The PC Build Thread

[Gunner182]

Hi guys. I need help putting together a PC for my dad. I don't have the time to search online myself as work has me busy.

He has a budget of R5K and would prefer Intel. No GPU, monitor and HDD needed. Just the case with everything in it.

Thanks in advance

 

[EmileS]

Hi guys. I need help putting together a PC for my dad. I don't have the time to search online myself as work has me busy.

He has a budget of R5K and would prefer Intel. No GPU, monitor and HDD needed. Just the case with everything in it.

Thanks in advance

I'm thinking Intel Haswell i3, with H81 motherboard, 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3 1333mhz, DVD-ROM, Corsair VS450 PSU, and whatever case he likes below R500. That will set you back about R4k, so you could go i5 Haswell and try for a better motherboard. Does he understand SSDs?

 

[Gunner182]

I'm thinking Intel Haswell i3, with H81 motherboard, 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3 1333mhz, DVD-ROM, Corsair VS450 PSU, and whatever case he likes below R500. That will set you back about R4k, so you could go i5 Haswell and try for a better motherboard. Does he understand SSDs?

Ja, but he won't need that. He uses my broken laptop's 250gb hdd for now, he says it's quite fast. He has a 3TB external for storage, so he's good in the HDD department. I'm thinking of going i5 as well as he does quite a lot of audio and video conversation. But isn't that a bit pricey?

 

[jacodebeer]

I'm upgrading my pc piece by piece over a span of a few months a my cash comes in, and now I'm wondering about the RAM...
Is it better to go 1x8GB or 2x4GB,

 

[EmileS]

I'm upgrading my pc piece by piece over a span of a few months a my cash comes in, and now I'm wondering about the RAM...
Is it better to go 1x8GB or 2x4GB,

Depends on your motherboard and what you have already. How many slots does your mobo have and what socket? It will probably be dual channel, thus get 2x4GB.

 

[EmileS]

Ja, but he won't need that. He uses my broken laptop's 250gb hdd for now, he says it's quite fast. He has a 3TB external for storage, so he's good in the HDD department. I'm thinking of going i5 as well as he does quite a lot of audio and video conversation. But isn't that a bit pricey?

It is pricey, but will be in your budget of R5k

 

[jacodebeer]

Depends on your motherboard and what you have already. How many slots does your mobo have and what socket? It will probably be dual channel, thus get 2x4GB.

Its ASRock Z87 Extreme 3

 

[EmileS]

Its ASRock Z87 Extreme 3

Nice, you can get 2x4GB now and then 2x4GB later as well. Then you have 16GB total, which will be more than enough

 

[jacodebeer]

I have exchanged the Z87 Extreme 3 with the Fatal1ty H87 Performance, mainly because I'm not going to overclock, from what I have read that is the only real difference between the Z87 and the H87 mboards. So for me it is pointless to pay an extra R600 for some feature I'm not going to use.

Another question I'm pondering about is... Is it really neccessary to use thermal paste on the CPU, this is going to be my first build...

 

[CamiKaze]

Another question I'm pondering about is... Is it really neccessary to use thermal paste on the CPU, this is going to be my first build...

Haswell runs hot, so i would recommend thermal paste. Why would you not want to if it benefits you in the end?

 

[Tachyon]

In the process of completing my first build:

View attachment 74537

i5 4670k
Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
Powercolor HD7970
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Corsair GS 800 PSU
Samsung 120GB SSD
Coolermaster CM 690 III

Was real nerve-wrecking when the machine wouldn't start, only to eventually find out that PC International sold me a faulty power cable.

@jacodebeer - the stock fan on my haswell comes with paste pre applied so do not add paste to it. I'm not sure with custom cooler's though. If you go this route be sure not to add too much paste.. from what I've read ppl tend to make this error more than applying too little.

 

[Bryn]

In the process of completing my first build:

View attachment 74537

i5 4670k
Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
Powercolor HD7970
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Corsair GS 800 PSU
Samsung 120GB SSD
Coolermaster CM 690 III

Was real nerve-wrecking when the machine wouldn't start, only to eventually find out that PC International sold me a faulty power cable.

@jacodebeer - the stock fan on my haswell comes with paste pre applied so do not add paste to it. I'm not sure with custom cooler's though. If you go this route be sure not to add too much paste.. from what I've read ppl tend to make this error more than applying too little.

I basically have the same rig. i5-3570K, same RAM, Gigabyte Z-series M/B, 128GB Transcend SSD and same HD7970. It's a beast. Plays anything on max no problem. I'm using a 27" Samsung monitor at HD res.

 

[Tachyon]

I basically have the same rig. i5-3570K, same RAM, Gigabyte Z-series M/B, 128GB Transcend SSD and same HD7970. It's a beast. Plays anything on max no problem. I'm using a 27" Samsung monitor at HD res.

Yeah thanks Bryn, you were the one who helped me pick out most of these parts a couple pages back. I went big first time round as I wanted there to be as little bottleneck as possible going forward. I got like no money for the rest of the month haha so no going out at all this month!

Still need to do some cable management, Windows installation was ridiculously fast, never seen anything like it!! Question, I've connected 2 case fans to the PSU, apparently you can connect them to the mobo for monitoring which I would prefer but they have 3 pin connections and the mobo fan connections are 4 pin. Can i still connect them anyway?

 

[Gunner182]

In the process of completing my first build:

View attachment 74537

i5 4670k
Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
Powercolor HD7970
Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Corsair GS 800 PSU
Samsung 120GB SSD
Coolermaster CM 690 III

Was real nerve-wrecking when the machine wouldn't start, only to eventually find out that PC International sold me a faulty power cable.

