PC Build Advice

[Joe R26]

So I'm playing more and more games on my PC at the moment including a hell of a lot of DayZ. My computer sucks its very basic and struggles to run DayZ at low settings even with all the little tweaks etc I can find online that people know about.

So I'm looking at getting

Corsair Carbide 540 Case

Torn between this motherboard bundle or this one from overclockers with the H100 cooler 8GB ram and the i7 4790k @ 4.5ghz

I'm not going for a top spec pc, I just want something that can run games fairly comfortably.

At the moment I'm currently running a 3.3ghz I3 with 4gb ram and a 1gb graphics card, couldn't tell you what one it is!.

I'm just sorting out the basics right now, case & motherboard bundle. Will need to sort a graphics card but I need a base to build on!.

Any advice? Is it worth getting a pre clocked system from overclockers?

 

[Mikeyjp]

Building your self? Would not get an i7 just for gaming, if you are an OC member then do a spec me thread, give them a budget what parts you need extra. They will give you a good idea

 

[Joe R26]

Yeah, obviously the motherboard bundles come pre assembled but the rest I'll put together its mostly plug and play isn't it?. I built my last pc.

 

[Wilkeh]

Apparently the GTX 880/980's are just around the corner, leaked info suggest mid September. Apparently Nvidia are skipping the 800 series in favour of the 900 series. Nothing in concrete yet though.

I'm planning a new build but I'm just going to hold off for another month. As above as well you really don't need an i7 for gaming, it's more of a willy waver

 

[Joe R26]

Thanks for the info Wilkeh. So an i5 would suffice?.

 

[Mikeyjp]

Apparently the GTX 880/980's are just around the corner, leaked info suggest mid September. Apparently Nvidia are skipping the 800 series in favour of the 900 series. Nothing in concrete yet though.

I'm planning a new build but I'm just going to hold off for another month. As above as well you really don't need an i7 for gaming, it's more of a willy waver

there is always something just coming out

@Wilkeh i have got and I5 3.40ghz and 8 gig of mem, radeon hd 7900, runs everything so far

 

[Wilkeh]

there is always something just coming out

@Wilkeh i have got and I5 3.40ghz and 8 gig of mem, radeon hd 7900, runs everything so far

Decent set up mate

I'm only upgrading because I'm planning on buying a 1440p monitor next month and 2GB of VRAM on my 680's won't cut it

 

[Wilkeh]

So I'm looking at getting

Corsair Carbide 540 Case

Oh by the way good choice of case. I love mine

 

[Addicted]

Yep fantastic choice of case, looks brilliant and is a real nice case to work in!

I am also bias, having one myself.

As for spec above, you'd be happy with either tbh, there are SO many different Z97 motherboards I'd first decide on your colour scheme (as you'll see it through the window), and then go hunting for features after that (there are MANY different feature sets for each colour imo) - but I can say you can pretty much get all the features you want, or dont want, within a colour scheme.

 

[Joe R26]

Thanks for the advise buddy. Yeah I saw the case in the power pc thread on here. Thought it looked awesome.

Seeing as an i5 is sufficient for what I need, I may go for this bundle http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-002-OG&groupid=2833&catid=2512&subcat=2513

So a blue theme. Are MSI boards just as good?.

 

[Addicted]

Yep MSI in general are pretty good imo, looks like a nice bundle :].

Probably worth speccing 16gb over 8 though just to ensure the life of the build.

 

[Joe R26]

Ok cool can you recommend a graphics card? I don't really want to spend anymore than about 150 on a graphics card. My mate recommended a 770 but it's a little out my price range.

 

[Addicted]

R9 270 will fit your bill, I think it's about the best power for money, around 140 iirc from memory!

 

[Mikeyjp]

Yep MSI in general are pretty good imo, looks like a nice bundle :].

Probably worth speccing 16gb over 8 though just to ensure the life of the build.

think if he is on a budget 8 gig is more than enough, by the time anything comes out that needs 16gig + the rest of his pc will need an upgrade

 

[Wilkeh]

R9 270 will fit your bill, I think it's about the best power for money, around 140 iirc from memory!

You can pick up an R9 280 for around £160

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-251-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

 

[Addicted]

think if he is on a budget 8 gig is more than enough, by the time anything comes out that needs 16gig + the rest of his pc will need an upgrade

True, I just figured it was a nice cheap upgrade to ensure life, but as you say if budget is tight just get it later on :]

 

[Joe R26]

AMD graphics cards? I've always stuck with nvidia lol. I'm way out of touch with all this.

 

[Addicted]

I go with what brings best performance for the dollar you're spending, which more often than not (99% of the time), is AMD.

People are very split on this, so I imagine you'll get some green fanboys in soon (to counter the argument about even considering AMD), but imo never had a problem here!

