New Build

[CMcguire]

Hey,

I am currently planning on putting together a new gaming machine and looking for advice on parts.
Not been keeping up with the last tech recently so I am a bit out of the loop on what's best versus cost.

My budget is around £1500 ($2400) (not including extras like monitor etc)
I can go higher if its worth it.

I was thinking of Intel Core i7/i5, 16 gb ram as fast as I can get but also reliable, single graphics card probably would do SLI if there was a significate advantage without a corresponding significate price hike.
I have no idea on motherboard. Any recommendations on manufacturer would be welcome so I can start investigating.

I'll be looking around at reviews here and other sites to get a feel for things but I'll be aiming to get everything before christmas.
(figure holidays are a good time for getting it all together)

Also any advice on a monitor would be helpful.

[Major_A]

Are you planning on keeping anything from your current PC to reuse? What resolution are you planning on gaming at?
Here's a few suggestions:
1) Get an i5 or an i7. If you are building the machine purely for gaming then the i7 isn't going to make a difference. Typically the difference between the two is cores and cache. So if you like to do video editing on the side then the i7 might be a better buy.
2) If you do go with an Intel processor don't bother getting anything a faster than DDR3 1600. That's what the internal controller is designed for and getting faster memory only adds FPS if you are gaming at 1280x1024.
3) You can save a few bucks if you skip an optical drive if you don't think you'll use it. I haven't opened up my Blu-Ray drive in over a year.
4) Are you planning on overclocking?

[CMcguire]

Hey,

My current plan is to scrap the lot maybe passing on the old machine to a family member.

It will mainly be used for games (and everyday stuff)

At the moment I'd say I would probably be gaming at 1920x1080.
2440x1440 is tempting though... depends on how much more that would cost.
Not decided on a monitor yet.

The £1500 price tag is just going off configuring a system via scan/overclockers.
Figure I should be able to get a slightly better system for around that or not too much more sourcing part myself.

I guess what I am really looking for a step down from bleeding edge but still a pretty top of the range setup.
If it can last for 5 years and still play everything I'd be pretty happy.

I'll likely not be over clocking it.

[walterm]

What sort of overclock are you looking for? Mild, easy, or extreme?
This defines the motherboard quality needed and cooling requirements/expense.
Which motherboard brands do you hate?
Memory in the states 1866 goes for close to 1600, though sometimes the timings are lower on the 1600. Generally name brands on sale are fine.
Price Nvidia 770 or AMD 280X, should do all you ask. The "new" 280/290 cards are popular with the bitcoin people and are often sold out here.
WD Blue 1TB is usually well priced and meets price/performance/reliability as well as anything. Won't argue with other choices.
SSDs are nice, but not necessary, 120 GB, 240, are the price points. Roughly Samsung 840 EVO or Crucial M500 are reasonable choices.
Plextor, Corsair Neutron, Seagate, Sandisk Ultra Plus, get mention. Generally I wait for a good price on Samsung or Crucial, but sale prices have gotten me Kingston and Toshiba SSDs.
Seasonic is the most consistent power supply brand, I would go 550 watt (Seasonic G model is good). Decide the power you want, than look at prices and reviews (jonnyguru is very good).
Cases are more personal, some like cheap, some fancy, some plain, some elegant. See what you like the looks and price of, then read the reviews. Fractal Design would be a start.
I like a DVD drive or two, I have a CD and DVD collection. DVD/RW go on sale for $15 shipped here, which is silly cheap.

[Major_A]

I didn't pick a case, keyboard, mouse, or monitor since those are all usually personal preference. I know that you aren't in America but this way I can send you a list of parts. I also picked parts that I thought you could readily purchase too. Sometimes I wanted to pick a certain part but I didn't know if they are available to you.

My Recommendation (made one with AMD GPU and one with NVIDIA GPU):
AMD
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=24558666
NVIDIA
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=24558746

[CMcguire]

Cheers.

Been going through all the components today

I'm thinking of
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=18281754
It's about
~$2300 in total.

So looks like my original $2400 budget should be good (£1500)

Not decided on R9 290 or GTX 770/780 yet.
I would go for the 290 but heard that it is noisy.

Will the 760w PSU would be enough or am I better off with the 860?

Would everything fit in the case?
I have the old P182 and I remember I had to remove HD storage area to fit a newer graphics card.

