Making / Buying a gaming PC

[Deleted]

Hello Everyone,

A short while ago, I found myself with a new job and a larger income.
I'm playing on a mid budget pc from 2006 now and well most games need to be played at low setting or hardly play at all. (Witcher 2 has a whopping 18 FPS)
Today I've decided: Enough. It's time for a new pc.

I live in the Netherlands in a more remote area. There are some PC shops but I have a feeling they overpriced their components. Plus they become all technical and I'm a bit of a noob regarding pc building (this will be my first build)

I already have a keyboard, boxes, mouse and a nice 1920 x 1080 monitor already so it's just the PC that needs to be bought.


Marest's gaming builds (1470) are very nice (I think) but some parts got discontinued and according to a guildie some pieces were already a bit outdated.

My budget is 1600 euro. Nothing more then that. Since I am a teacher, Windows 8 and Word are nearly free in the Netherlands (10 euro each)
My goal: A PC that can handle the Witcher 3, new batman, Dragon age 3 (so near future games) on high/ultra settings. I understand that with each passing year the max setting of a game becomes higher and thus that I have to settle with medium graphics etc. But I would love to postpone that just like anyone else
The PC must last at least 5 years, excluding weird hardware jumps that nobody can predict.

Sometimes I make Youtube video's to explain some biology subjects etc. It's nothing too special, must stuff is done in Movie maker and Sony Vegas.

Can the MMO community help this soon-to-be pc builder?

[tielknight]

Throwing together something on Azerty.nl, gimme a bit to get a list going for ya, looks to be around the $1600 range so far.

edit : if Chrome would stop crashing during translation this would be easier >

edit2 : Pic of the parts here. At this kind of budget, a dual-monitor setup would be fairly easy and easily fits in the budget(just under €1500 with the monitor costing €139) and the HD 7990 is going to last you for quite some time. And by the time Mantle comes out, it should help things run even better.

Parts list :
CPU €194
Cooler €26
Motherboard €89
Memory €70
SSD €150
HDD €55
PSU €70
GPU €549
Case €37
OS €90
Monitor €139
Optical Drive €17

Total : €1496.38

[Deleted]

Thanks Tielknight

Since I already have a monitor (I know you wrote dual monitor but there isn't space for that on my desk), plus the OS is giving to me from my job, I would have 210 euro to distribute elsewhere. Where would you make the suggestion?

Thanks in advance

[lordsphinx]

This should do the trick for you...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£253.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£62.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£142.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£64.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£62.90 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (£587.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£95.70 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG CH10LS28 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£48.38 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1536.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-21 16:25 BST+0100)

Intel i7 CPU: If you plan on doing enough rendering to mention it, then you're going to want the i7. If you render video only rarely and don't mind it taking a while, then go with the cheaper i5. Both should be the "K" version if you ever plan on overclocking in the future. This will help to futureproof the machine.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 is a great air cooler, and will allow you to overclock in the future.

Z87 Mobo will auto OC for you, noobs unite!!

LP RAM to fit under the cooler. 8GB is more than enough.

840 EVO SSD is the best bang for your buck, and the budget allows for 250GB. If you want to slim it down, drop this to a 120GB.

GPU: GTX 780 is a placeholder. I would recommend either this card or the Radeon 290X (couldn't find that one on PCPartpicker)

Case: Define R4 is practical and elegant, as well as large enough for all of your components.

PSU: I chose a PSU with a little more overhead to allow for both overclocking and SLI/Crossfire in the future. This is another futureproofing item.





Edit: Poo, I chose British pounds instead of euro. I think this will be overbudget with Euro...

[tielknight]

Thanks Tielknight

Since I already have a monitor (I know you wrote dual monitor but there isn't space for that on my desk), plus the OS is giving to me from my job, I would have 210 euro to distribute elsewhere. Where would you make the suggestion?

Thanks in advance

More storage, get a 2TB Barracuda, get the Noctua cooler lordsphinx suggested. The Fractal case would be a nice addition as well.

And a decent modular PSU will also help keep things neat and tidy inside the case.

Though I would stick with the HD 7990 as it outperforms the GTX 780 in most games and is a bit cheaper. Plus that 6GB of VRAM is pretty sweet. Plus, MSI is being a bit of a bastard lately with only giving out 1-year warranties....

snip

Most of the vendors on PcpartpickerUK do not ship to the Netherlands sadly.

[Deleted]

At the moment with the help of you guys and a buddy who's also a noobie we came to this.

http://azerty.nl/winkelmandje/winkel...%5B620105%5D=1

It is a bit overpriced but we were thinking to buy it in the 2nd week of November. NVIDEA has a press release at the end of october so hopefully the price of the Videocard will go down a bit. If not, medio November is my birthday so I might be able to get some extra money.
What you guys think?

[lordsphinx]

I'm pretty sure you can get the Radeon R9 290X for less than the GTX780, and it outperforms in almost every category.

[Deleted]

I think the build looks quite good.

You could upgrade your 120GB SSD to 250GB. Windows takes about 20GB, games nowadays about 8GB (varies of course) but this will increase and you will also put your programs on the SSD. All the other parts are generously dimensioned so this would be more in line with your "futureproof" approach.

On the other hand i would suggest to wait with the video card. Some days ago AMD released their "new" video card series except for the flagship R9 290X (actually just old cards with new names and price discount, again except for the flagship). So i would recommend to wait for the new card and new benchmarks. Then you can decide if you want to buy the Ti780 or the R9 290(X). Hopefully nvidia also reduces the price for their card so you can fund the bigger SSD.

[tielknight]

At the moment with the help of you guys and a buddy who's also a noobie we came to this.

http://azerty.nl/winkelmandje/winkel...%5B620105%5D=1

It is a bit overpriced but we were thinking to buy it in the 2nd week of November. NVIDEA has a press release at the end of october so hopefully the price of the Videocard will go down a bit. If not, medio November is my birthday so I might be able to get some extra money.
What you guys think?

A extra €100 for a small performance increase in render-time is a bit wasteful imo.

The Noctua cooler will cool just as good and should be quieter than the h80i.

The memory costs more for the same performance.

Do NOT get a MSI card, their warranty is only 1-year on newer cards. If your going to spend that kind of money, wait for the 290X to come out. It's the same price/cheaper than the 780 and performs better.

WD Green is not a good storage drive, WD Blue's are best for that or Seagate Barracuda's.

The extra money spent on a 80+ platinum PSU is not worth it, any decent 80+ bronze will suffice.

And so far, the 780ti is looking pretty bland and I highly doubt Nvidia will drop their prices, too greedy for that.

The 250GB 840 EVO will give you room for more games.

[Deleted]

Try this build from Azerty. IT comes to €1622 inc. P&P, and includes the i7, though you can drop that to the i5-4670k in order to improve either:

1) the amount of RAM for rendering etc;
2) Get that platinum PSU (though i wouldn't recommend that unless you absolutely require power-stability.);
3) upgrading the GPU to a high-end R9-290X when they come out.