Hey all. Thanks heaps in advance for any feedback/thoughts/considerations.
Very excited as I'm pretty much ready for my first ever proper gaming PC! I have a friend who will be putting it all together as he has done a few of his own and we have been going back and forth looking at components for the past month or so. At this stage I wanted to get some final thoughts from a knowledgeable community to put together with what both myself and my friend thinks before purchasing. At this stage the purchase date is most maximum of 2-3 weeks (need it to coincide with a weekend off at work) and used for finally getting into PC gaming. I will be sticking with the current monitor I have with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for some time so can always do some upgrading in future if needed for higher resolutions.
I am in Australia and will be purchasing items either through umart.com.au (either delivery or pickup from the Milton store) or msy.com.au (delivery only as I have no store close to me that I can access for the next few weeks) or mwave.com.au (video card only). All prices are in $AUD. Would like to get as much as I can from umart as I can pick that up and save freight; however my video card is cheaper from mwave.com.au with postage included
CPU: Intel i5 4670k - $278 (umart)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212X - $44 (umart)
GPU: ASUS AMD Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II TOP Overclocked 3G - $409 + $12.95 postage (mwave)
Mobo: Gigabyte z87x-ud3h - $209 (umart)
Memory: G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL) - $103 (umart)
SSD: Kingston SSDnow SV300S37A/120G 120G - $95 (umart)
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB SATA3 HDD 64M Caviar Blue - $68 (umart)
PSU: FSP 850W Aurum PRO Series Modular PSU, 80PLUS Gold - $195 (umart)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - $138 (umart)
Case Fan (Front Intake): Fractal Design Silent Series Case Fan 140mm - $13.50 (umart)
Approximate Price:
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBKS 12X Blu-Ray Writer Drive - $85 (umart)
APPROXIMATE SPENDING: $1650.45
Original budget plans: $1700 (give or take $100)
Points of consideration:
- Will be looking to overclock CPU/GPU
- Have been tossing up between MSI z87 G45 for $199 and UD3H for $209. For extra $10, I think UD3H is better option
- Have been looking at the new range of R9 290 with custom coolers and overclocks but not sure I can justify the extra $150+ at this stage
- In future will be looking to go multiple monitor setup with potential for Crossfire. PSU has been selected based on this criteria
- Other little things such as USB wireless network adapter, mouse, keyboards etc have been left out and are not considered for budget purposes
Would love any and all feedback on parts I have selected here in terms of potential compatibility issues that I have overlooked in my excitement/places where I could get better value for money etc and so forth.
Very excited as I'm pretty much ready for my first ever proper gaming PC! I have a friend who will be putting it all together as he has done a few of his own and we have been going back and forth looking at components for the past month or so. At this stage I wanted to get some final thoughts from a knowledgeable community to put together with what both myself and my friend thinks before purchasing. At this stage the purchase date is most maximum of 2-3 weeks (need it to coincide with a weekend off at work) and used for finally getting into PC gaming. I will be sticking with the current monitor I have with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for some time so can always do some upgrading in future if needed for higher resolutions.
I am in Australia and will be purchasing items either through umart.com.au (either delivery or pickup from the Milton store) or msy.com.au (delivery only as I have no store close to me that I can access for the next few weeks) or mwave.com.au (video card only). All prices are in $AUD. Would like to get as much as I can from umart as I can pick that up and save freight; however my video card is cheaper from mwave.com.au with postage included
CPU: Intel i5 4670k - $278 (umart)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212X - $44 (umart)
GPU: ASUS AMD Radeon R9 280X DirectCU II TOP Overclocked 3G - $409 + $12.95 postage (mwave)
Mobo: Gigabyte z87x-ud3h - $209 (umart)
Memory: G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL) - $103 (umart)
SSD: Kingston SSDnow SV300S37A/120G 120G - $95 (umart)
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB SATA3 HDD 64M Caviar Blue - $68 (umart)
PSU: FSP 850W Aurum PRO Series Modular PSU, 80PLUS Gold - $195 (umart)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - $138 (umart)
Case Fan (Front Intake): Fractal Design Silent Series Case Fan 140mm - $13.50 (umart)
Approximate Price:
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBKS 12X Blu-Ray Writer Drive - $85 (umart)
APPROXIMATE SPENDING: $1650.45
Original budget plans: $1700 (give or take $100)
Points of consideration:
- Will be looking to overclock CPU/GPU
- Have been tossing up between MSI z87 G45 for $199 and UD3H for $209. For extra $10, I think UD3H is better option
- Have been looking at the new range of R9 290 with custom coolers and overclocks but not sure I can justify the extra $150+ at this stage
- In future will be looking to go multiple monitor setup with potential for Crossfire. PSU has been selected based on this criteria
- Other little things such as USB wireless network adapter, mouse, keyboards etc have been left out and are not considered for budget purposes
Would love any and all feedback on parts I have selected here in terms of potential compatibility issues that I have overlooked in my excitement/places where I could get better value for money etc and so forth.