits and pieces in family members systems. If you can hold a screwdriver you can put a PC together. It's also more fun that way and it means you'll be confident enough to take it apart if something goes wrong.

U_Fig

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Item|Price
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€101.43
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.68
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€75.93
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.19
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.88
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.54
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Intel Core i5-2320 Box, LGA1155|€170.00
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1028.98

GPU is overkill - wait until the 660ti comes down in price or go with a 7850 if you'd like to bring this in under budget.

If you want it closer to €800 you could happily drop down to an i3 - or if you think you might need the computing power - drop the SSD.

IMO Don't have HWVS build the machine - many threads on why but basically its not worth it.

Ok well looking at that build there's no point in going for a Z77 board if you are not going to overclock the CPU go for a H77 bord and an i5 3450.. Also i'd go for a HD 7850... that'd be ok for what you want..

Procrastastudy

U_Fig wrote: »

Ok well looking at that build there's no point in going for a Z77 board if you are not going to overclock the CPU go for a H77 bord and an i5 3450.. Also i'd go for a HD 7850... that'd be ok for what you want..

He has a point on the mobo actually. Except I'd go for a B75

Doyler99

Wow thanks all for all the good feeback!
I looked up vids on newegg for making the PC and it dont seem to bad now ( I think)
I would do a nice neat table for my final build but I dunno how to do them haha
But It's mostly what procrastastudy had in his spec he posted first with a few changes here:
MoBo:ASRock B75 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX - 82,56
GPU: XFX DD RADEON 7850 860M 2GB D5 2x mDP HDMI 2x DVI - 232
PSU: Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W - 71,20 (changed from 450W because GPU said it required 650W)
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155 – 218,09
RAM: 8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9 – 45.14

Procrastastudy

The processor you have there (and the RAM) would be for a system that is going to be overclocked. If you are going to do that you need a better cooler and (possibly) a better case. You'll certainly want the Z77 mobo I originally speced.

If not then you are over spending in those areas.

Most PSU suppliers lie about there wattage output hence GPU manufactures compensate. 450W is plenty for a non-OC'd system. For Ocing the sweet spot is the 550W unless you're gonna go nuts.

Doyler99

Procrastastudy wrote: »

The processor you have there (and the RAM) would be for a system that is going to be overclocked. If you are going to do that you need a better cooler and (possibly) a better case. You'll certainly want the Z77 mobo I originally speced.

If not then you are over spending in those areas.

Most PSU suppliers lie about there wattage output hence GPU manufactures compensate. 450W is plenty for a non-OC'd system. For Ocing the sweet spot is the 550W unless you're gonna go nuts.

I won't be overclocking but I want a decent CPU too!
So do you think I should just go with you're orginal spec post? But just swap the GPU for the 7850 and that be good to go then?

Like the last time I looked at computer specs was over around 4 years ago and alot has changed since then so I don't know much on them :S

Procrastastudy

For non OC'd systems the memory you go for makes no difference so go for the cheap stuff.

The 3570K is specifically designed for over-clocking. It has an unlocked multiplier. That said if its the same price as a 3570 - non K sku go for it. If you do though I would go with a Z77 board so you can over clock it later on - if you pick up a decent cooler.

On overclocking and Intel clock frequencies. It may be worth going for Ivybridge over Sandy bridge if you are going to run at stock - I'm not sure maybe a few FPS in Skyrim. Realistically though you are only going to see big jumps in performance if you overclock you CPU to get the most out of it. If you're not overclocking - I'd personally go with the cheapest i5 so I had the 4 core processor and not worry about clock speed or manufacturing process.

James Begley

Item|Price
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower Case|€55.01

AMD FX-8120 Black Edition Eight Core Processor|€149.25

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Motherboard|€134.83

8GB-Kit G.Skill Ares Ram|€52.07

2 MSI N560GTX-M2D1GD5 Graphics Cards (SLI Setup)|€314.76

Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive|€74.80

LG GH22NS50/70/90 DVD Drive|€17.90

XFX PRO750W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€86.67

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler|€27.99

TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless Adapter|€6.24

BenQ G2255|€99.00

*OPTIONAL*Samsung SSD 830 128GB*OPTIONAL*|€100.80

Total WITHOUT SSD|€1012.28
Total WITH SSD|€1113.08


Go buy a beer with the change

Case - Case has good air flow and its a reasonable price
Processor - The processor is an absolute beast making this build a powerhouse
Motherboard - The Motherboard support nvidia sli setup and has and alot of tweaking options
RAM -The g skill RAM is one of the best kits for the money and this particular model is faster
Graphics Cards - Dual Graphics cards allow for an sli steup to play all games on ultra quality
Hard Drive - Decent hard drive with lots of Space for games
DVD Drive - DVD Drive is standard
Power Supply - A 750 watt PSU is to power the beast processor and both of the graphics cards
CPU Cooler - The CPU cooler is one of the best on the market and is needed to keep beast processor cool that and is a very reasonable price
Monitor - The monitor is very cheap and lets you play all your games at 1920x1280
Wireless Adapter - I Chose an external adapter simply because it was cheaper

I Tried to fit an SSD in but i couldnt keep it within budget ..
Hope This Helped !

