£750 Gaming PC. Thoughts?

[Hyxgen]

Alright, so my absolute maximum budget is £750, but not sure if I was getting the best specs possible. This is what I currently have. If you are aware that I could be getting a better component for my money, let me know !

CPU: i5 4570 (£130)
GPU: XFX R9 290 (£280)
Motherboard: MSI B85-G43 ATX (£54)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance CL9 2x4GB (£66)
Hard Disk: WD 1TB 3.5" (£40) (+128GB MX100 using TopCashback)
PSU: Corsair CMX 500W (£45)
Case: Corsair Spec 03 (£45)
Monitor: Acer K242HL 24" LED + DVI (£100)
Keyboard: Zalman ZM-K300M (£14)
(Already have mouse)

Thanks for any help you are willing to share !

[Bonebreaker777]

The Z87 chipset motherboard is unnecessary as you don't have K class CPU for overclocking. Choose rather with H87/97 or B85 chipset.

The PSU depends on you, modular vs non-modular is mostly about the cable management and to adjust the number of connections to your need. To a lesser extent is about the thermal and electric design (I hope I am right) as modular connections due to imperfect contact generate more heat versus fixed cables plus the reliability. I would (personally) get a XFX for that kind of money. Core 450w or so.

[Little_Dud]

I don't really think that getting the 4GB version of the 760 will gain you anything in games, I think you'd be better off saving the money and just going for the 2GB GTX 760 (£170) or the similar performing Radeon 280 (3 GB)(£165) or the Radeon 280X (also 3 GB)(£200 for a gigabyte card or £220 if you wanted to go MSI).

Everything else in your build seems fine apart from the suggestions from Bonebreaker and you might want to think about getting a cheap CPU cooler (even without a K series CPU)

[Bonebreaker777]

I don't really think that getting the 4GB version of the 760 will gain you anything in games, I think you'd be better off saving the money and just going for the 2GB GTX 760 (£170) or the similar performing Radeon 280 (3 GB)(£165) or the Radeon 280X (also 3 GB)(£200 for a gigabyte card or £220 if you wanted to go MSI).

Everything else in your build seems fine apart from the suggestions from Bonebreaker and you might want to think about getting a cheap CPU cooler (even without a K series CPU)

Apart from my suggestions? Ahh. They weren't so bad (or were they?).

I maintain the statement about the MoBo and the PSU is for him to decide. A non-modular "should" be better from overall point of view but the tradeoff with a modular PSU in form of able to use only cables he needs may be worth it. Even for slightly higher price.

So Hyxgen, are you or are you not good with cable ties (if you are - non-modular PSU, if not - modular PSU, so you can have a tidy case with unrestricted airflow).

Also make sure you use cash back (TopCashback) and Flubit (for Amazon only purchases). You could save a good 5% to 15% (enough for a 120/128GB SSD).

[kalniel]

Apart from my suggestions? Ahh. They weren't so bad (or were they?).

He means your suggestions are good, where you haven't suggested anything then the original build is OK.

[Bonebreaker777]

He means your suggestions are good, where you haven't suggested anything then the original build is OK.

Make sense now. Should probably stop reading posts while cycling

[Hyxgen]

Apart from my suggestions? Ahh. They weren't so bad (or were they?).

I maintain the statement about the MoBo and the PSU is for him to decide. A non-modular "should" be better from overall point of view but the tradeoff with a modular PSU in form of able to use only cables he needs may be worth it. Even for slightly higher price.

So Hyxgen, are you or are you not good with cable ties (if you are - non-modular PSU, if not - modular PSU, so you can have a tidy case with unrestricted airflow).

Also make sure you use cash back (TopCashback) and Flubit (for Amazon only purchases). You could save a good 5% to 15% (enough for a 120/128GB SSD).

Ok, thanks for that suggestion. I'll swap the Z87 with a B85. Hope it will turn out better . Might also try using Flubit, and I'm not good with cable ties, so I think I'll go modular.

