New setup from scratch

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15 Oct 2014
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9
Hi guys,

I don’t really know what I’m doing but my cousin is going to help me build a new rig from scratch.
I want a something for standard home PC use with some gaming/music/video and I have a budget of around £700-£800. I’m looking for:
· 24” monitor
· Sound card and speakers for watching movies
· Standard keyboard and mouse
. USB wifi receiver·
. 2TB HD will be plenty
· Standard bluray/DVD/CD player
. Decent processor/video card
· A relatively low end but decent case that doesn’t look like a 90s Dell or sound like a hoover and maybe has a window?
. Windows 7 OS (i hate windows 8)
· A beefier heat sink for the processor sounds like money well spent?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks

MSwallow
 
Hi and welcome.

That's a tough sort of budget to get all that stuff in without making it to compromised.

But here goes,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £219.97
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (77XPH6DV6KVX) £169.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Microlab M113 2.1 24W Speakers £19.99
1 x TP-Link N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (TL-WDN3200) £18.98
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £816.48 (includes shipping : £14.75).




You said you didn't like Win8, but Win8.1 with the latest service pack gives you the standard desktop interface and not the "windows tile" interface immediately upon bootup.


The case has two fans as standard and even has rubber cable management grommets for half decent cable tidying.

Fast GFX card.

If you live in the mainland UK you can get free delivery - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630210&highlight=superflower
 
Pretty sure I've covered all your requirements. I've gone for an APU because of budget but added a R7 260, I'm pretty sure you can crossfire this with the APU. I'll be honest, I don't know much about this type of set up and if you gain much from this Xfire set up but someone will correct me if it's rubbish! My initial thoughts were though that you're not a big gamer so I wasn't sure how fussed you were on that front?

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7850K 12 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 8 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £139.99
1 x AOC E2470SWDA 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £104.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 260X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £77.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £57.98
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Aerocool Qs-202 Midi Tower Case - Black £44.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £39.95
1 x Edifier M1380 Multimedia 2.1 Speakers £39.95
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £35.99
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp £24.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851ND) £14.99
1 x Gigabyte KM5300 Compact Keyboard Set £8.45
Total : £825.08 (includes shipping : £19.10).



BTW, take off the shipping so total will be £805.98
 
Pretty sure I've covered all your requirements. I've gone for an APU because of budget but added a R7 260, I'm pretty sure you can crossfire this with the APU. I'll be honest, I don't know much about this type of set up and if you gain much from this Xfire set up but someone will correct me if it's rubbish!

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7850K 12 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 8 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £139.99
1 x AOC E2470SWDA 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £104.99
1 x MSI Radeon R7 260X OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £77.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £57.98
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Aerocool Qs-202 Midi Tower Case - Black £44.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £39.95
1 x Edifier M1380 Multimedia 2.1 Speakers £39.95
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £35.99
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp £24.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851ND) £14.99
1 x Gigabyte KM5300 Compact Keyboard Set £8.45
Total : £825.08 (includes shipping : £19.10).



BTW, take off the shipping so total will be £805.98


Thats so wrong I dont even know where to start.

• Its going to get humiliated in games+video encoding by the i5+GTX770 above.

• Some RAM might help?

• The board only has a single PCI slot, so where do the WiFi card+sound card fit at the same time?

• The blu-ray is a lite-on unit, I had one, struggled to play certain disks (prometheus most notably) until I swapped for a Samsung unit.
 
I started a spec but matched Stulids, piece for piece... Tough budget for such big requirements. I'd probably knock the Wireless USB down a touch as the lesser models work just as well, I have them at home, save's £10 but that's not necessary.

Also at this stage Win 8.1 > Win 7.
 
Hi and welcome.

That's a tough sort of budget to get all that stuff in without making it to compromised.

But here goes,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £219.97
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (77XPH6DV6KVX) £169.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £113.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Microlab M113 2.1 24W Speakers £19.99
1 x TP-Link N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (TL-WDN3200) £18.98
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £816.48 (includes shipping : £14.75).




You said you didn't like Win8, but Win8.1 with the latest service pack gives you the standard desktop interface and not the "windows tile" interface immediately upon bootup.


The case has two fans as standard and even has rubber cable management grommets for half decent cable tidying.

Fast GFX card.

If you live in the mainland UK you can get free delivery - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630210&highlight=superflower

Might be an idea to add one of these:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Raijintek Aidos Direct Contact CPU Cooler £14.99
Total : £20.96 (includes shipping : £4.98).



As they are much quieter than the stock CPU cooler
 
Ok, like I said I wasn't sure about the APU GPU combo and I never compared it to the i5 and GTX 770!

Sorry, not sure how I missed the RAM!

