£1500 gaming pc

anska · 1 May 2014 at 23:09

Hi guys and girls

This is my first time posting on Overclockers. I am looking for advice on a pc build since the last time I built a pc was way back in 2008, so as you can image I am a bit out of the loop .

Anyway I am posting here as I have a budget of £1500 to make myself a nice gaming pc and a separate budget of up £500 for the monitor.

I would like to have a large enough case to fit a second graphics card if I need one in the future , I also have a keyboard and mouse so will not be needing those.

I rather nvidia then amd but if the amd build is that good I go for it

. I would also like a fan base built as never done water cooling and be worry that I may do something wrong. I happy with any colours but if people want to have fun then I think white and red together be fun or yellow and white.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thank you again

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 07:17

Welcome,

You're better off waiting a few weeks (less than 2 to be exact) for The Haswell refresh chips (and Z97 chipset) to be released.

Danny75 · 2 May 2014 at 07:44

White/Red:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £341.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £149.99
1 x MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £106.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 530 Full Tower Gaming Case - White £97.99
1 x Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £95.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FRK2/8) £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x ACX EVGA CPU cooler, Black - 120 mm £34.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,044.83 (includes shipping : £19.10).

White/Yellow:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £341.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £149.99
1 x MSI Z87 Mpower SP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £139.99
1 x Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £95.99
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - White £94.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIY) - Yellow Light £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Zalman FX70 Passive CPU Cooler £37.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
1 x Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Venom Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin £9.49
Total : £1,102.32 (includes shipping : £19.10).

PSU can run a second 290 GPU. The 530 case is better than the H440 case, for air cooling multi-GPUs especially. But the H440 does look very nice.

Yellow parts always make it more expensive. Looks great in a white (or black) case though.

There is a new white (and other colours) NZXT case out that may or may not be stocked by OcUK shortly, which would bring down the cost. Called the Phantom 240 - http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/146-p240-phantom-mid-tower.html

New Intel motherboards (Z97 etc) will be available in under 2 weeks (estimated), so it might be an idea to wait for those.

EDIT: Yes, what Doomedspeed said, didn't see your post till I posted.

snips86x · 2 May 2014 at 08:01

^^Not sure an OEM chip would be wise. I know they are cheap, but you get an extra 2 years warranty with the retail and a stock cooler for emergencies.

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 08:14

snips86x said:
^^Not sure an OEM chip would be wise. I know they are cheap, but you get an extra 2 years warranty with the retail and a stock cooler for emergencies.

I don't see the harm.

CPU's Rarely Fail and if they ever do they are DOA (dead on Arrival) (or damaged beyond repair by idiot overclocking wrong).

Considering you're saving £20, its a big price to pay for a glorified paper weight.

Though it is peace of mind.

snips86x · 2 May 2014 at 08:24

It's not a bad thing at all. However, the inevitable will happen just outside of warranty when you least expect it.

anska · 2 May 2014 at 11:34

cool I do not mind waiting two week or so

. Also I think I may have writing post wrong I got £1500 for the built and then once I get pay I add up to another £500 for the monitor so in total I have £2000 to spend sorry for any confusion

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 11:45

anska said:
cool I do not mind waiting two week or so . Also I think I may have writing post wrong I got £1500 for the built and then once I get pay I add up to another £500 for the monitor so in total I have £2000 to spend sorry for any confusion

It was clear to me.

Just noticed a problem with the second spec in Danny's post.. The DVD drive won't fit in the case.

I was thinking something more along these lines.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 780Ti 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £499.99
1 x AOC Q2770PQU 27" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £389.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £143.99
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £139.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - White £94.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FWK2/8) £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050004-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050003-WW) £11.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Red £8.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Red £5.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy 6+2-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved red/black £5.99 (£11.98)
Total : £1,948.94 (includes shipping : £20.10).

But as i say, wait for the Haswell Refresh.

dacads · 2 May 2014 at 12:35

What's with all the fans? The case has 4 fans included

lee32uk · 2 May 2014 at 12:38

dacads said:
What's with all the fans? The case has 4 fans included

SP120 for the H100i and AF120 to replace case fans I imagine

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 12:57

dacads said:
What's with all the fans? The case has 4 fans included

lee32uk said:
SP120 for the H100i and AF120 to replace case fans I imagine

Sure is.

They'll look amazing with the rings, either red or white.

dacads · 2 May 2014 at 12:58

Must be some cooler that

I would stick with the standard fans so the white colour scheme isn't compromised

Personally not a fan of the Corsair fans since they aren't that quiet

snips86x · 2 May 2014 at 12:59

dacads said:
Must be some cooler that I would stick with the standard fans so the white colour scheme isn't compromised

Just use the white rings.

While the H100i fans maybe slightly better compared to the SP's, they are grey not white and would look out of place.

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 14:22

dacads said:
Must be some cooler that I would stick with the standard fans so the white colour scheme isn't compromised Personally not a fan of the Corsair fans since they aren't that quiet

I had some SP120's for my H50 (been replaced by a D14 now) and the fans were almost silent, cannot praise them enough. They shifted a lot of air too.

snips86x said:
Just use the white rings.

While the H100i fans maybe slightly better compared to the SP's, they are grey not white and would look out of place.

The Sp120's are actually better than the stock fans and quieter. And with rings.

snips86x · 2 May 2014 at 14:28

Doomedspeed said:
The Sp120's are actually better than the stock fans and quieter. And with rings.

I thought this too, but if you look at the stats between the 2, the static pressure on the SPs os quite a lot less than the stocks. The CFM is also lower on the SPs.

H100i

SP120s

Doomedspeed · 2 May 2014 at 15:04

The H100i fans do sound like hair driers though.

snips86x · 2 May 2014 at 15:09

Doomedspeed said:
The H100i fans do sound like hair driers though.

When you get to high RPM, yes I will agree. The trick however is to run the fans on a custom curve. This bases the speed on the temp of the coolant instead of the CPU.

Mine idle at 340-400 and vary rarely do anything over 8-900rpm unless it's a cold boot/restart.

dacads · 2 May 2014 at 15:10

That's expected at nearly 40 dBA

Although I know such figures should be taken with a pinch of salt. Saying that for general case fans I always aim below 20 dBA. Going a bit off topic but I have 3x Arctic F12 and 1x NZXT 140mm and they are virtually silent, with rated noise figures around 20dBA, although I do have a fan controller that helps bring those levels down even further otherwise they are slightly audible but still nothing like a hair dryer!

Danny75 · 2 May 2014 at 15:51

Doomedspeed said:
It was clear to me.

Oops. Clear to me now as well.

Doomedspeed said:
Just noticed a problem with the second spec in Danny's post.. The DVD drive won't fit in the case.

Double oops.

Thanks for pointing it out.

anska · 3 May 2014 at 22:33

Doomedspeed said:
It was clear to me.

Just noticed a problem with the second spec in Danny's post.. The DVD drive won't fit in the case.

I was thinking something more along these lines.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 780Ti 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £499.99
1 x AOC Q2770PQU 27" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £389.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £143.99
1 x NZXT Hale Power 90+ 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £139.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - White £94.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FWK2/8) £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050004-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair AF120 Performance Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050003-WW) £11.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Red £8.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Red £5.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy 6+2-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved red/black £5.99 (£11.98)
Total : £1,948.94 (includes shipping : £20.10).

But as i say, wait for the Haswell Refresh.

nice build will wait as you said