New work PC ~€750

NoelOC

Hi guys,

Been following this forum for months and I'm finally jumping in and building a PC.

As a bonus at work, I'm being allowed to build my own work PC to use at home.
I have been given a budget of €600 from work and was planning on paying an extra €150 myself to get some extra power. So a budget of €750

My current work PC has an i3-2120 @3.30Ghz with 8GB ram
I do frequently hit these limits so something more powerful than this.

1. What is your budget?
Around [€750]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Video editing/3D Modelling/HTPC/Internet] (If gaming include which games)
Mostly work - Web developer using SQL, Visual Studio running web applications locally during development.
Casual gaming - Metro, Half-life - I would still like a pretty decent graphics card in the system.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]
No - I can get Windows 8.1 from Work

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Hard drive/DVD Drive/Case/PSU/etc.] (If possible state brand and model of the parts to ensure compatibility)
No parts to use.

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes/No]
Yes, I do need a monitor

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]
I would like a big size monitor, easier for development 24' +

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes/No]
Don't have a current monitor

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.]
Keyboard - preferably laptop style - flat close keys
Mouse
WirelessCard
Speakers

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes/No]
Not at the start but in time yes - Have done it previously

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]
The company will be paying so Credit Card would be the option so I think that rules out hardwareversand
Company can also claim back the VAT so not sure if that matters.

9. When are you purchasing? [In x days]
As soon as possible

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.]
I'm in Cork, I have replace HDD and ram before and I think I should be able to build it with some help from Google.

Thanks for your help.
If you need anymore information just let me know.

yawhat!

Hundred over.

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150|€218.39
2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance PC3-12800U CL10-10-10-27|€139.24
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.80
Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W|€56.72
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€52.86
ASRock H87 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€66.45
Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6GB/s 6,4CM (2,5") 7mm|€89.99
MSI R9 270 GAMING 2G, AMD Radeon R9 270, 2GB DDR5|€153.43
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€845.87

But 16 GB of ram, 250 GB SSD ,Xeon Processor and a good graphics card in the R9 270.

frozenfrozen

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-4670K Tray,3,4 GHZ, 6MB Cache, LGA 1150, VGA|€197.59
8GB G.Skill PC3-12800U CL11-11-11-28|€65.17
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€49.80
Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6GB/s 6,4CM (2,5") 7mm|€56.99
Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 WindForce 2X OC, 2GB GDDR5|€151.40
BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower black, ohne Netzteil|€34.35
Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W|€56.72
ASRock H87 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€66.45
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€697.46

Tonnes of power for webdev and visual studio, and will play games for the next few years. 50 euro left for an aftermarket cpu cooler, keyboard, whatever.

8gb of ram is more than enough IMHO. The mobo has some pretty dodgy reviews concerning quality control on units sent out. The 50 euro could go to getting a slightly higher end one. But realistically that one would be fine and it's cheap enough to fit the budget.

You can play halflife (I'm guessing two) with onboard graphics as it's a fantastic engine in that it's nearly all CPU, so the above GPU could be dropped down to something cheaper to save money. Having said that it's nice to just have a card that'll do whatever and as long as you aren't expecting crysis 3 on ultra settings, you'll be able to play most things.

Also instead of wifi i'd just buy a long ethernet cable. You'll have a much better experience over wifi. But that's just my opinion that I'd never install wifi in a desktop.

Just reading back over your post and you need a monitor in that 750 budget so the above is basically useless, I've spent a good 5 minutes typing this though so I'll post it anyway.

NoelOC

Thanks @frozenfrozen and @yawhat!

Those builds both looks nice unfortunately a little too expensive for my budget at the moment.
Since I also need to include a monitor and peripherals in this build that does mean the desktop will need to be around the €600 mark.

Would I be able to get a nice monitor, keyboard and mouse for around €150?

If so, then I will have €600 left for the build itself.

Can anyone recommend a built for around this mark?

Thanks again, appreciated!

