What order to build/buy in?

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unplanned bacon

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First ever PC build. It's going to be used for gaming and entertainment. I have the case and now don't know what to get next. I know that doing piece by piece leaves you open to dead on arrival parts that can't be RMA'd, but I can't buy all the parts at once. Is first thinking get the cheaper parts first, but now I'm thinking get the parts that get it into bootable state first. Thing is I'm still picking between AMD (FX8320) and Intel (moist likely i5) which will affect which board I get and the amount of RAM.

Also I noticed a manufacturing flaw on my case yesterday (day I got good of it). On the front panel bits where you put the SSD isn't flush with the c front of the case. It's a little too far in one side and a bit too far out the other. It's all one piece with the front of the case. You x can't even see it looking head on and I wouldn't have known about it had I not run my finger there. Is this worth the effort of an RMA or not? It's such a tiny thing, but I'm wondering. I'll get a picture as soon as I can
 
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BluePhantom
Well the little tray/holder thing (just behind the power button and between the usb ports) was all cracked on the left and i was missing one of the little rubber feet that go on the bottom so it wouldn't sit level, but i ended up calling them and instead of RMAing the whole thing they got me to email them pictures and then sent me out the parts, which worked perfectly for me.

As for what parts to buy when... I won't really matter when you but the mouse, keyboard, wifi card or optical drive as long as you have them when you go to use it obviously. Also when buying a PSU, buy quality... don't cheap out if you can help it. With a cheaper PSU if it fails... it usually always kills more than just the PSU.
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BluePhantom

BluePhantom

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For sure start with your CPU & Motherboard. After that get Ram and Hard Drive/SSD (now its at least functional at this point) then add things like graphics cards and others that you want/need. Also don't cheap out on parts for your PC, buy quality! Its better to wait till you have the money for quality over just buying cheap to make a working system.
 
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BluePhantom

BluePhantom

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As for the RMA, that depends... If you don't need to have the case for a week or two and the damage is bothering you enough that its all you notice when you look at it... then sure send it back. Otherwise if your using it in a build currently, or you really have to look to see the damage or you just don't want to wait for the replacement to show up because of the time frame that shipping could take then its more than likely not worth it.
 
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unplanned bacon

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I notice the tiniest little things about stuff I buy. It's not damaged, it's a manufacturing defect that doesn't even affect anything. It's just the effort of hauling the box to the post office and then getting a new one sent to me that might have something actually wing with it
 
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BluePhantom

BluePhantom

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Yeah well that's just it. I mean personally... Ive ordered many things online and when they arrived they have had small defects but if it isn't something that hinders the objects functionality. I normally don't worry about it
 
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unplanned bacon

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^ this is what I'm talking about, the very bottom rectangle. I'm a little OCD about stuff, so it tends to drive me crazy, but then I think if I return whatever item it is, I could get one in worse shape or with something else wrong with it (etc.) which has happened. This doesn't affect operation, you can't even see it unless you know what to look for, have the right lighting or stumble on it by accident (like I did) so I'm tempted just to live with it really, and then later down the road, if I need get another of the same case (it's doesn't cost that much really considering what will be in it)

EDIT: Better picture. Can you even see what I'm talking about, probably can't to be honest, as I said I didn't know it existed until I touched it



Bet you can barely see what I'm talking about. In the past I've almost returned my Xbox 360 because of a D Pad that wasn't set properly even though the console worked perfect (there's now one or discs that give it trouble, but that's the fault of the disc and in the case of one an anomaly). Kept the system even after I found out my headset didn't work right/at all

Returned a set of earphones several times because of various problems until I got a good one. Returned faulty laptop 4 or 5 times for fairly small to major things and the one I wound up with passed scrutineering ( :p ) but still didn't have everything quite right (it now randomly blue screens or fails to start and not to mention overheats when playing a not incredibly demanding, but poorly coded game)

I know I'm terrible, but that's OCD for you
 
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BluePhantom

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If you know how much power you will need, then you can for sure buy the PSU now. Also most average builds can very easily get away with a 500-600w PSU. Unless your running several GPUs or something like that... You probably will never need more than 600w.
 
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BluePhantom

BluePhantom

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I do see it, but only because i have my z11 plus to compare it to, and honestly if thats all that came wrong with yours... don't send it back... mine came worse off than that.
 
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unplanned bacon

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What was wrong with yours when you got it?
There was another guy who reviewed this same case and said he had similar issue, so it may be more common than we'd like it to be (or we're just unlucky :p)

Should I get a PSU next, keyboard + optical drive, PSU and wifi card or any combination of the above?


 
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BluePhantom

BluePhantom

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Well the little tray/holder thing (just behind the power button and between the usb ports) was all cracked on the left and i was missing one of the little rubber feet that go on the bottom so it wouldn't sit level, but i ended up calling them and instead of RMAing the whole thing they got me to email them pictures and then sent me out the parts, which worked perfectly for me.

As for what parts to buy when... I won't really matter when you but the mouse, keyboard, wifi card or optical drive as long as you have them when you go to use it obviously. Also when buying a PSU, buy quality... don't cheap out if you can help it. With a cheaper PSU if it fails... it usually always kills more than just the PSU.
 
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unplanned bacon

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Wow! How did that case even end up shipping?! Sorry to hear about that dude, but at least Zalman fixed it. As for mine, I don't think I found anything else wrong with it, apart from maybe one thumb screw that felt it like it came up against a fair bit of resistance, but then I realised it's also screwing into the hole into the exhaust fan so there would be some resistance.

True about the PSU thing. I seem to remember considering parts failure earlier. If the case fails, no big deal, optical drive fails, no big deal, if your PSU fails, that's serious. I do know, anything wrong with it, it's going back. I hear good things about Corsair. I was thinking a Corsair 500W modular, 600W modular or 750W modular. My graphics card only requires 500W from what I saw. I've read it's good to go what your components require + 20% and for reasons stated above, I'd go for 600 or 750W, but they're more expensive than the 500W supply
 
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unplanned bacon

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Thinking I'll buy all the parts at once. The AMD build would be £800 though :/ without software. I'm going to review the suggested builds from the other thread

The Corsair units are cheaper and if there's no difference in quality, then why not go Corsair? Fatality isn't exactly the best name to give a PSU, gives the wrong idea :p
 
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unplanned bacon

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Decided to go down to my local and price run some of the parts on my shortlist and I'm making quite a big saving here. They (Maplin) had the Z11 Plus for £69, I got it for £51 including postage, the Asus GTX760 OC for £259, I've sourced the Gigabyte version for £197, the Corsair 600W PSU for £69 when I've sourced it for roughly £61

@BluePhantom I checked out their display Z11 Plus and it had the same defect mine has, but less pronounced and more on the panel above the bottom one. Wondering if I should bite the bullet and pay £800 for hardware which includes shipping as I don't really want to budge on spec (even the unnecessary 16GB
 
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