Confused isn't the word!

Parkinson1NX

Parkinson1NX

Parkinson1NX

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Joined
16 Oct 2015
Posts
325
Location
Norfolk, ENG
Hi guy's as you can probably see I'm in need of some help. I'm new to all this and been a console player for years but I have always wanted to buy a PC build.

A couple of things always put me off.

1. What do I actually need? (I'm wanting to play Skyrim, Battlefield and pretty much every other new title.)
2. With my budget what is the best I can possibly get? (£1500 for the build itself, £200/£300 for the monitor @ 1080p/1440p)

I have been looking at a few bundles and pre PC builds and I really don't kow where to start. What is best for me basically? I know that by building a PC myself I would be saving myself some money but I'm not really prepared to it and I don't mind spending a little bit more to have some experienced hands do it for me and with the warranty as well.

Above I listed a couple of thing's but if I were to go into detail then I'm a big fan of RPG titles such as TES and Fallout, enjoy playing FPS games such as Battlefield as well.

When it comes down to playing games like Skyrim then I'll be looking at modding it, all for the graphics basically and I'm still wanting to have it run smoothly at Ultra.

I'll leave a link to a basket that I thought might to the trick but I would really appreciate it if you guy's could give me a point in the right direction so I can enjoy and love my first experience of playing a Gaming PC with having a headache to go along with it. :D

any builds you think will be beastly for £1500 then please share! :)
 
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NoNameNoNumber said:
Build your own... £1800 all in?
Need peripherals and windows or not?
Something like the following represents MUCH better value than buying pre-built

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 980Ti Gaming 6144MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G) £539.99
1 x Intel i7-5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £311.99
1 x Acer B276HULA 27" 2560x1440 VA Widescreen LED Professional/Gaming Slim Bezel Flicker FREE Monitor - Black £269.99
1 x Gigabyte X99-SLI Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £179.99
1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £136.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (TPKD416GM2400HC16QC01) £79.99
Total : £1,794.37 (includes shipping : £25.45 Ex.VAT).

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Need windows but not peripherals.

With the building it myself part, I really want to try avoid that. Not confident enough do it and for my first Gaming PC I just wanted something I could enjoy and then upgrade components and build it in that respect myself.

If only it was as easy as picking up a console from a shop! :o

but then again if it was that easy it wouldn't be as personnel and as good as it is. :D
 
spulse said:
You essentially need a case, a motherboard, a cpu, a cpu cooler, a hard drive/ssd, RAM, graphics card and power supply. All the cables you need will come with your power supply and all the basic fans will come with the case.

You need to choose a cpu platform (z97, x99 are popular platforms) and matching motherboard for that cpu. Any graphics card will go in a slot in that motherboard so you just need to choose AMD or Nvidia and the actual card you want.

For 1500 you can build a great spec machine that will last you for years and will play games at 1400p on ultra at 60+ fps and 4k resolution around 30-40fps. It'll smash any console out there and you'll be able to do way more with it :)
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It's not understanding what components are fit for the job that puts me off. What goes together and what doesn't go together. With the £1500 budget as well. :(
 
spulse said:
building yourself is going to save you money (prebuilds usually come with a big premium due to labour costs) make you learn a new skill...plus it's fun!

pre-built machines come with peace of mind that you can always send it back in one piece if something goes wrong, but remember that all of the components you buy if you self-build also come with individual warranties.

if I were you i'd spend a week researching how to put together all the pieces - youtube channels with build tutorials like pauls hardware and linustechtips are really informative for complete newbies and cover all the basics.

Don't worry too much about breaking anything, for the most part it's a case of slotting/plugging things in, tightening screws and following the manuals.

this build guide sticky is a bit dated but the basics are still the same - give it a read http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396

note that you don't really need an optical drive anymore

as for your question about win 8.1 or win 10 - both are considered solid but i'd recommend windows 10 as it supports direct x12 which is a new graphics gubbins that'll take full advantage of cards like the suggested 980ti.
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Thank you for the above advice and this next question may sound silly, but how will i be connecting to the internet? Will I be needing an adapter etc?

Now maybe people will see why I don't trust myself to build but after watching a couple of videos and reading up I've gathered that the hardest part is putting the CPU onto the mobo? Is that true? Or just a case of being careful?

Just want to say thank you to everyone that has responded to me and thank you to anyone that continues to do so. :D
 
spulse said:
no silly questions just silly answers!

all motherboards come with one or more ethernet ports, so you go from your router to that using an ethernet cable.

Some motherboards come with wifi adapters built in so you'll need to check if the motherboard you're buying has it. If it doesn't and you really want wifi you can always buy a wifi adapter and plug that into the motherboard.

