The PC Building Thread

That's it. I've spent pretty much 6 hours trying to fix my shitty pc that's telling me I can't run C&C generals because I don't have directx 8.1. Except I do, I have better than that. Then it's also saying my graphics card might not be good enough... Except is is and Ive played the game tons in the past flawlessly.

I need a new pc. So any tips?

What kind of budget should I be expecting for a proper decent pc. Not decent today and shit next year, something that can really play games and last a good while with minimum fuss? Preferably one I can add to and upgrade as time goes on.
 
Radiation said:
That's it. I've spent pretty much 6 hours trying to fix my shitty pc that's telling me I can't run C&C generals because I don't have directx 8.1. Except I do, I have better than that. Then it's also saying my graphics card might not be good enough... Except is is and Ive played the game tons in the past flawlessly.

I need a new pc. So any tips?

What kind of budget should I be expecting for a proper decent pc. Not decent today and shit next year, something that can really play games and last a good while with minimum fuss? Preferably one I can add to and upgrade as time goes on.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry too much about C&C Generals it doesn't run that great on my system either, I have to play it in very low resolutions.

Budget wise £600-£800 I would recommend for a solid build.
 
Really? I expected much worse. The in laws got a new pc a bit ago that was like £1200 and I doubt it's even good enough for gaming. No doubt they've overspent and been fleeced on extras they never needed like the cloud saving for office. They barely use fricking office!

And my brother bought one from scan a labour a year ago, he went a bit crazy and spent around £1600.

I'll have to have a word with the boss, the wife, and see what she's thinking now as I think those stories really turned her off.
 
Radiation said:
Really? I expected much worse. The in laws got a new pc a bit ago that was like £1200 and I doubt it's even good enough for gaming. No doubt they've overspent and been fleeced on extras they never needed like the cloud saving for office. They barely use fricking office!

And my brother bought one from scan a labour a year ago, he went a bit crazy and spent around £1600.

I'll have to have a word with the boss, the wife, and see what she's thinking now as I think those stories really turned her off.
Click to expand...

All depends on what sort of Spec your after, but a £600 build will get you a semi decent machine.
£800 would get you a very good gaming machine.

The problem with buying PC's is if you go to the likes of Curry's or PC World the higher up the pricing spectrum you go the more ripped off you get.
A £600-£800 build would cost you about £1500 in PC World.. PC World are pretty good for cheap family desktops but as soon as you ask for a Gaming PC they instantly start at £1000 and will have cheap GFX cards inside them.


For instance:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...cbid-full-hd-27-led-monitor-10109057-pdt.html

It is £1200 has a pretty decent CPU and 16GB RAM, but it has an awful GFX card and no SSD.. I certainly wouldn't ever expect to run many games on it.
 
bsmaff said:
For instance:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...cbid-full-hd-27-led-monitor-10109057-pdt.html
Click to expand...
Well, it's common also here in Italy when you speak about big chains.

They just use to sell average PCs (usually with a totally inflated price tag) having decent CPUs and poor graphic cards equipped with a lot of (mainly DDR3) memory, so that people looking at them say "Ooooh this has 4GB of video RAM, must be faaaast!"
(Yeah, 4GB of DDR3 RAM on an entry-level R5 chip, imagine how fast it will be).

That's why I usually pick my parts by myself. I'd rather choose by myself if a said set of hardware is good or not.
Bad thing is, not everyone has the patience/the knowledge to do that.
 
I would like your opinion on something guys. I plan to build new PC when I am able to afford it, but before that I would like to add more RAM to my current PC. I don't want to spend a lot on RAM because I hope to have new PC in a year max.


So, my motherboard (Asus P5B) supports DDR2 up to 8GB. Currently I have 2x1GB in my PC and I have found this 2GB memory on e-bay pretty cheap ($11,90 a piece)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121438149785


Do you think it is worth buying 4 of them ($47,60) since I plan to later upgrade to new motherboard with new RAM?
 
