First attempt at new build; advice please

threeskull

threeskull

threeskull

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Joined
19 Oct 2015
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11
Hi

I've been having a bit of a look around and come up with my first ever attempt at building a PC with the below basket. I would like it to be able to run games at a reasonably high quality, not necessarily max settings but not needing to sacrifice too much. Examples of upcoming games that I will likely want to play are Warhammer: Total War, Overwatch and maybe Star Citizen off the top of my head. My main monitor is 24" at 1920x1080, I do have a second 19" monitor plugged in as well but it only really gets used if I need a few windows of firefox/excel/word open at the same time.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £773.07
(includes shipping: £13.20)
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How does this look?

I'm not particularly knowledgeable on building PCs so there may by some obvious errors that I'm missing. I wasn't originally planning on spending this much but I want it to last for a while. Was just going to go for the 960 4gb card but I read in a couple of places that it can't make full use of the 4gb VRAM and so the 970 seems better for long term.

As an alternative, how does the R9 390 8gb stack up against the 970 4gb? They seem to be similar in price and read a few discussions suggesting the 390 is better, with the 8gb helping futureproof?

I have also been looking at a similar system but substituting the i5-6500 for the i5-6600k, the H170 for a Z170A and changing the RAM to 2400MHz but I understand that would be mostly useful for someone planning on overclocking? Would those upgrades provide much of a performance boost without overclocking? (I have absolutely no idea on overclocking)

Lastly how much difference is there between the different brands? I've mostly just picked from ones that seem popular/cheap.

Any suggestions for improvement for either performance or cost are very welcome, apologies for the multiple questions but hopefully someone can point me in the right direction!

Thank you
 
My thoughts are........

RAM - Go for 2x4GB as the mobo supports dual channel memory, check on the mobo website for compatability.
SSD - Go for a 256GB one as they are only a few pounds more.
GPU - Have you looked at the R9 380X, I believe this is a better perfoming GPU and £60 cheaper than the Nvidia.

Personally I have never overclocked any of my PC builds and I have never had any problems running any game software at reasonable detail levels. But a lot of enthusiasts overclock just for the fun of it, I just wouldn't pay extra for it.
 
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My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £777.47
(includes shipping: £12.60)
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The Antec HCG is a better power supply than the Corsair CX.

Swapped the 120GB SSD to a 250GB SSD.

Nicer looking Ram.

The Alpenfohn Brocken is good enough for a locked i5.

The R9 390 will perform very similar to the GTX 970. The extra vram is always handy if you decide to game at a higher resolution in the future.

The Aerocool 500 is a decent budget case.
 
flowrider99 said:
My thoughts are........

RAM - Go for 2x4GB as the mobo supports dual channel memory, check on the mobo website for compatability.
SSD - Go for a 256GB one as they are only a few pounds more.
GPU - Have you looked at the R9 380X, I believe this is a better perfoming GPU and £60 cheaper than the Nvidia.

Personally I have never overclocked any of my PC builds and I have never had any problems running any game software at reasonable detail levels. But a lot of enthusiasts overclock just for the fun of it, I just wouldn't pay extra for it.
Click to expand...

The R9 380X is weaker than a GTX 970.
 
My Basket for an microATX build


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £750.17
(includes shipping: £12.30)
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Thanks for the replies, couple of questions

lee32uk said:
Nicer looking Ram.
Click to expand...

The reason I picked the 2133MHz RAM I did was that the i5-6500 states "Memory Controller: Dual channel DDR3/DDR4 1600/1866/2133 MHz". Will the 2400MHz you have suggested still work ok? I don't really know the difference tbh just looking at the numbers to try make them match!

Other than being better if I moved to a higher resolution later, how much difference is there between the 390 and the 970 cards? Just looking at the 970 having £20 cashback if there's not much difference.

Will this system be good enough for playing new games over the next few years at a reasonable quality or am I expecting too much?

Thanks for the help.
 
threeskull said:
Thanks for the replies, couple of questions



The reason I picked the 2133MHz RAM I did was that the i5-6500 states "Memory Controller: Dual channel DDR3/DDR4 1600/1866/2133 MHz". Will the 2400MHz you have suggested still work ok? I don't really know the difference tbh just looking at the numbers to try make them match!

