gaming PC £1300 budget

[the_darjeeling]

Hi

I'm looking at getting the components below, and i just wanted to make sure that there compatible and sensible.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £311.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) £189.98
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £110.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Gold (HX21C11BGK2/8-OC) £61.99
1 x Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Red £44.98
Total : £1,330.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I already have a monitor and keyboard/mouse.

Thanks

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) £189.98
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £61.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler £54.95
Total : £1,255.30 (includes shipping : £11.25).





What do you think?

• The PSU is made by Superflower and has a 10 year warranty.

• Faster RAM that is colour coded to match.

• 4 year warranty on the board.

Try the onboard sound and see if you like it, if not you can fit a sound card later.

 

[Qitarah]

You are on the right lines at least but I would change a few things.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £114.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £73.99
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card £59.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £1,303.37 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Im not a fan of MSI, ESPECIALLY the 290 graphics card. They have had a lot of problems. The one I have listed is at a great price currently, and its a great cooler. You could also get a tri-x 290 which is regarded as one of the best coolers as well.

Ive changed the motherboard to the equivalent Gigabyte board. 4 years warranty as well!

You also have an I7 in the build at the moment. I think if you are spending 1.3k an i7 should really be in the spec.

Soundcard and blueray RW. You included these in your original build, so I left them in the spec I made as well.

I have also downgraded the size of the SSD to 250gb to make the budget work if you don't really need the soundcard (all modern motherboard have OK sound, nothing amazing, and if you have proper headphones/speakers you definitely want a dedicated soundcard).

 

[Doomedspeed]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) £189.98
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £61.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler £54.95
Total : £1,255.30 (includes shipping : £11.25).





What do you think?

• The PSU is made by Superflower and has a 10 year warranty.

• Faster RAM that is colour coded to match.

• 4 year warranty on the board.

Try the onboard sound and see if you like it, if not you can fit a sound card later.

That's very nice.

If you can live with a bit of silver on your cooler id replace the BeQuiet with the K2 'Mount doom'...

Otherwise I love that spec.

 

[foster grant]

I do like that case

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £59.99
Total : £1,236.43 (includes shipping : £8.00).



better case
aio water cooling
better bang-for-buck ssd
faster memory
specced the gigabyte gaming 3 mobo, i don't know if it still offers the free headset, might be worth checking. if there is no free headset then get the gaming 5 instead
and as everyone has mentioned, try the on-board sound first. it really isn't that bad anymore

 

[the_darjeeling]

Thanks for the specs everyone.

Based on everyone recommendations I've changed the spec a fair bit, for one I've removed the HDD as i have another 250GB SSD i use for games that i can swap over from my current rig so i should have enough storage. I'm keeping a sound card in the spec as i have a decent set of speakers.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter CT512MX100SSD1) £159.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW) £91.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £61.99
1 x Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
Total : £1,198.38 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Anyway the changes leave me about £100 under budget which is a plus. also is it worth going for windows 8? or should i just stick with windows 7 as they are the same price?

 

[stulid]

That PSU is not enough power should you want to do Crossfire later on.

Windows 8.1 is much quicker than 7, it takes a while to get use to it but it all comes good in the end.

 

[Digital X]

I would stick with Windows 7, a lot of gamers are having trouble with Windows 8. Although it may be faster in general, for games it is not so good.

 

[stulid]

I would stick with Windows 7, a lot of gamers are having trouble with Windows 8. Although it may be faster in general, for games it is not so good.

What issues? I've been using it now for ages with multiple different setups each month and have yet to have any problems with it.

 

[Josh]

What issues? I've been using it now for ages with multiple different setups each month and have yet to have any problems with it.

Me too, 8.1/8 has been a dream for me with games, stable and easy to work with. Only drama has been getting sweetfx to work. Not heard bad reports from gamers with 8.1/8?

 

[Doomedspeed]

I would stick with Windows 7, a lot of gamers are having trouble with Windows 8. Although it may be faster in general, for games it is not so good.

There were issues on first release but from what I've read they are all sorted now.

I don't use it myself but Stulid Does. So listen to him.

 

[Fallen god]

Maybe throw in a AIO water cooler to help things look a little neater, and some SP120 fans and use the red strips, and I would go with the PSU Stulid recommended, £20 comes with 10 years of warranty and enough juice for a second 290 down the line.

I set up an almost exact build 2 weeks ago for a friend, 450d is a lovely case, and his i5 + 290 gets him ultra on everything he has throw at it so far. I also got him 2 Asaka LED strips, red and white so give it a nice glow and it really looks lovely. Got the 60CM kit and have the red is the top right and the white in the bottom left.

 

[the_darjeeling]

I'm not sure about crossfire as all you ever seem to hear about it is issues with drivers and games not be compatible/optimized, also the powercolor is a three slot card so with two of them it might be a bit tight would it not?

Since you all recommend it I'll go with windows 8, i imagine once Ive banished the metro screen its not dissimilar to windows 7. i might pick up an fan for the top vent as the case lacks one.

 

[stulid]

I suppose the PCS is wider than normal and two would be very close to each other.

 

[Doomedspeed]

I'm not sure about crossfire as all you ever seem to hear about it is issues with drivers and games not be compatible/optimized, also the powercolor is a three slot card so with two of them it might be a bit tight would it not?

Since you all recommend it I'll go with windows 8, i imagine once Ive banished the metro screen its not dissimilar to windows 7. i might pick up an fan for the top vent as the case lacks one.

I wouldn't worry to much about Xfire. The drivers have pretty much sorted all/a lot of the major issue. Some Games don't run it but that's only Indie games.

The card isn't a 3 slot card, but you're right, it is over two slots, JUST.

But fortunately the Gaming 3/5 motherboard has the correct slot spacing to leave nearly a full slot gap between the cards. Easy.

 

[the_darjeeling]

I'll keep that in mind and having the option to go crossfire is always a plus, also i need some more TIM what do you guys recommend?

 

[Qitarah]

Still think you should consider getting the i7. Especially if you are considering xfiring down the road.

 

[stulid]

also i need some more TIM what do you guys recommend?

The K2 comes with some.

 

[the_darjeeling]

The K2 comes with some.

Well in that case then i have everything i need and i can get it ordered soon, Thanks for all the advice everyone.