Poor students road to a mid high end gaming pc.

[Fatmantom1]

Ok this is going to be a log of my first build that I've been saving up for and will be continuing to upgrading for a while until im happy.

This first post is going to out line my plan for the build and a losse time scale of the build which is mainly going to be driven by when i get money incoming from students loan and working over easter and the summer.

Part 1: The initial build. Beginning of May

Due to work need i need to replace my crapy desktop with something better for the increasing need to use CAD in my course. So over the easter break im going to be earning £400 to go towards the core components that i will need just to run the computer but have the capability to b used in a high end gaming PC. Im Still not sure of some components choices so any tips would be cool.

Parts list 1:

Motherboard- MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 Socket 1155

CPU- Intel Core i5 3570K Quad Core

Cooler- Stock

PSU- either Corsair CP-9020065-UK 2013 Edition GS 800W Power Supply or XFX 850W XXX Semi Modular 80+ Bronze

Ram- Corsair Memory Vengeance Blue 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz 2x4

HDD- An old 40Gb WD caviar drive in raid zero with a second one a friend is going to lend me. Possibility of cannibalising my external 500Gb drive as well for this.

Graphics- most likely onboard graphics ATM unless the old ATI Radeon 9200 i have somehow performs better. (might still through the card in still cos it looks cool)

Case- either NZXT Phantom 410 Gunmetal Edition Mid Tower Case or Thermaltake Chaser A31. Favouring the NZXT atm especialy as i want to end up with a dual 140m water cooler.

Part 2: Upgrade stage one. Mid may.

Birthday will of happened in mid May so birthday money from grandparents will be in and it will be time to get a graphics card i think so that i can enjoy playing games on the system and not having to rely on onboard graphics.

New parts:

GPU- MSI GTX660 Ti PE OC NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB

Part 3: End of uni term upgrades. End of May.

Last exam is on the 17th and i will be done for the year so any money I've managed to save from my last student load can go towards new components as ill be able to sponge of my parents when im back home for the summer.

Next upgrade will most likely be a cooler for the CPU as this will allow me to actually start pushing some of the system in games. Also adding 2 more RAM modules to the system because i can tolerate limited storage on this build until the end.

New parts:

Cooler- Corsair H100i Hydro CPU Cooler

RAM- 2x4Gb of the same RAM already installed but the black version this time.

Part 4: Im going to need storage now. Late June early July

Depending on how the 80Gb raid 0 solution is holding up I will either add a 1Tb drive as extra storage or I will just do a fresh install onto the new drive and bin the old ones. If I've been saving up well enough I could also through in a SSD at this point aswel for the boot drive.

Part 5: POWER! Late summer nearing september.

Hopefully I will be earning enough from my job to add a second 660ti to the build and run them in SLI just because I can. also upgrading all the fans in the case to Noctua fans.

Part 6: The future. Forever.

Other upgrades in the future might be adding more storage to the system. At some point down the line im going to be upgrading to a tripple monitor set up. This may take place during the build depending on how I feel everything is going. Also simple Mods like lighting will probably be added as the build progress.

I will be updating this thread as the build progreses with Photos aswel for you all to enjoy. The overall look of the system will be along the lines of a stealthy black and dark blue build. any suggestions tips or questions are all welcome.

[exousia7]

The plan seems nice....but I don't know about building a computer part by part over time. I think it's better to save up more and buy all the parts at once.

[Jokrik]

I agree :)

IMHO save up some money and buy all at once, buying parts over time would just left you with outdated parts

well , not outdated ; but overtime you will get a better value parts than the one you acquire before

[IamNewie]

Are you going to overclock with that unlocked cpu? If not I would rather suggest you to save your money and buy an H77 mobos and 3570 (non K) , I you would like to oc it buy a better cooler like Hyper 212 evo.

[Fatmantom1]

Yeh i originally wanted to save up all the money in one go but im getting fed up of bootcamping my mac every time i needed to use a windows based cad program at uni and my old windows desktop kinda died on me yesterday mid rendering a cad model. The old pentium 4 finally gave up :(

It is also now depending on if i get an industrial placement or not for next year because then i will be able to buy it all at once. Either way super exited to start building it!

[Fatmantom1]

Are you going to overclock with that unlocked cpu? If not I would rather suggest you to save your money and buy an H77 mobos and 3570 (non K) , I you would like to oc it buy a better cooler like Hyper 212 evo.

Also i will be looking to overclock both the CPU and the GPU once i have bought the H100i

[ERSCreeper]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

[Fatmantom1]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

Does new egg do international shipping though?

[ERSCreeper]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

I think so. I will check it out now

Edit: If anyone knows, please say so. It help :P

[Fatmantom1]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

im based in the UK

[ERSCreeper]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

I redid the pc in the UK site http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/J0HM

[Fatmantom1]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

yeh I've been looking on websites like scan, and they have cheaper prices for both the case and 660ti, after that everything else was cheaper on amazon like it shows.

[ERSCreeper]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

Yeah, you should look around for hardware and compare and try find deals and combo that save some bucks

[Fatmantom1]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

Yup thats the plan, im going to keep looking around and waiting for the opportune moment to buy. The more i save the earlier i can make the upgrades or even merge some of the upgrades into one.

[ERSCreeper]

850 watts is overkill. I would recommend a high end 650-700 watt.

Edit: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J0gI (Only 1 GTX 660 Ti)

Well I changed out the GPU to a HD 7950 since its better in gaming for the same price.

[Fatmantom1]

Ok so this is long overdue and plenty has changed. 

 

I took notice of your advice and decided to save up. Thanks to a child's bond that matured for me from my gran i had a bit more cash to spend. 

 

The specs i have now are as follows:

 

 Case: NZXT Phantom 410

Power Supply: Corsari HX 750W

Motherboard: Gigabite Z87X-D3H

Processor: Intel 4670k

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 sticks)

Graphics card: GTX 780 CPU

Cooler: Corsair H100i

Storage: 1TB segate barracuda 7200rpm, 120GB sandisk SSD, and some randome old drive with cad on it.

 

I'm still planning on adding a further 16Gb of ram and custom sleaving all the cables in UV blue. Still waiting on delivery of Keyboard (corsair k65) and mouse (Razer Abyssus).

 

pics to follow.

[Fatmantom1]

Finally worked out how to do this, apologies for the quality only had my phone to hand.

 

[Fatmantom1]

[Exotath]

Looks great! Love the color of the light.

[JoshM]

Prob would have got a 7950