First PC build - Intended for gaming

Total - 660.20

Ok so I was looking at the forum post about what information to include in this so here are some answers.

1. What is your budget?
I didn't exactly start out with a specific budget to be honest. I looked at alienware and saw there cheapest machine was 699 so thought I'd try to build something better for less.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
I was trying to build a computer relatively cheaply that would do a good job for gaming. Honestly I hadn't given what games I would be playing on a pc too much thought but I can offer examples of xbox 360 games that I play as an indication of my interest.
On xbox I play a lot of RPG's - Elderscrolls, Fallout, Fable, Dark Souls Dragon Age stuff like that. I also played through the Bioshock series. I don't really play online on the xbox because of the whole subscriptions thing. I would likely be playing similar games on a PC, although I would hope to play more online.
Also I have a huge interest in strategy and real time strategy. Haven't played much in ages since I haven't bought a pc in almost 10 years. I would definatly be picking up CIV 5 for a start, and the newest Close Combat games.
Seeing as its been so long since I have played games on a PC I haven't really payed much attention to games releases on the PC but thats a rough idea of what I would hopeto be playing.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Above I had included Windows 8.1 64 bit in my shopping list. Is there any advantage to Windows 8.1/64b over Windows 7? Would I be exluding myself from many games with one over the other?

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
I don't think I'd be using parts from an old computer.

5. Do you need a monitor?
I do need a monitor. But to keep costs down I was currently exlcuding it from the build with the intention of using HDMI connection with 1080p 37inch TV. Is this stupid?

5a. If yes, what size do you need.
I haven't put much thought into a monitor as of now, see above.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
I would plan on buying a monitor at some point in the future but I thought it would be a better idea to spend the monitor money on better parts for now and save up again for a monitor in near/middle future.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
I was planning on using old keyboard/mouse. They're USB but they are old. Would the age make a difference?

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
Haven't given it too much thought. I was reading a little about it and kinda feared that I might overheat something and break it. If it was safe enough that I would break components then I suppose I might be willing to try it. However, as I hadn't given it much thought I'm not even sure if any of the components are able to overclock.

8. How can you pay?
Bank transfer/Debit card i guess

9. When are you purchasing?
Not in any huge rush with a purchase. I would like to have it bought and built in 6 weeks at the most. One of the things I was planning to ask was if there would be any likelyhood of either price reductions, or parts soon to be completely out of date that would be worth waiting for.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
I have never built a PC before but I was thinking I'd try it myself. I read some online guides and it doesn't sound like the most difficult thing in the world but I would be concerned that I'd mess something up. How likely is that? Would it be stupid to try a first build alone?

Ok so questions on what I picked out. Sorry if this gets very long but I haven't done this before and I just wanted to clear up all of my questions. I apreciate your time and any and all help and advice is greatly apreciated.

PSU - I added up the power usage on all components that had them listed and I believe it came to 631W. I figured that other parts/fans would use more power so picked out a 700W power supply. Would a 650W do? Does it matter if the PSU has more power than necessary? Is there any advantage to having extra power?

Fans - The GPU, CPU and PSU all have a fan. I added an extra CPU fan because I reasoned that a cooler CPU would last longer and perform better. Is this correct or a waste of time/money. The case has a 120mm intake and exaust, and I added 2 more 120mm cooling fans. I thought the power usage seemed high so thought the extra fans may be neccessary. I figured the cooler the better performance and longer life. Is this correct or are the fans overkill?

Case - I kind of just picked the cheapest ATX case with 2 USB 3 ports on the front and plenty of fan spaces. I don't really mind too much how it looks to be honest just so long as it functions. Would this case be good enough or are there any factors in cases that I did not account for. I figured a cheap case would leave more money for better components.

Hard drive and Optical drive - Basically the cheapest ones that fit what I desired. Any problems here?

CPU - I was looking at performance ratings for processors and the processor I picked seemed to rank fairly high on performance and very high for value. Is this correct? The comparable Intel ones seemed to be a lot more expensive. It's six core. I doubt theres any need for 6 cores for gaming, but would the extra power be completely wasted or would load balancing make reasonable use of the available power?

GPU - The GPU I picked seemed to have a pretty high performance rating. Am I wrong here? Any cheaper alternatives or similar price ones with better performance?

RAM - I figure 8Gigs of ram should be more than enough. Is this correct? Does the brand make any difference? The RAM I picked appears to have pretty good clocks speeds and whatnot.

Motherboard - I someone recommend this motherboard on another forum. Seems to have all the necessary connections, AM3+ sockets, plenty of audio ins and outs and usb 2/3 ports. Any problems here? The GPU is PCIe 3 but I couldn't find an AM3+ motherboard with a PCIe 3 port. Will it make any difference putting a PCIe 3 GPU in a PCI 2 x16 motherboard?

