NEW PC Budget €800

mrcheez

1. What is your budget? Less than €800, but open to go higher if absolutely necessary (to get compatible video card for the monitors etc, or for the SSD price)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Programming/Web Dev (running SQL Server, etc) + FPS gaming. Think Bioshock Infinite/Skyrim/etc

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have an old PCI 128 Soundblaster soundcard (approx 8 years old) that *may* work, but I can fit any extra parts myself.

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? 1024 × 768. I do plan to upgrade to widescreen (1680 x 1050 or more) later.
I have 2 monitors that both work off VGA (but can attach to video card via DVI adapter).
It's essential that both monitors can work on the system from the start, but I can upgrade one of the monitors to a newer version if absolutely necessary.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? 250GB SSD / DVD-burner / WiFi card / Universal card reader (to front).
I have mouse/keyboard that attach via USB.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No, not required at the moment.

8. How can you pay? Credit card/Paypal/Bank transfer

9. When are you purchasing? This month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I do not need help.

So, generally thinking of the following:

No preference on vid card (but I guess 2GB RAM is best?)
No preference on CPU/motherboard
2 TB HDD
250GB SSD
8GB RAM
WiFi card
DVD-R drive
Card-reader
Tower case

Cheers!

marco_polo

Tough enough budget, few compromises to be made here and there to get the 250 SSD, 2TB HDD in so the graphics card is a little lighter that I would normally have in a €800 build.

Item|Price
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition ohne Netzteil|€37.72
XFX PRO550W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€53.43
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€62.41
Shipping|€18.99
2 x 4GB G.Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€72.16
Intel Core i5-4440 Box, LGA1150|€157.16
MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G, AMD Radeon R9 270, 2GB DDR5|€159.43
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€139.99
Seagate SV35 2TB SATA 6Gb's|€83.04
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.11
ASUS PCE-N15|€14.90
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader 8,89cm (3,5") , schwarz|€9.99
Total|€825.33

Alternatively the FX 8320 is a decent multitasking CPU as well, although ideally I'd have a CPU cooler in there and persuade you to overclock it a little bit , as that is when it becomes really good value. But if you have no interest in that I'd maybe go for the Intel version above.

Item|Price
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition ohne Netzteil|€37.72
XFX PRO550W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€53.43
ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0, AM3+, ATX|€66.14
2 x 4GB G.Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€72.16
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€132.59
MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G, AMD Radeon R9 270, 2GB DDR5|€159.43
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€139.99
Seagate SV35 2TB SATA 6Gb's|€83.04
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.11
ASUS PCE-N15|€14.90
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader 8,89cm (3,5") , schwarz|€9.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€804.49

mrcheez

Great thanks. If i went for a 120Gb SSD instead, would that allow for a better card?

Also just on overclocking what are the main downsides? (energy consumption or lifespan probably?)

yawhat!

I'd go for the 1TB hard drive and add another SSD if you need it. An Alternative build with a much stronger graphcis card although it is 40 euro dearer.

Item|Price
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.22
Intel Core i5-4570 Box, LGA1150|€168.29
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€75.62
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€77.99
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W - bulk -|€55.24
HIS R9 280X IceQ Boost Clock 3GB GDDR5 PCI-E DLDVI-I/HDMI/2xMini DP|€271.95
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.11
ASUS PCE-N15|€14.90
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader 8,89cm (3,5") , schwarz|€9.99
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition ohne Netzteil|€37.72
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€62.41
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€860.43

mrcheez

Cheers, only prob with that card are the connections. I'd have to buy another monitor, adding another 100 euro to the build

mrcheez

Quick question, would my old PCI 128 soundblaster card work with this or is it too out of date? http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=5185-0470

marco_polo

mrcheez wrote: »

Great thanks. If i went for a 120Gb SSD instead, would that allow for a better card?

Also just on overclocking what are the main downsides? (energy consumption or lifespan probably?)

