Getting a new PC - any spec/hardware suggestions?

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luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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So I'm planning on a new PC in the next month or two (after a lot of saving), was wondering if my fellow Escapists had any thoughts / suggestions / etc.

Intel i5-4690k
2x8GB Kingston Hyper-X Fury Duel-DR3
Nvidia GEFORCE/MSI GTX970 (just the one with a view to getting a second in a few years time)
ASUS Z97-A (FYI, I know absolutely nothing about motherboards)
2TB HDD
Corsair H60 or H100 (not really sure)

Any ideas? Would this be difficult to do myself (first time builder) or should I buy online?
(Budget is around £1150)
 

NezumiiroKitsune

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Mar 29, 2008
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Howdy friend

Not sure why you've decided to opt for the Z97-A, you are unlikely to need anything more than the MSI Z97-G43 / MSI Z97S SLI PLUS. They're reliable, have a sturdy BIOS with a pretty and feature rich UI. They'll also overclock to your hearts desire. If you are wanting to go hard on overclocking, sure spend some more, but equally do more research. Overclocking is easy these days, but once you start venturing in overvolting, you can still trash any system. So, cheaper motherboard is my first recommendation.

H100 is far superior to the H60, in fact, I wouldn't even recommend the H60 over just solid air cooling. Closed circuit water cooling is tempting, and the H100 will reduce performance loss on your GPU over time, but in 5 years do you still want to be using the same CPU? Are you concerned about losing a few points on stress tests, even if your gaming is practically unaffected? The H100 is great, don't get me wrong, but third-party air cooling can do a fantastic job, keeping those OC temps below 40C for a long time to come.

Ensure the HDD is SATA-6Gbs, 7200RPM and has a 64MB cache. No point in having Deep Thought if he's recalling from tape.

I'd advise the RAM be 1600Mhz. I strongly recommend against 6000Mhz OC RAM at a grand a stick, there are more entertaining ways to empty a bank account.

Investing in your case will help a lot; cheap cases can be like shoving your hand in a bucket razor blades, and you'll be missing a vital screw to boot.

Finally, what PSU?! Don't cheat your PC a high quality PSU; it's the heart of the beast. Throw in some off-brand 1000W ebay find, and you'll sorely regret it when it puts the whole system into cardiac arrest. For your build you're safe not going above 500W. 600W will give you headspace for miles. Your GPU needs two 6 pin power supplies, most PSU's for gaming will have them, but just make sure. The OCZ ZT 550W is a representative example of a good PSU.


It shouldn't be difficult, just have the right tools. I rarely need more than my screwdriver. A long one, magnetic head (don't rub it on your components though), and in good condition. Some will say it doesn't matter, and admittedly I've never had an issue, but try and stay grounded throughout the build (as in, release any static electricity into the ground by touching something to earth you, like the unpainted corner of a radiator). Everything is pretty fool proof though.

Above all, take your time, don't be hard on yourself, enjoy the process. You'll be witnessing the miracle of birth. That's what people mean by that right?
 

duwenbasden

King of the Celery people
Jan 18, 2012
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I strongly recommend starting with a 120GB SSD for the OS and non-games, and a separate drive for games (My current setup is 120SSD+240SSD+500HDD), so you don't need to redownload everything when you decide to reinstall Windows. It also saves a lot of disk spinning with the HDD trying to cope with both the game and the OS. Also, grab a Windows 7 license from your local supplier while you still can.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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NezumiiroKitsune said:
Thanks for your help! There's a good discount on a Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard if you think that would be a good option?

Ok so the H100 over the H60. Could you suggest a good solid air cooler? - I mostly wanted the water cooler to reduce noise. (The
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO seems to be highly recommended!)

Yep, it's just a 2TB Western Digital Green HDD. Pretty basic, although someone else suggested a SSD for my OS also.

Yeah, not going to cheap out on one. 750W I was thinking would do fine.

Aye, I'm wanting to splash out on a really nice case and keep it long term. Kinda got my heart set on an Antec P280. Quiet and has removable dust filters <3

duwenbasden said:
Ok, will bear that in mind, thanks. You suggesting Win7 now and jumping straight to Win10 when it's time?



