Sorry - ANOTHER build thread - please review.

Hello fellow overclockians. Would you be please so kind as to check over this build and see if I've missed anything and/or if it can be improved.

Budget is $1200 +\- $50

Machine is for my lil brother mostly to play games on.
Games will include WoW, Guild Wars, DotA.

Won't be looking to OC as if he did I'd end up having to support it and at 3 hours by car away I don't wasn't to see the PC if I don't have to

Windows is required as is a monitor. I'll have him go and pick a KB/mouse combo as everyone's tastes are different there.

Current selections available : http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=329752&action=wish_lists

Looking for AU sites - preferably Victorian based for pickup but not hard on this.

And I'm trying to upload a screenshot but it's proving difficult on an ipad. Every time I try to use the attachment it opens the upload attachment window.

Thank you in advance

Looks great, except for the missing GPU. Wouldn't recommend onboard video for those games, not if he wants something decently playable.

Drop down to a 120GB range SSD, that will save you $80.
Not a lot of savings to be had on the rest of the stuff. You could drop ram, hdd, cpu, etc down a notch and save a few bucks on each but your buying much lower end stuff and to me not worth the savings.

Graphics cards there have a pretty decent premium even after conversion over US prices. I'd try to find a good deal on a used card locally myself, if you want to take that risk. A 750 ti/ R9 270 are prolly the lowest end I'd recommend. Both are just over $200 there.

You could go AMD to make the room now, but you will get a system that performs well much longer with an i5.

Just a suggestion on the Ram these sticks are less likely to have aftermarket heatsink clearance issues if down the road your lil bro decides he wants to OC or just have a quieter cooler. They are also $5.00 less.

Question - have you considered an APU build? I don't believe those games exactly demanding on the graphics front and you may be able to save a bit by not needing a discrete card. Nothing wrong with the build you put together, just an idea.

If its GW2 its not exactly a facebook game.

Daleon said:

If its GW2 its not exactly a facebook game.

Click to expand...

That's true, I was assuming it was the first one.

Still, as with most MMOs, GW2 requirements aren't outrageously high.

DO NOT build with a WD Green HDD. That is a bat poop slow HDD. Meant for servers etc. Get at least a Blue if not a Black.

what kind of graphics card are you planning on using?

Here you go. Save a lil money and get some better parts. WD Black 2tb and CS 500m

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CYvcGX

Daleon said:

Looks great, except for the missing GPU. Wouldn't recommend onboard video for those games, not if he wants something decently playable.

Drop down to a 120GB range SSD, that will save you $80.
Not a lot of savings to be had on the rest of the stuff. You could drop ram, hdd, cpu, etc down a notch and save a few bucks on each but your buying much lower end stuff and to me not worth the savings.

Graphics cards there have a pretty decent premium even after conversion over US prices. I'd try to find a good deal on a used card locally myself, if you want to take that risk. A 750 ti/ R9 270 are prolly the lowest end I'd recommend. Both are just over $200 there.

You could go AMD to make the room now, but you will get a system that performs well much longer with an i5.

Click to expand...

He (was) running these on a laptop with no discrete GPU. Was going to get him something he can use for now and add a GPU later for extra kick-butt power.

Mandrake4565 said:

Just a suggestion on the Ram these sticks are less likely to have aftermarket heatsink clearance issues if down the road your lil bro decides he wants to OC or just have a quieter cooler. They are also $5.00 less.

Click to expand...

Looks good - thanks

freakdiablo said:

Question - have you considered an APU build? I don't believe those games exactly demanding on the graphics front and you may be able to save a bit by not needing a discrete card. Nothing wrong with the build you put together, just an idea.

Click to expand...

Not really - big fan of Intel and know the built in are "ok" for his needs. Could be persuaded though as I hadn't given it thought before now

Theocnoob said:

DO NOT build with a WD Green HDD. That is a bat poop slow HDD. Meant for servers etc. Get at least a Blue if not a Black.

Click to expand...

Even on storage drives? Was thinking it would be ok given it's not going to host anything but stored files (he watches a lot on manga/anime)

Kemosabe89 said:

Here you go. Save a lil money and get some better parts. WD Black 2tb and CS 500m

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CYvcGX

Click to expand...

Thanks for the list - can't get all that in Aus though

Realee said:

Not really - big fan of Intel and know the built in are "ok" for his needs. Could be persuaded though as I hadn't given it thought before now

Click to expand...

I understand. And looking at your reply to Daleon, if he's been OK running them on a laptop with integrated graphics and doesn't expect much, it's reasonable to use Intel integrated now and then pop in a cheap card down the line.

Even on storage drives? Was thinking it would be ok given it's not going to host anything but stored files (he watches a lot on manga/anime)

Click to expand...

The WD green's are fine for storage... they are also NOT made for servers either...

There is an AU pcpartpicker


My very very quick attempt

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/XrxQcf

EarthDog said:

The WD green's are fine for storage... they are also NOT made for servers either...

Click to expand...

That's not what I read.

I wouldn't want a pokey HDD, even for storage. Say you're moving files to and from the SSD from the HDD. Slooooooooooooow. If you want to put up with that, get a Green, but I would never build with less than a blue.

Its what I do. The WDCG is my backup drive. I occasionally move files from my black (was my primary OS drive before my SSD days started) to that drive as well as the SSD to that drive. Its not the fastest, but the amount of transfers I do (on the order of 1.5TB or so) its not an issue for me. I can see if you do more than that or just want more speed, a blue or black is in order.

I dont really want to get into the server side of things, but have not seen one WDC Green used in any of the servers (worked in data centers for well over 10 years. Typically (these days) they are SAS based 15k rpm drives for most of our servers, both Dell and HP (and compaq back in the day). The other drives I believe are 10k RPM 2.5" drives. The are not even in our SAN either. I wouldn't say they are never used or its not possible, however, they are certainly not a typical device found in servers. You have to keep in mind that servers are made for speed, sometimes a high I/O environment, and those would be a terrible candidate for such machines. Id be curious to see one honestly.

EDIT: A quick trip to google yielded a lot of people using them in home servers, but I have not run across one in an enterprise environment.

firesoul453 said:

There is an AU pcpartpicker


My very very quick attempt

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/XrxQcf

Click to expand...

+1,000,000

Much stronger build overall due to many factors, if you do the 4690K Processor its unlocked so it will be OC'able and "future proof", adding in a r9-280(non-x) is also great cuz for the same price as the original build you can add in a GPU (would recomend paying the extra 30-40 for the X model), for the same price HHD i would do the Seagate ST2000DM001 its a 2tb model, SSD isnt of real concern if hes just gaming.

Thanks all - I'll consider the graphics card now and see what he wants to do - I really don't want to get any parts that he can overclock (Easily) because knowing him he'll do it, then he'll overdo it and call me to fix his stuff ups.

That pcpartpicker shows shops I've never even heard of - I'll have to look into their shops for sure.

Thanks =)