Started my first Gaming PC build. (Bit by bit)

Blackgator

I always wanted a gaming PC and have decided to take the plunge and build my own.

As I don't have €400/500 to throw down in one go I decided to buy the parts as I can afford them.
I think this will give me more time to research each part and make sure I don't make a bollox of it.

I've ordered my first part just now, the case.
I decided to go for the CiT Barricada case bought from Amazon for £18.49 (€23.41).
Chose this for no other reason than the price.


I guess my next purchase is the PSU and Motherboard.
Time to start researching.

Anyone have a suggestion on what I should be on the lookout for?

(I'll update post as I receive parts and I'm sure I will be asking for a bit of help along the way)

Eoinmc97

Basically, the purchase model you have chosen means technology will change by the time you have built your PC, so prices and availability will fluctuate.
In terms of Gaming PC, what kind of games are you looking to play? And on what screen (resolution is key here too) as this does help narrow parts down.
Currently, the only thing I can really say is grab parts that don't change much;
That being Storage, Cases and Power Supplies.
For storage, I believe a 1TB HDD and a 128Gb SSD (for the OS) is the best option for price to performance, as 128GB SSDs can be had for around €40.
Power supplies are straightforward; Don't skimp on cheap brands, and 80+ Bronze is all that's really needed. Corsair, beQuiet, Seasonic, XFX, CoolerMaster and EVGA are good brands.

In terms of available budget, you are looking at getting an i3 today on a B150 motherboard, and adding a GPU later on. The aim is that you can always add a Skylake i5 or even a Kaby Lake i5 by the time you save up some money and more demanding games come along.

Blackgator

Looking to play Day Z, GTA, H1Z1 & ARK:SE.

Is the B150 good enough as I would pay a little more for motherboard so it is a bit more future proof.

Digital Solitude

B150 won't really make a difference.

You're much better off saving up about €500-600 and getting a good PC, then adding a €200 or so graphics card, it's the only worthwhile way of staggering your buys, and even then you don't really have a gaming PC until you get the GPU

Blackgator

Digital Solitude wrote:

You're much better off saving up about €500-600 and getting a good PC, then adding a €200 or so graphics card, it's the only worthwhile way of staggering your buys, and even then you don't really have a gaming PC until you get the GPU

I wouldn't be able to save that amount.
Gonna get motherboard, PSU and HD. Then get GPU and processor last (keeping an eye out for bargains).
Then when I have it up and running I might add an SSD.

Was looking at the AMD FX 6300 CPU as it seams good for the price. Would it be equivalent to the i3 6100?

Digital Solitude

What's the difference? You're just saving for longer instead if wasting a warranty?

Stick with Intel, for the games you've listed an i5 6400 is the minimum I'd go with, AMD chips are leagues behind Intel's Core range

Blackgator

Digital Solitude wrote:

Stick with Intel, for the games you've listed an i5 6400 is the minimum I'd go with, AMD chips are leagues behind Intel's Core range

I thought 4 cores were better than 2 cores with hyper threading.
Don't wanna get the minimum that will work. Might see if I can stretch to an i5

Digital Solitude

With Intel chips yeah, but a lot of games run off single core performance, where AMDs is really bad, a 5 year old i3 with beat AMDs 8 Core 8350 in the majority of games.

i5s are the way to go really

ED E

If you're insistent on piecemeal purchasing then try the 2nd hand market. Save a few bob that way. An old 2500k rig wouldnt be terrible if you can save up €250 without spending it.

2ndcoming

I've had a similar approach to yourself in picking up bits where I could.

Personally I went for a z170 board and Skylake i3... with a decent gpu it will run most things comfortably enough for my needs and the z170 board leaves the possibility open for overclocking by dropping in an i5 or i7 K chip in a couple years and getting a big power boost with one simple upgrade rather than having to start again from scratch.

The two can be picked up for 200 or less these days.

Blackgator

2ndcoming wrote:

Personally I went for a z170 board and Skylake i3... with a decent gpu it will run most things comfortably enough for my needs and the z170 board leaves the possibility open for overclocking by dropping in an i5 or i7 K chip in a couple years and getting a big power boost with one simple upgrade rather than having to start again from scratch.

I was thinking the exact same thing about overclocking and Z series motherboards.

Serephucus

2ndcoming wrote: »

the z170 board leaves the possibility open for overclocking [...] in a couple years

Or now, if you get the right BIOS. :P

Blackgator

I am considering this z97 motherboard. Found a good bargain. Do you think it would do the job?

