First Time Computer Builder seeking advice

[yshi]

Hey guys this will be the first time I'm building a computer. I've selected most of the parts. I just want to check if they are all compatible and whether anyone has any suggestions to make regarding improvements. My budget is around $2000.

GPU: Gigabyte OC 3G GTX 780 (MSY: $609)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87M-D3HP (MSY: $129)
CPU: Intel i5 4670K (MSY: $264)
RAM: G. Skill Ares (2x4G) 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz (MSY: $95)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB (MSY: $133)
SDD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB (MSY: $182)
Power Supply: Antec 620-Modular HCG (MSY: $115)
Case: Corsair Obsidian 350D (PCCG: $149)
CPU HSF: Noctua NH-D14 (MSY: $85)
Optical Drive: External Drive ($20)
OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit (MSY: $115)

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[iceclock]

Ur shur if the dh14 will fit in ur case. I'd go for a corsair h80i instead and rest looks good

 

[RazerZ]

Looks great but PSU looks overpriced. USe this website to put everything together and when looking for a PSU go for a Gold+ certified and the right wattage.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

 

[GorfTheFrog]

Hi Yshi -

Congrats on your choice to build your own machine! I gave up on the stock store-shelf models years ago for a variety of reasons.

The build looks good, but I'd agree that your PSU cost looks a bit high. Newegg has this model for $90.

The MOBO is a Micro-ATX form factor, and the case you've picked indicates that it will fit this Mobo.

But can you tell us a little bit more about what you want to do with this system once you get it built? $2,000 is a very nice budget, but there's no need to spend it just because you have it!

The more detail you can give us about how you'll be using this machine, the better we can help, or at least offer some additional thoughts for your consideration.

Let us know.

Hope this helps.

 

[yshi]

Oh sorry, I'm from Australia so the prices are what they are I guess. Also I'm planning on using the computer primarily for gaming.

 

[sportfreak23]

Hehe I was scratching my head as to why the 780 cost $600 and the same PSU cost like $60ish in the states.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/2hZij

Edit: I changed the mobo, as this one can do SLI if you ever wanted to consider it in the future. I'm sure the CPU cooler can fit in your case, if someone else can confirm for sure. If not maybe get a Corsair water cooler as someone mentioned.

 

[yshi]

Okay thanks, I'll have a look at the motherboard you have suggested. Also does anyone have any comments in regards to the case. I went for it based on the look but I'm concerned that it may be too small.

 

[sportfreak23]

Well its for a micro ATX but I think it should suffice. NCIX did a build with it and shove some nice parts into it without any trouble.

http://media.ncix.com/ncixpc/slingshot-06282013/index.html

If you want a bigger case, I wouldn't mind looking at the BitFexnix Shinobi Window, can hold the ATX mobo. Looks pretty clean to me.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/bitfenix-case-shinobiwindow

The quality may not be as good as the 350D, but still decent and affordable.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

Hi Yshi -

Gaming ... gaming ... ok, let me offer a few thoughts for your consideration. I hope that these won't be redundant with what you've already researched

Not all games are equally intensive. Check out http://www.systemrequirementslab.com - this site has an almost exhaustive list of games along with the minimum and recommended specs that your system will need. (By the way, I'm playing the new Batman on my "old" i920 with just a bit of overclock and a new EVGA GEForce GTX 760. I'm quite happy with the performance.)

Each month Toms publishes a set of articles on price/performance for both graphics and CPUs. You might find these articles interesting. Here's a link to the most current:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

I see you're planning both a 250GB SSD and a 3TB HD. Why so much space? If this is primarily gaming then, as a reference, I currently have 8 games installed. I'm only actively playing three of them. In total they consume less than 100GB. Windows plus the standard utilities (anti-virus, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Acrobat, driver software, etc.) plus a full MS Office installation is going to run 30 to 40 GB. Plus 100GB for games, and your 250GB SSD should be plenty. If you're going to be keeping lots of videos, music, pictures and large files, then maybe the 3TB drive makes sense. Have you considered how you'll backup your system?

For the optical drive, you state simply "...external drive." Give some consideration to exactly how you're going to attach this. You'll want either eSata or USB3. USB2 will feel excruciatingly slow.

I don't see a card reader in your list. Don't know if this is important or not, but wanted to mention it.

If you haven't already, do a bit of research on how best to integrate an SSD into an overall build. There's lots of options out there, and depending on what's important to you may change your mind on the parts you buy. (E.g., just built a simple home PC for my parents, who are retired. I used the Intel SRT (SSD Caching) to provide some speed bonus for a standard HDD. It's a seamless and simple solution for Dad while keeping the price down with only a small SSD. Personally, I have a 128GB SSD for my system disk, and I have a 60GB SSD where I keep my temp files, log files, pagefile, etc., along with other standard HDD. It's a bit more complicated setup as I have to manage where I install applications, etc., but the family like the speed and performance.)

With an SSD, you'll also want to make decisions about what you do with SuperFetch, Prefetch, swap space, indexing, hibernation, etc.

I'm a big fan of modular PSU's. They cost a bit more, but it's nice not to have all the extra wires floating around in your case. The Antec 620-Modular HCG is also Bronze 80+ certified, so it's efficient in its power conversion. Hit Google with "psu configurator" and you'll get a number of sites that help you to make sure that you're sizing correctly for your power demands. I like to oversize and have a bit more power than I need.

The Noctua NH-D14 is a monster cooler, to be sure. You will want to be sure that it will fit into your case. I can't advise on this, as I'm not familiar with the specific sizings. The CPU you have above, Intel i5 4670K, runs at 3.4GHz with turbo up to 3.8Ghz as stock, out of the box. How much overclocking do you plan to do, and have you checked into some of the forums suggesting how much additional heat sink you'll need?

The Intel i5 4670K is a 4-core, 4-thread CPU. This will be more than sufficient for any gaming. If you're planning to do much video transcoding, you may want to consider the i7 with 4 cores and 8 threads. I think you will see a significant difference in the amount of time it takes to transcode a video between the i5/4/4 and the i7/4/8.

Lastly, jumping ahead a bit, google "breadboarding PC build." This is fancy terminology for assembling your PC components and getting all of them working *before* you screw them into the case. I find that I plug- and un-plug quite bit when building, and it's just so much easier when you don't have the casing constraints around the parts.

Yshi, I hope this has helped.

Good luck.

 

[yshi]

Hi Yshi -

Gaming ... gaming ... ok, let me offer a few thoughts for your consideration. I hope that these won't be redundant with what you've already researched

Not all games are equally intensive. Check out http://www.systemrequirementslab.com - this site has an almost exhaustive list of games along with the minimum and recommended specs that your system will need. (By the way, I'm playing the new Batman on my "old" i920 with just a bit of overclock and a new EVGA GEForce GTX 760. I'm quite happy with the performance.)

Each month Toms publishes a set of articles on price/performance for both graphics and CPUs. You might find these articles interesting. Here's a link to the most current:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

I see you're planning both a 250GB SSD and a 3TB HD. Why so much space? If this is primarily gaming then, as a reference, I currently have 8 games installed. I'm only actively playing three of them. In total they consume less than 100GB. Windows plus the standard utilities (anti-virus, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Acrobat, driver software, etc.) plus a full MS Office installation is going to run 30 to 40 GB. Plus 100GB for games, and your 250GB SSD should be plenty. If you're going to be keeping lots of videos, music, pictures and large files, then maybe the 3TB drive makes sense. Have you considered how you'll backup your system?

For the optical drive, you state simply "...external drive." Give some consideration to exactly how you're going to attach this. You'll want either eSata or USB3. USB2 will feel excruciatingly slow.

I don't see a card reader in your list. Don't know if this is important or not, but wanted to mention it.

If you haven't already, do a bit of research on how best to integrate an SSD into an overall build. There's lots of options out there, and depending on what's important to you may change your mind on the parts you buy. (E.g., just built a simple home PC for my parents, who are retired. I used the Intel SRT (SSD Caching) to provide some speed bonus for a standard HDD. It's a seamless and simple solution for Dad while keeping the price down with only a small SSD. Personally, I have a 128GB SSD for my system disk, and I have a 60GB SSD where I keep my temp files, log files, pagefile, etc., along with other standard HDD. It's a bit more complicated setup as I have to manage where I install applications, etc., but the family like the speed and performance.)

With an SSD, you'll also want to make decisions about what you do with SuperFetch, Prefetch, swap space, indexing, hibernation, etc.

I'm a big fan of modular PSU's. They cost a bit more, but it's nice not to have all the extra wires floating around in your case. The Antec 620-Modular HCG is also Bronze 80+ certified, so it's efficient in its power conversion. Hit Google with "psu configurator" and you'll get a number of sites that help you to make sure that you're sizing correctly for your power demands. I like to oversize and have a bit more power than I need.

The Noctua NH-D14 is a monster cooler, to be sure. You will want to be sure that it will fit into your case. I can't advise on this, as I'm not familiar with the specific sizings. The CPU you have above, Intel i5 4670K, runs at 3.4GHz with turbo up to 3.8Ghz as stock, out of the box. How much overclocking do you plan to do, and have you checked into some of the forums suggesting how much additional heat sink you'll need?

The Intel i5 4670K is a 4-core, 4-thread CPU. This will be more than sufficient for any gaming. If you're planning to do much video transcoding, you may want to consider the i7 with 4 cores and 8 threads. I think you will see a significant difference in the amount of time it takes to transcode a video between the i5/4/4 and the i7/4/8.

Lastly, jumping ahead a bit, google "breadboarding PC build." This is fancy terminology for assembling your PC components and getting all of them working *before* you screw them into the case. I find that I plug- and un-plug quite bit when building, and it's just so much easier when you don't have the casing constraints around the parts.

Yshi, I hope this has helped.

Good luck.

Hi, some really good points. I was also thinking about the storage. I went with a 3TB hardrive because someone initially placed it in the build and I went with it. I will most likely change it to a 2TB because even on my current computer I don't use that much space. Also I'm not too sure what is a card reader, could you please clarify? And in regards to the CPU cooler, I am considering changing my case. Not sure which one though.

