First time building, £900ish gaming pc

[cariboukevin]

hey guys , im looking to build a gaming pc for around 900 pounds (i've got my mouse/keyboard and monitor)

i really dont know too much about it, but so far i've got a few opinions:
would prefer it to be AMD as from what i seen a lot cheaper for same processing power but with larger power intake.
I would like water cooling because it looks awesome/ quieter. maybe something like h80 ?

thinking :
CPU:AMD FX 4300 3.4 ghz
MOBO:ASUS sabertooth AMD 990 FX
Case: is going to have to have a 120mm top/rear fan for h80

 

[jmsellars1]

Looking at the numbers it might seem like you get more processing power for the money with AMD but it doesn't really work that way. The FX-4300 wouldn't be much better than a Pentium dual core in games. Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture is just far more efficient, giving more performance per mhz. Going for the 8 core stuff isn't worth it either since games will only touch the first 4 cores.

Water cooling isn't necessarily going to be quieter, it just depends which fans you use. They are what is making the noise. The Corsair H series isn't all that great in terms of price/performance, especially if you want something quiet. They tend to use high performance fans instead of quieter ones.

EDIT:

i5-3570k
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz 1.5v C9
Asus P8Z77-V LX
120GB Samsung 840
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM
Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB
XFX Pro 550W
NZXT Phantom 410

Brings you to about £870 on Scan.

The i5 would be far better than any AMD CPU in games and the GTX 670 is one of the best GPU's around.

 

[Rammy]

jmsellars is pretty much on the money.
I'd add that that motherboard is very expensive and is kinda overkill.

If you want people to throw some specific build suggestions your way, more information is kinda required.

Resolution of monitor
Whether you need to include OS in price
If you want to include "nice-to-have" features like an SSD or modular PSU, which don't necessarily boost performance but give you a better experience overall.
If you are interested in overclocking a CPU.
If you have a case in mind (its a personal aesthetic thing really)

As a general comment, for £900 you can make a very potent gaming machine using either an AMD or Intel platform.

 

[jmsellars1]

Rammy is right, that build I suggested assumed:

-1920x1080 or higher resolution
- You don't need an OS
- SSD essential, modular PSU nice but not essential
- You want the opportunity to overclock
- That you like the look of that case

 

[cariboukevin]

i knew that the numbers alone weren't what would decide the cpu performance but the FX stuff just seemed so far ahead that the effieceny really won't be enough, i had at first thought i would go with intel becuase from what i heard their warrenty is far kinder in respects to using a third party cooling system (and maybe overclocking? but cant remember for sure).

Ok if for example i was using something like the Intel i5 3570k (ivy) what sort of speeds could i get from overclocking it/ what kind of money would be needed to keep it chilled ?

I had looked at a few reviews for Hydro series and they all seemed pretty nice, but if you guys are saying not worth the money/effort/ having ****ing water pumped around my pc coz who would imagine that to be a good idea .

i would like to be able to atleast consider OCing.
at the moment i'm running bootcamp on a 27in imac would miss the resolution too much if i went below 1920x1080.

i also accidently posted this before i was finished editing it , i would have added that i was looking at a SSD/hybrid drive because i love the idea on really fast start ups on OS and some games.
About PSU apart from what it stand for i really dont have a clue.
ye looking at it that motherboard is MAYBE just a little over the top.

thanks for the advice on SSD and GPU , the any alternatives in same price performance range as GTX 670?
i was planning to get the case last after i decided on whats in it because i want to make sure there is room. Now with Over clocking as well would want case after decided on a cooler which i'd probably decide on after i know how much cooling it'll need.

So in general i got enough money? water aint that great, i just want a quiet fan instead? OC i would atleast like to be able to try.

