First PC

[Lotus]

Honestly i dont know why youre focusing on overclocking so much. All it does is increase performance. A locked i5 is easily in your budget and it outperforms all of these CPUs even factoring in overclocking. Here is the build if you are okay with a mid-tower atx form factor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£61.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£56.91 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 280 3GB royalKing Video Card (£145.50 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £494.42

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 17:08 GMT+0000

And if you must go mITX, you can get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£56.91 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 280 3GB royalKing Video Card (£145.50 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case (£36.30 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £520.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 17:02 GMT+0000

Both of these builds are excellent performers for the money. The only thing I'd change would be dropping down to an R9 270, but thats only if money is really tight. As it stands now these builds are very well balanced and can handle very demanding games.

[karl0508]

Honestly i dont know why youre focusing on overclocking so much. All it does is increase performance. A locked i5 is easily in your budget and it outperforms all of these CPUs even factoring in overclocking. Here is the build if you are okay with a mid-tower atx form factor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£71.06 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£56.91 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 280 3GB royalKing Video Card (£145.50 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £504.32

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 16:57 GMT+0000

And if you must go mITX, you can get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£56.91 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 280 3GB royalKing Video Card (£145.50 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case (£36.30 @ CCL Computers)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £520.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 17:02 GMT+0000

Both of these builds are excellent performers for the money. The only thing I'd change would be dropping down to an R9 270, but thats only if money is really tight. As it stands now these builds are very well balanced and can handle very demanding games.

 

Don't i need z97 for good performance?

 

 

The main reason i was going for mitx was to utalise the HAF stacker 715f case or the node 304 (only cuz it looks funky), would you say that with your m itx configuration a 915f staker would be a good case? would you think i cold build a good pc like that?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cooler-master-haf-stacker-915f-midnight-black-mini-itx-case-expandable-stackable-computer-chassis-fr

 

I really like the stacker because i may want to add a atx mobo later and i can re-use the case as oppose to ditching it and starting again, the little bit of extra money wouldn't be that bad and i could live with it, i'm only running one 1080p screen and i may get another one day, 

[Lotus]

Well, you cant reuse the case even with the HAF stacker. Theyre designed so that you can have two sepatae systems together one stacked on top of another. I personally dont see a use for that as only people who run servers really have a need for multiple separate systems, and they have rackmounted systems already. I personally would not purchase the HAF stacker as I see no real justification for the expense. However I'm not saying it's a bad case or that it wouldnt work.

The real reason to go mITX is to get a much smaller case, and the Elite 120 is very small and still fits all of the components, which is why I chose it. If you dont like the aesthetics of it, then it's that simple though and you should pick a different case, so long as youre okay with the extra expense.

[karl0508]

the big thing that puts me off the coolmaster elite is the psu ontop of the mobo, whats the cheapest option to get way from this??

 

 

I'm only going mitx because i may end up i living room, but is it worth it?

[Lotus]

the big thing that puts me off the coolmaster elite is the psu ontop of the mobo, whats the cheapest option to get way from this??

I dont understand this complaint. Thats a VERY good thing from a cooling perspective. The PSU fan intakes heat from right above the CPU and exhausts it out the rear ofthe case. It's perfect for cooling such a small case. I can look into other cases if youd like, but I feel this complaint is unfounded.

[karl0508]

I dont understand this complaint. Thats a VERY good thing from a cooling perspective. The PSU fan intakes heat from right above the CPU and exhausts it out the rear ofthe case. It's perfect for cooling such a small case. I can look into other cases if youd like, but I feel this complaint is unfounded.

But surely a hot psu above the cpu is bad? surely this would impede cooling??

 

Quite a few builds ive seen with this case use a h60 to solve this (on£35 so is option)

[Lotus]

No, it helps with cooling a ton. It removes hot air from around the CPU and exhausts it out the back. It's very beneficial. Liquid cooling is itself good, but the goal isnt to solve this "problem" because this is a feature, a good thing, not a problem. Think of the PSU as just a great big exhaust fan because thats what it really is.

[karl0508]

No, it helps with cooling a ton. It removes hot air from around the CPU and exhausts it out the back. It's very beneficial. Liquid cooling is itself good, but the goal isnt to solve this "problem" because this is a feature, a good thing, not a problem. Think of the PSU as just a great big exhaust fan because thats what it really is.

 

Suppose it acts like a big heatsink

 

2 other questions:- 

would it be worth the extra 40 for a 4690k for future proofing?

is mitx going to be as good as matx? its light weight gaming i will be traveling with this to like my parents and it will need to be downstairs some weeks and upstairs the rest of the time, i'm planning on building a xeon or i7 build next for photos and videos also i do CAD work and it would benifit more from a 4 core xeon than an i7 whereas gaming won't, this is just my steam games/you tube/ps3 replacment.

