Buy ready-built or try DIY?

ptyloch

Hi All,

I have been toying with the idea of getting a desktop to replace my 5 year and don't know which route to take.
My usage would be some video editing (light work, max 10 min vids with not many effects), recording gameplay off Xbox through a Hauppauge box, some office work.

I was thinking of a following setup:

I5 4th gen
8GB Ram
Dedicated graphics card with min of 2GB
Want the option of 2 monitors

I've found a Dell Inspiron 3000 @629 euro without a monitor on their website, next was an I7/16GB RAM @850.
I've also come across PCZONE.IE on adverts offering I5 Skylake, 8GB RAM and GTX 960 4GB for 1070 euro.

Is the upgrade to 6th gen I5 worth the extra money? Should I go the middle road of 4th gen I7 and more RAM?

How complicated is a self build these days? I have built a PC in the past but that was a Pentium 75 about 20 years ago, has it gotten more complicated since then?

Thanks for any help!

.G.

Build it yourself always. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck than buying an overpriced ready built system off somebody else. It's very easy to do and there's loads of people here willing to help if you get stuck. Also YouTube is your friend, hundreds of build videos on there.

Use the template on this forum if you want help with speccing a build based on what budget you have.

ptyloch

Well here we go:


1. What is your budget? [€1000 max]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Video editing/Video Capture/Internet]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes 8.1 ]

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

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes but have sights one 1, will need 2 eventually]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [22' and up]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Wireless Card/Card Reader/what else could I need?]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [No]

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

9. When are you purchasing? [when my loan gets approved ;-)]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Limerick]

I don't care about the look of the case, don't think I want water cooling as I know nothing about pros and cons of it.

Thanks!

Digital Solitude

i7 6700k €375
Z710 €120
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
Case €50
16gb DDR4 €120
300w PSU €30
Total €850

Windows is €20

ptyloch

Digital Solitude wrote: »

i7 6700k €375
Z710 €120
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
Case €50
16gb DDR4 €120
300w PSU €30
Total €850

Windows is €20

Excuse the ignorance but could you give me more detail of the Z710 motherboard? Googling it gave various results and I'm not sure which one it is.
Will this setup not require an additional graphics card? Are the onboard graphics powerful enough?

Digital Solitude

Z710 is the chipset you need, any Z710 will do you

And onboard graphics should be fine too yes

SterlingArcher

That budget will easily get you a video editing / gaming rig. No more need for xbox.

Steam all the way much cheaper games and new ones too.

ptyloch

SterlingArcher wrote: »

That budget will easily get you a video editing / gaming rig. No more need for xbox.

Steam all the way much cheaper games and new ones too.

It's not me playing, it's my sons, that's why the editing and recording requirement :-) Got to go with the times ;-)

SterlingArcher

This is an alternative build.

Estimated.

I7 4690 250 euro.

Mobo msi h97 80 ish

16 gigs crucial ram 80 ish

Psu be quiet 7 500 60

Case say 50

Ssd 250 gb 90

Hdd 1tb 50

660 ish. Can leave it at this. Save some money.

Or add a
Gpu 200 and monitor 140 ish. Around 1000

If you get a gtx card it has shadowplay for recording games.

SterlingArcher

Honestly if I was you, either build. Get the parts yourself and build it with them. Watch the YouTube videos. is a good learning experience.

It seems complicated at first glance . But when you get down to it, is not that big a deal. And can ask away on here plenty of people to help out.

But if you do feel its not your bag. post on your tread here,any spec pc you're considering buying. alot of sellers dell included can be misleading. adverts too.

Calibos

Digital Solitude wrote: »

i7 6700k €375
Z710 €120
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
Case €50
16gb DDR4 €120
300w PSU €30
Total €850

Windows is €20

I thought the €20 Windows Reddit route was off the table of late what with loads of peoples keys being invalidated?

ptyloch

Digital Solitude wrote: »

i7 6700k €375
Z710 €120
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
Case €50
16gb DDR4 €120
300w PSU €30
Total €850

Windows is €20

Ok, from mindfactory.de:

I7 6700k 369.06
AsRock Z170 Extreme4 137.06
16GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2133 DIMM 95.90
350 Watt Corsair VS series VS350 32.85
Total: 634,87




I already ordered a 120GB Sandisk SSD, from the dabs.com bargain alert.
I think I will leave the HDD off for the moment, I have 4 portable external drives ranging from 500GB to 2TB so happy to use them as storage for the moment.
Any recommendations or is this ok?
Do I need a heatsink or a CPU cooler?

Thanks Guys!