Also I'll probably be backing up the system with an external harddrive. I never actually backed up my old system. Luckily there were no crashes

As for integrating the SSD into my overall build I read that it's best to have games/programs on your SSD whilst having other files such as movies and music on your hard drive. That is probably how I will set it up.

Again thanks for your detailed response, it's helped me a lot.

 

[GorfTheFrog]

Hi Yshi -
A card reader will allow you to read SD memory cards that are used in cameras, cell phones, etc. Here's a link to a few examples:
http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?N=4294966840&Ntt=card+reader

For my last build I paid $2.00 for the generic store brand, and it worked fine. Your mileage may vary. The choice you need to make if you get a card reader is whether you want it to include a USB 3.0 port or not. Some do, some don't.

For the cooler, I've seen lots of folks on this forum and elsewhere recommend the CoolerMaster Hyper 212, but I have no direct experience to make a recommendation one way or the other.

Also found these from the archives, which was a very interesting read about cooling:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-air-pressure-heatsink,3058-5.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooling-airflow-heatsink,3053-4.html


Hope this helps.

 

[yshi]

I probably won't get a card reader because I don't take that many photos, and when I do I can usually just connect them through dropbox or USB. In regards to the cooler I heard that if you don't overclock the stock CPU cooler should be fine. So would it be possible for me to leave out the cooler now and then purchase it when I do decide to overclock my computer.

Thanks

 

[sportfreak23]

Yes you can run the processor off the stock just fine. Some people say it maybe a bit loud but just fine imo.

 

[iceclock]

stock is ok but too loud and noisy tbh. for 14$ this would do wonders.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835999049 14$

 

[yshi]

I will probably look into getting a CPU HSF at a later stage or if I feel the noise is too much for me.

GPU: Gigabyte OC 3G GTX 780 ($609)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87M-D3HP ($129)
CPU: Intel i5 4670K ($264)
RAM: G. Skill Ares (2x4G) 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ($95)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ($94)
SDD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB ($182)
Power Supply: Antec 620-Modular HCG ($115)
Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D ($209)
Optical Drive: ASUS (OEM) SATA DVD RW ($19)
OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit ($115)

This is the final build I'm looking at. I changed the case to a 750D because the store I am purchasing from only has this. If I bought the 350D I would need to factor in shipping costs so the price would be similar. And I thought the bigger case wouldn't hurt. Also I'm still not too sure about the motherboard. Is there any reason for me to get a more expensive mobo? Considering I won't be using SLI/Crossfire nor am I planning on doing massive overclocks in the future.

Finally does everything appear compatible?

Thanks for all your insight

 

[sportfreak23]

Well if your not planning on SLI/crossfire or overclocking to the max. That board is just fine for your needs. The case is good too, I have it and I like the clean look but in a bigger package

 

[iceclock]

looks good man. everything is compatible and will rock the boat in gaming.

 

[yshi]

Okay thanks for all your help guys. I really appreciate it. Now just to buy all the parts and assemble it

 

[yshi]

Actually last question. I've had second thoughts about cheaping out on the motherboard. Would a board such as the Gigabyte Z87X-D3H be better for my build in terms of overall quality, stability etc. I don't want to regret my decision down the track.

Thanks

 

[iceclock]

yes that be fine also

 

[GorfTheFrog]

Hi Yshi -
I've built w/ Asus and MSI and had no problems. I would certainly consider a GB board based on the quality of the reviews on this and other forums. Why haven't I built w/ GB in the past? Well, when it came time to buy parts, the Asus and the MSI were a few bucks cheaper for the features I wanted. I don't think you'll go wrong w/ a GB board. There are plenty of other folks, on this forum and on others, who are building with both GB and other MOBOs and are having good results.

My direction to folks for picking a MOBO is first to determine for themselves which vendors produce good quality products; there are lots of good MOBO vendors out there. (And even high quality companies can produce a dud from time to time.)

Next, what features do you want?
o Overclocking? You'll need a Z87 chipset.
o SRT? B87 won't support that.
o How many and what type of expansion slots?
o How much total RAM and what type will the board support?
o How many SATA slots?
o How many USB expansions? USB 3.0?

And lastly, look for the sales and rebates on MOBOs when you buy as a bundle w/ the CPU. For my last build, I spent about a month getting my parts list together, then about two months watching the sales and rebate offers for all of the components and buying when they price dropped. I purchased my PSU and graphics card in advance. When it came down to "Buy Day" I was able to get more Mobo features and a better CPU by going with one of the promotional bundles, which resulted in a price drop on the CPU, the Mobo, RAM, and the SSD.

Good luck!

 

[yshi]

^^^

Alright thanks a lot, this is definitely something I need to look into to know exactly features I want from my motherboard.

 

[iceclock]

if u require more help let me know

 

[yshi]

@ iceclock

Okay will do. I'll keep doing some research on my build. I'm most likely going to try and wait for the custom cooled R9-290's to see what they have to offer.

Thanks for the offer

 

[iceclock]

anytime sir thanks. glad to hear if u require more help let me know.