New (First) PC Build Help please

QuinnDP · October 9, 2015

Hi everyone!

I've been hunting for a while, planning and preparing to upgrade from my laptop for a while, and finally believe I am in a position to upgrade (yay!), but I'm not sure about what parts to pick...

I'm looking to move to a build to be upgraded in the future, preferably sub £700. Intel i5, GTX 960 (with future option to go SLI/crossfire or swap to the nVidea 10 series GPU's). Probably stick to a 1TB HDD and future upgrade to SSD, already have the peripherals sorted (keyboard, monitor and mouse).

Right now I'm in need of the components themselves, and I'm failing to find a motherboard/chipset capable of future upgrading to SLI..

Any chance anyone here has knowledge in choosing components for these kinds of systems, who could offer some light on where I should start, or maybe other options that could work out better for me to follow? Thanks for the help/support guys

Kobathor · October 9, 2015

i5 is good. I'd swap the GTX 960 with an R9 380, better performance for cheaper. Easy to crossfire later, but you need a mobo compatible with it (most decent ones are.) 1TB HDD is good (if you're upgrading the OS to an SSD later.)

I'm kinda busy right now, can't do any PC part picking, can somebody else?

Good luck!

EDIT- @Morgan MLGman build is good. You won't need to upgrade it for at least two years.

Morgan MLGman · October 9, 2015

Basically here's something nice, provided you get an SSD and another 8 gigs of RAM later starting with the SSD.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£88.09 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£32.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card (£242.39 @ More Computers)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £699.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-09 15:05 BST+0100

QuinnDP · October 9, 2015

Basically here's something nice, provided you get an SSD and another 8 gigs of RAM later starting with the SSD.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.94 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.98 @ Novatech)

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£88.09 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£32.99 @ Aria PC)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.00 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card (£242.39 @ More Computers)

Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.99 @ Novatech)

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £699.36

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-09 15:05 BST+0100

@Morgan MLGman Looks like a great build, overclockable CPU and future-proof for SLI. My only worry would be investing so much in the GPU. At £240 for the R9 390, I'm questioning going for a weaker GPU at the moment (more akin to the GTX960's £140 pricepoint), as I've heard high about the upcoming nVidea Pascal, along with 3D Memory.

Since I've been living off a laptop with an i3 (4010U....) and a 745M for the past few years, I'm sure I would find the upgrade to a weaker GPU sufficient for the time, and would have no worries over having to lower settings. Do you reckon it would be worth waiting out for the next model series before investing heavily in the current series.

Also for this cost of build, everyone unanomously seams to think that the Radeon R9 380 and 390 are far better value for it's price. Getting into Game Development as well as standard computer use, all I've heard before is that it's safer to stick with nVidea. Is this an inacurately informed decision, or could the Radeon cards lead to lack of software support sooner?

Sorry for so many questions just want to make sure I invest wisely, as I don't really want to find myself spending another £250+ on a new GPU after a £240 GPU 8 months prior to it. Thanks so much for the list so far by the way

Morgan MLGman · October 11, 2015

@Morgan MLGman Looks like a great build, overclockable CPU and future-proof for SLI. My only worry would be investing so much in the GPU. At £240 for the R9 390, I'm questioning going for a weaker GPU at the moment (more akin to the GTX960's £140 pricepoint), as I've heard high about the upcoming nVidea Pascal, along with 3D Memory.

Since I've been living off a laptop with an i3 (4010U....) and a 745M for the past few years, I'm sure I would find the upgrade to a weaker GPU sufficient for the time, and would have no worries over having to lower settings. Do you reckon it would be worth waiting out for the next model series before investing heavily in the current series.

Also for this cost of build, everyone unanomously seams to think that the Radeon R9 380 and 390 are far better value for it's price. Getting into Game Development as well as standard computer use, all I've heard before is that it's safer to stick with nVidea. Is this an inacurately informed decision, or could the Radeon cards lead to lack of software support sooner?

Sorry for so many questions just want to make sure I invest wisely, as I don't really want to find myself spending another £250+ on a new GPU after a £240 GPU 8 months prior to it. Thanks so much for the list so far by the way

Sorry I wasn't able to be online during this weekend.

Anyway, to the point: AMD cards offer better value for money right now and seem to be more futureproof with more gigs of VRAM on average and better DX12 compatibility, Pascal from Nvidia may or may not be good cause Arctic Islands from AMD are coming as well and that is going to determine which is going to be better.

Do not get a 960, either a 280X or a 380 if you don't want to spend much into your GPU, however I do recommend getting a R9 390 or a R9 290X if you can find it for the same price. It is going to be relevant longer and both are better than the 970 right now.