Components for first build

Big Boss94 · 31 Dec 2013 at 16:57

Firstly, I've literally just registered to this forum and I apologise if I've posted this in the wrong area, I've been looking all over the site for a simple post option beneath the 'components for a build' thread and I'm not sure if this is one or not.

As mentioned, I'm planning for my first ever build, I was going to buy a maxed out 'Alienware 17' laptop for around £2200 but have decided to build a desktop myself, and would like some advice whether the components I've picked are compatible and ideal for my purpose, or un necessary etc. I'm intending to make a high end gaming desktop, I will not be doing any editing etc, just fast internet browsing, video watching, and obviously, gaming in high settings ideally.

I've watched multiple construction guides, but I found Paul's build guides on 'Newegg TV' the most detailed. I'm on a budget of between £1000-2000, possibly slightly higher. I'm intending on keeping this desktop for a long time, roughly 3-5 years upwards so would like to futureproof myself as much as possible, the components I've picked so far (have not ordered yet) are as follows:

- CPU - Intel Core i7 4770k LGA 1150

- Motherboard - Asus MAXIMUS VI FORMULA Socket 1150

- Memory/RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro Series Red (16GB DDR3 2400MHz Dual Channel) - (Even though the Asus motherboard can handle 32gb, Im not sure if I will be able to place 32GB of ram on it, if its possible, that's what I will do)

- GPU - EVGA GTX780Ti 3GB Superclocked/ACX Cooling PCI Express Nvidia

- SSD - Plextor 256GB M5 Pro Extreme SATA III Ultraslim 7mm PX-256M5P

- HDD Harddrive - Western Digital 2TB WD2003FZEX Black Hard Drive

- Blu Ray Drive - ASUS Blu-Ray Combo BC-12D2HT/BLK/G/AS 12x BD-R Reader 16x DVDRW 48x CD-R Black Retail Drive OR LG CH12NS30.AUAR10B 12x Blu-ray Reader

- PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2 80+ GOLD 1000W Full Modular Power Supply (I'm not sure whether this is too much wattage and I should drop it down to the 750W/850 mark, or a different kind of PSU altogether)

- Aftermarket Heatsink fan - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler OR Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler 3 x DC Heat Pipe with 92mm Quiet Fan (I'd rather not go with watercooling simply because I have no idea how to and don't plan on overclocking initially, as I'm only a beginner)

Operating system - Windows 7 or 8 (More than likely 7)

Case - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Black Mid Tower Case

I intend on purchasing the bulk of this from '************' and apologise for how long winded this post is, and again, if it is in the wrong area. If anyone on this forum has some advice to give me in regard to this potential build, I will be highly greatful and hope to hear from you soon.

Fulax · 31 Dec 2013 at 18:01

Welcome to the forums

On your components:

The Formula motherboard, though pretty, is overkill - you can get what you need for much less. RAM - you'll only need 8gb for gaming. Even if you won't initially be overclocking you've got the budget to get a much better heatsink (in terms of performance, aesthetics, and acoustics) than the Hyper Evo.

A couple of questions:

What kind of monitor are you using? Do you really need a blu-ray player?

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X "BF4 Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-50G) £379.99 (£759.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £160.00
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £152.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
1 x NZXT KRAKEN X60 AIO Water Cooling Unit - 280mm £119.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Cable Bundle - Orange £28.45
2 x Alpenföhn 140mm Wing Boost Plus PWM Fan - Orange £14.99 (£29.98)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.98
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 6pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.49
Total : £1,969.73 (includes shipping : £19.10).

Crossfire 290s will have the graphical grunt and VRAM to keep you happy for the 3-5 years you plan to keep this thing. The Kraken cooler will allow you to overclock your 4770k should you wish to do so. The motherboard looks cool.

Ethermaster · 31 Dec 2013 at 18:03

Fulax said:
Welcome to the forums

On your components:

The Formula motherboard, though pretty, is overkill - you can get what you need for much less. RAM - you'll only need 8gb for gaming. Even if you won't initially be overclocking you've got the budget to get a much better heatsink (in terms of performance, aesthetics, and acoustics) than the Hyper Evo.

A couple of questions:

What kind of monitor are you using? Do you really need a blu-ray player?