I final thing before i thank you both again i was looking at where to get the parts because more of the links i seen have come from places like newegg e.g. US only so with the prices barely dropping form US$ to £ and found myself being led to http://www.aria.co.uk/ either of you had exp with them / recommend somewhere that could match prices ? thank you both so much

 

[Rammy]

Most people will tell you that Intel is the way to go, namely an i5, for a strictly gaming machine. AMD have some solid processors in their lineup right now, but in terms of gaming Intel still tend to lead. If you prefer to go down the AMD route, then there are definitely options.
Don't think you responded to whether or not your £900 had to cover an OS, which skews the budget a little. As I'm greedy, I'm going to assume it doesn't.
As for places to find bits, there are a few options in the UK, but PCpartpicker is a nice tool. Its not infallible, so it's still worth shopping around, but it's a great way to make comparisons.
You asked about alternative graphics card options. At 1080P, you can actually go a lot cheaper on graphics and still get high detail/high framerates but if you want to blow the entire budget then you are probably looking at a GTX670 or HD7970. The AMD card is the stronger one, but it does draw a fair amount more power.

Here's a build similar to jmsellers one that I have saved. It's pretty solid but the PSU is overkill (use it for fiddling with SLI/Xfire setups too). The CPU cooler is basic but effective. For high overclocks, you want to look at the Noctua or Phanteks solutions ideally.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.43 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£68.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£79.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£281.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£79.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer (£13.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £914.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-24 23:42 GMT+0000)

Now for a slightly alternative approach. If hypothetically you do need to include an OS in the price, but want to maintain the same kind of performance level, the obvious thing is just to go for a cheaper graphics card. If in this situation, you just want something that gives you great performance out of the box, you can swap the CPU to a basic non k-series i5, ditch the cooler and drop the motherboard to an H77 or B75 design. At stock speeds this gives you near identical performance to a 3570K and lets you keep the monster graphics card and high storage.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£142.20 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£61.49 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.43 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£68.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£79.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£281.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (£68.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer (£13.98 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£67.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £866.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-25 00:01 GMT+0000)

To have a go at answering another of your questions, there's nothing wrong with the closed-loop water coolers really. The main question is what they actually provide. These days their performance is quite decent, the newer H80i and H100i coolers have been very well reviewed but they are generally more expensive and more complicated than their air-based alternatives, and often noisier. I personally run a cheap Antec Kuhler 620 cooler (similar to h80) due to the limitations of a small case/motherboard. Using low speed fans it is basically silent, but it offers fairly small performance gains over the stock cooler. If I was overclocking, I'd invest in something with a bit more grunt. At the lower end, the Hyper 212 Evo is a popular and proven choice. Higher up the Noctua NH-D14 and Phanteks PH-TC14 are hefty chunks of metal that are both quiet and effective.

 

[jmsellars1]

If you want something quiet, I'll just point out that it is far easier to build something quiet from the ground up rather than throwing something together and trying to silence it.

First thing to do when building something quiet is to keep the power consumption down. Once you have done that, just make sure you get decent heatsinks and high quality fans on everything. PWM fans are great for the CPU because they slow down and speed up automatically. Your GPU fans should normally do this as well.

EDIT: Would you just prefer something quiet or do you want something silent? I could have further tips for you, some that I use. Some of them are a bit obsessive and expensive but it works for me. My PC is extremely quiet now, after some modding.

 

[cariboukevin]

Well im wearing a proper head set so a little sound is no biggie especially under strain in gAmes where there is going to be relatively louder sounds . The main concern is just that I play with a few mates on Skype on has a homebuild and occasionally it blared up thru his Mic sounding like a small aircraft. What about casings apart from what fans it allows decides the airflow to parts doesn't it? And as I was hoping to be able to the very least end of this year on high/very high on games like Crysis 3 , how future proof is that 8 of ram?. going be vs 2 4gb modules? With out the need to replace for increased ram . Sry about the awful quality of this post im on my phone . Of the two of you not sure it would be fait choosing a best answer they are both great

 

[cariboukevin]

How does this sound?
Cpu:i5 3570k
Motherboard:Asus P8Z77-V LX
Memory: corsair vnegance 2x4gb
Storage: 120gb samsung 840 + seagate 1tb barricuda
Graphics card: gtx 670
Case: nzxt phantom 410
Power: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V
Cooler:hyper 212 evo with plans to switch it out for something best later on
Monitor 24" Iiyama ProLite E2473HDS-B Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
Around £1000
Any glaring problems?
I would attempt links but i cant seem to get them working sorry guys
Thanks

 

[Rammy]

Looks solid, nothing bad at all.

