Building a PC for the first time

Remote_zero

Remote_zero

Remote_zero

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Joined
14 Sep 2012
Posts
298
Location
Boston
Hi there, just joined this forum after having it recommended to me by a guy i kinda know. I've been bugging him with questions about building a pc for a few weeks now, and i think he got a bit fed up with it, as he pointed me to you guys.
So it looks like I'm going to be bugging you guys instead now, hope that's ok?
I've decided I'm going to build myself a gaming PC, I've no real experience in this area, but I've heard it's not as hard as it sounds and I'm generally pretty good with stuff like this, so I thought i give it a go.
I've been researching like crazy for a while now, so i kinda know the basics of what i need and what not. I've bought myself a case, and cpu fan after recommendations off the guy i was bugging. And i also bought a ssd and some RAM after seeing them massively reduced, they had alright reviews and were pretty cheap so I'm happy with them, even if there not the best components in the world.

Anyway, enough rambling.
I'm looking to purchase some more parts to get my PC up and running.
I need a CPU, motherboard, power supply and a HDD. I think can spend up to £500 on these parts.
What do you guys think i should go for?
Anything else you need to know?
 
From memory, I'm at work at the min.
Fractal arc midi case
Coolermaster 612 CPU cooler
2x4gb Kingston hyperx genesis ram
120gb Kingston hyperx 3k SSD
I think that's right, I will double check when I get home.
I don't need an OS.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £63.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
Total : £542.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Little over £500 but has everything you asked for plus a decent budget gaming GPU. Or was the GPU going to be on a seperate budget?
 
Remote_zero said:
From memory, I'm at work at the min.
Fractal arc midi case
Coolermaster 612 CPU cooler
2x4gb Kingston hyperx genesis ram
120gb Kingston hyperx 3k SSD
I think that's right, I will double check when I get home.
I don't need an OS.
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £63.98
Total : £392.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).




You can use the onboard HD4000 GFX until you add a dedicated GFX card (unless you have one already)
 
I'm going to save up some more for my graphics card, want to get a good one.
Will have a look at your recs later, need to do some work. Thanks though.
 
Remote_zero said:
I'm going to save up some more for my graphics card, want to get a good one.
Will have a look at your recs later, need to do some work. Thanks though.
Click to expand...

If SLI/Crossfire (dual GFX cards) was something you wanted later, then this motherboard supports it,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x NZXT Hale82 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £63.98
Total : £446.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).




The PSU is made by Seasonic and has the power to run a pair of very nice GFX cards.
 
Remote_zero said:
I'm going to save up some more for my graphics card, want to get a good one.
Will have a look at your recs later, need to do some work. Thanks though.
Click to expand...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £63.98
Total : £470.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Better mobo which allows SLI or Xfire (dual GPUs). Upped the PSU too inorder to make dual carding a reality
 
Back from work, onto the more important things.

First of all, thank you for the responses, i really appreciate the help. Great community you've got here.

Just to confirm, and to try out this basket posting tool, here are the components i already have.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £112.99
1 x Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
Total : £280.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).


I'm guessing they'll do the job as nobody's said otherwise. I'm surprised at the prices of the Kingston parts, i paid £65 for the SSD and £28 for the RAM.

The i5 3570k and the Seagate HDD seem to be no-brainers. As far as the rest goes, it looks like i need to decide if i'm going to get a second graphics card in the future, something to think about. I was planning on getting a GTX670 if that makes any difference.
I was recommended Corsair PSU's but haven't seen and mentioned here, also heard OCZ are decent. Presuming i go for 750w, how do these compare to the ones mentioned in above posts?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £94.99
1 x OCZ ZT 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £89.99
Total : £196.98 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Im going to look at the motherboards more closely and see what i think, they are all cheaper than ones i've been looking at so thats good.
 
They are all very good Psu`s. So whichever one you choose will be fine, for a dual card system. If you are only thinking of 1 card then a good 500+w Psu will be sufficient.
 
All the boards mentioned are from Gigabyte, are they the only ones worth considering?
I thought Asus were supposed to be pretty good.
Out of the boards mentioned I think the UD3H suits me best.
 
the board is a good choice
i think its worth thinking about what size and type of screen you will be using
tho a 670 isnt a terrible choice whatever it is^^
 
There seems very little difference to my eyes, a few more usb headers, eSATA, an extra fan header, the ud3h has displayport, but I'd be using the outputs on the GPU anyway, right?
Am I missing something or are they pretty much the same?
It's in my nature to go for the more expensive options, I often need convincing not to burn my money on stuff I don't need.
As far a monitors go, I'm after a nice 120hz for Xmas,will be using a random generic screen my girlfriend has, or my tv until then.
 
right but also

1 x power button
1 x reset button
1 x Clear CMOS button
1 x Voltage Measurement Points
1 x BIOS Switch

this stuff makes building and tinkering less hassle
for sure worth 10 pounds^^
 
These seem to be the main differences.



16.1 x power button
17.1 x reset button
18.1 x Clear CMOS button
19.1 x Voltage Measurement Points
20.1 x BIOS Switch
 
Ok, I kinda bypassed those as being insignificant, but now I think about it I suppose it really helps if you tinker a lot, which I'm prone to doing.
Really appreciate all the help here guys.
 
Remote_zero said:
Ok, I kinda bypassed those as being insignificant, but now I think about it I suppose it really helps if you tinker a lot, which I'm prone to doing.
Really appreciate all the help here guys.
Click to expand...

You are welcome.

The mobo I suggested is slightly better (kudos to stulid for that handy link) and they throw in a gaming surface too which helps sweeten the deal. The underneath of mouse/gaming mats is anti static so it makes a good surface to build on then you can flip it over to use for it's intended purpose once you have the system built.

The real advantage to the power button on the mobo is that it makes it easy to test outside of the case. Once you know it's all good you can fit everything inside the chassis confident it will power on. You can bridge the power pins with a flat screwdriver to emulate the power switch but a power button on the mobo is obviously more convenient.

You'll notice that prices can change depending on offers. There are daily offers and weekly offers which change on the wednesday. So what we suggested spec wise can vary as we try to balance out the build making the most of the offers available.
 
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