Would Love Advice and Feedback on a £700 Gaming PC

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Melbara

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Jun 4, 2014
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So I've always had a lot of help from my brother when building my past pcs, but now that I feel that my 5-year-old pc (had replacements in between the years, not upgrades) is feeling a little aged, I thought I'd give it a try and pick one myself - but I'd appreciate your help!


Approximate Purchase Date: August/September this year

Budget Range: A rather strict £700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming's the most demanding

Parts Not Required: I do not need anything outside the case, and I have a Power Supply

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Anything reputable

Country: United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: Seagate for HDDs - no discussion, and I prefer Intel CPUs but am willing to reconsider

Overclocking: Maybe, but not a priority

SLI or Crossfire: Nope

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


So as mentioned, I don't need a PSU anymore, I've got a recently purchased Corsair CX600M I'll be keeping and I won't be needing space for upgrades (minor things at most if it's convenient) because I'd rather start the next PC from scratch again.

So this is my build idea so far:


PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.94 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£73.04 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£96.66 @ Dabs)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£63.99 @ Maplin Electronics)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£52.79 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£133.52 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Aerocool StrikeX-GT Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.88 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.84 @ Dabs)
Total: £645.66
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-06 02:11 BST+0100)

The Case is wrong, I'm likely going for a Sharkoon BD28 or T28 because I need some cheap eye candy after years of a plain, grey high tower Chieftec.

My main concerns are the Motherboard, which I have no clue about, and the graphics card, which feels just a little too cheap after looking at all the community builds on this forum.


Tldr: Need a £700 pc and your help! Thanks!
 
Solution
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I'd advise you to get a Z97 board, it will allow your K series CPU to be overclocked. Also, to drop down to 8GB of RAM, and put more of that money towards the GPU.
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Melbara

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Jun 4, 2014
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Thank you very much for the reply!
Now there appear to be a lot of Z97s out there, I found the MSI Z97-Gaming 3 to sound quite alright (but what do I know) http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97gaming3 , however the Z97-G45 Gaming is only about £10 more.. Or were you thinking of different ones? They seem to range between £60-200..

Will I really not feel the difference of RAM? I understand it's easiest to upgrade at a later time, but 16GB isn't much more expensive than 8GB.

Sorry to ask so many questions!
 
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enemy1g

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The ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer seems to have really good reviews thus far, I know it's a bit of a stretch budget wise, but it seems to really give the high end ASUS boards a run for their money. I honestly have no experience with high end MSI boards, so I won't say much.

But if you can get -good- 16GB RAM for the same price, go for it. Problem with the 16GB you picked out is that it s 1600 MHz (which is pretty much standard) but the CAS Latency is 11, which is no bueno for that speed (1600MHz). If you can get 16GB of RAM at 1600-2133 MHz with CL7-9, that would be ideal.
 
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Melbara

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Jun 4, 2014
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Very true, I just have this weird habit of installing programmes and games on seperate hard drives. I have, however, exchanged the two hard drives with one 2TB, saving about £20, and will edit my original post. Thanks for your input!



About the motherboard: It doesn't quite seem to fit my amateur needs, but researching it I found the slightly cheaper and sometimes compared ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£103.43 @ Dabs). Unfortunately I'm still not entirely sure what I am actually getting from investing more into a motherboard. And how much I'm willing to spend mainly depends on my final choice of graphics card.

RAM: Nope, I can't. :( For the same price I found 12GB of RAM with 1600 MHz and CAS 9 (either G.Skill Ripjaws Series 12GB or Kingston HyperX 12GB ) , but is that worth it or would it rather be downgrading it?

--


Regarding my future graphics card, I've been looking at these two to step my current choice up a little.
MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£204.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X Video Card (£169.09 @ CCL Computers)
The 280X will leave rather little space for an improved motherboard while the 270X isn't as big a jump. Is the 280X worth it, however? Or does investing into the other parts appear to be the better choice here?
 
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enemy1g

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You'll be fine with the MSI motherboards, either of them to be honest. Get whichever suites your needs. I just recommended the ASRock board because it's well ranked up there with the top boards in giving the best performance.

Those 12GB kits are more suited towards triple-channel motherboards. The 1600 CL11 RAM isn't great, but it can still work if you're dead set on getting 16GB of RAM.

I would definitely go with the 280x. While every component within your PC is important, the CPU and GPU by far determine your gaming experience.
 
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