I don't really think that getting the 4GB version of the 760 will gain you anything in games, I think you'd be better off saving the money and just going for the 2GB GTX 760 (£170) or the similar performing Radeon 280 (3 GB)(£165) or the Radeon 280X (also 3 GB)(£200 for a gigabyte card or £220 if you wanted to go MSI).

Everything else in your build seems fine apart from the suggestions from Bonebreaker and you might want to think about getting a cheap CPU cooler (even without a K series CPU)

Well, I've just cut about £25 with the motherboard swap. I'll see if I could go for a 280X. Only problem is, I'm hearing a lot of things about both cards, and not sure if I should stick to the 760, or swap with a 280X

[mynameissi]

I would probably go for the base Radeon 280. Its performance is pretty solid, and very similar to the 760. You could get the 280x, but given the choice between a 280x or a 760 i'd get a 760.
So my choice would be the 280.

[Bonebreaker777]

If I could I would try to save up for a SSD (MX100 or SanDisk Ultra+).

GPU wise I would go with a reliable brand with a good cooler, rather that to get one model higher with reference cooler.

With the B chipsets you can't really go wrong, just make sure it has enough SATA ports for the future plus functions you may use.

[Hyxgen]

If I could I would try to save up for a SSD (MX100 or SanDisk Ultra+).

GPU wise I would go with a reliable brand with a good cooler, rather that to get one model higher with reference cooler.

With the B chipsets you can't really go wrong, just make sure it has enough SATA ports for the future plus functions you may use.

I would probably go for the base Radeon 280. Its performance is pretty solid, and very similar to the 760. You could get the 280x, but given the choice between a 280x or a 760 i'd get a 760.
So my choice would be the 280.

Alright, thanks for that bit of advice you 2. I've also asked around with a few people, and based upon what they've said and a bit of thinking, a 280 appears to be the better choice, provided I also get a good cooling system with it.

I'm not too sure about an SSD. Sure, they may be fast, but they are also rather expensive, and don't hold much space.

[Stubo]

I'm not too sure about the motherboard or keyboard, and picked the monitor basically because it's IPS and a reasonable brand. The rest are known solid parts. Look into adding a custom CPU cooler at a later date to overclock and give your CPU serious legs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.14 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97M-G43 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£73.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.70 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£211.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£31.34 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.67 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Zalman ZM-K400G Wired Gaming Keyboard (£16.67 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £731.19

[mynameissi]

Have you taken into account the cost of shipping? Based on the fact these are the prices quoted on the websites I don't think you have.

[Hyxgen]

Have you taken into account the cost of shipping? Based on the fact these are the prices quoted on the websites I don't think you have.

Quite a few of the items that I'm getting come with free delivery. I admittely haven't really taken shipping costs into account, but I have quite a bit of cash left over right now which should definitely cover the cost of shipping.

[Bonebreaker777]

Alright, thanks for that bit of advice you 2. I've also asked around with a few people, and based upon what they've said and a bit of thinking, a 280 appears to be the better choice, provided I also get a good cooling system with it.

I'm not too sure about an SSD. Sure, they may be fast, but they are also rather expensive, and don't hold much space.

As I said, the SSD could be sourced from the Flubit plus TopCashback savings.

And, trust me, even 120GB SSD can make a noticeable difference even if only for the OS & essential software (not like games and such cause for that a 120GB SSD would be really not enough).

[mynameissi]

Quite a few of the items that I'm getting come with free delivery. I admittely haven't really taken shipping costs into account, but I have quite a bit of cash left over right now which should definitely cover the cost of shipping.

Good. I made the mistake of not accounting for it, so changed to scan and amazon. Came out to be about £30 more overall.

[Hyxgen]

As I said, the SSD could be sourced from the Flubit plus TopCashback savings.

And, trust me, even 120GB SSD can make a noticeable difference even if only for the OS & essential software (not like games and such cause for that a 120GB SSD would be really not enough).

Alright, if you think it's a good idea, I'll take a look into it and get a TopCashback account. Hopefully I'll find a good SSD. Any good brands you can recommend? As far as I know Kingston don't make very good SSDs.