Opinions On First Build By a Newb [ETA: Revised List]

[Bexx]

Having used computers/internet probably almost every day since sometime in the 90's I'm very inexperienced with the technical jargon so apologies in advance if I'm writing in laymans terms

My OH built his own computer and has built others for friends so he's given the parts I've selected the once over but I will be doing the build myself (with his guidance because I'll probably set the house on fire!) but I was looking for a few more experienced peoples opinions too.

Approximate Purchase Date: Next month.

Budget Range: £450-550 but can go slightly over, would rather not be knocking £600 though.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: I do mostly use the internet, I watch live streams every day and youtube videos, would like to be able to play a few games like Age Of Empires II HD, Majesty, Theme Hospital, The Sims.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ebuyer.com

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: OH has told me Intel is for more high end stuff so I've stuck with AMD

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Don't know what this is but I'll say no

Why I'm upgrading: I've been using laptops for about 5 years now, I've been through 2 of them and would like something that lasts a bit longer. I don't take the laptop anywhere so why not get a desktop. I'm sick of this being so slow and would like something fairly decent and fast and that when I click something it happens straight away no waiting staring at swirly egg timers! I have a select few PC games I love but I can't play them on this laptop, I've mentioned them above so the build I've picked has to be able to run them with no stuttering and ideally with Windows Live Mail open too because I do email a lot.

Hopefully this is descriptive enough for you guys to tell me if what I've picked will be enough. Here is my list:

http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/175283

AMD FX-4 4100 Black Edition 4 Core 3.6Ghz Socket AM3+ 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor I picked this because it's 3.6ghz, my current laptop is 1.8ghz so I figured it would be a lot faster.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

CiT Vantage Gaming Case Black HD Audio Black Interior 4 Fans Card Reader No PSU I picked this because it already has 4 built in fans, overheating has been an issue with this laptop so would like to take all precautions. Built in card reader is nifty and it's blue

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard
- Laptop is currently 4GB Ram so picked this because it holds up to 16GB which I thought would be plenty for what I want with the option to upgrade if I wanted to in the future.

Fractal Design Integra R2 750w 80 Plus Efficiency Power Supply Unit - OH said not to scrimp when it comes to the PSU as I had originally picked one that was only £24.99 so changed it to one that was 3 times as much and had good reviews.

Toshiba 1TB 3.5 HD - Had good reviews, don't really know much about it tbh but seems a good price, good brand and 1TB was suggested for me.

Lg Internal 24x Bulk Dvdrw - OEM - Don't really use the drive much as you can buy games on Steam nowadays but thought I best get one just in case.

Fujitsu L22T-3 LCD LED 21.5" DVI Monitor - Speakers - Reasonable price, HD monitor with built in speakers.

D-link Dwa-121 Wireless N 150 USB Adapter - Need to connect to our wireless router so thought this cheap USB would do the trick.

Asus GT 610 Silent 2GB DDR3 VGA DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card - Not too clued up on graphics tbh, good reviews, good brand and I thought 2GB would be enough to run the things I want.

Kingston 8GB DDR3 1333MHz i5 Memory - I heard 2 sticks are better than 1 though now I can't remember why. I'd like 8GB as I said before so thought 2x4GB sticks would do the job, again good reviews.

 

[marshallbradley]

Hi there,

Looks like an OK build, there are a couple of changes/optimizations you can make to get the most for your money:

- You don't need a 750W power supply. That's for when you use SLi/CrossFire (multiple video cards), which you don't even know about (or need). This one will suit you just as good, is much cheaper and just as high quality: http://www.ebuyer.com/278634-corsair-500w-cx-v2-psu-cmpsu-500cxv2uk The difference in price is only because of the lesser wattage. Don't worry I agree with your OH that it's very important to have a quality power supply, it just doesn't need to have that much wattage, so you're over-paying for stuff you don't need.

- Go with the FX-4300 instead. It's slightly more modern and so is faster. The FX-4100 is last generation. The FX-4300 is only £7 more: http://www.ebuyer.com/409192-amd-fx-4300-3-8ghz-socket-am3-8mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-fd4300wmhkbox

- You can go Intel if you want, it's not only high end. You could probably get a G2120 in your budget. Clock-speed doesn't really mean you get better performance, what's much more important is the architecture. The G2120 will probably be faster for most games, but otherwise the FX-4300 wins out.

