Need advice to build a new pc please..

Coloratura · 25 Jan 2015 at 17:27

Hello,
I'm planning to get a new pc finally this year. My husband said he'd build it but he's totally useless at helping me pick the parts and I really have no clue about these stuff. :confused:

Asked a friend and he gave me a list of parts that he thought would be good, would you be able to have a look and let me know what you think?
I play WoW, Diablo, GW2, dragon age etc. Would like to be able to play these games with high settings (for once!) with the new pc.
Also I'm a musician and will be using a few composition/sound recording programmes that will need a good sound card (I was told!) so yeah..

This is the list I was given:

CPU:Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU cooler:Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard:Asus Maximus VI Gene Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory:Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage:Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video card:Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB DirectCU II Video Card
Case:Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power supply:SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical drive:Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

I'd really appreciate if you could have a look and tell me if these would be good enough and/or if anything could be added to this list/replaced with a better one without causing compatibility issues.
Also there's the sound card issue...
Thank you guys!

stulid · 25 Jan 2015 at 17:30

Hi and welcome.

Is it just the tower you require? no OS, monitor etc?

What is the maximum budget?

Coloratura · 25 Jan 2015 at 17:52

Hi, thank you. Yes I'll need those as well. Budget is about £1100ish without VAT.

stulid · 25 Jan 2015 at 17:57

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £269.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-225-MS) £139.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £129.95
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £66.98
1 x Antec P100 Mid Tower Silenced Computing Case £62.99
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £53.99
1 x BeQuiet! Pure Rock Cpu Cooler - 120mm £28.99
1 x LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA10B £13.99
Total : £1,116.32 (includes shipping : £13.75).

• Silenced case (just like the Fractal R4) it has sound dampening etc.
• Bigger SSD as 128Gb wont last long these days.
• PSU is made by Seasonic and has a 5yr warranty.
• 24" screen with a quick pixel response time.

Now the Z97 Sniper uses a Creative Core3D sound chip, Nichicon capacitors and has upgrade-able OP-AMP option so its well above the usual level of onboard sound found on most motherboards and hopefully means you do not need a sound card.

The GFX card is Bgrade and stronger than a GTX760 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1038

---------------------------------------------

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £293.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £269.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £129.95
1 x AOC E2460SH 24" Widescreen 1ms Gaming LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED316G2400HC11CDC01) £107.99
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £66.98
1 x Antec P100 Mid Tower Silenced Computing Case £62.99
1 x Antec TruePower Classic 550w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £55.99
1 x BeQuiet! Pure Rock Cpu Cooler - 120mm £28.99
1 x LG 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM GH24NSC0.AUAA10B £13.99
Total : £1,324.32 (includes shipping : £13.75).

£1089.85 without the VAT.

Changed to 16GB.

The MSI GTX970 card runs passive when doing very little so another potential noisy item reduced. it is also faster yet again at gaming.

Doomedspeed · 25 Jan 2015 at 18:14

Stulid is spot on.

A good improvement on the opening spec (no offence).

When you mentioned gaming on high settings I think you were selling yourself (what you could get for that budget) a little short.. With the 970 rig above you'd easily Max out every game on ultra settings ' if they have one'.

As for the sound, the sniper is a great choice, if you do go that way and still find you need more clarity (for example) you can easily add a sound card, no money wasted.

Coloratura · 25 Jan 2015 at 19:07

Perfect, thank you so much!

stulid · 25 Jan 2015 at 19:23

Coloratura said:
Perfect, thank you so much!

Aim to please.

This gfx card is also decent,

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
Total : £289.99 (includes shipping : ).

It doesn't run passive at idle but it is quiet and the silenced P100 case will help mask any sound.

The motherboard supports SLI+Crossfire (run two GFX cards) the PSU is fine for a single GFX card such as the GTX970, should you wish to run 2 cards at a later date (should not ever need to at 1080p resolution) then you will need a 750W PSU,

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £94.99
Total : £104.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).

This PSU is made by Superflower and has a large 10yr warranty.

Also note the 4790K runs at a higher frequency than the 4770K at stock.

Also if you are you/husband unsure about building a PC there are a ton of videos on Youtube showing how to do this.

Coloratura · 25 Jan 2015 at 19:44

Thank you so much for your help, ordering the ones you've recommended. Which gfx card is better you think among the 2 you've linked? My husband built his own pc a while ago just by watching youtube vids and he did a good job so hopefully he'll pull it off again

Thanks again, really appreciated.

stulid · 25 Jan 2015 at 19:45

Hmm, I think its tough as the MSI GTX970 does run passive which you may like when doing music stuff.

The KFA2 does have "coil whine modifications" to reduce that, but not all GTX970s suffer from this.

Flip a coin on it.

Coloratura · 25 Jan 2015 at 19:55

Ok, will do a bit of research on music forums too but probably will go for the MSI. Thanks again, you're a star