Building a Gaming PC

Tiernanism93

1. What is your budget? 500 to 600 euro

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No, I have no parts

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? 1920 x 1080

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? None

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Maybe

8. How can you pay? Paypal

9. When are you purchasing? The next 3 months

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

BloodBath

Something like this would do nicely but if you aren't ordering for 2-3 months then the build will most likely change quite a bit by then. Come back closer to ordering.


Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€104.00
ASRock 970DE3/U3S3, AM3+, ATX|€55.64
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL7|€54.43
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€56.69
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.32
3 x ARCTIC COOLING ARCTIC F12|€9.87
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.73
PowerColor PCS+ HD7870 Myst. Edition 2GB GDDR5(UEFI READY)|€199.49
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.94
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€615.10

Tiernanism93

Hi Thanks so much for replying , would I be too cheeky to ask for Intel instead of AMD haha??
Something in the i series maybe

BloodBath

The cheapest i5's are around €150 and aren't overclockable. It would outperform the 6300 though.

The i3 would be a worse choice.

You could drop the cpu cooler and go for an i5 build though. It would still be around €30 - €40 more.

Tiernanism93

Would it be advisable to drop the cooler?
I will be gaming and doing a bit of programming on the side, and using photoshop too.
If you reckon the AMD processor will do the job thats fine for me.
Would I expect a good output from this pc spec for gaming?
Thanks again

marco_polo

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

Hi Thanks so much for replying , would I be too cheeky to ask for Intel instead of AMD haha??
Something in the i series maybe

In terms of price/performance at just over 100 euros the FX6300 is probably the best value for money CPU on your budget, especially if you overclock it. If you look at the benchmarks below the FX6350, which is essentially a slightly overclocked FX6300 does exceptionally well vs the i3-3220 which is the closest Intel equivelant at that sort of pricepoint. If you spend more on something like the i5-3470, then you would have to either up the budget a reasonable amount or get a lesser GPU.

The link is in german but the graph is self explanatory.

I would definitely recommend getting the FX-6300 over the the FX-6350 and overclocking yourself BTW, the benchmarks are more to illustrate how much the FX6300 would benefit even from a fairly trivial overclock to 3.9GHz, the same level as the Fx6350. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to get the FX6300 to 4,4GHz+ with good cooler like the 212 above.

Although the imminent release of Haswell may change things by the time you get to buying so definately check back closer to purchase time

Tiernanism93

Once again , thanks for replying guys.
Agh I suppose there is no harm in going for an AMD so
My first pc had an Athlon 3000+ processor and i never had problems ,
its just my laptop has a core i3(M380) and i have gotten used to Intel.
But with my budget as is, il stick to AMD for now as my planned processor.
Since im not building for a few months I will decide when im there .
One other queston , is building easy??
Im used to repairs and I have a few years experience in software, and upgrading pcs and mixing and matching parts etc . .:)

Gumbi

There's no such thing as being "used to" a CPU. Performance is performance and that varies from model to model.

Tiernanism93

wasnt exactly on about the cpu rather than the Brands ..

Gumbi

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

wasnt exactly on about the cpu rather than the Brands ..

I'm assuming the "than" is a typo.

What I said stands. What I mean is, there is no real difference between using Intel and AMD CPUs, they do the same thing. The main difference is speed, and, sher that varies from model as well as from make.

Tiernanism93

Thats your opinion the only thing that affects me is whether or not im getting value for money , on a student budget haha

Tiernanism93

Heya guys , Just wondering will i be hit with customs on the items I ship in from http://www.hardwareversand.de/ , my mate ordered a longboard from the states that cost him up on 370 and then customs of 115 , which was a kick in the teeth.

tuxy

No you won't Germany is in the European Union and so is Ireland.

Tiernanism93

Perfect thanks very much!

Tiernanism93

Hey guys, I'm back again, two months since the first post, I'm wondering if you guys could find anywhere to improve the original build, as my budget is now 700 euro,thank you in advance guys!

Tiernanism93

Hey guys, I'm back again, two months since the first post, I'm wondering if you guys could find anywhere to improve the original build, as my budget is now 700 euro,thank you in advance guys!

tuxy

Add in an SSD or upgrade the processor and motherboard to an i5 which takes your fancy?

Tiernanism93

An ssd came to mind first,but can you suggest mobo and CPU upgrade with links?

tuxy

http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/59305/ASRock+B75+Pro3%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article

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

The i5 should be a bit faster in games that are very cpu dependent but not much better in games that are gpu dependent. I'd probably go for the ssd.

Tiernanism93

Can you suggest an ssd?? 80 -100 price range

tuxy

As far as I know this is the best one in that price range
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Solid-State-Disk/67795/Samsung+SSD+840+120GB+SATA+6Gb+s.article

Very good feedback from people on here who bought one.

Tiernanism93

Was just making up the shopping cart to buy all the pieces , and now i realise the Graphics Card is no longer listed can somebody suggest a similiar/better card for same price?? THanks guys in advance.

The Golden Teapot

http://www.hardwareversand.de/2048+MB/63731/ASUS+GTX660+Ti-DC2-2GD5%2C+GeForce+GTX+660+Ti%2C+2048MB+DDR5.article
This seems really cheap for a 660 ti! Maybe someone can confirm this?

