First time trying to make Gaming PC...

WorkerAnt

Hi guys, Im looking at getting a new PC. So, I thought I'd get explore the option of making up a new PC. A friend of mine recently got one and suggested making my own one and that he got great directions on this forum so...

• I have a budget of max €600, if anything could be cut back that would be great
• Ill use it mainly for gaming (XCOM, Far Cry, Civ, Sim City, Bioshock...etc) and watching movies, Youtube, and so on.
• Ideally Id like a PC Id be able to get 3 years or so out of again
• Dont need a monitor or anything outside of the list below

Processor
Intel Core i5-3470 Box, LGA1155
166,75 €

Hard Drive
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's
56,18 €

PSU
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W
46,52 €

RAM
4GB-Kit G-Skill PC3-10667U CL9
29,98 €

OS
Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit (SB-Version)
85,04 € (have never had 8, previously had 7, so could scale that back)

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX
76,64 €

Graphics Card
PowerColor Radeon HD 7790 OC, 1GB GDDR5
112,34 €

Apologies if the above build looks completely rubbish or whatever, its just something I came up with, Im not committed to it at all, if anyone can suggest a better build, Im happy to chop and change as necessary!

Thanks

Monotype

The CPU and motherboard are incompatible. Hardwareversand is down at the moment, so I can't give you links.
How about the AMD FX6300 instead of that CPU? It would be compatible with that motherboard - although some of the other 970 board might have better features around that price range.

I assume that you need a case too. What about a DVD drive; do you think you'd use one?

WorkerAnt

Monotype wrote: »

The CPU and motherboard are incompatible. Hardwareversand is down at the moment, so I can't give you links.
How about the AMD FX6300 instead of that CPU? It would be compatible with that motherboard - although some of the other 970 board might have better features around that price range.

I assume that you need a case too. What about a DVD drive; do you think you'd use one?

Great, thanks for the info, good to know! Ill replace the CPU, ill have a look through similar 970 boards to find a better one. What better features should I look for?

I'm assuming I can just get a standard case(?) and am ok for a DVD drive

Thanks agajn

lezflano

Item|Price
ARCTIC COOLING ARCTIC F12|€3.19
Zalman T2 Mini Tower - schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€18.69
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€56.18
8GB-Kit GeIL Enhance Corsa PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1333)|€59.96
ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€47.14
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€100.31
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€46.52
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 WindForce 3X OC, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€232.17
LiteOn iHAS124-04 schwarz SATA|€17.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€600.33

This is a pretty good build here,Its a more powerful version of mine,Do you have a windows 7 key already? If you had a laptop/Computer with it on it you could probably retrieve it and use it again

Windows 8 isn't great with games from what I heard alot of older titles seem to have more bugs and glitches on it,And also you could get the trial version of windows 7 for three months and in that time save up for an actual copy

And if you want it assembled it's only a fiver over budget surely not breaking the bank XD

BloodBath

A slightly different build that would allow some overclocking.

Improved the board, added a better cpu cooler and improved the case at the cost of a slightly slower graphics card.

This should allow moderate overclocks in the 4.2 - 4.5ghz region.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€53.92
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€56.18
Cooler Master N300, ATX-Midi-Tower, schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€33.71
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€46.52
Samsung SH-224DB schwarz|€17.37
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€100.31
Alpenföhn Sella - 92mm, AMD/Intel|€17.89
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0, AM3+, ATX|€61.70
MSI N660Ti Power Edition 2GD5/OC, GeForce GTX 660Ti, 2048MB DDR5|€197.37
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€603.96

lezflano

Yeah didn't know if he was OC'ing or not

WorkerAnt

Thanks very much for builds guys. Great help

raymix

Just a heads up, when installing 2x4GB RAM modules, put them in slots 2 and 4 for maximum benefit.

WorkerAnt

Quick question regards the RAM.

Would going from 4 to 8GB make much difference to game play and visual quality? I thought 4GB would handle most games out now and coming out very well, or is it more from the POV of improving how well the PC runs if I had a game open in one window and was playing a movie in another? I actually do that quite a bit so would be worth it for that reason I guess

raymix

Depends on a game. In most cases you will be fine with 4GB for now. But some games like MMOs tend to take up crapload of memory. If you are on multi-monitor setup, then going 8GB is the best idea, extra headroom will always make sure your PC is snappy. There is no difference in framerates or visual quality, extra RAM simply allows for more memory handled before relying on virtual memory using slow HDD.

Performance between game and movie on 2 screens is affected by quality of your GPU.

Also RAM prices are not that high atm. I'd strongly suggest going at least 2 modules to achieve 8GB and run them on dual channel plugged in slots 2 & 4. When you feel the need for upgrade, you have 2 more slots to fill later on for 16GB (video/3D editing/rendering)

P.S on second note there's also so called Video RAM or VRAM. It is GDDR5 used within your GPU. This kind of RAM is used for texture size. When using dual monitor setup, it is good idea to buy at least 2GB VRAM video card, this will help to maintain framerates of game+movie. Another thing popular lately is HD textures. More VRAM allows GPU to handle high resolution textures better. But then again there's amount of memory controllers to take in mind, their bandwidth ..yadda yadda technical stuffs.