£550+ Full Build

[Waaaaz]

So, I'm currently in need for a completely new computer as for why well I'm off to university soon and I figured a new start also needs a new computer

So following the thread on the post regarding build advice...

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: 1-2 weeks

Budget Range: £600 total

System Usage from Most to Least Important: This computer is going to be used for; Computer game development + Programming (the courses that I have chosen and a hobby I would like to get into after brief exposure), Playing games etc.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes but I already have one in mind thanks.



Parts to Upgrade: Completely fresh build no foundations or parts to build from

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, but again I have already decided and am fairly capable of changing OS if needed,

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.co.uk (British)

Location: England... Assembled in my house

Parts Preferences: Brands in particular that I have taken preference to are Intel CPU's and GeForce (happy to change with proper reasoning)

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080.

Additional Comments: Would prefer the build to be quiet but its more of a preference than a necessity other than that, hoping it can be
comfortable to use in development (comfortable meaning I won't be bumping into any hardware related issues) other than that just simple 60fps 1080p gaming.
Not really looking to get ultra out of future release or even current releases.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Technological prowess of my current computer is comparable to a garbage truck honestly.


American

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PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XFQKf7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XFQKf7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($18.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($41.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Silverstone 500W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $763.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 12:50 EST-0500

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British

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PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XFQKf7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XFQKf7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£34.38 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£157.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case (£41.88 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Silverstone 500W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£61.15 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full - USB (32/64-bit)
Total: £566.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 17:51 GMT+0000


P.S. sorry if the above if a bit 'Spammy' can be removed at request

 

[Barty1884]

Just to be clear.....the OS & Monitor are NOT included in the 600quid? Or they are?

How is NewEgg in the UK anyway? It became available after I moved to Canada - do you pay shipping too?
Amazon used to be the best bet (and still seems to be on PCPP for the UK)

 

[Waaaaz]

Just to be clear.....the OS & Monitor are NOT included in the 600quid? Or they are?

How is NewEgg in the UK anyway? It became available after I moved to Canada - do you pay shipping too?
Amazon used to be the best bet (and still seems to be on PCPP for the UK)

Nope the £600 is for the actual computer itself no software or peripherals though it is a max price and I wouldn't bump up £70 for the sake of a minor performance increase.
Never actually bought anything from New Egg myself, had a friend say that It was cheaper hence why I looked into it. The price difference in either website is never too large for me to care so much, and yes shipping will be included but again even if I got each component delivered separately (never bee the case when I've bought from multiple retailers through Amazon before) It'll be a minor cost that I'm not too fussed about. As far as I'm aware pcpartpicker includes tax and shipping (not too sure)

 

[Dulith1118]

okay to start off get a tier 1 or 2 psu.. and Kingston Rams aren't much preferred so I'd go with g skill corsair but it won't do any difference...

 

[Dulith1118]

and I would ditch the third party cooler and spend about 230 for the cpu and get 4690K and if u want in the future when u have some money u can get a cooler and overclock it for now id would not buy a cooler cuz it's useless

 

[Barty1884]

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

It's quite an interesting build to say the least. For developing & programming, normally I'd recommend an i7 for optimal use. Considering this is more of a hobby though, an i5 should do you just fine.......but a Xeon would be perfect if the price is right.

Dulith1118 is right regarding the PSU - Tier 1 or 2 (see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£203.32 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.80 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£30.00 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£55.76 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.57 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.36 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £622.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 18:17 GMT+0000

Now that has gone over by 20quid, but that was the SSD - you really do feel how snappy an SSD is. You can take it out of the build if the budget is really tight, but I highly recommend it.

You can drop to an i5-4690 to bring it back under budget:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£170.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.80 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£30.00 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£55.76 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.57 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.36 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £589.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 18:19 GMT+0000

The Xeon is probably the best option for what you do. It's essentially a server CPU - an i7 within the integrated graphics. Will perform as good as an i7 in gaming/programming/edditting etc, but cheaper.

 

[Waaaaz]

and I would ditch the third party cooler and spend about 230 for the cpu and get 4690K and if u want in the future when u have some money u can get a cooler and overclock it for now id would not buy a cooler cuz it's useless

Not trying to be insulting here because as far as hardware goes I know little to nothing, but what you said to me all sounded like a lot of opinion and no fact. Not saying your wrong, just a little explanation to go with your reply would be great i.e.

why t1-2 for PSU I thought that was efficiency based, the PSU above has more than enough wattage to cope with the components.
The cooler I agree with I put it in the list as a safety precaution, can never be to sure
4690"K" not going to venture into over clocking without an after market cooler, I'll look into the 4460 being appropriate for the development side of things though.

 

[Barty1884]

Not trying to be insulting here because as far as hardware goes I know little to nothing, but what you said to me all sounded like a lot of opinion and no fact. Not saying your wrong, just a little explanation to go with your reply would be great i.e.

why t1-2 for PSU I thought that was efficiency based, the PSU above has more than enough wattage to cope with the components.
The cooler I agree with I put it in the list as a safety precaution, can never be to sure
4690"K" not going to venture into over clocking without an after market cooler, I'll look into the 4460 being appropriate for the development side of things though.

Aftermarket cooling is never a bad thing, but it can always be added later. I don't think OCing is going to be very beneficial to this rig (especially if you compare it to the Xeon I suggested), but additional cooling is always good. Stock would be just fine for you initially though.

The Tier list for PSUs is a rating scale for quality. Quality of components, longevity, protection etc. The 80+ certifications are so easy to obtain, and really, bronze-silver-gold-platinum etc don't really matter too much.

Simply speaking, there's much more to a PSU than wattage. PSUs can be continuous power (ie can provide Xwatts continously) or peak (ie the best it'll ever do, on occassion is Xwatts).

 

[Waaaaz]

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

It's quite an interesting build to say the least. For developing & programming, normally I'd recommend an i7 for optimal use. Considering this is more of a hobby though, an i5 should do you just fine.......but a Xeon would be perfect if the price is right.

Dulith1118 is right regarding the PSU - Tier 1 or 2 (see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£203.32 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.80 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£30.00 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£55.76 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.57 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.36 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £622.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 18:17 GMT+0000

Now that has gone over by 20quid, but that was the SSD - you really do feel how snappy an SSD is. You can take it out of the build if the budget is really tight, but I highly recommend it.

I originally had an SSD in there, but I thought of it as more of an extra I can get when I have some more spare cash later on. Never thought about the CPU much but what you said makes a load of sense an i5 seems a bad Idea, I'll have a look into CPU's more but the Xeon seems great!.
A few questions though, does the 2Gb extra on the gigabyte have any benefit other than allowing me to use a higher res monitor or use more than one monitor? And was there a reason for changing the brand of HDD, or was it just a pricing thing?

Thanks a load for your help though!

 

[Dulith1118]

okay so enough wattage doesn't mean u can go with any psu.. tier 1 and 2 are the best and if u go with tier 3 and 4 it's more likely that u will kill it pretty soon as they are made cheaply... and yes 4690K does need a cooler to overclock what I said was get a 4690k and when u have money buy a cooler and then overclock rather than going to a 4460 with a cooler.. the stock cooler is a good cooler u won't need a third party one if ur not overclocking ..

 

[Barty1884]

I originally had an SSD in there, but I thought of it as more of an extra I can get when I have some more spare cash later on. Never thought about the CPU much but what you said makes a load of sense an i5 seems a bad Idea, I'll have a look into CPU's more but the Xeon seems great!.
A few questions though, does the 2Gb extra on the gigabyte have any benefit other than allowing me to use a higher res monitor or use more than one monitor? And was there a reason for changing the brand of HDD, or was it just a pricing thing?

Thanks a load for your help though!

No worries. An SSD is a true luxury. If you've never had one, you won't have an issue running from an HDD for a while - once you've had one though, you'll never be truly happy with 'just' and HDD. You can add it when you have some spare cash, absolutely. Just don't go for "any old" SSD.

The i5 would be fine, especially as a hobby, but the Xeon is more 'multi purpose' for you. It's at least as good as the i5 on things the i5 can do well (and more often than not, it's better), but it can do a lot more than the i5. A huge improvement on activities that can take advantage of more threads. Like the i7, it's 4core/8threads so for your programming/developing/rendering etc, it'll be miles ahead of the i5.

The extra 2GB in the GPU helps with higher resolution/multi monitors and FPS consistency (among other things), and should stay relevant longer.

HDD was simply a pricing thing. I like Seagate personally, but I'm not biased there - I would recommend WD if the price was right. Whatever fits your budget should be fine from an HDD standpoint (provided it's not 5400rpm! - that's fine for storage, but I wouldn't run an OS off of it).

 

[Waaaaz]

I originally had an SSD in there, but I thought of it as more of an extra I can get when I have some more spare cash later on. Never thought about the CPU much but what you said makes a load of sense an i5 seems a bad Idea, I'll have a look into CPU's more but the Xeon seems great!.
A few questions though, does the 2Gb extra on the gigabyte have any benefit other than allowing me to use a higher res monitor or use more than one monitor? And was there a reason for changing the brand of HDD, or was it just a pricing thing?

Thanks a load for your help though!

No worries. An SSD is a true luxury. If you've never had one, you won't have an issue running from an HDD for a while - once you've had one though, you'll never be truly happy with 'just' and HDD. You can add it when you have some spare cash, absolutely. Just don't go for "any old" SSD.

The i5 would be fine, especially as a hobby, but the Xeon is more 'multi purpose' for you. It's at least as good as the i5 on things the i5 can do well (and more often than not, it's better), but it can do a lot more than the i5. A huge improvement on activities that can take advantage of more threads. Like the i7, it's 4core/8threads so for your programming/developing/rendering etc, it'll be miles ahead of the i5.

The extra 2GB in the GPU helps with higher resolution/multi monitors and FPS consistency (among other things), and should stay relevant longer.

HDD was simply a pricing thing. I like Seagate personally, but I'm not biased there - I would recommend WD if the price was right. Whatever fits your budget should be fine from an HDD standpoint (provided it's not 5400rpm! - that's fine for storage, but I wouldn't run an OS off of it).

Last question that has just came to mind, isnt the motherboard you suggested micro ATX and the case is an ATX Mid Tower, will this cause any problems with the ports on atleast one side of the tower?

Other than that thanks again, learnt alot!

 

[Barty1884]

Last question that has just came to mind, isnt the motherboard you suggested micro ATX and the case is an ATX Mid Tower, will this cause any problems with the ports on atleast one side of the tower?

Other than that thanks again, learnt alot!

Won't cause any issues - you could ever change the case out for something smaller - it was a price thing again.

Ultimately, most ATX cases will support mATX (some even miniITX boards) - it just mounts it further up the case so you won't be able to utilize all the expansion slots (as your board doesn't 'stretch' that far or have the additional slots).

An ATX board might have 4x PCIe slots, and an ATX case will provide the appropriate number of opening on the rear of the case. A mATX on the other hand might only have 2x PCIe slots, so only needs two of those openings.

It won't cause any issues, but you could even switch out for a mATX case.
For example:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£203.32 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.80 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£30.00 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£55.71 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.50 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.36 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £624.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-30 18:59 GMT+0000

The pics don't seem to be on PCPP - but the case is this: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Chassis/Micro_Case_/Versa/C_00002583/Versa_H15/design.htm