Mostly the energy consumption, not so much the lifespan at all to be honest if done properly. If the former is an important consideration then the i5 route is definately lighter on the juice than even a stock FX 8320.

mrcheez wrote: »

Quick question, would my old PCI 128 soundblaster card work with this or is it too out of date? http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=5185-0470

It should but the onboard on modern boards would probably be as good if not better.

mrcheez

marco_polo wrote: »

It should but the onboard on modern boards would probably be as good if not better.

yeah just that I have one of those ancient Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 speaker setups that require the card to achieve the full surround effect that I'd like to give another playthrough http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Hardware/Audio/Speakers/Surround_Sound_Systems/fps1000_profilelarge.jpg

I imagine the onboard would probably sound better these days, though not sure if it would be able to work with the speaker system

marco_polo

Well there are PCI slots on both boards in the builds I posted so if you can still find drivers it should work just fine.

mrcheez

marco_polo wrote: »

Tough enough budget, few compromises to be made here and there to get the 250 SSD, 2TB HDD in so the graphics card is a little lighter that I would normally have in a €800 build.

Item|Price
Thermaltake V4 Black Edition ohne Netzteil|€37.72
XFX PRO550W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€53.43
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€62.41
Shipping|€18.99
2 x 4GB G.Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€72.16
Intel Core i5-4440 Box, LGA1150|€157.16
MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G, AMD Radeon R9 270, 2GB DDR5|€159.43
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€139.99
Seagate SV35 2TB SATA 6Gb's|€83.04
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.11
ASUS PCE-N15|€14.90
Akasa AK-ICR-07 Interner 6-Port Card Reader 8,89cm (3,5") , schwarz|€9.99
Total|€825.33

Do I need a CPU cooler for this setup as well?

mrcheez

anyone?

marco_polo

You wouldn't need one since you can't overclock that CPU, so the stock cooler would be fine.

A third party cooler would be a bit quieter but to butcher an old phrase "noise is in the ear of the beholder" , so I'd be inclined to say try the stock one out and replace it later on if you find it too loud.

mrcheez

dang was just about to order the €825.33 pack, but the MSI R9 270 is out of stock. Are all the other R9 270s more or less the same?
I don't mind going up to €200 on a video card (as long as it has 2xDVI slots)

mrcheez

Just a note on this, shipping is coming up as:

Shipping costs by UPS-Standard + 11,99 €

and not 18.99 ? Did I select the wrong delivery method?

stevenmu

mrcheez wrote: »

Just a note on this, shipping is coming up as:

Shipping costs by UPS-Standard + 11,99 €

and not 18.99 ? Did I select the wrong delivery method?

That's the price I got recently too. I guess that delivery is cheaper the more you spend, a bit like some places have free delivery if you spend over a certain amount.

mrcheez

Another oddity here on HardwareVersand, they seem to have "undone" the prices quoted on my order (that I got via http://geizhals.de) and re-added the €40 or so that I had saved, so now they are asking me to pay the original quoted price.

Does the geizhals.de method no longer work?

stevenmu

It should, but I found you have to add the items to your basket through geizhals, and then check out straight away. The first time I tried, I added them to my basket, then came back later the same day and the prices had gone back to normal.

mrcheez

ok so do I need to contact them to cancel the order before I re-make it?

mrcheez

btw can I check out now, but pay via transfer next week and the prices will remain the same as the order, or will they rise/fall over the weekend?

BloodBath

Once you check out the price is fixed. They will reserve the parts until you pay. I think you have 5 days or so to pay before they auto cancel the order.

mrcheez

Soooo got my order delivered yesterday turns out several cables are missing as they must have given me OEM versions of some of the drives...

Namely, the DVD, the SSD and the HDD don't have their data cables.

Where can I pick these up cheaply in Dublin city centre? cheers

stevenmu

Usually the motherboard comes with a few SATA cables. If not Maplins would be a good place to check.

mrcheez

stevenmu wrote: »

Usually the motherboard comes with a few SATA cables. If not Maplins would be a good place to check.

Pretty pricey, is IT Direct still any good?... I might be heading to Blanch at the weekend, so not sure if there's a good computer parts place there?

mrcheez

btw it's SATA III cables I need is this right?

tusk

Is that normal? To get items without cables? Last time I built I don't remember having to buy any extra cables that weren't supplied.

