First build, assistance requested

[MerinPally]

I have a laptop that's a bit shitty and old, and my dad kindly offered to pay for a new one. He proceeded to link me some £1600 laptops. At that price it makes sense to build a desktop, according to my computery friends - plus the stuff he linked me was shite.

According to google that translates as a $2500 budget, I know some of you guys are states based. I've picked a few parts and was wondering if you guys could give me some advice, maybe some recommendations or any alterations (either up or down)? I'd preferably like to come in at below this if possible, I was thinking closer to £1200 ($1900, still very sizeable).

Usage: As a typical student, this thing is a glorified facebook and music machine. I played Starcraft 2 but had to stop as even on lowest settings my machine couldn't hack it. I'd like to be able to play that and maybe World of Warcraft occasionally, both on good settings. Currently if I have Twitch or Youtube open and try to open some research papers the thing grinds to a halt. I'd like to be able to do that faster but I don't think that'd take much. Nice sound is important but I don't know how to judge that (sorry).


Things I gone and found

CPU: Intel i7 4790K - Why this one? Because I heard it was good. Simply put. Could it be a bit too much however? Do I really need something that powerful. I think the next one down is the i7 4790. (£255)
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Hero - Again, someone recommended it. From what I understand, these things come with sound stuff built in rather than necessarily needing an additional sound card. Is there a way to tell from looking at it? (£140)
Memory: G-Skill Ripjaws - 2x8 GB - My flatmate recently built a machine for ~£900 and he got these and recommended them. I'm looking at getting 16GB of RAM anyway. (£130)
Storage: Sandisk SSD, 480GB - Simply chosen because I've seen it advertised when watching gaming tournaments. I saw in another build thread someone saying you need over 256GB so this seemed good if not a little pricey. Would the 256 version be a good idea then buy some cheap, large hard drives for extra storage? This seems like an area to cut back on. (£165)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X - The one my flatmate got and recommended. (£184)
PSU: Corsair Builder 750W - Again, the one my flatmate got and suggested. (£60)

Here's the PCPartsPicker link:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/c2dhYJ

Some obvious missing parts here - Case, Optical Drive (need one of them but can just pick up any old cheap one), Operating System, CPU cooling (I assume I need some of that?) and then finally I'll need wireless capability.

The OS I want to buy Windows 8, apparently I might be able to get a student discount though which'd be nice. Case I have no idea on and nor do I for wireless card, I think the latter can be picked up rather cheaply however? CPU cooling Is on the PC Parts Picker list but my flatmate never sent me one so I don't know if a case might have something related. As you can tell, I'm really not clued up. I think I could easily save some money on this build on the SSD and maybe the CPU.

I already possess some speakers, mouse, keyboard and mousemat. I have one Acer 24inch monitor and would like a second monitor as I've got so used to using my laptop screen plus this plugged in one. Two 24inch screens seems excessive however so I'm after some advice on that front This comes in at ~£900 so a case would be another... £50 maybe? Wireless cards looked pretty cheap. OS will be £50-80 depending on if I can find a student discount (plus my dad could use it too, thus he'd fund it making it £0 for the purposes of this build). Optical Drive no more than £20 and then CPU cooling looked like £50-70 which would leave ~£100 for another monitor, going over by £20-50 not an issue.

So, apologies for the wall of text but I tried to learn *something* before coming to ask here. I can't help but feel I'm maybe missing something or that I'm overspending in some areas. Advice and suggestions are most welcome! I'd like to add that I won't put this together alone, I live with some computer science students who like this stuff so they will check my ignorant hands don't fuck it up. Therefore my competence is not an issue (at least in that part).

[Deleted]

- First off you don't need an i7 for gaming. You would be better off with an i5 4690k and overclock it. But if you aren't going to overclock for w/e reason then the i7 is a decent choice cause its clocked at 500Mhz higher in all cores. So its up to you if you willing to pay the price.

- Don't really see the reason with this budget to get a 512ssd but if you wanna go for it then one i got linked below in the 512gb version is one of the be choices.

- Case aesthetics is a personal touch. As long as it has filters, good cable management behing etc you are good to go. This is one has everything, even a psu cover.

- In the £1200 can't fit 16GB of ram, and you don't need it for gaming. If you where doing some moderate/heavy video editing/rendering then yes you'd need it.

- o/s, usually you get discounts as students, liked you mentioned. You should check that out.

- The gpu i got in there has awesome performance and one that will carry you for some years in highest settings.

- Basically 16gb of ram and 512ssd that you probably don't need or didn't mention something that could use them, will get you over the 1200 mark. Up to you to pay "more".


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£249.99 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 87.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler (£30.14 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£59.66 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.39 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.38 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (£289.64 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (£88.33 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£65.72 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.09 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Dell U2414H 60Hz 23.8" Monitor (£183.59 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1195.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 16:47 BST+0100

[Deleted]

The best advice I can give you is to go to passmark.com . In the benchmark section, there are rankings for Video cards, cpus and hard drives. You can see and compare the scores of different things if you are wondering between two. Other than that, the PSU is realy important, because most instability issues come from it, so you can get a bit lower cpu and buy even a better psu.

