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Building a first game pc

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M

mafran

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Dec 21, 2014
Hi, as a newbie, me and my son deciced to built our own game pc.
First thing we tried, is to go via the site pc-builder.(it's a canadian site so i presume prices are in canandian dollars)

But this is way over my budget. So I'm convinced it can be done cheaper.
So that's why I need information from the experts in the field - and that you guys.
Main goal of the build: playing games League of Legends, Field 4, etc...
Further more he should be ok to do the normal house tasks, internet , homework & etc..
This is the build the site gave me:
1 x Intel Haswell i7-4790 LGA1150 3.6GHz Processor BX80646I74790 342
1 x Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK2 LGA1150 DDR3 Motherboard ATX 197
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 113
1 x Samsung 850 PRO 256GB SATA 6.0 SSD MZ-7KE128BW 200
1 x Sapphire Radeon TRI-X R9 290X 4GB GDDR5 OC UEFI Video Card 11226-00-40G 429
1 x Asus XONAR DSX 7.1Channel Gaming Sound Card 73
1 x Asus 16X Blu-Ray CD-DVD SATA Optical Drive BW-16D1HT 116
1 x Corsair Hydro Series H60 Intel/AMD High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler CW-9060007-WW 77
1 x EVGA SuperNOVA 850 B2 850W Modular Power Supply 110-B2-0850-V1 112
1 x Fractal Design DEFINE R4 TITANIUM GREY Case FD-CA-DEF-R4-TI 124
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 PRO 64-bit English 1PK DVD OEM FQC-06950 165
1 x Asus 27" Speakers LED LCD Monitor VN279QL 344
1 x Asus Dual-Band Wireless-N600 PCI-E Adapter PCE-N53 45
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0 ST2000DM001 HDD 99
Total Price : 2436

Thx for the input.
Rgds
Marc
 
Hey Marc,
First of all, what's your budget? Are you nearby stores like Microcenter? So, off to the basics, I'd rather go for the i5-4690k / ASrock Extreme4 combo. It's cheaper and it will do the job just fine. You won't need such big PSU, a quality 550W should be plenty for your hardware having headroom for OC. You can also limit down the budget by removing that H60 and swapping in a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO. It competes most of the AiO coolers out there and it's really cheap! I would also swap that GPU for a GTX 970, which is considerably faster than the 290x for the same money! Would just drop off that sound card and save some money from there as well and replace the Barracuda for a WD Caviar Black same size but for few bucks less.I can provide a link from pcpartpicker if you'd like.

Hope it helps.
Regards
 
Hi marc, couple things for ya

1) As mentioned, gaming purposes, the i7 is a tad overkill, as is the sabertooth motherboard. If you "Really" want it though, thats not a bad setup, just unnecessary. Windows 8.1 and 8.1 pro are the same minus a few networking things. If you REALLY need that stuff fine, but most users wont ever use it, and its a waste of money (unless you found a particularly good deal or own it already)

2) you should be able to get better performance ram for 5-10$ more.

3) drop the sound card, totally not needed. Onboard sound is pretty good now

4) the h60 is pretty terrible for performance oriented computers. You are significantly better off getting a nice air cooler like an nh-d14, nh-d15, or even a meager hyper 212 evo.

5) The monitor... 27" 1080p? I don't know if thats super on sale where you are, but here its around 300$ for that monitor, and its just not worth the money. Step down to a solid 24" 1080p, or step it up to a 1440p 27" monitor for roughly the same cost as your 1080p.

6) r9 290x is a bad purchase right now, the gtx 970 slaughters it for the same cost. Unless AMD has some wicked sales on the 290x, take a pass on it.

7) although that supernova is a great power supply, 850w is absolutely bonkers overkill. With an i7 and r9 290x you would "need" around 500w, with an i5 and 970 you "need" under 400w (closer to 300 if my math isn't horrible). Add in 20% margin, then another 20% for overclock room, you would need a 700w TOPS for the i7/290x and 560w tops for the i5/970 setup. The good news, under 700w cheapens things by quite a margin, and you can still get some great power supplies (I personally love the seasonic m12ii 620w)



8)

Here's a more "gamer-centric" build vice the multi threaded i7 power house.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rKdHbv



With the money you aren't spending on the i7, you can get a fancy pants monitor and some cooler peripherals (mech keyboard, proper gaming mouse, headsets, etc etc).
 
Yup, with either CPU (i5 or i7) + GTX 970 you need approximately 340W on full load (non OC'ed) and let's say 550 for some decent OC'ing. With the 290x you need 490W on full load @stock clocks!!!!!! that's 150W + more heat for inferior performance.
 
bob4933 said:
Hi marc, couple things for ya

1) As mentioned, gaming purposes, the i7 is a tad overkill, as is the sabertooth motherboard. If you "Really" want it though, thats not a bad setup, just unnecessary. Windows 8.1 and 8.1 pro are the same minus a few networking things. If you REALLY need that stuff fine, but most users wont ever use it, and its a waste of money (unless you found a particularly good deal or own it already)

2) you should be able to get better performance ram for 5-10$ more.

3) drop the sound card, totally not needed. Onboard sound is pretty good now

4) the h60 is pretty terrible for performance oriented computers. You are significantly better off getting a nice air cooler like an nh-d14, nh-d15, or even a meager hyper 212 evo.

5) The monitor... 27" 1080p? I don't know if thats super on sale where you are, but here its around 300$ for that monitor, and its just not worth the money. Step down to a solid 24" 1080p, or step it up to a 1440p 27" monitor for roughly the same cost as your 1080p.

