First time building my own PC, would love a little help

[Deleted]

Hey there guys,

So i'm still running XP on a terrible old system but its chugging away and slowly running out of steam, figured it was time to upgrade, everywhere I've looked I've heard that the best way to get a good PC for the best value is to make it yourself, or at least buy the parts individually.

So a couple of weeks ago i started putting together some parts with help from a friend but they've since become unavailable (Friend that was helping me not the parts :P) so im stuck midway with no real help. Would love to get some input on whats already there and some suggestions to fill in the blanks

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Oalt

Anyway, consider me a utter naab because i'm really not too sure, thanks.


Budget - Around £600, possibly willing to go up to £700 depending on how much of a difference its going to make, whether its worth it or not etc.

Resolution - Honestly not too fussed, the higher the better but i'm willing to drop on quality for a considerable price difference.

Games / Settings Desired - Generally the newer stuff coming out, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Far Cry (On medium/high settings) and stuff like the Witcher 2 and Battlefield 3 (On medium with a steady framerate) Not too fussed about the quality as long as it looks pretty and runs steady.

Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc) - I do quite a bit of 3D modelling so most of the Adobe and Autodesk suite, no video editting or streaming that I plan of.

Country - UK

Parts that can be reused - None

Do you need an OS? - Somewhat, think ill be able to get one but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? - Nope

[Deleted]

Why have you gone for a Z77 mobo without going for a i5-XXXXk processor?

Here's what I'd build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£68.93 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£53.49 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£158.13 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £448.54
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-04 17:38 BST+0100)

As a base, finishing with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£68.93 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£53.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.35 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£128.39 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£158.13 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Inwin MANA137 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£40.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£50.40 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£15.95 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.39 @ Aria PC)
Total: £828.77
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-04 17:44 BST+0100)

Costing under £400 for the rest of the items, including OS.

[Deleted]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£68.33 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£41.39 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.94 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£75.29 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£204.40 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.95 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.13 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £698.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-04 17:50 BST+0100)

and the OS if you end up needing a new copy:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.39 @ Aria PC)
Total: £68.39
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-04 17:50 BST+0100)

[Deleted]

You guys are amazing thanks for the fast responses. Although tenangrychickens' build is a little too expensive for my tastes I was wondering would the storage peices you suggested fit into the build from Notarget, that and do you think its worth a 250gb tb ssd?

[Deleted]

You guys are amazing thanks for the fast responses. Although tenangrychickens' build is a little too expensive for my tastes I was wondering would the storage peices you suggested fit into the build from Notarget, that and do you think its worth a 250gb tb ssd?

Yes, but you said a budget of £600 - if you take the Mobo and GPU that you have (and I kept, I might add) that should be about £600. Which is just where you wanted it.

[Deleted]

You guys are amazing thanks for the fast responses. Although tenangrychickens' build is a little too expensive for my tastes I was wondering would the storage peices you suggested fit into the build from Notarget, that and do you think its worth a 250gb tb ssd?

120GB is "enough" but 250GB is definitely nicer and much less micromanaging in the future.

[Deleted]

Sorry I feel you may have misunderstood what i wrote, or i wrote it badly. Either way I dont actually have the parts i've posted that was just how far i got picking parts, sorry if i caused any confusion was just trying to fill in as much information as i could and try to make your work easier.

Hope that helps

[yurano]

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£68.93 @ Ebuyer)

I read that Z77X is what you should be shooting for if you're looking for an OC Gigabyte motherboard.

The GIGABYTE Z77-DS3H is lacking one major feature for overclocking. There is no option to increase the CPU vCore! Without that, we weren't sure how far we would be able to push our Intel Core i7 3770k.

[Deleted]

I read that Z77X is what you should be shooting for if you're looking for an OC Gigabyte motherboard.

The GIGABYTE Z77-DS3H is lacking one major feature for overclocking. There is no option to increase the CPU vCore! Without that, we weren't sure how far we would be able to push our Intel Core i7 3770k.

Fair enough. We'll change it for this one or something similar. Bumps up the price by £15.