£900 Gaming PC - first build

[dwardusprime]

Hi all, I'm hoping to build my first gaming rig and would really appreciate some help with getting going. Here are the details -

Approximate Purchase Date:
I'd like to have all the parts ready to build by May 3rd weekend as it's a bank holiday and I'm away Easter weekend, but I'm happy to start buying parts now.

Budget Range: £900 after shipping. It may be I have a bit of leeway (£100-£200 extra), after next payday for buying a better monitor, keyboard etc and I have some beaten-up alternative to use in the meantime – so more to spend on the actual machine.

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
Computer games, Photoshop & web design, video editing is not important to me & I'll generally use other devices to watch movies.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes. At some point it'd be nice to have two, but I see that as a slightly later purchase, though any tips would be helpful.

Parts to Upgrade: 
I'll need everything including a chassis, including a keyboard and tips on a good Joypad would be good.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, I'm guessing it'd be easier than Linux to run Adobe CC software etc

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference

Location: Bath/Somerset, UK

Parts Preferences: No preference

Overclocking: Yes (have heard it's worth doing)

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (not sure what this is!)

Your Monitor Resolution: A decent video gaming size – any recommendations? I'm guessing 22/24 inches

Additional Comments:

I'd like a quiet PC if possible. I'd like to be able to pla the latest games to quite high specs, and the new Batman game (Arkham Knight) when it comes out. Besides that it'll probably be used mainly for web design persuits and a fair bit of photoshopping.I’d like a cool looking chassis, which sounds fickle, but from a looks perspective alone I think this is awesome, http://vr-zone.com/articles/bitfenix-announces-colossus-full-tower-pc-chassis/9661.html?TB_iframe=true&height=650&width=850, but basically anything that has plenty of room in it for enhancements.

Why Are You Upgrading: I don't want to get an XboxOne or PS4 and I want something reliable that will hopefully last a couple of years and that I can add to.



At Christmas time I purchased a magazine called “PC Hardware The Ultimate Guide 2014”, before I had any sort of budget, and it listed the following parts for a top of the range gaming rig at the time. I’d be interested to know whether this is a good starting point (I'm guessing things have moved on in these couple of months) -

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.6GHz - £166
Motherboard:
Asus P8Z77-V Pro - £139
Memory:
Ballistix Tactical LP 8GB @ 1600MHz
Graphics Card:
Sapphire HD 7870 XT - £191
Storage:
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB - £140
Seagate 2TB HDD - £70
PSU:
OCZ ModXstream 500W - £46
Chassis:
Corsair Graphite 600T - £130 (this mag also said the Carbide 500R is badass)
Cooler:
Cooler Master Seidon 120M - £46

A friend suggested I should look on Ebay and get parts second hand, would you absolutely warn against this? I’d prefer to get them new, but if I’m missing out with my budget…

Any help/thoughts would be much appreciated and I’m happy to do more research/provide more detail if required.

Thanks!

 

[reubenno]

I would drop your motherboard down to an Asrock Extreme4 z77 which will save you £30. I have the Asrock motherboard and its great! The £30 saved could also go towards a 280x graphics card which will give you much better performance compared to the 7870. I would also use a Carbide 300r/400r case which would save you about £70 and the saved money could go towards a larger PSU for a dual GPU setup later on.
Just my opinion

 

[dwardusprime]

Thanks so much for lending your knowledge, really invaluable! I'll tell you what I land up getting. On monitors I've read the i2353Fh is great for the price, any recommends? Then I'll just need to settle on a joypad. I'm not interested in flight simulators or racing games, just general adventure games and maybe the odd FPS.

Thanks guys

 

[reubenno]

I have the Viewsonic VX2370smh and the picture quality is fantastic! It comes with fairly good built in speakers too and the bezel around the screen is quite small which would make it good for dual screen setups

 

[dwardusprime]

Awesome - that does look like a great monitor and it'd be awesome to add another down the line!

Using PCPartsPicker to see how much I'll need to spend in the end and just sense-checking a couple of things on the build -

- I can't seem to find the Carbide 500R because it sounds like it'd do a really job but also looks cool
- On the graphics card / Radeon R9 280X front, am I better off getting the 1.1GHz version?
- Where do I add a cooler?
- I couldn't find the Seagate 2TB HDD storage under additional storage, the OCZ ModXstream 500W
- Also I was kind of confused over the memory – I can see Ballistix parts but not the Ballistix Tactical LP, I take it any of these 8GB - Ballistix Tactical parts will do the job though?
- Windows 8 version and 32 or 64 bit version?

Here's the link to my build so far -
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3qU9W

Thanks

 

[reubenno]

Awesome - that does look like a great monitor and it'd be awesome to add another down the line!

Using PCPartsPicker to see how much I'll need to spend in the end and just sense-checking a couple of things on the build -

- I can't seem to find the Carbide 500R because it sounds like it'd do a really job but also looks cool
- On the graphics card / Radeon R9 280X front, am I better off getting the 1.1GHz version?
- Where do I add a cooler?
- I couldn't find the Seagate 2TB HDD storage under additional storage, the OCZ ModXstream 500W
- Also I was kind of confused over the memory – I can see Ballistix parts but not the Ballistix Tactical LP, I take it any of these 8GB - Ballistix Tactical parts will do the job though?
- Windows 8 version and 32 or 64 bit version?

Here's the link to my build so far -
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3qU9W

Thanks

To be honest I think the Carbide 400r or even the 300r would do the job fine. (I own the 300r and love it!)
In terms of the graphics card the 1.1Ghz version would be preferable however it is dependent on the card. If the 1.1Ghz one does not have a custom cooler you may be better off getting a normal 280x with a cooler and overclocking it yourself as there is a good chance that you will be able to push it past 1.1ghz (however this is dependent on the cooler you get)
The cooler is just below the CPU you chose (presuming you meant about partpicker?)
In terms of a HDD I would always go for a Western Digital hard drive as I have heard many stories of Seagate drives failing, my preference would be the Caviar Black variant as it is the best budget one in terms of price to performance
RAM wise I can see the Tactical one however not the low profile one. I am fairly sure that you will need a Low Profile set of RAM in order for it to fit under the CPU cooler. If I were you I would go for the Corsiar Vengeance LP as it is around £10 cheaper (If i read the chart properly) and performs very well with the Asrock motherboard.
Windows wise I have heard that 8.1 is a much better version than 8.0 so I would recommend that and I would go for the professional variant. You will also need to get the 64bit version as the 32bit only supports 4GB of RAM.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask as you are basically building the same PC as I have.
Best regards

 

[Matt087_48]

THe 750 watt Seasonic M2II is a Great power supply for multigpu and future upgrades sometimes newegg has a good deal on them as well usually 69.99-79.99 with promo codes and mail in rebates> i can vouche for seasonic honoring their rebates , i recieved my rebates from the 2 i purchased.