Wifi is good for small pcs or if you're considering moving the pc about a bit - but generally most people just keep their pc in one place and use a physical ethernet cable. This generally gives much more stable/fast net speed performance in comparison with wifi.

Putting the CPU is, for me anyway, the 'hardest' part of building a pc. They're expensive and if you dont know what you're doing yes, it's possible to kill it. BUT! they're also not stupidly fragile, as long as you ground yourself and dont bang the thing about there's very little that can go wrong. Make sure it's seated in the correct way, apply a bit of thermal paste and fix the cooler on, pretty simple.
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Thanks for the above, makes a lot of sense to just having it running from the router, as where I have planned to keep the PC it's about 5m away from the router so no biggy, I can just run the ethernet cable under the carpet next to the the skirting for a nice and net look.

I think I'll keep on reading and watching some "How to build" stuff and try make up my mind. Hopefully I don't over think it and put myself off doing it... again.

Thanks guy's.
 
McGraw said:
If going x99 for gaming then you will need to overclock.

Skylake at stock is much better than 5820k at stock for gaming on the whole.

In fact skylake is better than x99 in probably nearly every game unless the x99 chip has been overclocked past the skylake chip. This probably won't be the case forever though but it is worth bearing in mind...this is because clockspeed/IPC trumps number of cores for practically everything once you get to i5 and above.
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Is it possible to dump that down to my level? :confused:
 
McGraw said:
You plug the LAN cable from your internet router into the LAN socket on your motherboard.

CPUs are very easy but very scary to install. Check the pin alignment multiple times and pull the lever down from a stable position. You will almost certainly feel like you are having to pull down harder than you would like?

For me making sure allnthe PSU connectors are in and in the right place causes me the most checking and rechecking.

Front of case to motherboard headers needs good light and eyesight usually.
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What I have seen on videos then the CPU has an arrow on one corner and it matches up with something of equivalent on the Motherboard so making sure that is correct and align then pulling down on the lever will be okay?
 
VKleita said:
You sound like the kind of person that is clever but is worried.

The fact you are worried and reading more tells me you have a level head and just lack confidence.

As others have suggested I really suggest trying your own build, if you get stuck, post on here/ read google, check various youtube videos, if your not sure, stop, read some more until you are sure.

As long as you use the advice of people on here what you buy wont be wrong, you just might be missing some of the knowledge to do it!

Go on push yourself! :)
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Thank you, I am defiantly leaning more towards building myself.

I was looking at the GTX 980i for a build but when it comes to the CPU I don't really know what I'm choosing and what is all compatible.

I know early on in the post NonameNonumber left a post with the components but then someone else comes along and changes a thing here or there and it just confuses me even more but I know after reading reviews and looking at benchmarking the 980Ti 6gb is something I would like to go for and 16GB at 2400MHz is also something I feel I would need but everything else is a bit of a blur. :confused::o
 
Hey back NoNameNoNumber,

first of, I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU!

I love how you have listed everything and it's pretty much what I was looking for and is in a way I can understand and take the information in so again, thank you!

I'll take your advise and just read a little more into the options I have and try make a decision from there. I am pretty set on wanting a 980Ti from what I have read already in the benchmarking it wasn't far behind the Titan X and scored very well in 4K resolution as well.

I'm swaying a little more towards the 6700k but I'll do what you suggest and read up on it more to help me make a decision.

My original budget of £1500 can stretch to £2000.

Again and probably not the last time, THANK YOU. I'm sure I'll have more questions to ask in the future! (1 Hour probably)

(EDIT)

I did say an hour but thought 5 minutes was long enough. The question I have is... what is the difference between having 2x8GB RAM over having 4x4GB RAM? Is it personnel preference or does it make a difference when it comes to performance?
 
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Hi guy's I'm back after a couple of days reading some more information online and looking up the pro's and con's of both the x99 & the z170.

I reckon I'll probably go for the x99 option but then the only thing that concerns me is the part about overclocking and I'm sure if I done some reading well more reading on overclocking then it probably won't be to hard but at the moment it is just a lot of information that I don't understand.

From what I have read people get 4.5Ghz clock speed on the 5820k and some say that it has more potential?

What CPU cooling do you people suggest on such a build? As NoNameNoNumber has listed everything I would need but I'm just wondering about the cooling. I'd like to try and stay away from water cooling as it would be my first build but if anyone has any suggestions then it would be appreciated.

In a simple list this is what I am thinking of choosing.

