The PC Buying Advice Thread mk II

The case looks a bit small- Are you sure the modular PSU will fit? (EDIT: Non modular version is CX 600 - I have this too! :P )

Personally I would go with 2 x 1TB HDDs and RAID just in case one fails.

16GB is way too much if you only want to game. Most games hardly use more than 8GB.

The motherboard you picked (I have this mother board ) is the overclockable version of the H87N-WiFi, so I would recommend getting that if you don't want to overclock.

Again, the CPU is not overclockable, that would be the 4770k, and i7 isn't better for gaming than i5. (I have the 4670k - works brilliantly).

Make sure the CPU cooler will fit in the case you picked and won't be obstucted by your RAM.

Have you decided on an operating system?

Building your own computers is really rewarding, so have fun and good luck!

Thanks - apparently it is compatible: http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=2023053 - how could I check it myself though?

Plan on building this after my exam's.

What do you think?

I used part picker because it's the easiest to list all the parts

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3aM5H

Hey
I would like to build my own gaming desktop this June. I want to build a high end system in a small form factor. This'll be my first build and I've thought a lot about it so I hope I'm getting it right (so far ) I do not plan to overclock, just fyi. I'll list my parts and hope to get some advice on my choices.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI (Mini-ITX)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75
GPU: GTX 780 ((or should I go 780 Ti?? Also, what make? Gigabye, Asus, EVGA...))
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance a bit overkill, plus some 16gb patriot version on sale somewhere online
SSD: Samsung 120GB EVO 840 Series
HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
PSU: Corsair CX 600M

and the peripherals

Monitor: Asus VS24AH 24" 1920x1200
Keyboard: SteelSeries Apex
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei

I'm probably buying all this in Russia, and I'm getting a price of about 1320 pounds/2200 dollars.

Any advice? Anything stupid I did? Anything is appreciated. Thanks.

Hey
I would like to build my own gaming desktop this June. I want to build a high end system in a small form factor. This'll be my first build and I've thought a lot about it so I hope I'm getting it right (so far ) I do not plan to overclock, just fyi. I'll list my parts and hope to get some advice on my choices.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI (Mini-ITX)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770
CPU Cooler: Corsair H75
GPU: GTX 780 ((or should I go 780 Ti?? Also, what make? Gigabye, Asus, EVGA...))
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance
SSD: Samsung 120GB EVO 840 Series
HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
PSU: Corsair CX 600M

and the peripherals

Monitor: Asus VS24AH 24" 1920x1200
Keyboard: SteelSeries Apex
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei

I'm probably buying all this in Russia, and I'm getting a price of about 1320 pounds/2200 dollars.

Any advice? Anything stupid I did? Anything is appreciated. Thanks.

How does everyone utilise their hard drives when they buy new ones? I have a 256GB SSD for my OS so that's unimportant, I'll do nothing new with that. I also have a 2TB drive which is for storage and is mostly filled with videos. It's almost full, so soon I'll probably get a 3TB drive. The problem is I'm not quite sure how to go about filling it. I thought I'd switch straight over to using it as my main storage drive but I'm not sure whether to copy everything over, use the 2TB as backup and then over the following year fill up the rest of the 3TB drive at which point I'll have to wipe the 2TB drive and start using it as my secondary storage drive. OR whether to just move all my videos over with no backups, only access the 2TB drive when I need something off of it which would probably be used much less than the 3TB drive and then once the 3TB drive is full continue to fill the 2TB drive. The concept of a backup is nice in case of hard drive failure but I like to fully utilise the space I have and since I have a mITX case and I don't have much money having backup drives isn't really a luxury I can afford. Plus I can't remember the last time a hard drive failed on me and I lost something. Must be at least 4 hard drives ago, if at all. I still have them all.

It's a slightly miss placed pair of questions, but:
1) Does anybody know how much better running a 4x4GB ram kit in quad channel is compared to 2x8GB (or for those limited to dual channel a 2x4 kit vs 1 8gb)?

Posted from TSR Mobile

What do you guys think of this build?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3Qzqq

and 4 of these fans.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-014-BX&adword=google/pla/unoptimized&gclid=CNmihPSXx74CFebItAod324Atw

Firstly spec it's fine......however avoid pcpartpicker, its inconsistent, outdated, not always the best price, doesn't include p+p.....

