First time builder

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Joined
9 May 2015
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19
Hi guys after many years away from PC gaming ive decided to go ahead an build a gaming pc, I want to build it myself because as a teenager a taught myself a lot about my PC and could diagnose fix and upgrade it by my self.

Modern day me is very different because obviously I was being bought a PC so I had something to work from but I have forgotten all I had taught myself and starting building a PC from scratch is very different.

Im not afraid to do the homework but websites ive come across so far are just your basic quick help guides, I am looking to spend around £700 on the base unit but that could be higher as I may buy the bits piece by piece to spread the cost.

IF anybody could help me it would be very much appreciated anything from hardware recommendations to links to handy websites would be great.
 
Hi and welcome.

So £700 just for the main tower? no OS etc? and gaming only?

Do you have a monitor? what resolution is it?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9290X-DC2-4GD5) £227.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Antec VSP5000 Silenced Tower Case - Black £39.95
1 x Alpenfohn Ben Nevis CPU Cooler - 120mm £19.99
Total : £712.84 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x PowerColor AMD Radeon R9 285 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Antec VSP5000 Silenced Tower Case - Black £39.95
1 x Alpenfohn Ben Nevis CPU Cooler - 120mm £19.99
Total : £729.83 (includes shipping : £12.50 Ex.VAT).




YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £199.99
1 x PowerColor AMD Radeon R9 285 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £63.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £24.95
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler - Black £14.99
Total : £702.20 (includes shipping : £17.85 Ex.VAT).




YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9290X-DC2-4GD5) £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £199.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £63.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Antec VSP5000 Silenced Tower Case - Black £39.95
Total : £726.80 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).



These specs include a "K" CPU so can be overclocked, especially with the bigger aftermarket heatsinks.

The Antec case has three included fans with speed controllers and even sound dampening material on some of the panels.

The best thing would be the SSD and the HDD, but if that is too much then the SSD is big enough for the OS and a few games on its own, then add a HDD easily later on.

If you want to spend more then a GTX970 such as the Gigabyte G1 gaming comes with two free games.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
Total : £309.59 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



The best GTX970 you can get I believe, if you want to match the colours then MSI do a decent GTX970 and EVGA do a nice one too.

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC rev2.00 ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-3975-KR) £299.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
Total : £609.58 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
I have taken what you did and run with it, hows this look @stulid ?

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle

TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01)

Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)

SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black

Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD

Antec VSP5000 Silenced Tower Case - Black
 
Think of building a PC as a puzzle, it only fits one way and you shouldn't need to force it. Linus Tech Tips on Youtube has loads of tutorials.
 
Think of building a PC as a puzzle, it only fits one way and you shouldn't need to force it. Linus Tech Tips on Youtube has loads of tutorials.

Thanks, ill be checking out that channel

Looks great.

Did you want a bigger heatsink rather than the stock intel item?

if you could recommend one that would be great. How important are they to upgrade?
 
if you could recommend one that would be great. How important are they to upgrade?

I am happy with my two suggestions above (alpenfohn and the cheaper Aido).

They are handy should you want to dabble in overcloking or even just run at stock as the bigger fan can rotate slower and produce less noise than the stock item which will compliment the cases sound dampening.

They dissipate more heat because of the large amount of surface area.
 
I thought id added that sorry, and when you asked I was thinking of something completely different. So that huge 120mm fan sits on the CPU? Id only ever seen the smaller ones
 
Yes it sits on the CPU (with thermal paste added in-between) and does a better job at cooling the CPU than the tiny stock heatsink does.

Sounds like you really do need to go and watch some PC build guides on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFb3TNePIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EuJZxc3owA

And if you are unsure, just ask.

Yeah I do, dont worry I wont even start until I feel like I know everything I need to, I like to take my time and scroll the internet and teach myself before I do anything.

Thanks a lot man youve been a great help, top guy.
 
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