Xenoronin

ptyloch wrote: »

It's not me playing, it's my sons, that's why the editing and recording requirement :-) Got to go with the times ;-)

I think the guys have gone a little mad with hitting your 1k budget here. The temptation is to get the best for the budget but since you aren't using this yourself and it is your sons using it, you can downgrade a lot of this stuff while not displeasing the youths at all!

No need for an i7 6700k. Completely overkill.

i5 4460
8gb DDR3 1600mhz ram
H97 motherboard ATX or mATX
500W PSU (bit high, but leaves the graphics card option open)


It's a bunch of 10min lets plays guys! No need for a crazy editing rig!
No need for a cooler. Not overclocking.
Much cheaper if you plug all this into mindfactory or similar.

ptyloch

Xenoronin wrote: »

I think the guys have gone a little mad with hitting your 1k budget here. The temptation is to get the best for the budget but since you aren't using this yourself and it is your sons using it, you can downgrade a lot of this stuff while not displeasing the youths at all!

No need for an i7 6700k. Completely overkill.

i5 4460
8gb DDR3 1600mhz ram
H97 motherboard ATX or mATX
500W PSU (bit high, but leaves the graphics card option open)


It's a bunch of 10min lets plays guys! No need for a crazy editing rig!
No need for a cooler. Not overclocking.
Much cheaper if you plug all this into mindfactory or similar.

Thanks Xerononin!

Just to clarify I will be using it for editing but only home videos, nothing crazy :-)
I'm torn now, don't know if I should go with the Skylake architecure or stay with Haswell and upgrade in 2 years time when the next change is supposed to take place?
AARRRGGGHHH!!! Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Digital Solitude

Yeah maybe stick with Haswell Cheaper for minimal difference

ptyloch

Xenoronin wrote: »

I think the guys have gone a little mad with hitting your 1k budget here. The temptation is to get the best for the budget but since you aren't using this yourself and it is your sons using it, you can downgrade a lot of this stuff while not displeasing the youths at all!

No need for an i7 6700k. Completely overkill.

i5 4460
8gb DDR3 1600mhz ram
H97 motherboard ATX or mATX
500W PSU (bit high, but leaves the graphics card option open)


It's a bunch of 10min lets plays guys! No need for a crazy editing rig!
No need for a cooler. Not overclocking.
Much cheaper if you plug all this into mindfactory or similar.

Wow, this made a massive price difference! I went down to 360 euro with a 650W PSU! I think I will stick to this build and add a GPU. What's a good choice to go with those specs? GTX 950, GTX 750Ti?

Xenoronin

The i5 won't need upgrading for at least 5 years. Even skylake will be obsolete by then. The next major intel release is 2017 due to their slip up at moving to the 10nm node I think. If it works out, that might be a decent upgrade but I can't see anything really pushing things to the next level gaming or software wise. The i5 is strong. Hell, even the i3 4170 is strong. Look back and you can see people on first gen i5 and i7 still going strong for their use cases. That's crazy. The biggest innovations have been in storage in the last few years.

So have no fear about upgrades. By the time you need them, these components won't be upgradable anyway.

Xenoronin

Make sure you get a quality brand of PSU. Always the part you need to be careful with. Personally like Corsair. BeQuiet is also quite well liked around here. Get a GTX950. Will play pretty much everything at 1080p atm. Opens up that glorious steam library.

Digital Solitude

Sell the XBox and get a 950 or better for some serious gaming

I'm dying to bench my 950 :mad:

Eoinmc97

GTX 950 benches around the 30-40FPS mark on Ultra in games such as FarCry4, AC:Unity saw 30 FPS at Ultra, and GTA V saw 28 FPS on Ultra. Not bad, but expensive for the performance/price.
Haswell won't need to be updated until Intel or AMD somehow manage to increase the IPC and throughout of their CPU's by more than what Skylake does (as even Broadwell beats Skylake). Not to mention that software has to adapt and move on from the days of Single Core computing tasks and become more efficient in tasks.

I recommend a
Any good ATX case for €50 or so.
Core i5 4460: €175
A cheap AsRock or MSI motherboard: €55
8Gb of Crucial Ballistix RAM: €45
A nice and dandy 128GB for boot: €45
A 1TB Hitachi HDD for storage of games or movies and stuff: €45
A Corsair, BeQuiet, EVGA, CoolerMaster, SeaSonic 500w PSU: €60
Windows 8.1 key: €95
Total Cost: About €560 or so.

Down the line upgrades:
A GTX 960 /R9 380: €200

Xenoronin

I think the differences between the 950 and the 960 are pretty small tbh. Obviously if you can afford the 960 (about 30-50 euro more depending on what brand) then you go for it no question. The leap isn't massive if you are on a budget though. I don't think it will be worked hard simply due to the lack of interest in PC gaming from the sons at the moment. And turning down a few bells and whistles isn't the end of the world.

ptyloch

Does this look OK?


