£900-£1000 pc build, need some help

[Deleted]

hey everyone,

Plan on buying my own parts and will get a local pc store to build it for me. Planning to buy from online stores like ebuyer,amazon,ebay not sure if they are recommended sites to buy from. I have a spec i have in mind but im not sure if all the components are compatible with each other up, im up ready to listen to any improvements and suggestions to it and it goes as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor £176.60
Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard £127.99
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory £40.56
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive £52.99
Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk £81.99
Video Card MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card £179.74
Case Fractal Design Define R4 £89
Power Supply Corsair 650W HX Modular PSU £89
Optical Drive Lite-On DS-8A8SH DVD/CD Writer £19.34
Cpu cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 £47
Total cost: £905

Couple things im not sure about is, do i need a cpu cooler, i don't plan to OC but i would like my pc stay as cool as possible since it's switched on most of the time. And if i need a sound card. Im from uk, so any sites in uk that is recommended to buy the components would be welcomed.

cheers gordon

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

You can drop down to a 650W power supply, you don't need 850W unless you are running more than two graphics cards.

If you aren't planning on overclocking you don't need an aftermarket cpu cooler, the one that comes with the processor is more than adequate. However, it will be louder and not cool as efficiently as an aftermarket cooler which is probably a concern for a computer that will be switched on 24/7.

[Deleted]

what kind of CPU cooler would you recommend? budget was around £45 very max, just worried at some of the sizes of the Cpu coolers i've seen, i'll be buying lower profile rams tho.

[Xuvial]

What's the 850w PSU for? That build barely even needs 400-500w, ~600w if you're going for crossfire HD7850's. Grab this Seasonic M12II 650w for £90: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seasonic-Mod...3106420&sr=8-2

That frees up £30 for a better GPU! Here, HD7870 DCII for £187:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-DirectC...3106755&sr=1-9

Even if you aren't overclocking I highly don't recommend using the stock cooler. It can get loud and it looks rubbish, plus if you DO decide to overclock you won't have to rip your build apart to try install an aftermarket cooler. Just get it over with!
£45 budget for a cooler you say? Here's one that is pretty damn good, Thermaltake Frio: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermaltake-...107205&sr=1-16
Of course with CPU coolers you have plenty of other options like CoolerMaster Hyper212 (amazing for the price) or Noctua NH-D14 (the king of air coolers).

Also keep in mind that I'm only providing Amazon links for references, if you can find it cheaper somewhere else then go for it. I'm not too good with UK prices.

[Deleted]

yeh think i'll drop to 650w on the PSU, but that Thermaltake Frio is too big to fit in the case im buying by 2mm, so another good recommendation on a cpu cooler around 45 mark would be great

[Xuvial]

Oh wow I completely missed that case of yours. I do not recommend a Silverstone Raven 3 even though it seems to have decent reviews. It's a case for advanced builders and has it's own set of issues (like not being able to fit a Frio apparently) and the cable management is going to be tough, the working room seems cramped.

There are countless other case options that will suit you better - you can pick pretty much anything from CoolerMaster Storm/HAF series, Corsair Carbide/Graphite/Obsidian series, NZXT (most cases), Fractal Define series, Antec, etc etc.

HAF-X is listed at £113 on Amazon and that case can pretty much fit an elephant.

If you're really hard-set on a Raven 3, then you can simply grab a CoolerMaster Hyper212...it's roughly ~158-160mm tall. It's pretty much the best-selling aftermarket CPU cooler in the world due to it's price/performance ratio. And if a case can't fit a Hyper212 then it doesn't deserve to be called a gaming case.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Isn't the Hyper 212 a pain in the behind to install?

Personally, I'd go for a slightly cheaper case and get a noctua cooler, maybe the C14 or the U12P if the case is relatively thin. After mounting the backplate and the frame (which takes about 20 seconds) there are exactly two screws to do up.

[Rorzz]

Just gonna drop some UK site names
http://www.aria.co.uk/
http://www.scan.co.uk/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.cclonline.com/
http://www.ebuyer.com/

and there's others. Just remember about delivery cost in case you decide to get parts from different sites.

[Xuvial]

Isn't the Hyper 212 a pain in the behind to install?

If it truly was a pain you wouldn't see it in half of all gaming builds and the Newegg feedback page would've been filled with "pain to install", wouldn't it . It's not as superb as Noctua's installation methods, I'll give you that. But it's relatively easy.
I've used to own one and it took no longer than ~5-10 mins, and I was really careful and slow with it too since it was my first build.

You want pain, check out CM V8 or V10. It's like goddamn heart surgery.

[Deleted]

if the raven silverstone case isn't that recommended than i've narrowed down to either the Fractal Design Define R3 Antec 1100 Eleven Hundred Case. For the Cpu cooler i thinking of Noctua NH-U12P SE2 since that is compatible with the mobo.

[Wiggerlywoo]

You want pain, check out CM V8 or V10. It's like goddamn heart surgery.

Agreed fitting my v8 was a pain in the ass

[Deleted]

the answers given here so far are what I would have given.

Just because there doesn't seem to be an answer for your sound card question yet, you most probably do not need one, the on-board solutions are good enough if you don't want to be equipped for a recording studio.

[karrad]

Agreed fitting my v8 was a pain in the ass

yeah my v6gt was a pain in the ass as well, but as long as you have someone to help you hold things in place for 15seconds they're all not that bad.

[Xuvial]

if the raven silverstone case isn't that recommended than i've narrowed down to either the Fractal Design Define R3 Antec 1100 Eleven Hundred Case. For the Cpu cooler i thinking of Noctua NH-U12P SE2 since that is compatible with the mobo.

Noctua U12P is excellent, go for it if you want. Fractal Define R3 is also a great case, but I can't recommend the Antec 1100. It *used* to be a pretty awesome case series a long time ago, but not compared to today's cases.

[Deleted]

Just saw that they were releasing the Fractual Design define R4, basically the same as R3 but with improvements £10 more expensive but i like the fact the HDD trays are removable so won't have problems fitting large GPUs in the future