Suggestions on building a gaming PC

[trents]

With only one video card a quality name brand PSU of 550W is more than enough. Your existing PSU should fit that bill. Having said that, if it has been in heavy use (5+ years) you probably should look at replacing it soon. With the components you have chosen the total power draw of the system will be no more than about 325 watts max under load, even if your CPU was overclocked.

Your case comes with only one fan in the rear. There is mounting space for 2x120mm fans in the front. I would certain pick up a couple of fans for the front to ensure good air flow through the case from front to back. This will make the system run cooler.

 

[Suppressor1137]

One simple explanation, I get money next week lol. Only reason tbh I see other people having PSU's with 700W etc, are u guys sure a 550W PSU is enough?

put it this way. i can run my current rig with 2 rx480s on a 550 watt psu, with a little room to overclock everything. each rx480 uses 164 watts with extensive overclocking. it would be around 520 watts, which is above where you want to run a 550 for long term operation, but it will handle it just fine. a single rx480 is a walk in the park for a 550. funny thing about technology. things get more efficient as they get faster.

as for the cpu cooler, go cryorig h7 for sure. Id even say h5a universal if it fits in the case. bit more expensive, but it trades punches with the highest end air coolers.

ofc, if you don't plan to overclock very hard, the cryorig h7 will do the job well.

 

[trents]

Musky, don't go OCD over this. Relax. We would not give you a bum steer.

 

[Suppressor1137]

As for why I have a 850 watt psu:

I planned to sli my old gtx 770, which can use up to 246 watts per card(total of 492 watts for video cards alone). I really only needed a 750 watt psu to do this, but the 850 was on sale and had a 9.8 (would be 10 if value was a 10, but i got it on sale, which made it a 10/10 basically) rating on Johnny Guru.

As mentioned, the RX480 AT PEAK usage only pushes 164 watts after overclocking/overvolting it, which is 328 watts for peak power draw in Crossfire.

Ironically, two 770's draw as much power as three rx480s.

 

[Musky]

Okay, so I've decided not to go for the i5 7600-k but for a i5 7500. (Which should be fine as suggested at first). This would be my final choice of hardware, if you guys can decide if the motherboard is not blocking off space for the GPU. I really can't tell. The other GPU I selected at first got sold out here so had to choose a different one. Can u guys tell if these final choices are okey? I will build the PC next week then. Thanks in advance. Tim

Motherboard: https://www.alternate.nl/MSI/B250M-PRO-VD-socket-1151-moederbord/html/product/1312269?lk=17219
CPU: https://www.alternate.nl/Intel(R)/C...1-processor/html/product/1305337?event=search
RAM: https://www.alternate.nl/Corsair/8-GB-DDR4-2400-Kit-Werkgeheugen/html/product/1180452?event=search
GPU: https://www.alternate.nl/ASUS/ROG-S...Grafische-kaart/html/product/1301242?lk=20614
Case: https://www.alternate.nl/Cooler-Master/Force-500-Behuizing/html/product/1051490?event=search
SSD: https://www.alternate.nl/Samsung/850-EVO-500-GB-SSD/html/product/1163758?event=search

 

[trents]

Tim, why did you downgrade the CPU and the motherboard? Was this a budgetary issue?

Not sure what your concern is about "the motherboard not blocking off space for the GPU." Could you explain that? With only one video card that should not be an issue with any motherboard. It can be a problem with smaller cases that the video card can be too long to fit in the case but I checked your case and GPU specs and you are okay there.

But yes, the components you have chosen should play together just fine.

 

[Musky]

Hi trents,
The issue is indeed my budget. Because first we chose the 7600k, but because of that, I had to buy a more expensive motherboard and a cooler (Which ended up being alot more). And because you suggested this 7500 at first I thought why not go for that since I am saving money with this. And with that money I can buy a SSD + a new monitor. We've discussed about the fact that some parts on the motherboard could stick out and could block the space that is needed for the GPU to actually fit in. That was my concern. Good to hear that these components I chose as of right now work together. I'd like to hear your opinion on this aswell tho!!
Tim

 

[trents]

There seems to be nothing in the way of the video card path. Given the budget constraints you have, you have made good choices. These components you have chosen will give you a dramatic performance increase over your present system. My only recommendation is to get a fan for the front of the case to push air into the interior. This will help with ventilation and keeping components cool.

 

[Suppressor1137]

yup. looks good to me. we'll be here for any questions involving the actual build you may have. once you are set, you should try to sell the old machine to recoup some of the cost, even if it's only 100 euros. gives you some game money to play with lol

 

[Musky]

Hey everyone,

I just got home and got all the parts now. I was wondering on what surface I should build it on. On a desk? My floor is carpet-ish and thats not a smart idea lol. I also have no idea on how to clean my HDD so I can reuse it. I already got windows 10 on a usb. Im not too sure if I can even manage to build it tonight (busy :S), otherwise it would be thursday, because I have a day off on thursday

Tim

 

[demien88]

Do not put it on carpet its bad idea especially if bottom of the case have PSU air flow and case is almost completely on the ground, get it on the table but be sure it cant just fall of it.
Clean? Simple format would do it

 

[Musky]

Aye guys, sorry for not closing yet, but I've already built my PC now and everything is up and running. Thanks everyone!

 

[trents]

Take the Windows USB stick, put it in a USB port and tell the computer to boot from the USB stick. That will start the Windows installation. It will give you a choice of whether to keep retain already installed programs or to do a clean install ("Custom"). If you choose Custom then I would also delete the existing partitions. Windows wiIll automatically rebuild new partitions if your delete the old ones. When the installation is complete, go into settings and manually install all current Microsoft updates and get that out of the way. Check in Control Panel/System to make sure Windows is activated. It may not be if you used this same copy of Windows on the previous machine or if you recently created the install media from The Microsoft Media Creation Tool website and you don't have an unused product key. If the activation is an issue you can try calling the 1-800 Microsoft activation phone number. Easiest thing would be to pick up an OEM product key from this website: https://www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/

If the PSU is bottom mounted it will draw it's air for cooling from the underside of the computer and you would not want to smother it by placing it on a carpeted floor. But you could put some kind of hard platform on the carpet for the computer to sit on in order to avoid that issue. I have used melamine coated particle board for this.