 

[Mikeyjp]

i have been an AMD fanboy for years, not there cpu's though

 

[Joe R26]

Lol that's fair enough. Bang for buck that's what we want! Excellent. I'll have to get ordering

 

[Wilkeh]

Absolutely nothing wrong with AMD GPU's at all, as Addicted says they are 99% of the time the best bang for buck easily.

I've always used Nvidia but that's because I like the idea of Physx, G-sync and all that jazz. They are bloody expensive though. Nvidia's equivilent of an R9 280 is probably a 760. It's more expensive and still doesn't perform as well.

 

[Darren S]

Building your self? Would not get an i7 just for gaming, if you are an OC member then do a spec me thread, give them a budget what parts you need extra. They will give you a good idea

Yep. I've got one of the older i7 Extreme Editions and use it for 99% gaming.

Not really needed - a decent spec i5 is much better suited.

D.

 

[zeta]

I've got that case too! Great minds..

 

[karol_SVK]

I think buy/borrow some more RAM from your buddy to test your current PC with more memory if you have an x64 system. Day Z is not that resource hungry IMO.

 

[Joe R26]

I think buy/borrow some more RAM from your buddy to test your current PC with more memory if you have an x64 system. Day Z is not that resource hungry IMO.

Really? From what I can gather it is very CPU intensive. And also I don't think it can use anymore than 2gb ram so I can't see that this would help.

 

[karol_SVK]

I play Arma 2 OA on a lower spec CPU. Cant tell you exactly as I am away from Home but its some E series few years old.

 

[Wilkeh]

I think buy/borrow some more RAM from your buddy to test your current PC with more memory if you have an x64 system. Day Z is not that resource hungry IMO.

There's nothing wrong with him upgrading now really mate. It's sensible based on his previous specs. As he said in his original post he is gaming more and more, so why not be more future proof?

Plus it's awesome building from scratch

 

[Addicted]

There's nothing wrong with him upgrading now really mate. It's sensible based on his previous specs. As he said in his original post he is gaming more and more, so why not be more future proof?

Plus it's awesome building from scratch

This!

Upgrading one or two things is nice, but building in a new case with new components = the best.

 

[Joe R26]

Thanks for all the helpful comments. I think I've finally got my list together, and I'm hoping to head over to Novatech tomorrow to buy all the gear.

I decided not to go down the overclockers route as I like shopping at Novatech, they have everything in stock so you can just walk in and spend!. Also I thought I'd just give the overclocking a go myself after looking at guides online on overclocking this specific processor and the process looks fairly straight forward. Will try hit 4.2ghz which seems easily doable on this processor.

List as follows

CPU: i5 4690K 4th gen 3.50ghz
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE
Case: Corsair Carbide 540
PSU: Corsair CX600
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Cooler: Corsair H100i Liquid Cooler
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280x 3gb DDR5
SSD: Samsung 840 120gb

Already have 2x 500gb HDD's which will also be thrown in, the SSD is mainly for Windows, Dayz and some other games. Hence why its a cheaper SSD as I'm at the maximum of the budget I'd like to spend.

Thoughts?. I'm hoping it'll make a nice little system. Especially coming from my i3-2120 3.3ghz 4gb ram and a £60 NVidia graphics card lol.

 

[Addicted]

Looks like a good spec to me imo, all the good brands (albeit mostly corsair).

I'd perhaps look at a Seasonic PSU if you can, iirc most if not all Corsair are now made by CWT, who are utter s**te! it'll probably be a lot more expensive though sadly.

 

[peak19]

Nice build but replace the 280x with a GTX970

 

[Joe R26]

So I picked up the parts today and built it. Took a few hours being my first build from scratch. I've literally just finished installing windows and all the updates after a few minor hiccups. Wow the system boots up so quick off the SSD drive it's insane! Looking forward to installing some more stuff and trying out some games on it tomorrow.

 

[Joe R26]

Now running at 4.5ghz well happy with the performance. Dayz runs at full settings and I get no less than about 30fps in big towns and 60+ out in the less dense areas of the map.

Next up I think is a new monitor. Thinking 24".

 

[Addicted]

Nice one

24" Sounds nice, I run 22" but then I have 3 of them so that offsets it a bit (3x 24" wont fit on desk) - lot of choice in that size!

 

[Joe R26]

Haha yeah my desk will only fit one monitor on it luckily.

Not really sure what I'm looking at really with contrast ratios etc. don't think I wanna stretch passed 200 really. Any suggestions?

 

[leeds_182]

I'm after a pc but I haven't owned one since the mid 90s (tower style job anyway).

What a minefield! Is it a lot cheaper to build your own or can anyone reccomend anything in the £600 - £700 price bracket?

 

[Joe R26]

My system came to about 850. But I used existing HDD's, and cd drive from my old setup. Check out www.novatech.co.uk or overclockers.co.uk. They seem to be the cheapest for parts. Also if you sign up to the overclockers forum, you can make a thread stating what your budget it is and what you want the pc for, and they'll give you suggestions as to what you can build on that budget.