Other than being better if I moved to a higher resolution later, how much difference is there between the 390 and the 970 cards? Just looking at the 970 having £20 cashback if there's not much difference.

Will this system be good enough for playing new games over the next few years at a reasonable quality or am I expecting too much?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...


The 2400MHz kit will still work, but it will just run at 2133MHz. Aesthetically it looks nicer than the Green Crucial Ram, and it costs the same so why not :)

Performance is very close between the two. You might be better looking at reviews for both cards and then decide.

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/86927-sapphire-r9-390-nitro/

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/75081-asus-geforce-gtx-970-strix/
 
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

As a bit of a curve ball I was double checking the pre-built systems just for comparison and looking at:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Kinetic Z1 - Intel Z170 Configurable Skylake DDR4 Gaming PC = £740.93
    • Case:Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - Black
    • Processor:Intel Core i5-6500 3.20GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail
    • CPU Cooler:Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black
    • Memory:Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (BLS2
    • Graphics Card:Asus GeForce GTX 970 TURBO OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
    • Primary Solid State Drive / Hard Drive:Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)
    • Storage Mechanical Hard Drive:Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM003)
    • Optical Drive:Unwanted
    • WIFI:Unwanted
    • Operating System:Unwanted
    • Security Software:ESET Smart Security - Trial Key
    • Build Time:Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days
    • Warranty:OcUK Standard System Warranty - 3 Year (24 Month C&R + 12 Month Labour)

Total: £755.03
(includes shipping: £14.10)
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Is there some big difference here between that system and the ones linked above that I'm missing? Considering this is pre-built and comes in slightly cheaper with the 970 card would this be the better option? Always assumed that building yourself got much better value but looking at that it doesn't appear so, unless there's something obvious I don't see.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!
 
If I were to upgrade the i5-6500 to 6600 so that the RAM will run at the 2400 MHz and need a Z170 motherboard to go with it, would one of these be suitable?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £204.08
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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Really don't know the difference between the motherboard types! Is there anything more appropriate for that sort of price?
 
lee32uk said:
Not really much in it to be honest so either is fine. Are you looking at the i5 6600K ? or i5 6600 ?
Click to expand...

It would just be the i5 6600, I don't have a clue where to start with overclocking so wouldn't want to mess around with stuff in case I do something wrong.
 
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I think that motherboard the MSI one is from there casual range, they have a gamer range which of sell MSI Z170a Krait, and an enthusiast range MSI m3,m5 etc all priced accordingly a casual one is fine for somebody who doesn't want to OC, you could also consider one of OC's pre configured bundles as I imagine you won't update the bios.

Comes with ram, motherboard, processor 6400 pre OC's at 4.4 Ghz, aftermarket cpu cooler for only £330

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pac...locked-quad-core-gaming-bundle-bu-050-as.html
 
Neary said:
I think that motherboard the MSI one is from there casual range, they have a gamer range which of sell MSI Z170a Krait, and an enthusiast range MSI m3,m5 etc all priced accordingly a casual one is fine for somebody who doesn't want to OC, you could also consider one of OC's pre configured bundles as I imagine you won't update the bios.

Comes with ram, motherboard, processor 6400 pre OC's at 4.4 Ghz, aftermarket cpu cooler for only £330

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pac...locked-quad-core-gaming-bundle-bu-050-as.html
Click to expand...

Apologies for the basic question but, I assume that a 6400 overclocked to 4.4 Ghz is better than the 6600 not overclocked? No other differences?
 
Well it's the same chip just with a lower clock so yes, especially from w single thread point of view it would be better but over clocking a non-k cup can mean a few things :

1. Be prepared if Intel enforce stock clock speed, not sure how they can do this and doubt they will it's just a be prepared as you can always update the bios and Overclock the 6500.
2. It will increase the temps and voltage required which means I would advise to get a better quality super/Evga gold cpu...the alpenfohn Matterhorn is what I'm using in my new build and is a good enough cooler anyway

Its more up to you, you may feel more comfortable with the 6500
 
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