£1000 build, advice welcome.

Stu

Stu

New member
I'm a casual gamer in the UK, and can't justify spending much more than £1000. I've got a 1080p monitor, keyboard, mouse and dvd drive to use with the new system.
I'd hopefully like to get a reasonable overclock.
This is my list of parts I'm looking at right now.

Case
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-carbide-series--spec-03-red-led-mid-tower-gaming-case-9BXS.html

Mobo, CPU, RAM bundle
http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-intel-z97-gamer-bundle--includes-z97-k--intel-core-i5-4670k---8gb-vengeance-pro-black-memory--9GBT.html

CPU cooler
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-h80i-hydro-series-extreme-performance-cpu-cooling-8D8S.html

GPU
http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-770-1111mhz-2gb-pci-e-3-0-hdmi-superclocked-8QLS.html

PSU
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-750w-rm750-rm-series-power-supply-8XVR.html

SSD's (I plan to get two of these, one for windows and one for steam etc)
http://www.dabs.com/products/crucial-256gb-mx100-sata-6gb-s-2-5--7mm-ssd---9-5mm-adapter-9HH0.html

Finally the OS
http://www.dabs.com/products/microsoft-windows-8-1---64bit---1pk---oem---dvd-90QL.html

I'd like to know if you guys would do anything differently, or if you know any better deals or if I should get a less powerful PSU to save money there. Whatever you think, please advise oh wise ones.

Considering how I have about a month before I can put down my money and buy all this gear, I know how quickly prices can change and how the new i7 4970k chips have just come out, so whether it's worth waiting to see if prices drop on the i7 4770k's, if that's worth the extra expense to justify spending a bit more.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
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I took your list and part picked it for you ;) I swapped the RM750 for the RM650 as you'll only be pulling 490w tops! Also switched out the H80i for the newer, quieter H75. All worked out £35 over your £1k budget, but I suppose that's possibly to do with the CPU Bundle deal with Dabs, are you set on Dabs as a supplier? I'm not sold on your Choice of case though, but a budget is a budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£60.29 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£135.98 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£64.37 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.98 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (£261.09 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£83.93 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1035.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-17 03:32 BST+0100
 
I'm not sure what you have against dabs.com. They are cheaper than anyone and were recommended to me by someone I trust. Can you explain why you don't like them? Also they don't appear on pcpartpicker and all of their prices are cheaper than anyone on pcpartspicker.

I'm not set on that case, however TTL gave it the gold award and the value for money award.

I made a list for an i7 build, which would be at the very top of my budget, but would be better than the i5 build, so here's the part list.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/StuBeanie/saved/tvGxFT

There isn't a case in that list, so please let me know what case would be good. I've seen some which would fit a H100i, but don't want to spend over £100 on a case if I can help it.
 
Stu said:
I'm not sure what you have against dabs.com. They are cheaper than anyone and were recommended to me by someone I trust. Can you explain why you don't like them? Also they don't appear on pcpartpicker and all of their prices are cheaper than anyone on pcpartspicker.

I'm not set on that case, however TTL gave it the gold award and the value for money award.

I made a list for an i7 build, which would be at the very top of my budget, but would be better than the i5 build, so here's the part list.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/StuBeanie/saved/tvGxFT

There isn't a case in that list, so please let me know what case would be good. I've seen some which would fit a H100i, but don't want to spend over £100 on a case if I can help it.
Click to expand...

I've nothing against Dabs I use them quite often :) It's just UK Parts Picker is easier to use when building/listing a system.

The best budget case I have to say right now is the NZXT Phantom 240 it's £50 of shear beauty and it has the full features of top market cases :)
 
barnsley said:
If you're a casual gamer or even just a gamer you don't need an i7. Get an i5.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm sure many i7 owners would disagree, but you're probably right.

I might just save myself some money and go with the i5. However do you think it's a good idea to go with a H100i instead of the H75 or H80i when running an i5?
 
Stu said:
Thanks. I'm sure many i7 owners would disagree, but you're probably right.

I might just save myself some money and go with the i5. However do you think it's a good idea to go with a H100i instead of the H75 or H80i when running an i5?
Click to expand...
A h100i isn't that overkill for an i5 in one bit. The i7 thing is mainly down to epeeen.
 
Wraithguard said:
I've nothing against Dabs I use them quite often :) It's just UK Parts Picker is easier to use when building/listing a system.

The best budget case I have to say right now is the NZXT Phantom 240 it's £50 of shear beauty and it has the full features of top market cases :)
Click to expand...

I actually prefer the Corsair Carbide SPEC-03 White LED myself. In terms of looks alone anyway. But then I wouldn't be able to get the H100i unless I mounted it on the front intake, which I wouldn't want to do. But then I might just go for an i5 with H75 as suggested. In which case, the Carbide SPEC-03 would work just fine.

What exactly don't you like about that case?

I've never bought anything from dabs myself, but someone told me they were the best.

Thanks for suggesting the NZXT case, but it's just not my style personally. Totally biased opinion, but I'm buying this for myself, nobody else so there "parrrrp"!
 
It's mainly Aesthetic reasons.. the front looks like Banes mask from Batman and it reminds me of some older Acer cases. Internally and functionality wise it's a great rig, substance over style with the Spec 1 & 3, I much preferred the Spec-2 and I'm still wondering what happened to it... I'm just not a fan.