Cuky said:
I would like your opinion on something guys. I plan to build new PC when I am able to afford it, but before that I would like to add more RAM to my current PC. I don't want to spend a lot on RAM because I hope to have new PC in a year max.


So, my motherboard (Asus P5B) supports DDR2 up to 8GB. Currently I have 2x1GB in my PC and I have found this 2GB memory on e-bay pretty cheap ($11,90 a piece)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/121438149785


Do you think it is worth buying 4 of them ($47,60) since I plan to later upgrade to new motherboard with new RAM?
Click to expand...

If you are planning on upgrading your PC this year then no, save the money for your next build.
 
my plan is to save up money and buy new PC before next summer. Current one is still in working order, though a bit slow for todays standards. What I plan to do with it is once I buy myself a new one to format its hard drive, install fresh version of Windows on it and then give it to my dad so that he can use it for his work (he still uses the PC that I had before, about 12 years old (with only power supply and hard drive changed after few years)
 
Looking for a little wifi advice from the knowledgeable community:

I use a powerline range extender from TP-Link, let's call that SSID: A. I then have that running into a TP-Link router, let's call that SSID: B. The two are next to each other, and connected with a short ethernet cable.

All settings on the router are set to default at present.

I get about 19 MBPS through SSID A, and only 11 through SSID B. Despite the devices being next to each other, both being N compliant and so forth.

The reason I'm wanting to use a router is to set it up on a VPN permanently, but for now it's just clean, and I cannot for the life of me work out why the bandwidth would halve. Any ideas welcome :)
 
I had a TP-Link wifi extender and that was terrible too..
It extended the wifi enough to cover the house but the speed it was giving was just awful.
 
Hi, I am in the US. I have a spare $500 coming up in the next week or two and would like to build a pc. I have a Geforce GTX 760 and two SATA 500GB harddrive for a total of 1TB that I'd like to use. Eventually plan to get an SSD though, just not now (tough to fit into the budget).

I want to play FIFA and PES at max settings, but also be able to play GTA at graphics that are better than consoles and Battlefront too. I play a lot of Football Manager.

So any help on what I should get that could fit into my budget? I've had the same PC since 2009 and well its about time to upgrade, I was barely able to run FIFA last year.
 
banbenbin said:
So any help on what I should get that could fit into my budget? I've had the same PC since 2009 and well its about time to upgrade, I was barely able to run FIFA last year.
Click to expand...
A good starting point could be this list by bsmaff.
From there you could change a few things so you can get it compliant to your budget (you said that you are willing to reuse your old graphic card, am I right? If so, you could easily remove the R9 280 from the list).
 
I upgraded my old PC a bit.

First 2 weeks ago I got 4x2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM for 42$ in place of 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz

Today I got XFX AMD Radeon HD 7850 Core Edition 1GB graphics card from a friend who got better one for himself (I paid him ~60$) instead of my AMD Radeon HD 5450 1GB


About half an hour after I put new GFX card and configured everything as I like mailsman came to my house bringing me new CPU. I got used Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz in place of my old Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz. I paid this one 9£
 
Last edited:
banbenbin said:
Hi, I am in the US. I have a spare $500 coming up in the next week or two and would like to build a pc. I have a Geforce GTX 760 and two SATA 500GB harddrive for a total of 1TB that I'd like to use. Eventually plan to get an SSD though, just not now (tough to fit into the budget).

I want to play FIFA and PES at max settings, but also be able to play GTA at graphics that are better than consoles and Battlefront too. I play a lot of Football Manager.

So any help on what I should get that could fit into my budget? I've had the same PC since 2009 and well its about time to upgrade, I was barely able to run FIFA last year.
Click to expand...

I am not sure how well a 760 will run GTA V or Battlefront(certainly won't be MAX settings, but will look better than the consoles - but then what doesn't), but you should be fine with FIFA and PES...

