Need help with first build

[Heliotherapymusic]

Hi,

I have been using a Lenovo z580 laptop (i73520 with Intel HD4000 and 8gb RAM) to play games and produce music for about 2 years. No idea how but I have enjoyed Crysis 2 and 3, far cry blood dragon, portal 1 and 2, MGRR and provide music with studio one 2 with no CPU, GPU or temp issues at all. (Clearly to get acceptable FPS I needed to play on low/medium)

I'm not able to play GTA 5, I get about 20FPS and it's time I admited that the toasters just not for gaming.

I have build experience cleaning my mates machine and a basic understanding of OC.

I have posted my build below which is a budget build. If anyone has anything to suggest (things to avoid, upgrades or concerns) please let me know and I would really appreciate it.

Graphics card;

MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3G - £150

CPU;

Intel’s Core i5-4690K - £180

Motherboard;

MSI Z97 PC Mate Socket 1150 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £66

Or

Asrock Z75 Pro3 Socket 1155 VGA HDMI 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

£68

RAM:

8gb kingston hyperx ddr3 1600 -£50

Hard Drive/SSD:

Kingston 240GB V300 SSDNow 2.5inch SSD - £69.99

Power Supply:

5EVGA 500W Fully Wired 80+ Bronze Power Supply - 38.99/51.00

CPU cooler;

Be Quiet Shadow Rock 2 CPU Cooler £41

Or

Arctic Freezer I30 Co Intel Cpu Cooler for Continuous Operation £34

Case; might run on a test bench or In win d frame

Estimate = £600 (not including case or bench)

[No Nrg]

With your budget you'd be better served going with something along the lines of the builds below.

 

You can get comparable performance and a cost savings by going with a i5-4460 and H97 motherboard. Pretty much hits your budget exactly and would perform great at 1080p, would be the wise pick at your budget

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£60.60 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£51.32 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£84.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£38.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£169.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £598.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-24 22:33 BST+0100

 

If you wanted to overclock you would have to keep a Z97 board and the i5-4690k, also adding a CPU cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO. I would stay away form the MSI PC mate, budget board. MSI gaming boards are better quality. You would have to downgrade to a R9 280 (not too bad, can overclock it to the same performance level as a stock 280x) to stay close to budget, but still about 50 over.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£173.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£24.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£79.96 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£50.77 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£84.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£38.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£149.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£49.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £650.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-24 22:48 BST+0100

[Heliotherapymusic]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.00 @ Amazon UK)

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

Motherboard: MSI Z97-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£79.96 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.77 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£84.52 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.34 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.14 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £650.69

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-24 22:48 BST+0100

That's great thanks for the feedback. Am I also right to think I can buy a second r9 and run SLI/ cross fire with this build in the future?

[No Nrg]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£173.00 @ Amazon UK)

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

Motherboard: MSI Z97-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£79.96 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.77 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£84.52 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.34 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£149.14 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£49.98 @ Novatech)

Total: £650.69

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-24 22:48 BST+0100

That's great thanks for the feedback. Am I also right to think I can buy a second r9 and run SLI/ cross fire with this build in the future?

That is correct, you could always buy a 2nd R9 for crossfire down the road. not a bad upgrade path