- Intel i7-5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E)
- Gigabyte X99-SLI Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard
- TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit
- SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply
- Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5"
- KFA2 GeForce GTX 980Ti "Hall of Fame 8 Pack Approved Edition"
- "CASE" I am yet to choose, all I know is I want it to be white & black, full tower to try make it easier for me to assemble and has a few fans on it to help with air flow.
- CPU Cooler... Please help me on that one! :)

Thanks in advance guy's! Hope you're all keeping well.

(EDIT)

Please let me know what you lot think of that kind of build. From what I understand that it allows me to upgrade in the future or had another 980ti etc. I'll let the more knowledgeable enlighten me on what is possible!

Just want to say THANK YOU to everyone for there input and any future input. I'm getting pretty excited and nearly at the stage of ordering everything. When I do and receive everything and get a day or two off work to build it I was thinking of doing a thread showing step by step what stage I'm on and if I'm running into any trouble I'll ask for some help and I'm sure you lot will happily let me know anyway.

Thanks one more time.
 
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NoNameNoNumber said:
I can't really comment on the best air cooling solution... I've been watercooled for a number of years now...

A lot of people use and like the Corsair Hydro series... Kind of on par with the high end air coolers and is just as easy to fit.

Everything you have listed looks good. Check out the Corsair Carbide 540, lovely case to work with and has fantastic air flow.
You have enough headroom on the PSU to go SLI 980Ti too should you wish :eek:
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The Carbide 540 was exactly what I was looking at haha. Just done some looking on cooling as well and the case can take a 280mm radiator on the top and checked out the hydro series and realised that it's featured in a lot of build videos so checked it out and might go for the Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX High Performance 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler.
 
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vince99 said:
AIO coolers tend to come with cheapy fans, i have a Triton and the fans on that sounded like a couple of flymos. Replaced them with 2 corsair sp120`s cos i wanted led fans anyway, and can recommend them.

Also worth controlling them off the mobo and setting up the fan profiles in bios so they just tickover until the cpu wakes up.
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Yeah I may go with something like that. Hopefully compliments the case better as well.

Is it hard getting the fan profiles set up on the mobo?

Getting to the stage of what I'm buying then building it myself is one thing but now I need to learn the overclocking on the 5820k and learning to setup such things like the fans seem an obvious thing to do.

I'm a quick learner so I'm sure in a few months I'll be giving the advice rather than asking for it so in that respect I can pay back what other people have helped me with. :D
 
vince99 said:
Modern bios are very learner friendly, setting up stuff like that is just part of the infinite amount of tinkering and faffing that lies ahead , that`s what makes it fun :D

some people are sensitive to noise, personally i like the pc to be reasonably quiet unless i`m caning it, then i like to hear it make noise....i want to hear the fans spool up. :D
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Yeah I prefer it when you can hear them kick in. Especially when you know that's what they should be doing.

For me I play with a pair of Astro's on anyway and for me it's not a problem when it comes to noise but I wouldn't appreciate at slap round the back of the head from the Mrs when she's watching the usual stuff on TV :D
 
Just want to start with a thank you if you are able to read through the below and let me know what you think. If it looks all good then I'm pretty much ready to go a head with and order everything that was listed above. If you think I have missed something out then I'd really appreciate it if you let me know.

Thanks again!

Alex.

Motherboard - Gigabyte X99 SLI Motherboard
CPU - Intel i7 5820k
CPU Cooler - Corsair Hydro Series H110i GT 280mm Extreme Performance All-In-One Liquid CPU Cooler
GPU - KFA2 GTX 980Ti HOF Edition
PSU - SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum"
Case - Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Arctic White
RAM - TeamGroup Elite 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit
HDD - Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD
SSD - Samsung 2.5-Inch 250 GB 850 EVO Solid State Drive
DVDRW - OcUK 24x DVDRW SATA ReWriter (Black)
 
vince99 said:
Spec wise its gonna be a pretty much top end system, there`s nothing wrong with that list.

That ssd is at a crazy low price today only if you didnt notice already.
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I ordered it all apart from the SSD this morning! :(

Now going to place a second order with just that, not to sure if I could get in contact with anyone to see if I can have it put onto the first order.

EDIT

Doesn't matter guy's I just placed a second order with the SSD and the CPU Cooler as was going to get it from a company that sounds a lot like Amazon Rain Forest :D
 
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vince99 said:
That`s a really neat case, having the psu and drive cages behind the motherboard tray will make for a real clean looking build. I`ve not really looked at cube cases before.

Hope you post a pic when you're done :cool:
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Thank you Vince, hoping to get it built Friday.

Hopefully goes all okay and of course I'll post the results.

Thanks for all the help people. :D
 
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