The video card seems okay.
The RAM seems okay if you know how to clock your cpu/ram. I think G-Skill Ripjaws is memory, intendet to be overclocked. So if you are not going to mess arround, you can buy a cheaper RAM I guess.
The mainboard - you have a PRETTY good onboard sound card with 8 channels. Also, the mainboard has 4 memory slots, so you can upgrade later. Also, it has 2xPCIe 3.0 x16, so you can upgrade further if needed later on.
About the hard drive, read some forums about the SSD, to see if there are problems with it. I have ADATA SSD and I am verry happy with it

Also, I think the CPU is with a stock fan in the box. If you are going to overclock, pick something like Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO or Hyper TX3, otherwise you will be okay with the stock.

On the wireless card, make sure its not old PCI card, you dont have PCI slots on the MB. Pick a PCIe wireless card.

[MerinPally]

Thanks for taking a look you two, I'll read through them in some detail.

Probably should've put this in the OP but this is the laptop my dad suggested, which when telling my techy friends drew much criticism.

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-1...d=alienware-17

- First off you don't need an i7 for gaming. You would be better off with an i5 4690k and overclock it. But if you aren't going to overclock for w/e reason then the i7 is a decent choice cause its clocked at 500Mhz higher in all cores. So its up to you if you willing to pay the price.

The price isn't so much an issue, this £1200 budget is already reduced - if I begged a bit I'm sure I could get it higher, I'm just reducing it myself so it doesn't become a false investment and I overspend and so that I don't feel as bad. I wouldn't feel confident overclocking these things particularly as I know very little about them, so I think I'll stick to the i7 in that case.

- Don't really see the reason with this budget to get a 512ssd but if you wanna go for it then one i got linked below in the 512gb version is one of the be choices.

- Case aesthetics is a personal touch. As long as it has filters, good cable management behing etc you are good to go. This is one has everything, even a psu cover.

- In the £1200 can't fit 16GB of ram, and you don't need it for gaming. If you where doing some moderate/heavy video editing/rendering then yes you'd need it.

- o/s, usually you get discounts as students, liked you mentioned. You should check that out.

- The gpu i got in there has awesome performance and one that will carry you for some years in highest settings.

- Basically 16gb of ram and 512ssd that you probably don't need or didn't mention something that could use them, will get you over the 1200 mark. Up to you to pay "more".

Ok that's cool, thank you. I was aiming for 16GB of RAM simply on recommendations, I don't know whether I'd be able to use it all but that's why I was aiming higher. I'm thinking however there's a few places to save money on in your recommendations, so it might still be an option if enough people said "go for it". About the SSD - would I notice much of a speed difference? I was thinking of looking for a cheaper one also of 512 but I just went for Sandisk as I know that's a trusted brand. If I went for the smaller version, would it go at a similar speed? Memory is cheap so I'm not against buying some harddrives to store all sorts on instead.

Monitor: Dell U2414H 60Hz 23.8" Monitor (£183.59 @ Aria PC)

This part interested me, I'm wondering if someone can point out if I'm missing something really obvious? This monitor you've linked has a longer response time (8ms) and then costs £60 more than the one I've already got, to which I'm prepared to buy another of I was just more wondering if there were any other options (like a smaller one turned vertical). This is the monitor in question. I also heard something about it's good to use similar monitors if using multiples, I don't know how much truth there is in that?

Basically my thinking comes down to I could save £60 on that monitor, I probably was looking closer to £50 for the case so that's already saved me £100 I could put back into other bits. Undecided which but hey every bit helps! I like the look of that video card so maybe that. Thank you for your suggestions, as I say I'll dig into them a bit and maybe I'll learn something. Will add them to the list when I refer to my mates with parts lists at the very end

Thank you so much for taking a look and then the extra time to do a potential build!

The best advice I can give you is to go to passmark.com . In the benchmark section, there are rankings for Video cards, cpus and hard drives. You can see and compare the scores of different things if you are wondering between two. Other than that, the PSU is realy important, because most instability issues come from it, so you can get a bit lower cpu and buy even a better psu.

The video card seems okay.
The RAM seems okay if you know how to clock your cpu/ram. I think G-Skill Ripjaws is memory, intendet to be overclocked. So if you are not going to mess arround, you can buy a cheaper RAM I guess.
The mainboard - you have a PRETTY good onboard sound card with 8 channels. Also, the mainboard has 4 memory slots, so you can upgrade later. Also, it has 2xPCIe 3.0 x16, so you can upgrade further if needed later on.
About the hard drive, read some forums about the SSD, to see if there are problems with it. I have ADATA SSD and I am verry happy with it

Also, I think the CPU is with a stock fan in the box. If you are going to overclock, pick something like Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO or Hyper TX3, otherwise you will be okay with the stock.

On the wireless card, make sure its not old PCI card, you dont have PCI slots on the MB. Pick a PCIe wireless card.

Ok that's cool, thanks for the help I will check out that website, know any others mayhaps? I'm probably not capable of overclocking, I'm sure I'd manage fine with some guidance but if anything went wrong I'd be well and truly stranded. Will check out some cheaper RAM, I did have my mind set on 16GB but maybe I can get some cheaper 16GB or if it's really not needed then go for 8 - will gather some more opinions.

