First (Gaming) PC Build - Advanced help required

[Exilef]

Hello everyone,

 

me and a good friend decided to build our first PC, because we suffered long enough from our 4-6 year old crap PCs We don't really know much about computer hardware, but we know it's cheaper to build it yourself and we would love to learn more about it. We will use the PC for standard tasks like editing images, maybe 3D-modelling, programming and such, but being able to play some demanding games is important as well (not the latest titles at highest resolution with >90FPS though). So, we spent quite some time to configure our PC and we're quite pleased with the result, but we thought it might be good to ask more experienced people for their opinion.

 

Budget: The upper limit of our budget is about 1000€ (~1350 US$). (We are from Austria, so our currency is €)

 

Here are our current parts:

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 (no overclocking) 

GPU: ASUS GTX770-DC2OC-2GD5 2GB

PSU: be quiet! Pure Power L8 630W CM

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB

HDD: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB

SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 120GB

Case: Corsair Carbide 200R

Mainboard: ASRock H87 Pro4  ASRock H97 Pro4

OS: Windows 8.1

 

We'll probably use the optical drive from our old PCs and we also have a monitor (not planning to get dual-monitors). The parts that we're still unsure about are the PSU and the Mainboard (I read some bad reviews about it). We're also not sure if an extra CPU cooler and more additional fans are necessary.

What do you say about it? Would be great if someone was willing to help

[Jack Kaye Pc Gamer]

About the extra fans, it depends on what kind of load it will be on and your room temperature.Try keep your room temperature nice and cool with cool air coming into the room

[Exilef]

First of all, thanks for trying to help.

Well, I can't really cool my room that much, so in the summer it will easily get over 30-35°C. Does that mean that water cooling or at least better air cooling will be necessary?

[Tango Golf]

it will all work perfectly good and the 770 runs games like a charm for its price although if you really want a great gaming experience get a cheaper cpu and put those savings into a better gpu as for instance the difference in gaming one a amd 6150 ($120) and a i7 3770k ($500) is nothing worth bragging about but if you put an extra say $100 into your gpu you will get a tonne more performance in games for your money

[Exilef]

Thanks for the quick answer! We were a bit worried that something might not work that well together, but if you say it will be fine, then I guess we don't have to worry about it.^^

About the graphics card: I think we will be fine with the 770 then, cause we're used to having to play with low resolution in some games. It doesn't have to be that high end.

 

And what about the motherboard? Some reviews on newegg complained that it is broken after some months. Is it bad quality or are these only exceptions? Or maybe overclockers? Thanks in advance.

[jaffacakes]

The H87 chipset isn't compatible with the 4690, you need a h97 chipset. the Asrock h97 pro4 should cost the same. I'd get some Kingston Fury 8GB RAM, better quality. You could get a r9 280x so it could last you a little more in the future since games require more RAM, and the 770 has 2GB while the r9 280x has 3GB and they perform the same. You could save a lot of money by buying windows here. 

[Exilef]

Thanks for the reply. Hmm i thought that the H87 is compatible with the 4690... they should give more information in the description. Would you recommend buying the H97 then or instead use the H87 with the i5-4670? Cause there isn't much difference between the CPUs and they cost the same here. Edit: We'll probably go for the ASRock H97 Pro4 with the i5-4690 then.

 

And about the RAM... the Kingston Fury has 1866 frequency which is not supported by the motherboard again, so is it best to choose a more expensive motherboard like the Z87? Or does it work anyway? I don't really know anything about motherboards, so I'm sorry for asking stupid questions. Edit: I found a Kingston Fury RAM with 1600 frequency, my mistake. But we will stick to the Crucial Ballistix Sport, because of the lower latency, or is the quality really that much worse? 

 

And to come to the graphics card: We might consider taking the r9 280x instead. But will the 3GB really be necessary in less than, say 4-5 years if you don't really play the latest games? And the Shadowplay function of the GTX770 seems quite attractive.^^

[Neliax]

You could save a lot of money by buying windows here. 

