Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 35687831)

I would suggest adding a SSD disk for your boot/programmes disk.

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit (Post 35687832)

Yes SSD is a must specially now they are cheap

I might also up the wattage of the psu to 800w imo although the 650w is most likely plenty

Originally Posted by Kabaal (Post 35687833)

Maybe think about going with 8GB RAM. Prices are sky high right now and unless you specifically need 16GB for certain programs you'll get little use out of it.

Originally Posted by Rob (Post 35687834)

You haven't picked a CPU cooler or are you hoping the standard retail cooler is enough?

Originally Posted by Rob (Post 35687844)

i5 CPU is sufficient for good general purpose gaming. i7 give a bit of headroom with more cores but unless you are doing other stuff like a lot of video encoding, it's unlikely you'd have that much benefit. You aren't going for cutting edge, based around your choice of GPU so the i5 is fine.

Originally Posted by Bogof (Post 35687915)

I would say that set up would be "adequate". The price is "good enough" and the specs are "good enough".

Personally, SSD and up the graphics card. The most important piece of information missing is how long would you like this rig to last, or "future proofed".

Realistically for a high end gaming rig, you're at least going to be doubling the price.

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit (Post 35687935)

there is no such thing as a future proof computer and a high end computer twice the price is not going to be touched by games we have nowadays

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35687959)

Sure there is.

I built my machine five years ago for well less than a grand and it still plays the latest high-end games today. I've had no need to upgrade for five years and see limited need anytime soon (might add a second graphics card for crossfire but that's it).

Pretty future proofed at the time if you ask me.

Originally Posted by adzii_nufc (Post 35688017)

Am I the only noob here with an AMD CPU?

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35688045)

ok increased it a bit to reflect recommendations. I went for the i7 as I may well have virtual machines running occasionally and upgraded the graphic card since a lot are saying 2gig might be on the low side.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£209.99 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£14.68 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£70.64 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£60.96 @ Scan.co.uk)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£98.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card (£289.31 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.78 @ Scan.co.uk)

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.98 @ Scan.co.uk)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£82.72 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £1029.82

Worried about the case vs space issue tho...

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit (Post 35687963)

I didn't and I do not accept it

Originally Posted by Rob (Post 35687993)

The K version intel chips do offer the overclocking versatility that is worthwhile if you will keep the base PC for a few years, even if you don't need that resource now. But it isn't essential as by the time you think things are too slow, then everything will probably be getting on a bit that you are trying to prolong the life of something that had become frustrating. Realistically I have an i7 2600K at stock speeds and that isn't being put under any pressure, and I know plenty of people with the i5 CPUs playing current games that don't have concerns.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35688045)

ok increased it a bit to reflect recommendations. I went for the i7 as I may well have virtual machines running occasionally and upgraded the graphic card since a lot are saying 2gig might be on the low side.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£209.99 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£14.68 @ Amazon UK)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£70.64 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£60.96 @ Scan.co.uk)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£98.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card (£289.31 @ Amazon UK)

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35688056)

Your loss.


.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35688056)

Your loss.


The current gen Haswell parts are notoriously unreliable for overclocking, and it is nowhere near as productive to try than with previous (first/second gen) i5/i7 parts. The poor quality thermal compound and already high speeds limit your headroom to perhaps 20-25% at most vs. the, say. 40%+ you could easily get with 1st-gen i7 parts.

But I agree with the overall sentiment, by the time you "need" to push that extra 20% out of old parts it's about time for a new PC anyway. Currently I have an i7 920 at 4Ghz and see no need for a new CPU as even Crysis 3 plays on max settings and full resolution at a decent 45fps.

When I "had" to overclock my (now 8 years old) Athlon64 x2 CPU the extra electricity needed even for an additional 10% overclock would have bought me a new i3 in a year.


I don't see any reasoning behind getting the i7 for virtual machines. The i5 has all the virtualization extensions already and costs considerably less, getting an i7 is just a waste when it offers nothing when it comes to virtualization the i5 doesn't already have.

Furthermore - it seems even more of a waste when you consider with 8GB RAM you'll barely be able to run any virtual machines while gaming. My suggestion - ditch the i7. If you want VMs get more RAM instead of the pointless CPU.

Motherboard - a bit overboard if you ask me, plus so is the cooler. I prefer to use stock coolers personally when not overclocking because they're reliable, efficient and quiet and guaranteed to do the job properly. After all, most HP, Dell, etc. PCs are shipped with stock coolers and you don't see people complaining about noise much these days.

Storage - modern Intel chipsets have hybrid storage built in. I'd save some money and get a smaller SSD and set up automatic caching via your motherboard. That way frequently accessed data is stored on the SSD and everything else on the HDD - and the transition is managed automatically.

Graphics card - a bit overpriced IMO. The Radeon R9 290 is practically as fast as a 780 and costs less than your 770. It outperforms the 770 in every way except noise and can be had for £266 if you're lucky.

Originally Posted by DocDutch (Post 35688204)

Damien again why looking at all different places it will be cheaper to order from 1 shop. You would probably save close to 100 quid on delivery charges

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35688254)

I wouldn't run the vm's when gaming.

Originally Posted by Hom3r (Post 35688335)

Can you get Octo-core CPUs?

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit (Post 35688337)

yes

Originally Posted by Rob (Post 35688542)

Very few people will appreciate any benefit of running two graphics cards. If you do want to go that route, even if that is a remote possibility for the future, look closely at your motherboard specs for bandwidth of the PCIe slots when both are in use. What was a 16x slot may well be limited to only 8x or worse 4x depending on the board's configuration.

There were lots of issues with the R290 AMD cards at launch as they got the drivers wrong. That is effectively sorted now. Even so, don't get stock cards and get ones that the manufacturer's have added their own dual / triple fan coolers and they will do for most people.

Put it this way , you aren't building a cutting edge super PC, but keeping sensible with your budget. That has to dictate your components and there will always be arguments why you should get something better, but you have to stop somewhere. Again you can wait for something else that will be released in a few months, but by then something else will be coming soon. When you make the decision to buy you have to work with what is available now for the budget you have and it seems that a grand is more than enough. Everyone posting here has different viewpoints on what makes a good PC. They would all work of course, but are they as good value and balanced or is the advice coming from the enthusiast who considers performance the priority and money secondary?

It is worth looking at some of the bundles and prebuilt systems available from the likes of scan, overclockers etc. Not because you have to buy one, but because they can give a good guide of a balanced machine at your price point.

Originally Posted by techguyone (Post 35688562)

It's a good spec Peanut, where is it from?

Originally Posted by techguyone (Post 35688578)

I've just got a PC from PCS strangely enough, similar spec to yours, slightly higher end, though your graphics card is a bit better, no problems there at all, far cry from the likes of Mesh.

It did take about 3 weeks to come through though, as they're incredibly busy (unless you're paying extra for fast track)

Originally Posted by Rob (Post 35688542)

Very few people will appreciate any benefit of running two graphics cards. If you do want to go that route, even if that is a remote possibility for the future, look closely at your motherboard specs for bandwidth of the PCIe slots when both are in use. What was a 16x slot may well be limited to only 8x or worse 4x depending on the board's configuration.

There were lots of issues with the R290 AMD cards at launch as they got the drivers wrong. That is effectively sorted now. Even so, don't get stock cards and get ones that the manufacturer's have added their own dual / triple fan coolers and they will do for most people.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35689608)

1 month warranty? That's absurd, even returned/refurbished goods from Ebuyer have 90 days... Most things have 1 year as standard and even beyond that you've got consumer protection laws that extend rights to 5-6 years if you're willing to take it that far...