Doing a whole new build. Can I get some help please?

[ZaO]

Hey guys. So finally, it looks like I will be doing a new build within the next few weeks I've been building for myself and others since 2007, btw, so I'm not new to this stuff But it's always nice to get some advice when doing a new build!

So, once I'm done selling some stuff I no longer need to raise funds, I'm expecting my budget to be about £1000 (Not including a screen. I have a monitor I can use for now, so I can buy a better screen at a later date if I have to). I will be using it for a lot of different tasks. But the focus when choosing hardware, is gaming. Here's what I have so far (If Amd or Intel decide to release some new Gpu's/Cpu's in this time, it could affect what I buy.):

MOBO:
(Overclocking ability with good VRM's would be nice, though it doesn't have to be the best of the best. Not too bothered about Crossfire, though it doesn't hurt to have the functionality! This is the component I think I need the most help with!) Suggestions?

CPU: 4790K
(I'm sitting pretty solid on this cpu choice, unless Amd or Intel release some new ones very soon! And yes, I want Hyperthreading!).

CPU COOLER:
I wouldn't mind a water cooler for it (not a complete system water cooling setup, just the cpu), but doesn't have to be. Suggestions?

RAM: I already have some good DDR3 stuff. No need to buy any

GPU: Amd 290X (I'll either get this or the 290, unless Amd release the new ones very soon. Still, it'll probably be one of these, hopefully at a cheaper price than they are currently). Which are the best 290s/290Xs?

PSU:
Not sure what's good/quite how much power I'll need. Would like a very efficient supply (modular/semi modular if possible) with plenty of headroom for a few extra internal hard drives, and lots of usb things. I probably won't bother with a crossfire setup. So I'm thinking something around 750W+ will be good for me. Suggestions?

SSD: Samsung 850 Evo or Crucial MX100.

HDD: Don't need to buy any.

ROM:
I might grab a Blu-Ray drive if I have enough money left over (probably not). Otherwise, just a drive that can install games and burn CD's/DVD's would be fine. But I really don't care much about this. It will be decided at the end once everything else has been decided on! Suggestions?

CASE:
I have no idea which ones are good!! I had a Coolermaster Cosmos before, and I loved the dust trays that you could slide out - so easy to clean! Would love something that has the same kinda thing, and won't fill up with dust too fast. Suggestions?

CASE FANS:
The case will probably come with some (might be noisey crap), but I might want to upgrade to some quiter ones. What's good?

THERMAL PASTE:

PROJECTOR/MONITOR/TV (Must be 120hz+ refresh for TV or Monitor):
I would LOVE to get a good projector for gaming (1080p native, or higher). I would probably have to look for something secondhand, as they are very pricey.

For a monitor, I wouldn't mind something with a res above 1080p so that I can fit more on the screen when editing stuff, but it doesn't have to be. Something above 24" would be good, especially if above 1920x1080.

I would also be cool with a TV if it's good enough. It would need to have a native res of at least 1080p. Something 30"+ would be cool.

The main thing with any screen I get (Projector, Monitor or TV), is that it doesn't have issues with ghosting. Pretty much every single screen I've ever looked at in my life has had issues with ghosting. I really, REALLY hate it. So, a total gaming orientated screen with low latency and all that stuff is desired!

* I will update this first post as I go, and as people suggest things *

* Price estimates are from Amazon.co.uk and Scan.co.uk *

Thank you all very much. Looking forward to seeing what we come up with

[herulach]

As far as monitors go I can't reccomend my crossover 290M highly enough. 29" 21:9 samsung panel, shipped from Korea for about £190. No ghosting I've noticed, vibrant colours only downside is a single input.
PSU wise a decent 550W will be tonnes. I'd also suggest you push the budget a little to get a 500GB HDD. It won't take long to get a 250gb filled (I upgraded recently as I wanted to have BF4, CTE, Hardline (100GB) as well as FC4 and elite on. By the time you've got a bit of data there its quite snug.

