The PC Build Thread

[Martian]

The MSI board is definitely better than that Asus one:

1. MSI has SATA 6G, whereas the Asus only has SATA 3G
2. MSI has 2 x 16X PCIe (Allowing SLI/Crossfire) to Asus' 1X

I would check that RAM, however, as it has a disclaimer on the MSI site regarding that. It's not necessary, you can use any speed RAM listed on the site. You probably won't even notice the difference between 2133 RAM and 1866 RAM anyway.

I know these aren't high end components and that's probably why there's been a total of 1 reply but with the new consoles expected later in the year I just can't justify spending a truck load on a pc that will probably only be used as a htpc in the future.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

 

[Branderplank]

Hello

Looking into building a budget gamer pc with AMD FX 6300.... So far I have got:
CPU: AMD FX-6300*3.5GHz 6-Core Processor - R1,686
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX *AM3+ Motherboard - R1,181
Memory: G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR, Sniper with heatsink, 8GB (2x 4GB), DDR3 1600, CL9, - R880
Storage: WD 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - R772
Video Card: Sapphire HD7790 O.C, HD7790, 1GB 128bit 4 channel DDR5, DUAL-X (dual fan), PCI-E - R1,663
Case: Coolermaster Elite 370, Mid Tower, Black, no PSU (bottom placed design), support - R434
Power Supply: Thermaltake LitePower, 650w, ATX 12V V2.3, active PFC, dual +12v rails, 2x 8pin - R574
R7,190


These prices are mainly from Rebeltech. Any comments/recommendations are welcome.

I'd also like to hear if I should just bite off a bit more and settle for 3570K type build.

Thanks

 

[Branderplank]

Bump

 

[Bryn]

Hello

Looking into building a budget gamer pc with AMD FX 6300.... So far I have got:
CPU: AMD FX-6300*3.5GHz 6-Core Processor - R1,686
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX *AM3+ Motherboard - R1,181
Memory: G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR, Sniper with heatsink, 8GB (2x 4GB), DDR3 1600, CL9, - R880
Storage: WD 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - R772
Video Card: Sapphire HD7790 O.C, HD7790, 1GB 128bit 4 channel DDR5, DUAL-X (dual fan), PCI-E - R1,663
Case: Coolermaster Elite 370, Mid Tower, Black, no PSU (bottom placed design), support - R434
Power Supply: Thermaltake LitePower, 650w, ATX 12V V2.3, active PFC, dual +12v rails, 2x 8pin - R574
R7,190


These prices are mainly from Rebeltech. Any comments/recommendations are welcome.

I'd also like to hear if I should just bite off a bit more and settle for 3570K type build.

Thanks

I'd recommend two options:

1) Buy that system, but switch out the CPU for something decent, like an FX8320/8350/i5-3570.

2) Upgrade bit by bit as you can afford to. If everyone bought their systems in one go there wouldn't be nearly as many high end setups. Thanks to this policy my current system specs are:

i5-3570K
Asus Z77-D3H
Powercolor HD7970 3GB OC
128GB Transcend SSD
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
700W Huntkey
6.5TB total HDD storage
27" Samsung LCD 2ms

That system plays any game with visuals maxed out at 1920x1080 with very good fps. Start with a good M/B, CPU, PSU and memory (R1.7k + R2.5k + R755 + R850 = R5805). Run off integrated graphics if your existing graphics are worse. Put the remaining two grand towards a good graphics solution. My Powercolor was a R4.3k Wootware special.

 

[EmileS]

Hello

Looking into building a budget gamer pc with AMD FX 6300.... So far I have got:
CPU: AMD FX-6300*3.5GHz 6-Core Processor - R1,686
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX *AM3+ Motherboard - R1,181
Memory: G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR, Sniper with heatsink, 8GB (2x 4GB), DDR3 1600, CL9, - R880
Storage: WD 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - R772
Video Card: Sapphire HD7790 O.C, HD7790, 1GB 128bit 4 channel DDR5, DUAL-X (dual fan), PCI-E - R1,663
Case: Coolermaster Elite 370, Mid Tower, Black, no PSU (bottom placed design), support - R434
Power Supply: Thermaltake LitePower, 650w, ATX 12V V2.3, active PFC, dual +12v rails, 2x 8pin - R574
R7,190


These prices are mainly from Rebeltech. Any comments/recommendations are welcome.