From a value perspective, I think the HD7970 is still the better card than the GTX670. Right now they are too close on price. Either way you'll have a potent graphics card.

Motherboard wise, the Asus is a good board but it lacks quite a few features that are good to have in a high end board. Tomshardware did a fairly conclusive breakdown of most of the popular boards here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254.html The prices have fallen so the value "winner" will be quite different, but the ASrock or Gigabyte boards come with a few things that you probably want to have.

Again I'm in preference towards the storage options I suggested, as in general they are a bit higher quality/value, but there's nothing wrong with those.

Regardless of your decisions, I'm sure that you will end up with something pretty effective. It's actually quite hard to make explicitly "bad" choices as long as you are picking quality stuff.

 

[cariboukevin]

Looking at the hd 7970 i like what your saying but with how close i am to buget cap and seem to be able to save around 30 pounds by getting gtx 670. umm for mother board would the GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) ATX Motherboard, be suitable i could go up to the ASRockZ77 Extreme4 but thats the 30 gone again. If what ever i get works its your fault

 

[Rammy]

The link I had yesterday for the HD7970 was a daily offer at Overclockers. Sadly it's passed, but as far as I can tell the prices on the GTX670 and HD7970 are pretty even.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=101,70&sort=a5
I'd still be inclined to go for the Gigabyte HD7970 at the ~£300 mark.

The Gigabyte motherboard is also a better option than the Asus imo. I'm showing the Asus at ~£85, Gigabyte at ~£95 and ASRock at ~£100. Personally, I'd still go for the ASRock at that price difference as it has the best feature set for Z77, namely full 8/8 PCIe 3.0 lane for SLI/Xfire, high number of power phases and loads of I/O ports. The prices are probably about right relative to their performance though. It really depends what you are looking for, you can get a quality socket1155 motherboard for around £50 or so which does the vast majority of stuff a £100 motherboard does, but when you start considering k-series processors and the like you start needing to consider some of the more high-end features.

 

[cariboukevin]

Well ill agree that it maybe superior to the gtx 670 however if i am right it will have a higher power consumpution, im happy paying the extra money for a mother board just wanted a confirmation that it is worth it. Cheers mate

 

[jmsellars1]

Yeah either card is good, the HD 7970 has the edge in performance but as you said, the GTX 670 is much more efficient.

The Crucial M4 is probably slightly better quality than the Samsung 840, grab it if you can get it for the same price. The Caviar black isn't going to be much faster than the Seagate and even if it was you wouldn't notice on a mass storage drive.

I would honestly avoid SLI/Crossfire unless you plan on playing over 3 monitors or something. It only seems to be worth it if you need more performance than 1 card can provide rather than using it as an upgrade path. If you are playing at 1080P, the HD 7970 and GTX 670 could even be considered overkill by some. (Not by me though)

Any Z77 board is fine, you're just basically buying on the strength of the name/reliability/warranty and any specific features you might want. For example with ASRock, you can normally fit a LGA 775 cooler to any of their Intel boards. With some Gigabyte boards, I think you can charge your phone in the PC while it is turned off. With a couple of the very high end ASUS boards you get some very good fan control software built in.

 

[EasyTransfer]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£62.39 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£126.98 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Constellation ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.82 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£80.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£199.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer (£13.98 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£67.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £900.61
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-26 13:46 GMT+0000)

 

[cariboukevin]

thanks for that easy, i'll consider.

and something i knew but had forgotten the significance of is the 2.5" SSD what sort of bracket am i going to need to slot it in and if get the correct bracket it''l be as simple as slotting it in just like normal HDD?

 

[EasyTransfer]

thanks for that easy, i'll consider.

and something i knew but had forgotten the significance of is the 2.5" SSD what sort of bracket am i going to need to slot it in and if get the correct bracket it''l be as simple as slotting it in just like normal HDD?

the spaces come in the case, the slots fit 3.5" and 2.5" its just a simple screwing in the right screws in the right places

 

[jmsellars1]

Yeah man, most cases come with spaces for both now.