Building a PC

Hi folks,

I'm looking to build a decent PC for between €500 and €700 I'm a first year Comp Science student,
screen real-estate is important to me, I'm a console gamer, but I will probably do a bit of gaming on my new rig.



1. What is your budget? €500 - €700 (cheaper better but can move on budget if benefits are good enough.)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? programming and a little gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

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

5. Do you need a monitor? no

5a. If yes, what size do you need. N\A

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
[2 x 1280x1024], Yes

6. Do you need any peripherals? No

7. I have an SSD

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer, credit card, Pay pal

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? No thanks.

BloodBath

This should do nicely. You could go for a better graphics card if you are getting a 1080p monitor

That board allows 2 graphics cards so you could add another down the line if needed.

You could save €50 if you went down to an fx6350 and a cheaper mainboard or €80 if you dropped the cpu cooler as well.


Item|Price
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€155.52
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.93
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€85.04
8GB G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9|€49.23
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€58.78
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.06
3 x ARCTIC COOLING ARCTIC F12|€9.87
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.66
MSI R7790-1GD5/OC, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€122.84
Samsung SH-118AB schwarz|€12.62
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€628.54

Hi thanks for the build,

I should have mentioned I was looking for an intel build, sorry
Maybe an i5 or i7 if my budget aloud

Also I would eventually be connecting 1080p monitor (probably 3) so a better graphics option would be better, I plan to have a dual screen setup straight away and probably a tipple in the future.

Will the graphics card handle that or do I need more than one graphics card?

I wont need a HDD or the DVD drive

I would like the system as quite as possible also and low on power consumption if possible.

Is that site the cheapest around?

I could push my budget to €800

Thanks again

Gumbi

Why do you want an Intel build???

tuxy

You can do 3 monitors on 1 GPU but you need a higher end card if you want games to have playable frame rates.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/75624/Sapphire+Radeon+HD+7950+Boost%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+2x+DVI%2C+HDMI%2C+DisplayPort%2C+lite+retail.article

The AMD build is good but if you really want intel replace the CPU and Motherboard in BloodBaths build with these

http://www.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/75624/Sapphire+Radeon+HD+7950+Boost%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+2x+DVI%2C+HDMI%2C+DisplayPort%2C+lite+retail.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+1155/66369/Intel+Core+i5-3470+Box%2C+LGA1155.article

The AMD would probably have better performance at this price point and that i5 can not be overclocked so you can remove the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO as the stock one will do the job

You could go for an overclockable i5 build and leave the CPU cooler in but it will be more expensive .

http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/57623/ASRock+Z77+Pro4%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+1155/56296/Intel+Core+i5-3570K+Box%2C+LGA1155.article

If you are on a bit of a budget get the AMD CPU because it's more important to spend what money you have on the GPU for a gaming build.

I've worked on computers for years but never built my own, I always thought Intel was better than AMD and don't have much experience with AMD.

If I can get a better bang for my buck with AMD and it is not inferior to intel I could be swayed.

The two screens I have at the moment are VGA I will be upgrading them, but for the time being that GPU you have linked me to tuxy, the two DVI interfaces will work with an adapter at the end of my VGA screens?

I've decided I'm going to spend €800 and I don't need the DVD ROM or the HDD so taking into account the bigger budget and subtracting the unneeded parts I'v mentioned, AMD or intel? and links to the better parts please.

Thank you for your help with this, much appreciated

tuxy

Dax Hissing Television wrote: »

I've worked on computers for years but never built my own, I always thought Intel was better than AMD and don't have much experience with AMD.

It's been back and forth between the two companies for over a decade now on which CPU is the best.
AMD were ahead for years at one stage. Right now it depends what you want to do on the PC and at what price point. At your price point and for gaming AMD are ahead IMO.

Dax Hissing Television wrote: »

the two screens I have at the moment are VGA I will be upgrading them, but for the time being that GPU you have linked me to tuxy, the two DVI interfaces will work with an adapter at the end of my VGA screens?

Unfortunately only one of the DVI ports supports an adapter

Ok not to worry about the screens I have a Matrox dualhead2go analog edition adapter, that will do till I upgrade the screens.

I'll take your advice and go with the AMD build then.

could you possibly link me to the best parts for my price range taking into account the things I'v mentioned in my last post.

tuxy

Dax Hissing Television wrote: »

could you possibly link me to the best parts for my price range taking into account the things I'v mentioned in my last post.

