New to the pc world.

Dylanw2u

Hey, I'm currently switching from console to pc (as many of my friends have hounded me for years with "pc master race" lol) I wish to go for a desktop gaming pc. My budget is 2500 euro, any tips on what's the best I could get for my money? (I can stretch to 3000 euro)

LawlessBoy

Dylanw2u wrote: »

Hey, I'm currently switching from console to pc (as many of my friends have hounded me for years with "pc master race" lol) I wish to go for a desktop gaming pc. My budget is 2500 euro, any tips on what's the best I could get for my money? (I can stretch to 3000 euro)

Im sure someone will come along with a seriously nice build. But i cant see you needing to spend anywhere near that amount of money if its just a high end gaming build you after.

Digital Solitude

Could you fill this out? Makes it easier for the lads to give recommendations.

1. What is your budget? [€xxx]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Video editing/3D Modelling/HTPC/Internet] (If gaming include which games)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]

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)

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

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes/No]

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

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes/No]

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [In x days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.]

Dylanw2u

1. 3000 euro
2.Gaming (Player unknown battle grounds, CS:GO,Payday 2, friday the 13th, etc)
3.Yes
4.No (only ever used laptops)
5.Yes
5A.22'
5B.(No current monitor)
6.Yes (keyboard, wireless card, card reader and speakers)
7.Not sure? (I heard that overclocking is pushing components way passed its limits, if its safe then yes if not no)
8.Credit card
9.It depends on price (if over 2000 possibly august) (any less sooner)
10.I would probably need help building it, but I'm located in Kildare.

Grahamer666

3,000 is overkill for what you want to do. For 1,500 you'd get a killer rig.

Blazer

all depends on your video card and monitor. They really drive up the cost.
Also have you a computer desk and chair?

Digital Solitude

Grahamer666 wrote: »

3,000 is overkill for what you want to do. For 1,500 you'd get a killer rig.

Agreed.

Are you just looking to play games at 1080p60fps OP? With your budget you could push to 1440p120fps or even 4k.

1440p60 is probably a nice place to be though.

Is a 22' monitor a requirement?

Grahamer666

Was going to mention the monitor. I think you'd regret a 22". A 27" is a good size to go for and seeing as you have the budget for it i'd go with that.

challengemaster

22" is tiny... maybe it's just because you're used to laptops but I'd say anything less than 24" is a waste when investing so much into a proper PC

Dylanw2u

I'm use to laptops so I guess I didn't think about size to well, I'd definitely go bigger.

I'm generally just looking to play 1080p 60fps

22' is not a requirement.

I have a computer chair and desk.

Digital Solitude

Guess you've a €2000 budget for today's steam sale

I'm rusty ATM but will give you a build this evening if not beaten to it

*edit* Is it tomorrow?

Regardless, sign up for this deal

https://www.paypal.com/es/webapps/mpp/offers?view=details&offerId=6JQPNKCVTNPEN

€5 back for spending €20 on Steam through PayPal

BloodBath

If going to 27" I'd say go 1440p. Bigger screens mean less pixels per inch so the bigger you go the higher resolution you want to go.

Nothing looks worse than low PPI on a PC monitor that's close to you. 1080p is fine up to around 24". 27-32" 1440p. Anything bigger 4k.

Dylanw2u

@Digital alright thank you!



@Blood


Well I'd like 27-32 inch but I can only go as far a 3000 euro on my budget for my whole setup so I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford it, I could be completely wrong though based on price that is.

Digital Solitude

PCs are way cheaper than you're imagining, a 1080p60 ready build wouldn't be much over €1000, €1500 for a dickswinging maximum

Mickeroo

Dylanw2u wrote: »

@Digital alright thank you!



@Blood


Well I'd like 27-32 inch but I can only go as far a 3000 euro on my budget for my whole setup so I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford it, I could be completely wrong though based on price that is.

You can go a lot bigger with €3000 budget :eek:

A really nice G-sync 27" 1440p 144hz monitor is probably going to cost roughly €600 which leaves you with €2400 to spend on the build which is way more than you need.

Grahamer666

Yup, i took delivery of a G-sync 27" 1440p 165hz monitor two days ago for 600euro. You're laugin' with a budget of 3000.

Metric Tensor

Digital Solitude wrote: »

€1500 for a dickswinging maximum

Love it!

OP I'd recommend 1440p and 27 inch and you'll still be well below budget.

The lads here will give you an awesome build well inside budget so you'll have a little bit left over to buy something for herself to make up for all the time you'll spend on your new computer!

Dylanw2u

Appreciating the comments lads, I guess I made too many assumptions in my head.


