Review my part list - Newbie planning first build.

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Chubner

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By the end of this month I'm planning to have completed my first ever build. I'll be caniibalising a few parts from my old pc and looking to buy motherboard / CPU / RAM / Case and ideally an SSD if budget allows.
I want to spend around £400-500 and realistically no more than that and I'm trying to squeeze as much quality as possible into this build. But i'm finding the idea daunting and want to do it right. I would absolutely love a white case that's particularly first builder friendly. I primarily play World of warcraft, league of legends and Borderlands currently but really want to have a machine capable of playing current FPS games with decent results, I haven't been able to because of money for <5 years and I really crave a good machine.

I've had plenty of back and forward chats with a good friend of mine and his suggestions (with a little of my own input) is here:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XKvcFT Note PSU, HDD and GPU I already own and plan to use.
I'm conscious of the physical size of my GPU can be a problem with plenty of cases and I really want something to look neat, tidy and have good heat management (probably goes without saying I guess)

So Tomshardware community. Help me, you're my only hope.
(real though any critique is absolutely valued and appreciated, be as critical as possible)
 
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Chubner

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Okay, noted. The RAM was my friend's contribution, I'm really amateur with my understanding of hardware. Thanks for the uber quick response.

What do you think otherwise?

Does anyone think that I should buy a different case?
 
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ykki

ykki

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£58.16 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.33 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£46.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case (£67.80 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Total: £496.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 13:44 GMT+0000
 
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Chubner

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Thanks for your response! Can I ask why you'd prefer this CPU cooler and suggest this case? I'm still learning here as I go along so I'd really appreciate having some knowledge dropped on me.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Scythe BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B 45.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£38.97 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z97M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£106.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.74 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£48.96 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£69.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Total: £497.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 14:14 GMT+0000
 
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ykki

ykki

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If you prefer air cooling then the d14 is an excellent option.
The case is JUST a little cheaper bot good quality nevertheless.
The main change is the mobo.
You don't want to pair the asrock one with the 4690k. It deserves better. Hence the gigabyte one.
 
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Chubner

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I've only ever had air cooling and in all honesty don't know the difference in performance between the similar priced air/liquid CPU coolers. I plan to overclock so wanted something a little meaty that still fit the budget.
I really like the Corsair air 240 matx case but I'm a little anxious about sizing, my GPU is a bit big and I really worry it could be a problem.
Tbh for base looks I just think black cases never look as good as white, as long as dust is kept clear. Black cases just show fingerprints and marks, scuffs / scratches so much clearer
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Another option for you, with a different white case, and water cooling.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X31 69.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£56.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£95.96 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.74 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£48.96 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £0.00)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.59 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Total: £467.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 14:39 GMT+0000
 
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Chubner

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I'm still at work right now so i'll find time to go over your awesome responses in a few hours. I really appreciate the feedback, both cases look nice visually and clean, minimalistic, just what I want. I just get concerned paying less for a case when it comes to cable management mainly, the corsair air 240 looked so so simple for cable management which was why i leaned towards it
 
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mdocod

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Chubner,

I reviewing your original build proposal, the following struck me as concerns:

1. 120mm AIOCLCs are largely overprice gimmicks. Decibel for decibel and dollar for dollar they have no cool performance advantage over heatpipe based coolers. However, the AIOCLC does come with a laundry list of negatives: No passive cooling on pump failure (heatpipes pump themselves with heat, no pump to fail), nearly a dozen surface to surface sealed that could leak, potential for noise/vibration from pump. possibility of pump failure will brick the unit. etc..

2. CX600... too late now, teachable moment... mediocre quality PSU. Better options to choose from in the 550W class from XFX/Seasonic/SuperFlower.

3. AMD GPU, too late now, teachable moment... less than ideal DX11 implementation for WoW, Nvidia results in better performance in WoW due to the way the driver stack is optimized.