For the wireless, I have a massive PC World just round the corner I could always check at. For that rather than other parts as I'm sure they'll rip me off! Things like that and the optical drive I might just wander down and see if they got anything cheaper.

[Deleted]

- 512gb ssd, i am not sure you can fill it up unless you play 50games at the same "season". The ssd is just for o/s a few programs and games. It isn't a storage drive where you keep your movies, music etc. Also I am wouldn't call Sandisk a trusted brand. The usual trusted brands atm are Intel, Samsung, Crucial and some Corsair series.

- About overclocking i guessed as much thus my comment.

- Monitor. The one you got atm is not an IPS monitor is it? I can't find much info on it , seems like a TN panel to me. Thus the picture quality alone won't be the same, the dell i linked is one of the best at 1080p@60hz at its price. Also the ms you see advertised is not the total "lag". A good TN will always have less overall lag than the equivalent IPS one. But we are talking 2-3ms in total you can't even notice and honestly if i had to guess both in total lag can be the same. Alot of ppl cheap out on monitors. This aint a good "tactic". What good is a powerful pc if you can't have the quality display for it.

[MerinPally]

- 512gb ssd, i am not sure you can fill it up unless you play 50games at the same "season". The ssd is just for o/s a few programs and games. It isn't a storage drive where you keep your movies, music etc. Also I am wouldn't call Sandisk a trusted brand. The usual trusted brands atm are Intel, Samsung, Crucial and some Corsair series.

- About overclocking i guessed as much thus my comment.

- Monitor. The one you got atm is not an IPS monitor is it? I can't find much info on it , seems like a TN panel to me. Thus the picture quality alone won't be the same, the dell i linked is one of the best at 1080p@60hz at its price. Also the ms you see advertised is not the total "lag". A good TN will always have less overall lag than the equivalent IPS one. But we are talking 2-3ms in total you can't even notice and honestly if i had to guess both in total lag can be the same. Alot of ppl cheap out on monitors. This aint a good "tactic". What good is a powerful pc if you can't have the quality display for it.

Thank you for this So if I store all the important stuff on a smaller SSD and then have some harddrives to store stuff I don't want/need to access as quickly, it should still be pretty damn quick?

The overclocking yeah, I'd just be worried about reverting it. I'd imagine it breaks any warranty, getting there would be fine but getting back would be a nightmare.

On the monitor - I'll have to look up some of those abbreviations/acronyms, shows how little I know. If the difference isn't vast then another part of it would be aesthetics, having 2 vastly different monitors wouldn't look good. The Dell one doesn't look massively different so maybe it'd be ok. If the difference is that minimal then maybe it'll come down to how much budget I've got left at the end. The way I've ended up using my 2 screens is that the second one isn't all "that" important so I could just use a terrible old one I've got for the time being if push comes to shove.

Thanks for all the extra information

[Remilia]

- Monitor. The one you got atm is not an IPS monitor is it? I can't find much info on it , seems like a TN panel to me.

Yes, it's an AUO TN. 24"WS AU Optronics TN Film (M240Q01 V0)

As for the U2414H: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2414h.htm
Some technical jargon in there but it's not hard to understand imo.
I can try and explain some stuff if you need clearing up or whatever.

[MerinPally]

Yes, it's an AUO TN. 24"WS AU Optronics TN Film (M240Q01 V0)

As for the U2414H: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2414h.htm
Some technical jargon in there but it's not hard to understand imo.
I can try and explain some stuff if you need clearing up or whatever.

Was this one addressed at me or to Kost?

I'll go away and learn first and should I have any questions I may be back. Probably do me some good to understand something above basics when it comes to computers.

[Remilia]

Was this one addressed at me or to Kost?

I'll go away and learn first and should I have any questions I may be back. Probably do me some good to understand something above basics when it comes to computers.

Part one was, part two was for you.
and well, you can ask anything. I certainly don't know everything and there are people that have asked more, don't worry. :P

[MerinPally]

Hello guys, I'm back again. Didn't see the point in making a new thread seeing as this is only ~3 weeks old.

First, I want to thank you again for your previous help - for both suggestions and because it gave me an idea of what things I need to learn that simply bemused me before. So I learnt a few things and here I am again, because now that my labs are finished, I have time again. I'm down to ~14 hours of time in uni per week rather than 24+ and I don't know what to do with all this time, so it's the perfect opportunity to actually get around to this.

So, here's what I came up with some refinements, then I'll say what and why I changed and I was wondering if I could have some opinions:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/VnqN23

CPU: Intel 4790k ~£250
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VII Hero ~£150
Memory: Corsair 8GB ~£60
Storage: 120GB SSD ~£50
Storage: 1 TB HDD ~£40
Video Card: Asus STRIKER-GTX760-P-4GD5 ~£225
PSU: Corsair 600W ~£50
Case: Corsair Case ~£40

Optical Drive: Whatever cheap shit I find, like this ~£12
OS: Windows 8.1 £50 (student discount)
Wireless: Asus wireless card ~£16

Total price - £940

So, here's what I learned from last time, just so maybe you guys know what level of dumbing down you need to use:

- I was previously fixated on 16GB of RAM and then I discovered this thing in the Task Manager showing me how much I'm using. I never quite capped out on the RAM I was using, I think the most I got to was 3.1 out of 3.9 and that was with itunes open, several chrome tabs, youtube and at least 1 twitch stream. I know that Chrome is a complete memory hog and when I'm gaming I'll only have the game (Starcraft or WoW most likely) plus a voice program (ventrilo) then itunes/spotify. I will be doing no video or picture editing outside of paint. I can get away with 8GB, so I listened to you guys on that.