I ask because I'll be building a similar rig in the coming weeks.

stevenmu

mrcheez wrote: »

Pretty pricey, is IT Direct still any good?... I might be heading to Blanch at the weekend, so not sure if there's a good computer parts place there?

I don't know about IT Direct tbh, I thought of them as more of a business/office supplier, but they're worth a ring. Maplins is the only B&M place I've used in quite a while, they can be a little pricey, but not too bad for small stuff like cables. I think there's a PC World out in Blanch, that's all I can think of. Pricey again, but again shouldn't be too bad for small stuff like that.

Tusk wrote:

Is that normal? To get items without cables? Last time I built I don't remember having to buy any extra cables that weren't supplied.

I ask because I'll be building a similar rig in the coming weeks.

No, normally data cables and stuff come with the motherboard, power cables come with the PSU, you shouldn't normally need to buy any unless you're using a lot of drives or something.

stevenmu

mrcheez wrote: »

btw it's SATA III cables I need is this right?

SATA II cables should work fine and at the same speed. The only difference I believe is that SATA III cables have a clip on the connector and they're rated for more connect/disconnect cycles. Unless you're planning on messing with the cables a lot then SATA II should be fine.

mrcheez

stevenmu wrote: »

No, normally data cables and stuff come with the motherboard, power cables come with the PSU, you shouldn't normally need to buy any unless you're using a lot of drives or something.

The motherboard came with one SATA3 cable alright so I'm missing the cable for the other 2.

When buying I think the word to look out for on HardwareVersand is "bare" in the title. This generally means you'll get the item sans any extras like cables/manuals

BloodBath

Most mainboards come with 2 x sata3 cables these days.

Sata1 is fine for dvd drives.

Sata2 for HDD's

Sata3 for SSD's.

mrcheez

Am I correct in assuming I can use a Sata3 on a HDD/DVD but just that it's full power/capacity will be wasted?

Mate has spare Sata3 cables

BloodBath

Ya they just won't make use of the bandwidth but they will work.

mrcheez

Everything works fine on the new build except the R9 270X which isn't being recognised.

It's set in it's PCIe slot just fine. There were power cables included in the box, does the card need power cables to run the fans or summat? Do I need to disable the onboard video on the motherboard?

Also the DVI to VGA connector only appears to fit one of the DVI slots (I think it's DVI-I), is there a connector that will let me hook up my 2nd VGA monitor to the other DVI slot?

Justwinginit

mrcheez wrote: »

Everything works fine on the new build except the R9 270X which isn't being recognised.

I had the same problem when I built a few weeks ago with a r9 270, until I ran the dvd software that came with it, and off it went;-) The dvd was actually hidden under a piece of grey plastic which in turn, was under the inside packaging!

SterlingArcher

mrcheez wrote: »

Everything works fine on the new build except the R9 270X which isn't being recognised.

It's set in it's PCIe slot just fine. There were power cables included in the box, does the card need power cables to run the fans or summat? Do I need to disable the onboard video on the motherboard?

Also the DVI to VGA connector only appears to fit one of the DVI slots (I think it's DVI-I), is there a connector that will let me hook up my 2nd VGA monitor to the other DVI slot?

You need to plug the PCI Express power cables from the PSU into the card. Will be 2 small black six pin and 8 pin. Or 2 8 pins "with a detachable 2 pins" they go into the end of the card, slots will be visible. Youtube if you need to.

mrcheez

Video cards have their own power supply?!? Things have changed since I last did a build 8 years ago

Thanks

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

Also the DVI to VGA connector only appears to fit one of the DVI slots (I think it's DVI-I), is there a connector that will let me hook up my 2nd VGA monitor to the other DVI slot?

and to answer my own question, the DVI-D (for it be the digital one) cannot be connected to my VGA monitor (without an expensive adapter), unlike the DVI-I... but there is a VGA port on the motherboard itself that will suffice for the 2nd monitor when I'm coding.

Live and learn