Another build

Curlyriff

Curlyriff

Curlyriff

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2012
Posts
4,355
Location
Oxfordshire
Mate was going to buy a PS4 at xmas. I have persuaded him to go PC route and now I am trying to put something together for him. I have suggested that putting a bit more cash initially will give you a much better experience and after a few years will even out due to game prices.

So with that in mind, he is after small form factor and something a little different.

This is as far as I have got. Thoughts/Opinions?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 970 JetStream 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £281.99
1 x Asus Z97I-Plus Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £105.95
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Avexir Core White Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIW) - White Light £65.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £61.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler £39.95
Total : £840.78

 
Z97 is weighed down by the fact the chip is locked and can't be over clocked, unless they're thinking of upgrading in the future?

Also a i3 is quite weak when compared to the 970.

What games are they looking to play, what resolution?
 
Resolution is to be 1080p max as it will be on a TV but would like to play with highest possible settings.

The idea was to get the i3 to tide over for 6 months - 1 year and then move to an i5, did first consider the Pentium anniversary but the i3 on certain games gave a good 30% improvement where the GPU doesn't bottleneck.
The reason for the Z board rather than H board is purely for the colour styling to match the 970 cause he wanted something that would look good together but not be black/red.

Games will be:

COD:AW
GTA V (when it's out/if it ever comes out)
Fifa 15
Metro series
Bioshock Infinity

And then whatever comes out over the years really.

Budget is around £850 at this time.

Edit: I will be building it for him as he hasn't done before. I don't want to put him off the costs of building a PC for gaming compared to buying a PS4 so leaving it some room to develop can show him what a great platform PC can be. He has always had consoles only before and a laptop for work.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x MSI Z97I AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £61.99
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler £39.95
Total : £833.83 (includes shipping : ).




Tweaked a bit for you.

The PSu is made by Seasonic and has a 5yr warranty.

The GFX card is technically better.

Faster RAM as Haswell/Devils Canyon likes fast RAM.

--------------------------------------------------

Getting an SSD would also be good.


YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £139.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x MSI Z97I AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £94.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £61.99
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £48.95
1 x Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler £39.95
Total : £783.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Cheers Stulid, I haven't seen much on the newer Antec power supplies yet so was sticking to the known but yeah being Seasonic build that seems spot on.

In regards to the 970, is it particularly noticeable? I will do a mild OC with the 970, I was actually going to put the Palit reference design cause of the cooler in the small case but can't put in basket. So that save some cash to put into the SSD.

I also avoided AMD cards because of heat and the small form factor, but that's the only reason. Air flow isn't great in the case but he want's the look. Thoughts?

Cheers for the heads up on the RAM.
 
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