[ZaO]

As far as monitors go I can't reccomend my crossover 290M highly enough. 29" 21:9 samsung panel, shipped from Korea for about £190. No ghosting I've noticed, vibrant colours only downside is a single input.
PSU wise a decent 550W will be tonnes. I'd also suggest you push the budget a little to get a 500GB HDD. It won't take long to get a 250gb filled (I upgraded recently as I wanted to have BF4, CTE, Hardline (100GB) as well as FC4 and elite on. By the time you've got a bit of data there its quite snug.

Thanks for the suggestion I'll look that monitor up. I don't need to buy any extra storage drives though (OP updated).

[herulach]

Thanks for the suggestion I'll look that monitor up. I don't need to buy any extra storage drives though (OP updated).

neither did I - I have a nas downstairs, what I meant was even with only games on the SSD its going to get tedious quickly rotating stuff on and off (especially if you want star citizen).

[ZaO]

neither did I - I have a nas downstairs, what I meant was even with only games on the SSD its going to get tedious quickly rotating stuff on and off (especially if you want star citizen).

Yeh I know what you're saying. I had a 128GB SSD in my last build. I only had Arma 3 and Skyrim on it. Other games were running from a regular HDD. I would love to have a 500GB+ SSD! But, budget is the constraint here. I will get more if I can

[aidanjt]

(I definitely want an Amd gpu. Probably won't budge on these

Not using Linux on this, then?

[ZaO]

Not using Linux on this, then?

It's possible that I will at some point. But that would require software and games I use to run on it. So, it'll likely stay on Windows for quite some time!

[gupsterg]

Hi ZaO,

If gaming is all you do and say general apps like office/web, etc I'd get an i5 4690k than a i7 4790K, I'm also doing a new build myself at present. Benchmarks suggest for above use a i7 is no better performing than i5, I formed the opinion that the money saved would go on other parts.

New RIG will have a Cooler Master V850 as Scan were doing it for ridiculous price of £85 early this year, that PSU is made by Seasonic. Fantastic build quality and fully modular plus super quiet. I'd had a Seasonic S12 600w for virtually over 8yrs, main reason for going for the V850 as wanted a Seasonic without the price tag.

The parts left over from my old RIG will be coupled with a Cooler Master V650 (made by Enhance, another good OEM). This PSU is semi modular and again great build quality, 100% Jap.Caps and super quiet.

As the Seasonic S12 600W had been rock solid with varying CPU/Mobo combo's (all OC'd) and recently even worked very well with a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X (OC'd manually). Other hardware within that case had been ODD, 3x HDD, 3x120mm fans, 3x92mm fans. I thought the CM V650 @ £61 was a great PSU to replace it with, I had considered the Antec Truepower Classic 650W but a) all captive wiring b) IIRC some reviews highlighted noisy when coming up to 75%+ loading.

Do you have a short list of what cases you like? out of the £1000 what would your budget for case be? I'm reusing my old case as I love the inverted ATX design of internals meaning GPU heatsink is right way up. Also the case has served me well with great internal size/features and cooling has been quiet and efficient with 2x120mm fans (Silverstone), 1x80mm (Silverstone), 2x 92mm (my own modding to side panel).

[Bonebreaker777]

The Samsung 250GB seems just fine for the £80ish (disregarding the latest firmware issues).

WD AV-GP 750GB 5400RPM - £25
Toshiba 500GB 7200RPM - £31

Mono - Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 for £56ish. OC plus other niceties.

GPU - choose by the third party cooler, MSI or ASUS is just fine. Check some reviews.

PSU - http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5777...ted-conclusion

[gupsterg]

The Samsung 250GB seems just fine for the £80ish (disregarding the latest firmware issues).

I thought it was the evo 840 which had FW issues and not the evo 850?

[Bonebreaker777]

I thought it was the evo 840 which had FW issues and not the evo 850?

Not yet but you never know. Your call. I would go for Crucial or Sandisk.

[ZaO]

Hi ZaO,

If gaming is all you do and say general apps like office/web, etc I'd get an i5 4690k than a i7 4790K, I'm also doing a new build myself at present. Benchmarks suggest for above use a i7 is no better performing than i5, I formed the opinion that the money saved would go on other parts.

New RIG will have a Cooler Master V850 as Scan were doing it for ridiculous price of £85 early this year, that PSU is made by Seasonic. Fantastic build quality and fully modular plus super quiet. I'd had a Seasonic S12 600w for virtually over 8yrs, main reason for going for the V850 as wanted a Seasonic without the price tag.