Bottlenecks - Are any of these parts seriously over/under powered? If so I'd be open to a slight downgrade, upgrade or reconfiguration to make the best use of the money. No real point having unused power.

Compatability - I checked all the ports and connections and it all seems compatable. Am I missing anything?

And finally, if you have any suggestions of how to make a more powerful machine for roughly the same price, or a similar power for less then I am open to suggestions. If you have read this far then thank you, and anything you can help with or advise on would be exellent.

Edit: Put all the parts into PCpartpicker. It says theres no incompatabilites. Couldn't find the fans in the list so they were not checked. It also estimated the power requirement as 383W but according to hardwareversand.de the GPU requires a 500W power supply so I don't know what to do with that...

SterlingArcher · 28-03-2014 1:38am

****faceck glance at CPU price guessing you have not ran your parts through Geizhals.de discount site associated with hardwarebersand.de , should save at least 20 euro or more and with PSU downgrade will cover costs of the upgrades I'm going to mention.

Lose that psu don't need it. Get a corsair
cx600w modular one should be 60.97 using Geizhals.de . This will be more than enough even a 500 w would do for that card and CPU only corsair 500w modular out of stock.

Don't underestimate the value of a good case. Not just USB3.0 cooling/ noise you don't want hot parts inside as this fcuks parts up, makes fans spin more and even more noise from an already noisy case.
Corsair carbide 200r 48.61

The graphics card. Don't get the powercooler brand get the Gigabyte one 152. Better cooler quiet.

Ram 8 gig corsair vengeance low profile 67 Euro. Get these.

AMD processor motherboards do not come with PCI express 3.0 don't worry your 3.0 card will work on the 2.0 slot.

Late so if I missed something or other holla.

Bepolite · 28-03-2014 9:58am

Idunno442 wrote: »

1. What is your budget?
I didn't exactly start out with a specific budget to be honest. I looked at alienware and saw there cheapest machine was 699 so thought I'd try to build something better for less.

You will absolutely build something better! If you plan your upgrade path now you'll have many happy years after your initial investment to get started. Get a good case and PSU.

Idunno442 wrote: »

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
I was trying to build a computer relatively cheaply that would do a good job for gaming. Honestly I hadn't given what games I would be playing on a pc too much thought but I can offer examples of xbox 360 games that I play as an indication of my interest.
On xbox I play a lot of RPG's - Elderscrolls, Fallout, Fable, Dark Souls Dragon Age stuff like that. I also played through the Bioshock series. I don't really play online on the xbox because of the whole subscriptions thing. I would likely be playing similar games on a PC, although I would hope to play more online.
Also I have a huge interest in strategy and real time strategy. Haven't played much in ages since I haven't bought a pc in almost 10 years. I would definatly be picking up CIV 5 for a start, and the newest Close Combat games.
Seeing as its been so long since I have played games on a PC I haven't really payed much attention to games releases on the PC but thats a rough idea of what I would hopeto be playing.

Welcome to proper gaming! There are amazing games out there with mod support for PC. Elder Scrolls for example - an MMO launching on the 4/4 and people are working on porting Morrowind and Oblivion into the Skyrim engine. Strategy games are uber on PC again mods mean you've always got something new!

Idunno442 wrote: »

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
Above I had included Windows 8.1 64 bit in my shopping list. Is there any advantage to Windows 8.1/64b over Windows 7? Would I be exluding myself from many games with one over the other?

Took me ages to get over my Windows 8 hate, now I love it. Go with 8, I suspect things like DX12 will only be released for windows 8. I have no problems running games on Windows 8 and have very similar tastes to you in gaming. Can you not get a free copy of Win8 through college?

Idunno442 wrote: »

5. Do you need a monitor?
I do need a monitor. But to keep costs down I was currently exlcuding it from the build with the intention of using HDMI connection with 1080p 37inch TV. Is this stupid?

Not at all for gaming! It's not going to be great for serious work but for gaming it will be better than the Xbox360 experience. Going forward you can invest in a good monitor. Along with a good case and PSU it's important to get this right! I'd look to spend about €400 on a monitor alone if you can save up.

Idunno442 wrote: »

5a. If yes, what size do you need.
I haven't put much thought into a monitor as of now, see above.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
I would plan on buying a monitor at some point in the future but I thought it would be a better idea to spend the monitor money on better parts for now and save up again for a monitor in near/middle future.

Good path to take. Get the PC out of the way first. As for size 24" is good if you're going to be close and you need the full screen (e.g. FPS, traditional MMO) if you want a more immersive experience where you also have peripheral vision think 27". Do as much research on a monitor as you do on the rest of the PC!

Idunno442 wrote: »

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
I was planning on using old keyboard/mouse. They're USB but they are old. Would the age make a difference?

