Building a pc. Please guide me!

[Abello]

Here is the v1.0 build link:   https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Abello/saved/#savedbuild_1635386

 

 

Hello there community,

 

I am to be honest very new to building a pc or even modding it. After some intense hours of research and tutorials i do have a a hypothetical build now which, so i hope, should give me a decent but not overpriced gaming pc. As i have been watching a lot of Linus’ videos on youtube i figured asking the community here would be a good start.

 

I apologise for any indistinctness in advance, if any should occur, as i am german and was not raised in english.

 

Well then; my hypothetical setup would be:

 

• Case: GMC H200 Phoong V

 

• Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z

 

• CPU AMD FX8350  OR  AMD FX8150

 

• GPU Radeon R9 290x  or 290 ( by msi maybe? )

 

• RAM Kingston HyperX Fury Memory Red 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL10 Dual Memory

 

• Harddrive Not chosen yet

 

• Power supply Not chosen yet

 

 

 

(( Just some side info on why i chose to go with amd. I have found out that there are huge gaps in opinion between amd and nvidia GPUs. On my way through the internet i have encountered some data thats seems to be valid for „most“ cards, that for example nvidia’s PhysiX is a nice thing to have and relatively hard (or impossible) to run on amd chips. Considering this a rather minor advantage for myself i have chosen to use an AMD chip just for the much lower price in the same "performance class“. ))

 

 

 

My questions are:

 

Q1: Will my setup even work?

 

Q2: Will i be able to play games on ultra or high settings smoothly now and in close future ( aiming to have avg 60+ fps if possible )?

 

Q3: Am i wrong to believe that AMD GPUs will generally work better with AMD CPUs instead of intel’s ?

       If not, am i better to go with an intel CPU??

 

Q4/5: Is this build worth it from an economical view? Considering all builds with a price tag between 1000-1500€  (1250 - 1900USD )  have their pros and cons. Are             there builds in my price class (for this pc it would be around 1600USD i believe ) with notably better „performance“ ?

 

Q6: 290 or 290x ?? Altough the 290x is a peak ahead in terms of performance the 290 is supposed to be overclockable better which leads me to the question:                  Which one will it be?

 

Q7: GPU… What manufacturer? I have heard that msi’s are pretty good.

 

Q8: How much power will i need —> what power supply to use?

 

Q9: Should i rather buy a cat?

 

 

 

P.S. The energy consumption is irrelevant to me in terms of money as i pay a fixed rate. Also the noise level produced is not a very big deal for me as long as it does not sound like jet engines starting.. 

 

 

Thanks for help and productive input in any way in advance!!

[Dubesta11]

 

• Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z

 

 

What is this. Please explain. And use PcPartPicker.com for making lists

[JoaoPRSousa]

Before answering the questions, can you link us to the store?

Thanks

[vern021]

My questions are:

 

Q1: Will my setup even work?

 

Q2: Will i be able to play games on ultra or high settings smoothly now and in close future ( aiming to have avg 60+ fps if possible )?

 

Q3: Am i wrong to believe that AMD GPUs will generally work better with AMD CPUs instead of intel’s ?

       If not, am i better to go with an intel CPU??

 

Q4/5: Is this build worth it from an economical view? Considering all builds with a price tag between 1000-1500€  (1250 - 1900USD )  have their pros and cons. Are             there builds in my price class (for this pc it would be around 1600USD i believe ) with notably better „performance“ ?

 

Q6: 290 or 290x ?? Altough the 290x is a peak ahead in terms of performance the 290 is supposed to be overclockable better which leads me to the question:                  Which one will it be?

 

Q7: GPU… What manufacturer? I have heard that msi’s are pretty good.

 

Q8: How much power will i need —> what power supply to use?

 

Q9: Should i rather buy a cat?

 

 

A1: Yes. You need to do some changes in parts tho.

A2: Depends on what type of games you're playing. Generally you can max most games at 1080p

A3: Yes you're wrong. You can get a 4690k and a Z97 board if it's within budget.

A4: Yes.

A5: There probably is but it also depends on where you're buying.

A6: Get the 290. Better price-performance.

A7: Sapphire is my bet on AMD cards.

A8: Around 750w if you'll overclock the GPU and CPU. 600w if only the CPU. Try looking at the V500M-V750M of Cooler Master, Seasonic PSUs and CSM edition of Corsair.

A9: You can get both.

[SparkySamZa]

1. buget

2. location

3. are you willing to spend a little over budget id needs be

[SparkySamZa]

A9: You can get both.

get a dog

[JoaoPRSousa]

Q1: It will, with a PSU and an HDD

Q2: If at 1080p, yes you will be able to get 60FPS at high/ultra.

Q3: No, you don't need an AMD CPU to have an AMD GPU working properly.