Digital Solitude

Blackgator wrote: »

I am considering this z97 motherboard. Found a good bargain. Do you think it would do the job?

For that, you would need to get a Haswell i5/i7 with the K suffix to allow overclocking like the i5 4670k/4690k or i7 4770k/4790k, which are more expensive than their Non-overclocking counterparts

Haswell is perfectly fine, I'd say the majority of people here are using Haswell builds, It'll be cheaper if you're going the second hand route.

I realised you've never been given a spec to aim for though,
i5 €200
Motherboard €80
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
500w PSU €60
8gb RAM €40

Just prices for what you roughly will be paying for each part when you buy it new.

TerrorFirmer

Also that CIT Barricade is not a good case, I have used one and it's very tight to fit stuff in, majority of graphics cards won't fit into it either.

Blackgator

Seen an Intel Core I7-4820K ES on eBay for £90(€115).
I know it's older ivy bridge, but wouldn't still be good? And is that a good price?

(I just noticed that motherboards with LGA-2011 socket are very expensive, so any saving I'd make by buying CPU would be wipes out by motherboard.)

TerrorFirmer

A 4820K for 115 euro is either the bargain of the century or a scam.

ED E

Its ES, so its an illegal sale thus the price.

Blackgator

ES? Illegal sale?

Its to late, I've bought the following:

Intel Core i3 6100 2x 3.70GHz So.1151 BOX

2048MB MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC V1 active PCIe
&
MSI B150M PRO-VD Intel B150 So.1151 Dual Channel .

And I've cancelled the CiT Baracade case I ordered.

I know I said I was buying things bit by bit, but had a few € in a PayPal account and decided to blow it.

Digital Solitude

Engineering Sample I believe, its a testing chip from one of Intel's engineers that is now trying to sell it for a few quick bucks, as they aren't part of the actual production line

Nice start to your buying though, 750Ti is a handy little starter card.

Blackgator

Thanks. Took your advice from my other post.

Just need a case, RAM, HDD and PSU.

Anything I need to look out for or avoid?

I'm thinking 8gb ram (for now)
500w PSU (incase i need more power later)
1tb HDD (cheapest I can find)

Does the CPU come with a heatsink? (Noon question)

TerrorFirmer

Excellent start build, and well capable of providing above console quality.

8Gb is fine for now and the near future, 500W is also plenty to cover future upgrades, maybe consider a 120GB SSD over a HDD for now - you can add a HDD later for storage, but it's a pain switching from a HDD to an SSD and an SSD makes a mammoth difference to usage.

CPU should come with heatsink, and case wise, get something that doesn't have HDD/DVD bays blocking graphics cards (that's what is wrong with the barricade, though a GTx750Ti would have fit OK, performance cards don't).

ED E

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Engineering Sample I believe, its a testing chip from one of Intel's engineers that is now trying to sell it for a few quick bucks, as they aren't part of the actual production line

Nice start to your buying though, 750Ti is a handy little starter card.

Technically its still intels property, but the chances of them looking for it back is minimal.

Blackgator

About to order the rest of the parts needed. Do these look okay?

120GB Kingston SSD Now V300 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s MLC asynchron (SV300S37A/120G)

8GB Crucial CT2K4G4DFS8213 DDR4-2133 DIMM CL15 Dual Kit

LC-Power Micro ATX 2000MB Mini Tower 420 Watt schwarz

I read that 2 x 4gb is better that 1 x 8gb stick. I hope I'm correct.

Digital Solitude

It is regards the ram yes, I'd get a better PSU, go for a BeQuiet or Corsair

TerrorFirmer

Yeah you need to stop llooking at crap cheap cases - minimum spend should really be circa 30 on the case and 35-40 on the PSU for something both functional and reliable.

Don't take this as gospel but something like this case and this PSU.

Blackgator

Got PC assembled but it won't switch on. Nothing happening when I press power button.

What I have done so far:
1. Tested fuse in power cable
2. Connected green and black cable on 24 pin connector on PSU and fan started spinning.
3. Said a wee prayer.

Any ideas?

Xenoronin

Reseat everything. RAM, GPU, cables. Make sure the case power switch is connected up correctly (this is surprisingly easy to mess up with such small pins.
Build outside of the case, put the motherboard on some cardboard like the motherboard box and connect everything to make sure it isn't a grounding issue.

