First Time Build

C-Dogg

C-Dogg

C-Dogg

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13 Jul 2015
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18
Hope this is the right forum for this, but I'm building a PC for the first time, and I would like some advice on whether I've picked good/compatible parts. Please feel free to offer any improvements (within my £800 budget and also sticking to the black and white colour scheme if possible). I'm also stuck between getting an SSD or a mechanical hard drive to start off with so any help deciding this would be appreciated. My plans for future upgrades would be adding more RAM, adding another drive (dependent on which one I start off with) and maybe even getting a second GPU if there is need to.

Parts list
CPU: Intel Core i5-4960K
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury White (2x4GB) DDR3-1866
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB
Case: NZXT S340 White
PSU: Corsair CX 500W

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
 
Do you have an OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc?

Your build (I think);

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC rev2.00 ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-3975-KR) £289.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £199.99
1 x MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x NZXT Source 340 Midi-Tower Case - White Window £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FWK2/8) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £41.99
Total : £800.93 (includes shipping : £12.50 Ex.VAT).




Get a 256gb SSD instead. Its good for Windows and about 5 games and music. I find with download speeds these days, loading up a slower HDD is a bit pointless (also less noise and you can hide them away easier).

No CPU cooler other than stock? You have an overclockable CPU.

This build is little over your budget with a few improvements

YOUR BASKET
1 x Zotac GeForce GTX 970 AMP! Omega Core Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (ZT-90106-10P) £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £187.99
1 x MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x NZXT H440 Midi - Tower Case - White £89.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £74.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 550W Fully Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £62.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £55.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Black £38.99
Total : £877.42 (includes shipping : £13.75 Ex.VAT).



I'm not up to speed on air coolers and tried to keep the price low so someone could easily refine this a little more.

The case is a little bigger but quite a few people on here have them for a reason. Different PSU as Corsair are not as good as they used to be.

Add another SSD when you can
 
The Phanteks PH-TC12DX is a nice cooler for the money. Mounted one last week in a build. It will partially block* the first DIMM slot so I would suggest sticking with the Kingston HyperX White memory that isn't as tall as the TeamGroup Xtreem. As that way more RAM of the same kind could be added (you'll be able to slide additional memory under the cooler if it's not too tall, and stick it in).

* While testing, I was able to fit some tall Corsair Vengeance Pro in the first slot, but the cooler prevented it from remaining completely straight (which isn't ideal). Didn't matter because the RAM (2x8GB) was going in slots 2 and 4 anyway and it's doubtful more than 16GB will ever be needed in that rig.

One more thing - don't squeeze the thermal paste onto the CPU until you've done a trial run mounting that cooler, as the metal strips which are part of the mounting kit need positioning in one of several possible ways, for the thumbscrews to line up with the cooler standoffs. Much easier to get that right first in a dry run, and then apply the paste and press the cooler on it once all is right and proper. It's worth it at the end, looks and performs good.
 
Ah okay thanks for your help guys. The reason I didn't go for a CPU fan was simply because I didn't know whether it was worth the money to be able to overclock. Would it be a noticeable amount of performance gain if I did?

Also bit of a miscellaneous question but do aftermarket coolers come with a tube of thermal paste? Don't want to get all my parts and then realise I can't start building because of a lack of paste.

Lastly, what benefits does the H440 Case provide for the 40 extra pounds?
 
Last edited:
C-Dogg said:
Ah okay thanks for your help guys. The reason I didn't go for a CPU fan was simply because I didn't know whether it was worth the money to be able to overclock. Would it be a noticeable amount of performance gain if I did?
Click to expand...

It's not necessary to O/C as it's already a capable CPU at stock. But it's nice if it can fit the budget as some games will notice it and O/C'ing can be fun.


C-Dogg said:
Also bit of a miscellaneous question but do aftermarket coolers come with a tube of thermal paste? Don't want to get all my parts and then realise I can't start building because of a lack of paste.
Click to expand...

They all come with paste. Some pre-applied on the heatsink, others with a tube. The Phanteks comes with the latter.


C-Dogg said:
Lastly, what benefits does the H440 Case provide for the 40 extra pounds?
Click to expand...

More fans. Fan hub behind motherboard tray. More water cooling options. Not sure if I'm missing anything else that's significant.
 
Hold off buying for now. Intel's Skylake series of CPUs is expected to be released in the next month. It also might be worth waiting to see how Windows 10 fares with 16 GB RAM vs 8 GB. Speaking of Windows, do you have a transferable license?

The CX 500 PSU is definitely contra-indicated. Not only could it be insufficient if you go for a second GPU, but the 750W version got slated when reviewed by HardOCP. Never skimp on the PSU. A 500W or 550W PSU will cope with two GTX 970s, but it will be tight and leave little room for overclocking.
 
Quartz said:
Hold off buying for now. Intel's Skylake series of CPUs is expected to be released in the next month. It also might be worth waiting to see how Windows 10 fares with 16 GB RAM vs 8 GB. Speaking of Windows, do you have a transferable license?

The CX 500 PSU is definitely contra-indicated. Not only could it be insufficient if you go for a second GPU, but the 750W version got slated when reviewed by HardOCP. Never skimp on the PSU. A 500W or 550W PSU will cope with two GTX 970s, but it will be tight and leave little room for overclocking.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the Skylake series will be more expensive? And no I don't think my license is transferable, but I'm not 100% sure.

Yeah I'll definitely be going for a different PSU from what you guys have said.
 
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