Does anyone know what a good setup is? parts etc? I know the previous man said he'd list them later on today, hopefully he does.

Digital Solitude

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£298.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler (£34.59 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z270-P ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£107.39 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£120.08 @ More Computers)
Storage: OCZ - TRION 150 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus - Radeon RX 580 4GB Dual Video Card (£214.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case (£41.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA GS (UK) 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£89.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1140.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-22 22:58 BST+0100

Just under €1350, no monitor, keyboard, speakers or wireless card though.

I don't know monitors, keyboards or speakers so I can't recommend (I'd actually recommend headphones).

For internet, have a look into a set of homeplugs. They carry an Ethernet connection through wall sockets so you get a faster and more stable connection than WiFi.

I'm not 100% up to speed on modern hardware so this may need refining but it should be a start. It's also a pretty powerful PC, you could tone a lot of this back and not lose much performance for 1080p60 tbh.

I'd expect to spend circa €220-250 on a monitor, €90-150 on headphones/speakers, €40 for homeplugs and €20-€120 depending on how much you want to spend on your keyboard.

Rough guideline prices, a €20 and €120 keyboard will game the same

Mickeroo

Would have thought a gtx 1070 at the very least would be the way to go considering their budget. You'd be hard pressed to find Amd cards in stock anywhere at the moment anyway.

wotzgoingon

I'm all for AMD as I have a Fury X and 144Hz 1440p Freesync monitor but I reckon a 1070 at minimum is best with a 27" 1440p 144Hz GSync monitor especially since he has the budget.

Pac1Man

Lads would you consider buying a build second-hand or is that generally advised against? Warranties would be the obvious issue.

Blazer

all depends on the sellers feedback really.
You'd want to know the exact specs etc.
The last thing you want to do is buy one, then go to upgrade and discover the board is too old for your new cpu or the PSU doesnt' have enough power to drive your new video card.

For 2grand you would buy a fantastic PC gaming at 1440p on a g sync monitor.
If you wanted to go cheaper then as people said for ?1200 or so you could game at 1080p on a 27" inch free sync monitor etc.
Its completely upto you on how you want to go about it.

Me for example.
I sold mine last year to put a deposit on a car I wanted.
A few months later I put together a ?1100 build that was pretty good and came with a 27" 1080p monitor. I already had a video card from my old system. Fast forward a few months and I spend the bones of another 1500 or so upgrading chassis, cpu,gpu etc.
So you could start out small and see how it goes and then upgrade as required.
Get a good chassis though , plenty of space and cooling,,none of those cheap ?50 chassis. Spend over ?130 on one and it will last you 8-9 years or so.

Pac1Man

Good info there, thanks.

Metric Tensor

Hey OP:

The below is overkill for what you need but it would give you an idea of what you could do for around the £2000 mark. I'd use it as guidance to start a pick and mix process:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£306.89 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£28.05 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270 GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£136.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£123.87 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£144.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (£488.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.85 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.25 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£89.00 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus - PB278QR 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor (£349.97 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Logitech - G300S Wired Optical Mouse (£75.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2007.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-23 11:00 BST+0100

I took the prices from Amazon only and I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse included. No speakers or headphones though. No wifi but it works out cheaper to buy a USB wifi dongle than get it on board a Z270 board.

This also only has a 500GB SSD - if you need extra storage a HDD could be added.

Edit: Apologies a mini-atx board hat slipped in instead of an ATX board!

Metric Tensor

P.S. - I used most of your 2.5k budget so apologise to your missus - she won't get that dinner out after all!

K.O.Kiki

Metric Tensor wrote: »

Hey OP:

The below is overkill for what you need but it would give you an idea of what you could do for around the £2000 mark. I'd use it as guidance to start a pick and mix process:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£306.89 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£28.05 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270 GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£136.06 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£123.87 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£144.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (£488.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.85 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.25 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£89.00 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: Asus - PB278QR 27.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor (£349.97 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Corsair - STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Mouse: Logitech - G300S Wired Optical Mouse (£75.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2007.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-23 11:00 BST+0100

I took the prices from Amazon only and I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse included. No speakers or headphones though. No wifi but it works out cheaper to buy a USB wifi dongle than get it on board a Z270 board.

This also only has a 500GB SSD - if you need extra storage a HDD could be added.

Edit: Apologies a mini-atx board hat slipped in instead of an ATX board!

1440p @ 60Hz is a disservice tbh :pac:

Blazer

Your biggest decision is around your monitor and video card.
Do you want to go with gsync or with Ati's freesync (freesync monitors are a lot cheaper). Are you happy with 1080p gaming or want higher.
Most people game at 1080p or so. It's only the rare few of us that game above it at the moment due to price etc.
You could save around €300 together on these if you went the AMD route.
I think once you make that decision it would be better as I imagine all of us here will easily hit 2-3K on your build as you can see from below.


