Advice on building a gaming pc

jac29

Hi Guys,

The turn of son number three to get a pc for Xmas this year and here I am again asking for a little advice having had such fantastic help in previous years . He wants a gaming pc and they are phenomenally expensive, so the only affordable way is for middle son to build one for him (and for it to be for his Christmas Birthday as well as for him to contribute some of his savings).

Could those of you with knowledge just cast an eye over these components and share any advice? We are looking to buy from 'scan' as son no 2 has used them before and found them to be good. The total cost is £775 inc ins and delivery.

What do you think? I can't afford to get it wrong and it is going to have to last 'forever' so I want to do the best I can.

List Of Components:


8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro Series Silver, PC3-17066 (2133), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 11-11-11-27, XMP, 1.5V

Intel Core i7 4790, 1150, Haswell Refresh, Quad Core, 3.6GHz, 4GHz Turbo, 5 GT/s DMI, 1200MHz GPU, 84W, Retail

4GB EVGA GTX 770 Dual Classified Refurbished, PCIe 3.0, 7010MHz, GPU 1150MHz, Boost 1202MHz, Cores 1536, DP/DVI/HDMI

Asus B85M-E, Intel B85, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III, PCIe 3.0 (x16) D-Sub/DPort/DVI-D/HDMI, MATX

750W Corsair CXM Builder series, Hybrid Modular, 80 PLUS Bronze, 1x120mm, ATX, PSU

IN Win BW135 Black Mid Tower Performance Case with 120mm Rear Fan w/o PSU

1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache 8ms NCQ OEM

Thanks a million

gonzo127

i7 is massive overkill for a gaming computer (on a budget), get the i5 4690k saving £50, get a aftermarket cooler like the arctic cooler freezer 11i for £20 and overclock the CPU - then throw the remaining £30 at a better GPU (gtx 970 in scan for £250ish) or better case (for better cooling/easier build)

bluesnake

look at the requirements of the games and build around those specs, rather than sticking the most expensive items in one box.

RobTang

bluesnake wrote: »

look at the requirements of the games and build around those specs, rather than sticking the most expensive items in one box.

meh they are pretty much the same these days...
eg Assassins creed unity, recommended spec: i7-3770 & GTX780

Cisco001

Get i5 4690K + Z97 motherboard.
You won't need 750W for single video card. CXM600 will do.
My usual pick of CPU cooler is Cooler Master 212 evo
I personally dislike Inwin BW315. The cable management doesn't seems good.
R9 290 is at similar price as GTX770. R9 290 is faster.

Strider590

Get yourself a motherboard/CPU/memory bundle. They will have been tested, maybe overclocked and sold as a known good working combination of parts.

Overclockers is a good place to look.

I would NEVER go down the road of starting from scratch and mix/matching those parts myself, i've had no end of compatibility issues in the past...........

For example back in around 2001 I had an Asus mobo that "supported" 2.0Ghz Athlon CPU's, but it turned out it would work and run with that CPU, but the mobo wouldn't allow it to run at full speed, only about 1.2Ghz instead. Contacting Asus I was told it would work at 2.0Ghz if I modified the motherboard (soldering resistors to it between the CPU pins), which would in turn void any warranty.

Tested bundles are defo the way to go.

Cisco001

Strider590 wrote: »

Get yourself a motherboard/CPU/memory bundle. They will have been tested, maybe overclocked and sold as a known good working combination of parts.

Overclockers is a good place to look.

I would NEVER go down the road of starting from scratch and mix/matching those parts myself, i've had no end of compatibility issues in the past...........

For example back in around 2001 I had an Asus mobo that "supported" 2.0Ghz Athlon CPU's, but it turned out it would work and run with that CPU, but the mobo wouldn't allow it to run at full speed, only about 1.2Ghz instead. Contacting Asus I was told it would work at 2.0Ghz if I modified the motherboard (soldering resistors to it between the CPU pins), which would in turn void any warranty.

Tested bundles are defo the way to go.

overclockers a bit overprice. I personally don't see the need for buying tested bundle.
If you try to find the cheapest price for a component. check out uk.pcpartpicker.com
if you pick component from pcpartpicker, it would tell you the potential capability problem.
And obviously, post here and ask before purchase.

maas

Cisco001 wrote: »

overclockers a bit overprice. I personally don't see the need for buying tested bundle.
If you try to find the cheapest price for a component. check out uk.pcpartpicker.com
if you pick component from pcpartpicker, it would tell you the potential capability problem.
And obviously, post here and ask before purchase.

Overclockers has a nice website and forum but I often find them at least 10% more expensive on almost every item to the likes of Scan.

I even asked if they'd price match on 1 item in the order (an SSD) which was £50 more than Scan and they said no, woudlnt even knock a few quid off it. So I just bought the whole lot from Scan.

Strider590

Cisco001 wrote: »

overclockers a bit overprice. I personally don't see the need for buying tested bundle.
If you try to find the cheapest price for a component. check out uk.pcpartpicker.com
if you pick component from pcpartpicker, it would tell you the potential capability problem.
And obviously, post here and ask before purchase.

I'm not going to pretend they are the cheapest, but a bundle is the way to go. When you look at how a PC works and all the different component manufacturers out there, it's a miracle they work at all. So why increase that risk buy putting together something that's never been tried/tested?
Even if something works on paper, when you connect it up to something else, you never really know what's going to happen.

I work in an industry where these principles are taken to the extremes, can't even replace a resistor if it hasn't been mil spec qualified, the risks you create by just banging together some parts that "should work according to the datasheet", are just astronomical.

I'm well versed in the art of bodging stuff together, I have countless projects on the go at any one time, but that's a hobby. When i'm looking at £800-£1500 for a new PC tower, I make sure I take away as much risk as possible.

Lokolo

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm not going to pretend they are the cheapest, but a bundle is the way to go. When you look at how a PC works and all the different component manufacturers out there, it's a miracle they work at all. So why increase that risk buy putting together something that's never been tried/tested?
Even if something works on paper, when you connect it up to something else, you never really know what's going to happen.

It's unbeliavably easy to pick the parts yourself and put them together.

Most manufacturers even have a "compatible components" list!

Strider590

Lokolo wrote: »

It's unbeliavably easy to pick the parts yourself and put them together.

Most manufacturers even have a "compatible components" list!

I know, i've done it several times and that's why i'd go with a bundle.

Manufacturers want to sell their products, the criteria for the compatibility list could vary from "will it run well?" to "will it explode?". Unless your willing to trawl through support forums to look for possible issues, then (IMHO) it's not worth risking.