The parts left over from my old RIG will be coupled with a Cooler Master V650 (made by Enhance, another good OEM). This PSU is semi modular and again great build quality, 100% Jap.Caps and super quiet.

As the Seasonic S12 600W had been rock solid with varying CPU/Mobo combo's (all OC'd) and recently even worked very well with a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X (OC'd manually). Other hardware within that case had been ODD, 3x HDD, 3x120mm fans, 3x92mm fans. I thought the CM V650 @ £61 was a great PSU to replace it with, I had considered the Antec Truepower Classic 650W but a) all captive wiring b) IIRC some reviews highlighted noisy when coming up to 75%+ loading.

Do you have a short list of what cases you like? out of the £1000 what would your budget for case be? I'm reusing my old case as I love the inverted ATX design of internals meaning GPU heatsink is right way up. Also the case has served me well with great internal size/features and cooling has been quiet and efficient with 2x120mm fans (Silverstone), 1x80mm (Silverstone), 2x 92mm (my own modding to side panel).

I do want Hyperthreading for my use. So it's gonna be the 4790K

Thanks for the tip on the Psu!

I don't really know what cases are good, so don't really have any in mind. Though, someone suggested the Coolermaster Storm Trooper on another forum, and that does look very nice! I would like to budget about £100 for a new case. Budgets are not 100% solid though, as it depends what everything else costs, and how much money I make from selling things..

Thanks.

The Samsung 250GB seems just fine for the £80ish (disregarding the latest firmware issues).

WD AV-GP 750GB 5400RPM - £25
Toshiba 500GB 7200RPM - £31

Mono - Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 for £56ish. OC plus other niceties.

GPU - choose by the third party cooler, MSI or ASUS is just fine. Check some reviews.

PSU - http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5777...ted-conclusion

It was the 840s that had the firmware issues, as someone already said. But yeh, I guess it's possible the 850s will too. That's why I also have the Crucial MX100 in mind

That Gigabyte board looks pretty cheap for what it offers! I'll have to update my first post with new possible parts. Thanks.

[dfour]

Hers my go using OC as single company

Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £275.99

MSI Radeon R9 290X LE Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99

Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £114.95

Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive ( CT250MX200SSD1) £99.98

MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99

SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £72.95

Raijintek Triton AIO Water Cooling Solution £69.95

IC Diamond 7-Carat Thermal Compound (1.5g) £6.98

Sub Total : £813.98
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel (Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £165.30
Total : £991.78

Savings can be made here. Gaming orientated motherboard. One hell of a case (no more fans needed either and the fans supplied are very good ones) with a very well reviewed 750W semi-modular psu. 290x for the price of a non x card. You could swap the mx200 ssd for the older mx100 without losing much except £10. IC diamond is what I switched to using from AS 5 as its non conductive and need no bedding it time and doesnt break down over time. the water cooler is custom and you can add dye to the coolant to custom it more yourself.

For a monitor the only one I can think off that would suit your needs ATM is this beauty:



Acer Predator XG270HUomidpx 27" FREESYNC TN 144Hz Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor

1440P res, freesync so no screen tearing and a screaming fast 144 hz refresh rate just not cheap.

[ZaO]

@dfour - Thanks man! I would consider all of those components. But I'm not sure about the MSI Motherboard, because I remember hearing a lot of bad stuff about them a couple years ago...

[dfour]

@dfour - Thanks man! I would consider all of those components. But I'm not sure about the MSI Motherboard, because I remember hearing a lot of bad stuff about them a couple years ago...

You have said it yourself here 'a couple of years ago' which is ages in tech circles.

Hexus review msi z97 gaming

Factor in a competitive £115 street price, and the Z97 Gaming 5 is an ideal candidate for high-end gamers looking to put together a cutting-edge ATX rig.

[ZaO]

You have said it yourself here 'a couple of years ago' which is ages in tech circles.

Hexus review msi z97 gaming

Yeh that's a fair point. Stuff can change a lot within a couple years! It's just that I wasn't sure you know.. I'll have a good read into that review. Thanks