- It's a bit of a crappy case if I'm being honest. CiT have very low quality products. The number of fans really doesn't matter either. I run fairly overclocked rig with only 2 case fans. You're much better off buying a higher quality case and adding in extra fans if you need them. http://www.ebuyer.com/270599-fractal-design-core-1000-microatx-case-fd-ca-core-1000-bl is very nice for example. You will need to ensure your motherboard is mATX though (which it is).

- Your gaming performance on the GT 610 is going to be abysmal. The 2gb doesn't matter, it's the series of the card that matters most (GT 610 is the lowest of the low). If you want a good gaming card for that resolution, something like the GTX 650 Ti Boost or the 7850 would work great, but obviously cost quite a bit more. The 7750 would work if you're not too worried about quality settings, and from the sounds of it the games you play aren't very demanding anyway: http://www.ebuyer.com/454324-msi-amd-r7750-800mhz-1600mhz-2048mb-128-bit-ddr3-fan-dl-dvi-i-hdmi-dp-r7750-2gd3 I repeat gaming on a GT 610 is going to be very bad.

- If you want snappiness (which it seems is big on your list) the no. 1 thing you need is an SSD. No matter what processor or how much RAM you have, your computer will always feel 100x faster with an SSD. Everyone who buys one falls in love with them. The price of them has really dropped a lot recently now. Buy a low capacity one (maybe 60gb) and run it in tandem with your hard drive. Your operating system and stuff you want to start fast goes on the SSD, everything else can go on your big HDD. This would be a good model for your needs: http://www.ebuyer.com/411671-kingston-60gb-ssdnow-v300-ssd-sv300s37a-60g

- 2 sticks are better than one because it allows for dual channel mode which doubles the memory band-width. This kit is slightly better (faster) and only £4 more: http://www.ebuyer.com/266722-kingston-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-hyperx-genesis-pnp-memory-khx1600c9d3p1k2-8g

All the best,

M

 

[Bexx]

Thanks for your reply, and all your suggestions and for explaining them as well I appreciate that

2 questions though, the graphics card you suggested is that going to give good quality for what I want? I get that the GT 610 I picked is the worst lol I'm not one for everything has to be on high settings but as long as it's not pixely and runs well I'd be happy. And what is an SSD, I think it's a solid state drive? Does it replace the hard drive or is it added to it?

Thanks!

 

[realchaos]

Marshall said alot of it, but forgot one thing. Grab the standard 1600mhz ram instead of the 1333mhz. You were right on the two sticks though.
-Gaming on a GT610 wouldn't get you much. Try to grab a $70-100 gpu if possible, as it will provide much better performance. Take a look at the Radeon HD 7770s or GTX 650s.
-SSD is a solid state drive. Basically, you can have as many hard drive as your motherboard and case can handle. People usually use one HDD and one SSD, since SSD are so expensive. A 120/128gb SSD is a bit more expensive than a 1tb HDD because it is much faster and snappier. If you grab a SSD, you will put your most used programs (os, frequently played games, etc) on it opposed to your not-so-used programs on the HDD just for storage purposes.
With your budget, I'm not sure if adding a SSD is a good idea, as it may lower your gaming performance alot.

 

[Bexx]

I think he did suggest the 1600mhz ram, or at least thats what the link says

thank you for the graphics suggestions, I'll look into them!

Ah right, so you can have a SSD and a regular hard drive together, can you have an SSD on it's own or do you need the regular one too?

 

[marshallbradley]

The thing is with the GT 610 everything would be pixelated since you'd likely have to run games at lower than 1080p (which is the reason stuff becomes pixelated). With the 7750 you'd have no issues running anything at 1080p, as long as you aren't worried about everything being on Ultra/High.

Yes it's a solid state drive. The difference between it and a mechanical hard drive is the access times. On an SSD stuff is read at maybe 500 MB/S, whereas on a HDD it's maybe 1/10th of that speed, which is the reason stuff doesn't feel responsive. It works in tandem with the SSD, so yes you have both at the same time.

EDIT: @Realchaos I did mention that she should get faster RAM (look at my last point). Also given the games OP said they would be playing, I think it's very likely they won't need any more power than a 7750 (they mention Age Of Empires II HD, Majesty, Theme Hospital, The Sims, not Crysis 3, BF 3 etc.) I think the money would be better spent on something the OP actually wants and one of the reason's they are building the computer; "I'm sick of this being so slow and would like something fairly decent and fast and that when I click something it happens straight away no waiting staring at swirly egg timers!" Given this line I think they need the SSD more than the extra (unnecessary) graphics power.

M

 

[Bexx]

The thing is with the GT 610 everything would be pixelated since you'd likely have to run games at lower than 1080p (which is the reason stuff becomes pixelated). With the 7750 you'd have no issues running anything at 1080p, as long as you aren't worried about everything being on Ultra/High.

Yes it's a solid state drive. The difference between it and a mechanical hard drive is the access times. On an SSD stuff is read at maybe 500 MB/S, whereas on a HDD it's maybe 1/10th of that speed, which is the reason stuff doesn't feel responsive. It works in tandem with the SSD, so yes you have both at the same time.

M

Yeah I'm not too fussed about high quality, according to the OH I can't tell the difference between HD and regular and blu ray anyway lol I blame him for this though, he was going to upgrade his super computer (in my eyes!) because there was a game he couldn't run on the highest setting lol! I was going to get some of his parts and build my own but he changed his mind but I'm still carrying on!

What do you think about the graphics realchaos suggested? If you say I'll have no problems running games at 1080p with the 7750 then I'm inclined to stick with that but I'd be interested to hear your opinions on the others

EDIT: Ah so the ones realchaos suggested are more powerful but you don't think I need them because I don't play the Crysis/BF type games

 

[marshallbradley]

Trust me you can see the difference between HD and non-HD on a HD monitor .

They're better, but also more expensive obviously. The question is do you need more power? Are you planning on continuing to play the same games you listed or move onto more demanding stuff? You can look at gameplay videos on YouTube or reviews to see if the performance is good enough for you. Here's a 7750 in action: BF3 (single player, multiplayer would be harder): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPxuKjvLU8A AC3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq_iwFt9DzM and FC3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzk_qatBt2w Make sure you watch in HD btw (that will show you the difference between HD and standard!).

Obviously the game-play isn't flawless, but it would be by turning down the quality a little bit. These are all on Ultra settings (apparently).

I've come up with this build for you:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£87.09 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£39.58 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7750 2GB Video Card (£67.40 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.38 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Drive (£22.98 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Hannspree HL229DPB 21.5" Monitor (£90.16 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £601.55

M

 

[Bexx]

Trust me you can see the difference between HD and non-HD on a HD monitor .

They're better, but also more expensive obviously. The question is do you need more power? Are you planning on continuing to play the same games you listed or move onto more demanding stuff? You can look at gameplay videos on YouTube or reviews to see if the performance is good enough for you. Here's a 7750 in action:

I've come up with this build for you:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£87.09 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£39.58 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£50.00 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7750 2GB Video Card (£67.40 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.38 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Drive (£22.98 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Hannspree HL229DPB 21.5" Monitor (£90.16 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £601.55

M

No I won't be going on to anything more demanding I wouldn't have thought, unless in a couple years the latest Sims game isn't going to run smooth on my build lol I'm not a big PC gamer I tend to stick with my SNES, NES, GC, N64 etc but there are a few games as I've mentioned from my childhood that I do still love to play.

So is this build for if I wanted to move on to more demanding things? You've listed video card on there but I didn't think I'd need one

 

[marshallbradley]

Perhaps you should go for an APU build instead. An APU is basically a CPU with a GPU on the same chip. A bit like Integrated graphics, but much faster, since it's actually a decent graphics unit. It'll be a little slower than the 7750, but certainly a lot faster than the GT 610. You'll be able to run Sims smoothly for years I'd imagine.

Here's a sample APU build:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£96.60 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-DGS Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard (£39.94 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£52.33 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial V4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£46.95 @ Dabs)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.99 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.50 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Drive (£22.98 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.35 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: Hannspree HL229DPB 21.5" Monitor (£90.16 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £525.79

You can always add a graphics card at a later point if you decide it's not enough. This will be plenty good though for all the games you currently want to play on it. Again it still has the SSD so it will also be super zippy. I've changed the RAM to 2133 Mhz sticks as well, since that is very important for good APU performance.

