Novice requires advice on first self build PC

newbuild

newbuild

newbuild

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8 Nov 2013
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Hi everyone

I am going to build (with the aid of a colleague) my first PC. Having read a few articles and taken advice of friends I have come up with the following spec (listed below), I would be most grateful on members opinions on what I have chosen. The PC will be used for general MS office duties, photoshop editing, working within Lightroom and some video and sound editing work. I'd like to see at least 6 years service. In the past I have found the previous machines I owned began to slow down drastically. Anyway over to you guys please let me know your opinions. Thank you in advance.

Case: Corsair 550D

Mobo: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H

CPU: i5 4670 or the k version

GPU: Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 650

RAM: 16GB Corsair DDR3 RAM or 32 at either1300 or 1600ghz

PSU: Corsair 650 modular silent

SSD: Crucial 250 or corsair 250

HDD: x2 Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Cooler: Corsair H60

Wireless Card: TP-Link N900

Windows 7 ultimate

BD-R Drive: Pioneer BDR-208DBK
 
Dropped the GPU, unless your looking at light gaming or the card helps with editing i can put it back in.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GLC-01844) £139.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 550D Quiet Midi Tower Case - Black (CC-9011015-WW) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-208EBK 15x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail £85.99
2 x Toshiba 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £79.99 (£159.98)
2 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99 (£131.98)
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £974.40 (includes shipping : £13.75).



Oh, almost forgot welcome to the forum :)

The motherboard comes with a fee cooler for the cpu.
 
It'll give you the option to update to sp2 I think.

There's not a lot of difference between 1333 and 1600, though 1600 is standard at the moment. If you've noticed above the guys have speced 2133 & 2400, this will be a massive improvement over 1333
 
RJC said:
The motherboard comes with a fee cooler for the cpu.
Click to expand...

What CPU? :P

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £259.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XW8G10-2X) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Toshiba 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower Case - Black £74.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £55.99
Total : £1,006.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Yeah I don't see a CPU in RJCs recommendation :/ but an i7 is overkill for OP uses :S

Would think an i3 or an unlocked i5 would be ideal for his uses.
 
I read somewhere that the i5 won't make much use of ram which runs above 1600mhz, which is strange as the intel bumph states it can run up to 2400mhz.

What does everyone think of my prospective build do people think everything gels well?
 
newbuild said:
What does everyone think of my prospective build do people think everything gels well?
Click to expand...

We can pick holes all day long in any spec fella, someone has already started on mine saying the i7 is OTT. There is always wiggle room in spec'ing you have to be able to justify stuff to yourself.....

Case: Well that's personal preference, I offered up a similar cheaper option for you to consider

Mobo: That Z87X-D3H is for dual GPUs, you have not stated gaming as a use and CUDA doesn't support SLI as far as I know. The D3HP is a single GPU mobo and comes with a decent heatsink for free (the H60 is a bit pants to be honest, I'd rather have a refurb'd H100)

CPU: I5K is a good all rounder, as I've already saved cash on the case and mobo I see no harm in opting for the i7K with the Hyperthreading to help with video encoding.

GPU: The 650 is pants. I still own a 1GB 460 which trumps it for gaming and you can find these 2nd hand reasonably cheap. If it's there for CUDA then remember core speed is also linked to CUDA performance so overclocking the GPU will help. As you have picked the 1150 socket you can just use the IGP initially, socket 2011 would need a dedicated GPU for example.

RAM: 16GB sounds reasonabubble. Haswell memory controller is happy with fast RAM so I used X2 8GB sticks of 2133Mhz RAM with a respectable CAS timing for the price. This means two DIMM slots spare for expansion

PSU: 500W or there about is enough, if you want modular fair enough it might just cost a little more.

How likely are you to burn bluray disks? The blanks aren't cheap, I can understand wanting to read them though. Wireless card you might want to swap out for homeplug network adapters perhaps. All the best with the build fella. We look forward to seeing what you choose :)
 
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honosuseri said:
We can pick holes all day long in any spec fella, someone has already started on mine saying the i7 is OTT. There is always wiggle room in spec'ing you have to be able to justify stuff to yourself.....

Case: Well that's personal preference, I offered up a similar cheaper option for you to consider

Mobo: That Z87X-D3H is for dual GPUs, you have not stated gaming as a use and CUDA doesn't support SLI as far as I know. The D3HP is a single GPU mobo and comes with a decent heatsink for free (the H60 is a bit pants to be honest, I'd rather have a refurb'd H100)

CPU: I5K is a good all rounder, as I've already saved cash on the case and mobo I see no harm in opting for the i7K with the Hyperthreading to help with video encoding.