- With saving the money on the RAM I decided maybe it'd be a good idea to throw that into the Video Card. If for whatever reason I decide that 8GB of RAM is not enough, I can always download some more. That's a quick and easy upgrade, and cheap when its compared to a new Video Card. So for the drop down in RAM which saved me about £50-£70, I wanted to add that to the Video Card budget. The previous one was £185, this one is £225. Thoughts? I was now looking at the £200-250 price bracket rather than 170-190.

- I decided to drop the CPU cooler. I'm not going to be overclocking and whilst the CPU chosen is a good candidate for that, my capabilities don't extend that high. I was reading that if you don't overclock then an added cooler really isn't required. I live in the UK and in a student house, so it's always cold. Especially in my room. The case will be out of the sun at all times anyway which will also help. Went for the 4790k over the 4790 because it's like a £20 difference and also a slight performance difference, so I might as well. It will be under a desk but there's ample space around it.

- I got a far smaller SSD, hopefully 120GB would be large enough? I was going to look for a brand I recognised but a similar size at least. On it, I'd be unlikely to put anything else other than the operating system (Windows 8 64bit is like 20GB) plus WoW (another 20GB) and then Starcraft (which is like 19GB I think?) so it'll be half full. I was reading that you want to keep a certain % free to have maximum performance, keeping about 15% free, so if I assume there's some unusable space on there then I'm already at 60/100 (factoring in the bit I should keep free). Does that sound large enough? Do you think I'd need to keep my addon folders and battle net in there too? I imagine it'd fit but I couldn't load a bunch more stuff onto it. Because of this, I'm considering a 250 version instead (like Kostatoo's example, that seems a good one, and it's like ~£25 difference). Might add more longevity to it.

- Wireless card. I saw some pretty big variation in price so I went for a fairly middle of the road one. Would getting a more expensive one potentially be better? I read about what the a, b, g and n on the end meant and this one says b/g/n so I imagine that's what I want. It's also PCIe, I checked that one considering what Maxc said. What I'm thinking mainly is that I probably have a really shitty one in my laptop currently, and that works just fine, so maybe splashing out isn't required.

- Finally, second monitor. I dropped that, thus the price tumbled. This is all a ploy though as a lower price will mean less arguments with my dad. If I fund that myself or wait a few weeks then he'll pay for it too, and yeah he'll realise, but it means less discussion now, plus I'll get away with it. Would the equipment I've got above be capable of dealing with 2 24inch monitors? My current one struggles a bit with one but it's old and shite, and everythings getting a hell of an upgrade.


Thank you for your time and apologies for the wall of text.

[Stormspark]

That build looks REALLY REALLY good, I'd just recommend one change. You are getting a GTX760. The GTX970 is really not that much more, and is both massively more powerful and requires less power. I just looked it up on the same site you used since I'm not familiar with prices in UK£. I'm also HEAVILY partial to EVGA for video cards as far as Nvidia goes. Their build quality, warranty, and customer service are second to none.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga...rd-04gp40972kr

The new Maxwell cards are amazing in both power and power consumption. The 980 can beat the 780ti in some situations (higher resolutions mostly). The 970 handily beats every AMD card except dual GPU ones, and every Nvidia card except the 780ti. But yeah, with a 970, it is literally impossible to have a better system, aside from going to the 980 or SLI with multiple video cards (which isn't necessary for 1080p). The 4790k is the best gaming CPU right now, and the 980 is the best video card. The 980 does cost more though, which is why I recommended the 970 which is almost as good and still within your budget.

120GB is enough for the OS plus WOW. I only upgraded to a 250GB one because I wanted both WOW and ESO on it. And yes an SSD makes a *massive* difference with WOW. Of course anything can benefit from being on an SSD, but MMO's benefit the most. I only have WOW and ESO on my SSD, and I haven't had any problems with other games being on my regular hard drive. As far as RAM, 8gb is the sweet spot for gaming right now. You generally won't need more than that. And you can always easily add more RAM later if you want to.

One big bonus you will get with this system is, you can upgrade it piece by piece as time goes on.

[Remilia]

I personally wouldn't go for anything less than 240(250, 256 whatever)GBs of SSD storage. It fills up real quick.

Corsair is... okay with some of their products.
Corsair while a known brand isn't very good for everything, similar to ASUS.
How I go about builds is generally.

