First time PC build.

Cemetary Gates

Cemetary Gates

Cemetary Gates

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Joined
30 Jul 2013
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37
Hi all,

Having pretty much always used consoles in the past I have finally decided to do things properly and put together a gaming PC. Please go easy as this is a completely new world for me! I've done some basic research and it seems the options are endless. I would most likely be looking to build this myself but where to start with components is a little confusing.

It seems there is some debate as to which Intel processor to go for i5 or i7, and as they seem to have different flavours of each one I am even more confused. Also where to go for graphics cards is hard to figure out; I have seen EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte etc but for which model to go for I have no idea. Then there is RAM, PSU, storage (1 or 2 drives? SSD and standard?). Which case and motherboard etc?

By now I figure you are getting a picture of a kid in a sweet shop where everything looks good but have no idea what to go for. Any help or advice would be highly appreciated. Also if this post is in the wrong place I apologise. First time on the forum so feeling my way around a bit. Games wise I am really trying to put this together for the release of BF4 and would like to get the best possible performance out of the game. Beyond that I'll explore as many of the great games available on PC as I can, but would like to be sure of great performance regardless of what games I go for.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read all of this.
 
Don't worry, you've posted to the right place :) The first question is what's your budget? Next, do you need a monitor, OS, or keyboard/mouse?
 
Hey, thanks for such a quick response!

Ok, budget is hopefully £2K but monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS are all required. Desk and somewhere to sit I will not consider part of the budget, I'll pick them up as extra costs.

Thanks again :)
 
Here's something to start with. I'm not sure about mouse and keyboard, so I'll leave that to others.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H797QM3G2M) £319.99
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £148.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £113.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
Total : £1,575.14 (includes shipping : £24.45).



For a high end gaming PC you're looking at a 4670K CPU and 8GB RAM. The graphics card - I'd go AMD when you want it to do best in BF4. With crossfire you can have 2x7950 and be within budget. I've put in a high power PSU in case you wanted to do that - or even add another 7970.
 
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Hello again,

All this looks great; but being a little ignorant of a few things here are a couple more questions.

1 - Am I right in thinking that the 4670K Processors can be over clocked?

2 - Is the Corsair liquid cooler there in order that the Processor can be overclocked safely?

3 - Is overclocking in any way detrimental to the lifespan of components?

4 - By linking two GPUs via Crossfire do you encounter any problems or is it purely beneficial to performance?

Sorry if all these questions seem a bit basic, but this is all new territory for me :)
 
Cemetary Gates said:
Hello again,

All this looks great; but being a little ignorant of a few things here are a couple more questions.

1 - Am I right in thinking that the 4670K Processors can be over clocked?

2 - Is the Corsair liquid cooler there in order that the Processor can be overclocked safely?

3 - Is overclocking in any way detrimental to the lifespan of components?

4 - By linking two GPUs via Crossfire do you encounter any problems or is it purely beneficial to performance?

Sorry if all these questions seem a bit basic, but this is all new territory for me :)
Click to expand...

Questions are fine!

1. Yep.

2. No, but it may let you overclock a bit higher than an air cooler, and it's super cheap.

3. Tough one. You should be able to overclock without any issues at all long after this system became obsolete.

4. It adds to complications a bit, but it's getting ever more popular to do this. Two 7950s for example will let you play all games maxed out at 1080p, while you can't do this for all of them on a single GPU currently.
 
Thanks for the answers teppic. Can I ask why the GPU you have suggested would work well with BF4 as compared to other cards or GPU manufacturers? Just trying to get a bit of a handle on all this.

Also, do you need to overclock the Processor yourself or can they be purchased in that state?

Cheers :)
 
BF4 is being developed in partnership with AMD, and will be optimised for their hardware. Nvidia cards will still run it fine of course, but the game will ship with AMD drivers optimised for it already, and will give better performance, at least initially.

The CPU speed is set by the BIOS. For a smaller overclock you can often just let the board do it automatically, though most people like to tweak it themselves to get a higher one.
 
