Advice on a first build gaming rig

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Sam G2

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Oct 30, 2014
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Hi guys, I’m looking forward to building my first PC, any advice you could give me would be much appreciated.
My rig will mostly be used for gaming, but as I do not play the most demanding games (Dota, Football Manager) I do not think I will need anything above a GTX 760. I was considering investing in a 770/970 but for I may just put this towards a gpu upgrade in the future (if needed).

I don’t have a strict budget, but I’m looking to spend under £850 if possible, and I am looking to build a small, quiet and efficient rig.
I am not looking to overclock at the moment, but I may consider it in the future.

Here is a build I came up with on PCPartpicker:
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2QWVLk

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Cooling MX4 4g Thermal Paste (£3.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.86 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI Z87M GAMING Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£76.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£62.95 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£54.65 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.59)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer (£12.64 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £726.30

I have done a fair bit of research, but I am not too sure on the Motherboard I have chosen. I know the Asus Rampage mobo’s are supposed to be great, but I don’t know if spending £140 on one when I do not plan to Overclock it is worth it?

The MSI GTX 760 seems to be reasonably powerful whilst also being quiet and efficient, is this the best option for me?

The seasonic g550 PSU reviews brilliantly, but it doesn’t seem to be widely available in the UK unless a serious premium is paid (£95 on Amazon). However, I have found it on CCLonline for £66, but this seems almost too good to be true? Link below:
http://www.cclonline.com/product/140512/SSR-550RT-F3/Power-Supplies/Seasonic-550W-S12G-Series-Power-Supply/PSU0666/?gclid=CPCctc2j1MECFVGWtAodt2AAZA

I’ve gone for 8gb of RAM as I’ve heard that 16gb is really unnecessary for gaming.

I also plan to download Windows 7, so have not included it above.

Is there anything else I will need to buy which I have not included? If I am not overclocking, will I need to invest in extra case fans?

Any advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Sam
 
Solution
smackers_12
Instead of the 212 evo get the slightly newer 212x is has better ram compatibility. Basically the difference of the noctua cooler vs the 212 is the noctua has two stacks of fins. It is however enormous and the 212x is a great cooler for the price and will serve you fine. You probably don't even need to replace the fans in the corsair chassis as they are basically slightly worse versions of the AF series fans (great fans), they are actually pretty quiet and move a decent amount of air. I doubt you will need to add any fans to the build at all
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smackers_12

smackers_12

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"I also plan to download windows 7". Dont. Just buy windows, if everyone torrents it microsoft just wont make it and then guess what happens- you cant even steal it because it doesn't exist. If you must have a free os get some linux distro, mint is my favorite but ubuntu is good too. There are loads of distros out there.

There are several issues with that build
 
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smackers_12

smackers_12

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I would look at getting a z97 motherboard as opposed to the z87 one as you will need to update the bios to support the 4690 (this requires another cpu). If you dont plan to overclock dont get the k version of the 4690, just get the regular non k one, they perform identically at stock clock speeds. If you do that get a h97 board instead of z97 (basically the same just no overclocking capability). If you want to look at overclocking in the future get the z97 board with a 4690k; there is a reason its one of the most popular combos for gaming. The 760 will be fine if you are going for games like dota that are not too demanding. 16gig of ram is not needed for gaming. Cant comment on the psu as i live in aus and have no clue where to buy from in the uk. If you have a little but of money left you could get a 250gb ssd vs the 120 one as you will fill the 120 up pretty quick if you put games on it.
 
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Sam G2

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Oct 30, 2014
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Thanks for spotting the motherboard issue, I was actually considering three Z97s so not sure how I ended up picking that in the end. I'd prefer to go for a z97 to leave my options open for the future if I want to experiment with overclocking.
The other three motherboards I was considering were:
Asus Z97M-PLUS
MSI Z97M Gaming
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5.

I have heard great things about Asus Motherboards so I am leaning towards that, but I am not totally sure how it stacks up compared to those two (and other) z97 motherboards.
 
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Sam G2

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Oct 30, 2014
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I was weighing up the R4 compared to the 350d, both have excellent reviews but the R4 just seems that big bigger and I don't think it would quite fit down the side of my desk!

Is this absolutely everything I will need to actually build my rig? Is there anything that I am forgetting? Being my first build, I am not sure if I should look at buying 'sleeves' etc. to try and keep the cabling neat and tidy?
 
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stormflakes

stormflakes

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That's all you need :)
if you haven't made up your mind about cpu cooler try this one: Noctua d14 or d15. They are cheap, very quiet and almost everyone recommends them if you go air-cooler. If you go windowed case this might not be for you :)

If you got some budget to spare you might wanna consider buying 2 fans ( for example: NF-A15 for around 20$ ) to replace the stockfans on your rig. Adds to the quietness of the whole system.
 
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stormflakes

stormflakes

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s**t you are right, i had the fractal R4 in my head. Forget what i said about the D14 or D15.

Smackers_12 honoured for teamplay :)
 
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Sam G2

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Oct 30, 2014
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Looking at the dimensions of the Phanteks case it looks to be even bigger than the Corsair case? The height and depth are not major issues but it needs to be slim enough to fit down the side of my desk. I think (hope) that the Corsair will fit! Do you think the cooler master fan will do a suitable job compared to a noctua cooler?
I will certainly check out some replacement fans too, it comes with a front and rear fan, would you advise that I simply replace these or add a fan to the top instead (there is space for 2 120/140mm fans)?
Sorry for the endless questions, I don't want to screw this up!

Thanks again for the feedback guys
 
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stormflakes

stormflakes

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I would just replace the existing fans. You could add top-fans, but as long as you dont go dual cards you need them.
Cooler master does a good enough job for a single fan cooler, You won't regret the choice as long as you dont go overclockingmad. ( difference with d14 noctua is that noctua has 2 fans instead of one, but like smacks said, it won't fit your rig )
 
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smackers_12

smackers_12

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Instead of the 212 evo get the slightly newer 212x is has better ram compatibility. Basically the difference of the noctua cooler vs the 212 is the noctua has two stacks of fins. It is however enormous and the 212x is a great cooler for the price and will serve you fine. You probably don't even need to replace the fans in the corsair chassis as they are basically slightly worse versions of the AF series fans (great fans), they are actually pretty quiet and move a decent amount of air. I doubt you will need to add any fans to the build at all
 
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