------

If you're looking for a clean black simple box with good air-flow and cable management, consider the Fractal Design Core 3500. It's a large ATX mid tower.
 
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Chubner

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Thanks for the honesty. You learn by mistakes a lot of the time, but I want to avoid as many of them as I can frankly, so all of the advice I take on the chin. Is AMD vs Nvidia GPU performance THAT big a deal? I'm currently playing the game on the lowest graphics settings just for raiding and getting >10 fps in major spikes hence saving for a new pc. I only currently have a pc bought on a whim for a very small amount. The R9 280x was my choice because a friend of mine offered me it for a cheaper price so it was only logical for me to go along with it but if the difference is that bad, I could speak to him about that and work something out i'm sure. If in general the R9 280X is still powerful (reviews i've read haven't been anywhere near as critical as you) then I could consider replacing it.
Thank you too for the clearing up with CPU fans, I honestly had no idea about the difference in the slightest and just wanted to trust a brand that was known simply put.

 
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mdocod

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The difference between AMD and nvidia's DX11 can effect minimum FPS in compute bound conditions by up to 25%. Review sites have no way of testing these conditions because they aren't repeatable. For all intents and purposes, Nvidia came up with a way to get their implementation of DX11 to work more like Mantle/DX12 in terms of workload threading. In nasty CPU bound DX11 games that bottleneck on effectively a single CPU core and the software implementation, Nvidia has the upper hand as it's able to get that choke point split to more threads, making better use of available compute resources in modern multi-core CPUs.

If you got the 280X cheap/used, then hey, may as well give it a try and see if your machine winds up meeting your performance goals. The only time it's really an issue is on big raids.
 
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Chubner

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I really do like the look of this build. Providing my video card will fit this case (it's 268mm in length according to online spec, would have to get it out to confirm). I love the look of this case and for the price see no alternative. For my personal needs I'm absolutely content with an matx build too. Providing it won't bring up any issues?
The only but on this part list that you've suggested is that the fan looks damn ugly don't you think?! I'm not trying to be super showy but I mean, I'd like it to be vaguely clean looking and not so mis-match, black/red interior would look nice. (the video card / mobo here will both be MSI)
 
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Chubner

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Nov 11, 2014
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Oh I'm sorry, I'm dumb. Looked at so many in the past day that I was thinking of the wrong one. That one is absolutely fine to me. When i've been case hunting I've been really worried about my MSI R9 Radeon 280x fitting with acceptable room. Do you think that your build will have decent room within the corsair air 240?

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback and suggestions. I'm sorry if I came off as unappreciative with that last comment hah. Trying to keep on this at work in quiet times..difficult to do.
 
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Chubner

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Nov 11, 2014
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Thanks for the options and your contributions throughout :) this community is awesome and I'm fucking useless and indecisive with my choices.
I'll have a good look myself, do I need a particularly slim CPU fan for this case then? The Thermaltake one looks a lot chunkier than the big shuriuken
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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It is too tall to be used with the Corsair Air 240. You have to go slim cooler or water cooling, with that case. ;)
 
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Chubner

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Nov 11, 2014
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Sorry, a clc? I don't know what that is. God I feel dumb. I seem to be stumbling into so many complaints about either installation of liquid coolers going wrong or the coolers failing fairly commonly. Should I be put off? I was considering maybe a corsair H60?
After a little shopping around (In terms of items that are available from similar stores to avoid a lot of hassle and sporadic shipping. I'd like them all within a week frankly of ordering)
I put this together, with a combination of great opinions here and just simply good looking prices, is this better?
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/4YsrLk
The entire set I can buy from Aria and Amazon.
The CPU fan I'm on the case about. Also as a first time builder are there any big considerations I need to be aware of?
 
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plywrlw

plywrlw

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Sorry, my fault! CLC = Closed Loop Cooler like the H60 you mentioned!
 
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sora

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The Noctua NH-D14 is a great cooler for the price!
 
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