Help with Spec for first time build

Bison

Bison

Bison

Associate
Joined
24 Feb 2014
Posts
2
Hi, and sorry for the long first post.

I'll need a new PC in the next few weeks, my current system is a nearly 10 year old dell 8400 running Windows XP and it’s starting to groan under the strain.
And after doing some research, and looking at buying a pre-built, I’ve decided to have a go and try building one myself.
I’m not a complete novice, but the last time I built a pc I was in college using MS-Dos and Windows 3.1 !

I'd be very grateful if you could have a look and give some advice on the parts I’m not sure about, and check I haven’t made any stupid mistakes, or missed anything.

What I’m looking for is a quiet fast all around home pc, A well balanced, stable system, that’s reliable with quality components.

It won't be used for gaming and doesn't need to be overclocked, but it needs to be able to comfortably handle anything I can throw at it,
and won't need upgrading in the foreseeable future.

I'm a constant multitasker, I’m always running loads of things at once, I do some music and photo editing, playing HD video etc, and use the internet a lot.

I’ve got a budget of around £1300 and I don’t need peripherals but will need an OS, and it’ll need to be micro-atx for space reasons

Case - Aero Cool Dead Silence Black Micro ATX case £72.95
Processor - Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz £167.99 I know I won’t need the K but there is such a small price difference I’m not sure if its worth getting the 4670K anyway?
Motherboard - Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 £143.99 I did also consider the Asus Gryphon Z87 but thought I was better with a Gigabyte because of the UK RMA.
Memory - Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel £139.99
Graphics Card - I'm really not sure, but it'll need to be quiet and cool, so i thought something like Asus Radeon R9 270X DirectCUII TOP 2048MB £167.99 ?
PSU - Seasonic 660w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £113.99
CPU Cooler Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure £29.99
Case Fans - I'm not sure if i'll need to upgrade to quieter fans or add any ?
SSD - Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO £149.99 I did consider the samsung pro but i'm not sure if it'll be worth it ?
Storage Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache £99.95
Optical Drive - LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW £79.99
Operating System - Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM £74.99
Total £1,206.79 (Includes Shipping of £12.50)
 
For video editing you'll want an nVidia card (CUDA performance)
The Pro SSD isn't worth it imo no, so good choice there :)
OTT on the PSU, you can get a decent 600W for ~£60, there's another £55 there. Here's what I'd go for :) ;

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £233.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £119.99
1 x Asus Z87 GRYPHON Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £116.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x Corsair CS550M 550W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020076-UK) £61.99
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSWS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - White £21.98
1 x Akasa X4 AK-968 CPU Cooler - 92mm £19.99
Total : £1,215.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Pro's

REALLY nice case! :D
16gb RAM
4770k i7
Nice graphics card
External Optical Drive so it doesn't ruin the look of the front of the case


Con's

Case is expensive
 
Last edited:
Made some small adjustments:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4771 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £99.95
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming Black Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £59.99
2 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99 (£111.98)
Total : £1,089.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



CPU - Changed to a 4771, has hyperthreading and would help with editing. If you are not overclocking, no need for the K model.
Motherboard - nice board but don't need to spend that much, the MSI is still packed full of features. Don't worry about RMA, this would be handled by OcUK.
Memory - 16gb of Faster RAM giving a more efficient and effective system, also useful for editing - same price as 1600mhz.
G/Card - Don't really need one as the CPU has on-board GPU. However, if you wanted to add one, something just to connect a monitor too would be fine - THIS.
CPU Cooler - make use of the space for airflow, added a CLC within budget
SSD is a great choice, just as quick as the pro

That's about it :)
 
Last edited:
Im going to be honest, i think you've MASSIVELY over-specced yourself.

@Shivy, where did he mention video editing?

For those uses a lot cheaper rig will be perfect. Shivy did make some good points though. CUDA acceleration helps with photoshop and other editing package, 16gb will be useful also.

Personally i'd be looking at something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £109.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750Ti OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N750Ti-2GD5/OC) £107.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy M MATX Cube Case - Midnight Black £65.52
1 x Gigabyte B85M-D3H Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £17.99
Total : £873.41 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Good all round CPU (my friend has the ivy version of that CPU and uses it for advanced fluid simulation and he loves it).

Solid motherboard, as you won't be overclocking or going SLI.

GPU supports CUDA and has a decent amount of CUDA processing cores. Its also low power (no 6 pin needed). It can even be a great gaming card if you need it to be.

Small decent PSU, you wont even use 200W, trust me.

If you NEED a blu-ray drive, add one. If you don't have any blu or you have another way to watch them, its a waste of money.

and you have £300 spare. :)
 
Ah mistook photo editing for video editing, sorry!

Tbh if you have the money I'd stick with the original budget, you get what you pay for and it'll last that bit longer/look that much better (ofc future-proofing is pretty hard)
 
snips86x said:
TBH, if he has budgeted at £1300, may as well make the most of it. Since he is not overclocking or upgrading in the future, wouldn't an i7 make more sense?
Click to expand...

It may

But i'm under the impression in a few (3-5 years) when hyper-threaded CPU become compulsory for all editing (photo) task the Haswell i7 will be so out of date it would need replacing anyway.

My misses do a lot of photoediting and her laptop (an i3, on board graphics) is more than enough.

Though she now uses her dad's Mac.. fool :p.

Future proofing is impossible.
 
lol - well that is what they are made for, despite the requirement to pay in gold bullion :)

While I do agree with you, we're both running 2nd gen chips with no issues. My mates 1st gen is still a bullet when compared to the new i7's. There is a lot of life in them yet :)
 
snips86x said:
While I do agree with you, we're both running 2nd gen chips with no issues. My mates 1st gen is still a bullet when compared to the new i7's. There is a lot of life in them yet :)
Click to expand...

Very true, and you sort of prove (prove is too strong-a-word - i just can't think of a better one) my point.

If technology doesn't move on leaps and bound the i5 will still be a viable chip and perform impressively.

If technology does move on leaps and bounds, the i5 and i7 will both be useless and obsolete..

I love my little 2500k. :D
 
Cannot fault mine either. Seems even more stable now I've got this ROG board. I've also been considering getting a 3770k, but reading reviews and overclocking guides/notes, it's not as good as the 2700k. Honestly, I would get a 2700k before moving to the new gen stuff.

If 14/8nm prove it's worth, its a consideration. Untill then, my trust Sandy is here to stay :)
 
Thanks very much for all your repies and suggestions.
I really didn't know what level to spec for my needs, so it's a big help and much appreciated.

And you never know i might just take up video editing ;)

I'll do some homework tomorrow and take on board your advice, do an updated spec and see how that goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom