Advice for complete noob

[CharlieCastle13]

Evening all

This is all a bit new to me, building my own PC is something I've wanted to do for a long time but I've finally decided to go ahead with it!!

Approximate Purchase Date: The next 2-3 weeks

Budget Range: Around £900-1000– although can go slightly over if it will make a significant difference

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, watching movies Adobe Fireworks, Illustrator, etc

Are you buying a monitor: No



Parts to Upgrade: All new

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any UK sites

Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

Parts Preferences: Any

Overclocking: Maybe (I'm quite the noob at this and therefore uncertain as to the advantages / costs... although this probably indicates I should stick to the basics!!)

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (I'm quite the noob at this and therefore uncertain as to the advantages / costs... although this probably indicates I should stick to the basics!!)


Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments:

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I have a laptop that is slightly past its best, all my mates are now quite in to gaming and my laptop just can't handle much more than minesweeper!!



Given the above I've come up with the following so far:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£54.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£151.97 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£89.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG CH10LS28 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £878.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)


As mentioned above I'm a complete noob at this so I hope I've not made any schoolboy errors!! That said I'll welcome any advice what so ever, so please don't hold back!!

Thanks in advance

Charlie

 

[Sunius]

Hey, looks nice. Though some corrections are needed!

First of all, do you need such an expensive motherboard? Something like GA-Z77X-D3H would be great I think.

Secondly, I wouldn't advice going with OCZ SSDs. Something like this would be more suitable: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7td120bw

Lastly, do you need a blu ray reader? Think about it whether you will really put it to use. You could put the extra money to the graphics card budget.

 

[CharlieCastle13]

Hi Sunius

Thanks for your advice, I've took it on board and I'm glad to hear I wasn't too far of the mark, the weeks of Googling and lurking on this forum didn't go to waste!! Now I've got the following:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£54.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£77.60 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£90.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG CH10LS28 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £948.73

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

I would quite like the Blu Ray Reader as at present i have tonnes of Blu Rays but the Blu Ray player is in the living room, if my house mate is watching something it'll be nice to be able to watch them in my room. It is a bit more expensive, but it's cheaper than buying a second Blu Ray player.

 

[Deemo13]

One thing I would not recommend is the H60. While it works, its really not that good of a cooler compared to similarly priced air coolers.

The only reason why I use one is because it was free.

I would go for the Noctua NH-D14.

 

[Sunius]

Looks great. Though, I'd up the motherboard to my mentioned GA-Z77X-D3H, as it has second PCIe slot running at x8 speeds, instead of x4. That would help if in future you were to crossfire.

Deemo has a point. Water cooling is overpriced and not as effective as similarly priced air cooling.

 

[nix327]

Hi Sunius

Thanks for your advice, I've took it on board and I'm glad to hear I wasn't too far of the mark, the weeks of Googling and lurking on this forum didn't go to waste!! Now I've got the following:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£54.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£77.60 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£90.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG CH10LS28 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £948.73

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

I would quite like the Blu Ray Reader as at present i have tonnes of Blu Rays but the Blu Ray player is in the living room, if my house mate is watching something it'll be nice to be able to watch them in my room. It is a bit more expensive, but it's cheaper than buying a second Blu Ray player.

You can get a caviar blue 1tb instead of the caviar black..and get a low profile RAM so that you won't have any issues installing a heat sink.

 

[spat55]

I have a Radeon 7850, if you're budget allows get a more powerful one, as I wish I had, so a 7950 or 7970, then drop the mobo to a ga-z77-d3h, it'll help cover a better GPU.

 

[spat55]

Hi Sunius

Thanks for your advice, I've took it on board and I'm glad to hear I wasn't too far of the mark, the weeks of Googling and lurking on this forum didn't go to waste!! Now I've got the following:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£54.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£77.60 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£90.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG CH10LS28 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £948.73

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

I would quite like the Blu Ray Reader as at present i have tonnes of Blu Rays but the Blu Ray player is in the living room, if my house mate is watching something it'll be nice to be able to watch them in my room. It is a bit more expensive, but it's cheaper than buying a second Blu Ray player.

That is EXCELLENT, just needs a Hyper Evo 212+ instead of the H60 as it is cheaper and better imo, or go for a Noctua like the guy said above my last post.