First build ~ €850, need critical advice

Arnav Bhatt

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Aug 2, 2015
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Hi guys,

In the recent months, I have become more and more interested in PC gaming ever since my friend got his own gaming pc. I want to build my first gaming pc for several reasons, it will be a LOT of fun, I will probably learn MANY new things, I can say that yes, I build this and finally, for the budget that I have allocated for my build, I couldn't get a prebuilt system with the exact parts listed here.

This PC will be used for 1080p gaming at high or ultra high settings. My budget is €850, or CHF 900, or about $930, according to the latest exchange rates from Google at the time of this post.

I live in Switzerland, so I have used the following website to look up parts. This is where I'll be buying my components from and honestly, this website offers some great prices, like the MSI Radeon R9 390 that I found for only €314. Overall it's cheaper than Amazon.de, which makes this amazing for setting up builds within a budget and still getting a damn good gaming rig.

This is my build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460
Mobo: MSI Z97 PC Mate ATX, 1150
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1600, 2x4GB
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo Series 120GB
Hard drive: Western Digital Blue 1TB
Graphics Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 Gaming, 8GB OC
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA, 80+ Gold, 650W
Case: Corsair Carbide 200R

I already have Windows 8.1 so I haven't put it here. As for peripherals, I have a separate budget for that.

Being new to this side of the PC world, I'm constantly doing research to see if I have it right. For example: I know that I have a Z97 board that supports over clocking, but I don't have an unlocked processor. For me, this is basically an investment for the future, because when I decide to upgrade to let's say a Core i5-4690K for OCing, I don't have to change the motherboard. Same goes for the Crossfire support as well. The reason for this is because I know I'll be using this system for the next 2-3 or even more years. I'll be upgrading part by part, basically milking the motherboard as long as possible, before I have to replace that too. Kinda like future proofing you could say.

So I'm looking for some advice/suggestions/recommendations, you name it. I want to make the most informed decision I can before buying the parts. Basically, any problems right now are preferred to when I have already purchased everything, only to find out something doesn't work.

Finally, I just want to say thanks for providing some much needed feedback and it's really awesome to have such a big community for support for anything pc related.
 
Change the power supply to a G2 or GS series. That G1 is not very good. Unless that Z97 board is cheaper, than an H97 one, go with an H97 board, like the Asrock H97pro4. By the time you need the extra CPU power, it will be best to just get the newest gen processor, that is available.
 
GTX 970 will be better than R9 390 in 1440P and below.

Here you are solid bulid:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (€189.90 @ Caseking)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€87.48 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€54.37 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€55.01 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 970 4GB JetStream Video Card (€348.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Xigmatek Recon ATX Mid Tower Case (€33.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) * or chose another
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€72.30 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €841.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-03 16:33 CEST+0200
 


Thanks for your reply! The MSI Z97 is actually cheaper than the AsRock H97 Pro4, although only by 2 euros. Weird but there it is. The cheapest H97 board I could find is the AsRock H97 Anniversary, which is 60 euros, 12 cheaper than the Z97. It's not a huge gap, and I think I would stick with the Z97. Plus the asrock also doesn't have crossfire support, in case I want to do that in the future.

Which power supply would you recommend for this build?
 


http://de.pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-s12ii620bronze
 


Evga B2,G2, or GS series, Seasonic, XFX, or Antec, 650w+.
 


Thanks for replying! The build definitely looks solid but the H97 board on Amazon is more expensive than the one I chose. When I use the site I'll actually be buying from, it's 5 euros cheaper than the Z97, so not a big difference. However, it only has support for Crossfire, so I couldn't add another GTX 970 if I ever wanted to.

The case on the other hand looks fantastic. Maybe it's just me, but I might use the Xigmatek instead of the corsair in this build. For the power supply, do you think 520 Watts is going to be enough? I checked the system power requirements on pcpartpicker here, and it seems that its going to draw 434 Watts. So I'm not too sure about the PSU.

Actually, it's funny you mention the GTX 970. I saw JayzTwoCents' video on the R9 390 vs the GTX 970, both at stock and overclocked speeds. The R9 390 definitely has a slight edge, even at 1080p, most of the time. Given that the two cards are at roughly the same price range, it's a tough call. I will most likely be, at some point in the future, putting two cards in either SLI or Crossfire for gaming at higher resolutions, maybe even at 4K. Which is why I'm sort of basing my motherboard on that.
 


I went with the EVGA SuperNOVA 650GS, do you think that should adequate?
 


520W will be enough for single 970 for Single R9 390 better take seasonic 620W or take XFX
http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90401236/xfx-core-edition-pro-650-watt.asp

Summary comparison test fps from many games: http://pclab.pl/art64437-41.html
 


Cheers for the update. Well, I'm convinced to go with the GTX 970. Seems like the performance gains at even higher resolutions for the R9 390 are not exactly stellar. Plus, lower power consumption means I have more headway for overclocking. Thanks!