I'd also like to hear if I should just bite off a bit more and settle for 3570K type build.

Thanks

Everything is good with concern to a budget gamer. But, also look at your future when you buy budget, then you'll save money when upgrading.

Firstly, go for something like the i3-3220 and H77 motherboard (like I have ). It is very good components on a budget, and a bit cheaper than the CPU and Mobo you listed. You can later get a i5 Ivy Bridge CPU when those prices drop, due to Haswell taking over. Only later this year well see Haswell i3's.

If you can stretch your budget a bit, try to get either of these:
MSI H87-G41 - R1392
GIGABYTE GA-H87M-D3H - R1491

and this:
Intel Core i5-4430 - R2193

The Haswell mobo and CPU will enable you to upgrade easier for the next 2 - 3 years.

Check out these 2 cases as well. I think they look better IMO:

Thermaltake Versa G2
Cooler Master K280

Definitely change your PSU to a certified one:
XFX Core Edition PRO550W

 

[Sarakael]

Power Supply: Thermaltake LitePower, 650w, ATX 12V V2.3, active PFC, dual +12v rails, 2x 8pin - R574

These prices are mainly from Rebeltech. Any comments/recommendations are welcome.

I am no PSU specialist but that PSU is actually single rail. Rebeltech has it wrong. Also it's not a 650w (although that's what it says it is) it's actually 630w.

I'd also like to hear if I should just bite off a bit more and settle for 3570K type build.

I'm about to upgrade and will probably get the Haswell rather as I should be able to use the motherboard for future upgrades.
Getting the 3570k won't be much of a saving compared to Haswell and there is no chance of upgrading to any new technology on the LGA 1155 motherboards.

 

[Branderplank]

@Bryn26 - Thanks for the suggestions

@EmileS - Appreciate the links to cases (they really are better looking) and your tips

@ Sarakael - I now nothing about PSU's (don't even know what the purpose of a dual rail is) but thanks for pointing that out.

Back to the drawing board...

 

[DuckKnuckle]

Hi MyBB,

Here's my pc setup and computer room. Spec is as follows:

PC
NZXT Switch 810 Matte Black Edition
Sabertooth Z77 motherboard
Intel i7 2700k CPU clocked at 4.5GHz
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU cooler
NVidia Geforce GTX670 FTW Edition GPU
WD 1TB Blue (boot drive)
WD 2TB Green (storage)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB RAM (4x4GB)
LG GH24NS90 DVD drive
Corsair GS800 PSU

Audio Equipment
Alesis M1 MKII Active monitors
Roland UA-55 Quad Capture sound card
Rode NT2-A microphone
Sennheiser HD215 headphones

Desk
Ikea Ullrik table legs
Ikea Linnmon table top
Ikea Besta TV unit

 

[Sarakael]

Hi MyBB,

Here's my pc setup and computer room. Spec is as follows:

PC
NZXT Switch 810 Matte Black Edition
Sabertooth Z77 motherboard
Intel i7 2700k CPU clocked at 4.5GHz
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU cooler
NVidia Geforce GTX670 FTW Edition GPU
WD 1TB Blue (boot drive)
WD 2TB Green (storage)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB RAM (4x4GB)
LG GH24NS90 DVD drive
Corsair GS800 PSU

Audio Equipment
Alesis M1 MKII Active monitors
Roland UA-55 Quad Capture sound card
Rode NT2-A microphone
Sennheiser HD215 headphones

Desk
Ikea Ullrik table legs
Ikea Linnmon table top
Ikea Besta TV unit

Nice setup.

Where did you buy the ikea furniture?

One small bit of unasked for advice. Get a SSD for your boot drive it will change your life.

 

[DuckKnuckle]

Nice setup.

Where did you buy the ikea furniture?

One small bit of unasked for advice. Get a SSD for your boot drive it will change your life.

Yeah at the time of the build I couldn't afford the SSD. Real world things have come up but I've got my eye on a Force GT 240GB.

I bought the Ikea items from a company called Nevada Furniture. Prices are great and shipping from Ikea UK and delivery is included in the price.

