First Ever Build/Desktop

Officer Giggles

This is going to be my first desktop so I will need everything for it. Thanks in advance wise people.
_________________________________________________________________

1. What is your budget? ~€1000

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming/Internet - GTA, COD, Football Manager, C+C, Civ

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. No preference

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Yes-Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Speakers

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Any

9. When are you purchasing? Within a month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Gonna try myself

Digital Solitude

i5 4460 €175
1tb HDD €50
8gb RAM €40
500w PSU €60
Case €40
H81M board €50
gtx970 €350
BenQ 2450 €150
Windows €20 from Reddit
Total €975 I think

Any questions ask away

Officer Giggles

Digital Solitude wrote: »

i5 4460 €175
1tb HDD €50
8gb RAM €40
500w PSU €60
Case €40
H81M board €50
gtx970 €350
BenQ 2450 €150
Windows €20 from Reddit
Total €975 I think

Any questions ask away

Thanks for that, I also need to get the peripherals, any suggestions

Digital Solitude

Sorry missed that. Get homeplugs for internet, drop to an i3 4160 to spend on keyboard and mouse

Officer Giggles

I edited the OP there, it looked like I hadn't changed the templated answers.

I wouldn't know the difference between one mouse/keyboard and another. Is there any in particular you would suggest.

Is there speakers on the screen or do I need to get separate ones.

Is there much of a difference between the i3 and i5. The i5 is €50 more expensive. Is the difference so much that I should put an extra bit of money into it.

Sorry for all the questions I'm a total noob to this stuff.

Thanks for your help much appreciated.

Digital Solitude

On the budget, I'd say just get a €20 mouse and the same for a keyboard, upgrade after if you see the need. I've a €1200 PC with a €100 keyboard, and a €15 mouse. I love my ****ty mouse.
There arent speakers no, I'm no man to recommend them. You could get a second hand R9 290 to free up about €100 and lose virtually no power

Officer Giggles

Is there much of a difference between the i3 and i5. The i5 is €50 more expensive. Is the difference so much that I should put an extra bit of money into it.

Sorry for all the questions I'm a total noob to this stuff.

SterlingArcher

Officer Giggles wrote: »

Is there much of a difference between the i3 and i5. The i5 is €50 more expensive. Is the difference so much that I should put an extra bit of money into it.

Sorry for all the questions I'm a total noob to this stuff.

In a budget of 1000. Id expect an i5. Try keep it in there.

Basically i3 has 2 cores. I5 is a 4 core chip.

Digital has benchmarks in the off topic part of the pc building. I3 holds its own in alot of games and is fine for a thight budget. but drops off in others, the i5 be more guaranteed performance on all games.

Get a cheap mouse and keyboard for starting off.same with speakers(most people use a headset) Nothing fancy then down the line pick up better.

Officer Giggles

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B006YG94Y2/ref=gbmh_mob_s-1_6867_4e0d6354?dealid=4e0d6354&pf_rd_p=540546867&pf_rd_s=slot-1&pf_rd_t=35801&pf_rd_i=23&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=0JJ7H7NWB41C9KRR6QPS

Sorry on my phone.

Would this RAM suit my build

grindle

Officer Giggles wrote: »

Would this RAM suit my build

Yep.

Officer Giggles

grindle wrote: »

Yep.

Cheers it's an Amazon lightening deal at 6:10pm

Officer Giggles

this is probably the first in a long line of very simple questions but can I pick any case or is there a minimum size I have to go with or are there different lay outs

would it be worth getting a say 250gb ssd and if so will I need a bigger psu

thanks

grindle

Officer Giggles wrote: »

this is probably the first in a long line of very simple questions but can I pick any case or is there a minimum size I have to go with or are there different lay outs

mATX and ATX are two different motherboard sizes & both fit inside ATX cases but an ATX motherboard will not fit inside an mATX case.

Officer Giggles wrote: »

would it be worth getting a say 250gb ssd

Yes.