For instance the below build is a g-sync build with a 1080ti video card and a dell 27" inch g-sync monitor.
I have the dell monitor and a normal 1080 and gaming is fantastic on it.
I've also included a creative x-fi sound card. I know people say on-board is as good but quite simply its not. I'm playing battlegrounds and the people playing with me cannot accurately determine the source of gunfire as accurately as I can and they now rely on me to tell them.
I used to be a big fan of Corsair chassis but I love the new Phanteks range and you can bling it up if you like.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/D3pjD8

TerrorFirmer

With that kind of budget AMD GPU is only an option if you're satisfied with 1080P (RX580 8GB).

Otherwise it should be a GTX1070 ideally, or if you're actually willing to spend your budget and can afford to do so, a GTX1080Ti with a 1440P 144hz monitor like in the build above.

Money can be shaved away from that of course to bring it closer to £2k - lose the X-Fi, cheaper motherboard, just use the Intel stock cooler, get a cheaper keyboard/mouse, just use a trial copy of Win10 (almost zero difference to retail and works indefinitely), cheaper power supply, etc.

I would say simply if you are willing to invest the 3K though - the build above is pretty damn good.

If you're somewhat willing but wouldn't mind saving some money, get a more basic i7-7700K + GTX1070 build with a 1440P non-gsync monitor and save about £1k (but still play all games at 1440p ultra at 60fps).

If you're happy with 1080P then a completely different build to run all games at 1080p ultra would cost far less than that again (about £1K in total) - Ryzen 1600, RX580 8GB based machine with a good quality 24" 1080p monitor.

Metric Tensor

It just struck me that with the OP not being too sure about building and having a good budget he could always look into buying something from Alienware.

Wouldn't usually be my advice but in this case it might be worth it for the peace of mind. He didn't specifically say he wanted to build it himself.

Metric Tensor

Almost 3 grand but a very good spec and awesome monitor:

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/alienware-aurora-r6-desktop/pd?oc=d00awr603&variant=6:GT1070S~11:S62307~6424:S2716DG~3:16G242D~8:5121TB&model_id=alienware-aurora-r6-desktop#overrides=d00awr603:6~GT1070S;11~S62307;6424~S2716DG;3~16G242D;8~5121TB

Overpriced vs if you built it yourself but there is the benefit of a Dell warranty.

Dylanw2u

I've never really trusted prebuilt because I've often heard that you can build for cheaper.


I appreciate all the spec lists lads, and I really like the one at 2400 pounds, only thing I'm worried about is the keyboard and mouse since they have pretty bad reviews.

Metric Tensor

If you build that £2400 one we will definitely need pictures!

BloodBath

Honestly you could do much better. I don't think a 7700k cut's it anymore for high end builds like this either. Especially for a 144Hz monitor. There's a lot of games where 4 cores just doesn't cut it for minimum frame rates and really 4 cores in 2017 is a joke in a 2.5 grand PC. Hyper threading or not.

Here's something at the upper end of your budget that's actually high end.

Intel Core i7 7800X
Asus TUF X299
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX
8GB ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme+
500GB Samsung 850 Evo
1000GB WD Blue
Noctua NH-D14
850 Watt EVGA SuperNOVA G2
Phanteks Eclipse P400S Glass White

Total on all of that is around €1850 once you use geizhals.de for a discount. That leaves plenty to get a nice 27" 1440p 144hz+ G-Sync monitor and whatever keyboard/mouse/headphones etc you want to get.

My headphone recommendation for under €100 is the Hyper X cloud 2 although the 1 is even cheaper and identical except for the 7.1 gimmickry on the 2's.

BloodBath

You probably want a better case. The 7800x and 1080 are both going to be pretty power hungry especially with overclocks. They both have great coolers there but the case will need space and airflow.

You would probably have to buy some additional fans regardless so maybe get a good AIO watercooler instead of the Noctua as it will come with 2 fans and should have similar cooling performance and it will look better.

I'm not really up to date on cases though so maybe someone can recommend something better.

Blazer

As you can see loads of opinions
So it's completely up to you.
Game at 1080p and only spend around €1200-1500 or game at 1440p or higher and spend the whole 3k
that's the decision you need to make.
About 90% of gamers game at 1080p I would imagine so nothing wrong with that.

Metric Tensor

Also if you've always gamed on a console until now the difference that even a E1500 machine will make to your gaming is huge!

Grahamer666

Agree 100%. I've come from console and i'm glad i did. I still have the PS4 Pro for exclusives but PC gaming is where it's at. The jump in FPS is what i enjoy most about it. Pushing out over 100fps makes games play so much better. The difference is night and day.