CPU - Intel (unless AMD manages to put out something awesome).
MoBo - Gigabyte, MSI or Asus that fits the budget.
RAM - Crucial, G.skill, Hynix OEM if you somehow magically get that. If you're strapped for budget anything really. It's not the biggest difference and a lot of RAM comes from the same OEM.
GPU - Generally price per performance unless someone needs or wants specific features.
Storage - Crucial, Samsung or Intel SSD. Western Digital or Seagate for HDD.
Case - Corsair or Fractal Design but that's preference really, aesthetically and for Fractal Design the filters and noise.
PSU - SeaSonic or Delta OEMs. So that means SeaSonic, Antec (SeaSonic and Delta OEMs), XFX.

Monitor wise.
Eizo, NEC > Dell, BenQ, Viewsonic > AOC, ASUS > Acer. LG and Samsung is a mixed bag. Of course this isn't a really an encompassing statement except Eizo given their track record.

Other peripherals I'm not knowledgeable about.

[MerinPally]

That build looks REALLY REALLY good, I'd just recommend one change. You are getting a GTX760. The GTX970 is really not that much more, and is both massively more powerful and requires less power. I just looked it up on the same site you used since I'm not familiar with prices in UK£. I'm also HEAVILY partial to EVGA for video cards as far as Nvidia goes. Their build quality, warranty, and customer service are second to none.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga...rd-04gp40972kr

The new Maxwell cards are amazing in both power and power consumption. The 980 can beat the 780ti in some situations (higher resolutions mostly). The 970 handily beats every AMD card except dual GPU ones, and every Nvidia card except the 780ti. But yeah, with a 970, it is literally impossible to have a better system, aside from going to the 980 or SLI with multiple video cards (which isn't necessary for 1080p). The 4790k is the best gaming CPU right now, and the 980 is the best video card. The 980 does cost more though, which is why I recommended the 970 which is almost as good and still within your budget.

120GB is enough for the OS plus WOW. I only upgraded to a 250GB one because I wanted both WOW and ESO on it. And yes an SSD makes a *massive* difference with WOW. Of course anything can benefit from being on an SSD, but MMO's benefit the most. I only have WOW and ESO on my SSD, and I haven't had any problems with other games being on my regular hard drive. As far as RAM, 8gb is the sweet spot for gaming right now. You generally won't need more than that. And you can always easily add more RAM later if you want to.

One big bonus you will get with this system is, you can upgrade it piece by piece as time goes on.

Thank you very much, I'll check out the other video cards and do some reading about what EVGA is The video card is still one of the parts most up for alteration, just picked that one as it was right in the middle of the price range. Definitely considering the bigger SSD, it won't be double the price to get double the storage despite that I really don't play enough games any more that I could ever fill up a 256GB SSD.

Infact, I couldn't really scratch the surface of any particular storage unit that I touch. Reading your post made me decide to go and check what I had stored. So my laptop has a 500GB HDD, and 465GB of that is useable. Currently, Only 137GB of that is being used and I have 327GB spare. All I've got stored on this is Curse Client, Chrome, some stuff for the printer, Origin, Battle Net, WoW, Starcraft, Simcity, Steam, Itunes, Spotify, and then tonnes of spreadsheets and word documents from various lab works that I do. I could potentially get away with a 500GB HDD, especially if I'm buying a 256GB SSD... I could store everything on the SSD and not have to think twice. I guess that means that I could download all the other games that I have but exceedingly rarely play, like Diablo - and then the next Doom whenever that comes out. I have a load of pictures too but they're on an external hard drive at the moment. It's not like it'll bog down the system.

I personally wouldn't go for anything less than 240(250, 256 whatever)GBs of SSD storage. It fills up real quick.

Corsair is... okay with some of their products.
Corsair while a known brand isn't very good for everything, similar to ASUS.
How I go about builds is generally.

CPU - Intel (unless AMD manages to put out something awesome).
MoBo - Gigabyte, MSI or Asus that fits the budget.
RAM - Crucial, G.skill, Hynix OEM if you somehow magically get that. If you're strapped for budget anything really. It's not the biggest difference and a lot of RAM comes from the same OEM.
GPU - Generally price per performance unless someone needs or wants specific features.
Storage - Crucial, Samsung or Intel SSD. Western Digital or Seagate for HDD.
Case - Corsair or Fractal Design but that's preference really, aesthetically and for Fractal Design the filters and noise.
PSU - SeaSonic or Delta OEMs. So that means SeaSonic, Antec (SeaSonic and Delta OEMs), XFX.

Monitor wise.
Eizo, NEC > Dell, BenQ, Viewsonic > AOC, ASUS > Acer. LG and Samsung is a mixed bag. Of course this isn't a really an encompassing statement except Eizo given their track record.

Other peripherals I'm not knowledgeable about.

Having looked back, I do see that it looks like I've attempted to go for a Corsair build! That was not intentional - whilst the PSU and case were, the RAM was just one of the first ones I saw for a similar price - was checking out the 8GB version of the Ripjaws that I posted first time round, and that Kost suggested. I was definitely looking at a Samsung SSD and if you recommend a 256GB one then even better because the one I was checking out particularly, was actually Samsung. I'll check out some of those PSU's and a few more video cards, the rest of the stuff all looks pretty similar to what I've picked, brandwise.