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X "BF4 Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-50G) £379.99 (£759.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £160.00
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £152.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
1 x NZXT KRAKEN X60 AIO Water Cooling Unit - 280mm £119.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Cable Bundle - Orange £28.45
2 x Alpenföhn 140mm Wing Boost Plus PWM Fan - Orange £14.99 (£29.98)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.98
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 6pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.49
Total : £1,969.73 (includes shipping : £19.10).

Crossfire 290s will have the graphical grunt and VRAM to keep you happy for the 3-5 years you plan to keep this thing. The Kraken cooler will allow you to overclock your 4770k should you wish to do so. The motherboard looks cool.

Nice spec !

Idleman · 31 Dec 2013 at 18:48

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99 (£759.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI HERO Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £169.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £160
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Cable Bundle - Red £28.45
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Red £6.98
1 x BitFenix 6+2-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved red/black £5.99
Total : £1,954.20 (includes shipping : £19.10).

SiDeards73 · 31 Dec 2013 at 19:51

Just posted this in the other spec, would also fit your needs i feel, Blue / White and Black themed, custom water loop for both GPU's and CPU. Even the PSU has a sweet blue glow to it, although you wont see that due to it being hidden in its own compartment away from the main window

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI Radeon R9 290 "BF4 Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99 (£659.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case £199.99
1 x Mach Xtreme Technology 240GB 2.5" SATA 6GB/s MX-DS TURBO PREMIUM Edition SSD £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Gigabyte M8000x Gaming Mouse £143.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 X-RES (Incl. Pump) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 480 (Quad) £59.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Nickel £52.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
4 x Phanteks PH-F140SP 140mm Fan - Black / White £12.95 (£51.80)
2 x Mayhems X1 UV Blue Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99 (£15.98)
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 13/10 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
12 x EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 10/13mm G1/4 - Black £2.99 (£35.88)
Total : £2,252.09 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Big Boss94 · 1 Jan 2014 at 12:31

Thanks for the responses and welcoming to the forums, i'm very greatful.

Fulax, I havn't purchased a monitor or any of the peripherals yet, e.g mouse and keyboard. And yes, ideally I would like to have a blu ray player included within my build.

I've been looking around and researching other components and have altered my build slighltly, heres where I'm at now,

- CPU - Intel core i7 4770K LGA 1150 Socket
- Motherboard - Asus Maximus VI Formula Socket 1150 (This is the primary MoBo i would like to use.)
- Memory/RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8) DDR3 2400Mhz (I thought if I did want to do some editing/rendering in the future, this would be a viable option)
- GPU - EVGA GTX780Ti 3GB Superclocked/ACX
- SSD - Samsung 256GB 840 Pro Series Basic SSD (This will be my boot drive)
- HDD Hardrive - Western Digital 2TB Black Hard Drive
- Blu-Ray - LG 12x Blu Ray reader
- PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 1000W 80+ Platinum Full Modular OR Seasonic P1000W Platinum Full Modular DC-DC Silent Fan (Not sure which to go for, the Seasonic is around £40 more but I think it offers better fan operating states, but both are currently out of stock at the moment)
- Heatsink Fan - Noctua NH-U14S 140mm Slim U-Series (Not massively keen on this fan, particularly due to the colour scheme, but was unable to find another high end fan, ideally black in colour, fitting the LGA 1150 socket.)
- Sound card - Not sure if necessary
- Case - Corsair Obsidian 650D Black Mid Tower Case
- OS - Windows 7 or 8

Monitor, mice and a keyboard still need to be purchased. I have taken notice of each of the responses posted but I not massively focused on LED lighting and aesthetic aspects, besides the after market fan I mentioned in the list. Each of these components come to roughly £2100-2200 in total, but I am happy with 90% of the components which I have selected. If any improvements can be made relating to what I've chosen, please feel free to inform me. Thankyou. (P.S. I am not interested in water cooling at all, simply because I have no idea how, and feel air cooling would be a better option for me.)

Ethermaster · 1 Jan 2014 at 12:42

"'I not massively focused on LED lighting and aesthetic aspects, besides the after market fan I mentioned in the list."

Why do you want a windowed case then if the aesthetics aren't important?

systemerror · 1 Jan 2014 at 12:57

You choosing a motherboard that is mainly bought for aesthetic looks and over priced for what your needs seem to be unless your a top class overclocker and even then most would spend the money elsewhere. You should also take away the competitor name as it's against forum rules, personally I would rather consider buying from OCUK as your customer service is fantastic I know from personal experience in both places. Also would take note of what has been said in posts above these are specs where most would be investing that type of cash.