Hi teppic, I have to thank you for your patience and knowledge! You have definitely put me on the right track, and the set-up you provided above looks great. I will probably think of even more questions at some point, but for now this is more than enough for me to work off!

Many thanks :)
 
That's fine :) I'm surprised nobody's given any alternatives yet, even if it's just a bit of colour coordination!

That spec I listed above is what I'd spend on a high end machine, though with £2k, I'd stick in two 7950s. Another option is a good air cooler, if you're not convinced by water cooling.
 
Hi again,

after having looked through things a little more after the helpful advice from teppic, I have come up with the following.....

Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail

2 x HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H797QM3G2M)

Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K)

Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW)

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD

Corsair Professional Series HX+ 850W '80+ Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020032-UK)

Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black

Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red

Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail

Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403)

Mouse, keyboard etc I'll worry about at a later date along with desk and chair although any suggestions/recommendations are welcome. I also have a few more questions if anyone would be kind enough to to take a look.

1- Will I need to buy any thermal paste in oder to hook up the CPU cooling? If so, is this a relatively straightforward procedure? Any do's and don't's?

2- Does anyone think extra fans may be needed inside the case, beyond what is already supplied?

3- Will the PSU come with a good number of leads? Also, I may be wrong but the GPU from HIS may require an unusual power connection?

4- Will the PSU be sufficient with two GPU's in Crossfire?

5- I have zero intention of ever watching a Blu-ray on this system. However, is there any need for a Blu-ray drive or will a standard DVD RW be ok?

6- Will everything fit inside this case? I reckon it will but would like to be sure :)

7- Will I require any extra bits and pieces for the build?

Once again many thanks to anyone taking the time to wade through this. And sorry there are no links, new laptop and for some reason I can't seem to figure it out!
 
Hello again. That's a very high end build there!

Some replies:

1 - not really, coolers come with it pre-applied or with a small tube of it. If you apply it yourself you just put a pea sized blob on the middle of the CPU.

2 - I think that case has two 140mm intake fans and a single 140mm exhaust fan. That's quite a lot of airflow. You can buy replacement fans if you want different sizes, quieter ones, different colours, etc. The H100i has two 120mm fans too.

3 - Decent higher watt PSUs always come with plenty of cables.

4 - 850w is plenty for 2x7970s.

5 - You won't need a bluray drive if you'll never use bluray disks :)

6 - you can fit a large pony in that case.

7 - nothing major that I can see.

I'd get the modular XFX PSU over the Corsair myself, it's a high quality Seasonic PSU. With the AIO cooler you'll get a nice looking build and very low temps but some people are bothered by the sound of the pump, bear that in mind.

Two 7970s will give brilliant performance, but you could get 2x7950s if you want to bring the cost down a bit.

Some people like a soundcard for high end builds - the board has onboard sound so many people don't bother.
 
Thanks for putting my mind at rest on a few things, especially the size of the case :)

More than happy to follow recommendations re. the PSU so will go with that. Regarding the sound card issue I have to admit to not giving it too much thought. I will most likely be using headphones rather than any external speakers (will probably pick some up but nothing fancy) but I am not too sure of the motherboards Audio capabilities. I tend to prefer stereo over some suspicious 5.1 down-mix but not sure how well 5.1 down-mix is implemented on sound cards and what the results tend to depend on.

But a big thanks and especially to teppic, I will hope to order all this over the next week and then come back when I start to panic while trying to build this thing!
 
Be sure to post a build log. I want that PC myself now :)

As for sound cards, they're rarely recommended on here but they offer a significant improvement. But if you're not too bothered about audio then stick with the onboard sound. I've got a Creative Sound Blaster Z and was quite surprised at how better it was.


Potty27 said:
Strongly disagree, middle sized pony maximum - just check the spec's! :D
Click to expand...

If you use a modular PSU they fit fine ;)
 
Hi all,

Sorry about the delay; various things ended up out of stock so have had to wait a little longer than expected. All should be here today though so finally looking forward to getting started.

Not sure what a build log is to be honest. Figured it may just be like a photo diary of each step along the way but let me know and I would be more than happy to put one together. Many thanks (especially to teppic) for all the help so far.
 
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