£850 (MAX) Gaming PC for friend, any improvements?

Sasahara

Sasahara

Sasahara

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12 Feb 2009
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YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4UX) £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £188.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/240G) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £34.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £853.97 (includes shipping : £11.75).



My first attempt, but I missed out the 1TB HDD he wanted. :/

So I amended to:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4UX) £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £145.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/240G) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £34.99
Total : £828.97 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Losing the i5 k, to a non K version with 1600Mhz ram. Using the stock heatsink, fine for a non overclocked CPU, I've recently used 3 of these in recent builds, surprisingly quiet.

The N200 case Fail (Mini ATX) see my post below.

Optical drive would add £10-15.
 
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Case takes micro-ATX mobos.

Check with your mate if he really needs the 1TB drive just now. I know it's possible as sometimes we do have stuff we need to put on there straightaway, but 240GB will last a good while if managed even semi-carefully, so that a little more might be spent on the core right now.
 
Update:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4UX) £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £145.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/240G) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £53.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.95
Total : £847.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).



For the non K build the slightly upgraded PSU fits in budget, not that there is a huge difference in quality. Plus new case that fits the mobo! :D

I was originally specing a micro-ATX mobo, but intel don't do USB 3 headers on the H81 chipset so I changed to the better z97, forgetting my case was still micro-ATX. (I blame too much x-mas drink)
 
Sasahara said:
I was originally specing a micro-ATX mobo, but intel don't do USB 3 headers on the H81 chipset so I changed to the better z97, forgetting my case was still micro-ATX. (I blame too much x-mas drink)
Click to expand...

These do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte H81M-D2V Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99




But I'd go with the Z97 as well, with faster RAM.

This case from Antec brings two blue led fans to match the theme you're going for, and tinted window. USB ports on the top though.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Antec GX300 Combat Ready Windowed Midi Tower Gaming Case £44.99

 
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Thanks for that Danny75, I'll take note for future projects on the H81 with usb3 :), as you said the Z97 is the better option if possible.

Further update:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4UX) £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £188.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/240G) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.95
Total : £852.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The 1TB drive can be added at a later date so that frees up a part of the budget, making the full on overclockable i5-4690k build viable, I've left it with the stock heatsink, this would be ok for sight overclocking say up to 4GHz. More and I'd recommend looking at a better 3rd party cooler.

Upgraded back to the 2400Mhz ram and kept the better PSU, the 5 year warranty is worth the £15 extra alone.

Cases are pretty subjective, I've put in the NZXT as a non-windowed case is the preferred option.



Below are a few alternative options:

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 EX OC "Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (97NQH6DNB4TX) £281.99


If the other Galax isn't available, for the price I believe thay are the best option for the GTX 970.




The non Overclocking CPU option for comparison swapping CPU/MOBO/RAM for these.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £145.99
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2IR) - Red Light £53.99
1 x Gigabyte H81M-D2V Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
Total : £240.97

Saving £73. Though I'd go for the overclockable/better motherboard version if it was me.




Another decent case, the non-windowed one that Danny75 recommended:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Antec GX300 Combat Ready Midi Tower Gaming Case £41.99

 
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