€1200 Gaming Build

marco_polo

Not really on the PRO vs the TK, theres a good few others here with vastly superior mech keyboard knowledge than me so hopefully someone can give you a better answer on that score

I'm all for performance and value over pretty stuff, I agree with what Red once said in the Shawshank redemption, "seriously how often do you look at a mans shoes".

solidMGSsnake

haha I couldn't help but read that in Morgan Freeman's voice.

I just found out that the backlighting on the PRO is limited to only a cluster of the keys. So unless someone wants to suggest something, I'll get tye TK.

Even after I order it, if anyone has better suggestion let me know because it's taking 1-3 months delivery, so I can always cancel it before it's dispatched.
Why does it take 1-3 months anyway?! It says it's in stock.

EoinHef

You can still make it look nice and neat and pretty:)
Since i built my pc ive bought one or two bits to colour code the pc,theres plenty of little bits and pieces you can get very cheaply to improve looks.
For instance im trying to get a much red into my build as i can so bought some cheap red sata cables and replaced a 200mm case fan with a red led one(bit cheesey i know) but i got them both for EUR15 and put them in a few weeks ago,i think of it as an ongoing project:)

solidMGSsnake

My case doesn't have a window or anything so you wouldn't be able to notice that. My mouse is like a Teal/Aqua colour and my keyboard is blue so they kind of match but besides that I don't know what I could do.

I'm also using a generic desk with my PC just on the left half of it and my monitor and keyboard on the centre right. My chair an old scruffy swivel chair. So ya it won't look impressive at all.

BTW could I use stcky tape to tie my wires together as I don't have any cable ties. Ir could they damage the cable?

Also looking at my case, it has legs and there doesn't seem to be any exposed metal, it's all painted, will I still be able to ground myself by touching the case?

solidMGSsnake

Just ordered the CM TK Blue keyboard there for £74.71 which according to my currency conversion App on my phone is €86.35.

I can always cancel it if anyone thinks of something better.

BTW you don't think it will go over €100 do you? Because my last order came to be €20 more than it should thanks to Amazon's converter but since this takes 1-3 months to deliver, it won't let you use it so I have no idea how much the conversion will be off. I only have €100 to spend. However since my last order was over €600, I'd say the conversation error scaled to €20, it might only be an extra €5 or less with something for €86

marco_polo

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Just ordered the CM TK Blue keyboard there for £74.71 which according to my currency conversion App on my phone is €86.35.

I can always cancel it if anyone thinks of something better.

BTW you don't think it will go over €100 do you? Because my last order came to be €20 more than it should thanks to Amazon's converter but since this takes 1-3 months to deliver, it won't let you use it so I have no idea how much the conversion will be off. I only have €100 to spend. However since my last order was over €600, I'd say the conversation error scaled to €20, it might only be an extra €5 or less with something for €86

This is a handly little plugin for Chrome, that converts to a fairly accurate Irish price (I think there is a firefox version as well).

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amazon-prices-for-ireland/ljbghemliajpgabhbaecbipkgngkoalf?hl=en

solidMGSsnake

I'm not looking for accurate, if it was accurate it would only be €86 but they like to charge you extra for no reason.

BTW could I use stcky tape to tie my wires together as I don't have any cable ties. Ir could they damage the cable?

Also looking at my case, it has legs and there doesn't seem to be any exposed metal, it's all painted, will I still be able to ground myself by touching the case?

Monotype

You'll usually find some of those twisty cable ties with your various cables. It should be enough to keep things reasonably neat unless you want to tie down everything. Just keep watching out for them as you get them with most electronics.
I wouldn't use sellotape as you'd just end up with sticky cables if you need to change things around.

solidMGSsnake

Ok my GPU and temporary keyboard are after being dispatched from Amazon and should be here in a few days, the rest of the stuff on Amazon is still dispatching.

As for HWVS the newest update is "The Invoice has been made" so I assume they have received my payment and are in the process of delivering but I haven't received and email to confirm they received my payment and I still don't have a package tracking number.

solidMGSsnake

Hey guys my temporary keyboard, PSU, OS, RAM and mobo arrived today, a day early!
My GPU still hasn't arrived from Amazon because it's meant to get here Monday but since my last package came early, hopefully this one will be here by Friday.