Intel Core i5 4460 4x 3.20GHz So.1150 BOX

€ 168,58*


650 Watt Corsair VS Series Non-Modular

€ 56,85*


ASRock H97 Pro4 Intel H97 So.1150 Dual Channel DDR3 ATX Retail

€ 82,75*

16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9 Dual Kit

€ 75,74*

Total came to 383,92 plus 30 euro postage from mindfactory.de

I'm thinking of getting a Sharkoon BD28 case from Amazon.co.uk - 42,99 pound

Any suggestions? I want to get a GEFORCE 950 or 960 later on, that's why the 650 Watt PSU.

Digital Solitude

A 400w will run a 960/950 no bother.

Looks good though.

Still waiting on the new case, too lazy to sort the new drivers and then revert just to bench the new 950

ptyloch

Digital Solitude wrote: »

A 400w will run a 960/950 no bother.

Looks good though.

Still waiting on the new case, too lazy to sort the new drivers and then revert just to bench the new 950

In that case I might drop the PSU down to 450-500 Watt and save a few bob.

evo2000

ptyloch wrote: »

Hi All,

I have been toying with the idea of getting a desktop to replace my 5 year and don't know which route to take.
My usage would be some video editing (light work, max 10 min vids with not many effects), recording gameplay off Xbox through a Hauppauge box, some office work.

I was thinking of a following setup:

I5 4th gen
8GB Ram
Dedicated graphics card with min of 2GB
Want the option of 2 monitors

I've found a Dell Inspiron 3000 @629 euro without a monitor on their website, next was an I7/16GB RAM @850.
I've also come across PCZONE.IE on adverts offering I5 Skylake, 8GB RAM and GTX 960 4GB for 1070 euro.

Is the upgrade to 6th gen I5 worth the extra money? Should I go the middle road of 4th gen I7 and more RAM?

How complicated is a self build these days? I have built a PC in the past but that was a Pentium 75 about 20 years ago, has it gotten more complicated since then?

Thanks for any help!

Was in the same boat as you, was gonna buy a alienware pre built, but didnt got a few ideas of people on here and got one from hardwareverstaand where you ve the choice to either get all the parts and build it urself or they will charge u like 50 euros and put it all together for u

THe thinking behind build it urself is that its way cheaper and if ur ordering parts in they tend to have a better chance of survival when in there original packaging as opposed to being ina tower ie graphics cards,

Ive built another one since tho and i can say its very simple to put a computer together its like lego!

wotzgoingon

Xenoronin wrote: »

Look back and you can see people on first gen i5 and i7 still going strong for their use cases. That's crazy.

I'm one of them, I'm still rocking a first gen i7 system mind you I upgraded the processor to a xeon.

TerrorFirmer

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I'm one of them, I'm still rocking a first gen i7 system mind you I upgraded the processor to a xeon.

When I bench my 2500K at stock (3.3) versus my Haswell at the same speed, there's only a noticeable difference in frames running Sli at ultra settings at 1440P in say, Battlefield 4, and even then the difference is minimal (i.e, it's generally beyond numbers that impact on gameplay). Skylake to me is just a waste of time when it comes to gaming unless you're a new builder that's coming from S775 or 1st gen i5. If you have say an i5-750 that does need some overclocking to keep pace but the fact that it can do just that at about 3.5Ghz says a lot about how efficient Intel is. If you bought an i5-2400+ in 2011 you're still golden for the next few years even without overclocking. By the time 2nd gen is obsolete, Skylake will be old news as well. It's a funny thing that Intel did such a good job that each subsequent refresh is strictly a very minor improvement rather than necessity.

ptyloch

Lads which windows version would ye recommend? 7,8,8.1,10? I'm still using Vista and have no experience with any later versions of this OS...

Is getting a 8.1 key from adverts and upgrading to 10 a good idea or would ye stay with the 8.1?

TerrorFirmer

Buy a cheap €13 euro Win 7 N or Win8.1 N from Reddit and update to Win10 straight away. I've had a few problems lately with Reddit keys but if you upgrade to 10 right away, it should be fine as it assigns a new key to you upon upgrade.

ptyloch

OK, parts from mindfactory arrived yesterday, I'm getting the windows key just now, the case is on the way and I'll have it either tomorrow or Monday.

Dabs.com still hasn't delivered my ssd, I ordered another one from mindfactory though.

Got stung by parcel motel for 28 euro for the case delivery, very steep I think.

Next week is building time :-)

Thanks for your help Everyone!

ptyloch

Well I put it all together and it's working but the heatsink is very noisy, I didn't use any additional paste on the CPU, could that be the reason?
The other 2 fans in the case are very quiet and this one is like a chopper.

Is it usually that loud?