Building a new PC, advise?

grimm2005

1. What is your budget? €800

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (latest games like BF3 etc.), internet, media centre

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 19' 1440x900, I plan to upgrade to a 1080p maybe 22/24' monitor at some point but it won't be reflected in this initial budget.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Bluray/DVD drive

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser

9. When are you purchasing? Within a month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? South Dublin but I'm fairly sure I know what I'm doing and can seek help from friends

So I'm looking to finally build my own computer. I've been out of the PC gaming world for a while now and am ready to jump back in. My budget is around €800 but i'd be willing to go to €850 or MAYBE €900 if theres something that makes it really worth it. I'm kind of clueless nowadays when it comes to parts and what's the best etc. but from reading on here it seems that pc gaming has gotten a lot more affordable then it used to be thankfully and a decent rig can be got for under a grand.
I don't need a monitor or many accessories atm but would like to get a nicer monitor at some point as well as a good keyboard/mouse so any recommendations on that front would be good too.
I'd like to get a bluray drive preferably but if the price is a lot higher then a DVD drive then I can settle for that if it means more of my budget goes to horsepower.

Also, on a side note, I got a free copy of Windows 7 from college a few years back (they literally just gave us an iso for both 64bit and 32bit) and at the time I used and installed the 32bit version (i dont use it at all anymore). Would I be able to use that same cd key for the 64bit version? in other words are the cd keys interchangable between verisons?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

grimm2005

Anyone have any suggestions?

grimm2005

Hey, sorry to bump this old thread again, but I'm planning to buy this machine ASAP and still don't really have a clue what to look for. If anyone could help I'd really appreciate it

Also my original spec has changed slightly in that I think I'm going to need a wireless card as well.

uncle_sam_ie

Item|Price
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€53.03
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Basic|€87.56
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€208.05
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€89.24
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€129.14
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.98
Sapphire HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express|€218.37
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€28.15
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€887.51

I wouldn't recommend Blue Ray on a PC. There a plain and you'll need to buy extra software for 50-70 euro if you want to play BR movies. Get a cheap DVD if you want. There under €20 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/S-ATA/67446/Samsung+SH-224BB+bare+schwarz.article. I don't use them. If you need to make the build cheaper go with this MB http://www2.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/59322/ASRock+Z77+Pro3%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article and this case http://www2.hardwareversand.de/Midi/50576/BitFenix+Merc+Beta.article
Or dump the SSD (But, won't recommend it.)

grimm2005

Thanks very much for the reply!

Think I'll take your advice and stick with a cheap DVD drive instead, as I already have a PS3 for that (it was more a luxury really but I guess the money can be better spent elsewhere!).

I might downgrade to the cheaper MB as I'd now like to keep the budget below €850. Would there be a considerable disadvantage in the cheaper MB? Would probably keep the tower as it's only about a €20 difference.

Definitely won't be dumping the SSD as i've heard fantastic things. Would it be worth downgrading the SATA hard drive to 1TB? I already have an external 1TB for all my media and intend to keep that in use as it's still chugging away. Having said that, if the price difference is negligible (say under €20?) I might as well keep it.

It looks like I'm also going to need a wireless card as I'm changing over to UPC internet soon and the router will probably not be located near the computer any more. Are they expensive these days? Would I be better off just getting a USB dongle for that?

Thanks again!

uncle_sam_ie

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/PCI/42568/LogiLink+Wireless+LAN+300+Mbps+PCI+Karte+802.11n+2T2R.article

But, and a long cable or home plugs would be better if your gaming. (Maybe some here has a better recommendation on the home plugs)
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/Powerline/41169/D-Link+200Mbit+SchuKo+Powerline+AV+Kit+%28DHP-P307AV+E%29.article
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004INVKP4/

You will only save €20 on a 1TB drive
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7200+RPM/53882/Seagate+Barracuda+7200+1000GB%2C+SATA+6Gb+s.article

grimm2005

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/PCI/42568/LogiLink+Wireless+LAN+300+Mbps+PCI+Karte+802.11n+2T2R.article

But, and a long cable or home plugs would be better if your gaming. (Maybe some here has a better recommendation on the home plugs)
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/Powerline/41169/D-Link+200Mbit+SchuKo+Powerline+AV+Kit+%28DHP-P307AV+E%29.article
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004INVKP4/

You will only save €20 on a 1TB drive
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/7200+RPM/53882/Seagate+Barracuda+7200+1000GB%2C+SATA+6Gb+s.article

ah €14, i can manage that alright. A long cable is definitely out of the question as the router will be far enough away to keep that from being an option. The homeplugs do look interesting though, I've seen them before, I'll look into a bit more. TBH though, I'm not a huge multiplayer gamer and the little I do is on the Xbox and will probably remain that way for the most part due to friends etc. so it won't be a huge concern in that regard.

I'll probably just bite the bullet and go with the 2TB so depending on what final costs come to.

Would the power supply be high enough to likely support future graphics cards down the line?

Cheers again for the build. Think I'll order this as soon as I get back from a short trip I'm taking next week and start getting the ball rolling!

uncle_sam_ie

Yeah, PSU is fine. Future GPU's if anything will use less power. If you plan on running 2 cards like in crossfire or SLI then you will want more power.

grimm2005

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Yeah, PSU is fine. Future GPU's if anything will use less power. If you plan on running 2 cards like in crossfire or SLI then you will want more power.

Cool, good to hear, and I'm not really bothered about SLI/Crossfire

uncle_sam_ie

Forgot the CPU cooler if you're going to OC the CPU http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=52672&agid=669&apop=0

It's easy to add this later though if it's going over your budget.

grimm2005

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Forgot the CPU cooler if you're going to OC the CPU http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=52672&agid=669&apop=0

It's easy to add this later though if it's going over your budget.

I reckon that'd probably come a bit later if it's not essential. I've never actually done any overclocking but I'd willing to give it a shot if there's not much risk or screwing everything up and doing anything irreversable. I've seen a lot of software overclocking products which seem safe enough.

grimm2005

I've just after ordering all the parts last night. Money has gone from my account as of this morning. I havn't recieved an email off HVS yet, would this be normal? I'm probably just being impatient and a little paranoid but when that much money has been taken from my account, I like a little reassurance that it's on its way

tuxy

Yeah that's perfectly normal. International bank transfers normally take between 2 - 5 days to clear. I would love if they had a credit card option but doing things this way seems to be one of the factors this site uses to keep prices so low.

Deano12345

grimm2005 wrote: »

I reckon that'd probably come a bit later if it's not essential. I've never actually done any overclocking but I'd willing to give it a shot if there's not much risk or screwing everything up and doing anything irreversable. I've seen a lot of software overclocking products which seem safe enough.

Just gonna chime in with my two cents here, yes, definitely overclock (thats what the K series is for :cool: ) but dont use software based overclocking tools, they tend to be rubbish ! The Asrock BIOS (UEFI ?) is pretty well laid out from what I remember so you wont have any problems

Enjoy your build when it arrives !

grimm2005

Deano12345 wrote: »

Just gonna chime in with my two cents here, yes, definitely overclock (thats what the K series is for :cool: ) but dont use software based overclocking tools, they tend to be rubbish ! The Asrock BIOS (UEFI ?) is pretty well laid out from what I remember so you wont have any problems

Enjoy your build when it arrives !

Cheers! Really looking forward to it now, got the email from HVS this morning to say they recieved my money so not long to wait now! It's been 8 years since I last got a desktop (from Dell) and I only upgraded it twice (once was RAM, the other was gfx card) and as you can imagine it's properly aging now (I even get the odd bit of stuttering on SD youtube videos! ). I've been dieing to make my own build for years but never had the money so figured I best do it now while I have some spare cash going before it's too late!

Would you recommend overclocking ASAP or leaving it for a while? I didn't purchase the extra CPU fan but would be willing to get one soon if it was a good idea to.

