First build could you help please.

lessavydav · 7 Apr 2013 at 19:37

Hi all, thanks for taking the time to give this a look.
After my laptop recently died I've decided to get a desktop and would like to try and build it myself. I'm not too knowledgeable about computers so thought this would be a good chance to learn a little and give me something to do. I've spent the last few days looking at different components and honestly, I'm not sure I'm any the wiser now than when I started.
I'll be using the computer mostly for gaming and just a little music and internet browsing. Budget is around £900 as I'd like something that will last a few years before I have to upgrade it. Heres what I've come up with:

EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £229.9
Intel Core i5-3570 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £169.99
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £109.99
Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard£85.99
Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM £79.99
Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £66.95
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM £49.99
TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter £12.98

Total - 877.77 with VAT and postage
I can add an optical drive later and just need to pick a case out. I was just wondering if I'm going to get any compatibility issues and whether I need the wireless adapter or if the MoBo has the capability installed? Oh and the SSD is just to put my OS on, I'm not sure how much storage it would need.

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.

snips86x · 7 Apr 2013 at 19:45

What you think about a Mini-itx build?

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011 / 1366 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM3) £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £54.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £40
Total : £881.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).

dacads · 7 Apr 2013 at 19:46

Ideally you want to be getting the 3570k chip so you can OC it otherwise there's no point going with a Z77 mobo

Also the best budget board out is the Gigabyte Z77-D3H

There's no point of going with an ITX build unless you're short on space or travel daily with your computer. It will just make things tight therefore uncomfortable to work with so I would stick with an ATX case

honosuseri · 7 Apr 2013 at 20:03

You can give windows 8 a bash for free if you download the Enterprise evaluation edition. You can rock that for 3 months and then make an informed decision of what OS to buy.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £109.99
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OE (HD-374-WD) £50.00
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £49.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £40.00
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £964.51 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Mobo is Xfire/Sli capable hence the 750W rated PSU (850W silver rated isnt much more to be fair). It has wifi and bluetooth included with some nice other freebies thrown in. If you won't ever run dual GPUs you can save some cash here for sure. 8GB of RAM is ample and is colour coded to the mobo nicely

You want the "K" CPU which is unlocked for overclocking. I've included a decent value heatsink to help you overclock. The 7950 is great bang for buck, that can be OC'd too which will help close the gap on the 7970. You also cop some nice games aswell which is nice

Case is down to you really, I can tweak the spec for a single GPU setup......

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OE (HD-374-WD) £50.00
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £40.00
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Akasa USB 3.0 internal adapter cable (AK-CBUB09-15BK) £5.99
Total : £904.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Case has plenty of kit bundled with it for the price. Nice side window to show off the blue theme. I look forward to seeing what you settle on in the end

lessavydav · 7 Apr 2013 at 20:54

Thanks again. I'm not keen on the idea of the mini build as it will be my first and I expect the extra room would be helpful, though I do love the prodigy case.

Just a couple of questions. Is overclocking really necessary? I had looked at the 'k' cpu but wasn't going to be overclocking. Also some of your components say they are **B Grade** and seem really cheap for the specs, what does **B Grade** refer to?

snips86x · 7 Apr 2013 at 21:01

lessavydav said:
Thanks again. I'm not keen on the idea of the mini build as it will be my first and I expect the extra room would be helpful, though I do love the prodigy case.

Just a couple of questions. Is overclocking really necessary? I had looked at the 'k' cpu but wasn't going to be overclocking. Also some of your components say they are **B Grade** and seem really cheap for the specs, what does **B Grade** refer to?

Grade B are returns/unwanted items, accessories could be missing but loads of people have purchased them and are more than happy.

foster grant · 7 Apr 2013 at 21:01

I have got a few B Grade bits n bobs from OcUK ...and never had any probs with them at all.....just make sure that if you order B Grade stuff....ask why its been listed as B Grade

i only the other week got myself a ASUS 27 inch monitor ( B Grade) for £100

honosuseri · 7 Apr 2013 at 21:08

The i5K also has the improved IGP. This is used for Quicksync to help boost video encoding tasks if the software supports it. Overclocking is dead easy, you basically only need up the ratio (or multiplier as its sometimes called) in the BIOS. If you set it to 42 the CPU would run at 4.2Ghz, the cooler will keep temps in check and be quieter than the stock heatsink.

It's only the HDD that is B grade. It's refurbed, has a 3 month warranty with OCuk and whatever WD has left to honour. It's a nice size for a storage drive and is the same price as you were going to spend on 500GB and has a lot more cache. It's an eco drive but for storage this isn't a major issue, the HDD isn't exactly slow thanks to clever use of the cache.

lessavydav · 8 Apr 2013 at 17:19

honosuseri said:
Case is down to you really, I can tweak the spec for a single GPU setup......

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OE (HD-374-WD) £50.00
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £40.00
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Akasa USB 3.0 internal adapter cable (AK-CBUB09-15BK) £5.99
Total : £904.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Case has plenty of kit bundled with it for the price. Nice side window to show off the blue theme. I look forward to seeing what you settle on in the end

I think I'm going to go with this one, though I was tempted by the free F1 car

I don't think I'll bother running two GPUs so it doesn't seem worth the extra cost. Just wanted to ask before I get shopping what the Akasa USB adapter is for? I expect its obvious but I'm just not sure.
Thankyou again for your help it is really appreciated.

honosuseri · 8 Apr 2013 at 18:36

The front USB3 ports dont connect directly to the mobo header, they terminate with a USB Male A connector. The case gives you a PCI bracket to help you route them outside the case and plug them into the mobo I/O ports.

It's not an essential purchase but does tidy up the look of the case. It's not the only case guilty of this in the price range though. The Corsair 200R doesn't need the adapter as it's cables will plug directly to the mobo header. Case is always a personal preference you have to balance things out yourself.

Best of luck with the build bud