Building a gaming and entertainment PC. Looking for advice :D

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unplanned bacon

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Hello, I am new here, so I don't know where I should post. I'm also a novice builder who doesn't know too much about the components of computers.

I'm looking to build a beast (well as far as I can get without spending too much) of a gaming and entertainment PC. Budget is about £700 ish, but cheaper the better.

The ideal spec has been hammered out
Processor: Intel i7 processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA H87 HD3 Motherboar
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 760 OC
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB RAM
Case:Zalman Z11 Plus Case
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CXM 600W
Optical Drive:LG 16X Blu Ray Drive
Keyboard: Logitech K360 Wireless keyboard
Storage: Seagate 2TB Barracuda HDD

Now as I'm coming from console I don't where any incompatibilities lie here. This is actually a slightly compromised spec (missing card readers and wireless which I'll probably add in future), but even then it comes to over a grand with software (OS and Office) which is why I then dropped RAM to 8GB and HDD to 1TB. Also devised a "lite" spec which is the same as above, but basically drops down to an i5, the GeForce 660 OC, 8GB RAM, 1TB storage, 500W PSU which got it down to £800 with software.

So, what I'm asking, any way I can reduce cost further (would preferably like to keep the 760 and the i7?

Is 16GB overkill for gaming or is 8GB fine?
What about Intel vs AMD for processors, does AMD give performance for less money?
Is an i7 overkill for gaming? I hear it's only advantage is with hyper threading which games don't use

Also, that Zalman case will be my case since it's already been purchased :p

Thanks

EDIT: Forgot to say my top 2 requirements were it needs to be able to game and do it well and shouldn't be bogged down by anything (or near enough to that)

I also subscribe to the *puts on Jeremy Clarkson voice* POWER!!! idea

EDIT: I just noticed I made an error in the ideal spec. I always do this and get the number confused. It's Nvidia GeForce 760OC and not the 770. Amended it now. Sorry about that

Had the same error in my costings list as well, wrote 770 and put the 760's price :chaudar:

Gah! Sorry, I get the GFX card numbers confused easily. The two options are 770 OC and 660 OC
 
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MFBLO96

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16 gb of ram is definitely overkill. BF4 uses 2.4gb of ram, with windows 8 using another 1.9
An i7 is currently overkill for gaming. When the cpu is the bottleneck the difference is only a few frames, however hyperthreading will be used more and more in the future.
For the gpu I would look at an EVGA gtx 770 Superclocked ACX, they are amazing cards.
 
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unplanned bacon

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You'd recommend EVGA over Gigabyte?
What if I wanted to do video editing, and I will definitely be doing at least some for YouTube, would an i7 be useful then?
I'd ammended the premium spec build to have 8GB and 1TB storage, but I wanted to show you what the top premium spec build was. So 8GB should be alright?
 
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filippi

filippi

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This is my suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£131.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£80.00 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£285.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.98 @ Ebuyer)
Keyboard: Logitech K360 Wireless Mini Keyboard (£45.12 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £724.65
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-11 17:58 GMT+0000)
 
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unplanned bacon

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That is some cheap RAM
 
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.00 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£92.48 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Value 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£66.73 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£62.04 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£239.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.67 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £691.82
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-11 18:04 GMT+0000)
 
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MFBLO96

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EVGA has a better warranty service, and the cards come clocked at already high speeds. If you are doing video editing the i7 is a big difference. In my testing on cinebench hyperthreading adds about 65% more preformance. Also, if you are going to be doing video editing you could consider running two 500gb drives in a RAID 0. That would get twice the read and write speeds, with the same 1gb of space.
8gb is plenty, and later down the road you could change it to 16gb if you begin to edit longer videos
 
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MFBLO96

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The 8320 performs better than the i5 is games like battlefield, a highly threaded game by current standards, however the i7 beats the 8320 in those games.

The 8320 uses a different type of motherboard: socket AM3+, a good one of those is the ASUS M5a99fx pro r2.0. The 8320 uses more power and generates more heat, almost requiring the use of an aftermarket cooler. Whereas my i7 has never gone above 68 in game on the stock cooler at 3.9ghz.

Both will work fine. However, if your on a budget I would get the 8320 and a 780 over an i7 and a 770
 
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unplanned bacon

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But the 780 costs a tonne, unless I'm missing something whereas the the 770, I can just about do
 
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unplanned bacon

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Here (assuming you're in the US as you used dollars), the price difference seems to be £200 (but I've only checked two sources). I could use the price gap for a sound card, though not sure if the difference between integrated audio and dedicated will be worth it, or if I should just drop the i7 to an i5, 16GB to 8GB and then pocket the savings. If I could find a 780 for less, it would be under consideration :D
 
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unplanned bacon

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I always do this. Just realised I said 770 instead of 760 OC :chaudar: Sorry, meant to say 760, got to stop doing that
Here it seems to be going for £370 and up and the 760 is £197
 
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unplanned bacon

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Sorry, I get the numbers of the graphics cards confused really easily. What I meant to say is 760 OC for the top spec build and not 770 like I said and the 660 OC for the lite spec. I realize that may change some of the suggestions. Sorry, I do that all the time with GFX cards. So, it's the GeForce 760 OC (almost did it again :p) and the 660 OC
 
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MFBLO96

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If you could go a 770 SC ACX and a 8320 you would have an amazing build
 
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unplanned bacon

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Can't seem to find a decent AM3+ board with HDMI out. I know the GFX card has HDMI out but still.
There is this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/970-PRO3-R2-0-Mainboard-Storage/dp/B00C9OPYWE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389638470&sr=8-2&keywords=AM3%2B+hdmi+motherboard

But who knows how good that is
An AMD build means I could up my RAM to 16GB again and come in at £795 with software, or keep RAM at 8GB and come in at £750
 
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MFBLO96

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Since the FX series processors do not come with integrated graphics none of the motherboard will have an HDMI port on them, the graphics connections are off on the back of the GPU, and nearly every modern gpu will have HDMI
 
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MFBLO96

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unplanned bacon

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It's that why!? For some reason I didn't pick up on that. I can stop looking for ones with HDMI out then. In any case I'll be using the 760 which has HDMI out on it. I won't use 680 if I don't have too. The Asrock board didn't indoor me with confidence either. A friend of mine recommended Asus too. He recommended this one. I don't know if eSata will be that useful to me though

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B008RPZUZK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1389685841&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165
 
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