Ah, that's good to know, just so long as I don't have to tinker with the actual hardware itself, but be able to do it all from a BIOS screen or something!

tuxy

I say go for the overclock once you check to see if your cpu temperature is ok. But just something basic. If you increase the multiplyer you could try running at 4 ghz with out changing anything else. Most i5s should be able to do 4 ghz with out messing around with voltages.
Then whenever you have some time read up on overclocking and ask in here if you are unsure about anything. And see how much you can get out of that cpu, every cpu is different but if should be able to do anywhere from 4.4 to 4.8 .

grimm2005

tuxy wrote: »

I say go for the overclock once you check to see if your cpu temperature is ok. But just something basic. If you increase the multiplyer you could try running at 4 ghz with out changing anything else. Most i5s should be able to do 4 ghz with out messing around with voltages.
Then whenever you have some time read up on overclocking and ask in here if you are unsure about anything. And see how much you can get out of that cpu, every cpu is different but if should be able to do anywhere from 4.4 to 4.8 .

Cool, thanks, I'm sure I'll definitely be looking up and coming back for some overclocking tips later on anyway I don't wanna be experimenting too much if I'm not 100% on it. Is it actually possible to destroy the processor if you're not careful?
Got the email from HVS to say my stuff has been shipped to UPS so hopefully won't be too long now before it arrives

tuxy

If you set the voltage much higher than what intel says is safe you could do damage or shorten the life of the cpu. Apart from that I can't think of any way to do permanent damage.

Deano12345

grimm2005 wrote: »

Cheers! Really looking forward to it now, got the email from HVS this morning to say they recieved my money so not long to wait now! It's been 8 years since I last got a desktop (from Dell) and I only upgraded it twice (once was RAM, the other was gfx card) and as you can imagine it's properly aging now (I even get the odd bit of stuttering on SD youtube videos! ). I've been dieing to make my own build for years but never had the money so figured I best do it now while I have some spare cash going before it's too late!

Would you recommend overclocking ASAP or leaving it for a while? I didn't purchase the extra CPU fan but would be willing to get one soon if it was a good idea to.

Ah, that's good to know, just so long as I don't have to tinker with the actual hardware itself, but be able to do it all from a BIOS screen or something!

Wait till you get a cooler, although on these new Sandy/Ivy processors, OC'ing is so easy its nearly criminal not to do it (although keeping them cool is a priority) Sure you can drop me a PM if you do fancy trying it and I'll be able to get you some base settings to get started with

That feeling of building your first PC is awesome, no better feeling that hitting the power button and it jumps into life, enjoy it !

grimm2005

Deano12345 wrote: »

Wait till you get a cooler, although on these new Sandy/Ivy processors, OC'ing is so easy its nearly criminal not to do it (although keeping them cool is a priority) Sure you can drop me a PM if you do fancy trying it and I'll be able to get you some base settings to get started with

That feeling of building your first PC is awesome, no better feeling that hitting the power button and it jumps into life, enjoy it !

Cheers, I'll definitely do that! haha, yeah man, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas

Deano12345

grimm2005 wrote: »

Cheers, I'll definitely do that! haha, yeah man, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas

I built my first PC about 5 years ago now and I still get that feeling when I upgrade something, its great !

grimm2005

Just under a week in and it's working a charm! Has played everything I've thrown at it at highest settings so far so delighted about that. Thanks again guys!

Although I think it's time for me to upgrade my mouse/keyboard and buy a headset also. I'm looking to get a wireless mouse and keyboard. I know wired seems to be the way to go for gaming, but tbh I'd prefer the freedom of wireless over the precision of wired, I don't take competitive gaming seriously enough for me to care about the delay. I'm not sure if a kb/mouse combo pack would be the best route to go or not. A couple of media buttons for volume/play/pause etc would be preferable also, nothing major though.

I'd also like to get a headset for communication while gaming (wired or wireless, doesn't make a difference).

I'm not too bothered about getting anything too fancy or gaming-centric in this area and ideally would like to spend under €50 for the lot. I was in Maplins this morning and saw a wireless kb/mouse combo for about €27 and the mouse had a switchable dpi between 1000 and 1600 which I liked as I'm used to 1600 whereas a lot of mice just have 1000dpi but I figured I'd wait and ask here before making the plunge as 90% of the time everything can be gotten cheaper online.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!