Officer Giggles wrote: »

if so will I need a bigger psu

No, SSD's are power-efficient.

the_syco

I see you're in Dublin. Pop over to Currys/PC World in Blanchardstown shopping centre if you can, and look at the mice there. The only reason I say this is because IMO you'll want a mouse that is comfortable in your hand ( for GTA and CoD), and I was able to see which mouse suited me best by looking at the different ones (the boxes would be open at the top, and the mouse would be under a plastic mould).

Officer Giggles

grindle wrote: »

mATX and ATX are two different motherboard sizes & both fit inside ATX cases but an ATX motherboard will not fit inside an mATX case.

Yes.

No, SSD's are power-efficient.

Thanks

When I type in H81M into the search bars, obviously a load of results come back but they all have different letters after the H81M, some have DG4, DGS, BTC. Does it matter which one I actually get?

grindle

Officer Giggles wrote: »

Thanks

When I type in H81M into the search bars, obviously a load of results come back but they all have different letters after the H81M, some have DG4, DGS, BTC. Does it matter which one I actually get?

Some will have slightly different specs to others. Different max RAM speeds, different surround sound specs, maybe an extra PCI slot.

If you're the average gamer who just wants a CPU, GPU & couple of storage drives, it doesn't matter, no. If you have specific equipment you'd like to use with the PC (like you have an optical surround sound system, or want 7.1 as opposed to 5.1, or have a certain amount of USBs on the case's front, etc etc) then you have to be sure of specs.

Officer Giggles

grindle wrote: »

Some will have slightly different specs to others. Different max RAM speeds, different surround sound specs, maybe an extra PCI slot.

If you're the average gamer who just wants a CPU, GPU & couple of storage drives, it doesn't matter, no. If you have specific equipment you'd like to use with the PC (like you have an optical surround sound system, or want 7.1 as opposed to 5.1, or have a certain amount of USBs on the case's front, etc etc) then you have to be sure of specs.

I'm just a simple man with simple needs. None of that fancy stuff will be bothering me I hope

SterlingArcher

Officer Giggles wrote: »

this is probably the first in a long line of very simple questions but can I pick any case or is there a minimum size I have to go with or are there different lay outs

would it be worth getting a say 250gb ssd and if so will I need a bigger psu

thanks

Ssd is worth it. Won't make a difference to psu.

Pick a case and link it or post here can help with it.

Didn't see second page. As grindle said.

Officer Giggles

So my build is looking like this, I am not confident that I have picked the correct parts so all comments more than welcome, I would particularly highlight the board and graphics as total blind folded picks


HDD - €45 - Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 1TB 3.5 inch Hard Drive

SSD - €80 - Samsung SSD 850 EVO (Basic) Series 250GB

RAM - €37 - Crucial Sport 8 GB Kit (4GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800

CPU - €180 - Intel i5 4460 Quad Core CPU (3.20GHz, 6MB Cache, 84W, Graphics, Turbo Boost Technology, Socket 1150)

PSU - €59 - Corsair Builder Series CX500 500 Watt ATX 2.3

Monitor - €150 - BenQ GL2450

Board - €40 - ASRock H81M-VG4 R2.0

Graphics - €342 - MSI GTX 970 4096MB GeForce 4GD5T OC active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)

Case - Open to suggestions

Thanks!!!!

Digital Solitude

Its fine.

Nanoxia DS3 is a nice quiet case, pretty plain, suits me.

Officer Giggles

cheers, is there any money being wasted or is there anything you would change

Officer Giggles

How come most of the cases I have looked at only seem to have 2 or 3 usb slots on the front, no mention of them having more elsewhere, am I missing something because surely you need more

grindle

Officer Giggles wrote: »

How come most of the cases I have looked at only seem to have 2 or 3 usb slots on the front, no mention of them having more elsewhere, am I missing something because surely you need more

The backs of motherboards generally have four or more.

Officer Giggles

grindle wrote: »

The backs of motherboards generally have four or more.

ah right, the motherboard I have put in my build says it has 6 usb ports, is that in addition to the 2/3 ports the case comes with?

mayordenis

Officer Giggles wrote: »

ah right, the motherboard I have put in my build says it has 6 usb ports, is that in addition to the 2/3 ports the case comes with?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/H81M-VG4%28L1%29.jpg

so looking at the pic, the motherboard has 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back, and 2 USB 3.0 ports on the back.