Fulax · 1 Jan 2014 at 13:49

Here's a black CPU cooler (altough it is out of stock):

YOUR BASKET
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler £61.99
Total : £70.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

The NZXT Kraken in my spec isn't really watercooling. In fact, it will be easier to install than most air coolers. It will also require no maintenance.

There is no reason for you to buy that motherboard.

The Samsung EVO SSD is cheaper than the Pro, and almost as fast (as in, you'll only notice a difference in benchmarks).

If you want this build to last up to 5 years you'd be better off either with crossfire 290s or SLI 780s than with a single 780ti (particularly if you buy a 1440p monitor).

If you do go for a single 780ti, a 1000w PSU is way more than you need. Get a 650w SeaSonic or SuperFlower.

Those WD Black HDD are apparently quite loud, and the extra speed isn't particularly interesting now we have SSDs.

I'd just stick with 8gb RAM now; upgrade in the future if you actually want to do some editing.

SiDeards73 · 1 Jan 2014 at 14:08

Bit lame asking for advice on the forums of a vendor and stating your buying it elsewhere

I would advise you to use OCUK, their customer support is second to none and if you phone them and have a chat you might find they can offer further deals etc.

I recently bought my 4770k, mobo and case from them even though they were cheaper elsewhere and as a gesture of goodwill they not only pricematched but beat the prices elsewhere to ensure they are the #1 retailer in the UK

Tohrazer · 1 Jan 2014 at 14:30

id also recommend OCUK as the best place to buy PC Hardware in the UK, they are focused on providing good quality customer support and theres a huge choice in components available, you can call them or post on the customer support forums to sort out anything and everything, better yet - their components often ship with complimentary Haribo

Big Boss94 · 2 Jan 2014 at 20:00

Thankyou for all the feedback, its given me more of a basis to build off, and I apologise for stating im going to purchase the parts elsewhere, but I have found every single component I am interested in at lower prices on a single competitors website, I do like OCUK but it just itsn't practical.

Idleman · 2 Jan 2014 at 20:12

Big Boss94 said:
Thankyou for all the feedback, its given me more of a basis to build off, and I apologise for stating im going to purchase the parts elsewhere, but I have found every single component I am interested in at lower prices on a single competitors website, I do like OCUK but it just itsn't practical.

Just buy where you get the best value for your money.

Big Boss94 · 2 Feb 2014 at 19:46

Got all the components set to order for my build, just not entirely sold on the case. Been primarily looking at the Corsair Obsidian 650D but not too keen on the USB 3.0 passthrough to the back of the case, although I know an adapter can be bought. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with the Corsair Carbide 500R, positive or negative, and could share their opinion with me?

Wizzfizz · 2 Feb 2014 at 20:32

Big Boss94 said:
, just not entirely sold on the case. Been primarily looking at the Corsair Obsidian 650D but not too keen on the USB 3.0 passthrough to the back of the case,

I found this a real none issue. I've routed the front USB 3.0 on my 600t and it's routed through the right cable part of my case, up through the top power plug gap, and around my exhaust fan and out. You can't even see the cable at all. I'm sure you can do just the same on the 600D.

Big Boss94 · 6 Feb 2014 at 15:39

Thanks for your reply Wizz, I've got one more question regarding the motherboard, with the Maximus Formula running SLI 780's, I don't intend to go past 2 gpu's, I've found info suggesting they will be performing at x8/x8, opposed to to one running at x16. I've read the maximus extreme would run 2 GPU's at x16/x8 through PCI e, would this make a large difference do you know?

Big Boss94 · 6 Feb 2014 at 15:47

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/387864-33-maximus-extreme-formula - this for reference

The Only Beardy · 6 Feb 2014 at 16:12

you could go hex core...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM (CM8063301292702) £413.99
2 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Asus Rampage IV GENE Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £249.95
1 x SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black (NESF-010) £161.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £143.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H105 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060016-WW ) £93.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9R) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £23.99
1 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £19.99
Total : £2,089.28 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Probs what I would get for the budget... if your worried about the PCi slots... this board will allow you to run 2x x16

so you'll get the most out of your GPU's

lee32uk · 6 Feb 2014 at 16:17

I'm not sure if the H105 will fit in the 350D case.

http://www.corsair.com/us/blog/h105-compatibility/

The Only Beardy · 6 Feb 2014 at 16:22

Then I would suggest possibly spending another £5 and getting the H100i

that should probably fit...