Help on a new system

[Karkafii]

Hey guys,

I want to build my own system (well order the parts atleast) but I have 0 knowledge about that realm. I would really appreciate it if you could help me choose the parts with will have the biggest bang for the buck.

Here's the catalog that I can choose from (prices may be higher than usual but that's because I live in ancient lands)
http://www.pcandparts.com/price.htm


I don't want to spend over 800$ on the system. If it's possible to get both an ssd and an hdd fitted that would be awesome.
I already ordered a 24' monitor for it so I won't need one

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[cdrkf]

Hey guys,

I want to build my own system (well order the parts atleast) but I have 0 knowledge about that realm. I would really appreciate it if you could help me choose the parts with will have the biggest bang for the buck.

Here's the catalog that I can choose from (prices may be higher than usual but that's because I live in ancient lands)
http://www.pcandparts.com/price.htm


I don't want to spend over 800$ on the system. If it's possible to get both an ssd and an hdd fitted that would be awesome.
I already ordered a 24' monitor for it so I won't need one

Thanks a lot for the help!

Ok given your budget I'd suggest the following bits as a starting point:
CPU: Haswell i3 4170 ($119.00) - These are decent entry gaming processors. The i5 is better if you can stretch to it but not essential for most games.

Memory: Kingston HyperX 8gb $46 (you really need 8gb of ram these days)

Motherboard: Asus H81M-V3 $89 should do the trick. Main thing is to get a socket LGA1150 board, all should support the Core i3 so it just depends on what ports and things you need. Asus boards are usually a safe bet.

Case: I'd have a look at them and pick something you like. Main thing is to make sure it supports ATX standard boards. I'd usually suggest you get a case without a power support as the ones they sell cheaply with cases are rubbish.

HDD: 1TB WD10EZEX for $57 looks ok for a storage drive.

SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 240gb looks like a good boot drive (I'd always reccomend getting at least 200gb + for a system drive). $84

Video Card: MSI R9 380 2gb for $229 looks a good buy. It's a tad quicker than the GTX 960 which cots more and is fast enough to run most games max settings at 1920 x 1080p.

Power Supply: The Corsair CMPSU-VS650 for $78.00 looks reasonable.

DVD drive: Samsung SH-224DB for $19 should be ok.

Total: $721.00

 

[tiny voices]

The V300 is the worst SSD you can buy. It is not good at all. don't get it.

That Corsair PSU is not very good either. I would not run a 380 on it personally. Only a gtx960.

And no, not all H81 boards support that i3. Only ones that ship with updated BIOS's support it.

 

[Karkafii]

So what would you suggest? I really appreciate your advice but my 0 knowledge in this field leaves me clueless on some of your notes xd

 

[cdrkf]

The V300 is the worst SSD you can buy. It is not good at all. don't get it.

That Corsair PSU is not very good either. I would not run a 380 on it personally. Only a gtx960.

And no, not all H81 boards support that i3. Only ones that ship with updated BIOS's support it.

Whoa steady on there- my suggestions are the best I can pick out from the *specified website*. They have a lot of hugely expensive motherboards would push the build way over budget. If there's a better option for under $100 then please show me....

Also, I run a (more power hungry) R9 280 board of a Corsair CX500. I know the Corsair supplies aren't the perfect choice, but again on a budget they do work for a mid range board. People *massively* overstate the 'problem' of power consumption on AMD boards. These cards are no more power hungry than the GTX 600 / 700 series boards, which all ran fine on 500 - 600W supplies. A 650W single rail supply will run a 380 I can assure you that. Now again if you can see a better supply of a similar budget listed on the site then fine. I'm trying to work within @karkafii's options here...

Edit: Finally, yes the V300 on benchmarks looks poor, but the higher capacity models (e.g. like this 240gb) are reasonably quick (certainly way faster than a HDD). I maintain he'd be better off getting a 240gb V300 than a faster 120gb drive. There were a fair few other drives listed that might be better in budget, it's been a while since I've looked at SSD's in depth so again suggest away.