Probably grand if they are USB.

Idunno442 wrote: »

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
Haven't given it too much thought. I was reading a little about it and kinda feared that I might overheat something and break it. If it was safe enough that I would break components then I suppose I might be willing to try it. However, as I hadn't given it much thought I'm not even sure if any of the components are able to overclock.

Buy to overclock but then don't until you're a bit more confident. It's free performance when you need it a bit further down the line. If you get a good case and PSU you've little to fear from overclocking.

Idunno442 wrote: »

9. When are you purchasing?
Not in any huge rush with a purchase. I would like to have it bought and built in 6 weeks at the most. One of the things I was planning to ask was if there would be any likelyhood of either price reductions, or parts soon to be completely out of date that would be worth waiting for.

You can wait forever. Not much on the horizon in your price segment anyway tbh.

Idunno442 wrote: »

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
I have never built a PC before but I was thinking I'd try it myself. I read some online guides and it doesn't sound like the most difficult thing in the world but I would be concerned that I'd mess something up. How likely is that? Would it be stupid to try a first build alone?

Not strupid at all. Between Youtube guides and the nice folks here you'll have very few issues with a build. Just take your time. Don;t expect it to be perfect on the first go. You will need to troubleshoot to get things working on first boot, you will hit delays and you will have to go back and rebuild to get your cable management right. Part of the fun of PC ownership IMHO.

Idunno442 wrote: »

PSU - I added up the power usage on all components that had them listed and I believe it came to 631W. I figured that other parts/fans would use more power so picked out a 700W power supply. Would a 650W do? Does it matter if the PSU has more power than necessary? Is there any advantage to having extra power?

Be a bit careful of Linus he's there to sell stuff but he's a good starting point:

Idunno442 wrote: »

Fans - The GPU, CPU and PSU all have a fan. I added an extra CPU fan because I reasoned that a cooler CPU would last longer and perform better. Is this correct or a waste of time/money. The case has a 120mm intake and exaust, and I added 2 more 120mm cooling fans. I thought the power usage seemed high so thought the extra fans may be neccessary. I figured the cooler the better performance and longer life. Is this correct or are the fans overkill?

Cooling is a massive topic in itself, read/watch reviews online and spend alot of time picking your case.

Idunno442 wrote: »

Case - I kind of just picked the cheapest ATX case with 2 USB 3 ports on the front and plenty of fan spaces. I don't really mind too much how it looks to be honest just so long as it functions. Would this case be good enough or are there any factors in cases that I did not account for. I figured a cheap case would leave more money for better components.

See above case is very, very important. Do your research.

Idunno442 wrote: »

Hard drive and Optical drive - Basically the cheapest ones that fit what I desired. Any problems here?

An SSD is a must these days IMHO working of a mechanical HDD is torture IMHO.

Idunno442 wrote: »

CPU - I was looking at performance ratings for processors and the processor I picked seemed to rank fairly high on performance and very high for value. Is this correct? The comparable Intel ones seemed to be a lot more expensive. It's six core. I doubt theres any need for 6 cores for gaming, but would the extra power be completely wasted or would load balancing make reasonable use of the available power?

I know very little about new/AMD CPUs

Idunno442 wrote: »

GPU - The GPU I picked seemed to have a pretty high performance rating. Am I wrong here? Any cheaper alternatives or similar price ones with better performance?

GPU is very important. I love AMD although they run hotter an nosier than nVidia. nVidia are more refined but I think with AMD in place as the GPU in the two major consoles it makes sense to go AMD. That's my opinion, others will differ (violently).

Idunno442 wrote: »

RAM - I figure 8Gigs of ram should be more than enough. Is this correct? Does the brand make any difference? The RAM I picked appears to have pretty good clocks speeds and whatnot.

Idunno442 wrote: »

Motherboard - I someone recommend this motherboard on another forum. Seems to have all the necessary connections, AM3+ sockets, plenty of audio ins and outs and usb 2/3 ports. Any problems here? The GPU is PCIe 3 but I couldn't find an AM3+ motherboard with a PCIe 3 port. Will it make any difference putting a PCIe 3 GPU in a PCI 2 x16 motherboard?

Others will answer this better than I.

Idunno442 wrote: »

Bottlenecks - Are any of these parts seriously over/under powered? If so I'd be open to a slight downgrade, upgrade or reconfiguration to make the best use of the money. No real point having unused power.

Spend more on the case and PSU.

Idunno442 wrote: »

Compatability - I checked all the ports and connections and it all seems compatable. Am I missing anything?

Over the years everything has got pretty interchangeable.

Bepolite · 28-03-2014 10:04am

http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=57761&agid=631&apop=3

http://www.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/69039/Corsair+Builder+Serie+CX600+V3+Non-Modular+80%2B+Bronze%2C+600+Watt.article

Probably the minimum I'd spend on a case and PSU. The guys here know some good PSU and case brands, I'm a Corsair fanboi.

