Building A Gaming PC

MrFrickingAwesome · January 19, 2015

Hey, i was wondering if you could help me. Im saving up to build my first computer for gaming. and i was wondering if you could tell me if these are good parts. My budget is around £1000. Thanks

Case: NZXT Phantom 820 Black Full tower with side window
CPU: Intel i5 4690k Quard Core
Mother Board: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER Intel Z97
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz 16 (2x8)
GPU: 4GB Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce 3 (OC,7010MHz GDDR5)
Power Supply: Corsair CX600 Builder Series 600W (80 plus)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i or H100i
SSD: Samsung Evo 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB

HeathCliff · January 19, 2015

Case: NZXT Phantom 820 Black Full tower with side window

The case is somewhat overkill for the system. Of course feel free to go with it if you are insistent on it, however, my advice would be to go with the 630. Somewhat cheaper, but with the same, if not more features. Aside from that, everything else looks good.

Edit: 16GB of ram is unnecessary for pure gaming. 8GB of memory would be more than enough for any gaming scenario.

Humbug · January 19, 2015

too much RAM,

and I suggest a 256GB SSD instead of 120; cause games have gotten big.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 19, 2015

The case is somewhat overkill for the system. Of course feel free to go with it if you are insistent on it, however, my advice would be to go with the 630. Somewhat cheaper, but with the same, if not more features. Aside from that, everything else looks good.

Edit: 16GB of ram is unnecessary for pure gaming. 8GB of memory would be more than enough for any gaming scenario.

i just liked the look of the 820 but thanks ill have a look

MrFrickingAwesome · January 19, 2015

too much RAM,

and I suggest a 256GB SSD instead of 120; cause games have gotten big.

i was going to use the SSD for my OS and applications then installion my games onto the HDD

4b33r · January 19, 2015

1.The ram is pure overkill

2.If you could then cut some costs on your mobo,ram and try to get a better gpu,the 970 is suffecient FOR NOW but if you are planning on using this for 5 years then it's not gonna happen.

3.What resolution will you game on?

4.What type of games are you planning on playing

5.If you need any help building the system then feel free to PM me.

Humbug · January 19, 2015

2.If you could then cut some costs on your mobo,ram and try to get a better gpu,the 970 is suffecient FOR NOW but if you are planning on using this for 5 years then it's not gonna happen.

It makes sense to buy the 970 now and then use it for 2 or 3 years before shopping around again for a new GPU. The rest of his system will still be great as CPUs are not progressing.

There's no point trying to buy a GPU now which will still be good in 5 years, if that's your goal you will overspend. Because in future you will be able to get twice that performance for half the cost.

Remilia · January 19, 2015

As already said. unless you're going to work with media software or something similar, 8 GB RAM is sufficient.

Get 8 GB and put the money saved on something else, like better cooler or more storage.

Tacitus · January 19, 2015

Honestly, if I were building a PC again (as I did for the first time a few months ago) I'd do the following:

Get an i5 4460 instead of 4670k - I've never even bothered OCing my 4670k and doing so won't help in 90% of games - £40 saved

Not bother with an aftermarket cooler - in your case, saving the cost of a h80i or h100i

Cheap out on my case more - Just get a Fractal Design case for £50-60 and call it a day

Get a 290 instead of a 970 - I'd have saved about £80 there and then, plus when I want to go SLI it'll bring my total spend on GPU's to £550-600, whereas a pair of 290s bought at the right time is like £400-£420. Not to mention, one 290 is perfectly fine for 1080p

PerfectTemplar · January 20, 2015

Micro-ATX motherboard would probably be good for you. That motherboard is very overkill for that system.