Edit 2: I've had a look at CPU support: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81MV3/HelpDesk_CPU/

That board supports haswell cpu's since it's first bios. The 4160 and 4170 are evidently newer variants of Haswell, however based on many years of building machines I can't see that they won't work even if the bios is the earlier version, simply based on the fact they these are only minor speed bumped version of the 4150 and 4130 which are supported on the oldest bios. Based on *many* years of building machines on Asus boards, if the bios is out dated it should still boot but might report 'unknown processor' until the bios is updated. I can't see this being a problem.

 

[tiny voices]

The Cx units are not good and running your PC on a cx500 is not a smart idea at all. Just because you do something, doesn't make it good or safe at all. Sorry.

Getting a v300 is absolutely a terrible idea. It is the worst SSD there is. It is as slow as a a mechanical drive after some data gets on it and it has some uptime logged. Google the issue. It's a crap SSD.

 

[cdrkf]

Tiny voices, instead of trying to prove me wrong, please find some better options from the website given by the op.

I agree, in an ideal situation, there are better solutions. However if the only option is to get the kit from that site....

As for the cx500, have you ever used one? I've got 3 machines on cx supplies that are all several years old. No failures, no issues. I think they've got an underserved bad rep, or there was a faulty batch. Either that or users were pushing them too hard overclocking.

 

[Karkafii]

Thanks again for all the help guys. I understand that for the budget i had I wont get reliable/safe parts. Would you be kind enough to give me another system sugestion but this time with a higher budget of 1000$?

The lower the price the better, but i want a safe and reliable system most of all that wont give me complications in the future

 

[Karkafii]

And an i5 preferably

 

[tiny voices]

Yes, I have a dead cx600 and a dead cx750 in my closet right now. The CX units have been proven time and time again to be bad, and the VS are WORSE. You are plain wrong about their quality. Sorry.

For the SSD, honestly, get ANYTHING besides the V300. ANY SSD is better by a decent amount. Shoot for Crucial/Samsung/Intel/Mushkin/PPNY/OCZ.

 

[cdrkf]

Thanks again for all the help guys. I understand that for the budget i had I wont get reliable/safe parts. Would you be kind enough to give me another system sugestion but this time with a higher budget of 1000$?

The lower the price the better, but i want a safe and reliable system most of all that wont give me complications in the future

Ok fair enough, I've not had that experience with them, although I don't ever push my systems beyond stock settings so maybe that's the difference?

@Karkafii I'll go through the list again and highlight any changes. With $1000 to play with should be easier to get some better parts...

So processor: -> Haswell i5 4460 for $181.00 looks a good bet.

The motherboard I'm happy with, and it supports that cpu out of the box on any bios which helps avoid snags with setup.

That memory kit should also be fine with that.

So for the SSD: Look at the SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E250BW (250gb), priced at $111. The Samsung 850 series usually gets good reports from what I've seen, maybe @tiny voices has looked into these more recently though?

The R9 380 still looks the best bet price / performance wise on graphics cards so I'd stick with that (it's slightly faster than the GTX 960 and all their 960's cost more).

Now for the PSU, this looks pretty decent: Cooler Master RS750-AMAAG1 at $144.
It's semi modular (means neater cabling) and is 80+ gold certified. Also the reviews I've found of it are all positive (@tiny voices I know coolermater aren't the OEM, however in this instance this looks like a solid unit).

Grand total with these bits: £876 (though you'll need to add a case and the operating system to this so that takes it up to your $1000, personally I think this would be a pretty solid all round machine).

 

[tiny voices]

That Coolermaster is a top of the line PSU. Amazing quality and built by Seasonic.

That new SSD is great. I own an 850 PRO and quite like it.

The deal with the CX units is that they just plain suck. They have too small a primary capacitor and junk secondary capacitors. This causes the units to not live long at all when routinely used over 50% wattage. The cx750 sucks so bad it can't even pass basic PSU review tests. They are meant for low budget office PCs, not gaming PCs at all. There are substantially better PSUs available for the price. They are never the good choice.