First Time Build

E

EmmEff

New member
Hi,

I'm undertaking a build for the first time. I'm putting together a gaming machine, and I'm trying to future proof it for further upgrades if I get the bug (and the funds!).

I've decided to go for a Haswell i5 4670k and I'm struggling to decide on a motherboard. I'm looking at Gigabyte Z87X-OC as I feel I might want to dip in to the world of over clocking once I get the build sorted.

Any comments on choice? Bear in mind I'm new to this!

System budget is around £1500.

Location: Glasgow
Budget: £1500
Monitor, TV and mouse NOT required
O/S required
Use for gaming and media server
Resolution unsure
Will want to overclock
This will be full build from scratch, no reused parts

System parts decided on so far:

Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced USB 3.0 ATX Case - £77.99
Corsair HX850 Professional Series HX 850W ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Gold PSU - £119.99
Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.40GHz, 6MB, Haswell, 84W) - £184.24
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive - £86.99
Samsung 24x SATA Retail DVD Writer with 3 Bezels - £17.75
Microsoft Windows 8 Standard 64 bit OEM, WN7-00403, English Version - £73.37
Gigabyte Z87X-OC Motherboard £157.84
Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz CL9 8GB £59.48

Spend so far : £777.65 from £1500 budget.
 
Last edited:
as usual I have to ask the usual questions.... do you need an os, mouse, keyboard, speakers?

what is the build going to be used for? do you require to have 16gb of ram?

£1500 is quite high so do you consider custom watercooling?
AMD or NVidia?
do you have space for a full tower or mid tower case?

try to provide as much detail as possible please :)
 
Intel Core i5 4670K - £189.78
Asus MAXIMUS VI GENE - £154.64
16GB (2x8GB ) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing Red, PC3-12800 (1600) - £109.39
2GB Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II OC - £335.72
256GB Plextor M5 Pro Extreme - £173.10
2TB Seagate Barracuda - £68.64
Corsair Obsidian Series 350D Performance - £95.22
140mm Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition x2 - £26.35
120mm Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition - £12.14
Corsair H100i Hydro Series - £92.52
120mm Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition, Twin Pack - £21.23
760W Corsair AX760 Full Modular, 80 PLUS Platinum - £137.71
Corsair Individually Sleeved PSU DC Cable RED - £61.38




in total £1488.82 (at http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware)

the psu is a bit overkill but the sleeved cables are to awesome
 
More info...

I'm building the bare bones and that excludes graphics card for now (will choose that when I see what's left from the budget), although I want to have facility to X-fire or SLI. I'm not interested in the keyboard, mouse, speakers or hard drive at this minute.

I have already bought the PSU, case & CPU. So build right now is:

Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced USB 3.0 ATX Case - £77.99
Corsair HX850 Professional Series HX 850W ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Gold PSU - £119.99
Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.40GHz, 6MB, Haswell, 84W) - £184.24
Samsung 840 Series Pro 128GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive - £103.65
Samsung 24x SATA Retail DVD Writer with 3 Bezels - £17.75
Microsoft Windows 8 Standard 64 bit OEM, WN7-00403, English Version - £73.37

So now I want to choose a motherboard, and I'm thinking of buying Gigabyte Z87X-OC. However, I'm not sure if that's my best choice. System will be used for gaming and media server, and will be hooked up to 40" HD TV. Will probably want to over clock in future.

Cheers
 
I think the gigabyte z87x-ud3h would be a good choice
- it's a nice overclocker (very stabile and high quality powerdelivery system => high and good stabile overclocks)
- it has al the i/o and internale headers you would ever need (sata 3.0, usb 3.0,...)
- it has awesome build quality
- and it looks good

and it saves you some money to put in your gpu for instance
 
Sir-Weasel said:
I think the gigabyte z87x-ud3h would be a good choice
- it's a nice overclocker (very stabile and high quality powerdelivery system => high and good stabile overclocks)
- it has al the i/o and internale headers you would ever need (sata 3.0, usb 3.0,...)
- it has awesome build quality
- and it looks good

and it saves you some money to put in your gpu for instance
Click to expand...

The difference is £15 which isn't huge. Forgive me for asking such a basic question, but is the extra £15 getting me better quality? I've seen some great reviews for the Z87X-OC? Is the z87x-ud3h cheaper and better, or is it much of a muchness?