 

she wont let me get ps4

[karl0508]

Cooler master elite 110? 120? 130?

[Lotus]

Big exhaust fan, not a heat sink. The PSU fan is an intake and it exhausts air out of the back of it where the power cable is located. Theyre designed for this, which is why they always used to go above the motherboard basically exactly how the Elite 120 has it.

mITX is no different from ATX except in available slots. There's a single PCIE x16 slot and thats it. This means no m.2 slot, no sound card, no dual GPU setups, and if you want WiFi it has to either be included on the motherboard (like on my build) or USB. Other than that, there are no real performance drawbacks.

As far as the 4690k, remember that its not just the extra 40 for the CPU. You then have to pay extra for a Z97 board and an aftermarket CPU cooler, or youre wasting the money and its overclocking potential. All in all, I wouldn't do it with this kind of budget.

If you want an editing rig, you can do that right now for hardly any extra cash. Replace the i5-4460 with the Xeon E3 1230 V3 (or 1231 V3, whichever is cheaper) and voila. Youve got an i7 with no iGPU for around the cost of an i5. Heck, you can even do it in the ITX build.

[Lotus]

Cooler master elite 110? 120? 130?

Theyre basically the same case, just different lengths for different sized videocards. Also the Elite 130 has even more space up front for a 120mm rad. I chose the Elite 120 because it's big enough to fit most GPUs (but not the giant ones) like the one in the build, but is still smaller than the Elite 130. Really its your preference though as to how large you want to go. The only way of going wrong would be getting a case too small for your GPU.

[karl0508]

Big exhaust fan, not a heat sink. The PSU fan is an intake and it exhausts air out of the back of it where the power cable is located. Theyre designed for this, which is why they always used to go above the motherboard basically exactly how the Elite 120 has it.

mITX is no different from ATX except in available slots. There's a single PCIE x16 slot and thats it. This means no m.2 slot, no sound card, no dual GPU setups, and if you want WiFi it has to either be included on the motherboard (like on my build) or USB. Other than that, there are no real performance drawbacks.

As far as the 4690k, remember that its not just the extra 40 for the CPU. You then have to pay extra for a Z97 board and an aftermarket CPU cooler, or youre wasting the money and its overclocking potential. All in all, I wouldn't do it with this kind of budget.

If you want an editing rig, you can do that right now for hardly any extra cash. Replace the i5-4460 with the Xeon E3 1230 V3 (or 1231 V3, whichever is cheaper) and voila. Youve got an i7 with no iGPU for around the cost of an i5. Heck, you can even do it in the ITX build.

 

 

Would that xeon be good enough for gaming light weigh? like watch dogs???

 

 

Theyre basically the same case, just different lengths for different sized videocards. Also the Elite 130 has even more space up front for a 120mm rad. I chose the Elite 120 because it's big enough to fit most GPUs (but not the giant ones) like the one in the build, but is still smaller than the Elite 130. Really its your preference though as to how large you want to go. The only way of going wrong would be getting a case too small for your GPU.

 

So if i went fr 130 i'd have more room, i'm thinking cable management

[Lotus]

Yes, the 130 has more room. Although cable management in an ITX case is usually a problem...

...in fact, I may have messed up. In the ITX build you should probably go with a modular PSU (semi is perfectly fine) to help with this, although that again usually involves extra cost. A Corsair CX-500M should do the job well and for a decent price.

The Xeon E3 1230 V3 (or 1231 V3) is the same CPU as something like an i7-4790 (non-k) without an integrated GPU onto the chip. Since you are buying a dedicated GPU, this is no problem, and since its the same performance as an i7, itll perform great in games (equal to the i5-4460 or better), and great in editing/rendering as well. Its perfect for a do-everything system.

[karl0508]

Yes, the 130 has more room. Although cable management in an ITX case is usually a problem...

...in fact, I may have messed up. In the ITX build you should probably go with a modular PSU (semi is perfectly fine) to help with this, although that again usually involves extra cost. A Corsair CX-500M should do the job well and for a decent price.

The Xeon E3 1230 V3 (or 1231 V3) is the same CPU as something like an i7-4790 (non-k) without an integrated GPU onto the chip. Since you are buying a dedicated GPU, this is no problem, and since its the same performance as an i7, itll perform great in games (equal to the i5-4460 or better), and great in editing/rendering as well. Its perfect for a do-everything system.

I'm going for a cx500m or cx600m (can get refurbished unit for £38 worth it??)

Think ill go xeon, will I need to change chips on my board? Or will h97 work brilliantly???