Yakuza000 said:
Ok, thanks for the advice :D
 

Monk5127

All Hail Space Duck
Sep 6, 2014
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It's £10 over and 1TB instead of 2 but here goes;

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/R2CHrH
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.50 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£54.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£125.20 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£139.56 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£90.00 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£269.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Antec P280 ATX Mid Tower Case (£93.30 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£89.82 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.60 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1157.63


On another note, if you do decide to get windows 7 you should be aware that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit will still only use 16GB ram ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7 ) .

Edit:

I could also throw an alternate build together for you using air cooling and a different case etc if you want?
 

Monk5127

All Hail Space Duck
Sep 6, 2014
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Decided to do it anyway.
So in this build you sacrifice overclocking/SSD however i managed to squeeze 2 970's in!

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Hs37ZL
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£149.15 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£125.20 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.79 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£269.94 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£269.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.60 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1149.59

With this build it would be advisable to pick an SSD up when possible and move your operating system over to that.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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Monk5127 said:
Thanks for those builds! I am a little flexible on price if the machine is right. Have to admit - starting off with 2 970's is bloody tempting! And a Googling it shows that there's a good case to be made (haHA!) for choosing the Define R4 over the P280 (also £20 odd cheaper).

Ok, so what I'm currently thinking is the first build you suggested but changing few things:

Go for the Define R4 over the P280
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO over the water-cooler
Go for the 2TB drive
Windows 7 using the full 16GB RAM

(On the other hand, two 970s...)

Regarding power supplies - do you think there's any real difference between the CS750M you suggested and the cheaper CX750? It's also been suggested to me that the EVGA SuperNOVA 750W might be better still?
 

Monk5127

All Hail Space Duck
Sep 6, 2014
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The CX series power supplies aren't modular. Also the CX750 is only bronze rated for efficiency whereas the CS is gold rated.
As for the EVGA PSU i would make sure to get http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr that one as it's gold rated whereas the other 2 EVGA PSUs on sale in the 700 - 850w range are bronze rated. The linked PSU also reviews well. - http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=393

Also yeah... 2 970's haha.
When putting the 2nd build together i was thinking 970 SLI should be possible for ~£1100 and in all fairness I could probably better optimize the second build so i'll see what i can come up with.
 

bobmd13

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Mar 28, 2010
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This may not affect you, but depending on where you live in the UK, you may have additional postage charges.

Northern Ireland and large areas of Scotland, have to pay a fee for items from

Overclockers

Aria

Ebuyer

I believe Eclipse also charge an excess but I have never bought anything from them.

Just check your postage charges before ordering.

I would recommend a full tower,instead of a midi.

This is from personal experience as midi's can have some problems with larger graphic cards. I had to remove HDD cages to fit one Sapphire 280X toxic in and some midi cases do not allow you to do this.
It was impossible for me to get the second card in. With the full tower I have plenty of room and I am now running 2 Toxics in crossfire mode.

If you are going the SLI route,you may also want to invest in some extra fan cases and maybe a separate fan controller,as case temps will increase significantly.

You can get a Coolermaster Stormtrooper case from Amazon for £121.90.

Its a great case but has has a couple of down sides.

Its huge

Its also heavy when everything is installed. Actually its just heavy.

BTW the Coolermaster Evo 212 is a great air cooler for the price, when I bought mine, Maplins were the cheapest. I would also suggest getting a second fan for it and having it configured to push-pull.

I hope this helps.
 

Monk5127

All Hail Space Duck
Sep 6, 2014
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luke10123 said:
I am a little flexible on price if the machine is right
How does £28 over budget sound?

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W2pCt6
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£152.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£93.19 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£59.79 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£269.94 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£269.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1177.77

One thing to note, the selected motherboard is going to be able to run SLI and overclock, just don't expect anything too spectacular on the overclocking front.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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bobmd13 said:
I'm in Dundee, which is only an hour from Edinburgh, so I think I'll be ok - but I'll check, thanks for the heads-up.