Procrastastudy

Have you any benchmarks to back up this being a decent build?

The AMD processors are much slower than the Intel equivalents, use more power and are about to be replaced.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html?

SLI set ups are not without their problems especially when using old power hungry architectures. That set up makes no sense in the light of more modern, power efficient, single GPU set ups.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

For this type of set up you'd want a modular power supply.

You'd want a much better case than the one you've included given the heat output of two GPUs. I struggle with airflow in a 600T given my over clocks.

James Begley

its not all about a single part works alone these parts work together great and thats why its a good gaming build

it has been said many a time that a single gpu cant run battlefield 3 on ultra unless you spend 700 - 900 euro on a gpu

Procrastastudy

James Begley wrote: »

Item|Price
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower Case|€55.01

AMD FX-8120 Black Edition Eight Core Processor|€149.25

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Motherboard|€134.83

8GB-Kit G.Skill Ares Ram|€52.07

2 MSI N560GTX-M2D1GD5 Graphics Cards (SLI Setup)|€314.76

Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive|€74.80

LG GH22NS50/70/90 DVD Drive|€17.90

XFX PRO750W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€86.67

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler|€27.99

TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless Adapter|€6.24

BenQ G2255|€99.00

*OPTIONAL*Samsung SSD 830 128GB*OPTIONAL*|€100.80

Total WITHOUT SSD|€1012.28
Total WITH SSD|€1113.08


Go buy a beer with the change

Case - Case has good air flow and its a reasonable price
Processor - The processor is an absolute beast making this build a powerhouse
Motherboard - The Motherboard support nvidia sli setup and has and alot of tweaking options
RAM -The g skill RAM is one of the best kits for the money and this particular model is faster
Graphics Cards - Dual Graphics cards allow for an sli steup to play all games on ultra quality
Hard Drive - Decent hard drive with lots of Space for games
DVD Drive - DVD Drive is standard
Power Supply - A 750 watt PSU is to power the beast processor and both of the graphics cards
CPU Cooler - The CPU cooler is one of the best on the market and is needed to keep beast processor cool that and is a very reasonable price
Monitor - The monitor is very cheap and lets you play all your games at 1920x1280
Wireless Adapter - I Chose an external adapter simply because it was cheaper

I Tried to fit an SSD in but i couldnt keep it within budget ..
Hope This Helped !

James Begley wrote: »

its not all about a single part works alone these parts work together great and thats why its a good gaming build

it has been said many a time that a single gpu cant run battlefield 3 on ultra unless you spend 700 - 900 euro on a gpu

I have to disagree - the system you have speced will perform significantly worse than the one I have speced. The 7950 in the initial build will annihilate BF3 on ultra. Even if the OP comes down to a 7850 he'll still be able to run at reasonable frame rates with the MSAA turned down. A 6870 can handle it.

I see you've changed your build to an 8-core build. That won't help performance in a gaming rig.

Nice of you to put forward an alternative build but unless you can come up with some source for why you think it will perform better I'm afraid I'm going to have to call a spade a spade - the build is sub-optimal to say the least. The biggest issue being the GPU set-up.

ED E

Octacore for gaming :rolleyes:

U_Fig

Item|Price
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€55.01
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€43.40
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s|€74.80
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€35.52
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€18.16
ASRock B75 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€72.44
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155|€179.21
MSI R7850 TwinFrozr 2GD5/OC, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€231.22
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€100.80
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€14.64
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€943.19

here's a sample build that should play skyrim and BF3 on almost full settings.. it's pretty similar to the one posted above.

if you are are willing to try overclocking then change the mobo and CPU to these and add the aftermarket cooler

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€217.93
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€91.34
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€36.81
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€365.07

you are under budget a little bit with this if you wanted you could go for a better GPU like a HD Radeon 7870, or even at a push GTX 670 or HD Radeon 7950.

Doyler99

Wow guys really appreciate all these builds, have a rough idea what I'm going to get now

Last question (I swear), I looked up various benchmark sites for GPU and From that I can see the 660 ti beats the 7950 at every game bar 2, crysis and metro 2033. The 660 ti is also 50 quid cheaper than the 7950. So you's think I should get the 660 ti? and will that Super flow amazon 80plus 450W PSU be alrite for it?

http://www.anandtech...duct/647?vs=550

Procrastastudy

The benchmarks for the 660ti don't tell the whole story. And ask as many questions as you like - we actually like people asking questions unlike many forums

The nVidia cards have a lot going for them. Adaptive vSync which helps at high frame rates, and new AA (image quality) types. Many of their boards are voltage locked which cripples them for over clocking. nVidia Kepler cards are also handicapped by lower memory and memory bandwidth limitations.

All that mumbo jumbo aside - stock at 1080p go for the 660ti. High res gaming go for a 7950. The 7950 is also projected to be more 'future profff'. That could tune out to be rubbish though.

Be careful on 660ti pricing it's a great card for under €300 but with the current hype surrounding it's launch it's being sold at a premium.