Blackgator

Xenoronin wrote:

Reseat everything. RAM, GPU, cables. Make sure the case power switch is connected up correctly (this is surprisingly easy to mess up with such small pins. Build outside of the case, put the motherboard on some cardboard like the motherboard box and connect everything to make sure it isn't a grounding issue.

Have rebuilt everything twice paying special attention to the power switch.
I hope I'm not missing something stupid (or maybe I hope I am)
Motherboards have EZ Debug LEDs but they don't even light up.

Skerries

you'd probably notice but have you checked the voltage on the back of the psu is set to 220 and not 110?

Shlippery

So the power switch is back of pc, but have you seen the 3 or 4 sets of pins going from the case to motherboard? - The ones for power/restart button and the leds?

They'd be coming from the front of the case? I'd problems with these before! Or you could take a top down picture of the board and we could take a loook and see if it something small missing~!

Blackgator

Skerries wrote:

you'd probably notice but have you checked the voltage on the back of the psu is set to 220 and not 110?

There is no switch to change voltage. Its says 200-240V on back of it.

Gonna build it outside on case and see what happens.
What's the minimum I need to connect to get PC to POST
I'll post pictures of MB in a minute

Digital Solitude

CPU, PSU and RAM

Blackgator

I just connected pins 6 & 8 (power switch pins) and system powered on. I'll put it all back in case and see if I can figure out where I went wrong, or could be a problem with power switch itself.

EDIT: System is built and powered up. Power button wouldn't work.
USB ports and LEDs on front panel are all working but power button is not.

Is there something stupid I missed or does it sound like a faulty power button?

Thanks for all you help guys. Really appreciate it.

Xenoronin

If the switch does turn out to be fecked in the case, it is an easy fix. Grab a "push to make" switch: http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/red-push-to-make-switch-n01ar
Should be available in your nearest maplins. Connect up the wires (can use the case ones or just use new ones) and that'll do it for now. Can work on fixing the case eventually when you have time.

Blackgator

Have PC working now apart from the power button. I disconnected the wires from button and left the sticking out the side of the case so I can hotwire it when I need to start it.
It will do until I get a soldering iron to fix it permanently.

Just like to thank everyone who posted here helping me. I wouldn't have had the confidence to assemble the PC or even pick the parts.
Great advice on the SSD, the thing starts up super fast.
Thanks a million guys, I can't wait to download a few games and put my new toy to the test.

Cheers

Blackgator

PC is running great, but I'm a little unhappy with the visuals in games. I'm not to obsessed with fps, but draw distance and textures look poor. I want higher setting and lower fps.
Was thinking of upgrading my graphics card (750ti). Would a R9 380 be worth upgrading to? Could maybe get around e100 for my card and add e100 to it for upgrade.
What you guys think? R9 380 a good upgrade or should I look at GTX 960 or others?

(Will my cpu [i3 6100] be okay with a GPU upgrade?)

Xenoronin

Yes it is, just to be sure though, what games are you running into issues with? I would recommend waiting to see how this new 480 works out. Sounds pretty good so far for pretty cheap.

Blackgator

Playing Ark, ARMA, and Hero's & Generals.
ARK looks awful and runs at just over 30fps, ARMA 3 is okay and Hero's & Generals runs great.
Didn't know about the 480, just googled it and it looks good. Think I'll hold out for that.

Looks like GPU price war is on!

Digital Solitude

In fairness and i3 and 750Ti is an entry level machine

Blackgator

Yeah, that's what I thought I wanted, turns out I didn't. Need something a bit more capable.

Gonna sell my 750ti, would it be worth selling the i3 as well and upgrading? Would like to avoid doing that if I can.

(Seen guy selling MSI 750ti on Adverts for E130 second hand. I only paid E120 for it new. Maybe I can get a good bit back from it)

Digital Solitude

If you wanna run ARK well then yeah, an i5. Wait for the 480 before upgrading card anyways

TerrorFirmer

The 750Ti is a very decent card considering the price point. You also have to remember that ARK is horribly optimised, it runs like garbage on almost everything. I didn't have a great time with it with an i7 and R9 290 the last time I played it.

Eoinmc97

As long as the ARK devs are going under a lawsuit to see who deserves % of the IP from their older company, we won't see great optimisations for PC.
So long as other games run fine (for an entry level system) then it's ok. ARK just runs like it's asmathic.