Q4: IMO, that build is well worth it

Q5: Do you mean pre build ones? I don't think so. If custom made, I might be able to fit an Intel CPU in there

Q6: I think that the 290 non X will suffice.

Q7: If AMD, Sapphire. If NVidia, Gigabyte.

Q8: 650W, I would get a 850W PSU maybe...

Q9: No.

[PandaCopyRight]

What is this. Please explain. And use PcPartPicker.com for making lists

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/

 iz diz what you are looking for?

[asquirrel]

 

My questions are:

 

Q1: Will my setup even work?

 

Q2: Will i be able to play games on ultra or high settings smoothly now and in close future ( aiming to have avg 60+ fps if possible )?

 

Q3: Am i wrong to believe that AMD GPUs will generally work better with AMD CPUs instead of intel’s ?

       If not, am i better to go with an intel CPU??

 

Q4/5: Is this build worth it from an economical view? Considering all builds with a price tag between 1000-1500€  (1250 - 1900USD )  have their pros and cons. Are             there builds in my price class (for this pc it would be around 1600USD i believe ) with notably better „performance“ ?

 

Q6: 290 or 290x ?? Altough the 290x is a peak ahead in terms of performance the 290 is supposed to be overclockable better which leads me to the question:                  Which one will it be?

 

Q7: GPU… What manufacturer? I have heard that msi’s are pretty good.

 

Q8: How much power will i need —> what power supply to use?

 

Q9: Should i rather buy a cat?

 

 

 

P.S. The energy consumption is irrelevant to me in terms of money as i pay a fixed rate. Also the noise level produced is not a very big deal for me as long as it does not sound like jet engines starting.. 

 

 

Thanks for help and productive input in any way in advance!!

 

Q1. No, not without a hard drive and PSU. The CPU will fit on the motherboard, the mobo has a PCI-e slot for the graphics card, all is well.

 

Q2. I'm not familiar with AMD's performance. Depending on the game, I know that some games like Watch_Dogs will struggle even on Titan Black from Nvidia (much more powerful than a 290x). So...a list of games you want to play will be better for helping people tell you what that card can/can't do than what we have now.

 

Q3. I have no firsthand knowledge of this, Intel/nvidia guy here. That said, the murmurs I've heard in the past few years indicate that this is no longer the case. Intel with ATI works fine and vice versa.

 

Q4/5: I dont' live in Europe, so I'll let Europe bros who are better suited to the prices in that region comment. For me, the base system is ~$1500 USD and a graphics card adds on top of that, but that's how I build my systems. You could totally make them cheaper than that. Bear in mind, that's an Intel/Nvidia solution.

 

Q6: no comment, no knowledge.

 

Q7: EVGA, if they make ATI products, is good. MSI is also good. I think Sapphire, iirc, is one to avoid if you can. The clocks are flashy, but the quality is low.

 

Q8: Use pcpartpicker.com, it will give you an estimate of the wattage you need. Add 20% to that number and buy a PSU of *at least* that rating. IE: if pcpartpicker says you ned 453 watts, buy no less than a 550W PSU. If you find a great 550W PSU that will be plenty, no need to add even more on top of the 20%. The 20% buffer is because PSUs are most efficient when they are supplying 80% of their maximum power output.

 

Q9: *mew!*

[asquirrel]

Just to give you some ideas:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TRfxWZ

 

That's the 'monster' build. A super high end CPU, decent graphics card, liquid cooler for the massive offheat of the CPU, a nice case, tc. Costs ~$1750.

 

Overall logic: Games/apps you want fast on the SSD. Files/media on the 2TB drive, both the SSD and the 2TB drive do nightly incremental backups to the 3TB HD (I assume you wont' fill a 2TB drive, if you will, consider a 4TB backup drive). Add an optical drive if you want an internal one, otherwise be sure you have an external USB optical drive.

 

Things you could do to cheapen it:

-Get a different SSD. The MX100 is large, fast, and cheap, but you could try finding a 256GB model for about half the price.

-Use DDR3 RAM instead of DDR4. I used DDR4 simply because the CPU can use it, but it's new and expensive.

 

 

 

------------------

Build 2: Cheaper, but still mean.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GqLdvK

 

A lot of parts are the same, but I went down to a 4790K, DDR-3 RAM, and used a cheaper CPU cooler (air now instead of water, since the base TDP is 84W instead of 140W). It's now $1493. Again, a smaller SSD, cheaper graphics card (if you don't need the power), less storage (if you don't want backup protection) could all make this cheaper.

[JoaoPRSousa]

@asquirrel way better, the 5820k, IMO, is overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Micro Center)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 280L 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($78.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($628.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $1680.90

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-10 10:01 EST-0500

[Dubesta11]

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/

 iz diz what you are looking for?

 

No, I was wondering why you were willing to spend more on a motherboard than a cpu...

