NOOB PC Build?

TEO BRO

Reputable
Feb 18, 2015
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Hi, i am a novice at PC building, i have gathered a few parts to build my very first PC, please help me by telling me what i can change up and what i should keep. Thank You!

Motherboard : ASUS MAXIMUS V GENE
RAM : [2] 4GB Corsair VENGEANCE
GPU : Palit GEFORCE GTX 650ti 1GB
Power : COUGAR RS 550
CPU : Intel i7-3770 @ 3.40GHz
Memory : [2] 500GB SEAGATE hard drive
Cooler : Cooler Master Air-Cooled
Case : NZXT (not decided)
 
Solution
That system is not bad per say, only the GPU that is a bit poor for the cpu and mobo that you want to use... That is actually a nice mobo. I`m guessing that you are getting the parts 2nd hand...
The power supply sounds suspicious.. what is a cougar RS 550 when it' at home?

If you have never build a PC before, when you look at power supplies and you think... why is that £15 and that one is £70. I'll buy the £15 one. Then your £200+ i7 goes bang a week later. When you build a PC, decide on your power requirements as early as possible and spend good money on a PSU. A cheap power supply with an I7 is like buying a Ferrari and putting a moped engine in it that prone to exploding and setting on fire.
 


Cougar is a brand man... Not the worst brand as keyboards, mice and headsets go but I`m not sure about the PSU`s... Their orange ones look pretty cool though...

http://www.cougar-world.com/products/power_supplies/cougar_rs.html
 
Lot's of things are brands, doesn't mean they are actually any good. I reserve judgement slightly on that PSU because it doesn't appear to be sold in many places in the UK other than Maplin. (this might say a lot). I've never personally heard of that brand PSU and I've been building computers for 10 years so IMO would not touch that sucker with a barge pole.
 
Lots of generally "good" brands make bad power supplies. For example: Corsair. Some of their units are great. Others are not. Corsair, in general, is a good brand, but some of their power supplies are bad. In my signature is a link to the Tom's Hardware tier list** of power supplies. You want to stay in the top two tiers, if possible. You will see that for many brands, some series or units will be in the top, but others will be in the bottom.

Check the prices through pcpartpicker and pick a few based on price.

Once you've found a few to look at, I'd suggest going to JonnyGURU.com and/or hardwaresecrets.com and checking reviews there. Those reviews are done by electricians who have the right equipment to really check power supplies and they can also comment on the build quality.

Another option is just to go to JonnyGURU* first and reading all the somewhat recent reviews for the wattage you are looking at. Write down the best ones and then check their price at pcpartpicker. Try to avoid tier 2 capacitors or lower, even if they have a good review otherwise.

*Technically, you could do this at hardwaresecrets, too, but their navigation and search features are . . . difficult to use: they review lots of things other than power supplies, and you can't limit the search to reviews/title, so you end up with a list of EVERYTHING that has 500W in either the title or the description. Then, when you do have a review, it has 10-11 pages and you have to manually click to each one before you get to the scoring. At JonnyGURU, you can limit your search to "Title" and "Review" and in the review itself, you can choose which page to go to. For this stage of the research, JonnyGURU is much better. If JonnyGURU doesn't have a review of the unit you're interested in, though, it might be at hardwaresecrets, so it's worth checking if it's one you're interested in.

**I'm slow at typing. This is the same list that Pr3di linked to.

Hope that helps!
 
Hi, Thank you all for your replies, it has helped me in some way or another. I have decided to get a better GPU, maybe a GTX 760?. Also, i am buying these parts brand new, it is an upgrade from my AfterShock that died due to a an unfortunate liquid spill. Thank you all btw!
 


"barge pole"....hahahahaha so britt I love it!!

Oh yeah if you could just take a good look for me where I wrote... Did I use the word good, was I remotely suggesting towards the word good in my critique.... Does`nt look that way, mmmmm maybe there is something wrong with my screen, I`ll take a look and get back to you....
 


Nice choice about the spec of GPU, but never get a 760 if you can get a 960... The price is the same and the performance is just that little bit better and it`s newer!!
 

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