PC build for engineering student

[lzy6696]

Hi. I will be entering my first year of uni soon, on the course of electrical and electronic engineering. I am planning to build my very first PC that can run some course-related programs, and probably some light gaming. Budget will be around £400 to £500, excluding display and peripherals. Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Hi. I will be entering my first year of uni soon, on the course of electrical and electronic engineering. I am planning to build my very first PC that can run some course-related programs, and probably some light gaming. Budget will be around £400 to £500, excluding display and peripherals. Any suggestions?

What games and programs are you going to be running?

 

[lzy6696]

for games, probably skyrim and bf4. Im still not sure about programs that i'll be using for my degree.

 

[Guest]

for games, probably skyrim and bf4. Im still not sure about programs that i'll be using for my degree.

Microsoft Office?

 

[lzy6696]

probably something more than that. Im assuming that a gaming pc can run microsoft office smoothly. haha. Maybe i should just build a gaming pc that can run most games at playable framerate in 1080p. any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

for games, probably skyrim and bf4. Im still not sure about programs that i'll be using for my degree.

I found this one: http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ2TY6950
It won't be able to run BF4 very well though.According to Game Debate, BF4 will run on Low, and Skyrim on Medium or High.

 

[tiny voices]

^ OP said he wanted to BUILD a PC, not buy some junk PC prebuilt.

OP here is what you want to do:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.44 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£68.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£34.53 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.12 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Antec 550W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £525.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-05 14:49 BST+0100

This will play any game at high settings at 1080p no problem. You can also upgrade to an i5 later down the road if need be, but I doubt you will need it.

 

[lzy6696]

^ OP said he wanted to BUILD a PC, not buy some junk PC prebuilt.

OP here is what you want to do:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.44 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£68.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£34.53 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.12 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Antec 550W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £525.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-05 14:49 BST+0100

This will play any game at high settings at 1080p no problem. You can also upgrade to an i5 later down the road if need be, but I doubt you will need it.

Thanks for the awesome build guide! but i wanted a smaller pc, so i modified it a little. could you please review it for me?
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/GymyNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/GymyNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£87.44 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.04 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.12 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£90.00 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.17 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£9.38 @ CCL Computers)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£29.99 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £435.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-05 17:33 BST+0100

 

[tiny voices]

The GPU is weaker and will not play all games at high. Expect more like medium. I would keep the gtx960. It will fit in that case no problem.

Your motherboard does not have an X1 slot for that Wifi adapter. Change to an x16 card or get a USB adapter.

Otherwise it looks fine.