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First Gaming Build ~ £900 (UK) Opinions and Help Wanted

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  • Gaming
  • Components
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Last response: in Components
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August 18, 2014 1:06:51 PM

For the past few months I've been researching building my first rig for gaming with decent specs. After numerous iterations I have come up with this and I'd simply like to know what you all think and whether I'm better off with different components.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/gR8Jpg
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/gR8Jpg/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£22.63 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£103.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£65.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£36.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card (£229.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£62.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.74 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.47 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £915.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-18 20:47 BST+0100

PROBABLY DUMB QUESTIONS BELOW ;) 

I have a couple of questions about a few parts, sorry I just want to clarify a few details, such as the PSU. I have seen the tier list from Newegg and the XFX is right up at tier 1, but it seems to lack much coverage in terms of reviews and I was wondering why? It seems to fit perfectly in the price bracket I wanted and I couldn't really find any alternatives so I'm just curious as to why it seems quite unloved. Sorry, I just want to be sure that I'm not missing some important detail because I thought this would be an insanely popular choice but the facts state otherwise.

Anyway, I digress, another quick question is whether anyone can link me to help on how to set up my PC once its assembled. Aside from putting in the disc of windows I know I'll have to setup the SSD for booting up and everything else to the HDD, but I'm not really sure how to go about that so any help is appreciated.

Finally, I know I'll need a mountain of drivers so if anyone can link a page or video about what kind of drivers I'll need to search the internet for that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

More about : gaming build 900 opinions wanted

a b 4 Gaming
August 18, 2014 1:13:10 PM

Your rig is excellent.You don't need to change anything.
All great quality components and a well balanced setup.
You should be able to play most of the games at high,if not ultra with this PC.
You can get the latest drivers from the manufacturers website,like asrock.com and asus.com.
All the best. ;) 
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a b 4 Gaming
August 18, 2014 1:19:02 PM

I agree, great choices. The only suggestion would be to get the newer i5 4690K cpu.

As for reviews, there are a couple different bronze 650W XFX PSUs. But both the core edition and the XXX edition have great reviews. Have a look here: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page625.htm

Those reviews are by the top PSU testing sites.
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a b 4 Gaming
August 18, 2014 1:21:45 PM

jimthenagual said:
I agree, great choices. The only suggestion would be to get the newer i5 4690K cpu.


True.
But it's no big deal since the 4670K is good enough. ;) 
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Best solution

August 18, 2014 1:28:31 PM

First off, the XFX unit isn't that popular compared to some units (especially here in the UK) because people don't see why they should spend more than the minimum on their power supply. They just see a corsair sticker on the side of a power supply and assume it's good, but still cheap. A lot of people don't realise the importance of a good power supply.

As far as I'm aware, you can just connect the SSD and boot windows from the disc. It should list available drives to install on and there'll only be your SSD to choose.
To boot from disc you just go into your bios (it'll load automatically if you don't have an OS), move your ODD to the top of the boot priority list and restart with the disc in your ODD.
Once you've installed windows you just need to partition your HDD and allocate the disc space. There's a guide here

For the drivers you'll need audio, LAN/Ethernet and USB 3.0 drivers (from the mobo manufacturer's site), and a video card driver (obviously from Nvidia's website).
Video card driver and Audio, LAN and USB 3

Oh, and I'd recommend that you download the drivers on a usb drive before you build your PC. There's nothing worse than having to deal with the out of date drivers you get on the discs that come with your hardware.


I forgot to actually mention anything about the build. It's a really good build, especially for the price.
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August 18, 2014 1:31:26 PM

Thanks everyone for the quick responses, it's reassuring to know the hours spent looking at parts paid off. My doubts about the PSU are at rest, thanks Jim.The 4690K is essentially the same price so I'll be sure to add it. Thanks again everyone and wish you the best
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a b 4 Gaming
August 18, 2014 1:33:02 PM

JPax said:
Thanks everyone for the quick responses, it's reassuring to know the hours spent looking at parts paid off. My doubts about the PSU are at rest, thanks Jim.The 4690K is essentially the same price so I'll be sure to add it. Thanks again everyone and wish you the best


We wish you the best. ;) 
Make sure to choose a solution and to PM us if you have any other questions. ;) 
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August 18, 2014 1:33:42 PM

Mattib 050 said:
First off, the XFX unit isn't that popular compared to some units (especially here in the UK) because people don't see why they should spend more than the minimum on their power supply. They just see a corsair sticker on the side of a power supply and assume it's good, but still cheap. A lot of people don't realise the importance of a good power supply.

As far as I'm aware, you can just connect the SSD and boot windows from the disc. It should list available drives to install on and there'll only be your SSD to choose.
To boot from disc you just go into your bios (it'll load automatically if you don't have an OS), move your ODD to the top of the boot priority list and restart with the disc in your ODD.
Once you've installed windows you just need to partition your HDD and allocate the disc space. There's a guide here

For the drivers you'll need audio, LAN/Ethernet and USB 3.0 drivers (from the mobo manufacturer's site), and a video card driver (obviously from Nvidia's website).
Video card driver and Audio, LAN and USB 3

Oh, and I'd recommend that you download the drivers on a usb drive before you build your PC. There's nothing worse than having to deal with the out of date drivers you get on the discs that come with your hardware.


Thanks so much for detailing all that, makes much more sense now and you can't go wrong with a good guide haha. Honestly, thanks for the effort with linking everything too, it's truly appreciated.
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