Shame about the monitors, I'm currently running a 24inch Acer that I picked up for £120 as it was half price. Obviously I'd like another for aesthetic reasons but if you think it's that bad then maybe it's worth checking one of the other brands, see if I can find a similar looking one. Had it for about a year now with no problems except the power cable (I think it was the box bit) kinda blew up on me back in like April. Been wonderful since then. About other peripherals - I already have speakers, a USB bus, mouse, mousepad and a headset - all those things! The only peripheral I'd need is a monitor and that'd be as a second anyway.

Thanks for your help guys, I need to go to bed now as it's 00:30 and I need to get back to a normal sleeping pattern but I'll do some more digging tomorrow

[Remilia]

Personal suggestion for SSD:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cruc...ct256mx100ssd1

Monitor really depends. For some people they just want one to get the job done. I guess I'm a bit more picky(?) (selective?) where performance of the monitor matters.
Info given on monitors is obscure with advertisement. People see 1ms or 2ms and think wow it must be great for gaming! while ignoring or not even knowing anything about the signal processing and such. The only company that I've seen that's honest and rather accurate about it is Eizo.
Then there's, does it matter. Total lag tends to matter if say you were playing a twitch FPS like Quake, Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament kind of games, otherwise I honestly say a frame (maybe 2) or less is good enough for most people.
Ones I pick are rather good all around performing monitors. Of course they're not going to compare to say a $2k Eizo Color Edge or NEC Professional Arts line but they're good nonetheless.

[Stormspark]

Personal suggestion for SSD:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cruc...ct256mx100ssd1

Monitor really depends. For some people they just want one to get the job done. I guess I'm a bit more picky(?) (selective?) where performance of the monitor matters.
Info given on monitors is obscure with advertisement. People see 1ms or 2ms and think wow it must be great for gaming! while ignoring or not even knowing anything about the signal processing and such. The only company that I've seen that's honest and rather accurate about it is Eizo.
Then there's, does it matter. Total lag tends to matter if say you were playing a twitch FPS like Quake, Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament kind of games, otherwise I honestly say a frame (maybe 2) or less is good enough for most people.
Ones I pick are rather good all around performing monitors. Of course they're not going to compare to say a $2k Eizo Color Edge or NEC Professional Arts line but they're good nonetheless.

If you do get a new monitor make sure it is IPS, or Super PLS in the case of Samsung (Samsung's name for IPS). Once you've used an IPS monitor, you won't be able to stand to look at a TN monitor again. I could go into more technical details...but to keep it brief, IPS has MUCH MUCH better color reproduction, MUCH better contrast (blacks particularly look much better) and MUCH wider viewing angles (TN monitors don't look right unless you look straight at it, angles tend to distort the colors).

But yeah, with your budget I would definitely go for a 970. It is by far the best video card in your price range, SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than the 760 (while using less power), and yet doesn't cost much more. The 980 costs a good bit more than the 970 and while it is more powerful, it will probably be overkill for what you need. The 970 and 980 are relatively new GPU's, while the 760 is more than a year old. The 760 uses the older Kepler tech, while the 970 is the much newer Maxwell. Here is a "rough" comparison between the two. http://www.hwcompare.com/18042/gefor...force-gtx-760/

The 4790k + the 970 is combining the fastest gaming CPU with the second best single GPU on the market right now. You can't really go wrong with that.

[Remilia]

If you do get a new monitor make sure it is IPS, or Super PLS in the case of Samsung (Samsung's name for IPS). Once you've used an IPS monitor, you won't be able to stand to look at a TN monitor again. I could go into more technical details...but to keep it brief, IPS has MUCH MUCH better color reproduction, MUCH better contrast (blacks particularly look much better) and MUCH wider viewing angles (TN monitors don't look right unless you look straight at it, angles tend to distort the colors).

But yeah, with your budget I would definitely go for a 970. It is by far the best video card in your price range, SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than the 760 (while using less power), and yet doesn't cost much more. The 980 costs a good bit more than the 970 and while it is more powerful, it will probably be overkill for what you need. The 970 and 980 are relatively new GPU's, while the 760 is more than a year old. The 760 uses the older Kepler tech, while the 970 is the much newer Maxwell. Here is a "rough" comparison between the two. http://www.hwcompare.com/18042/gefor...force-gtx-760/

The 4790k + the 970 is combining the fastest gaming CPU with the second best single GPU on the market right now. You can't really go wrong with that.

TN and IPS are both the same static contrast ratio of 1000:1.
VAs win with contrast both quoting 3000:1 or 5000:1 and performing the same. Followed by IGZO with 1500:1

I'm going to leave this here...
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post30354713

I guess I should note something for color coverage, accuracy, and reasons why they're avoided or used by professionals.

All panel types will look a bit different due to how the sub pixels are set up. Which is why some people prefer one type to another despite it technically showing the same thing if they were all 100% calibrated the same.

Panels' color coverage or gamut is largely dependent on what is used for back light. Earlier were using CCFLs which aren't as harsh / bright as LEDs but allowed a different variety of color gamut. Nowadays it's LEDs with W-LEDs giving a rough coverage of the sRGB gamut (72%~ NTSC). GB-r (GB) / RB LEDs giving a rough coverage of Adobe RGB (104%~ NTSC), and RGB LED or Crystal LED (CLED -rip-) covering more than 114% NTSC comparable to OLED and Plasma gamut.
Factory calibration is also to play part with the coverage.