[Lotus]

H97 will work brilliantly. The difference between h97 and z97 is that z97 will let you overclock. However since only k series CPUs can be overclocked, an h97 is ideal here. Remember that motherboards dont have performance numbers. They only have a featureset. Having features (like ovrclocking) that youll never use is just a waste of money.

So long as those PSUs work like brand new, then okay. Make sure they are manufacturer recertified and not just someone claiming that they refurbished them. I'd trust used units over refurbished unless you see that they are manufacturer recertified. Also, unless you go R9 290 or 290X, then 500W of power is plenty, with easily over 100W to spare.

So here is where I think we stand. I changed the memory to a cheap single stick of 8GB, so you can throw in another stick if you want to. Also I changed the CPU to thee xeon, and downgraded the GPU since it was getting expensive. Lastly I swapped the PSU and case. If you want the Xeon and an ITX build, then this is about as cheap as I can get it. I don't recommend cutting any more corners as you dont want to downgrade the GPU even more from here.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£51.44 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£109.52 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£37.20 @ Aria PC)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.60 @ Aria PC)

Total: £547.63

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 18:20 GMT+0000

[karl0508]

H97 will work brilliantly. The difference between h97 and z97 is that z97 will let you overclock. However since only k series CPUs can be overclocked, an h97 is ideal here. Remember that motherboards dont have performance numbers. They only have a featureset. Having features (like ovrclocking) that youll never use is just a waste of money.

So long as those PSUs work like brand new, then okay. Make sure they are manufacturer recertified and not just someone claiming that they refurbished them. I'd trust used units over refurbished unless you see that they are manufacturer recertified. Also, unless you go R9 290 or 290X, then 500W of power is plenty, with easily over 100W to spare.

 

This is the psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-corsair-cx600m-hybrid-modular-80-plus-bronze-1x120mm-atx-psu-factory-refurb-uk-cable

[karl0508]

This is the psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-corsair-cx600m-hybrid-modular-80-plus-bronze-1x120mm-atx-psu-factory-refurb-uk-cable

 

 

The e1320 is an extra 80 pound puts it at £180 worth it?]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-xeon-e3-1230-v3-s-1150-haswell-quad-core-33ghz-base-37ghz-turbo-8mb-cache-80w-retail

[Lotus]

This is the psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-corsair-cx600m-hybrid-modular-80-plus-bronze-1x120mm-atx-psu-factory-refurb-uk-cable

That says factory refurbished so it looks fine to me. I also edited my last postto include the build as it sits now. I'll just paste it again here. Feel free to change the PSU for that one, or swap the ram out as I really cheapened out on it (but for practical purposes thats okay and you wont notice a difference).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£51.44 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£109.52 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£37.20 @ Aria PC)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.60 @ Aria PC)

Total: £547.63

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 18:20 GMT+0000

If youre doing heavy editing/rendering, it is. If not, the i5-4460 is perfect for gaming.

[SoftenButterCream]

Light gaming don't need quad core, they need a strong, single core, not 4 weak cores

Also, please don't put your faith in system requirement all the time, some of them are full of shit anyway

So your basically saying a i5 has 4 weak cores?

[karl0508]

Please review new build 

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mspVHx

[karl0508]

That says factory refurbished so it looks fine to me. I also edited my last postto include the build as it sits now. I'll just paste it again here. Feel free to change the PSU for that one, or swap the ram out as I really cheapened out on it (but for practical purposes thats okay and you wont notice a difference).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.99 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£51.44 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£109.52 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£37.20 @ Aria PC)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.60 @ Aria PC)

Total: £547.63

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-18 18:20 GMT+0000

If youre doing heavy editing/rendering, it is. If not, the i5-4460 is perfect for gaming.

 

Will i really ned a 80 pound mitx motherboard is there a better option?

[Lotus]

Please review new build

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mspVHx

That's almost perfect. I only have two notes:

1) The only difference between the R9 270X and the R9 270 is clock speeds. Since you can overclock the R9 270 and fix this difference, there's really no reason to spend the extra for the 270X. Save your money.

2) You included two of the PSUs for some reason.

[karl0508]

That's almost perfect. I only have two notes:

1) The only difference between the R9 270X and the R9 270 is clock speeds. Since you can overclock the R9 270 and fix this difference, there's really no reason to spend the extra for the 270X. Save your money.

2) You includes two of the PSUs for aome reason.

 

new build

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9K76Lk

[Lotus]

Will i really ned a 80 pound mitx motherboard is there a better option?

Thats one of the problems with mITX. You really want wifi on your board (or else its next to impossible to get wifi on the computer without using clunky USB), and that board is the cheapest H97 itx board. Even without wifi, there is no cheaper H97 alternative.

[Lotus]

new build

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/9K76Lk

Looks perfect to me. However it seems that lately I've been the only one giving you recommendations so take that with a grain of salt,