First time (nervous) builder, looking for help and advice!

[cosmofx]

Hi guys,

I will apologise in advance for being dumb with my questions but this is my first time building a desktop and i'm slightly nervous!

I'll start off with a simple question and show you guys both of the builds i've created, basically one is a more budget version of the other and i'd just like to know of any issues with any of the parts i've chosen. Also, how much better is the more expensive build compared to the budget one?

Budget build:

CPU - Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core £167.50
CPU - Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing £23.82
Motherboard - MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 £106.00
Memory - Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 £61.04
Storage - Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" SSD £154.94
Video Card - MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V £267.99
Case - Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower £43.48
Power Supply - Corsair 500W ATX12V £39.99
Optical Drive - LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer £14.89
Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM £47.57
Wireless Network Adapter - Intel 7260HMWDTX1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 £35.82
Case Fan - Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm £13.07

Total: £976.11


Expensive build:

CPU - Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core £233.94
CPU Cooler - Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing £23.82
Motherboard - Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 £154.92
Memory - Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 £61.04
Storage - Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" SSD £154.94
Video Card - Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX £288.72
Case - Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower £69.59
Power Supply - Corsair 500W ATX12V £47.60
Optical Drive - LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer £14.89
Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM £47.57
Wireless Network Adapter - Intel 7260HMWDTX1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 £35.82
Case Fan - Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm

Total: £1145.92


If it helps, I have no interest in overclocking manually, i'll mainly be using it for uni work, listening to music, browsing the web, watching movies/tv shows and playing current and upcoming games at high settings.

Any advice/tips will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys,

Alex

 

[Sc0urgeTR]

It would help if you omitted the identical listings in both builds.

 

[cosmofx]

It would help if you omitted the identical listings in both builds.

Ok sorry about that.

Well after speaking to someone I work with who told me that if gaming is the most intensive thing i'll be doing I should go for the i5-4690 standard as I won't be overclocking so won't need the 'K' version. He also said because of this I can get rid of the CPU cooler to save a bit more cash. Is all of this true and if so how does this look as a revised version?

CPU - Intel Core i5-4690 Quad-Core £233.94
Motherboard - Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 £154.92
Memory - Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 £61.04
Storage - Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" SSD £154.94
Video Card - Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX £288.72
Case - Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower £69.59
Power Supply - Corsair 500W ATX12V £47.60
Optical Drive - LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer £14.89
Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 30SB150200000 OEM £47.57
Wireless Network Adapter - Intel 7260HMWDTX1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 £35.82
Case Fan - Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm

Will I experience any compatibility issues or bottlenecking with this build? I'm really liking the look of this one, I just want some different opinions/advice.


Thanks!

 

[Sc0urgeTR]

It's impossible to say whether you'll experience incompatibilities.
It's one of the most painful aspects of system buildings is
that there are unknowns until you try and test it.

The build should work for what you want it to.
You do not need a k edition. As you're not OCing
You can get rid of the cooling device but I have found that
having lower temps in a computer helps during hotter weather.

I would get a slightly higher PSU if you can afford one as it will help
if you wanted to upgrade parts later. Particularly for better GPUS
in the long term.

Biggest incompatibilities with builds often come from RAM.
You can check the website of the manufacturer for your MOTHERBOARD,
for a list of their recommended RAM types, usually.

 

[cosmofx]

Thanks for your response dude, it was very helpful. I'll up the PSU to help future proof!

Ok, i'll have a look at the ASUS site now. If the RAM i've chosen is a good fit then my next question is this; what other parts will I need to assemble the computer? I have a set of tiny screwdrivers so that's covered (they aren't magnetic I already checked). Aside from that, will I need cables and if so what kinds and what are they for?

I might as well throw my last question in here as well. Skipping ahead to my tower being assembled and ready to fire up. I put my windows disc in and use the BIOS to boot from disc, I install windows and as soon as i've done that I will have a usb stick with all the latest drivers for each component in my tower that i'll plug in and install. Then go back into my BIOS and change to boot from SSD in future. Is this correct or am I missing some big steps?

Thanks for reading my nonsense lol!

 

[Sc0urgeTR]

Most cables will be supplied with the hardware you buy. You shouldn't need to
worry to much about screws and cabling.

Beware, SSD's are nightmarish for many users to enable it to function as the
home for the OS. I'm not willing to put in the time and effort to detail why
and how it's done. You should ask someone else about that.

At it's most simplest, Microsoft has no current interest in supporting
SSD's as a primary hard drive for the OS.

There are lots of tutorials online about the setting up of SSD's.
Google it.

 

[cosmofx]

Most cables will be supplied with the hardware you buy. You shouldn't need to
worry to much about screws and cabling.

Beware, SSD's are nightmarish for many users to enable it to function as the
home for the OS. I'm not willing to put in the time and effort to detail why
and how it's done. You should ask someone else about that.

At it's most simplest, Microsoft has no current interest in supporting
SSD's as a primary hard drive for the OS.

Ok thanks for the heads up, i'll do some more research it just sucks as I was hoping to move away from HDDs altogether and have only a SSD, i'll see what the internet says.

Thanks again!
There are lots of tutorials online about the setting up of SSD's.
Google it.

 

[sadams04]

Beware, SSD's are nightmarish for many users to enable it to function as the
home for the OS. I'm not willing to put in the time and effort to detail why
and how it's done. You should ask someone else about that.

At it's most simplest, Microsoft has no current interest in supporting
SSD's as a primary hard drive for the OS.

What?!? The only nightmare for users and the OS being on the SSD is with people trying to manage it on an SSD that is too small. Outside of 60GB / 64GB SSD implementations and smaller, what are the nightmares? A lot of people, including Microsoft, highly support an SSD + HD configuration, or more simply just a "large" SSD config.