Also, if my budget isn't allowing for a good graphics card I'll use the onboard graphics until I can put the funds together. I'd rather do that than scrimp on other hardware if the prices are reasonable.

Really appreciate the reply, BTW.
 
EmmEff said:
The difference is £15 which isn't huge. Forgive me for asking such a basic question, but is the extra £15 getting me better quality? I've seen some great reviews for the Z87X-OC? Is the z87x-ud3h cheaper and better, or is it much of a muchness?

Also, if my budget isn't allowing for a good graphics card I'll use the onboard graphics until I can put the funds together. I'd rather do that than scrimp on other hardware if the prices are reasonable.

Really appreciate the reply, BTW.
Click to expand...

for the 15pound difference you get a better mobo allround.
i said it was cheaper because where i live (belgium) it's almost 55 euro difference and that's not nothing
 
I've decided on Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H. Could someone point me in the right direction in terms of memory? Not sure on brand, there's so much to choose from.
 
Sir-Weasel said:
for the 15pound difference you get a better mobo allround.
i said it was cheaper because where i live (belgium) it's almost 55 euro difference and that's not nothing
Click to expand...

Looking at the reviews, the difference is in the OC options and while I'm sure I'll dabble with it, I don't think I'll need all the bells and whistles.
 
EmmEff said:
I've decided on Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H. Could someone point me in the right direction in terms of memory? Not sure on brand, there's so much to choose from.
Click to expand...

What type of cpu cooler do you plan on using?
If you use an aftermarket air cooler ,you need to find ram that will fit.
 
Mark3Max said:
What type of cpu cooler do you plan on using?
If you use an aftermarket air cooler ,you need to find ram that will fit.
Click to expand...

I didn't intend on buying aftermarket cooler right now as I intended on using stock cooler until I started playing with OC. I didn't realise it would affect what RAM I could use!

Been trawling through so many mobo reviews tonight, I'll need to tackle this decision tomorrow.

Did you have a suggestion in mind for cooler and RAM to suit?

Thanks.
 
If you use a Corsair h100 or h100i all in one cooler , ram height doesn't matter.
There are other all in one water coolers out there too.
If you go with an aftermarket air cooler like the Noctua NH-D14, your limited to a max ram height of 44mm because the ram has to fit under the cooler.
Just something to think about depending on the cooler you choose.
There are mixed opinions on ram speed here on the forum, but it depends on what you use the system for. Get more members opinions for a better idea , I don't know much about the socket 1150 platform.
 
8gb ram at 1600mhz with timings of 9-9-9-24 1/2t is the current most common ram for Intel. Just for simplicity i would get that.

Since this is your first build and intro to PCs i would just advise going for an AIO cooler. Easy to install and won't have to worry about it for 3 years. Also will aid in overclocking immensely compared to stock cooler.
 
I don't think you would need more then 8 gb for the most part ive used corsair sticks never had one go bad yet :)

as for gpu cards I use a amd 7950 on a 32 inch tv at 1080p in my rig and it works very well for me good frame rates it don't get too hot at all

hottest ive had out of it was 66c and that was rageing my rig for 4 hours playing team fortress 2
 
I'm looking at Corsair Hydro Series H60 AIO cooler @ £60. Will this have any installation issues with RAM or my system in general? Good cooler?
 
NeverBackDown said:
Nope it will work. Just don't expect any extreme overclocks.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Obviously need to choose whether to buy this now and swap later if I get into overclocking, or spend a bit more cash. Could you suggest an AIO that will be better suited for OC and isn't too much more expensive, or am I looking at quite an increase in spend to get a better cooler?

Thanks for advice, BTW.
 
EmmEff said:
Hmm. Obviously need to choose whether to buy this now and swap later if I get into overclocking, or spend a bit more cash. Could you suggest an AIO that will be better suited for OC and isn't too much more expensive, or am I looking at quite an increase in spend to get a better cooler?

Thanks for advice, BTW.
Click to expand...

Do a search on www.Aria.co.uk , it's the first place I looked.
H-60 is 52.98 , Noctua NH-D14 is 63.60 and The H100i is 91.60 .
Both the NH-D14 and the H100i are the best rated here on the forums.
I suppose you could use the stock cooler for now until you get more cash , but others here will recommend you shouldn't.
Again , if you use an aftermarket air cooler look for some low profile ram.
Other members from the UK can recommend other places to shop.
 
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