Added the wrong wireless card! should have been this one:
YOUR BASKET
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter (TL-WN881ND) £16.99
Total : £20.90 (includes shipping : £3.26).



I had no experience of those units....but at least it's a blu ray!

As for your build, you haven't exactly come up with the spec the op was after!

No blu ray, no windowed case, 1tb of storage - he asked for 2tb.

Don't mean to argue with you or bicker, but you came on a little strong with the criticism!

OP - What exactly are you looking for? Is it more for gaming?
 
Don't mean to argue with you or bicker, but you came on a little strong with the criticism!

OP - What exactly are you looking for? Is it more for gaming?

I'm sorry for pointing out your mistakes.

But what if the OP was to just buy that (without anyone checking or noticing) assuming he thought you knew what you were doing, he would be a bit upset don't you think when it didn't work because it did not fit together and was missing parts.

As for your build, you haven't exactly come up with the spec the op was after!

My spec is far more balanced than what you did.
 
That is 100% fair enough but I'm sure there was a slightly nicer way of going about your business! Anyway, water under the bridge, sorry about the mistakes, have corrected one and the other I'm not sure how I missed.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.

It would be used for some gaming (mainly through steam etc), although not a massive amount as I use consoles too.
I could add an extra £100 to the buget to help improve things, and I am keen on the windowed case and 2 TB storage.
I could be convinced by windows 8.1, but not sure on the differences to 8 and benifits of it over running windows 7?

Would it be worth cutting back slightly on the grahics card and boosting other areas?

thanks again.
 
From what you just said yes! No point spending the money on a decent GPU if you're not going to use it to it's full potential. The SSD in my build would be great for your use, you could take the R9 260 out and stick some RAM in the build......you'll need that!

The APU should be good enough for playing Steamplay games.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.

It would be used for some gaming (mainly through steam etc), although not a massive amount as I use consoles too.
I could add an extra £100 to the buget to help improve things, and I am keen on the windowed case and 2 TB storage.
I could be convinced by windows 8.1, but not sure on the differences to 8 and benifits of it over running windows 7?

Would it be worth cutting back slightly on the grahics card and boosting other areas?

thanks again.


Ok, that will help,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £219.97
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £113.99
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 £61.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £47.99
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Microlab M113 2.1 24W Speakers £19.99
1 x TP-Link N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (TL-WDN3200) £18.98
Total : £815.33 (includes shipping : £13.75).




So that just leaves you needing to pick a case with a window you like the looks of, go find some and then I can make sure it all fits inside.

The GFX card above comes with a gold ticket to allow you to get 3 free games.

The Blu-ray drive is a retail model (you need the playback software as only PowerDVD and about one other play blu-rays).

Win8.1 is a fast OS, it boots quicker, it responds faster, I think there was a rumor that Microsoft were going to allow a free upgrade to Win10.
 
Thanks stulid,

To be honest i do like the case that Rhyswh put in his message, so something similar to that (if abit cheaper then all the better) would be great. as long as it is ATX and everything will fit? also I wanted to check how many USB ports it would have as I would ideally need 3+
Would you suggest adding anymore cooling or will the inbuilt case fans be enough?


Thanks for the information on windows 8.1, if they are offering a free upgrade and the current one comes with the old start menu layout then im fine to go with that.

Regards

MSwallow
 
well im keen on the window/mesh so if i went for the one you linked too what are your thoughts on cooling?
Will this be enough?
 
Last edited:
It comes with front and rear fans installed, thats plenty.

Wait!! youve edited your post, which case?
 
It comes with front and rear fans installed, thats plenty.

Wait!! youve edited your post, which case?

Ha sorry, i posted the wrong link. although i dont think it looks as good I ment the one you showed as its cheaper, comes with an inbuilt led light (which the other doesnt) and seems to have 3.0 USB ports in a better position which the other doesnt...
 
Ok great, so my basket at the moment looks as follows:

1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £219.97
1 x Sapphire 280 Graphics Card £149.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £113.99
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 £61.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-S09XLT 16x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £57.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £47.99
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
1 x Microlab M113 2.1 24W Speakers £19.99
1 x TP-Link N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (TL-WDN3200) £18.98
1 x Silverstone SST-RL01B-W Mid Tower USB 3.0 Redline - Black £36.95

One additional question though...does the case only have 2 USB ports? If so they both will be taken up with the wireless connector and also the keyboard/mouse? So i will be one short already before I have even started? Is there a similar case with 4 or more or would i be better off with a extension?
 
Use USB2.0 for keyboard+mouse (makes no difference).

The motherboard only has two USB3.0 on the rear, if the case only has an internal USB3.0 connector (physically different to internal USB2.0) then you cant get them to work.
 
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