Tiernanism93

looks awesome whats the catch??

Gumbi

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

looks awesome whats the catch??

None . This card was 215 a week ago, so it's even cheaper again! (Probably due to it being out of stock for the next few days). Man, that's a bargain! Fantastic value in that card. Wow. SLI 660tis seem fantastic value these days with the price drops.

Xenoronin

Oh wow, was going to get a 760 but a 660ti for 30-40€ cheaper is just too good a deal to pass up for such a minor performance boost O_O

Tiernanism93

Can somebody give me minimum psu Watt needed with 660 ti? ?

marco_polo

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

Can somebody give me minimum psu Watt needed with 660 ti? ?

Any decent 400W-450W+ will be fine for one GTX660ti regardless of CPU.

Tiernanism93

Thanks!!right taking the plunge tonight and ordering this ,any last suggestions or further advice like payment method, shipping,etc, ? ?you guys have been very helpful,

When I say ordering this,I mean the original suggested build but with the 660ti.

Tiernanism93

PayPal fee of 20 euro can anybody tell me if the bank transfer charges anything?

Morf

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

PayPal fee of 20 euro can anybody tell me if the bank transfer charges anything?

The standard bank transfer doesn't.

Ulster Bank offered to charge me €18 for an express one.

The standard one is still expected to only take a day anyway.

This was through online banking.

Tiernanism93

Popped into BOI on thursday , only to find they didnt do transfers under 3000 euro .. unless it was an emergency .. and that emergency would cost 35 euro ... so they suggested i set up my own Online Banking(which i should have done ages ago anyway) and thats gonna take another 7 -10 days , so its going to be at least a week or two before hardwareversand see their money , is this going to be a problem?? seeing as parts i ordered werent expected in until the 31st of this month ..

marco_polo

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

Popped into BOI on thursday , only to find they didnt do transfers under 3000 euro .. unless it was an emergency .. and that emergency would cost 35 euro ... so they suggested i set up my own Online Banking(which i should have done ages ago anyway) and thats gonna take another 7 -10 days , so its going to be at least a week or two before hardwareversand see their money , is this going to be a problem?? seeing as parts i ordered werent expected in until the 31st of this month ..

I think they release the ordered parts back into stock if they don't receive payent within 7 days.

Tiernanism93

Well crap!!! Should have just went with paypal for the extra 20 ..at least it would be minus stress ... is there anyway i can contact them to tell them this?

marco_polo

Tiernanism93 wrote: »

Well crap!!! Should have just went with paypal for the extra 20 ..at least it would be minus stress ... is there anyway i can contact them to tell them this?

You could try dropping them a mail or calling them, not sure they are great at answering mails though.

I wouldn't worry too much either way most of the parts you have ordered are rarely out of stock for too long, and plenty of similar alternatives for nearly everything.

Tiernanism93

I dropped them an email , I wont worry too much!!wish the guys here on boards could be the customer support for hardwareversand top notch guys!! Really grateful for all the help!

Tiernanism93

They actually replied to my email so i finally payed them ... had a bit of trouble with BOI online banking ... hopefully all goes to plan , will i get an update when they recieve my payment?

Tiernanism93

Hey guys , Im back to this build after many months of using my PC. Ran into some problems , the 660ti was very faulty and I finally sent it back and I got a refund , so I now have 200 euro to spend on a card similar too or better than my previous 660ti. ANy suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

BloodBath

R9 270 or 760 gtx in that price range.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nvidia-GeForce-DirectCU-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B00DBPKEOI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1393332379&sr=8-7&keywords=760+gtx&tag=fczbkkcom04-21

Tiernanism93

This
http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-01com/80011713/asus-geforce-gtx760-dc2oc-2gd5-2gb-pci-e/details.aspx

Or This?
http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-01com/80011815/msi-geforce-gtx-760-gaming-2gb-pci-e/details.aspx

Would I be better just to chose the first and save the ten euro!
Thanks for your reply!

BloodBath

Feck all difference, might as well go for the cheaper option. How much is komplett delivery?

It's free on Amazon who also have better customer service.

Tiernanism93

I think its ten euro delivery. would you recommend Amazon link you provided then?

BloodBath

Yes unless you want that free copy of Assassins Creed. Possible you get it with Amazon as well though.

They usually suck for the free games deals though.

Luck100

The MSI is factory overclocked to 1150 MHz, and the Asus is only overclocked to 1072 MHz. So MSI is 8% faster out-of-the-box. Of course you can overclock them yourself as well so hard to say which one will have the better speed after that.

Tiernanism93

So its not really a big deal if I buy off Komplett or Amazon , and other than that Im not pushed about a free game , and if I can overclock with the Asus GPU Tweak I should be fine right? Also I have a 500w PSU , should it be sufficient enough?

BloodBath

Amazon are doing a free trial of Prime at the moment which would give you free 2 day delivery on that.

You just have to remember to cancel it before the free month is up or they will charge you the discounted annual fee of €60.

Both the Asus and Msi have similar quality coolers. The Asus one edges it a little imo. 500w is loads.

Tiernanism93

Ok thanks again for all the advice!!
Im happy enough settling on the 760 as a card , just to weigh out my options,minor thing.

Thanks guys