Make sure you get a pretty decent i5 processor if you play alot of FM as it is very demanding on the processor.
Also make sure you get an SSD, they are getting really cheap these days and def make a massive performance increase for any system.

The new Skylake processors and boards also just got released, so now is a pretty good time to get a new system.
You should be able to use your old case, psu and other bits..
 
They now sell the H100i GTX liquid cooler with custom ultra quiet Akasa Apache fans preinstalled at pcspecialist :)

Definitely will go for it when I buy the PC.
 
bsmaff said:
Don't trust liquid cooling after buying the H110, noisy as buggery..

I bet the GFX card liquid coolers are incredibly noisy too.
Click to expand...
You have the stock fans of the H110? From what I heard the stock fans are very noisy, changing them to quieter ones is needed.

That's why I'm very satisfied that they sell the H100i GTX with Akasa Apache fans. This setup seems to be very quiet.
 
Cesc Fabregas said:
You have the stock fans of the H110? From what I heard the stock fans are very noisy, changing them to quieter ones is needed.

That's why I'm very satisfied that they sell the H100i GTX with Akasa Apache fans. This setup seems to be very quiet.
Click to expand...

I changed the fans immediately for Fractal Design ones as they are quietist on the market and they are much quieter, but still no where near as quiet as a very good fanned CPU cooler.
Yes temperatures are slightly better - but personally wish I never bought one.
 
bsmaff said:
I changed the fans immediately for Fractal Design ones as they are quietist on the market and they are much quieter, but still no where near as quiet as a very good fanned CPU cooler.
Yes temperatures are slightly better - but personally wish I never bought one.
Click to expand...
So is your H110 to blame if the fans are noisy or is the pump noise too loud for you?

I'm really wondering because I saw some great reviews (quiet and stable) about the H100i GTX and H110 with custom fans.
 
So I bought and built over the week. I also had a 1tb harddrive from my old pc that i added. Thanks guys, your advice led to research which led to my new pc, so thank you!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: NZXT H230 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($76.82 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($7.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $669.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-19 16:02 EDT-0400
 
Cesc Fabregas said:
So is your H110 to blame if the fans are noisy or is the pump noise too loud for you?

I'm really wondering because I saw some great reviews (quiet and stable) about the H100i GTX and H110 with custom fans.
Click to expand...

Sorry for not replying sooner...

The H110 for me I believe must be the pump, I replaced the fans for Fractal Design fans which are considered the quietest you can buy (well were at the time) and to be honest would never buy a CPU water cooler again, it gets quite loud.

It depends as well on whether you plan to overclock my CPU runs at 25-27c when not being used and even overclocked at 4.8Ghz it never goes over 70c.
It is obviouslt alot better than any Air Cooler but the extra noise for me just isn't worth it - IMO I would recommend a *TOP* Air Cooler over a H110
 
As some of you know, I built a PC in January last year. It's been working fine until yesterday evening. I switched on the power and there was nothing. No clicks, no beeps, just nothing. Like it wasn't even plugged in. I opened the case and had a nosey around. The Asus Z87-Pro motherboard power light was lit up, but was red. If I turned the PSU off, the light obviously goes out, too. I have absolutely no LED display on my Q-code on the motherboard, either. No warning numbers etc. This is the little 2 digit display box next to the power light on the motherboard.

I unplugged the PSU and did the paperclip trick to check if I had a faulty unit. When I switched on the power to it, there didn't seem to be any fan movement at all - simply a single clicking noise, like the click in a fuse-box in a car. The PSU is quite an enclosed device (Corsair RM750), so I'm not sure if I should have seen a fan move anyway.

I've ordered a new PSU from Amazon anyway, which was unfortunately £98. But could there be anything else I'm missing? Like I say, this PC has worked flawlessly now for well over a year, so why it would just give up on me randomly with absolutely no warning signs is baffling.