@jacodebeer - the stock fan on my haswell comes with paste pre applied so do not add paste to it. I'm not sure with custom cooler's though. If you go this route be sure not to add too much paste.. from what I've read ppl tend to make this error more than applying too little.

I find the CM 690 highly overrated and overpriced. Why not go for the CM Scout 2? Cheaper, better cable management and overall better looking. Just my two cents.

Edit: Just saw now you've already purchased those items.

 

[Bryn]

Yeah thanks Bryn, you were the one who helped me pick out most of these parts a couple pages back. I went big first time round as I wanted there to be as little bottleneck as possible going forward. I got like no money for the rest of the month haha so no going out at all this month!

Still need to do some cable management, Windows installation was ridiculously fast, never seen anything like it!! Question, I've connected 2 case fans to the PSU, apparently you can connect them to the mobo for monitoring which I would prefer but they have 3 pin connections and the mobo fan connections are 4 pin. Can i still connect them anyway?

Yeah that should be fine. I assume the extra pin is for more power hungry or complex coolers. My Windows installation was also crazy fast. Took a few minutes. Boot times are the best part of SSD though.

I find the CM 690 highly overrated and overpriced. Why not go for the CM Scout 2? Cheaper, better cable management and overall better looking. Just my two cents.

Edit: Just saw now you've already purchased those items.

I haven't seen the CM 690 III in person so I can't comment on it, but the CM 690 II is amazing. It's the perfect floor standing case imo, and I would assume its successor is at least as good.

 

[jacodebeer]

so yesteday at rAge, I took lots of money, to buy everything I needed. I was hoping that the stand would have some specials, man was I surprised that they didn't???? Most of the stuff that I wanted to buy was even more expensive! I managed to barter some prices and walked away with cpu, memory and a harddrive! I'll be getting the rest at Rebeltech and Behemoth by monday.
@Tachyon, nice rig! i have read that the amount of thermal paste needed should about the size of a rice grain! I want to fit a better looking fan

 

[cerebus]

so yesteday at rAge, I took lots of money, to buy everything I needed. I was hoping that the stand would have some specials, man was I surprised that they didn't???? Most of the stuff that I wanted to buy was even more expensive! I managed to barter some prices and walked away with cpu, memory and a harddrive! I'll be getting the rest at Rebeltech and Behemoth by monday.
@Tachyon, nice rig! i have read that the amount of thermal paste needed should about the size of a rice grain! I want to fit a better looking fan

A rice grain? I think that's a bit too little. I use about this much:

And then use a credit card to smear it evenly over the surface.

 

[])ragon_\/oid]

I finally got most of my parts (Chassis is on back order - 2 Weeks eta - Yay!), but I have on issue now. I'm not sure what PSU to get. I don't need modular. What will be the best PSU for a CM Storm Trooper? It should work fine with my MSI Z87 GD65, with a GTX 770 (Rather spending a huge chunk of my budget on a proper GPU now, than replacing it a year down the line), and an H100i, with an SSD, and two 1TB Seagate drives with an i7 4770K, and the whole cooling setup for the Trooper. It should also power a Blueray drive.

I was thinking 800W or 1000W, but I'm not sure what will be the best option. Anyone have any suggestions? Will a CORSAIR TX750 V2 be sufficient? Should I rather dump 200 bucks onto hat price and get a TX850?

I'm not going to go SLI now, but after a year I'll get another GTX 770. Right now, I just need to be able to run what I have.

 

[EmileS]

so yesteday at rAge, I took lots of money, to buy everything I needed. I was hoping that the stand would have some specials, man was I surprised that they didn't???? Most of the stuff that I wanted to buy was even more expensive! I managed to barter some prices and walked away with cpu, memory and a harddrive! I'll be getting the rest at Rebeltech and Behemoth by monday.
@Tachyon, nice rig! i have read that the amount of thermal paste needed should about the size of a rice grain! I want to fit a better looking fan

I was also very disappointed in the "specials". Picked up a new mousepad for myself (which I saved about R150 on), that's all. The only other bargain I could see was the CM Storm Trooper going for R1.6k.

With regards to your paste:
1) If you are going to use a stock cooler, no need for paste (it has some on already)
2) Some 3rd party coolers come with paste, like my CM Hyper212X (although I didn't use that specific paste it came with)
3) I usually put a pea size blob on there, then spread it out with a piece of paper folded a few times

 

[EmileS]

I finally got most of my parts (Chassis is on back order - 2 Weeks eta - Yay!), but I have on issue now. I'm not sure what PSU to get. I don't need modular. What will be the best PSU for a CM Storm Trooper? It should work fine with my MSI Z87 GD65, with a GTX 770 (Rather spending a huge chunk of my budget on a proper GPU now, than replacing it a year down the line), and an H100i, with an SSD, and two 1TB Seagate drives with an i7 4770K, and the whole cooling setup for the Trooper. It should also power a Blueray drive.

I was thinking 800W or 1000W, but I'm not sure what will be the best option. Anyone have any suggestions? Will a CORSAIR TX750 V2 be sufficient? Should I rather dump 200 bucks onto hat price and get a TX850?

I'm not going to go SLI now, but after a year I'll get another GTX 770. Right now, I just need to be able to run what I have.

800W and 1000W is more than enough if you want to SLi later as well.

The TX series are good, but for R40 more rather get the modular ones (why not?).
You can also look at the SeaSonic M12II (if you can find stock)

There is also the SeaSonic X (750W) and Corsair HX750 (which are both Gold Rated), but cost a bit more.