No sure when the packages from HWVS will arrive but I'd say either tomorrow or Friday.

EoinHef

God i loved the day all my stuff arrived,like christmas:)

Gumbi

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Hey guys my temporary keyboard, PSU, OS, RAM and mobo arrived today, a day early!
My GPU still hasn't arrived from Amazon because it's meant to get here Monday but since my last package came early, hopefully this one will be here by Friday.

No sure when the packages from HWVS will arrive but I'd say either tomorrow or Friday.

Where are they now? They spend a lot of time in Tamworth (huge UPS sorting facility) and then make their way from their to Dublin and across Ireland within a 1.5 day time period.

solidMGSsnake

According to the estimate for HWVS, it should arrive by the end of Friday but it's still in Tamworth like you said

As for my GPU from Amazon, its being shipped by i-parcel for some reason. Amazon tracking says it's in Carlstadt, i-parcel tracking says it's in Surrey so I don't know who to believe. But in any case I'd say it will be Monday until I get it.

According to Amazon my other stuff is still in tansit but they obviously already arrived so I'm not sure if Amazon tracking is trustworthy because they also said a day extra.

Gumbi

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

According to the estimate for HWVS, it should arrive by the end of Friday but it's still in Tamworth like you said

As for my GPU from Amazon, its being shipped by i-parcel for some reason. Amazon tracking says it's in Carlstadt, i-parcel tracking says it's in Surrey so I don't know who to believe. But in any case I'd say it will be Monday until I get it.

According to Amazon my other stuff is still in tansit but they obviously already arrived so I'm not sure if Amazon tracking is trustworthy because they also said a day extra.

Amazon has a script that reads the info the I-parcel site (I'm guessing) and it just failed to read it properly when it updates or something. Trust the iparcel one, the same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. It didnt update beyond carlstadt on Amazon.

As for HWVS, if it hasn't left Tamworth within a few hours you mightn't have it by tomorrow.

solidMGSsnake

Ok my GPU is in Hawkes Bay Couriers (Hub) which is apparently in Dublin so hopefully it will be here by tomorrow but Amazon still says it won't be here until Monday.

As for HWVS, it has left Tamworth and says it will be here by the end of today. But I'd say I won't see it until Friday morning.

I'm going to just barely miss the Steam summer sale, such a pity
I mean Fallout 3 GOTY was only like €3!

Oh well, I might buy one or two games now and download them onto my new PC after.

BloodBath

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Ok my GPU is in Hawkes Bay Couriers (Hub) which is apparently in Dublin so hopefully it will be here by tomorrow but Amazon still says it won't be here until Monday.

As for HWVS, it has left Tamworth and says it will be here by the end of today. But I'd say I won't see it until Friday morning.

I'm going to just barely miss the Steam summer sale, such a pity
I mean Fallout 3 GOTY was only like €3!

Oh well, I might buy one or two games now and download them onto my new PC after.

Just create a steam account and buy them now.

So many bargains, You could get a big collection for €50.

solidMGSsnake

Most of the stuff I wanted to buy aren't on sale anymore or are just 40% off which is a pity.

Should I buy them for the 40% of or wait until the next sale where they will be 75% off again? Of course before the next big sale they might even go on sale again, depending on my luck, I could buy them gradually, but I don't need some games to play.

BTW hey Bloodbath, I didn't think you were still checking this topic. Thanks for all your help.
I doubt we will but if we ever happen to meet each other, I'm buying you a pint.

If you like we could play online together sometime :P

BloodBath

There has been repeating sales of games in the last few days. You need to keep an eye on it. There are sales that update every 8 hours. I missed Torchlight 2 and gta4 for €5 but they came back up for that price again.

No problem. You got there in the end

Yeah you can join the boards steam group and I'm on that as MojoJojo.

solidMGSsnake

Ok I'm after getting my Graphics Card today so I don't need to wait until Monday

My HWVS packages have been in Shannon, Limerick since 7am, that's only a half hour from me, what's keeping them? Usually it says Arrival Scan, Departure Scan. But it just says Destination Scan. It's probably being sorted at the airport but I don't know why it would take so long.

BTW my Graphics Card keeps mentioning AMD, my Intel CPU will work fine with it won't it?

I have €110 for games, what do you guys recommend?