Columbo · January 20, 2015

Hey, i was wondering if you could help me. Im saving up to build my first computer for gaming. and i was wondering if you could tell me if these are good parts. My budget is around £1000. Thanks

Case: NZXT Phantom 820 Black Full tower with side window

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Quard Core

Mother Board: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER Intel Z97

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz 16 (2x8)

GPU: 4GB Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce 3 (OC,7010MHz GDDR5)

Power Supply: Corsair CX600 Builder Series 600W (80 plus)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i or H100i

SSD: Samsung Evo 120GB

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB

Looks about perfect to me.

Hotys · January 20, 2015

Look at Phantom 530, looks similiar and is cheaper + smaller, so your system wont look empty.

skywake · January 20, 2015

For starters this is where you should have posted this -> http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/18-new-builds-and-planning/

On your build my suggestion would be that:

1. The Case and Motherboard are really overkill given your other components

2. Instead of AIO water coolers consider tower coolers, they're cheaper and often perform better

3. If this is just gaming then an "entry level" i5 and half the RAM should be more than fine

Then with the good few hundred backs you've saved you can either pocket it OR push some other components a bit further. Get a bigger SSD, get a 980 or if you stretch it maybe even a new monitor. All would actually improve your gaming experience more than the three things you've put more money into. Getting a good gaming machine is about spending smart more than it is about spending more.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 20, 2015

For starters this is where you should have posted this -> http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/18-new-builds-and-planning/

On your build my suggestion would be that:

1. The Case and Motherboard are really overkill given your other components

2. Instead of AIO water coolers consider tower coolers, they're cheaper and often perform better

3. If this is just gaming then an "entry level" i5 and half the RAM should be more than fine

Then with the good few hundred backs you've saved you can either pocket it OR push some other components a bit further. Get a bigger SSD, get a 980 or if you stretch it maybe even a new monitor. All would actually improve your gaming experience more than the three things you've put more money into. Getting a good gaming machine is about spending smart more than it is about spending more.

what would you suggest for motherboard and ive already change the case to a corsair graphite 600t and change to 8gb of RAM

skywake · January 21, 2015

what would you suggest for motherboard and ive already change the case to a corsair graphite 600t and change to 8gb of RAM

Well here's what I was planning to build for mine (I changed a few things because of deals etc):

- i5 4460

- 8GB RAM

- 128GB SSD (+ spare HDD I had floating around)

- ASUS H97M-E (half the price of your board, because I have a locked CPU and am not running a multi-GPU setup there's literally zero difference)

- R9 285

What I suggest is that you cut down your other components around to where I have them and then spend the savings somewhere else. Purely because for gaming going from an i5 to an overclocked high end i5 or even to an extreme edition you'll get maybe a couple of extra FPS here and there. Sometimes, in some games. And while I don't think it's worth going above a 970 upto a 980 because of the diminishing returns there for purely gaming performance that would still be worth it more than spending that money on your motherboard and CPU.

So my advice would be to do something similar to what I suggested here, throw a 970 in there and then pocket the savings. Maybe put them in your back pocket to cover part of an upgrade to a gsync monitor or something.

MrFrickingAwesome · January 24, 2015

Well here's what I was planning to build for mine (I changed a few things because of deals etc):

- i5 4460

- 8GB RAM

- 128GB SSD (+ spare HDD I had floating around)

- ASUS H97M-E (half the price of your board, because I have a locked CPU and am not running a multi-GPU setup there's literally zero difference)

- R9 285

What I suggest is that you cut down your other components around to where I have them and then spend the savings somewhere else. Purely because for gaming going from an i5 to an overclocked high end i5 or even to an extreme edition you'll get maybe a couple of extra FPS here and there. Sometimes, in some games. And while I don't think it's worth going above a 970 upto a 980 because of the diminishing returns there for purely gaming performance that would still be worth it more than spending that money on your motherboard and CPU.

So my advice would be to do something similar to what I suggested here, throw a 970 in there and then pocket the savings. Maybe put them in your back pocket to cover part of an upgrade to a gsync monitor or something.

what CPU are you going with? and i may have a look around if i can get it cheaper