£650 Gaming Build

[Jtl2877]

I never realised the non-K ones were completely locked, I just thought it meant that they weren't as good or designed for overclocking. The only cheaper Z97 motherboards are cheap MSIs or one Gigabyte that has a poor selection of ports, so again, it looks like I'm sticking where I am

I found this when I was busy working at work! haha

http://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk/z...ence-a-59.html

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/art...ifference-562/

Also I think this one has the most info.. It tends to little differences, but not a vast amount of difference between the next chipset, so the Z97 isn't a vast improvement over the Z87, but its the little changes.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/art...ifference-473/

Also if your not going to OC, probably just get a higher end board thats a bit cheaper now with one of the older chipsets, unless you really need something another chipset can offer, if that makes sense?

Looking at this, it sounds like a H87 would suit your needs?

Again, just a thought

[shaithis]

If your ordering from scan, don't forget to factor in the "we can't replace it have 50% of what you paid for the item" if anything dies in the first year.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If your ordering from scan, don't forget to factor in the "we can't replace it have 50% of what you paid for the item" if anything dies in the first year.

[J-Pandit]

If your ordering from scan, don't forget to factor in the "we can't replace it have 50% of what you paid for the item" if anything dies in the first year.

Is this a real "thing" or just a bad experience?

[J-Pandit]

(Jtl2877) cheers for the links, but it looks like "ukgamingcomputers" got their table the wrong way round for M2 and SATA Express!
I'll probably go for Z87 in case I ever want to crossfire in the future, and with the savings from the bundle it won't be much more than a H87.

Tempted by the Xeon processor, I'll have to think about it.
Everyone says there's virtually no difference for i5 vs i7 for gaming, but for £20 ish more it seems worth it.

[kalniel]

Is this a real "thing" or just a bad experience?

I believe shaithis has posted his experience of a number of orders from Scan on their forums where they have the opportunity to reply.

I don't doubt that Scan operate entirely within their obligations unless due to error, however there are other retailers who I would trust to go further than merely legal obligation in the name of customer service. But you pay your money and you make your choice - one retailer might charge higher prices and use that to offset goodwill actions above and beyond legal minimum, another might trim margins and keep prices a touch lower by not being so generous.

[Jtl2877]

Just remember with some of the bundle deals on Scan they could be a 'Today only' which does sometimes last for a couple of days recently, its often best to get it while its on offer.

They also do decent CPU bundles on the Today only offers, however make sure its what you really need, they might offer, CPU, MOBO, Ram, PSU, HDD, it will have a decent price, but you may be able to get it cheaper if you order the parts separately, and just get the parts you want, if that makes sense?

I tend to do the bundle and then make my own with what I want, see what's cheaper and get that.

[J-Pandit]

Got the PC built yesterday, everything's up and running
It wouldn't turn on at first - I was panicking, but then I double-checked Gigabyte's website about the CPU compatibility and it's only supperted Haswell-refresh since the latest BIOS.
Fortunately I had an i5-4670 which I could borrow to update the BIOS, then it was all fine!

Boots in 8-13 seconds straight to desktop, I almost forgot I had an SSD until I began building, definitely a good choice.
It scores about 750 on Heaven Unigine 4.0. It should play BF3 smooth on Ultra, right?
I was getting a bit of lag/stutter, so I turned it from Ultra to High, but the stutter was still there. I'm guessing it's my Ping/ISP. The ping was about 40-70 , could this be why?

[narz]

I was getting a bit of lag/stutter, so I turned it from Ultra to High, but the stutter was still there. I'm guessing it's my Ping/ISP. The ping was about 40-70 , could this be why?

How does it play in campaign mode in Ultra?

Type render.drawfps 1 in the console to show what kind of FPS you are getting and check if its dropping during the lag

[Skierbruce]

This looks like a solid build. The case could be so much better if you could pay slightly more but in reality you have a great build layer out.

[J-Pandit]

How does it play in campaign mode in Ultra?

Type render.drawfps 1 in the console to show what kind of FPS you are getting and check if its dropping during the lag

It seems to definitely be the internet - my ping is almost 3 times that of friends who live in the same area, (I never realised!), so changing ISPs. The FPS is fine for about 10 seconds then drops, and at times the whole game seems to stutter and I fear it's going to crash. Playing offline is fine.

I know I could have got a better case, but this was never meant to be an enthusiast build, this is meant to be a dedicated general-use gaming machine, not one that I constantly tinker with.
And if I said "I can spend £20 more to get a better case", I'd rather have spent that money getting a 280x or possibly a Xeon instead. Besides subjective aesthetics, I fail to see what a more expensive case would have given me, considering I'm not planning to open the PC up for the next year or two, besides to get the dust out.
Obviously you seem to think there is more to be had from a case, so please let me know what I've missed out on!

[Bonebreaker777]

It seems to definitely be the internet - my ping is almost 3 times that of friends who live in the same area, (I never realised!), so changing ISPs. The FPS is fine for about 10 seconds then drops, and at times the whole game seems to stutter and I fear it's going to crash. Playing offline is fine.

I know I could have got a better case, but this was never meant to be an enthusiast build, this is meant to be a dedicated general-use gaming machine, not one that I constantly tinker with.
And if I said "I can spend £20 more to get a better case", I'd rather have spent that money getting a 280x or possibly a Xeon instead. Besides subjective aesthetics, I fail to see what a more expensive case would have given me, considering I'm not planning to open the PC up for the next year or two, besides to get the dust out.
Obviously you seem to think there is more to be had from a case, so please let me know what I've missed out on!

If you connection is the culprit, it shouldn't affect your FPS.Even with dodgy connection the game should run fine,just object in the game wouldn't behave as you expect (bodies suddenly appearing, people dodging your bullets like in Matrix). I would suspect drivers conflicting. Try to update them or change them and see if the performance improves while playing online.

[Unstable Sloth]

i would get the k series cpu and oc it as you have a z97 board

[hcashmore11]

looks good, except are you sure the 550w will power everything? Also just a personal preference, i prefer Corsair PSUs as too many go wrong, and they just take them back, and give you a brand new one, when it goes wrong, could go for a cheaper case if you want to lose a little money on that, and could get a slightly smaller or just a different HDD to get that a bit cheaper too. However, as you said looks don't matter, go for a cheaper case, there are £30 cases that give a good airflow, and look alright, nothing to shout about, but not bad either.