Budget/gaming PC for €500

Lord Spence

1. What is your budget? [€500]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming//Internet]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes - DVD drive

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? I'm using an lg 32" tv with 1080p

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Speakers] wireless card required

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Not sure what this is?

8. How can you pay. Laser/credit card or PayPal

9. When are you purchasing? [asap]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [no help needed, but based in the clare only question do I need to worry about static discharge?

BloodBath

Should be fine for 1080p at medium to high settings. Good upgrade options as well.

Item|Price
Cooltek CT K5 3.0, ohne Netzteil|€38.71
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€89.00
ASRock 970DE3/U3S3, AM3+, ATX|€55.64
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€52.48
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€58.85
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 400W|€38.94
MSI R7790-1GD5/OC, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€127.92
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€14.64
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€495.17

Lord Spence

thats looks like a really good system, and right on my budget thanks very much. One question does this AMD processor need a cooling fan or does it come in the box?

iFergal

It will come with a stock heatsink fan. You stated in the form you're not sure what overclocking is - this is basically bumping up the speed of your processor (or GPU) a bit for extra performance, but you don't want to be doing that with a stock fan.

If you don't want to overclock, you don't really need an aftermarket fan, and it will bring you above budget from BloodBath's build, but something to consider for the future: CM Hyper 212 Evo

Lord Spence

perfect, i'll keep that in mind but probably wont be overclocking as I do most of my gaming on console anyways.

BloodBath

You will change that when you join the glorious pc gaming master race

Lord Spence

Never!!!! LOL

Lord Spence

ok sorry maybe a stupid question but how do i pay for all the parts once there in my basket its going on about prepayment but not giving me option for credit card

iFergal

Aha, I had that problem a few days ago when ordering from HWVS for the first time.

They don't accept credit cards from Ireland so it's either pay via PayPal (extra 3% charge) or cash on prepayment, which is a bank transfer. They will email you shortly after ordering with bank details, just transfer the money.

Btw, think it usually takes around 2-3 days to transfer, mine took less than 1 day though. :P

BloodBath

If you do it through online banking it takes no more than 1 working day.

Lord Spence

Thanks IFergal, i'll just do a bank transfer 3% is crazy, thanks to everyone on here for your help, order put in and I will update on how I get on with my first every build when its done.. unless I have to come here sooner for help

Lord Spence

sorry for another question but as its a german based site im buying from will the bios be in german or english?? and will I have any difficulty with the power supply unit again because its german??

iFergal

Nah, I'd doubt it. Could be wrong, haven't got my order yet, but I'm assuming it's English. And that's a reliable PSU, you'll be fine.

BloodBath

Nope it's in English. The psu power cable will have a 2 pin german connection.

Lord Spence

iFergal wrote: »

Nah, I'd doubt it. Could be wrong, haven't got my order yet, but I'm assuming it's English. And that's a reliable PSU, you'll be fine.

Nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose

Lord Spence

OK just giving an update on my build, Parts arrived very quickly. A few niggly problems here and there with the build (forgetting to connect the cpu fan is not a good idea) but nothing major thankfully. My one main problem after the install is the wireless card I am getting 1 maybe 2 bars of signal if I am lucky. I had a very old belkin wireless usb stick and got a much stronger signal from that, Im on upc and have very thin walls.

Any suggestions?

iFergal

Weird. I got my order last week and have the same PCI card, works perfectly. (Although I feel like I could be getting a much stronger connection, nothing I'm worried about though). Make sure the antenna things are pointing toward your router which should point back.

Just keep in mind that this is a rather cheap wireless card, if it's a problem you might need to invest in a higher quality one.

Lord Spence

I'll try and allign the atennas tonight, Im also going to upgrade to the 50mb broadband on upc so that might help as I will be getting a new router. Just seemed strange to only get 1 bar signal thought I might have been doing something wrong, couldnt find an updated driver either.

BloodBath

I hear the stock cooler is very loud with those Phenoms. You may want to upgrade that at some point. That would allow you to overclock the cpu then as well.

I'm surprised at the wireless card tbh. Most of those dual receiver ones are good at picking up signals. As said above try moving the antennas around. Same for the router.

Lord Spence

BloodBath wrote: »

I hear the stock cooler is very loud with those Phenoms. You may want to upgrade that at some point. That would allow you to overclock the cpu then as well.

I'm surprised at the wireless card tbh. Most of those dual receiver ones are good at picking up signals. As said above try moving the antennas around. Same for the router.

The machine is very quiet actually not noticed it being loud at all. Need to purchase a usb3 pci card so I can get the front usb3 ports working, no connection on the motherboard for the front ports.

BloodBath

There's always something Thanks for the heads up.

I don't think there's many boards in that price range that have usb3 headers though.

Lord Spence

BloodBath wrote: »

There's always something Thanks for the heads up.

I don't think there's many boards in that price range that have usb3 headers though.

Dont get me wrong im delighted with my build thanks for the help, great learning expierence.

BloodBath

No problem.

It's good to know these things for future. I might be able to optimise builds a bit better.

How's it doing in games?

Lord Spence

Haven't tried yet communion weekend will give it a lash this week at some stage, will update and let u know

The Black Oil

Lord Spence wrote: »

The machine is very quiet actually not noticed it being loud at all. Need to purchase a usb3 pci card so I can get the front usb3 ports working, no connection on the motherboard for the front ports.

If you have one in mind/can recommend, I need to do the same. Think I just about have space, but it would be good to have the front USB 3.0 ports going.

Lord Spence

The Black Oil wrote: »

If you have one in mind/can recommend, I need to do the same. Think I just about have space, but it would be good to have the front USB 3.0 ports going.

Not sure yet, but I wasnt looking at spending much more then €20, if I see something thats looks good i'll post the link for it

Lord Spence

OK tried Tomb Raider (2013) today and was running it at the 2nd highest level and not a single problem, but certainly now I hear my fans working hard lol.

I upgraded my BB to 50mb and got a new router and still only getting 1-2 bars off my wireless card. Any suggestions for a decent wireless card or a good resonably priced pair of homeplugs?

BloodBath

It's strange. You aren't the first to complain about that wireless card. 0 complaints about the cheaper 150mb 1 aerial one.

Have you made sure the aerials are secured properly, adjusted them and the ones on the router? How far is your pc from the router and through how many walls?

Lord Spence

Yeah I even re seated the card, tighted the arieals , tried an aeriel from my old upc cisco router on the card still no joy. My router is in the sitting room right next door to my kitchen where my desktop is located, its a superwarm house so the walls are very thin. No idea what could be wrong. Before that I was using an old belkin usb b/g usb dongle and was getting a full signal with that.

BloodBath

That's strange. Are the drivers up to date?

Anything in between that might be interfering? microwave, wireless phone ect?

Lord Spence

I did update the drivers through device manager, checked the website for updated drivers but there were none.

The only thing in the way between the modem and the card is a big american fridge freezer which didnt affect the previous belkin stick.