If you have a better recommendation for a case I'm all ears. I am looking for something hopefully quiet and no clear panels.
(it sits in the middle of a room and don't want to see lights across the room)

[Major_A]

Here's why I picked the highend video card. They give you the best possible chance to still being able to play a game 5 years down the road, per your initial request.

Skip the Creative sound card. The HERO has SupremeFX which is a Creative chipset that can drive 8 audio channels.

I was thinking about going the WD Red drive route too but I figured more space and 7200RPM would be a better drive. Either way it's a good selection.

Yes the 760W power supply will be enough. Remember that as everything gets faster they are also getting more power efficient. Here's an example, scroll to the power consumption area for their recommendation. Keep in mind too that he's running a faster processor than what we have picked, aka more power draw.
AMD - AMD R9-290X - On your average system the card requires you to have a 550~600 Watt power supply unit.
NVIDIA - GeForce GTX 780 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 550 Watt power supply unit.

I say skip the highend RAM and get something cheaper. The stuff I had picked was $50 and the Corsair you have picked is $190. There isn't a $140 difference in performance, believe me. See what I mean here:
http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-ven ... iew_121277
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cruc ... P_1600_C9/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7565/adat ... -2g-review

Here are a couple of Antec P280 reviews:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Antec/P280/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5090/ante ... -engineers
While I'm not fond of the case I believe it should work with all of the hardware you have listed. Antec states there is 13 inches for expansion cards. The GTX 770 you have listed is 11.5 inches and the R9 290 is 10.8 inches. Like I said before that cases are like clothing, what you like I might not and the other way around. I personally feel for the price you have allocated you can get a much better case that has a better laid out interior.
Examples:
Corsair 230T
BitFenix Shinobi
Corsair Carbide 300R
Corsair Carbide 330R
Fractal Design Define XL Similar to the Antec but with current features (plus I like it).
NZXT Phantom 410
Fractal Design R4
Corsair Carbide 400R
Corsair Carbide 500R
Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
Plus there are a ton of Cooler Master cases that I feel offer better features and interior designs than the Antec 280. Like I said though it's all personal preference.

One last piece of advice. Windows 7 Home Premium only supports 16GB of RAM. So if you decide you need more RAM down the road it simply won't work.
Memory Limits for Windows Releases

Hope I helped clarify some stuff.

[CMcguire]

Thanks for all the help Major_A

Think I'll go for Window 7 Pro
Changed to the Fractal Design r4 case
Changed over to 780 GTX

Memory I've switch to Ripjaws based on tom's hardware review.
I'm going for a 8x2 kit not a 4x2 kit

[Major_A]

Yeah I noticed after I posted that the Corsair kit you picked was 16GB and not 8GB. I think you'll be happy with the purchase. I do like that case too, Fractal Designs makes some good stuff.

*EDIT*
Samsung just released a new version of their SSD software (Samsung SSD Magician) and the 840 Pro now supports their RAPID technology. Basically the software creates a RAM drive that caches files into the RAM drive. Before today this was exclusive to their EVO line.

[CMcguire]

Cool thanks again for the help.

Everything ordered now!
Now just need to wait for everything to arrive..

[Major_A]

Well how did the build go?

[DJ Tucker]

i'm liking the look of this build. it's going to be a beast. don't forget to let us know how the build goes ;)

[kenc51]

I'm still around if you need any help - Tristan has me on FB, while I'm sure you can get it running; give me a shout if you need any help!
(I still live on the north side of Dublin )

[CMcguire]

Hey,

Build went pretty well, seemed a lot easier putting it together than the last time I build a PC.
That might have just having easy access to youtube videos for anything I was a bit unsure about.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOYdNEHDQo if you are interested)

There was 3 hours of blind panic when I had put together 90% of it and it wouldn't boot (had booted it the night before).
Started taking off bits one at a time to see if I could figure out issue and turned out I must have paritially knocked out the Mobo's power connection from the PSU when I started tidying up the cables

Was all good once I got that sorted. It very quiet when running normally i.e. normal non-gaming.
It was eerily silent after running the asus fan check but that seemed prioritise sound too much over performance so ended up bumping them up a bit.

So all is well

[DJ Tucker]

unfortunatly tidying cables can cause you to knock or dislodge another cable but glad you found the culprit.