Build Criticism

[ronstig]

Hi,

I am making a PC for my brother, with 800 being his maximum (pushed to 816). Does this look good to you? I have allowed for overclockability in the future with a 4690k, and extra ram slots available. 

Thanks,

Ron.

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.39 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£52.17 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  (£174.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£76.88 @ Dabs) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (£12.98 @ Novatech) 
Other: Win7 (£30.00)
Other: K40 Raptor (£40.00)
Other: ACER S220HQLBBD (£85.00)
Total: £816.28
 

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, ronstig said:

Hi,

I am making a PC for my brother, with 800 being his maximum (pushed to 816). Does this look good to you? I have allowed for overclockability in the future with a 4690k, and extra ram slots available. 

Thanks,

Ron.

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.39 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£52.17 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  (£174.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£76.88 @ Dabs) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (£12.98 @ Novatech) 
Other: Win7 (£30.00)
Other: K40 Raptor (£40.00)
Other: ACER S220HQLBBD (£85.00)
Total: £816.28
 

So close... IF you want oc ability, don´t get an H board. Get a better psu.

[ronstig]

2 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

So close... IF you want oc ability, don´t get an H board. Get a better psu.

Well... S**t. That's a lucky thing you told me because I just assumed the board was capable of it, thanks!

[Starelementpoke]

2 minutes ago, ronstig said:

Well... S**t. That's a lucky thing you told me because I just assumed the board was capable of it, thanks!

Here:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XjWmVn
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XjWmVn/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£26.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£60.74 @ Dabs) 
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£28.80 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.98 @ Novatech) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£159.98 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£77.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £627.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 16:35 BST+0100

[Vercii]

8 minutes ago, ronstig said:

Hi,

I am making a PC for my brother, with 800 being his maximum (pushed to 816). Does this look good to you? I have allowed for overclockability in the future with a 4690k, and extra ram slots available. 

Thanks,

Ron.

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.39 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£52.17 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  (£174.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£76.88 @ Dabs) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (£12.98 @ Novatech) 
Other: Win7 (£30.00)
Other: K40 Raptor (£40.00)
Other: ACER S220HQLBBD (£85.00)
Total: £816.28
 

Get a Z motherboard and you should add in an SSD, it'll improve performance and load times drastically. Also the PSU may be too much considering that he only has one GPU but if you plan to get more in the future you can stay with that PSU. Also the model of the PSU isn't as good, possibly go for a G2 or P2 series. 

[Aereldor]

@Starelementpoke was right about the motherboard.

Furthermore, if this is a gaming machine, the CPU/GPU balance isn't ideal. You'll likely see better performance in all but the most CPU-intense situations with an R9 390 and a Core i5 4460/6400. Since that's a locked CPU, you can also go with a cheap H81/B85 motherboard. The $37 B85M-G from Biostar and the $45 MSI H81M-P33 are excellent value options on the LGA1150 socket, and the $50 Gigabyte H110M-A and MSI H110M-PRO VD are their equivalent on the LGA 1151 side of things.

 

To keep a RAM slot free with those motherboards, simply switch over to one 8GB stick of memory instead.

[Sanderman135]

2 minutes ago, ronstig said:

Well... S**t. That's a lucky thing you told me because I just assumed the board was capable of it, thanks!

Only boards with the Z or X chipsets are overclockable

[NumLock21]

Get a 6600K along with DDR4

[themaniac]

8 minutes ago, ronstig said:

Hi,

I am making a PC for my brother, with 800 being his maximum (pushed to 816). Does this look good to you? I have allowed for overclockability in the future with a 4690k, and extra ram slots available. 

Thanks,

Ron.

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£69.39 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£52.17 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  (£174.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£76.88 @ Dabs) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (£12.98 @ Novatech) 
Other: Win7 (£30.00)
Other: K40 Raptor (£40.00)
Other: ACER S220HQLBBD (£85.00)
Total: £816.28
 

i changed a few things and added an SSD, its about the price as the yours 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£31.34 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£64.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£28.49 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£46.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card  (£157.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£34.98 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£69.10 @ Amazon UK) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (£12.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Other: win7 (£30.00)
Other: k40 raptor (£40.00)
Other: ACER S220HQLBBD (£85.00)
Total: £822.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 16:39 BST+0100

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

Here:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XjWmVn
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/XjWmVn/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£181.29 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£26.49 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£60.74 @ Dabs) 
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£28.80 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.98 @ Novatech) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£159.98 @ Novatech) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.49 @ Dabs) 
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£77.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £627.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 16:35 BST+0100

 

Corsair CSM isn't that great either. I would go with a better quality 550W as it is unlikely that you are going to want to Crossfire an R9 380. Something like an EVGA GS 550W or XFX XTR 550W would be a better choice of psu.

[Aereldor]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£165.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£45.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£25.12 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£256.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£29.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£69.10 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2457-MHD 60Hz 23.6" Monitor  (£139.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  (£26.99 @ Novatech) 
Other: Windows (Kinguin OEM key) (£30.00)
Total: £827.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 16:41 BST+0100

I managed to fit in both a 390 and a 75hz FreeSync monitor. The keyboard isn't mechanical, but it's still pretty great, and this build will doubtless perform better than something with a 380 and a Core i5 4690k due to the GPU-intensive nature of almost all modern games.

[ronstig]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£165.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£45.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£25.12 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.09 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£256.98 @ Ebuyer) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£29.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (£69.10 @ Amazon UK) 
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2457-MHD 60Hz 23.6" Monitor  (£139.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  (£26.99 @ Novatech) 
Other: Windows (Kinguin OEM key) (£30.00)
Total: £827.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 16:41 BST+0100

I managed to fit in both a 390 and a 75hz FreeSync monitor. The keyboard isn't mechanical, but it's still pretty great, and this build will doubtless perform better than something with a 380 and a Core i5 4690k due to the GPU-intensive nature of almost all modern games.

 

Thanks a lot, that looks a damn sight better than anything I would have thought of.

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, ronstig said:

Thanks a lot, that looks a damn sight better than anything I would have thought of.

I just know what's worth throwing out. However, if you already have a mouse, I found a pretty great deal on a Zalman Kailh Blue switch mechanical keyboard for about £40, which is a steal.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A53LCQ8/?tag=pcp0f-21

 

 

[Starelementpoke]

3 hours ago, lee32uk said:

 

Corsair CSM isn't that great either. I would go with a better quality 550W as it is unlikely that you are going to want to Crossfire an R9 380. Something like an EVGA GS 550W or XFX XTR 550W would be a better choice of psu.

Isn´t CSM tier 3?

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

Isn´t CSM tier 3?

No idea what Tier it is on. It is a decent enough psu, but if you needed a 750W I would go with the EVGA GQ.

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/651wto850w/EVGA/210-GQ-0750-V3.html?#utm_source=affiliatewindow&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=PCPartPicker

 

A good 550W can be had for about £55-£60.

 

 

[Starelementpoke]

28 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

No idea what Tier it is on. It is a decent enough psu, but if you needed a 750W I would go with the EVGA GQ.

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/651wto850w/EVGA/210-GQ-0750-V3.html?#utm_source=affiliatewindow&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=PCPartPicker

 

A good 550W can be had for about £55-£60.

 

 

I mean, I´ve just been using the forum´s tier lists.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

I mean, I´ve just been using the forum´s tier lists.

I don't really look at those lists to be honest. Most of my psu knowledge is either somewhere in the back of my head or on Jonnyguru 

 

Or I just look on Realhardtechx to see who the oem is and if there are any reviews.

 

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html