Help/Opinion on PC build please.

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Alinon

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Hi peeps.

I'm very new to the PC gaming scene (been on consoles mostly) and looking to build myself a decent gaming PC for a decent price. I've done a bit of research and come up with the following build. Could anyone check if I've missed any compatibility issues? Also if I could get better parts for the same price or similar parts for cheaper, or if any of the parts could be downgraded to a cheaper spec without losing to much performance? Thanks in advance.

Chassis Spire Maverick 6009 ATX SP6009B R327.00
CPU i5-3570 BX80637153570 R2 150.00
Mother Board Biostar TZ77B R1 090.00
GPU Gigabyte GV-N650OC-2GI R1 378.26
Drive 1 Toshiba 500Gb 3.5" Sata III R595.00
Drive 2 Adata SP600 - 32Gb 2.5" Sata III R529.00
RAM Team 1600MHz DDR3 8Gb Dark 2x4Gb R448.00
Optical Samsung 24x SATA Writer R185.00
PSU XGR GT-500ATX R300.00
Wireless Receiver Trendnet 300Mbps Wireless N PCI R336.00
OS Windows 7 Home Prem 64bit R1 190.00
Total - R8 500.00


All parts from ComX Computers except the GPU which is from Landmarkpc.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Also check out wootware.co.za and rebeltech.co.za, they have the best prices.

Rather get the OCZ AGILITY 3 60GB SSD for R654 or something similar, it's way faster. OCZ is a premium established brand when it comes to SSD's.
 
Wireless Receiver Trendnet 300Mbps Wireless N PCI


Stay away from that sh*t bro....rather get a Netgear DGN2200 @R750, trust me, trendnet is a rubbish router.
 
Thanks guys, will definitely have a look.

Rickster, I've already got a Billion 800VGT router which does the job for now, it's the receiver I'm looking for. Or is that built into the motherboard?
 
Oh, you want a WiFi card, your mobo doesn't come with that you have to buy your own.

As i said...any thing but trendnet.
 
Personally, I wouldn't buy from ComX because they don't have as much choice as you'd find elsewhere. If you're set on them, I would suggest:

Intel Core i5-3470 @ R1960
MSi H77MA-G43 @ R864
Kingston Hyper-X Red DDR3-1600 8GB @ R428
PowerColor HD7770 1GB DDR5 @ R1399
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA3 @ R620
Strontium Hawk 120GB SSD @ R1055
Samsung SH-224BB 24x DVD-RW @ R185
Cooler Master Elite 344. Plus @ R346
Corsair CX430 V2 80Plus Bronze @ R477
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit OEM @ R896
ASUS PCI-e PCE-N10 Wireless N @ R259
Total: R8576

Since you won't be overclocking with the Core i5-3570 you chose, this is a much cheaper option. I also put in RAM that allows for better latency tweaks if you ever go in that direction and a faster GPU, the GTX650 can't really hold a candle to the HD7770. Most of the budget goes to the SSD and the OS and I highly recommend Windows 8, especially for system builders on a tight budget since you get the same features you'd find in Windows 7 Home Premium at the price of the Home Basic package.

However, some of the games you'll be playing do require a faster GPU. I don't know what size screen you already have, but if you're aiming for high settings at 1080p, I'd recommend dropping the SSD and HDD for the PowerColour HD7850 2GB GPU and a larger 1TB hard drive.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply Wesley.

It's not that I'm set on ComX, it's just that they had the best prices I could find at the time for the components I listed.
After checking Rebeltech and Wootware I found 2 or 3 of the components cheaper. Price is king.

A few questions if you don't mind?

1) What is the difference between the H77 and Z77 chip sets on the motherboard? I assume Z77 is not really worth the extra cost.
2) Does an SSD provide any actual in game performance boost? Or is it mainly beneficial for boot times? I am leaning towards your recomendation of dropping the SSD and getting the larger HDD and more powerful GPU seeing as I'll be hooking up to my 40" HD TV.
3) For the WiFi card, is 150Mbps suficient when playing online or would be worth paying the bit extra to get 300Mbps?
4) Any reason for the more expensive lower Watt PSU?

Thanks again. This is a big help.
 
Go with the build suggested by Wesley.

Are you planning to overclock? If not you don't need a z77 motherboard or the i53570. The cheaper i5 should be good enough.

You don't need a SSD, especially one that is only 64gb. Save the money and buy a better GPU.

If you are planning on playing at 1080p get the 7850 suggested by wesley.
 
Thanks Mike

Definitely going with the 7850 and dropping the SSD.
Overclocking is not on the cards for now, don't have the finances to replace things if I screw up. So H77 it is.

Something else that I noticed, the 7850 GPU says it has a power requirement of 500W. This leads me to believe the 430W PSU will not be adequate? Perhaps the Corsair VS550 550W would be a better choice?
 
Alinon said:
1) What is the difference between the H77 and Z77 chip sets on the motherboard? I assume Z77 is not really worth the extra cost.
Click to expand...

There's not that much difference when you look at the specs list. All that Z77 has over H77 is overclocking via the BLCK and the multiplier on K-series processors, Lucid Logix (with some brands) and the ability to split the PCI-Express lanes into two 8x slots (also limited to some board models as this requires extra circuits and a bridging chip to halve the lanes). In all other respects, the chipsets are pretty much the same. If you're not overclocking, B75 or H77 is the way to go.