Idunno442 · 28-03-2014 7:53pm

I have changed the following components based on the advice so far.
PSU
Corsair Builder Serie CX600 V3 Non-Modular 80+ Bronze, 600 Watt 64.38
Case
Corsair Carbide Series 200R, ATX, ohne Netzteil 50.87
RAM
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9 70.36
GPU
Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 WindForce 2X OC, 2GB GDDR5 162.46

New total price 682.63, still very reasonable

A question about the PSU - How is power usage meant to be calculated? If I add up the various wattages for the different parts it comes to roughly 631-640W, but the suggested power usage here and using calculators says less than 600W.

Edit: I put them through Geizhalz.de - New price 661.15. Cool, for no real effort

eithelonnen · 28-03-2014 9:40pm

Idunno442 wrote: »

A question about the PSU - How is power usage meant to be calculated? If I add up the various wattages for the different parts it comes to roughly 631-640W, but the suggested power usage here and using calculators says less than 600W.

You don't really need to calculate power usage. You just follow general rules of thumb. Mid-range graphics card, 500-600 watts, high end card 600+ watts.

I think you are in a pretty good place with the build.

I would change the cpu cooler to something better though. Those cpus run hot. The noise of the cheap cooler will be pretty nasty.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/AMD/30900/Scythe+Katana+3+nur+f%C3%BCr+AMD.article

Id definitely think about spending more on the case if you can. It seems boring and odd to spend money on, but its very important and will last years. Ive had this one before, its very nice.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Midi/49495/Antec+Nine+Hundred+Two+V3%2C+ATX%2C+ohne+Netzteil.article

Anything else I can think of changing is gonna be crazy expensive, like getting an ssd. Its only real benefit is that games load really fast, it wont really help performance, so its definitely not required. Something to get further down the road.

tazzzZ · 28-03-2014 11:30pm

if its gaming specific i would probably go with intel. vast majority of games are not well optimised for multi threaded cpu's. so single core performance is more important than having alot of cores. and a similarly priced intel cpu will hammer that amd cpu in single core performance. core i3 at similar price is better than that cpu in gaming.

also in the future you may want to think about investing in a good mouse. doesnt have to be the most expensive mouse but they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to gaming. particularly any fps game. or rts for that matter.

also i dont know what psu calculator you were using because i have 4670K (isolated water cooling) 16gb ram an ssd, hdd and 7970 running on 550w psu with easy. it is a good psu though and defo not an area id be cheap on.

Idunno442 · 29-03-2014 2:11am

Bepolite wrote: »

Can you not get a free copy of Win8 through college?

Definatly not the place to be asking this but anyway. How would I get a free copy of windows through college? If I can thats an extra €90 I can spend on components.
I didn't actually think about it before but since you mention it I can definatly get a cheaper student copy of windows, but a free one would be awsome.

Bepolite · 29-03-2014 3:20am

Idunno442 wrote: »

Definatly not the place to be asking this but anyway. How would I get a free copy of windows through college? If I can thats an extra €90 I can spend on components.
I didn't actually think about it before but since you mention it I can definatly get a cheaper student copy of windows, but a free one would be awsome.

Its fine to ask that here. Through Dreamspark, perfectly legal. Have a chat to your IT lads.

yawhat! · 29-03-2014 9:15am

If you can windows from college and I see your budget is not definite then the below would be a good build. If you could spend another 50 then I'd go for an I5 4440 over the fx 6300. Cooler could be added at a later date for overclocking the below

Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€95.67
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0, AM3+, ATX|€58.01
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€63.09
Corsair VS Serie VS550, Non-Modular, 80+|€49.18
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.80
Cooler Master Elite 310 blau, ohne Netzteil|€32.05
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC Windforce 3, 4GB DDR5, PCI-Express|€377.68
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€69.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€814.46

SterlingArcher · 29-03-2014 10:13am

yawhat! wrote: »

If you can windows from college and I see your budget is not definite then the below would be a good build. If you could spend another 50 then I'd go for an I5 4440 over the fx 6300. Cooler could be added at a later date for overclocking the below

Item|Price
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€95.67
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0, AM3+, ATX|€58.01
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€63.09
Corsair VS Serie VS550, Non-Modular, 80+|€49.18
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.80
Cooler Master Elite 310 blau, ohne Netzteil|€32.05
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC Windforce 3, 4GB DDR5, PCI-Express|€377.68
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€69.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€814.46

This would be a nice strong build. Throw in an I5 for 50 more and you are sorted for a few years. Might want to change out that vs model PSU don't think it had the connections necessary to power this card.

First PC build - Intended for gaming

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