Building a PC for a friend -Assistance Required

SymTax

SymTax

SymTax

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Right, a friend of mine is lucky enough to have a GF that wants to buy him a new PC. After a few talks, I said it would be best to buy the individual parts and then put it together yourself. He's never done this, but I've got experience as I've built my own in the past.

I've got a good grasp of what items are good etc, but I'd love some assistance in putting together a good build for him. Absolute maximum is £1000, but try to steer clear of it. Looking at no more than £750 tops.

It will be used for gaming, but also some general type work on the side. Mainly gaming though I reckon ;)

Everything apart from a mouse, keyboard and monitor are needed.

Thanks in advance.
 
Not bothered about overclocking. He's fairly new to computers, so I doubt Xfire/SLI will be on is his mind.

I assume he'll be upgrading down the road, but he'll most likely ask me beforehand if it's worth it etc. He basically just wants something that can run games easily and make it look sexy.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £245.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £69.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £61.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
Total : £858.84 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Looks pretty good. Would it also be possible to get a build made up that doesn't go over £700? I do understand it will limit what can be done, but it's purely so his GF has a couple of options to choose from.
 
If he has a Windows disk already, that'll free up £72... you could also drop the custom cooler to save another £30 and also then save £60 on the GPU by going with a 7950 instead of the 280X..

You could save £18 or so changing to a cheaper case, but then it'll just seem cheap(on the outside at least)..

Can't see that i'd want to cut back anywhere else without making the system a bit sucky in one department or another..

EDIT: I guess you could drop the HDD and go with purely the SSD(but be tight on space), or drop the SSD and stick with the larger space(but slower speed) of the mechanical drive...
P.S. I can't speak for doomed of course, just sharing my thoughts.. :)
 
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It can be done:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £69.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £61.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
Total : £696.86 (includes shipping : FREE).



Switched the 280X for the 7950 and dropped the CPU cooler.

Though i'd suggest getting an aftermarket CPU cooler.
 
I don't think he'd really notice not having an SSD, as this is his first PC (or first custom one). If I told him, he'd most likely say he wants it just because it's 'better'. Space wise, I think he'll most likely want a some to spare for the future. Perhaps just 500GB would even be enough.

Unfortunately not got a windows disk, which is a shame. Dropping the custom cooler could be an option, but £30 for a cooler PC isn't too bad. Might just get a cheaper option?

Most likely would go with the change of GFX card though. 280X is nice, but the 7950 would definitely give him what he wants.

Edit: Sorry Doomed, start typing before you replied. Yeah I'll probably just drop in a cheaper CPU cooler. If it was up to him, he'd smash through the £1000 set aside, but obviously his GF ideally wouldn't want to spend everything on it (Or so I assume :D) That build is looking good though. I'll be showing him this thread later on, so if you have any other suggestions/tips/help etc, please do share. I may have overlooked something when talking to him.
 
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There is a trial for Windows 8 he can use for 3 months absolutely free. He can then decide between buying 7 or 8 later on. Saves her a few quid as she is paying for components ;)

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £69.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9KBL) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £55.99
1 x BitFenix Shadow Tower Case - Midnight Black £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
Total : £791.86 (includes shipping : FREE).



Mobo includes a decent heatsink and GPU knocks off the P&P (you might well get it free anyway) and has some free games bundled with it. The 270X would be the minimum GPU I'd recommend, it's pretty close performance wise to a 7950 but only has 2GB of VRAM, still good bang for buck @£150ish though.
 
Doomedspeed said:
As for the spec above, to keep it uunder £700 and inc OS, swap the SSD out for Windows 8. :)
Click to expand...

Mine or yours ;)

The price of that SSD is great for the performance. The i5K or the 8320 has plenty of grunt but it's the SSD that will make the rig seem ever so fast. Dropping to a 500GB HDD isn't going to save much cash at all, maybe a fiver, in my book that's false economy
 
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