Never built a PC, building two soon, htpc and gaming pc

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

tipdrinker

Honorable
Nov 5, 2013
4
0
10,510
Hi there, I was wondering if you guys could offer some friendly advice. I'm in the process of building a htpc for myself and I also offered to build a gaming PC for a friend of mine for a bit of fun. My htpc has a budget of 600 euros and the gaming pc has a buddget of 500.

My htpc is going to be used for watching satellite and terrestrial digital tv (ireland is odd in that the domestic chanells are only available through an aerial) and internet content as well as some gaming and seeing as it's going to be on all the time maybe a bit of bitcoin mining on the side :). It would be nice if it was future proof for 3d and UHD (though not essential) and still be playing games at reasonable frame rates over the next couple of years. I also want it to be quiet and power effecient. I've done up a wishlist on amazon on what I think woud work. I was wondering particularly if I should go with the apu I've selected or if I should get something less powerful in terms of processor and get a dedicated graphics card. Any insights would be great :)



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/CI2ZHI89WA76/ref=topnav_lists_2

The gaming PC is going to be used for games obviously but my friend would also be doing some video editing with sony vegas of gaming videos for youtube. I'm a videographer myself and I use adobe premiere on my edit suite. I know that intel and nvidia are the prefered choices in that regard but I know nothing of vegas. Also I'm a bit out of the loop in terms of gaming so I don't know what to look out for in terms of spec. I also know that my friend would be doing a bit of overclocking, I know nothing about this and how this would influence parts etc. Here's the link, let me know what you think :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/2AEDND5INQ2XK/ref=topnav_lists_3

 
Sort by date Sort by votes
16bit

16bit

Honorable
Oct 6, 2013
238
0
10,710
If I were I would get a cheaper CPU in the gaming PC and put the extra money into a better graphics card.

Possibly a AMD Athlon II X4 750K for £58.33 or a AMD FX6300 £84.40 for your cpu.

And possibly a sapphire 7870 OC for £146.90 or an Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 270X OC for £163.26 for your gpu

Your gpu is more important in a gaming pc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dottorrent

dottorrent

Honorable
May 20, 2012
1,883
1
12,460
You have a few problems with both builds, Kevin right? The first build has a poor case and bends if pressure is applied considerably. Also, those Richland APUs are known to heat up quick under load, especially while you are playing Blu-ray movies. You also have no PSU for the HTPC, so here are my changes -

Silverstone Milo ML03B - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverstone-SST-ML03B-USB3-0-PC-Case/dp/B004HE2YZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383699292&sr=8-1&keywords=silverstone+milo

Cooler Master GeminII M4 Low profile heat sink - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-GeminII-Downblow-CPU/dp/B005XOY87Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383699329&sr=8-1&keywords=cooler+master+geminii+m4

Corsair Builder series CX 430M 80+ Bronze certified PSU - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Builder-Series-Modular-Certified/dp/B00ALYP208/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1383700438&sr=8-2&keywords=modular+psu

The case is of excellent quality and the cooler will help your CPU stay stable while playing your favorite Blu-ray movies and High Definition television.

The second case also has problems. Firstly, your power supply is awful. A cheap PSU is never good and I learned that the hard way i.e. It blew up. Also, if you are using Adobe and Sony editing products, they use Nvidia's CUDA cores more effectively than AMD's Stream Processors and you really do need a better heat sink with that CPU. AMD's stock heat sinks are bad and can sometimes overheat the CPU. Here are my recommended changes for your gaming build -

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-120mm/dp/B0068OI7T8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383699646&sr=8-1&keywords=cooler+master+hyper+212+evo+cpu+cooler

XFX Core edition 550w 80+ Bronze certified PSU - http://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-P1-550S-XXB9-PRO550W-Edition-Supply/dp/B004RJ8EKI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383699694&sr=8-1&keywords=xfx+core+550+watt+psu

Gigabyte Geforce GTX 660 Windforce 2X 2GB GPU - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-GTX660-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B0099AOAUI/ref=sr_1_12?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1383699775&sr=1-12&keywords=gtx+660

The cooler will chill your CPU fine, even while overclocked. The PSU is of much, much higher quality and the GPU is really worth the extra £30, especially for your needs.

And now a few pointers -

1 - An anti-static Wrist band - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-Static-Wrist-Strap-Grounding-Discharge/dp/B004XBBYSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383699942&sr=8-1&keywords=anti-static+wrist+straps
They are cheap and sort of required. Static electricity can destroy your components, even while hovering your statically charged fingers over them. Attach the Crocodile clip to an unpainted piece of metal on your case and strap the other end to your wrist. It's better paying a quid to stay safe than paying again for replacing components.

2 - Take your time installing your components. Rushing can potentially damage components so go slowly. If you are unsure how to install components, here is a guide, provided by NCIX tech Tips - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIJx6Y3tofg

3 - While installing your heat sinks, follow the instruction manuals very carefully. You really don't want to misfit a heat sink on a CPU, as that can cause inefficient cooling and that's bad.

I hope your build are successfully working when you are done. Good luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

tipdrinker

Honorable
Nov 5, 2013
4
0
10,510


Thanks so much for the help guys. I posted this on a few forums and you were the only ones to respond so really appreciate it. I've changed things around re the suggestions you've made. I espacially appreciate the case and power reccomendations for the htpc :). Couple of q's. the price of my htpc is now a bit too much now. I reckon I could maybe cut back on the apu? What would you guys recommend. I probably could settle for a dual core. Would game graphics still be decent with a lower model?

As regards the gaming pc. I went for the amd athlon ii x4 mentioned above which takes a different card slot the fm2, so Ive changed to the same motherboard for the gaming pc as my htpc. The motherboard I think has integrated graphics, though I'm not sure. Could that cause a conflict with the graphics card I've now selected which is the nvidia?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

amboyscout

Honorable
Dec 26, 2013
46
0
10,540
Thing is, you may want to use pcpartpicker.com It gives you the best prices out of TONS of stores and checks for compabality between parts. Amazon is one of those stores. Also, it does tax and shipping to specific zip codes too! And you can set the distance for in store pickup.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom