New Gaming Building

civilnug

Gentlemen, I would really appreciate your help on giving me some recommendations and advice for a gaming build. I went to the dark-side (Alienware) about 6 months ago out of fear of building my own. The desktop has now worked it's way through it's 3rd motherboard. I have been offered a replacement but have no faith in them now so I'm getting a refund and I figure I can't do much worse myself!

So the vital questions:

1. What is your budget? €1,200 - €1,500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming, Far Cry 3, Saints Row 4, Borderlands 2, and all the other stuff in my steam library that I can't play at the moment.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes, preferably Windows 7.

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. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 24 inch 1920 x 1080, I would consider a 27 inch Catleap down the line.

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

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Any

9. When are you purchasing? As soon as I get the refund, hopefully before the end of the week.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I'm based in Cork, but I figure with all the helpful guide you guys have provided I should be OK with the build myself.

I'd really appreciate any help you guys can provide. I would like to include a 250GB SSD and have space for a second graphics card down the line if I decide to invest in the Catleap.

Thanks.

..Brian..

Here's an entire 1440p system less than your budget. About €1400 delivered. This is a modified (somewhat plagiarized ) version of Bloodbaths build in the "How low can you go?" thread. The case is subjective, change it to one you like, even twice the price and your still in budget. Loads of overclocking potential here as well!

Item|Price
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX €114.32
Intel Core i5-3570K Tray, LGA1155 €195.01
XFX PRO750W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply €82.79
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws PC3-8500U CL7 €58.66
WD Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/s 9,5mm €67.83
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s €155.16
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD €28.66
BitFenix Shinobi USB 3.0 - weiß/blau/dunkelblau €56.96
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€778.38

Crossfire HD7870's from Pixmania €310

Qnix Catleap
€280 roughly including customs charges.

Win 7 incl delivery
€45

..Brian..

Opps forgot a wireless card and DVD drive which you may not even need. If you do that'll be another €30 ish

BloodBath

Upgrades look good. I'd probably change the psu though. I've heard those xfx ones are quite noisey. The be-quiet system power 7 700w is quieter and silver rated for less.

I'd change the case to the Nanoxia deep silence one as well and throw in a couple of extra 140mm fans.

The ram is also only 1066mhz. Change it to this 1600mhz ram.

..Brian..

Agreed. This PSU is a quid cheaper but more efficent (silver rated as opposed to bronze).

The RAM is the same price so change to that.

The Nanoxia is a great case but perhaps too simple, I like something a bit flashier. OP there's lots of mid sized ATX cases out there for about €100 or less to suit any taste. Just look for high air flow, ie lots of fans or space for them, dust filters, cable management, on board fan controller maybe, tool less drive bays etc.

BloodBath

Simple yes but in terms of features and build quality it's hard to match. It's one of the few silenced cases available as well.

The styling isn't for everyone though but the pictures don't even do the case justice.

There's a nice range of colors as well.

Gumbi

The side fan panel mesh has an outside covering too if you don't like it. The stock fans are great, and it is indeed rich in features. A 2 x 3 fan controller (with a slider, so it's has many different fan speeds that can be set, not just 2/3 speeds) is very handy.

..Brian..

There's no denying its a fantastic case but again, personally I find it a bit boring looking. And that's purely down to personal taste. If it's going in under a desk no probs, but if it's sitting out on display I would like something more stylized and exciting!

civilnug

Awesome, thanks for the input guys. Really looking forward to getting this ordered and putting up a few pics of it.

BloodBath

I'd add 2 of these fans as well. Out of stock at the moment though but HWVS are usually quick to restock things.

civilnug

Thanks for the help guys, put in my order yesterday evening and just got an e-mail saying all of the stuff has been dispatched so looking forward to my first build at the end of week when it all arrives.

Went with the Nanoxia case and the extra fans but went with a single 7950 instead of the 2 x 7870. Figured I'd hold off on the Catleap for the time being and hold onto the cash.

Anyways thanks again for the help I really appreciate it.

BloodBath

Good stuff. If you got the 7950 from HWVS you can get codes for 4 free games, usually Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider and Crysis 3.

Just email them and ask for the codes.

civilnug

Sweet, cheers for the heads up.

civilnug

Collected two boxes from the UPS depot last night. One for the case and another full of parts. Spent an hour just looking at all the stuff and then another hour looking up YouTube videos about assembly. It was pushing on a bit at that stage and I knew if I got stuck into it I'd be up half the night but now I'm sitting at work looking up more videos about assembly.

Very excited to start putting it together this evening.

Skerries

what was the spec of the Alienware you bought just out of curiosity as I'd say you would be surprised at the difference in cost compared to a self build?

civilnug

The Alienware I got came in at €1,650. So I'm saving about €450 and getting a better spec. I just wasn't confident enough that I'd be able to build a PC but I guess I'll find out this evening!

Morf

civilnug wrote: »

The Alienware I got came in at €1,650. So I'm saving about €450 and getting a better spec. I just wasn't confident enough that I'd be able to build a PC but I guess I'll find out this evening!

Once you get going you'll be grand! It's a bit overwhelming looking at it all in pieces!

civilnug

Well tis up and running. Managed to put it all together last night and got it up and running without too much hassle. YouTube videos were invaluable and the hardest part was actually trying to clip the fan on to the CPU cooler.

Once I got everything together it booted up without any problems and installed windows to the SSD. Had a small problem with the second drive not showing up but a quick Google told me I hadn't initialised it and I had it all sorted in a matter of minutes.

Downloading a few games at the moment (my internet isn't the quickest!) so should be able to have a blast off some games tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate.

Now to do something about my cable management!

Gumbi

civilnug wrote: »

Well tis up and running. Managed to put it all together last night and got it up and running without too much hassle. YouTube videos were invaluable and the hardest part was actually trying to clip the fan on to the CPU cooler.

Once I got everything together it booted up without any problems and installed windows to the SSD. Had a small problem with the second drive not showing up but a quick Google told me I hadn't initialised it and I had it all sorted in a matter of minutes.

Downloading a few games at the moment (my internet isn't the quickest!) so should be able to have a blast off some games tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate.

Now to do something about my cable management!

Do something about the cables sooner rather than later or you'll end up putting it off for ages You'll appreciate the time out it at the end too.

..Brian..

Nice work, throw up some pics!