First-build advise please

[Silkiesttie]

Hi everyone,

so, I've never built a pc before, the laptop is getting old and decided I wanted to leave the days of laggy games on low specs long behind me. With finals out the way I wanted to take on a bit of a project. I'm looking for something that can handle games at high specs, looks smart and that I wont feel will desperately need an upgrade in a couple of years!

So, after much research I've come up with these parts.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/silkiesttie/saved/LwYwrH

Any advice would be greatly appreciated please, I'm pretty much at my budget but could scrape a little together if I've made a silly error. (the i7 is a gift otherwise I would have gone i5)

In particular I'm not overly sure on the mobo and psu. I like the colour of the mobo but had originally planned the gaming 3 variant. I can't really see much difference with the 5, just some audio tweaks?

Thanks for looking!

 

[ssddx]

[PCPartPicker part list](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/w9GWjX) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/w9GWjX/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74790k) | £244.94 @ Aria PC
----------a bit overkill for gaming but good. if you plan on recording or video editing then definitely nicer than the i5.
**CPU Cooler** | [NZXT Kraken X41 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-cpu-cooler-rlkrx4101) | £79.19 @ Aria PC
----------a bit overkill on price if you were on a budget. you could easily buy an air cooler for less money with similar performance.
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97xgaming5) | £106.76 @ Scan.co.uk
---------- this would likely work though there are other options. the asus z97-p (if you dont want to sli or crossfire) or the asus z97-a (if you do) are worth looking at.
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8gbxl) | £68.99 @ Aria PC
----------good stuff.
**Storage** | [Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-internal-hard-drive-sv300s37a120g) | £40.98 @ Amazon UK
----------i'd recommend samsung ssd's like the 840 evo but your choice.
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003) | £35.94 @ Aria PC
----------this works
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Vapor-X Video Card](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100362vxsr) | £245.99 @ Amazon UK
----------the 290 typically gets similar but slightly less frame rates as the new gtx970 for a better price point but runs hot. good case airflow is needed and you might not have as silent of a pc as you would if you went nvidia 970 instead. not a bad choice for a budget though.
**Case** | [NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-cah440wm1) | £85.61 @ Ebuyer
----------nice case but realize you wont have a dvd drive or any front ports and that you get only triple 120mm fans which arent a whole lot better than 2x140mm fans. to be honest i'd go with twin 140mm fans instead but this is your choice and this would certainly work.
**Power Supply** | [EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120g10650xr) | £63.31 @ Amazon UK
----------the only evga power supplies i would go with are the "g2" (not g1) models. also good are seasonic or xfx (made by seasonic). 650w is fine for a 290 video card if you have a quality psu but it may be worth considering having a little more headroom and going 750 if the difference in price is negligible.
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-wn700615) | £49.99
----------no comment
**Wireless Network Adapter** | [Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-wireless-network-card-pcen53) | £22.99 @ Amazon UK
----------no comment
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £1044.69
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-08 01:02 GMT+0000 |

 

[Silkiesttie]

[PCPartPicker part list](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/w9GWjX) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/w9GWjX/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74790k) | £244.94 @ Aria PC
----------a bit overkill for gaming but good. if you plan on recording or video editing then definitely nicer than the i5.
**CPU Cooler** | [NZXT Kraken X41 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-cpu-cooler-rlkrx4101) | £79.19 @ Aria PC
----------a bit overkill on price if you were on a budget. you could easily buy an air cooler for less money with similar performance.
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz97xgaming5) | £106.76 @ Scan.co.uk
---------- this would likely work though there are other options. the asus z97-p (if you dont want to sli or crossfire) or the asus z97-a (if you do) are worth looking at.
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8gbxl) | £68.99 @ Aria PC
----------good stuff.
**Storage** | [Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-internal-hard-drive-sv300s37a120g) | £40.98 @ Amazon UK
----------i'd recommend samsung ssd's like the 840 evo but your choice.
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003) | £35.94 @ Aria PC
----------this works
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Vapor-X Video Card](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100362vxsr) | £245.99 @ Amazon UK
----------the 290 typically gets similar but slightly less frame rates as the new gtx970 for a better price point but runs hot. good case airflow is needed and you might not have as silent of a pc as you would if you went nvidia 970 instead. not a bad choice for a budget though.
**Case** | [NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-cah440wm1) | £85.61 @ Ebuyer
----------nice case but realize you wont have a dvd drive or any front ports and that you get only triple 120mm fans which arent a whole lot better than 2x140mm fans. to be honest i'd go with twin 140mm fans instead but this is your choice and this would certainly work.
**Power Supply** | [EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120g10650xr) | £63.31 @ Amazon UK
----------the only evga power supplies i would go with are the "g2" (not g1) models. also good are seasonic or xfx (made by seasonic). 650w is fine for a 290 video card if you have a quality psu but it may be worth considering having a little more headroom and going 750 if the difference in price is negligible.
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-wn700615) | £49.99
----------no comment
**Wireless Network Adapter** | [Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter](http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-wireless-network-card-pcen53) | £22.99 @ Amazon UK
----------no comment
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £1044.69
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-08 01:02 GMT+0000 |

Thanks for your quick and detailed reply! I'll take a look at the mobo and psu you mention and will likely up to 750w as you suggest. Does the efficiency make all that much of a difference to performance? For example, I was looking at gold because I figured they sounded better or is it just a slight difference in running cost?

With the case, I had hoped to use an external optical drive the few times I actually use one (older games I still have discs for/odd dvd/blu ray etc).

thanks again!