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First time builder, £600 gaming, advice and criticism please!

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This is my first time building a PC and I've never had any experience doing things like this before. I'm hoping that I've made some good choices, so I'd like to run them by you guys to make sure I've got everything right and some good value.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week
Budget Range: under £600
System Usage: Gaming and other media, films and music
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: none
Country: UK
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No idea what this is
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Quieter is better

Processor: Intel i5 2500k, £155
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard, £72
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, £180
RAM: Corsair DDR3 1600MHz XMA3 (2x4GB), £38
HDD: Seagate Barracuda Green 1TB 3.5" 5900RPM, £60
PSU: Corsair 500 Watt CX500 V2 Builder Series 80 Plus, £44
Case: Casecom K5-9388 Black Case , £26

Total: £575

A couple of things that I am wary of:
The case is cheap, but seems to have pretty good reviews.
If I do not plan to overclock, could I get a cheaper PSU or motherboard?

Thanks in advance for all replies :D 

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If you are not overclocking, you can save some money by getting an i5-2500 or i5-2400 instead.

Since you are not opting for an SSD, might I also suggest the option of getting a 7200 RPM HDD instead. It will shave loading times by a little, but the downside is that it uses a bit more power.

PSU and Mobo are two things you definitely don't want to be frugal with. You can actually test your PSU here: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

I input your current system and it recommends at least a 310W PSU, but AMD recommends a 500W.

Also, like Ray said, definitely upgrade to at least a 7200 RPM HDD. If you're not installing that much onto it, you can go down to a 640GB or 500GB and just buy another later if you need it.

Also, once you build it just keep an eye on your CPU temps and make sure they are where they should be. I am always afraid to trust stock cooling on newer CPUs.

Thanks, guys.
I did a quick search for an i5-2400 and found I'd save about £10 but I don't mind that for the extra margin which could allow me to upgrade my video card or overclock in the future- the option would always be there. I've found a 7200 RPM HDD for only £5 more, thank you for the suggestion!

And Boomer, I've come across that before but barely had a clue what I was working with, so thanks for doing that as well. I've used this guide from TH as well, so assuming I got it right then I think I'm good to go with a 500W.

Finally, my brother has a spare fan from his computer, but couldn't fit it. I'll be putting one of these in if it will fit. How would I go about finding my CPU temperature, or do you just mean that generally?
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Radioface said:
Thanks, guys.
I did a quick search for an i5-2400 and found I'd save about £10 but I don't mind that for the extra margin which could allow me to upgrade my video card or overclock in the future- the option would always be there. I've found a 7200 RPM HDD for only £5 more, thank you for the suggestion!

And Boomer, I've come across that before but barely had a clue what I was working with, so thanks for doing that as well. I've used this guide from TH as well, so assuming I got it right then I think I'm good to go with a 500W.

Finally, my brother has a spare fan from his computer, but couldn't fit it. I'll be putting one of these in if it will fit. How would I go about finding my CPU temperature, or do you just mean that generally?



There are plenty of programs that will get your CPU temps for you. Some of the more popular ones are CPU-Z, which is really useful in general and Realtemp.

Made a build on aria.co.uk and dabs.com:

dabs.co:
Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5v 240pin
Quicklinx:7Y8SWS00 | Mfr#: BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU
Ordered upon request £34.99 £34.99

Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Quicklinx:7XD5WS00 | Mfr#: ST1000DM003
In stock £64.99 £64.99

Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7850 860MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI
Quicklinx:80T9WS00 | Mfr#: 11200-00-20G
In stock £179.98 £179.98

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 LGA1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX USB 3.0
Quicklinx:7MQBWS00 | Mfr#: GA-Z68AP-D3
In stock £71.98 £71.98

XFX 550 Watt Core Edition Full Wired 80+ Bronze PSU
Quicklinx:7NSWWS00 | Mfr#: P1-550S-UKB9
Due in 1-2 days £47.98 £47.98

aria.co.uk:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Unlocked Processor - Retail
ARIANET Hydra Black Midi Tower Chassis

Total cost: £587.38

Very similar builds then, metal. I think I'll keep the RAM, and case I have though, but I'll definitely be getting that hard drive. As for the mobo, reviews have swayed me towards the one I've already picked.

I'll probably get the PSU you recommended as well, a little extra wouldn't hurt, I suppose.

And cheers for the reminder Boomer, but I've already got one :) 
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