I've had a quick look into the SLI issue with the Define R4 - it looks like the HDD bays would need to be removed but this is possible I think (I saw a load of images on Google that showed that people had done just that), so I'm hoping it'll be ok. Although I'll probably look online for a manual beforehand to double-check. If it's not doable, I might go back to the P280 which is a little bigger.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Monk5127 said:
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W2pCt6
Wow, my friend, you have outdone yourself, thank you! I think if I was going to be able to go for a full SLI set up that is so close to my original budget for only one card, I might just put a bit more money in and go for the 2TB hdd and 16GB RAM (although.... I dunno, think I need 16? would 8 do then upgrade to DDR4/5 in a few years?) - but otherwise I think that's my spec pretty much sorted!
Just need to learn how it all goes together now haha.
 

Monk5127

All Hail Space Duck
Sep 6, 2014
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luke10123 said:
I might just put a bit more money in and go for the 2TB hdd and 16GB RAM (although.... I dunno, think I need 16? would 8 do then upgrade to DDR4/5 in a few years?)
I don't know if you'd need 16GB. And looking over the thread it seems it hasn't been asked yet, so;
Besides gaming, what will this new computer of yours be doing? Image/Video editing?

If you're willing to go a bit higher £20 or so more on the motherboard would get you back up to something like the ASUS motherboard in the previous build and imo would be money well spent.

With the whole DDR3/DDR4 thing, at the moment DDR4 is only available on the Intel X99 platform for consumers and going through a bit of an "early adopter tax". If you were to build a DDR3 system now it will not upgrade to DDR4, that would require a new motherboard and processor to go with it.
 

duwenbasden

King of the Celery people
Jan 18, 2012
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Another word of advice: I recommend against SLIing before you know what power you'll need. My 2x560Ti have endless issues regarding artifacts and memory constraints (as opposed to a single 570). I'd get back the 280 pounds and get another stick of 8GB and save some money.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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Monk5127 said:
I don't know if you'd need 16GB.
Yeah I've been looking into it more and I think 8 would do. I assume pretty much all motherboards have 4 slots so I can always add more in a year or two if I need to. It's only really for gaming tbh, so I might as well invest the £60 into something else.

Might be a daft question, but if I went for the Maximus7 motherboard - do you think I'd really need a sound card? I always just kinda assumed it was something you needed (like I said, I'm new at this).

duwenbasden said:
Another word of advice: I recommend against SLIing before you know what power you'll need.
I've looked online and I'm pretty sure 750W should be more than enough for the setup I'm looking at. I think anyway...
 

The White Hunter

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Oct 19, 2011
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Looks good but I'd go with an MSI motherboard, they're fantastically reliable and the UEFI is very user friendly and the overclocking features aer very easy to get you started. They also look excellent, same for the GPU's. And what's more they tend to be more feature rich at lower prices than ASUS or Gigabyte. I couldn't tell you a specific model as I have not been foillowing the market lately.

Also it would match the MSI graphics card. Aesthetic is something to consider, make your PC look like a beast.

I'd also put an SSD in as the main drive, to run your os and most played titles from, Samsung 840 EVO's are pretty well priced and good performers with a solid reputation for not dying.

I hear bad things about Kingston RAM sometimes but tbh RAM is RAM and all the bad RAM manufacturers are dead.

Go big on the AiO otherwise it's inferior to a good air block, the only reasoin I have an h100i chugging away in my rig is for aesthetic reasons, airflow benefits, and the fact I can fit my bloody RAM in.

This is all very vague but I'm out of the loop right now, ask me in 6 months when I'm upgrading everything and I'd be much more helpful.
luke10123 said:
do you think I'd really need a sound card? I always just kinda assumed it was something you needed (like I said, I'm new at this).
No, you don't need a soundcard. Nobody needs a soundcard, all the soundcard does is impede the output and make it louder and lower quality in general, you haven't needed a soundcard since the late 90's to be honest. Massive waste of cash, buy some speakers or headphones instead, or a nice key and mouse combo, they really are a waste, TekSyndicate did some good pieces on audio in pc's that could be helpful.