Gumbi

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Ok I'm after getting my Graphics Card today so I don't need to wait until Monday

My HWVS packages have been in Shannon, Limerick since 7am, that's only a half hour from me, what's keeping them? Usually it says Arrival Scan, Departure Scan. But it just says Destination Scan. It's probably being sorted at the airport but I don't know why it would take so long.

BTW my Graphics Card keeps mentioning AMD, my Intel CPU will work fine with it won't it?

I have €110 for games, what do you guys recommend?

AMD makes graphics chips as well as CPUs. Intel + AMD card is fine.

BloodBath

Where did you get your g-card? Did you get a games bundle?

Good steam sale games to start your collection. These are all at least 75% off at the moment.

Torchlight 2.
XCOM Enemy Unknown.
Deus Ex - Human Revolution.
Company of Heroes Complete pack

These have gone back up but keep an eye on the sales for further reductions on:

Left4Dead 2.
CS-GO.
Portal 2.
Chivalry.

There's loads of other good games there as well. Still a few days left on the sale so keep an eye on it and check for the updated sales. Some update every 8 hours. Daily deals are changing in 3 hours so if you want torchlight 2 and xcom or any of the others there get them now.

solidMGSsnake

I got it on Amazon, so no games

Monotype

Actually, if you're starting from scratch, best to get the Valve complete pack. All Valve games for €30.60.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/29197/

L4D2 and Portal + Portal 2 are excellent. The half-lifes are worth a play through as well - Though if you want a really great experience, Black Mesa (this is a free mod) re-creates the first half of the first half-life game and does a damn good job too. There's co-op mods for the old half-lifes as well as the half-life 2 series.

solidMGSsnake

Ya I saw that too, I probably will, although I already own Portal 2.

The rest of my parts came! Ok I'm going to start building it in about 20 minutes.

solidMGSsnake

Hey guys has anyone got experience with the Cooltek Antiphon case? I'm trying to remove the Optical Drives' cover/bezel/grill thing but I can't! There are these 2 prong things but I don't know if I'm supposed to push them together or apart and I don't know if I'm to push in or pull out. This is really annoying as I can't progress until I have it removed, I've read the manual and I've googled it with no solution. The only thing I heard was you have to apply more pressure than usual to remove it.

Please reply as soon as ye can because I'm really stuck, I don't want to push it too hard in case I break it.

solidMGSsnake

Guys I'm having a serious problem securing the CPU with the arm latch thing, it just refuses to lock in place, I even took back out the CPU and I still can't look it in place, what's going on?! Please reply

I sorted the problem with the case BTW

Gumbi

solidMGSsnake wrote: »

Guys I'm having a serious problem securing the CPU with the arm latch thing, it just refuses to lock in place, I even took back out the CPU and I still can't look it in place, what's going on?! Please reply

I sorted the problem with the case BTW

If it's realllly tight, loosen the screw that the arm latch is supposed to slide under. But really, it's supposed to be tight, and you are probably just being too careful.

Monotype

You probably have it sorted, but just be careful with it. Sometimes it can sort of close wrong and it seems like it's impossible to closes. Just shake it around a bit and give it another go. It should only require a little pressure. Have a look at a few videos online to get the idea of the pressure and to see that it's closing right.

solidMGSsnake

Ya I sorted that already, thanks.

But I have another problem, I'm after attaching my heatsink to my mobo and after I looked at it, I realized I had placed it facing horizontally, not vertically like I've seen on guides, does that matter?

Now I don't mean it's on it's side, It's the right way up but it's fan is facing the long part of the mobo length ways, instead of facing a side of the mobo, if that makes sense, sorry if I'm not being clear.

Once it's in the case, the fan will be looking at the bottom or top of the case, depending which side of the heatsink I place it, but one the guides I saw it should be facing the back for front of the case, so do I need to change it or is that ok?

Again sorry if I wasn't clear, I don't have a camera for details.

Monotype

Sounds like it should be okay. You're going to have it blowing towards the top or back of the case - i.e., heat rises. You generally want intake at the front and bottom, then have out-take at the top and high on the back.
You want it sucking cool air through the heatsink and blowing the air towards the top in your case.

So long as it doesn't interfere with your RAM or other motherboard heatsinks, you'll be fine.