EDIT: so true with Cases, it's all down to personal preference.
 
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I think it looks much better with the white LED than the red. And as it's only £46 I'm not bothered by the bane mask look. I might not get that case if I go for the H100i.

Is there a link to a graph on this site (or another) to see temp differences between the H75, H80i and the H100i? As I'm probably going to be moderately overclocking.
 
I've been trying to put a slightly different angle on the build just to see what you think about it, I would definitely always try to go as small as is possible to house the amount of power required at the time but I know others appreciated expandability. I guess it all depends on your upgrade strategy, anyway it comes off the back of an uber tight budget build for my Uni friend who didn't get a GPU or CPU cooler yet and also we managed to skank some copies of Windows off our Uni so that was another big cost avoided. Aside that the build was practically the same except for the MB was an MSI Z87i, i've been impressed with everything MSI from £60 MB's to £400 GPU's, the ITX board was no exception.

I used PCpartpicker just because it's easy, i've had good experience with Dabs and I do think its worth spending a little more to get everything from a retailer you trust. I personally always visit OCUK, I used to like ebuyer but I was then lured in by scans affiliation with DPD and competitive pricing but after an RMA of a brand new £420 GPU taking weeks i've fallen out of love with Scan and I can now appreciate how good ebuyer were to me.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£60.29 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97I Gaming AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£109.32 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£60.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.98 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£299.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX Tower Case (£68.71 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£80.24 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£70.98 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1054.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-18 09:52 BST+0100

You made it sound as if the budget was slightly flexible so I pushed it a little bit and left you with a build that would allow you to push it just a bit more. H75 > H100i, 4670k > 4690k, R9 290 > GTX780 would take it just past the £1200 mark. Personally I would do all of them, I don't like recommending AMD cards as I personally just haven't had any good experiences with them, purely because all my friends have followed me as nVidia fanboys, it's just that it was a about on the money for the build. If you wanted to save money on it then drop back to a 770 and it's nicely with budget. Personally i'd run the hell away from anything with an EVGA ACX cooler. The PSU is still +50% overkill at 550W so i'd happily run that. I know the ITX strategy isn't for everyone but I really dig it.

If your not building it for a bit longer then you might want to keep your eyes on the Graphite 380T, that could work well.

JR
 
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The 290 is cheaper and usually faster than the 780. Personally I'd go down that route as you can get decent 290s that don't have heat issues. However, if you feel that you want to go ITX they tend to be better with cards that don't chuck their heat everywhere and instead put heat out of the case, meaning a reference 780 might be a better bet. They're quite a bit more money for not much/any gain though.


Here is my attempt:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£60.29 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI H87-G43 GAMING ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£78.76 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£60.29 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£92.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB PCS+ Video Card (£295.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case (£78.89 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£83.93 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1007.31
 
So, both of you would go for an i5 with a R9 290. This has thrown me off what I would have gone for (GTX 770).

JR, are you confident that the corsair 250D would have enough cooling space for that card? And what bad experiences have you had with amd cards? I mean I've heard about driver issues and compatibility issues with certain games. That's why I've always gone with nvidia cards myself.

barnsley, have you had any bad experiences with amd cards? To be honest that case doesn't do it for me. But that's just my personal taste. Also I'd like to go with 2x Crucial MX100 256gb's as they're just good value for money right now and I could have one for games/steam and one for the OS. Then I actually have a western digital 1tb green from my old rig to place in the new one if needed for storage. Also I would quite like to go for the new Z97 chipset if possible.

Thanks for giving me options guys.
 
I'd just like to vouch for the suggestions I've seen, they all are good (performance wise, much better than what you picked out assuming you're going to game (no offence intended)).

I would recommend this RAM though, it's 2400mhz http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-2400...F8&qid=1404085570&sr=8-1&keywords=2400mhz+ram . I don't think you'll notice much of a difference if any but it performs better so why not?!

The i5 4690k is out now so I'd recommend going for that if possible as it's better.

I'd say go with an air cooler assuming you don't have your heart set on an AIO. You'll be able to get a moderate-good overclock with air which is plenty + you'll save yourself a few £. If you do want to go AIO the h75 is plenty but I'd go h100i or H80i. I'd also switch out the fans as the ones they come with are pretty noisy (in my opinion but that does add like £20 to the cost).

I have a Corsair RM 550 (it's powered a 290x fine before), you won't have any power issues with that but on aria it seems the price for a 650 is only a few £ more so I'd say go for that as that leaves you with the option of going SLI/CF with most graphics cards.

The 290 is a great option to go for, the Powercolor and Sapphire ones are really highly regarded. Just avoid the Asus one, it's awful (the asus 290x I had used Elpida memory which you want to avoid - you want Hynex).

You can buy a windows 7/8 key from g2a.com for like $40. They do resell the keys but I doubt you'll have a problem.
 
Thanks Fringie. I'll definitely go for the 4690k rather than the 4670k. IT's the obvious choice. I'm still waiting to see if I'll be able to afford the rig, and won't know for sure until Friday, but I'll post when I've made my final choices, which will probably include the R 290. I've seen that the XFX R290 4GB is fairly good value, so might go for that one.

Here's what my list looks like now.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Q6qyt6
 
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