Alinon said:
2) Does an SSD provide any actual in game performance boost? Or is it mainly beneficial for boot times? I am leaning towards your recomendation of dropping the SSD and getting the larger HDD and more powerful GPU seeing as I'll be hooking up to my 40" HD TV.
Click to expand...

Mostly boot and application load times will see a boost, as well as using the OS in general when you're copying stuff, for example. There is some benefit to level load times in games as well, although some older games don't benefit from it. I've been recommending SSD's for a while now and especially for a home-built Steambox, they make the experience feel more instant-on and console-like.

Alinon said:
3) For the WiFi card, is 150Mbps suficient when playing online or would be worth paying the bit extra to get 300Mbps?
Click to expand...

The 300Mb/s card won't bring any performance boosts. Your router only supports 802.11b/g networks, so you won't see any speed-up from using a 802.11n-capable card. But yes, it's sufficient for your use. ADSL only tops out at 10Mb/s currently, so you're nowhere near your theoretical limit yet (802.11g has a max speed of 54Mb/s).

Alinon said:
4) Any reason for the more expensive lower Watt PSU?
Click to expand...

The XGR PSU you were looking at earlier really isn't suitable for long-term use. Its a cheapie PSU, so there's no way of knowing how many corners were cut to get to that wattage and price point. Corsair's CX430 V2 is the standard where people should start buying from and its similar inside to Gigabyte's PoweRock series - both PSUs are based on designs by a Taiwanese company called FSP. The XGR also didn't state a warranty, so it's probably a one-year deal. Avoid at all costs.

As to your question about wattage, the combination of the HD7850 and the Core i5 along with the rest of the components in the system shouldn't push higher than 250W of power from the wall. Components these days are really frugal with power use and the 500W recommendation by AMD is just to protect consumers from buying something that's unsuitable and blowing everything up. The CX430 is suitable, though, and will deliver enough stable, clean power to run your system without any issues. Its also an efficient PSU, converting less power into excess heat, so you're saving on your electricity bill as well.
 
Absolutely awesome!

You guys have been a huge amount of help. Now it's just to get the parts and snap them all together. I might be back for some advice on that but I don't anticipate that it'll be to complicated.

Keep up the good work.
Thank you so so much. :)
 
Well ComX doesn't have stock of anything except the chassis, OS and HDD.
So I'm getting it all from Rebeltech except the mobo which is coming from Wootware along with the GPU.

Had to go with the i5-3570 as nobody has stock of the 3470 for a decent price.
Had to go with D-Link DWA-566 WiFi card as nobody has stock of the Asus PCE-N10.
And decided to double up on the RAM, so getting 4x 4Gb of the Kingston HyperX 1600MHz Reds.

Now I wait for it all to arrive.
 
Ok, the last of my parts arrived yesterday so I got right into putting the whole lot together.

Installed the CPU on the mobo, installed the CPU fan and connected to the fan jack.
Installed the 4 sticks of RAM into the DIMM slots.
Connected the mobo speaker.
Installed PSU into the case.
Installed mobo into the case. Connected all the front pannel connections and the system fan.
Connected the 24-pin power from PSU to mobo and the 4-pin for the CPU.
Installed the DVD writer and HDD into the case. Connected via SATA 6gb/s for both and connected the SATA power cables from the PSU.
Installed the GPU into the PCI-E 3 x16 slot and connected the 6-pin power cord from the PSU.
Installed the wireless network adapter into the PCI-E x1 slot.

Attached an HDMI cabble via the GPU to my TV.
Attached the mains power cord and flicked the main switch.
Pressed the front power button, the front pannel lights up and the HDD LED flashes.
All the fans spin up (GPU, CPU, PSU and System) and continue to run.
No beeps are heard from the mobo speaker, this may be because one of the pins on the adapter was loose. Will try direct connection.

However nothing comes up on the display. The TV continues to indicate that there is no signal.
I tried changing between the 2 HDMI ports on the TV and checked both HDMI channels. The TV is not the problem as my PS3 displays perfectly in both ports.
I tried connecting a monitor via the monitor port on the mobo, same thing, no signal detected. The monitor works perfectly on the office PC.
I rechecked all the connections again, nothing seams out of place.
I tried clearing the CMOS and connecting the via the 2 different displays again, problem persists.

Does anyone have any suggestions before I take the whole thing apart and bread board it.

Let me know if you need any other info. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Alinon said:
Ok, the last of my parts arrived yesterday so I got right into putting the whole lot together.
Connected the 24-pin power from PSU to mobo and the 4-pin for the CPU.
Click to expand...

Are you sure the CPU power connector is not an 8-pin one?
 
Catal said:
Are you sure the CPU power connector is not an 8-pin one?
Click to expand...

I am sure. The PSU comes with an 8-pin that splits in half, there is only space for the 4-pin. And looking at the shape of the insulation around each pin compared to the socket I have connected the correct halve.
 
Remove everything except for the PSU, MB, CPU & one stick of RAM and see if it posts. If it does start adding one component at a time.
 
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