Advice - First time PC build (Gaming)

[hawkhench]

ATX board + mATX case = no worky

Also, spending £90 on a case is pretty unjustifiable at a smaller budget like this, a decent £40 of that could be spent on better components

Whoops, was skim reading and just saw the ATX part in the name! I did think I'd put at the bottom the case could have been swapped for a better heatsink/motherboard but I forgot to add that in.

Just seen the latest build and I'd go with that, so I won't try improve.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Thanks again guys!

Are AMD cards noticebly better than Nvidia then? You all seem to be suggesting the same card.

Although I've found my way onto the Overclockers site, I don't really have any intention of Overclocking. Does buying an OC GPU come with any worries I should be aware of?

Is a CPU cooler a must? I thought you got one bundled in the box? or is it a case of it not being reliable enough?

Well the 280X is the best Price vs Performance card out. It sits between the 770 and 780 in Nvidias range but only carries the 770 pricetag.

OC GPU's are pre-overclocked, so will give you more performance. The temps may be a little hotter but nothing to worry about. My GPU is overclocked to its limit (not matter how much vcore i pump in it won't go higher) and it runs below 80C in everything (thats good).

Well the stock cooler is pretty pant, and loud too.

You don't have to get an aftermarket cooler, but why not. It'll be quieter and cooler.

 

[Doomedspeed]

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £92.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £55.99
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
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £808.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).



My take - SSD, 1TB HDD, good quiet PSU, very good heatsink.

You may/will struggle to get the ereboss in that case, 160mm playing 160mm won't work.

Managed to put this together (including an SSD and an Obsidian case) going AMD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £812.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).

And the less said about this spec the better.

Sorry but, really?

 

[hawkhench]

And the less said about this spec the better.

Sorry but, really?

Fair comment, I shouldn't even have tried an AMD spec

 

[Doomedspeed]

Fair comment, I shouldn't even have tried an AMD spec

Live and learn!

 

[Canary Wundaboy]

Well, this can be done:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-SLI Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £98.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £809.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).

This one.

 

[DaleTheWhale]

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £92.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £55.99
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
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £799.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Changed the cooler

 

[DCJonah]

Well the 280X is the best Price vs Performance card out. It sits between the 770 and 780 in Nvidias range but only carries the 770 pricetag.

Excellent. Really appreciate all the help everyone!

Which sites are best for reviews/performance tests of components? If I didn't come in here to ask, I would've had no clue that the 280X sits between the 770 and 780. Is there a site that diplays everything in a chart, so you can see where in the list each GPU sits?

I've checked Tom's Hardware but their charts seem either confusing, or out of date.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I've checked Tom's Hardware but their charts seem either confusing, or out of date.

Tom's Hardware Feb 2014 - Pretty up to date:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[DCJonah]

Well, this can be done:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £245.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-SLI Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £98.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £809.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Think I'm going to order this build at the weekend, but change the case to:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black (CC-9011014-WW) £65.99

Is there any reason why that would cause any problems?

Also, In terms of a PSU, I'd really like to get a modular one (as I'm a bit of a neat freak!). How do I work out what PSU wattage I need? I know you've suggested 550 above, but I'd like to know how to work it out for myself!