 

[Sarakael]

I bought the Ikea items from a company called Nevada Furniture. Prices are great and shipping from Ikea UK and delivery is included in the price.

Awesome, had my eye on a few ikea things for a while.

 

[DuckKnuckle]

Awesome, had my eye on a few ikea things for a while.

It cost me R2 700 for the three items I purchased. All you need to do is email '[email protected]' with the item codes off the Ikea site and they will come back with a quote.

 

[@@GJC@@]

PC Build for a friend

Hi Guys,

So my buddy wants to build a new PC and we have tentatively decided on the following build:

Intel Core i5-4570 @ R2 367
2x MSI N760 2GB @ R3 730 (R7 460)
Corsair TX850 @ R1 491
MSI Z87-G45 LGA1150 @ R2 245
Seagate Barracuda 4TB 7200RPM @ R2 197
Corsair 8GB DDR3-1600 @ R901
3x Cooler Master Force 200MM @ R161 (R483)
Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 @ R1 807

Total: R18 951

He's pretty set on the motherboard and GPU's but any other recommendations are welcome. Especially with the casing, since the price has gone up he's not so sure if he wants it anymore, so a recommendation for another casing would be very helpful - preferably one with a windowed side panel and in the same price range.

Also another thing I'm not sure about is the SLI. Do you get the little SLI cable with the graphics cards or do you have to purchase it separately? Also after connecting the two cards with the cable (connector) do you have to do any further configuration or is that it?

Another thing I'm wondering about is the PSU, will 850W be enought to power the two cards in SLI?

I am also concerned about the noise of the Cooler Master Force fans. I assume they will be quite audible, but would it be an annoyance while wearing headphones etc.?

Any help will be appreciated

 

[Bryn]

Hi Guys,

So my buddy wants to build a new PC and we have tentatively decided on the following build:

Intel Core i5-4570 @ R2 367
2x MSI N760 2GB @ R3 730 (R7 460)
Corsair TX850 @ R1 491
MSI Z87-G45 LGA1150 @ R2 245
Seagate Barracuda 4TB 7200RPM @ R2 197
Corsair 8GB DDR3-1600 @ R901
3x Cooler Master Force 200MM @ R161 (R483)
Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 @ R1 807

Total: R18 951

He's pretty set on the motherboard and GPU's but any other recommendations are welcome. Especially with the casing, since the price has gone up he's not so sure if he wants it anymore, so a recommendation for another casing would be very helpful - preferably one with a windowed side panel and in the same price range.

Also another thing I'm not sure about is the SLI. Do you get the little SLI cable with the graphics cards or do you have to purchase it separately? Also after connecting the two cards with the cable (connector) do you have to do any further configuration or is that it?

Another thing I'm wondering about is the PSU, will 850W be enought to power the two cards in SLI?

I am also concerned about the noise of the Cooler Master Force fans. I assume they will be quite audible, but would it be an annoyance while wearing headphones etc.?

Any help will be appreciated

Not having an SSD is a major shortcoming of that build, unless he's using one that he already owns. The case is a waste of money. Rather get the CM690 II Plus. I'm not a fan of SLI'ing two average graphics cards - if it was me I'd get an HD7970 or GTX770.

 

[Sarakael]

Hi Guys,

So my buddy wants to build a new PC and we have tentatively decided on the following build:

Intel Core i5-4570

Any reason you aren't getting the 4570K?

 

[DuckKnuckle]

Also another thing I'm not sure about is the SLI. Do you get the little SLI cable with the graphics cards or do you have to purchase it separately? Also after connecting the two cards with the cable (connector) do you have to do any further configuration or is that it?

Another thing I'm wondering about is the PSU, will 850W be enought to power the two cards in SLI?

I am also concerned about the noise of the Cooler Master Force fans. I assume they will be quite audible, but would it be an annoyance while wearing headphones etc.?

Any help will be appreciated

Nowadays you don't need the SLI bridge anymore but a lot still do it. I received one with my GPU but I've never received one with my motherboard but you can always buy them seperately.

Also, what resolution will you be playing at? the 760 only has a 256bit interface. When it comes to running cards in SLI, it's better to have 3GB/4GB of VRAM as the two GPUs will share the 2GB between them and not combine them.