Also consider a different cpu cooler... Which cpu cooler do you suggest?
Mobo is good, but don't overspend on features you won't use...asus suite software is good. the only reason i'm getting this mobo is due to the 4way optimisation feature
Get Low profile ram... Which do you suggest?
The power supply is overkill... Which power supply do you suggest ?

But do check out the parts individually on amazon, etc by yourself as you could get a better deal for example gtx770 http://www.dabs.com/products/best-value-palit-geforce-gtx-770-1085mhz-2gb-gddr5-pci-e-3-0-hdmi-oc-90PN.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=Q200&utm_campaign=Components%20and%20Storage%20-%20Graphics,%20TV%20Tuners%20and%20I/O%20-%20Graphics

is there any different between the above and the asus gtx 770 ?

And try to keep the number of suppliers to the minimum preferably one or two yeah true but that is hard to do .



For the fans, look at the Corsair fans AF or SF series what is the difference between the ones I have chosen?

Have a look at the CoolerMaster Hyper series, consider looking at reviews online, forgot the site, but there are some which highlight the temp difference on the same system.

Are the cooler master known to be better than the noctua fans? What do you think of this fan?

http://www.ebuyer.com/gateway.php?tag=86a3608375fd386ffd38c073a00ac634&affid=127079&affname=PCPartPicker&awc=2690_1401293353_e97336d82266006297ac52c2f7701aef
Well you could overclock manually. true, what other mobo do you suggest?

Corsair Venegance also come in a low profile version. are the low profile the ones without the heat sinks?

Considering everything, about 650watts or so and just pick a decent maker.
what do you think of this one http://www.ebuyer.com/472700-evga-supernova-nex650g-gold-650w-psu-120-pg-0650-gr

Possibly, but temperature/overclocking ability, easily can be googled.

I think i'll just stick with the asus as it is a known brand but i'll do more research comparing the two

It's not check amazon, scan or ebuyer....
yeah true

It's quite pricey for a single fan in my opinion..
yeah true i'll check the ones you suggested out

^^^^^^^

Well it depends honestly, the noctua fan you were looking at isn't the best on that price point, you can even pick up a low end water cooling unit or a hyper cooler 412s.

Just have a look around, but Asus are probably the best, but you could save some money and add that money to the gpu budget.

No, low profile means the heatsinks are a lot smaller in size, this is to prevent blocking the cooler from fitting in.

The PSU is fine, though again, anything bronze or higher certified is fine. Just need to make sure the connections it offers is good enough for use currently and in the future.

snip

Hi there, friendly computer people! I'm in need of some PC advice.

My current PC is getting a little old and dodgy on me, and so I'm on the hunt for a new one. I've been looking around but I can't seem to find a ready-made PC that caters to my gaming/working needs and I most certainly don't have the time (nor can I be bothered, frankly) to buy my own parts in and build it myself.

Recently, I came across pcspecialist.co.uk and was wondering if anyone has had any experience buying from them before, and if so, would they recommend their service?

Now, as well as an opinion on PCspecialt's reputation, I'm after advice on the build I've gone for. I'm a fairly active gamer when I'm not busy with school work (which won't be an issue after the 22nd ) so I was looking for a nice gaming build but also something that will be good for when I start university later this year.

Here's the build: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/paaCmBL3Bj/

I'd be grateful with any sort of advice, really.. Whether or not I'm needlessly spending money or whether I'm being ripped of and that I'd be better somewhere else, y'know that sort of think.

Thanks guys

EDIT: I guess it's worth mentioning that the price comes to £736.67 ex VAT and £884.00 inc VAT. I think it says the price somewhere but I just thought I'd stick it in anyway

You definitely need to change your RAM, you have 2GB there and I somehow doubt that's going to be enough.
It could be beneficial to get the 4GB 770 instead of 2GB if within your budget
You might want to consider an after market CPU cooler instead of the intel stock cooler
do you actually need the card reader? If not, that can go. The same could be said of the optical drive, but I personally like to have one anyway (always nice to pick up a new game cheap of amazon compared to steam and would rather not wait all day for the download)
Unless getting a matx case it might be better to look at the z97-A mobo instead in case you want to SLI at a later date
Given how cheap HDDs are I would go for a higher capacity, and given SSDs are cheaper now maybe get a SSD for your boot drive
And have you checked that the PSU is sufficient and gives a bit of headroom?

And you will almost certainly get a better deal putting the time in yourself to buy the parts and build it.