TerrorFirmer

The problem with console games is that a lot of them are locked to 30fps, while others often vary from 30-60 depending on what's going on. Very, very few games run at a stable 60fps.

So even an €600 PC that will push high settings at 1080p 50-60fps is a titanic improvement on consoles from that POV!

Watching my housemate play Fallout 4 on the PS4 is painful. 30fps, and often dips to what looks like 15fps when stuff really gets crazy on screen. Even the PS4 Pro can't hold a stable 30fps.

BloodBath

The last option is the second hand market. There's a hell of a lot of great PC's for sale on adverts at good prices.

Example

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/mini-itx-gaming-desktop-gtx-980-ti-3d-monitor/12948347

Terrlock

Metric Tensor wrote: »

It just struck me that with the OP not being too sure about building and having a good budget he could always look into buying something from Alienware.

Wouldn't usually be my advice but in this case it might be worth it for the peace of mind. He didn't specifically say he wanted to build it himself.

Or getting a nice pre built system from the likes of overclockers and scan.co.uk

Pac1Man

Not meaning to hijack the thread but is seems like a good place to dump a random question.

I'll be making the jump from a lifetime of console ownership shortly. For those who have come from a similar position, would it be recommended to buy one pre-built or have or have some of you jumped straight into building your first one yourselves?

I wouldn't like to see a puff of smoke when I first switch it on!

Dylanw2u

Pac1Man wrote: »

Not meaning to hijack the thread but is seems like a good place to dump a random question.

I'll be making the jump from a lifetime of console ownership shortly. For those who have come from a similar position, would it be recommended to buy one pre-built or have or have some of you jumped straight into building your first one yourselves?

I wouldn't like to see a puff of smoke when I first switch it on!

agree haha

Grahamer666

I jumped from consoles a couple of months ago. Built it myself and had no trouble. Just take your time while building it. The lads who post parts recommendations are spot on with it so that part is taken care of.

Digital Solitude

I jumped straight into building when I was 15, no regrets.

PC components are basically expensive Lego, have a look at a few "how to build a PC"s on YouTube.

Lu Tze

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I jumped straight into building when I was 15, no regrets.

PC components are basically expensive Lego, have a look at a few "how to build a PC"s on YouTube.

I have to disagree with this oft quoted truism, have you seen the price of some of the new lego sets :pac:

Blazer

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I jumped straight into building when I was 15, no regrets.

PC components are basically expensive Lego, have a look at a few "how to build a PC"s on YouTube.

have you seen the price of lego these days? If anything PCs are nearly cheaper

challengemaster

Lu Tze wrote: »

I have to disagree with this oft quoted truism, have you seen the price of some of the new lego sets :pac:

Never mind new lego sets, I remember spending a few hundred pounds on a lego set back in the day (good aul' communion money!)

Anyway, I started building when I was 13. I've only ever had to RMA two items in 13 years. One was a graphics card that started giving artifacts after a few months, the other was a OCZ SSD.

Monkeys could manage. Although they should probably be hairless monkeys to avoid static :pac:

Redfox25

BloodBath wrote: »

Honestly you could do much better. I don't think a 7700k cut's it anymore for high end builds like this either. Especially for a 144Hz monitor. There's a lot of games where 4 cores just doesn't cut it for minimum frame rates and really 4 cores in 2017 is a joke in a 2.5 grand PC. Hyper threading or not.

Here's something at the upper end of your budget that's actually high end.

Intel Core i7 7800X
Asus TUF X299
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX
8GB ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme+
500GB Samsung 850 Evo
1000GB WD Blue
Noctua NH-D14
850 Watt EVGA SuperNOVA G2
Phanteks Eclipse P400S Glass White

Total on all of that is around €1850 once you use geizhals.de for a discount. That leaves plenty to get a nice 27" 1440p 144hz+ G-Sync monitor and whatever keyboard/mouse/headphones etc you want to get.

My headphone recommendation for under €100 is the Hyper X cloud 2 although the 1 is even cheaper and identical except for the 7.1 gimmickry on the 2's.

As an alternative case https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-enthoo-luxe-glass-midi-tower-case-black-ca-065-pt.html

Its big, plenty of space inside, gets good reviews and will allow you to run your rig pretty cool.
So many choices so pick something you like and that gets good reviews too.

Grahamer666

I have the Phanteks P400S. Loads of room and a good bit cheaper than the Enthoo.

Redfox25

Yep, i got mine for a 100 on sale one day so cant complain. They seem to have gotten alot more expensive since , brexit impact on Stg maybe?