Wootware is currently having a special on the PowerColor AX7950 3GB GPU for R3 499. This might be a better option as the higher VRAM will benefit you in the future. You can see here that the 7950 and 760 are extremely close in performance.

With the motherboard, it's an ATX board which is the standard nowadays so there are much cheaper options than that Thermaltake case but a case is also preference so we'll leave that alone.

I would recommend getting a 'K' CPU as running a CPU at stock on that build will bottleneck the system a lot. You would want to OC to at least 4.5GHz to prevent any sort of bottleneck happening. Something like the i5 4670k and then get yourself a decent CPU cooler. Maybe some like this?. I've got that on my CPU and my temps idle at 28*C and I'm OCed at 4.5GHz.

As recommended earlier, an SSD would also highly benefit this build if you don't already have one. If you want to use the 4TB as your boot drive, expect boot times to be slow and games to take a while to load up. I made that mistake before and immediately changed it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bryn]

Nowadays you don't need the SLI bridge anymore but a lot still do it. I received one with my GPU but I've never received one with my motherboard but you can always buy them seperately.

Also, what resolution will you be playing at? the 760 only has a 256bit interface. When it comes to running cards in SLI, it's better to have 3GB/4GB of VRAM as the two GPUs will share the 2GB between them and not combine them.

Wootware is currently having a special on the PowerColor AX7950 3GB GPU for R3 499. This might be a better option as the higher VRAM will benefit you in the future. You can see here that the 7950 and 760 are extremely close in performance.

With the motherboard, it's an ATX board which is the standard nowadays so there are much cheaper options than that Thermaltake case but a case is also preference so we'll leave that alone.

I would recommend getting a 'K' CPU as running a CPU at stock on that build will bottleneck the system a lot. You would want to OC to at least 4.5GHz to prevent any sort of bottleneck happening. Something like the i5 4670k and then get yourself a decent CPU cooler. Maybe some like this?. I've got that on my CPU and my temps idle at 28*C and I'm OCed at 4.5GHz.

As recommended earlier, an SSD would also highly benefit this build if you don't already have one. If you want to use the 4TB as your boot drive, expect boot times to be slow and games to take a while to load up. I made that mistake before and immediately changed it.

Hope this helps.

He should stay far away from the 7950 if he wants performance, as Crossfire still sucks compared to SLI. I bought the Powercolor HD7970 on special at Wootware and performance has been outstanding, but he could get the Gigabyte one for a few hundred more and still save a lot from his current plan.

 

[DuckKnuckle]

He should stay far away from the 7950 if he wants performance, as Crossfire still sucks compared to SLI. I bought the Powercolor HD7970 on special at Wootware and performance has been outstanding, but he could get the Gigabyte one for a few hundred more and still save a lot from his current plan.

I've meddled with CrossFire 7950s and the performance was far from bad. Plus, it's a cheaper alternative and offers more VRAM. Obviously Crossfire 7970s would be better, but I'm trying to price similar to what he originally chose.

 

[Bryn]

I've meddled with CrossFire 7950s and the performance was far from bad. Plus, it's a cheaper alternative and offers more VRAM. Obviously Crossfire 7970s would be better, but I'm trying to price similar to what he originally chose.

I don't think I've ever read positive reviews of or heard successful stories from friends about Crossfire. Even at its best, SLI is just better. I will always recommend Nvidia cards for a multi GPU setup. I wasn't saying he should get two 7970's - one would suffice just fine. Or one 770, but Nvidia prices are terrible in SA so the AMD is better value.

 

[DuckKnuckle]

I don't think I've ever read positive reviews of or heard successful stories from friends about Crossfire. Even at its best, SLI is just better. I will always recommend Nvidia cards for a multi GPU setup. I wasn't saying he should get two 7970's - one would suffice just fine. Or one 770, but Nvidia prices are terrible in SA so the AMD is better value.

Yeah I'm definitely all for NVidia. Been green team since I can remember. But AMD is far better priced and if OP is running 1080p then one GPU is more than enough. Amazon has some great prices to check out. I would recommend a 770 as a single gpu for that build.