First build ever - advice appreciated!

Acuteness

Hello folks,

After 7 years with a very noisy VAIO F laptop that has eventually blown itself up, I want to have a go at making a good all-in-one desktop PC.

I'll be using it for mainly gaming (preferably at 1080p) and emulation (Dolphin, PCSX2 etc.) and a little bit of Photoshop, no heavy duty 3D rendering or video conversion.

Here's my build:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£181.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-PRO(Wi-Fi ac) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£145.50 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£54.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£128.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£76.50 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£279.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£89.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£89.96 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.50 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: AOC i2769Vm 60Hz 27.0" Monitor (£185.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1303.30

How does it look? I'm planning on overclocking the i5, which is why I got the extra CPU cooler.

I have a few questions, and would be very grateful for any advice you guys could give me

Should I go for an i7-4790k processor instead of the i5? I've heard that the benefits of the i7 aren't really pronounced over that of the i5, when it comes to gaming, anyway. Though, if I did get the i7, I probably wouldn't need the extra cooler. Which one would suit my needs better?

I was thinking of getting 16gb of RAM, but then realised that I would never get anywhere near using that much. Good decision on my part?

For the graphics card, I was torn between the 970 and 980, but for over 200 euro more I'm not sure that the 980 would be worth it...though I don't know, I'm still hesitating over it What do you guys think of these cards and their value?

I'll be ordering these from hardwareversand (recommended to me on this very forum, thanks guys ) - what is the quality of their parts like? I've had a couple of friends order from places in the UK and gotten shoddy used products instead!

As for building it myself, I did notice that HWVS have an option where they build it for you...but I'm not sure whether to trust them, or the courier. I would like to give it a go myself, but I've never done it before and am quite worried that I would short the motherboard or something similar. Can anyone comment on the build quality of HWVS, r maybe point me in the direction of a good PC building guide?

Thank you so much for all your help

SterlingArcher

should easily be getting an i7 devils canyon.on that budget and still come out 100 euro + cheaper as long as you use. Geizhals.De discount site and hardwareversand.de.

Run your parts through the sites above and see where you are at.

Acuteness

Hey, thanks a lot! I'd forgotten about that in all my excitement Managed to knock 40+ euros off the build.

Here's what the HWVS build is looking like at the moment:

Intel Core i7-4790K Box, LGA1150

335,89 €

MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G, 4GB GDDR5

364,99 €

WD Red RD1000S 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB

114,78 €

ASUS Z97-PRO(Wi-Fi ac), Sockel 1150, ATX

192,90 €

8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-14900U CL8-9-9-24

70,96 €

Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA 6Gb/s 250 GB

111,10 €

PHANTEKS Enthoo Pro Tower - schwarz

87,89 €

Super Flower Leadex 80Plus Gold Netzteil - 650 Watt

105,48 €

Samsung SU-208DB/BEBE

14,99 €

AOC i2369Vm Value

146,86 €

Total = 1545,84 €

Thanks again

May I ask, how is the quality of their parts? And the quality of their built PCs? Any horror stories?

Hank Scorpio

Bought 3 pcs off them, never had a problem. They use bank transfer for payments

Acuteness

Thanks for the recommendation I'd like to order but it seems they don't take UK or Irish credit cards...hmm...I might be SOL here

Might have to order from dabs instead, anyone have any experience with them? I'm just really excited to get stuck into the thing

challengemaster

Acuteness wrote: »

Thanks for the recommendation I'd like to order but it seems they don't take UK or Irish credit cards...hmm...I might be SOL here

Might have to order from dabs instead, anyone have any experience with them? I'm just really excited to get stuck into the thing

If you use online banking it's easy to do a SEPA transfer to HWVS, works out much better.