When you're actually making the computer the case will have wires that you can hook up to the motherboard to connect those front ports on the case.

SweetCaliber

Officer Giggles wrote: »

ah right, the motherboard I have put in my build says it has 6 usb ports, is that in addition to the 2/3 ports the case comes with?

No, the motherboard has 4 x USB 2.0 ports and 2. x USB 3.0 ports on it. (on the back of the computer).

Officer Giggles

okay I was just going to order when I realised there is fixed cable, modular, non modular and semi modular versions for the PSU, the fixed cable is cheapest, is there any difference for someone of my level of understanding

Officer Giggles

What version of windows should I be getting?

grindle

The cheapest one you can find. If that's 7 or 8 you can upgrade to 10 for free.

Also, your PSU question: fixed cable = messiest or more likely to be messy, the other two are tidy.

Officer Giggles

Put in order with mindfactory late Friday night and it just landed in the door now, can't complain with that

Officer Giggles

I've finally sat down to put my parts together and the cables just seem to be getting the better of me.

I've all the parts in place but I've a few cables that I can't seem to see what to do with.

What's the best video tutorial that might aid me

Cheers

Digital Solitude

Where are the cables from, and if PSU cables what's stamped on them?

Officer Giggles

There's a cable for USB and one for USB 3.0, I also don't seem to have a cable to go into the graphics card, all I've done to that is slot it into place

Digital Solitude

They go into a rectangularly port at the bottom of the motherboard for them, check the manual for the pin placements.

They're optional anyways, for the front USB. Christ I hate those pins.

The GPU cable comes from the PSU, it has GPU stamped I think. The data goes through where its slotted in

Officer Giggles

The cables I have seem to be too big, I might have a cable with room for 8 pins but the mobo doesn't have any 8 pin clusters left

Digital Solitude

Ah the USB 3.0 one goes towards the back of the GPU on the board, above it. It's close to the 24pinz connector, I forget its a different connection. Not all boards have the connection

Officer Giggles

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Ah the USB 3.0 one goes towards the back of the GPU on the board, above it. It's close to the 24pinz connector, I forget its a different connection. Not all boards have the connection

My board has two physical USB 3.0 ports however I don't believe it has any connectors to support the 3.0 port on the front of my case. Would that be possible?

Digital Solitude

The two USB 3.0s are at the back of the board is it? I don't fully follow

Officer Giggles

Digital Solitude wrote: »

The two USB 3.0s are at the back of the board is it? I don't fully follow

Yea sorry, there's two USB 3.0 ports at the back, the rear panel I/O, my case then has two on it at the front with a cable coming from them, I'm confident enough to say that my board doesn't have a 3.0 connector on it so do I just leave the cable hanging there

Digital Solitude

Pretty much, nothing can be done with it in that case

grindle

You can get an adapter to convert the USB 3 ports on the front of the case to USB 2 sockets if your mobo only has 2.0 connectors.

brady23

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/i7-4790k-16gb-gtx-970-g1-ssd-128gb-mini-itx/9502536

Hi guys considering buying this machine with a 980 gpu in it? Thoughts?? Potential issues etc?? Anything I'm missing?

Digital Solitude

It's got a 970 yeah? Serious machine, good price, I wouldn't hold back as he's a good seller

brady23

Digital Solitude wrote: »

It's got a 970 yeah? Serious machine, good price, I wouldn't hold back as he's a good seller

Hes gonna change it for a 980 and we do something on the price

Officer Giggles

Lads I really appreciate all the help so far.

I'm at the final hurdle of the actual building part, the fans.

My case has 5 fans. Three of these have Molex connectors and the other two have three pin connectors.

My motherboard has 1 four pin header for the chassis fans.

I have a PSU cable that can take four Molex connections and has a floppy connector on the end.

I presume I connect the Molex fans with the cable from the PSU and disregard the floppy.

Do I need to get a splitter cable of some sort to join up the other two fans and connect them to the motherboard?