£1,500 Gaming PC Build

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:41

Hi,

I'm putting together my first build and I want to make sure I do it right so I've asked for help from a lot of places and now I come here

I've got a budget between £1,000 - £1,500 but it goes without saying, the less I can spend and still get fantastic performance, the better! At the moment I've managed to put together the following build which I love the look of. I've gone for a red colour scheme but a friend suggested the blue MOBO due to its good OC support. I intend to use this PC purely for gaming and potentially (some time in the future) for YouTube / streaming purposes. I will be adding a second 780 in a month or two (when I've got more funds!

)

So, please help me get more bang for my buck! If you feel like you can create a better PC and ignore all of my choices here and still remain in the budget then feel free to do so.

Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 12g Thermal Paste
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case
Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans
Antec HCG M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit)

Price: ~£1,400

Merry Xmas

Ryan

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:43

Hi.

I have removed that link due to it mentioning competitor names and prices. Please list out the parts individually.

RJC · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:43

Hello and welcome to the forum

Ethermaster · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:47

I will spec in the morning

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:48

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle £349.9
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £269.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £112.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,191.32 (includes shipping : £8.00).

The Sniper board has a Creative Recon sound chip and Killer NIC, it also supports SLI - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18558959

The 280X gfx cards are really fast, especially as a pair - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18562098

Doomedspeed · 22 Dec 2013 at 21:50

Stu's spec is great.

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:00

Sorry about that, I've added in the individual part names. About your spec, Stu, I've always had a thing for Nvidia cards which is why I was leaning towards the 780, how do the two compare solo? I'll be adding a second card at a later date so atm I'm just looking for the more powerful card as price for a second won't be an issue when I get paid next month

Doomedspeed · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:05

the 780 is better than the 280x, the 280x sits just above the 770.

But for 2/3 of the money of the 780 its a great card.

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:11

Yep, for £270 its a really quick card.

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:13

Interesting, I was originally looking at the 770 when first speccing. Would you recommend dual 280x or dual 780?

Doomedspeed · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:20

Well there's around a £300 gap between 280x's and 780's..

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:24

I run the pair of 280X as per my link, there's nothing they cant cope with a 2560x1440 res.

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:28

I think I'll go with the R9 280x, looked up benchmarking just now and it definitely seems capable of handling its own. Then it'll get more powerful when I add a second one into it. Hell, with the price of Stu's build I could possibly go with 2 straight from the start.

lee32uk · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:33

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle £349.9
2 x Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII TOP 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99 (£539.98)
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £129.95
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £64.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,513.67 (includes shipping : £12.50).

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:47

How do I get the list like you've done of the components? I've got all the items in my basket but no idea how to transfer it in that format

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:48

RyanF said:
How do I get the list like you've done of the components? I've got all the items in my basket but no idea how to transfer it in that format

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18371076&highlight=firefox

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:55

Thanks

As for the spec you linked Stu, it looks fantastic! I imagine I'll get a 2TB hard drive but other than that I think I'll be going with what you linked.

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 22:55

Sounds good

RyanF · 22 Dec 2013 at 23:05

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor & Corsair H100i CPU Cooler Bundle £349.9
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £269.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £112.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £64.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £25.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,246.72 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Does the H100i come with thermal paste or should I invest in a tube of Arctic Silver? Also, could you recommend any fans for inside the case to improve cooling? The pair I've got listed there are to replace the ones on the H100i. According to specs there is room for 1 more 140mm on the front and 2 120mm / 140mm on the top (that aren't included w/ the case).

stulid · 22 Dec 2013 at 23:09

The H100i has paste pre-applied to the base.

I don't think the case needs extra fans or replacements so soon, it has one intake and one outtake and with the extra two fans from the H100i in the roof there should be good flow.