6) r9 290x is a bad purchase right now, the gtx 970 slaughters it for the same cost. Unless AMD has some wicked sales on the 290x, take a pass on it.

7) although that supernova is a great power supply, 850w is absolutely bonkers overkill. With an i7 and r9 290x you would "need" around 500w, with an i5 and 970 you "need" under 400w (closer to 300 if my math isn't horrible). Add in 20% margin, then another 20% for overclock room, you would need a 700w TOPS for the i7/290x and 560w tops for the i5/970 setup. The good news, under 700w cheapens things by quite a margin, and you can still get some great power supplies (I personally love the seasonic m12ii 620w)



8)

Here's a more "gamer-centric" build vice the multi threaded i7 power house.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rKdHbv



With the money you aren't spending on the i7, you can get a fancy pants monitor and some cooler peripherals (mech keyboard, proper gaming mouse, headsets, etc etc).
Click to expand...
 
Bob,
thx for the info. I seem to find all the parts at my end.
Except for the memory Patriot Viper. Apparently I can only access those via ebay or amazon, and then the mailing cost gets too high.
Can you give me an alternative of Corsair of Kingston or ...
Thx for your info.
Rgds,
Marc
 
mafran said:
Bob,
thx for the info. I seem to find all the parts at my end.
Except for the memory Patriot Viper. Apparently I can only access those via ebay or amazon, and then the mailing cost gets too high.
Can you give me an alternative of Corsair of Kingston or ...
Thx for your info.
Rgds,
Marc
Click to expand...

Check on G.Skill Ripjaws X 2x4gb 1600 MHz
 
mafran said:
Bob,
thx for the info. I seem to find all the parts at my end.
Except for the memory Patriot Viper. Apparently I can only access those via ebay or amazon, and then the mailing cost gets too high.
Can you give me an alternative of Corsair of Kingston or ...
Thx for your info.
Rgds,
Marc
Click to expand...

That ram was simply a place holder. Anything will be ok. You should be able to get 2133 mhz ram for similar cost to 1600mhz. Mind cas latency though, ask if you have questions :)
 
Itachiii,
the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO is indeed quiet cheap. So cheap I start to wonder about his performance ? But since Bob also mentions him, it will be all right.
On the otherhand the WD Caviar black 2 TB is more expensive than the Barracuda.
Is 2TB really necessary for a game pc ? Or will less memory do ? 1TB, 750 GB, ..What do you think ?
My budget is around 1000 US (Monitor included)
I dont have acces to Newegg or microcenter - I can order via the internet but the tranpsortcost + duties are always high.
Thx for your reply, appreciated it.
Marc
 
Itachiii,
the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO is indeed quiet cheap. So cheap I start to wonder about his performance ? But since Bob also mentions him, it will be all right.
On the otherhand the WD Caviar black 2 TB is more expensive than the Barracuda.
Is 2TB really necessary for a game pc ? Or will less memory do ? 1TB, 750 GB, ..What do you think ?
My budget is around 1000 US (Monitor included)
I dont have acces to Newegg or microcenter - I can order via the internet but the tranpsortcost + duties are always high.
Thx for your reply, appreciated it.
Marc
 
I'm living in Belgium.
In comuterterms this would be like middle earth..Haha.
You can buy Dell PC or Apple.
If you want to built your own pc, you have to surf and surf and surf...
And in the end you end up with a Dell or Apple, becos when you start counting all costs , transport and duties...it's always more expensive.
But I promised my son we will give it a try
 
The one I found is cheaper than the Barracuda. Well, the storage drive it depends on the volume you're gonna be..storing. If you download a lot of movies and programms etc, you might need that much space. Since your budget is 1000US for everything then we might wanna revise some things and go for an AMD build?
 
Please do. Since in fact - I want to built two pc's.
And I was thinking about 1000 US max for each one.
But let me focus first on the game Pc.
Is an AMD build better ? I presume cheaper ?
Probably they are pro & cons for each manufacturer ?
 
mafran said:
Please do. Since in fact - I want to built two pc's.
And I was thinking about 1000 US max for each one.
But let me focus first on the game Pc.
Is an AMD build better ? I presume cheaper ?
Probably they are pro & cons for each manufacturer ?
Click to expand...

Well, AMD is a lot cheaper to build than Intel and often has a really good perfomance-to-price ratio, but Intel performs a lot better to games. Not that AMD doesn't perform well but Intel does better overall. AMD cpus are also more.. "hungry" and operate in bigger temps than those of an Intel, especially when OC'ed so a good cooler is a must.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xQWtHx
 
Itachiii said:
Well, AMD is a lot cheaper to build than Intel and often has a really good perfomance-to-price ratio, but Intel performs a lot better to games. Not that AMD doesn't perform well but Intel does better overall. AMD cpus are also more.. "hungry" and operate in bigger temps than those of an Intel, especially when OC'ed so a good cooler is a must.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xQWtHx
Click to expand...

Not quite cochise. A proper amd rig to compete with an i5 is going to run the same cost, with less gaming performance.

There's a few instances where an 8 core fx outshines an i5, but gaming isn't one of them.
 
Mafran- welcome to the forum. Please do not make 2 or 3 posts in a row. We frown upon that. Just edit your original post.

Are you near a Canada Computers or NCIX store? What city are you in?
Ordering from Newegg.ca or ncix.com or canadacomputers.com may not be a bad option. The shipping charges aren't that bad believe it or not. What you're after can definitely be done for about $1200 CDN monitor included.

Do you also need speakers, mouse, keyboard, and a copy of Windows? What about an Xbox 360 controller? Joystick?
 
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