Spec:
* Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.40GHz, 6MB, Haswell, 84W)
* Asus Z87-PRO USB 3.0 Motherboard (4x DDR3, ATX, 2x PCI Express 3.0/2.0, Intel, Wi-Fi)
* Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive
* Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive
* EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX780 Superclocked ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
* 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600)
* Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White Midi Tower Soundproof Case
* 750W Corsair RM Series 80PLUS Gold Modular Power Supply
* Samsung DVDRW.
* XBox 360 Controller Wireless Receiver
* Razer Deathadder 2013 Mouse
* Windows 8.1
* Wireless Keyboard

Cheers guys.
 
There's usually a jumper on the motherboard you change to do it, or you can remove the battery for a while.

Edit: Found it http://www.manualslib.com/manual/684325/Asus-Z87-Pro-V-Edition.html?page=46

I have an MSI 970A Krait and it has a weird issue that sometimes it just won't reboot at all so I have to turn it off for a while and then it'll boot, seems to be an issue with all my hard drives, if I just have the single OS SSD connected it boots fine.
 
In regards to PC repairs it is just a case of just trying components one by one.

If the PC doesn't switch on then the first thing I would of done would of been checked the PSU which you did, but also if the lights are appearing on the motherboard it could be other issues which are causing the PC to not turn on or post..

The first would of been to unplug all hardware so just pull the power cables out of your SATA drives and remove any PCI devices you have plugged in.. Then remove all but one stick of RAM, pick a stick at random to plug into DIMM 1 and not the one current in there.

Now try and power the PC back on and see what happens... If the PC posts then start pluggin stuff back in.
 
Placebo said:
There's usually a jumper on the motherboard you change to do it, or you can remove the battery for a while.

Edit: Found it http://www.manualslib.com/manual/684325/Asus-Z87-Pro-V-Edition.html?page=46

I have an MSI 970A Krait and it has a weird issue that sometimes it just won't reboot at all so I have to turn it off for a while and then it'll boot, seems to be an issue with all my hard drives, if I just have the single OS SSD connected it boots fine.
Click to expand...

Cheers Paul will give that a go.

bsmaff said:
In regards to PC repairs it is just a case of just trying components one by one.

If the PC doesn't switch on then the first thing I would of done would of been checked the PSU which you did, but also if the lights are appearing on the motherboard it could be other issues which are causing the PC to not turn on or post..

The first would of been to unplug all hardware so just pull the power cables out of your SATA drives and remove any PCI devices you have plugged in.. Then remove all but one stick of RAM, pick a stick at random to plug into DIMM 1 and not the one current in there.

Now try and power the PC back on and see what happens... If the PC posts then start pluggin stuff back in.
Click to expand...

Will do mate. PSU has been ordered anyway so will test that when it arrives, but will certainly give the rest a go later. I don't think it's a component issue, as I'm sure it would boot or at least show some signs of switching on before a warning is given, but I'm getting nothing at all.
 
Looking for some advice, my Nephew lives in a care facility in the UK and one of the few things that lets him get out of his headspace and enjoy life is gaming, he's a huge Fallout/Skyrim fan but we just realised that his PC isn't up to even minimum spec for Fallout 4 so I'm trying to find what we can come up with for him in terms of upgrading his Mobo/CPU/Ram. I gave him my old GPU so he has a AMD Sapphire 6970 2GB GDDR5 (I know that's slightly below the minimum requirement but hopefully will not make it incompatible?)

For the Mobo/CPU/RAM I just priced up this:

saSRzGu.jpg


I went with Amazon as the CPU seemed to be slightly cheaper there than anywhere else (and the motherboard is very cheap although need to factor in postage from Germany).

Personally if it were me I'd go for AM3/AM3+ as I feel it's easier to get a good deal on 2nd hand CPUs?

If anyone can suggest something similar for a similar price, or even better bang for the buck (with a possibility of going up about 25%) please let me know, if anyone has any old parts they're looking to sell themselves I'd also be interested in that option :)

These are the minimum specs for Fallout 4:

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom