The PC Building Thread

Graphics card is definitely worth overclocking (which you have done). It will make the most difference when gaming. The CPU - not so much, but it depends on the game. Some titles are more CPU dependent than others.

My last GPU was a 7950 and I know they are good overclockers, so take it as high as you can.

An i5 4670k is going to be pretty quick at stock speeds so you probably don't need to overclock it, but some extra free performance is always worth going after. Read up about offset overclocking as that's the best way to do it.

Don't worry about PES2014. It's a pile of shit out of the box. Even if you play the game at 60fps, replays look like they are running at 20-30fps. It's just how the game runs. Badly optimised for the PC with stutters and hitching.

NBA 2K - I had issues with this game when I had AMD cards. It was a stuttery mess. Try playing it through Windows Borderless Gaming (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2675769) - smooth as silk for me. You could try other games like PES through this as well.
 
There are plenty of overclocking guides around, but you need a decent cooler.

I have mine water cooled with the Corsair H110 and I get my i7 4770k to 4.5GHZ with the temp reaching 60c when under full load, but with a stock cooler you will be lucky to get 4Ghz.

Overclocking is all about raising the VCore until the CPU becomes unstable and you blue screen, mine is set at 1.25V at 4.5GHz.
You have to also read into CPU threshold which for a Haswell is anything above 70c is considered dangerous and you shouldn't go above a Vcore of 1.3 on Haswell either.

I would only personally try doing overclocking if you have a spare HD, as you don't want to corrupt your Windows load on your proper HD as the amount you blue screen when testing for a stable overclock.
 
bsmaff said:
Depending on how much stuff you have plugged in 460w is the minimum required to power an i5 and crossfire 7950's.
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I've got an i7 4770k, 8gig 1600mhz Ram, 500gig 7200rpm HDD, a 128gig SSD... I don't think I'll be able to power it off my 550w haha.

750w will be the way to go, just undecided still.
 
wabak said:
I've got an i7 4770k, 8gig 1600mhz Ram, 500gig 7200rpm HDD, a 128gig SSD... I don't think I'll be able to power it off my 550w haha.

750w will be the way to go, just undecided still.
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You will be surprised how little power you actually do need, most people who say you need a 750W to power all that just assume you do - when the actual reality is all down to the amount of AMPS on each rail.

For your machine you only need a 450PSU to run your machine, but you won't get a 450W with the correct AMPS, but if your lucky your 550W might well have but you will have to have a look on the side of the PSU and count the number of AMPS along the 12V rail, you will prob have 12/12v+1/12v+2 so just add the numbers together and as long as you have 45+ your power supply will be completely fine and you won't need to change it at all.
 
bsmaff said:
You will be surprised how little power you actually do need, most people who say you need a 750W to power all that just assume you do - when the actual reality is all down to the amount of AMPS on each rail.

For your machine you only need a 450PSU to run your machine, but you won't get a 450W with the correct AMPS, but if your lucky your 550W might well have but you will have to have a look on the side of the PSU and count the number of AMPS along the 12V rail, you will prob have 12/12v+1/12v+2 so just add the numbers together and as long as you have 45+ your power supply will be completely fine and you won't need to change it at all.
Click to expand...

I've got a XFX PRO550W P1-550S-XXB9 PSU, any idea if that'd do? I'll check sometime tomorrow but just wondering if you know off hand haha
 
Jamezinho said:
Graphics card is definitely worth overclocking (which you have done). It will make the most difference when gaming. The CPU - not so much, but it depends on the game. Some titles are more CPU dependent than others.

My last GPU was a 7950 and I know they are good overclockers, so take it as high as you can.

An i5 4670k is going to be pretty quick at stock speeds so you probably don't need to overclock it, but some extra free performance is always worth going after. Read up about offset overclocking as that's the best way to do it.

Don't worry about PES2014. It's a pile of shit out of the box. Even if you play the game at 60fps, replays look like they are running at 20-30fps. It's just how the game runs. Badly optimised for the PC with stutters and hitching.

NBA 2K - I had issues with this game when I had AMD cards. It was a stuttery mess. Try playing it through Windows Borderless Gaming (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2675769) - smooth as silk for me. You could try other games like PES through this as well.
Click to expand...


Really helpful post Jamezinho, cheers ! :-) I just tried play the games through Windows Bordeless Gaming and the effect I got is awesome. NBA, FIFA or even Grid 2 runs smoothly as vaseline.

Do you know if by runing any game via that software (when the game us run in windowed mode) - the graphic of the game (even if it is max out) is still the same as in full window mode or it's a bit poorer?
 
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Should be the same but I don't know for sure, sorry.

Pleased to hear that Windows Borderless Gaming works for you. I've only tried it with NBA2k but it worked well for me.
 
Not sure where to ask this question, so I figured I'd ask it here since it's pretty active. I'm not a real hardcore gamer so I usually dont spend too much money. I picked up HD 7870 for a very cheap price. I have core i3 550 @ 3.2. Thing is im not noticing a very big difference graphic wise from my previous card which was a HD 6770. Upgrade the processor maybe? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Arsenal4Life said:
Not sure where to ask this question, so I figured I'd ask it here since it's pretty active. I'm not a real hardcore gamer so I usually dont spend too much money. I picked up HD 7870 for a very cheap price. I have core i3 550 @ 3.2. Thing is im not noticing a very big difference graphic wise from my previous card which was a HD 6770. Upgrade the processor maybe? Any help would be appreciated.
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By graphic wise, do you mean increase boost of frame per second ?

Since for example in BF4, at the same high setting, both will display the same graphic detail only differ in frame per second.
 
Thespeedster84 said:
By graphic wise, do you mean increase boost of frame per second ?

Since for example in BF4, at the same high setting, both will display the same graphic detail only differ in frame per second.
Click to expand...

I feel like a complete noob here, since I usually just put in the hardware and play.

Let me get this straight, card A is not going to put out better looking graphics than card B. It will only allow for better performance and higher graphic settings in game?
 
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If you only want a PC that plays films, don't buy a PC (unless you also need the means to "acquire" the films?)

A HD Android Smart TV Dongle + external USB hard drive is the simplest, cheapest way to watch stuff on your TV.
 
Arsenal4Life said:
I feel like a complete noob here, since I usually just put in the hardware and play.

Let me get this straight, card A is not going to put out better looking graphics than card B. It will only allow for better performance and higher graphic settings in game?
Click to expand...

If you have selected the same settings, say MEDIUM for both cards the graphics will be identical even the FPS will be identical if you have V-Sync turned on.

All you need to do is play with the actual graphics settings till you get a stable 60FPS when playing games, you will notice you will be able to select higher settings with your new card, just don't expect to be able to play the top games in Ultra.
 
Placebo said:
If you only want a PC that plays films, don't buy a PC (unless you also need the means to "acquire" the films?)

A HD Android Smart TV Dongle + external USB hard drive is the simplest, cheapest way to watch stuff on your TV.
Click to expand...

As you stated if he needs a means to get the films then PC all the way
 
I'm now planning on running a PC setup through my 50" plasma in the living room.

Could someone post up the best spec option for around £800, give or take?

I'm ideally looking towards photo editing, Autodesk Inventor work and gaming (namely Battlefield 4 etc. on high settings).

Thank you!
 
Scutch said:
I'm now planning on running a PC setup through my 50" plasma in the living room.

Could someone post up the best spec option for around £800, give or take?

I'm ideally looking towards photo editing, Autodesk Inventor work and gaming (namely Battlefield 4 etc. on high settings).

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Will do something for you.
Do you have a preference towards AMD, Nvidia or Intel?

You won't regret it - even next gen machines are only equivalent of PC running medium settings.
 
I'm planning to build a PC in Jan/Feb too, that £800 build for Scutch would probably be fine for me too although I'm going to do a lot of research on it before shelling out just to make sure that I get the right stuff and ensure I'm future-proofed for a good few years.

I have about £1000 to play with but will need a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc too as this will be my first desktop PC in ages, will be awesome! :)

I'm fairly comfortable with building PCs as I've done it plenty of times at uni and in a workplace but I'm out of the loop when it comes to where to buy the components, which manufacturers to go for, which models are the best value for money etc.
 
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bsmaff said:
Will do something for you.
Do you have a preference towards AMD, Nvidia or Intel?

You won't regret it - even next gen machines are only equivalent of PC running medium settings.
Click to expand...

Whatever's best mate. AMD is fine or the Intel.

Just a good graphics card, SSD etc like the one in first post. I thought the Intel would be the costlier of the options so whatever is can get top of the range for that price including case etc.

Thanks buddy.
 
Scutch said:
Whatever's best mate. AMD is fine or the Intel.

Just a good graphics card, SSD etc like the one in first post. I thought the Intel would be the costlier of the options so whatever is can get top of the range for that price including case etc.

Thanks buddy.
Click to expand...

Will do your quote at the weekend, will be back home Saturday night so will have a look Sunday at what are the best components to get at present.
 
The below machine is a top spec machine with the best components available at this moment.

There are certain parts you can change to cut the cost down to £800.
Obviously being a gaming machine I wouldn't swap the GFX card or the CPU, but every other component can be changed for cheaper alternatives, the case could be £30, the motherboard could be downgraded to one that is £80 and so on.

If you want any suggestions on alternatives just ask.

 
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Thanks to both of you for the advice :).

I've been having a quick read of the OverClockers UK forums as well as a few other places and I'm getting more of an idea of what I'm looking for now.

When I had a PC years ago, I was Intel/Nvidia all the way, and probably would do the same now if I had an unlimited budget, but it does seem that the AMD GPUs are a fair bit better in terms of price/performance. PhysX seems really cool though, would be nice to have for sure... An i5 is my current preference for the CPU though.

I don't want to rush into spending so much money and then regretting any of the choices, but by the same token I don't want to wait for a new series of releases/price drops because if you do that with computing, you end up never buying anything.

It's difficult to put something together and adhere to a budget because there's always something for £15-20 more that offers slightly better performance :P.
 
Monitor
BENQ GW2255 - Full HD LED monitor - 21.5"
£82.99
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/20-23-inches/benq-gw2255-full-hd-led-monitor-21-5/21412300-a.html

Case
BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black
£32.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-BXk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-BX

Case fan
Arctic F12 PWM 4 Pin 120mm High Performance Case Fan
£6.04
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-F12-PWM-120mm-Performance/dp/B002QVLBM2/

CPU
Intel Core i5 4670K 3.40GHz Socket 1150 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£175
http://www.ebuyer.com/467647-cpu-core-i5-4670k-3-40ghz-lga1150-box-bx80646i54670k

GPU
Gigabyte R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card Includes Battelfield 4 Download
£251.16
http://www.ebuyer.com/610672-gigaby...i-e-graphics-card-includes-gv-r928xoc-3gd-ga?

Motherboard
Gigabyte H81M-D2V S1150 Intel H81 DDR3 MATX
£41.92
http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-h81m-d2v-s1150-intel-h81-ddr3-matx-8ZC8.html

PSU
BeQuiet Power Zone 650W 80 Plus Bronze Fully Modular
£75.50
http://www.ebuyer.com/546364-bequiet-power-zone-650w-80-plus-bronze-bn210

RAM
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit
£69.95
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-030-TG

Hard Drive
WD 1TB Blue SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM 64MB 3.5" Hard Drive
£43.99
http://www.dabs.com/products/wd-1tb-blue-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-3-5--hard-drive-8757.html

SSD
120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s
£74.39
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...6Gb/s++Solid+State+Drive+SSD+?productId=56764

DVD Drive
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£17.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-099-LG

Total - £871.92

Shopped around and researched a bit and came up with this first draft... Sorry for the ugly format of the above, but does this build look okay? Do I need anything else for CPU cooling? Is that motherboard okay or should I spend a little more?

Any suggestions/tips welcome!

Thanks for the help guys :).
 