 

What is your total budget? And location?

[asquirrel]

@asquirrel way better, the 5820k, IMO, is overkill.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Micro Center)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 280L 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($78.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($628.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $1680.90

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-10 10:01 EST-0500

 

It's only overkill if he doesn't do video rendering. Neither one of us know that *looks at OP @Abello* If you do video rendering, the extra horsepower of the 5820K will be worth it, if not, you don't need it, as was stated.

 

Decent price on the CM AIO. OP: The reason I went with Noctua for air cooling is that they are consistently the best or so close to the best the difference doesn't matter. Air coolers are simple and almost never break. I went with Swifttech for my AIO because you can refill or expand it as time goes on, with the CoolerMaster solution it is entirely sealed, so you can't do anything with it in terms of refilling or expanding. All AIOs will lose fluid over time, no system is perfectly tight, but it will take many years {3-5} to lose a noticeable amount of liquid. Even then it will probably still work.

 

Mobo: I tend to stick with EVGA, Gigabyte, and Asus for my motherboards. Brand preference here. ASRock might be a fine manufacturer, I'm just not familiar with them.

 

4GB DIMMs are a valid option. I do a lot of virtualization, so I actually have use for 16GB of RAM. Video editing (software dependant) may also make use of the RAM. I went with 8GB DIMMs simply because then you'd still have 2 DIMM slots free, and if you needed more, you could expand 'big' rather than 'sorta big'. Preference here, just stick with a CAS latency of 9 or lower on DDR3 ram.

 

I always question the intelligence of people who use Seagate drives. Their SATA drives are known to be the least reliable of the 3 'good' manufactures http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175089-who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drives Spend the extra $1 or 5 and get WD/Hitachi.

 

With the money you saved you went to a 980. Heh. A valid choice. Note for the OP: I went with the specific model of 970 I did because it had a non-stock cooler, and video cards typically need all the help they can get to run < 70C and not sound like a jet engine.

 

I see you are a Phanteks fan. If I were a cruel person I'd have done my second build with a Mini ITX mobo in a Corsair 250D, but I didn't know how good OP was with small spaces, so I saved him the struggle.

 

Final note for OP: There is no need to overclock your CPU when it comes to gaming or general activities. If you are video rendering, then yes. I have an i7 920 personally (OCed to 3.8GhZ) and it keeps up with modern games without breaking a sweat. Overclocking your graphics card, however, is totally worth it. If you plan to OC your graphics card, try to find one with a dual-fan aftermarket cooler, as this will take stress off the card during OC.

[Abello]

WOW!

Thanks for all these useful inputs first. ill remake my list now (pcpartpicker, my buylinks and so) (sites may be in german)

then ill check out all the suggestions you guys made

[Abello]

Ok mates this is the basic build  https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Abello/saved/#savedbuild_1635386  (harddrive, power supply, disc drive not included yet )

 

my original buy-links are irrelevant because prices differ only marginally.

 

the case is not saved there these are the links:

data: http://www.gmc.co.kr/english/programs/read.php?board=REVIEW&uid=8

buy: http://www.amazon.com/GMC-H200-PHOONG-wind5-Computer/dp/B00I36KJ8G

[Abello]

A1: Yes. You need to do some changes in parts tho.

A2: Depends on what type of games you're playing. Generally you can max most games at 1080p

A3: Yes you're wrong. You can get a 4690k and a Z97 board if it's within budget.

A4: Yes.

A5: There probably is but it also depends on where you're buying.

A6: Get the 290. Better price-performance.

A7: Sapphire is my bet on AMD cards.

A8: Around 750w if you'll overclock the GPU and CPU. 600w if only the CPU. Try looking at the V500M-V750M of Cooler Master, Seasonic PSUs and CSM edition of Corsair.

A9: You can get both.

 

@vern021

 

1. what changes would that be in your opinion?

2.for the most part this will be battlefield 4 for now. but ofc other upcoming games as well  farcry 4, etc.   the screen im tending to right now is this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7IG556/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D7IG556&linkCode=as2&tag=linustechtips-20

i think it was 2.5k not 100% sure about it right now though

3. i have found the 4690k but there are too many results for z97

6. Understood!

7. ill check them out

 

i ll also make sure to check out the build-link you gave me!! 

[Abello]

@JoaoPRSousa  thanks for the input. sapphire indeed seems to be the all around group-consens so i will stick to that probably. with a 2.5k screen the fps would probably fall dramatically?

[Abello]

@Mister2010  unfortunately i can't open your link. my v1.0 build i suggested at the beginning is now updated on top of the thread

[Abello]

@asquirrel

 

1. ofc bro

2. my gaming core evolves around all bttlefield titles pretty much. but i also play other titles. in the past this has been for example farcry 3, borderlands1/2, ff-13.2, c.s. 1.6 , and others... long story short. the list is long but most important are battlefield titles, hopefully also the upcoming one with decent graphic details without changing the hardware.