Edit: If you want advice on peripherals I'm much more up to date on that market.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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The White Hunter said:
Looks good but I'd go with an MSI motherboard, they're fantastically reliable and the UEFI is very user friendly and the overclocking features aer very easy to get you started.

I'd also put an SSD in as the main drive, to run your os and most played titles from, Samsung 840 EVO's are pretty well priced and good performers with a solid reputation for not dying.

No, you don't need a soundcard.
Like the 'MSI Z97 Gaming 7 Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard for instance? Seems to be getting good reviews and has all the features I think I need.

I'd honestly love to have a main SSD but it's really a cost issue as I really want a non-OS drive that is 1TB minimum and that would be upwards of £250 on the drive alone. I know SSDs are the future, but I'd honestly prefer the extra space over the massive bump in cost.

Ok, thanks for the sound card advice! I think I'm ok for peripherals - I'm keeping my input devices and such for now. The only thing I was thinking about is maybe getting a new monitor at somepoint - no point in getting a beautiful new rig if you can't see 100% of it. Any advice on that front?
(then again, I might be jumping the gun a bit - my current monitor is 1080 after all...
 

The White Hunter

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Oct 19, 2011
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luke10123 said:
The White Hunter said:
Looks good but I'd go with an MSI motherboard, they're fantastically reliable and the UEFI is very user friendly and the overclocking features aer very easy to get you started.

I'd also put an SSD in as the main drive, to run your os and most played titles from, Samsung 840 EVO's are pretty well priced and good performers with a solid reputation for not dying.

No, you don't need a soundcard.
Like the 'MSI Z97 Gaming 7 Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard for instance? Seems to be getting good reviews and has all the features I think I need.

I'd honestly love to have a main SSD but it's really a cost issue as I really want a non-OS drive that is 1TB minimum and that would be upwards of £250 on the drive alone. I know SSDs are the future, but I'd honestly prefer the extra space over the massive bump in cost.

Ok, thanks for the sound card advice! I think I'm ok for peripherals - I'm keeping my input devices and such for now. The only thing I was thinking about is maybe getting a new monitor at somepoint - no point in getting a beautiful new rig if you can't see 100% of it. Any advice on that front?
(then again, I might be jumping the gun a bit - my current monitor is 1080 after all...
Iirc that board is the step up from mine so yes,t hat would be an excellent choice.

I personally rock a 250 GB SSD and a pair of 2TB WD enterprise drives for storage and backup. It is something you can upgrade in the future but it is an upgrade that is a pain in the ass to undergo.

They don't cost as much these days http://www.scan.co.uk/products/250gb-samsung-840-evo-basic-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7mm-slim-3-core-mex-controller-read-540mb-s-write-520 I paid about £130 for one. And the difference is remarkable, it's going from a few minutes to load up windows to windows being up and ready in the blink of an eye. It is prohibitively expensive for mass stoage, but for running your OS and your favourite games it's just great.

Yes, I need a new monitor, 1080p is just not cutting it anymore, the console peasants sometimes manage to run things at that resolution and that just doesn't sit right. Waiting on Freesync and going to 1440p at least.
 

luke10123

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Jan 9, 2010
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The White Hunter said:
I personally rock a 250 GB SSD and a pair of 2TB WD enterprise drives for storage and backup.
I know it costs less these days but for £120 odd I could get a 120GB SSD for my OS etc, and a 2TB for my games/movies etc. I think I'd rather do than than have multiple/one really big SSD at a much higher cost.
 

The White Hunter

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Oct 19, 2011
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luke10123 said:
The White Hunter said:
I personally rock a 250 GB SSD and a pair of 2TB WD enterprise drives for storage and backup.
I know it costs less these days but for £120 odd I could get a 120GB SSD for my OS etc, and a 2TB for my games/movies etc. I think I'd rather do than than have multiple/one really big SSD at a much higher cost.
That's pretty much what I was suggesting, nobody runs only on SSD's, it's too expensive, a small one and a big hard drive works best.