Building my 1st PC. Help required!

Vida said:
Something I forgot to mention is that I'll be probably buying this over a period of a few months, since I want to wait to build it until I move house, but I'd like to buy bits already in preparation to get the ball rolling.

On that note, I've gone with the "GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU II OC Strix 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card" for basket purposes because it seemed by far the most popular and the price was quite reasonable relative to everything else on offer. I feel like the graphics card is where I'll have the most difficulty choosing, there is just so much to choose from and I understand so little about them.
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Because of the speed at which new components appear and older ones become cheaper / replaced I would advise against this plan (of course you can do what you want but if it were me....)

Nvidia will be releasing a new architecture by mid year by which point the 970 will inevitably fall in price or a better card can be had for the same money you're about to spend. Bear this in mind if you've no plans to build and use your new purchases straight away.

FYI the 970 is a great card (I have one) for smooth 1080p gaming at near enough ultra settings in most games. I almost bought the Asus Strix when I was deciding mine - it has a slightly higher clock speed out of the box compared to reference 970. BTW The 970 is a 3.5GB card as .5 is gimped/slow due to architectural limitation (it's a 980 with defects which are disabled and rebranded)
 
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Jinxter said:
Because of the speed at which new components appear and older ones become cheaper / replaced I would advise against this plan (of course you can do what you want but if it were me....)

Nvidia will be releasing a new architecture by mid year by which point the 970 will inevitably fall in price or a better card can be had for the same money you're about to spend. Bear this in mind if you've no plans to build and use your new purchases straight away.

FYI the 970 is a great card (I have one) for smooth 1080p gaming at near enough ultra settings in most games. I almost bought the Asus Strix when I was deciding mine - it has a slightly higher clock speed out of the box compared to reference 970.
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dholdi said:
Things become obsolete in months, and you run the risk of losing stuff when you move.
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Totally understand and agree with you guys. My rationale was to buy certain things sooner than later that I'm less likely to really lose value or technology on, such as a case, the hard drives, maybe the RAM, and leave the CPU and GPU until last. I can't imagine I would lose out too much by doing this, but I'm happy to be told that I'm wrong in that regard.

If nothing else, I can compile a build as if I were going to go out tomorrow, buy it all and then build it. That would help me out just as much when deciding in the future.
 
Vida said:
Totally understand and agree with you guys. My rationale was to buy certain things sooner than later that I'm less likely to really lose value or technology on, such as a case, the hard drives, maybe the RAM, and leave the CPU and GPU until last. I can't imagine I would lose out too much by doing this, but I'm happy to be told that I'm wrong in that regard.

If nothing else, I can compile a build as if I were going to go out tomorrow, buy it all and then build it. That would help me out just as much when deciding in the future.
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If you're going to do it that way then I agree with your rationale in terms of order of purchase. Kaby Lake will replace Skylake later in the year but as far as I'm aware will still be based on the same CPU socket. Definitely wait for Nvidia to release Pascal as it's reported to be a significant upgrade to Maxwell.

It's your call but I seriously would let the cash earn interest in a savings account and then when you're desperate spend minimal cash on next day shipping and have the latest best components for your money ;)
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,200.54
(includes shipping: £11.70)
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No case, OS or monitor here, the case is probably the only one I'd need to check with you guys but I couldn't find one that immediately jumped out at me.
 
Phanteks Enthoo Pro is a good case. If you want something more aggressive then have a look at the NZXT Noctis.

Haswell-E

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,155.57
(includes shipping: £14.70)
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Skylake

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,113.57
(includes shipping: £14.70)
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Amended basket:

Swapped the cooler and HDD and added a case.
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,241.99
(includes shipping: £13.20)
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Vida said:
The £1400 figure was from my uneducated assembly's. But please let me be the one to worry about budget. It's not that I currently play high end games or stream or edit videos all the time now, but I want to have the capacity to do it somewhat modestly in the future should I wish to do so which isn't out of the ordinary with things I like to do or am potentially likely to. (i.e. I'm not going out to buy the very best in all components no matter what, but I want capacity to play with).
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The original post didn't give much info I was going off you using it as internet surfer and playing mine craft that was all
 
I'd suggest a 6700k isn't worth paying 50% more for than the i5. You could either save yourself some money or reinvest it in a faster graphics card, a bigger SSD, whatever you like.
Personally I'd aim for a 500GB SSD in a build of this kind of budget. If you want more than the i5 then consider lee32's 5820k build.