4/5. what do you mean by an nvidia/intel solution exactly? 

7. i will digg into this better tonight. i have heared / read that the msi ones are good because they are overclocking so well. on the other hand JoaoPRSousa and Mister2010 are recommending sapphire. so yeah... i will digg into this!

8. i did now. didnt know it before . thats a good hint, thanks.

 

 

i ll also make sure to check out the build-link you gave me!! )

[JoaoPRSousa]

@JoaoPRSousa  thanks for the input. sapphire indeed seems to be the all around group-consens so i will stick to that probably. with a 2.5k screen the fps would probably fall dramatically?

 

2.5k? Explain please. Is it 1440p?

If it is higher than 1080p, which I suppose it is, the FPS' would drop like 10/15, IDK

[Abello]

No, I was wondering why you were willing to spend more on a motherboard than a cpu...

 

What is your total budget? And location?

 

as a "noobie" in building pcs i see the motherboar as a "mediator" (i cant find a better translation right now) between all parts of my pc, and the cpu seems to be strong enough as i dont do graphic editing or such. am i going wrong with that suggestion?

 

i dont have like a strict budget cut which cannot be crossed. im just trying to keep the price moderate. i think you have seen by now what my aim is with this pc.  im trying to achive this as cheap as pssioble ofc. but to answer your question atm im aiming for around 1500usd

[Abello]

2.5k? Explain please. Is it 1440p?

If it is higher than 1080p, which I suppose it is, the FPS' would drop like 10/15, IDK

i dont want to spread wrong information here. so i will check it out again and give you the real information asap. i was reffering to 2.5k as beeing between 4k/uhd and 1080p.

 

Edit: 

i think i messed something up. http://gaming.benq.com/gaming-monitor/xl2420t/specification/ this is the screen aim aiming to get.

[vern021]

@vern021

 

1. what changes would that be in your opinion?

2.for the most part this will be battlefield 4 for now. but ofc other upcoming games as well  farcry 4, etc.   the screen im tending to right now is this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7IG556/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00D7IG556&linkCode=as2&tag=linustechtips-20

i think it was 2.5k not 100% sure about it right now though

3. i have found the 4690k but there are too many results for z97

6. Understood!

7. ill check them out

 

i ll also make sure to check out the build-link you gave me!! 

Here I've made a build for you. Try to check if these parts are available in your area.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.94 @ OutletPC) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Nepton 280L 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($108.78 @ NCIX US) 

Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X Video Card  ($319.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($74.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $1053.66

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-10 19:25 EST-0500

[Dubesta11]

as a "noobie" in building pcs i see the motherboar as a "mediator" (i cant find a better translation right now) between all parts of my pc, and the cpu seems to be strong enough as i dont do graphic editing or such. am i going wrong with that suggestion?

 

i dont have like a strict budget cut which cannot be crossed. im just trying to keep the price moderate. i think you have seen by now what my aim is with this pc.  im trying to achive this as cheap as pssioble ofc. but to answer your question atm im aiming for around 1500usd

 

Just because the motherboard interacts with all the other components does't mean it has to be that expensive. Almost all motherboards more than $100 USD should be trustworthy and fast. 

 

Here is my build and why:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($31.99 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: A-Data XPG SX900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($106.57 @ NCIX US) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  ($339.98 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $1148.48

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-10 22:32 EST-0500

 

CPU: Unlocked i5 for providing the best possible gaming and little bottlenecks (and can be overclocked to increase performance)

 

CPU Cooler: Just something cheap but good performing to decrease system noise and allow better overclocks and lower heat.

 

Motherboard: Cheap but good quality, supports SLI for adding another graphics card in the future, and allows overclocking.

 

Memory: 8GB of standard gaming class RAM.

 

Storage: 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD is fairly standard for gaming. 

 

Video Card: A very strong and one of the best price/performance cards. Can handle all games at ultra at 1080p at over 60fps, and can even support light 4k gaming. Scales well with another card added.

 

Case: A nice case with plenty of features and high airflow; all being easy to work in.

 

Power Supply: A good quality, energy efficient PSU that can support a multiple graphics card system.

 

 

If you need help understanding some of these choices, feel free to ask me! I don't know availability and pricing in your country, but this is a good parts list.

[Abello]

excuse my late reply i was quite busy lately. 

 

@Dubesta11  the MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card is a great idea. i will probably use this one instead of the radeon r9 which i was going for in the beginning.

 

@vern021 and @Dubesta11 you both recommended Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  but what about the AMD FX-8350  http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox  this one has 8 cores 4.0GHz,  is easy to over clock and it even is a little bit cheaper