1st time build, any advice on this build.

19rich79

19rich79

19rich79

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13 Jul 2014
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Good morning, I wonder if I could ask some advice. I will be building a PC for my son, 9years old, I already own a PS3. My aim of the PC is to do his school work (which appears easy on any system) and then he likes to play minecraft. Ideally I want the cheapest set up that would enable me to play games such as command and conquer now, and then ,as I dont want to have to buy another console something that I could upgrade. I dont need perfect graphics, but am keen to play some PC classics, which wouldnt be as graphic intensive as BF3. My sons game choice will no doubt increase but my game choice should cover that. I have given myself lots of tuition on 'You tube' so I know a little bit now, and have arrived at the below setup.
CPU - AMD A10 – 5800K - £75
MB – ASROCK FM2 A75 - £60
RAM – 8GB CORRSAIR VENGEANCE - £66
HD – WD 1TB CAVIAR BLUE - £40
PSU – CORSAIR CX430 80+ - £30
WINDOWS 8 - £80
DVD DRIVER – LITE ON - £11
CASE – Not chosen yet - £50
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE – Not chosen - £15
MONITOR – Not chosen - £100

Total £527

I would love to know any cheaper alternatives, and advice on a basic monitor would be great.
 
I know you asked for cheaper alternatives but I've gone the other way.

This is more expensive but more upgradable than your build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £107.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 265 Dual-X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £44.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £43.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.95
Total : £580.30 (includes shipping : £13.75).



The issue with your spec is, the CPU can't be upgraded (as it is and probably always will be top of the range). Adding a GPU means that the GPU may be held back by the CPU. id have also put a CPU cooler int hat spec too, as the AMD one is awful.

My intel spec can be upgraded massively, you can add an i5/i7 in later and a GPU upto a GTX 780. (as it will run from a 450W PSU).

The good thing about the Pentium is it can be OCed into an EPIC single threaded CPU and considering the games you and your lad play that's all you'll use for a while anyway..

The R7 265 is really good for the money. :)
 
Yep that's the one if you want to be able to upgrade and save money in the long run. Pentium-K with affordable Z97 mobo and R7 265 allows a foot in the door, and will be fun to play with at the same time.

Just add a 500GB or 1TB drive.

If anything, and I know this would add to the cost, but maybe get the 550W version of the PSU, for £5 extra, just to have a bit of headroom (and presumably less noise) when you upgrade CPU/GPU.


YOUR BASKET
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 £44.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £35.99

 
the £350 build in my signature comes with a graphics card AND you'll be able to upgrade it to a (non k version) i5 later on if you wanted, although you may want to get a good 550w psu instead of 500 to be on the safe side (my instinct is that 500w would be alright, but i couldn't guarantee it), you'll need to add your own monitor and keyboard + windows, should be a (bit) cheaper than the other build suggested, BUT:

note: doomedspeed's build is a lot more flexible as it gives you more upgrade options in the future, personally id find the extra little bit and get that every time
 
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The H81-Plus needs to have the latest bios(2001) for the G3258 chip to run and so you can OC it. You might want to ask OCUK if they can flash the bios for you.
Added a hdd and a cheap set of speakers, unless you already have some, in which case you can remove them.
You will notice that there is no OS, but you can download and use the Windows 8.1 Evaluation for 3 months and then buy an activation key. The link is at the bottom of the post.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £107.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 265 Dual-X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Asus H81-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £43.99
1 x Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Edifier M1370 2.1 Speaker System - Black £19.99
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £13.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £11.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £9.95
Total : £560.92 (includes shipping : £20.10).





http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool
 
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Very impressed

Just got in from work and I can't believe the response I've got. I've not heard about the Intel processor mentioned and will do some digging on that tomorrow. My thanks to all that answered, I will have some more questions I'm sure. Very, very helpful.
 
19rich79 said:
Just got in from work and I can't believe the response I've got. I've not heard about the Intel processor mentioned and will do some digging on that tomorrow. My thanks to all that answered, I will have some more questions I'm sure. Very, very helpful.
Click to expand...

Anything you're unsure about or want to ask, feel free. :)
 
Almost there!

Hi thanks again for your ideas. Im really happy with the Pentium suggested, which i see should help me in the future.
I have been offered a second hand led monitor from the inlaws, will i have to check the spec to see if it will work, or is it likley to suffice in the short term?

Also, there was mention of 'flashing' the motherboard, does that mean that I would have to actually do something to the BIOS before I can set it up. I am a complete novice, and that sounds a bit daunting!

I've budgeted 45 for the HDD, the price difference between 500 and 1tb seems small, is there any disadvatage goimng straight to the 1tb.

Your thoughts........
 
19rich79 said:
Hi thanks again for your ideas. Im really happy with the Pentium suggested, which i see should help me in the future.
Click to expand...

I guess you've read some reviews then, it seems a sublime chip. :) Especially on a budget.

19rich79 said:
I have been offered a second hand led monitor from the inlaws, will i have to check the spec to see if it will work, or is it likley to suffice in the short term?
Click to expand...

Go for it, if you find the spec we can take a look at it. It may do you for a long while. :)

19rich79 said:
Also, there was mention of 'flashing' the motherboard, does that mean that I would have to actually do something to the BIOS before I can set it up. I am a complete novice, and that sounds a bit daunting!
Click to expand...

Yeah, Flashing the motherboard isn't ideal. That is only the case for the H81 motherboard in idles spec. Though they may come pre-flashed, its unclear..

With my spec, a Z97 motherboard, you won't need to flash it. :)

19rich79 said:
I've budgeted 45 for the HDD, the price difference between 500 and 1tb seems small, is there any disadvatage goimng straight to the 1tb.

Your thoughts........
Click to expand...

Go for 1TB. :)

EDIT: as for the H81 motherboard: take a look in here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=26613359#post26613359
 
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As I said in the earlier post, ask OCUK if they can flash the H81 mobo for you. If you are buying all the bits from them, there is a good chance they may do so. Ask in pre-sales, that would be best.
 
Hi Thanks all for your help. I have now ordered almost everything. The Z97 was out of stock as was the optical drive. I've asked the question about the H81, so i will soon see. I'll let you know if i blow myself up or not!!
 
So I'm now half way through and I see that my case has two 3 pin fan cables but my mobo only has one 3 pin sys fan header! Can I leave it hanging, will it attach straight to the PSU?

Any ideas, cheers.
 
Hi I used doomedspeeds spec above so the z97 dp3 board. I'm not sure if, they are fan controllers? And attach elsewhere, because now I have 3 cables that look like fan cables. 2 are black and look together, the other is white/ clear, and appears to come from the front fan....
 
looks like it has 2 near the battery in the middle and 1 on the right
the only one you need worry about to test it all is the cpu fan header at the top tho
 
Hi all, up and running, windows installed. However, only 3 fans are running, is this normal, will they all kick in when it gets hotter?_ CPU fan, rear fan, and PSU fan are all running. Front single, and top two fans have yet to turn. Do I need to 'go back in'

Cheers, oh and the sound is quite quiet, and ideas...
 
Great news, fans all running, found some wires that I thought were alternatives but were the fan controller cables!! I am very chuffed with myself.

Thanks for all the great advice.
 
Hello all, I am very pleased with the PC so thanks for all your help. Inevitably I want to make it better, is it easy to overclock, or should I spend some money on upgrading?
For example, I really wanted to play the Battlefield Hardline beta, but it was unplayable at the lowest settings. (Although I played it on the PS3 and wasn't impressed!).
If I spent more money on the PC, where should it go for better gaming?
Many Thanks
 
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