Addled

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-4460 in-a-Box|€151.28
ASRock H97 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€71.53
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€60.67
Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6GB/s 6,4CM (2,5") 7mm|€55.89
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€46.37
LG DH18NS schwarz bare SATA II|€11.07
LogiLink SATA Anschlusskabel mit Sicherungslasche, 0.75m|€1.05
Antec GX500 schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€38.48
Corsair CX Series Modular CX500M, 500W|€53.13
Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 WindForce 2X OC, 2GB GDDR5|€145.89
Iiyama ProLite X2380HS-B1|€143.40
TP-LINK TL-WN881ND Netzwerkkarte/-adapter|€11.69
V7 Standard Keyb Usb Uk English|€10.59
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€813.03

I just remixed frozens build a little with a few concessions but still came in a bit over budget. This build has a h97 board that can take a broadwell processor when they arrive.

There's a couple of things you can do to bring this within budget though:

Try an LG Flatron 22EA53VQ-P for €109, it's a 22" monitor compared to the 23" Iiyama and doesn't include a dvi cable, only vga but has all the same connectors (hdmi, dvi and vga).

Also that lg monitor gets more expensive when run through geizhals for some reason.

Graphics can be dropped down to a 2GB 260x to save another ~€50 and bring the total price to €752,49 before shipping. Search for "Sapphire Radeon R7 260X, 2GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, lite retail"

You could also drop down the CPU to an i3 or drop the ssd completely but the performance and usability would suffer quite a bit.

And the mouse + keyboard are bound to be cheap and nasty so you might want to replace it after a while.

NoelOC

Thanks for all the help guys.

I'm going to go ahead an order the parts today.

Is there anything else I should be aware of?
Will I have everything I need to put this together when it arrives? I mean, cables & connections etc?

Also as it's my first time building a PC is there anything I should be aware of?
Static? Certain order parts should be put in? etc

Thanks again!

john the one

All your power leads will be European so you will need Adaptors for your PSU and monitor as well as a HDMI I think

NoelOC

Thanks, I never thought about adapters.

Is there anything to be aware about when building the PC?

Any common beginner mistakes to watch out for?

Edit** I just realized that the build doesn't include fans, or that actually needed in a build? Or does the standard case fan to the trick?

Apologies if this is an idiotic question.

Addled

NoelOC wrote: »

Thanks, I never thought about adapters.

Is there anything to be aware about when building the PC?

Any common beginner mistakes to watch out for?

Edit** I just realized that the build doesn't include fans, or that actually needed in a build? Or does the standard case fan to the trick?

Apologies if this is an idiotic question.

If you're going with the Antec case it comes with 3x 120mm fans preinstalled, 2 in the roof and 1 in the rear which should be enough to start off with.

If you're going with the Iiyama monitor it comes bundled with a DVI and VGA cable whereas the LG only has a VGA cable in the package.

linustechtips build videos are great for beginners to get an idea of the build process and pitfalls. Here's a fairly detailed build showing a lot of the nuances : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFb3TNePIg.

I usually just install the PSU into the case first and plug it into the wall socket but turn off the PSU and leave the switch off at the wall which will ground the case while you're building in it to prevent static buildup.

If you hit any problems along the way post back here and some of us can help troubleshoot.

NoelOC

Thanks @Addled

That video was very informative even if the presenter was a little bit cringy.

I have everything order and parts should be here next week so looking forward to the build.

One last question:
I see that there is a HDMI output on both the Motherboard and on the Graphics card.
Is there any difference between the two to use to connect to the monitor.

Thanks!

Addled

NoelOC wrote: »

Thanks @Addled

That video was very informative even if the presenter was a little bit cringy.

I have everything order and parts should be here next week so looking forward to the build.

One last question:
I see that there is a HDMI output on both the Motherboard and on the Graphics card.
Is there any difference between the two to use to connect to the monitor.

Thanks!

Yeah Linus can be a bit much sometimes .

When you put a graphics card in the motherboard it usually takes control of the video output from the onboard so plug your HDMI into the graphics card.

NoelOC

Addled wrote: »

Yeah Linus can be a bit much sometimes .

When you put a graphics card in the motherboard it usually takes control of the video output from the onboard so plug your HDMI into the graphics card.

Thanks ! Got everything delivered and put everything together.
Power lights come on and power unit starts spinning but nothing else.
Monitor detects no input and fan around the processor does nothing.

Any suggestions on what it could be?

I've double checked all the wires are connected.

Edit: Fans on the graphics card are spinning too..and there is heat from the CPU..

2nd Edit : I unplugged all the wires and put them in again and it worked.
Had to use a different HDMI cable also, for some reason 1 cable didn't work.

Just installed windows and getting all my drivers now!

Thanks a mill folks!

Thanks!