It's possibly worth considering the Nvidia GTX 770 over the AMD Radeon R9 280, although it is a very close run thing. Just checked a couple of comparisons and the 770 seems to shade it:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/amd-radeon-r9-280x-vs-nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-which-is-fastest

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-280X-vs-GeForce-GTX-770

Both cards are almost identically priced so it's a straight comparison. I've owned cards from both companies recently and I think Nvidia's drivers are a bit more user-friendly and feature-packed.

In the end you won't go wrong with either card. The 280X will perform slightly better in some games and the 770 will do better in others.

The case should be pretty decent. I've got the Bitfenix Shinobi and I'm pleased with it.

The motherboard is MATX which is fine, but you have space for a full ATX board in that case. You don't need to spend a fortune on a mobo though, particularly if you're not a serious overclocker or won't be running dual GPUs.

You may want to consider an aftermarket cooler for the CPU. The stock one will be fine if you don't want to overclock, but an aftermarket cooler will run quieter, cooler and provide overclocking headroom.

You could save a few quid on the DVD drive. Ebuyer have LiteOn or Samsung drives for around £11 or £12. You could even skip the DVD drive completely as they aren't all that necessary these days. Perhaps just get an external one and plug it in when you need it?
 
Yeah I have looked at the GTX 770 as it was in bsmaff's post - I'm still undecided really...

The price of the two is much the same, but I dislike the free games that you get with the GTX 770 (AC:Black Flag, SC Blacklist and Batman:AO) and probably wouldn't play them a great deal whereas with the 280 you get Battlefield 4 which would be £25 and I would definitely want to play... That widens the price difference.

Does the 1GB difference between the two matter? It seems not at the minute from the benchmarks you linked to there, but how about future-proofing wise?

What motherboard and CPU cooling would you recommend?

I may as well skip the DVD drive - I probably won't use one as I still have my 360 or laptop if I really want to watch a DVD. The only thing would be installing my old physical copies of PC games like PES5/6, FlatOut2 etc if I fancied it.
It's so simple to buy and fit one though that if/when I ever need/want one then I can do that whenever.

Around £900 is what I'm aiming for, but could be naughty and push it to £950 or a strict max of £1000 if there are substantial gains to be had.

Sorry about all the questions :P.
 
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I'd look beyond the free games personally, they are just a sweetener. AMD's free games are better, but the performance of the card is what matters. Having said that, if you are going to be playing a lot of BF4 then the AMD card is very much worth considering as they are optimised for that game and should run better than the Nvidia equivalent.

The 3gb of VRAM on the 280X is an advantage but perhaps not a big one. I'm using a 3gb GTX 780, and before that a 3gb Radeon 7950. The most VRAM usage I've seen is 1.5gb, so I would say 3gb is nice but maybe not crucial. One game that is known to top 2gb is a modded Skyrim.

Depends on your screen resolution too. At 1080p you'll probably get along fine with 2gb. A higher res and the 3gb card would be safer. It also remains to be seen if the PS4/XB1 console ports are more demanding for VRAM. Going on the evidence that both consoles are under-powered, my hunch is they won't push PC games forward that much (which is a shame).

So if you like your BF4 and/or want to play it safe on the VRAM then consider the 280X, if you want an all-round better performer get the 770.

Tell you what though, if you can find room within the budget just go out and get a GTX 780. It's a 3gb card that will eat up most games at max settings. Very future-proof and worth the extra £100 in my opinion. For example, this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-msi-gtx-780-twin-frozr-gaming-28nm-pcie-30-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-889mhz-cores-2304-dport-dvi-hdmi?utm_source=google+shopping&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CKbCoaDJ0bsCFROhwgodCHMAUQ

I pushed the boat put and got one a couple of months ago. I don't regret it.

As for the motherboard, you should be able to get a decent socket 1150 ATX board for around £60-80. Something like this, for example:

http://www.ebuyer.com/603583-ga-z87-ds3h-motherboard-ga-z87-ds3h

CPU cooler - Arctic Cooling cpu coolers are supposedly very good and inexpensive:

http://www.ebuyer.com/176157-arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro-rev-2-socket-775-1156-1155-1366-ac-frz-7pr2
 
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