M

 

[Bexx]

Hmm, it is a lot cheaper which is a plus, but I'm not sure I'd want to risk doing it that way only to feel like it wasn't enough and have to add a graphics card anyway a few weeks later lol

Question about cases though, do I have to specifically look for Micro ATX cases because I have an ATX motherboard? Is that what the m in mATX is, micro?

 

[marshallbradley]

Given the games you say you want to play on it, I'm 99% sure it will be plenty for you. If it can handle Far Cry 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7fQH3gvu8g and Battlefield 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijRbNnSuqxc , it isn't going to struggle with a little bit of Sims.

Even if you do decide it's not enough, what's the worst that happens? You have to buy a graphics card and it's exactly the same cost as before (£525 + £75 for a 7750 = £600). By doing it this way though, you can decide whether the APU is enough for your needs or not, and then if it isn't, it turns out to cost exactly the same anyway, so it's a win-win.

Yes, the m in mATX means micro. It's smaller than the standard ATX size for motherboards. A mATX motherboard will fit in BOTH a micro ATX case or a standard sized case (which are called mid towers/full towers usually -- don't go for anything bigger than a mid tower, full towers are HUGE). A standard ATX motherboard can only fit in a mid/full tower though, and not in a micro ATX case. I think you'd be better off with a micro ATX case though, just because it makes it easier to store and you really don't need the added expand-ability of anything bigger.

M

 

[Bexx]

That's true.. I think you might have swayed me lol Definitely going to give it a look into and ask the OH what he thinks. Maybe it's just because I've never heard of it before that was putting me off, mind you I'm only just getting to grips with CPU and GPU lol Also I always hated integrated graphics but you say it's like it but not the same because it's faster and actually decent lol

 

[Bexx]

Taking on marshallbradley's very helpful advice and suggestions, I've decided to not go with the abu build but have switched to some of the things suggested

I'm not aiming for super duper powerful or amazeballs graphics etc I just want bang for my buck, decent parts that will last a good while and for it to run fast and smooth Considering I didn't want to be knocking £600 it's now at around £650 lol!

Corsair 500W CX Builder
AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Socket AM3+ 8MB
MSI HD 7750 2GB DDR3 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 SSD
Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
D-link Dwa-121 Wireless N 150 USB Adapter
Lg Internal 24x Bulk Dvdrw
Toshiba 1TB 3.5
Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard
Windows 7
AVP Defender 200 K1 Black Midi Gaming Case - http://www.ebuyer.com/483471-avp-defender-200-k1-black-midi-gaming-case-black-interior-3-x-cas-733
Samsung S22B300HS 21.5 Inch Widescreen HDMI LED Monitor - So difficult to find a 19"-22" HD monitor with HDMI port for some reason!

Opinions anyone?

 

[Jonathan Sifleet]

Don't bother getting an SSD, I could make you a build using ebuyer, if you want? You should really consider overclocking though. From overclocking an intel i5 3570k processor @ 3.4 ghz to 4.5ghz is an increase of 32.352941177% for free.

 

[drtoast]

Don't bother getting an SSD, I could make you a build using ebuyer, if you want? You should really consider overclocking though. From overclocking an intel i5 3570k processor @ 3.4 ghz to 4.5ghz is an increase of 32.352941177% for free.

The i5 would really crank past his original budget though (an additional £50), and a SSD drive is decent idea, however if you dont want to fork out a lot for two drives, a SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) might be a good compromise, you get a massive speed increase for very little more money over a single drive. A good example would be a Seagate Momentus XT 750gb. A single drive with much higher speed over a normal hard drive while sacrificing only 250gb of space, and they only cost about £60-70 depending on where you buy it from.

*edit* ignore the talk of an adapter, that case already has a slot that the drive would fit.

 

[Bexx]

I don't feel the need to overclock anything, I've got the option to if I want which is nice but the things I do aren't intensive enough to warrant it I don't think. And I'm very happy with my SSD everything is a lot faster which is what I wanted