Also at the moment I see no reason to take a 970 over a 390, for a while they were cheaper but that doesn't appear to be true now. I presume you're likely to be playing at 1080p just now so won;'t gain a lot of extra performance but if you're keeping it for a few years and likely to go for higher resolutions then the 390 performs a good bit better. As others have advised though with new cards on their way if you can leave the graphics card for later in the purchase cycle there may be much better options available.

i5 and 390 with more SSD space:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £948.54
(includes shipping: £11.70)
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I agree with some previous posts, when using just a single SSD, it should always be used as the primary drive to store the OS and only the most important and very regularly accessed files.
 
Thanks David I'll definitely consider the i5 and a 500GB SSD. I'll make a more precise decision regarding the Graphics card when all these new ones come out.

dudemiseter, that is what I intend to use it for, thanks.
 
Made another basket based on some more things I've learnt. Open to critique as always.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,335.56
(includes shipping: £14.70)
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Do you really need a case the size of the Corsair, do you need the Z170 Deluxe and will you use the features (you would be ok with a mobo half the price), the 850w psu is overkill IMO, a 550w would suffice. The money you save could be used on a GPU upgrade.
 
Doing my nut reading this thread where OP says generally the most intensive thing he does is minecraft, and x99 gets mentioned.

OP, a build based around https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pack-approved-intel-core-i5-6400-4.4ghz-overclocked-quad-core-gaming-bundle-bu-050-as.html and https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zotac-geforce-gtx-970-gaming-edition-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-zt-90101-10p-gx-071-zt.html will provide plenty of grunt for your needs and come in well under your budget and the cost of other builds mentioned above
 
flowrider99 said:
Do you really need a case the size of the Corsair, do you need the Z170 Deluxe and will you use the features (you would be ok with a mobo half the price), the 850w psu is overkill IMO, a 550w would suffice. The money you save could be used on a GPU upgrade.
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All of the cases seem pretty big to me (being used to a nice slim tower). I hadn't realised the Corsair was all that much bigger than the 'big' cases. If I could get a case that looked like the Corsair but as small as possible whilst retaining all practicality and function that'd be absolutely perfect.

The PSU I seem to recall being sold on a 600W I think but then I probably read or saw some information somewhere that suggested more was a safer bet, happy to change it if it's definitely too much.

As far as the motherboard goes I'm still early on in my education!

dl8860 said:
Doing my nut reading this thread where OP says generally the most intensive thing he does is minecraft, and x99 gets mentioned.

OP, a build based around https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pack-approved-intel-core-i5-6400-4.4ghz-overclocked-quad-core-gaming-bundle-bu-050-as.html and https://www.overclockers.co.uk/zotac-geforce-gtx-970-gaming-edition-4096mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-zt-90101-10p-gx-071-zt.html will provide plenty of grunt for your needs and come in well under your budget and the cost of other builds mentioned above
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Will take a look at them later, thanks for the suggestions. Worth noting I have expressed several times I want high capacity to do more than just play Minecraft so that isn't strictly fair on those who have suggested in your view overkill setups!
 
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@Vida.......it looks like you are air cooling, just 1x 2.5 and 1x 3.5 drive, no 5.25 drives and a full length GPU. Based on that have you looked at the NZXT S340?

The Asus Z170 Deluxe has al sorts of bells and whistles which you may never use so if I were you I would decide what you want from the mobo and look for a board that meets that requirement, what about the Asus Z170-A, AsRock Z170 Extreme4 or the Gigabuyte Z170-SLI
 
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Vida said:
All of the cases seem pretty big to me (being used to a nice slim tower). I hadn't realised the Corsair was all that much bigger than the 'big' cases. If I could get a case that looked like the Corsair but as small as possible whilst retaining all practicality and function that'd be absolutely perfect.
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Corsair 450D if you want the same style but smaller.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £111.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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Or you could go micro atx if you want smaller still.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £106.09
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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lee32uk said:
Corsair 450D if you want the same style but smaller.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £111.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


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Or you could go micro atx if you want smaller still.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £106.09
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​
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Those 2 are just the ticket. With the 350d, what would be the drawbacks, if any, for a case that size? Would I lose any kind of function? Is it just down to capacity?

Do you think the lack of front ventilation would cause any issues in reality? Thanks for your suggestions, I think I'll be likely to get one of those.
 
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