Bloodbaths build from hardwarversand is great value. Only replace the 7790 with the 7950. I also included faster RAM.
Removing the HDD and DVD leaves room to buy an SSD, which I highly recommend.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€155.52
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.93
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€85.04
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€58.79
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.06
3 x ARCTIC COOLING ARCTIC F12|€9.87
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.66
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Boost, 3GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, lite retail|€278.24
Samsung SSD 840 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€86.09
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€808.19

That looks great think I'm going to order the bits now.

Is that CPU over clockable?

I have an SSD already, what component should I upgrade with with the extra cash?
Maybe a better motherboard?
Thanks for your time.

tuxy

Changing the motherboard is not really going to do much for the build

The case is very basic so you could get something that looks better and is easier to work with.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Midi/59377/Cooler+Master+HAF+XM+mit+Sichtfenster%2C+ATX%2C+ohne+Netzteil.article

or

If you want to reduce fan noise.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=68208&agid=631

BTW I just noticed the CPU cooler is out of stock you can replace it with this
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Intel+AMD/49134/Scythe+Mugen+3%2C+f%C3%BCr+alle+Sockel+geeignet.article

Ok that's the build I'm going with, I'v picked this case
What do you think?

I'm ordering now, thanks very much for your help.

tuxy

Good case, all set to order then

Great! all ordered, I used a voucher code I found online for €10, the total cost was €812.

very pleased, I'll egearly await the arrival next week.

very surprised by the 3% paypal charge. I've never see it before.

thanks again.

tuxy

You're welcome, post back to let us know who you get on

Paypal and credit card have transaction fees. Most companies just inflate their prices to account for this. Hardwareversand keeps this cost transparent to try to encourage people to use Bank transfer. German companies seem to love bank transfers because of the reduced cost involved.

Gumbi

tuxy wrote: »

You're welcome, post back to let us know who you get on

Paypal and credit card have transaction fees. Most companies just inflate their prices to account for this. Hardwareversand keeps this cost transparent to try to encourage people to use Bank transfer. German companies seem to love bank transfers because of the reduced cost involved.

I've read credit cards are actually relatively uncommon in Germany; this being the reason for the lack of said option on HWVS

Makes sense I suppose,

I'll post back when I have built the rig

Is there any advantage to having a liquid cooling system? I was looking at upgrading to this
?

Would it be quieter than the one I ordered, always wanted a liquid cooled system.

and when I do upgrade the monitor is that site I good place to get one?
I'd be looking at getting maybe 2x 19" - 23" @ 1080p with no bezel.

spix

Dax Hissing Television wrote: »

Is there any advantage to having a liquid cooling system? I was looking at upgrading to this
?

Would it be quieter than the one I ordered, always wanted a liquid cooled system.

and when I do upgrade the monitor is that site I good place to get one?
I'd be looking at getting maybe 2x 19" - 23" @ 1080p with no bezel.

Those all in one watercoolers are usually much louder than a good air cooler

That's a pity, there cool and all, but I wouldn't sacrifice noise levels just for it.

tuxy

spix wrote: »

Those all in one watercoolers are usually much louder than a good air cooler

On the small ones you have to run the fans at high speed but if you had this

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Intel+AMD/71314/Corsair+Hydro+Series+H100i.article

or

http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/Swiftech-H220-Compact-Drive-II-PWM-Water-Cooling-Kit-pid-17411.html

With the bigger radiator I'm fairly sure you could run the fans at low rpm and still get a good overclock.

They are expensive kits though.

Yeah, maybe when I have a bit more cash to through around I can think about it then.

I've been doing a bit of searching for screens with thin bezels, there is not a lot around and what is available is very expensive!

BloodBath

The graphics card is always the noisiest component unless you have a terrible cpu cooler so those closed loop water coolers don't do anything for those with the exception of the pricey modular ones. You then have to buy a gpu block and a single 120 rad and that pump is gonna struggle with cooling both.

Checking back in, PC came, I saw, I built!

Delighted with the system, here are some Pics

Thanks for the help in picking the parts.

tuxy

Nice

Putting the motherboard on a bed is a little dodgy because of static.

Remember to look up some overclocking guides for both CPU and GPU at some stage. Both should be capable of fairly significant performance over stock speed.

Ha, I took of my socks to avoid static, the bed did'n even register in my head :rolleyes:

Where would be good place to get a guide on over-clocking both?

are there any real risks involved when I'm over clocking?

I have a 32 bit win 8 OS installed, should I upgrade to 64 bit? (at the movement its showing only 3.25 RAM available)

I don't have my RAM installed in the Dual channel slots (the CPU heat sink fan was in the way and I was to lazy to take it back off)
Will this have much affect on performance?

I can not get the PC to consistently hibernate, I have tried many things to rectify this, any ideas? a fresh install is my final option(if 64 bit is a better solution for gaming I will be trying this anyway)