Now, TN, VA and IPS (including AHVA, PLS and IGZO) can have that color coverage provided it's using the proper back light and calibration.

Color accuracy like gamut is independent from panel type. Color accuracy is largely dependent on calibration / factory set up. Some can have issues calibrating, doesn't matter if it's TN, VA or IPS. PA248Q comes to mind with having issues calibrating with user settings.

Now why IPS is used over TNs and VAs.

TN's viewing angle causes issue when doing professional artwork. The contrast shift and color shifts even when you're looking directly straight.
VA's is similar but most notable is off center contrast shifts, where dark materials you look at straight on may appear just completely black.
Now most IPS (exception like Eizo EV2736W) also have something called IPS glow, where it's more prominent if you're looking at one at an angle you'll notice a silver/yellow (depends) 'glow'. It's apparently possible to remove it as shown by the one mentioned before or use of A-TW Polarizer. This can also cause potential issues when working with more color critical dark content but it's not as prominent or of an issue than the other two.

[Deleted]

• As it stands atm in the market, if you go for a 128gb ssd you go samsung evo, for 256 or 512 you got Crucial MX100.
• As Remilia noted, the CX psu you have there is not good, not even a fair one, they are bad. Too many ppl with doa to power fails within weeks a couple months.
• Ram i would suggest a lower profile. Either you overclock or not at some point you will replace the stocks cooler cause it will go bad, besides the noise.
• The Asus 760 you got there is a waste of money, 20pounds more you get a gtx970 with night to day performance difference.
• If you are not going to overclock what is the point of that Asus maximus board? You will use half the board features something you can do with a board that costs almost half the money.
• In the build i proposed you, you don't have to overclock. Consider it being overclocked @ stock, with warranty on it. If for some reason your budget changed maybe we can cut down from that rig here and there and tailor it better.

[MerinPally]

Personal suggestion for SSD:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cruc...ct256mx100ssd1

Monitor really depends. For some people they just want one to get the job done. I guess I'm a bit more picky(?) (selective?) where performance of the monitor matters.

Thanks for the SSD, that corroborates with what Kostattoo said so I think that's probably a sound choice. Will add it to the list and run it by some friends next few days, my housemate has been itching to get this done for ages as he loves this shit, and built his own over summer.

I'm not sure how much it matters, I'm never going to be gaming at a high level. Never going to be achieving Grandmaster in Starcraft and in WoW I was doing heroic raiding with no problem on this old laptop and a monitor from the Bronze Age. The most picture and video editing I do will be on paint. I think the best thing in this case might be to check out those brands you listed for something that looks similar, and if I can't find one (meaning I've probably not looked hard/right places) then default back to another of what I've already got.

• As it stands atm in the market, if you go for a 128gb ssd you go samsung evo, for 256 or 512 you got Crucial MX100.
• As Remilia noted, the CX psu you have there is not good, not even a fair one, they are bad. Too many ppl with doa to power fails within weeks a couple months.
• Ram i would suggest a lower profile. Either you overclock or not at some point you will replace the stocks cooler cause it will go bad, besides the noise.
• The Asus 760 you got there is a waste of money, 20pounds more you get a gtx970 with night to day performance difference.
• If you are not going to overclock what is the point of that Asus maximus board? You will use half the board features something you can do with a board that costs almost half the money.
• In the build i proposed you, you don't have to overclock. Consider it being overclocked @ stock, with warranty on it. If for some reason your budget changed maybe we can cut down from that rig here and there and tailor it better.

- Thanks on the SSD, same as Remilia said so I guess if there's some agreement there then maybe it's a good way to go.
- PSU shall be altered accordingly, I think I need something around a similar wattage though but I'll double check.
- Way ahead of you, checked out some other 8GB RAM this morning
- Will check out the GTX, this ASUS one was more of a placeholder in the price range. If I can save £20 on the motherboard to keep a similar price then awesome as well.
- Went for the Maximus because it looked retard proof, basically. Will check over some more numbers.
- I'm not overclocking, I can't risk it. Fine to do it when I'm at uni as people around can help, but I'm going to want this thing for over 2 years and I'll have finished uni by then so they won't be around and cannot help diagnose or fix any problems.

[Stormspark]

Thanks for the SSD, that corroborates with what Kostattoo said so I think that's probably a sound choice. Will add it to the list and run it by some friends next few days, my housemate has been itching to get this done for ages as he loves this shit, and built his own over summer.

I'm not sure how much it matters, I'm never going to be gaming at a high level. Never going to be achieving Grandmaster in Starcraft and in WoW I was doing heroic raiding with no problem on this old laptop and a monitor from the Bronze Age. The most picture and video editing I do will be on paint. I think the best thing in this case might be to check out those brands you listed for something that looks similar, and if I can't find one (meaning I've probably not looked hard/right places) then default back to another of what I've already got.



