Gaming build - €1000 or less

Bob Rooney

My current PC is about 5 years old and it's starting to show its age.

1. What is your budget?

€1000 or less (with emphasis on less)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?

Gaming & development

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?

Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?

Perhaps a few -
Case
450w Super Flower PSU (not sure if this would be sufficient. I don't plan to SLI or equivalent down the line)
Wireless card
Optical drive (I'm not sure if there is any need for DVD drives thee days)
Keyboard

5. Do you need a monitor?

Yes

Ideally I'd want 2 new ones but I suppose I could use my current 23" in conjunction with something considerably larger and better. I've never used dual monitors for gaming so unless it's a must have I could get by with this.

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

No preference. I generally need a fair bit of space to run my various work related programs - e.g. Photoshop, text editor, command line, Glip and so on.

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

Of these I think just a mouse

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?

Not at this stage.

8. How can you pay?

Any

9. When are you purchasing?

Anytime between now 6 months. For a while now I've struggled by on a machine with 4GB RAM so I'm willing to wait a little longer to see if I can get any deals. Not sure if places like hardwareversand run sales in the new year.

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

No need.

Digital Solitude

i5 4460 €175
H81M board €50
16gb RAM €80
GTX960 €220
Case €50
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
Total €700

Keep old PSU or add €50 for a new one.

Up GPU to 970 for €130 more if wanted, will be much more powerful.

Prices from mindfactory.de

Any questions, ask away

Bob Rooney

OK, that's great.

Can you recommend a decent monitor? As I said I could potentially use my current 23" as a secondary - i.e. for less important stuff like Glip (think Slack but mostly better), Photoshop and so on and get a larger/ fancier model as my main display. Or perhaps getting two new identical monitors is less messy.

Do places like mindfactory.de do Christmas/ new year sales?

Would a 450w PSU be enough to power the above? Bear in mind I might have the odd device plugged in but I don't ever intend to go down the SLI route or go beyond a relatively modest SSD and a 1TB HDD. This new PC will probably do me as is for another 5 years or so until I start over.

Digital Solitude

Monitors arent really my thing so no, sorry

Don't think they do sales no

And yes 450w is plenty

Bob Rooney

Hey folks,

I've been looking into this a little more and I'm wondering what people think about this idea. Digital Solitude recommended the following.

i5 4460 €175
H81M board €50
16gb RAM €80
GTX960 €220 / GTX970 €350
Case €50
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90

Total = 715 / 845

However, I currently have

i5 760 CPU
P7H55 mobo
(both of these are about 5 years old)

If I was to stick with the i5 760 and the P7H55 and then get the following am I creating a bottleneck? Remember, this will primarily be used for gaming and running other resource hogs like Photoshop and lighter programs like Brackets and other development tools.

GTX960 €220 / GTX970 €350
16BG DDR3 €80
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90

Total = 440 / 570

This would then allow me to buy a pretty decent monitor which I could used in conjunction with the 22" monitor that I currently use.

TerrorFirmer

Yes. That processor is just too old now. Unless you're willing to overclock it to within an inch of its life, in which case you will squeeze a bit more life out of it, but at stock speed, it's not worth keeping if you're looking at a new gaming build.

SterlingArcher

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Yes. That processor is just too old now. Unless you're willing to overclock it to within an inch of its life, in which case you will squeeze a bit more life out of it, but at stock speed, it's not worth keeping if you're looking at a new gaming build.

Second this.

Luck100

This is a free all-around benchmark you can run in a couple of minutes:
http://www.userbenchmark.com/

It tests everything (CPU, GPU, storage) and gives you a quick evaluation. Doesn't seem to use SLI/crossfire but otherwise it seems ok for an all-around bench.

Bob Rooney

Hey folks,

I've been doing a little more research and here is and alternative Skylake / DDR4 build. I figure that I'm getting a CPU that is perhaps about 20% faster than the i5 4460 (according to Luck100 link) and I've at least got a foot in the door of Intel's latest tech.

Total price of below is €839 as opposed to €763 for Digital Solitude's suggested Haswell build.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P Intel Z170 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR4 ATX - €110
CPU: i5 6500 - €196 (or i5 6400 for €183)
RAM: 16GB Crucial CT2K8G4DFD8213 DDR4-2133 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit - €86

== Below are Common to both Haswell and Skylake builds ===

HDD: 1000GB Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 64MB 3.5" (8.9cm) SATA 6Gb/s - €43
SSD: 250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s TLC Toggle - €86
GPU: 4096MB KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 Gamer OC Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16


Sorry for the lack of links. I don't have the option to add them yet. All the above are from mindfactory.de.

Bob Rooney

Hi folks, I started this thread about 4 months back and I'm ready to place the order. But first I want a sanity check on my list.