This page seems not really trustworthy to me

Read some reviews about it and the people said you should keep your fingers from this website. To be honest, about €15-20 for Windows 8.1 it's suspiciously cheap, isn't it? I would stay save with the purchase of the OEM instead of taking the risk that you might be betrayed (even if it only costs you 20€) 

[jaffacakes]

This page seems not really trustworthy to me

Read some reviews about it and the people said you should keep your fingers from this website. To be honest, about €15-20 for Windows 8.1 it's suspiciously cheap, isn't it? I would stay save with the purchase of the OEM instead of taking the risk that you might be betrayed (even if it only costs you 20€) 

 

Thanks for the reply. Hmm i thought that the H87 is compatible with the 4690... they should give more information in the description. Would you recommend buying the H97 then or instead use the H87 with the i5-4670? Cause there isn't much difference between the CPUs and they cost the same here. Edit: We'll probably go for the ASRock H97 Pro4 with the i5-4690 then.

 

And about the RAM... the Kingston Fury has 1866 frequency which is not supported by the motherboard again, so is it best to choose a more expensive motherboard like the Z87? Or does it work anyway? I don't really know anything about motherboards, so I'm sorry for asking stupid questions. Edit: I found a Kingston Fury RAM with 1600 frequency, my mistake. But we will stick to the Crucial Ballistix Sport, because of the lower latency, or is the quality really that much worse? 

 

And to come to the graphics card: We might consider taking the r9 280x instead. But will the 3GB really be necessary in less than, say 4-5 years if you don't really play the latest games? And the Shadowplay function of the GTX770 seems quite attractive.^^

Well for the Graphics card it's up to you. It depends on what features you want (nVidia has Shadowplay, PhysX and other great things while AMD has Mantle which makes it a complete beast on BF4) and they perform the same.  RAM latency barley affects gaming, but if you are going to render and use editing programs, than yes you want to look at lowest latency as possible and at the fastest speeds you can get (until the MoBo supports). 

[jaffacakes]

This page seems not really trustworthy to me

Read some reviews about it and the people said you should keep your fingers from this website. To be honest, about €15-20 for Windows 8.1 it's suspiciously cheap, isn't it? I would stay save with the purchase of the OEM instead of taking the risk that you might be betrayed (even if it only costs you 20€) 

Well i saw this on the Forum's hot deals and people has bought  it and says it works. I am going to buy it for my next build. 

[Exilef]

Well for the Graphics card it's up to you. It depends on what features you want (nVidia has Shadowplay, PhysX and other great things while AMD has Mantle which makes it a complete beast on BF4) and they perform the same.  RAM latency barley affects gaming, but if you are going to render and use editing programs, than yes you want to look at lowest latency as possible and at the fastest speeds you can get (until the MoBo supports). 

Thanks for the clarification! We'll stick to the GTX770 then, because I don't own BF4 anyway so the AMD features aren't that useful. The build is now complete (like in the first post) and you gave us assurance that there (hopefully) won't be big issues with it. Maybe it also helped someone else building their first PC. So, thanks for the help again and sorry that there is another thread about the same topic, impatience lead to it...

Bye

[Alec Harpers]

The H87 chipset isn't compatible with the 4690, you need a h97 chipset. the Asrock h97 pro4 should cost the same. I'd get some Kingston Fury 8GB RAM, better quality. You could get a r9 280x so it could last you a little more in the future since games require more RAM, and the 770 has 2GB while the r9 280x has 3GB and they perform the same. You could save a lot of money by buying windows here. 

 

The 4690 is compatible with H87 dude. Although I would also recommend a H97 to be future proof.

[jaffacakes]

The 4690 is compatible with H87 dude

Yes, but with a bios update, right?

[Alec Harpers]

Yes, but with a bios update, right?

Not really.