- Thanks on the SSD, same as Remilia said so I guess if there's some agreement there then maybe it's a good way to go.
- PSU shall be altered accordingly, I think I need something around a similar wattage though but I'll double check.
- Way ahead of you, checked out some other 8GB RAM this morning
- Will check out the GTX, this ASUS one was more of a placeholder in the price range. If I can save £20 on the motherboard to keep a similar price then awesome as well.
- Went for the Maximus because it looked retard proof, basically. Will check over some more numbers.
- I'm not overclocking, I can't risk it. Fine to do it when I'm at uni as people around can help, but I'm going to want this thing for over 2 years and I'll have finished uni by then so they won't be around and cannot help diagnose or fix any problems.

If you get the 4790k, overclocking really won't be necessary. It already has a very high clock speed (4.4 GHz turbo) out of the box.

For the GTX970, I highly recommend the EVGA version with the ACX cooler. The ACX cooler is much more efficient (and quieter) than the stock Nvidia cooler. It does a very good job, my 780ti with ACX cooler stays extremely cool even under heavy loads. All manufacturers have their own custom coolers, so you don't have to go with EVGA if you get a better deal (the other manufacturers are fine, I've just had great experiences with EVGA). http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga...rd-04gp42974kr

For the power supply, two things you want to look for are: 80+ bronze rating minimum. You don't really need higher than that...it won't hurt if you get higher than that but it will be more expensive. And 12V amps. 12V amps are what power the system. Make sure it has only 1 12V rail and that it has sufficient amperage to power everything you have. The Corsair one you picked is very good and should be fine.

Just so you know if you ever want to look for power supplies again, here is how you tell. These are the specs of the power supply you picked (which is a good one): +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@46A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@3.0A

Notice how there is only one +12V, and it is 46A. That means 552 of the 600W are dedicated to +12V (W = V x A), on one rail (if there were more than one, it would be listed as +12V1, +12V2, etc). This is VERY good and is how a power supply should be designed. I personally am partial to the Corsair CXM modular power supplies (basically, you only plug in the connectors you need rather than having a huge mass of cables coming out the back of the power supply)...but that's just personal preference and makes for a MUCH neater system. A modular power supply can also make your cooling more efficient (because you're not impeding airflow with unnecessary wires). That power supply will EASILY handle a 4790k and a GTX970 with plenty to spare. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/cors...-supply-cx600m is the modular version of the one you picked. It's identical in specs, just modular. It's only £5 more than the regular CX600.

I would also recommend this motherboard over the one you got. I've been using Asrock motherboards for years and they've never let me down. This is the Z97 version of the one I've been using for over a year now (mine is the Z87 Extreme4 as I have a 4770k), and it's been very good. It's the only motherboard I've personally used that can fit my sound card in the PCI-e 1x slot above the video card, so I don't have to block video card ventilation with it. It's also £50 cheaper than the one you picked. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asro...rd-z97extreme4

If you need any more suggestions, just let me know. I like helping people build computers, and they are usually amazed at how much system they can get for their money compared to prebuilts.

Btw totally offtopic but your avatar is awesome.

[Remilia]

If you get the 4790k, overclocking really won't be necessary. It already has a very high clock speed (4.4 GHz turbo) out of the box.

For the GTX970, I highly recommend the EVGA version with the ACX cooler. The ACX cooler is much more efficient (and quieter) than the stock Nvidia cooler. It does a very good job, my 780ti with ACX cooler stays extremely cool even under heavy loads. All manufacturers have their own custom coolers, so you don't have to go with EVGA if you get a better deal (the other manufacturers are fine, I've just had great experiences with EVGA). http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga...rd-04gp42974kr

Most quiet would be ASUS with their semi passive cooler.
I don't know all the numbers off the top of my head so I won't really comment on it. All I remember though is ACX 1.0 had issues with cooling and their PR cover up is a bit lawlsy.

For the power supply, two things you want to look for are: 80+ bronze rating minimum. You don't really need higher than that...it won't hurt if you get higher than that but it will be more expensive. And 12V amps. 12V amps are what power the system. Make sure it has only 1 12V rail and that it has sufficient amperage to power everything you have. The Corsair one you picked is very good and should be fine.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990
There are advantage and disadvantages to multi-rail and single. From what I know, SeaSonic actually does split rails for some PSUs but lists em as a single rail due to well... marketing, simple as that.

Yes, folks, it's kind of an open secret but all of Seasonic's really big units like this one do have some degree of multi-rail 12V protection regardless of what they're marketed as. I consider it a plus, not a minus. They usually set it so high that nobody could possibly run up against it, and it might as well be a single 12V design anyway, but I digress. No, I did not go looking for the trip point. On a Seasonic, that usually means I need two to three 12V loading banks combined to get there and I simply don't have time for that much of a wiring mess.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...tory3&reid=401
Sadly they got a sort of dud unit and so SeaSonic is investigating what went wrong. Sent another unit that is fully functioning. Sadly happens to every manufacture =\. Basically in every hardware possible.
Super Flower is another that does multi-rail. It's a very good safety mechanism too if something goes wrong, like a surge or whatever.
That said, CX isn't really good. Corsair has a name, sure but not all their product is good.