Is this a good first build?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510
So I'm looking to build mt first ever gaming PC, and after some research I have got all the parts that are needed (I hope), and it would be great if I could get some feedback on it.

These are all the parts:-
-Graphics Card - Sapphire Nitro Radeon R7 370 Graphic Card - 985 Mhz Core - 4 Gb Gddr5 Sdram -
- Processor - AMD A10 AD785KXBJABOX 7850K Black Edition with Radeon R7 Series New FM2+ Kaveri HSA CPU

- RAM - Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3 1600 MHz CL9 XMP Performance Desktop Memory Kit - Black

- Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97-D3H Intel LGA1150 Z97 ATX Motherboard (4x DDR3, 4x USB3.0, 10x USB2.0, GBE, LAN, HDMI, DVI-I, DSUB) Rev 1.2

- Power supply - Corsair VS Series VS550 550 W Power Supply Unit - Black

- Case - CiT Vanquish Gaming Toolless Case with USB3 Port, Side Window, Card Reader and 2 x 12CM Green Led Fans

- Hard Drive - Western Digital WD10EZEX Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache SATA 6.0 GB/s 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive & Wires

Operating system - Windows 7 professional 64-bit

- DVD ROM - Samsung SH-224FB/RSMS 24X Internal DVD Writer with SATA
--------------------------------------------------------------
I am looking to build it for around the £450-£500 mark ($650 - $720). All feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
geofelt
Sort by date Sort by votes
bicycle_repair_man

bicycle_repair_man

Splendid
Jan 10, 2014
5,752
2
28,960
I highly recommend that you do your best to stretch your budget to £600. For that extra outlay you can have a far superior gaming PC.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£95.17 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock H170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£82.27 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£28.96 @ More Computers)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card (£178.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.33 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£53.92 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit (£55.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £617.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 11:48 BST+0100

Don't worry about Windows 8.1. I only chose it because it's going cheap and you'll be eligible for the free upgrade to Windows 10.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Hmm, £620 is really stretching my budget, the parts I added totals to around £450. If I was to upgrade anything, what should it be?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DustinV

DustinV

Honorable
Dec 22, 2015
1,620
2
12,465
Your first part list wasn't compatible and very bad :p
+1 for trying
If you improve anything on this, increase up to a gtx 950 or gtx 960
(R9 380 is better than the 960 but requires a higher wattage and more expensive power supply)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£95.17 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock H170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£67.67 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£28.96 @ More Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£94.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.76 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit (£55.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £463.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 12:47 BST+0100
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Can you tell I'm new to PC gaming xD. Anyway, do you reckon this could run most games on high/very high settings. Also, is a dual core processor restricting or would it be fine for a while before upgrading?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DustinV

DustinV

Honorable
Dec 22, 2015
1,620
2
12,465
Basically the CPU and motherbord weren't compatible and the Psu was low quality

The gpu is the limiting factor. You are going to need a gtx 950 for medium and a gtx 960 to get to high settings

The i3 has hyperthreading, so it will hold up longer. It has 2 cores and 4 threads so it can act like a quad core. It can handle up to a gtx 970 in most situations
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Hmm, okay i'll look into doing that then, would you recommend getting the 4GB version? Also am I going to need an optical drive or not?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bicycle_repair_man

bicycle_repair_man

Splendid
Jan 10, 2014
5,752
2
28,960
The 4GB version of the GTX 960 is the better buy if you can afford it. A lot of people will say that the 128-bit memory bus can't utilise 4GB of VRAM, but Maxwell cards use memory compression to get around that.

Everything can be downloaded these days, so an optical drive is almost redundant.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Okay, Yeh I just checked the prices of the 4GB and they are a lot more expensive so might just stick to the 2GB. If an optical drive is not needed then how is the OS downloaded?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Thank you, So you reckon I should go for this build then?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,295
4,145
174,240
Your parts are not compatible.
A APU is not a sound base for a gamer.
You buy a APU for the excellent integrated graphics.
But, there are no real good upgrades, particularly for a gamer.
If you install a superior discrete graphics card, you will have thrown away the big advantage of the APU.
Then, you are left with a relatively weak cpu. Most games depend on only a few fast cores.
The possible upgrades are to more cores, but few games will use more than 2-3 cores so 6+ cores are not very helpful.
Bottom line.....
What you get with a APU is what you will live with forever.

On a budget, put together a build based on a $125 i3-6100 and a $200 graphics card.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/qMqfr7 Would you say that this is a much better build?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,295
4,145
174,240


Excellent.

FWIW.
I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, or 500gb you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer on the hard drive unless you need to store large files such as video's.
It is easy to add a hard drive later.
Samsung EVO is a good choice.

A tip...
Buy yourself a #2 magnetic tip Philips head screwdriver for assembly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


So you reckon I should go for a 120GB SSD then get a 1TB hardrive or another 120/240GB SSD in the future?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,295
4,145
174,240
120gb can fill up quickly. If you can, stretch for at least a 240gb ssd. It will hold a fair number of games.
Larger ssd's are a bit quicker and have better endurance.
Prices are still coming down. Avoid the ultra cheap brands.
Buy a Samsung or Itel ssd; other makes may not have the best controllers
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DustinV

DustinV

Honorable
Dec 22, 2015
1,620
2
12,465
the problem with starting with just an Ssd, is that you will have a ton of crap on it that you don't want. Plus it can fill up really fast.

I'd start with a 1tb HDD then add a 120gb or 240gb Ssd in the future.
But if you can squeeze the extra £30-£50 for an Ssd right now, it will make it much easier so you don't have to reinstall Windows
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

CheadleLewis

Commendable
Jun 2, 2016
10
0
1,510


Okay, thanks a lot for the help!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom