First ever PC build (gaming - ~£1,000 to £1,500 budget)

RyanHelpPlease

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Feb 20, 2013
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Hi, I'm putting together my first ever build and after spending some time looking at different parts I believe I've come up with a build I'd like to try. However, seeing as it is my first build, I'd appreciate it if people with more experience in this area could help me by having a look at the build and giving advice on things you'd change if it were your own build

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/RyanF/saved/3cy2

I'm going to be adding another 4GB of RAM from my existing PC and could potentially be reusing the hard drive as well which would free up a bit of money for spending elsewhere. I chose the GTX 770 because after looking at benchmarks for BF4 and ArmA3 it seems to be a reasonably good card. I've also got the option of getting a second one for SLI which is a very strong possibility in a month or two.

So yeah, if anyone could give me a few tips on what you'd change, that'd be great! :)

Cheers,

Ryan
 

anathema_forever

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Jan 12, 2013
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it looks okay to me, seems like you got most of the highlights of what I know about computer building. I would want 16gb of Ram myself because I like to have web browsers open all the time with many tabs, I kind of don't like bookmarks somewhat. I also prefer to just leave them open even when I am gaming. 8gb is fine though, if you don't do a lot of multitasking or use a ton of web tabs you'll never notice. Mixing memory brands and speeds is a bit of a iffy idea if thats what you were doing. I might recommend windows 8 over 7 because its under the hood is supposed to be a bit better and they fixed the UI well enough and are planning on bringing the start menu back also so it should be fine.
 
G

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One thing I would change is the heat sink. Anandtech (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6916/cooler-master-seidon-240m-and-12-more-coolers-the-retest-and-megaroundup/6) showed that both the U12S and U14S beat the D14 in performance and noise. Plus, I believe the U12S/14S are cheaper, lighter (less stress on MOBO), and less likely to interfere with tall memory.

The 850W is overkill for a single GPU, but if you're sure about SLI, it's no problem.

And lastly, regarding the return of the start menu in windows 8 like the above poster said: Microsoft promised to bring back the start button and we all know how that turned out.