Building computer for Sister, just want to check it's all compatible.

Xirix · Feb 11, 2014

ragnarok180 · Feb 11, 2014

Everything checks out from my perspective
-RAM frequency matches the mobo
-CPU matches mobo socket
-PSU will supply enough power for your GFX card
-Case form factor supports your ATX mobo
All other peripherals should work but you could probably save some cash going with an H87 motherboard instead of that Z87. Its a motherboard for overclocking processors and your processor is not overclockable. Again, you don't have to but it could save you some cash.

C12Friedman · Feb 11, 2014

Compatibility doesn't seem to be an issue here, some of the hardware choices I will critique though
1) ram a dual channel kit will provide some performance enhancement - I'd change ram to either 2x2GB or 2x4GB even
2) CPU fan not needed unless you feel the stock cooler (which will perform just fine with the G3420 CPU) is too loud
3) Sound Card - any more sound cards do not provide much (if any) benefit over on-board sound, you (she) don't need that either

edit: I meant to point out the mobo selection also (thanks ragnarok)

smorizio · Feb 11, 2014

drop the motherboard to a h81 asus mb. use the savings for another 4g dimm. the power supply is not one you want to use in a newer pc. the power supply brand not bad but the issue is that unit has two 12v rails. gpu and cpu use the 12v rail for power.newer power supply for haswell and the newer intel mb are one rail units now. also as your using a haswell cpu check that there tested to work with haswell low power. if your going to game on the pc...look to see what the new 750/750 ti price out.

ragnarok180 · Feb 11, 2014

smorizio :

Good call on the h81 mobo. I checked the PSU specifications and it should support his mobo

Directly from the specifications:

"Extensive compatibility with latest specifications, including energy-saving requirements of Intel C6/C7, ErP2013 and Energy Star 5.2 guidelines. Ready for Intel® HaswellTM platform"

smorizio · Feb 11, 2014

read down some more the unit has two 12v rails. at 500w that makes the 12v about 18-20w each not a lot for a gaming rig.
most newer units with one will be 40-60 amps on the 12v rail.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/beQuiet/PurePower_L8_500W/2.html

C12Friedman · Feb 11, 2014

smorizio :

The design of the PSU, whether it has a single 12v rail or multiple 12v has nothing to do with how modern the design is and is not indicative how well it will perform (or if it's good or bad). In fact, a single rail design inherently has more potential risk if something goes wrong, that's sorta moot here because the BeQuiet! PurePower L8 is not Haswell certified, you do want to take that into consideration

C12Friedman · Feb 11, 2014

smorizio :

moot point

smorizio · Feb 11, 2014

c12 what happens if the gpu and cpu pull more power then ether rail can support??? how are the rails wired in the unit???
most gpu vendors tell you to have a power supply that has x amount of amps on the 12v rail to run there gpus. that why most newer power supplys stopped making split rail units for gamers.

g-unit1111 · Feb 11, 2014

C12Friedman :

I'd definitely agree with all of these points especially about the sound card and the cooler. Also that case is from a tier 5 garbage vendor, do not purchase. Get a Corsair 200R instead. I don't know what the budget is but if you could post that it would definitely help to move things around to get better components.

ragnarok180 · Feb 11, 2014

No disrespect to any of you but I'm obviously missing something here and you guys seem to really have it down so instead of debating specifics, why not just point him to a PSU that will work according to you?

C12Friedman · Feb 11, 2014

ragnarok180 :

Brilliant! And it would seem to be a somewhat easy task but it's proving to be a bit more challenging than I had anticipated... So far I have the Enermax ETA550AWT-M Triathlor FC 550W Hybrid Modular Power Supply for 68£ +VAT
I'll keep looking

Xirix · Feb 11, 2014

The budget isn't very much, about £550, and she's not really going to be using it for particulary high-end games. Where on ebuyer would I get a basic stock cooler?

I wasn't expecting so much discussion. ^^ So I should check out the H81 Asus, get double Ram instead of a single stick (making sure it's about the same voltage since the limit is 1.575 or something), and what's wrong with the PSU?

g-unit1111 · Feb 11, 2014

Xirix :

The stock cooler comes with the processor, that's pretty much all you need for this type of rig. You could definitely get some better components though for that budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£108.34 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£66.83 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£65.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card (£149.29 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£89.86 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.40 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £579.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 00:06 GMT+0000)

I went about 30 quid over budget but that will be an infinitely better rig in the long run and gives you plenty of room for upgrades.

Xirix · Feb 11, 2014

Ah I wasn't sure if processors came with coolers for some reason, it's been a while since I bought one. Alright, I would like to buy it all from the same place for simplicity though. Also she's a bit picky when it comes to processors, our first computer was really crappy and she pegs it down to it having an AMD processor (I'm really not one to argue with her logic, it's too annoying

) so I'm afraid it has to be Intel.

C12Friedman · Feb 11, 2014

Perhaps something like this
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G3420 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£47.00 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£48.46 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£65.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card (£149.29 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Enermax TRIATHLOR 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.40 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £478.15
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 02:49 GMT+0000)
I'm not real thrilled about the CPU choice but it fits the budget and it's Intel

g-unit1111 · Feb 12, 2014

I'm not real thrilled about the CPU choice but it fits the budget and it's Intel

Why not get a Core i3? And you could definitely get a better PSU.

Xirix :

Well AMD CPUs have improved significantly in the last five - six years (save for Bulldozer) but you can't go wrong with Intel. OK then maybe do this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£111.59 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£65.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card (£149.29 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£77.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.40 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £580.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 05:35 GMT+0000)

Again about 30 quid over budget but will be a far better rig in the long run, and no cheap no name components either.

sora · Feb 12, 2014

g-unit1111 :

Xirix :

The stock cooler comes with the processor, that's pretty much all you need for this type of rig. You could definitely get some better components though for that budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£108.34 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£66.83 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£65.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.98 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card (£149.29 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Dabs)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£89.86 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.40 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £579.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 00:06 GMT+0000)

I went about 30 quid over budget but that will be an infinitely better rig in the long run and gives you plenty of room for upgrades.

+1

The GTX 650Ti is decent for gaming even if your sister doesn't play games!

g-unit1111 · Feb 12, 2014

sora :

I seriously can't believe how cheap the FX-8320 is going for. It's less expensive than the 6350 (which I was originally planning on getting) and the A10-7700K. I'm going to pick one up next week for my AMD rig.

ragnarok180 · Feb 12, 2014

Buy an i(3 or 5) processor, they come with decent integrated graphics so you don't need to buy a video card.

g-unit1111 · Feb 12, 2014

ragnarok180 :

If you're going to go that route I would definitely rule out Intel and get an AMD APU instead, far better integrated graphics especially on the new models that were just released - the A10-7600K and A10-7850K.

Building computer for Sister, just want to check it's all compatible.

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