New £1200 build

[Deleted]

Hey all! With this being my first build I thought to seek some advice as to what would better suit my needs when building my new rig.

The PC will be mainly used to play WoW/LoL/GW2 as well as a lot of digital painting in Photoshop/Coral Painter (Hence the second monitor for referencing artwork, I don't intend to game on the second monitor) If I could achieve a High - Ultra settings on 1920 x 1080 at 60+ Fps or more I'd be a happy bunny!

I'm not all that tech savvy, so please excuse me if I happen to have made some errors in my obligatory "Give it a try!" build below.


CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.62)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD55 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£93.62)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£51.98)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£74.39)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.98)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£206.15)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£76.78)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£57.36)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£64.98)
Monitor: LG IPS237L-BN 23.0" Monitor (£135.59)
Monitor: LG IPS237L-BN 23.0" Monitor (£135.59)
Total: £1155.02


Your thoughts and opinions would be much appreciated, thanks!

[Deleted]

Tweaked your build a little to include better CPU cooling (comes in other colors as well), 250GB SSD (much less micromanaging, you wont regret it), better quality PSU. Now I did change the case to channel the money towards more performance/quality/capacity. The NZXT case is not bad at all but the Fractal is nicer overall so it's up to you. You could change back to the EVO CPU cooler (not a big deal) and then choose Fractal case.

The link to the RAM is custom because a lot of the pricing on RAM for the UK partpicker is wrong. From what i can tell the Corsair was like £70, either way the ones I linked are good and cheaper.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£39.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD55 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£93.62 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£126.95 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£215.71 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£64.98 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: LG IPS237L-BN 23.0" Monitor (£135.59 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: LG IPS237L-BN 23.0" Monitor (£135.59 @ CCL Computers)
Other: Memory: G.Skill 8GB (2x 4GB) Ares Series Memory Kit (DDR3 1600, 9-9-9-24, 1.5v) (£44.99)
Total: £1181.57
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 10:44 BST+0100)

Also if you're not worried about SLI support which your current selected PSU won't handle anyways then you could save another ~£30 and get this instead:

ASRock Z75 Pro3 £65 for overclocking this board is slightly worse but can still probably do ~4.4GHz no problem and maybe a few feature differences, check to see if it's anything you need/want.

[Deleted]

A couple of tweaks to Notarget's build from PC Part Picker:

Motherboard: Asus Z77-A ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£91.14 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£41.77 @ Amazon UK)

Not that the Ares kit's bad, but I found some Corsair Vengeance RAM for a lower price, and the motherboard is based on the Haswell equivalent, which is a pretty awesome midrange board.

[Deleted]

The Vengeance RAM is out of stock (and high Profile). That's what I meant with a lot of RAM link (UK) being wrong.

The Asus board is not a bad option at around the same price. Other than the naming scheme change/similarity I don't think those Asus boards have anything to do with each other, I could be wrong though. The MSI offers SLI support for the same price as the Asus, I know the build isn't really for SLI (see my Asrock Z75 comment) but if they're the same price then why not, right?

Asus has slightly worse Audio chipset though probably nothing most people would notice.

MSI uses Intel LAN which is better the RealTek on the Asus board.

MSI has a few extra on-board features like:

- 1 x Power button
- 1 x Reset button
- 1 x OC Genie button

[Deleted]

I'm more than willing to substitute the R4 for the 210 in the name of performance/quality, especially where overclocking is concerned. Anything that would make the experience a little less daunting for this newby is worth it!

The build was, as you could tell, not build for SLI. I just don't game enough to make use of it, however if the MSI can OC better than the AsRock then it's something I'm willing to invest in.

Other than that the larger SSD is a nice bonus and whilst still under budget I'm chuffed to bits with it, thanks for your input Ten and Notarget!

[Deleted]

Yeah the MSI is definitely better than the Asrock, I just figured it was worth mentioning a budget option. Good luck

Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 1 - Choosing Your Components
Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build
Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 3 - Installing Windows & Finishing Touches

[Deleted]

Just a few more things I picked up on that I have no knowledge of.

When buying OEM products (Like the SSD in my build) Should as assume cables won't be provided unless otherwise stated and buy ahead of time?

Should I do the same for the Phanteks CPU Cooler and purchase thermal paste? Or will it come pre-applied? If so could you recommend any top notch thermal paste?

Cheers!

[Deleted]

Just a few more things I picked up on that I have no knowledge of.

When buying OEM products (Like the SSD in my build) Should as assume cables won't be provided unless otherwise stated and buy ahead of time?

Should I do the same for the Phanteks CPU Cooler and purchase thermal paste? Or will it come pre-applied? If so could you recommend any top notch thermal paste?

Cheers!

Thermal paste is either pre-applied or in the box.

You're right there are no cables with the bare drives (SSD, HDD and DVD drive), there is usually SATA cables with the motherboard but might need extra if there isn't enough. (I'll see if I can find out how many there is with those specific boards)

Haswell setup would be an option but it's going to push the budget slightly above to around ~£1225, if that's no problem sure go for it. At equal clocks you should see about ~10% performance gain.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£116.34 @ Dabs)
Other: Memory: G.Skill 8GB (2x 4GB) Ares Series Memory Kit (DDR3 1600, 9-9-9-24, 1.5v) (£44.99)
Total: £347.32
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 20:19 BST+0100)

[Deleted]

I'm starting to liken PC part picking to being in sweet shop! (Or Candy Store xD) So much variety to be had in so many flavors!

If it's just a margin over budget then sure, I'll buy the liquorice Allsorts of CPU's and take the Haswell road, it was something I considered, but tried to keep to budget. If it's roughly 10% performance for the extra £25 then why not

Thanks again, you've been so much help! As soon as I'm done building I'll be sure to post pics in "Post your gaming set up" thread!

Special thanks to Notarget for the quick responses!

[Deleted]

You're welcome, just glad you're getting something you like and it should be a great system.

I have the same monitor, it's really nice considering the fair low price, no height adjustment unfortunately but for me that wasn't an issue. Don't forget to make sure you have cables to connect both monitors. It has 2 HDMI and one VGA port, no HDMI cable included so you'll have to buy/get one of those if you don't have one already. You'll need a "DVI-D/DVI-I to VGA" adapter to connect the second monitor. I had one of those but trying to remember if it came with the monitor or the GPU, not sure.

Also the second HDMI support this (neat feature if you have anything running it, the cable is included):

One of the HDMI ports has been loaded with Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) support, which means it can input 1080p video with audio via a micro-USB-to-HDMI cable. Some smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S3, are compatible with this standard.

I just noticed the EVGA GPU isn't in stock atm, get one of these instead:

MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB

Edit: the adapter was not with the monitor so must have been the GPU.

Edit2: Okay I found out there is an adapter with the MSI GPU I linked above, didn't see one with the Gigabyte card. It's possible it's there but I didn't find one.

[Deleted]

I tend to doubt myself the more I over think this, but considering the monitor has HDMI and the GPU a DVI-D / DVI-I port, could I just use a corresponding "HDMI - DVI" cable? I'm only mentioning this, because I may have one lying around.. that and I just wanted to double check :P

[Deleted]

I tend to doubt myself the more I over think this, but considering the monitor has HDMI and the GPU a DVI-D / DVI-I port, could I just use a corresponding "HDMI - DVI" cable? I'm only mentioning this, because I may have one lying around.. that and I just wanted to double check :P

Yeah you can use that, I just wanted to make sure. It would suck not being able to hook up your monitor right away. I didn't think about it when I got it but luckily I still had the adapter, the HDMI cable I ordered was still on it's way.