GPU: The 650 is pants. I still own a 1GB 460 which trumps it for gaming and you can find these 2nd hand reasonably cheap. If it's there for CUDA then remember core speed is also linked to CUDA performance so overclocking the GPU will help. As you have picked the 1150 socket you can just use the IGP initially, socket 2011 would need a dedicated GPU for example.

RAM: 16GB sounds reasonabubble. Haswell memory controller is happy with fast RAM so I used X2 8GB sticks of 2133Mhz RAM with a respectable CAS timing for the price. This means two DIMM slots spare for expansion

PSU: 500W or there about is enough, if you want modular fair enough it might just cost a little more.

How likely are you to burn bluray disks? The blanks aren't cheap, I can understand wanting to read them though. Wireless card you might want to swap out for homeplug network adapters perhaps. All the best with the build fella. We look forward to seeing what you choose :)
Click to expand...

Have had a bluray drive previously and although never used the write feature did watch bluray films. Plus the drive is relatively cheap.

Have heard good things about the RM 550W so probably stick with it.

Following the advice on this thread will initially opt for 16gb ram running at 2133mhz.

Not sure what to do with the GPU, initially think could get away without using but then think id rather get sorted now so open to any more suggestions on it.

Are you saying I should possibly consider the i7 4770k? Will look into it and also hyperthreading - not sure what it is exactly.

Prior to your post had already decided to go for the H100i cooler.

Will be playing no games so the single mobocracy is what I need.

Probably going yo stick to a corsair case as I do like them.

I'm looking at finalising everything this week.

Can anyone suggest a good resource on the net to help me through the stages of building the PC?
 
newbuild said:
will this memory http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-370-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1390 be ok with the Z87-D3HP? what is the difference between the gold and silver?

sticking to 16gb for now then probably add another 16gb next year.
Click to expand...

That RAM is essentially nerd porn. It comes in different colours and speeds. I don't think the silver matches with that mobo very well, I'd go with the blue kit on the D3HP.

I used the Adata as for a start it's cheaper. The speed is faster at 2133Mhz and the CAS timing is still respectable at 10 (lower is better). Prices change with the weekly offers so it's important to understand how to balance things out to a price.

All the best with the build bud, I hope that video link helped you out :)
 
honosuseri said:
That RAM is essentially nerd porn. It comes in different colours and speeds. I don't think the silver matches with that mobo very well, I'd go with the blue kit on the D3HP.
Click to expand...

Your joking? the boards heatsinks are mainly silver.

Have you seen a D3HP in the flesh?
 
stulid said:
Your joking? the boards heatsinks are silver.

Have you ever seen a D3HP?
Click to expand...

It's not an exact match. I'd use the blue over the silver, if he wants to add more then use the silver kit for variation (blue and silver looks boss). With the UD4H I'd obviously go red but he doesn't need a mobo of that spec.
 
newbuild said:
...some text....
I'd like to see at least 6 years service. In the past I have found the previous machines I owned began to slow down drastically.
...some more text...
Click to expand...
Not directly related to the build itself - but on the point of machines lasting/seeming to slow down....
Over time machines can seem to slow down for several reasons.

The biggest factor is them accruing junk, extra programs and services running on startup, addons for their browsers, huge amounts of 'temporary' data going back years etc. Most people build these things up over time, including loads who swear to have never installed anything. Take care what you put on the machine and look for things to not run at startup to keep it running well. If necessary, back up your data and reformat the machine - some advise doing this regularly, but for me it's a last resort if things slow down, get out of hand, whatever. I've not reformatted in the last 4 years on my main rig, though I'm considering doing one now. msconfig is your friend here, as is CCleaner.

The second reason is progressing demands. While the computer may run just as fast as it ever did, new programs may require more resources than their predecessors. This is especially true in gaming but is true in all areas of computing. The biggest performance hit many people suffer due to this is caused by insufficient RAM - I see you're specc'd for 16GB so you should be fine for a good few years for most uses. Processors have lasted rather longer lately, still being usable quite a few years on. My processor is over 4 now and while it's not going to win any benchmark wars it's still entirely usable for most tasks (helped by being clocked up a bit ;))

To an extent there is also a third reason which is entirely about perception - as other computers get faster yours will seem slower. The biggest noticeable contributor here in recent years has been the rise of the SSD, causing huge improvements in performance and especially boot times & loading times. SSDs were around for quite some time before they became mainstream so perhaps we've got a while before any other step changes like this, but regardless there is no point worrying about it as pretty much nothing you do now will stop there being a performance gulf if something similarly drastic were to come along. Just enjoy your computer and remember that it's dated by the time you've finished getting the spec together!

Edit: Also just get the D3HP mobo and use the free cooler, it's more than ample for your needs :)
 
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