A few things to note. The total (all from mindfactory) excludes the following which I'll also need to factor in -

Monitor - Ideally something < 200 and is a good all-rounder when it comes to games and has a good colour range for images).
Perhaps a PSU - I might be able to use the 5 year old 450w I currently have.
Win10 - I guess I can pick up a OEM copy or something from Reddit
Delivery

Intel Core i5 6600 4x 3.30GHz So.1151 BOX
€ 227.21

Gigabyte GA-Z170-Z170 Intel HD3P So.1151 Dual Channel DDR4 ATX Retail
€ 112.36

16GB Crucial DDR4-2133 DIMM CT4K4G4DFS8213 CL16 Quad Kit
€ 75.44

1000GB Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 64MB 3.5 "(8.9cm) SATA 6Gb / s
€ 46.26

250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5 "(6.4cm) SATA 6Gb / s TLC Toggle (MZ 75E250B / EU)
€ 74.99

4096MB KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 Black Edition Active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)
€ 309.80

Total: 846.06 (ex delivery)

challengemaster

Spend the extra euro and get any graphics card other than a KFA2 version.

Bob Rooney

Are they crap manufactures or some such? I suppose I could go for the 4096MB MSI GeForce GTX 970 OC 4GD5T active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail) for €327 but I'm really starting to push the boat out here. I just had a look at my bank balance and the new was far worse than I thought

Do you think the 450w PSU I have is any use?

Digital Solitude

Yoúr 450w is still good once it has the power connection for the 970

Dropping to 8gb RAM and a Haswell build like the 4460 above will knock about €150 off

Bob Rooney

OK, cool. I t'll have to check that. I like the idea of not paying as much but as this is gonna do me of the next 5 years I'd like to get the best I can. I think I might need something over 8GB ram because I'll often be simultaneously be running multiple browsers, Photoshop, text editor, Grunt and any other number of apps.

OK, so this is a revised list. I've changed the motherboard to something a little cheaper as I don't intend on OCing. I've added a wireless card (I have somethign similar but it's 100mb so I suppose I should upgrde) and I've also left the KFA2 in place because it's clocked very high, the reviews I've read are pretty glowing (sorry, I still can't post links ) and I'm not sure why challengemaster advised against it.

Intel Core i5 6600 4x 3.30GHz So.1151 BOXIntel Core i5 6600 4x 3.30GHz So.1151 BOX

16GB Crucial DDR4-2133 DIMM CT4K4G4DFS8213 CL16 Quad Kit

1000GB Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 64MB 3.5 "(8.9cm) SATA 6Gb / s

250GB Samsung 850 Evo 2.5 "(6.4cm) SATA 6Gb / s TLC Toggle (MZ 75E250B / EU)

4096MB KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 EX OC Black Edition Active PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)

ASRock H170M Pro4S Intel H170 So.1151 Dual Channel DDR4 mATX Retail

TP-Link TL-WN851N network card WLan 1 Port 300Mbit / s PCI

Digital Solitude

There's virtually 0 difference between the 6600 and the 4460, you'll be able to carry your RAM from the 6600 over is the only defining factor.

KFA2 have a poor rap generally for their cards

tuxy

Digital Solitude wrote: »

KFA2 have a poor rap generally for their cards

What exactly is the problem with KFA2 cards? Especially their new maxwell cards. They get good reviews and I can't find any horror stories online.

Digital Solitude

I don't delve into the specifics of most manufacturers and their quality, so I can't comment on that, I've heard of a lot of people having trouble with them.

Maybe they've upped their game since, I'd play it safe because I'm too lazy to research it

Bob Rooney

Digital Solitude wrote: »

There's virtually 0 difference between the 6600 and the 4460, you'll be able to carry your RAM from the 6600 over is the only defining factor.

KFA2 have a poor rap generally for their cards

Interesting. I was going by the cpubenchmarks site and some others. Again, I cant post links but the 6600 does seem to be notably better in nearly all areas. Possibly in terms of every day use I'd never notice it. As for the DDR4 it's my understanding is while the the difference between DDR3 and DDR4 is minimal this might change as DDR4 becomes more commonplace.

Maybe Skylake isn't worth the extra cost but I guess when it comes to things like CPUs I'm bit wary of buying into a CPU socket and RAM that is in the process of being superseded. I'll look into it more.

OK, for my next question. I was looking at mindfactory to deliver everything and then mention cost per package. I've not gone too far in the checkout process but they mention that all the above equals one package and will cost €30 (or €60 if I include a monitor). Does that sound right? Seems pretty good.

Finally, I'm gonna price this on another couple of site and I was considering the likes of hardwarversand as a potential option. I assume everybody pays through Paypal or credit card because I gather that these give you some protection.

Bob Rooney

OK, final list. I'll be ordering tonight I hope.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WHj9f7

I still might go with the KFA2 card but as it wasn't an option above I just randomly chose another GTX 970 for the sake of putting something in.

I plan to run the new monitor in conjunction with my current one. I take it that this wont cause any issues in terms of performance? My current monitor doesn't support HDMI (I assume that this is what I'd want to use for the new monitor) so will that be an issue? Just to add that the second monitor (If I use it) will only ever be for peripheral stuff related to work like Slack etc so I don't need fantastic image quality.

If this is going to be an issue then perhaps I would consider going with two cheaper screens - maybe something like this ViewSonic.

Either way I think my head is fit to explode with all this research into monitors and motherboads and I love for this to be done and dusted tonight.

Digital Solitude

Two monitors will be fine like that

Build looks good to me

Bob Rooney

Sweet. I appreciate all the responses.