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The PC Building Thread

Installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview yesterday, really impressed with it so far, kept everything I had installed on Windows 8 with the only issue being Office 2010 which wouldn't open Word, annoying as I need it for work but Office 2013 works fine so just need to get a cheap key for that and I'm sorted :)
 
jayjay7 said:
I wouldn't say desperate, just seriously exploring the possibilities.
Click to expand...

If you got £600 budget I will spec a PC tomorrow...

Or wait till Skylake when it is released later in the year.. The only problem with this is Skylake will not be cheap, but the much added benefits for future proofing is a very strong argument.
 
Here is a spec for £600...

Could change this depending on what you would like changed..
I have gone for the opposite of what the link you posted.. I have done a half decent motherboard, £100 Z97 board, top CPU, decent GFX card...
But it contains a cheap case and PSU, these can be improved but your would sacrifice the SSD and system power elsewhere..

600.png
 
Thanks for that.

How important is the PSU? Is it worth paying a bit more?

Also, how much more would it be for a decent case that is smallish and has good air flow?

What about if i up the budget to £700-750?
 
I done the complete different to the other guy and stated a good PC instead of a decent PSU and case...

Personally when it comes to building a PC, I wouldn't use the above case and PSU, unless I was building a general office or workstation.

I would upgrade the PSU for sure, there was a really good EVGA modular on Aria for about £65 which was gold rated..

As for the case you can either buy a case like I do on reviews about airflow and build quality.. or you can do what everyone else does which is just buy a case they like the look off, which is normally the case with PC cases.
 
jayjay7 said:
...
How important is the PSU? Is it worth paying a bit more?
...
Click to expand...

I think the PSU could be the most important component in the PC, depending on how we think of.
It is often compared to the heart of the human body as it sends power as like the heart sends blood.
I'd say it's worth paying a bit more.
 
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I would recommend the following PSU... Gold Rated and Modular, I would only buy a modular PSU as keeps cables tidy.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...s+Gold'+Modular+Power+Supply+?productId=60492

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...s+Gold'+Modular+Power+Supply+?productId=63106

Both are GOLD rated and pretty well priced - only about £5 more expensive than the Corsair bronze ones.
Don't know too much about EVGA power supplies, but have little doubt like 80% of PSU's they will just be a rebadged Seasonic.


As for case, just buy one which takes your fancy... As you will be the person looking at it everyday.
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Psu is the most important piece
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Agree. I usually tend to suggest PSUs that can handle 2x the power the PC usually pulls. No need to have a 1200W PSU if you just pull 350W, a good 650W (better if modular) will cost a little less, will more than suffice, and will usually perform better.

bsmaff said:
As for case, just buy one which takes your fancy... As you will be the person looking at it everyday.
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Is it me the only one that would recommend a case in which the PSU sits at the bottom?
Is there really any noticeable difference in the airflow?
 
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*aLe said:
Agree. I usually tend to suggest PSUs that can handle 2x the power the PC usually pulls. No need to have a 1200W PSU if you just pull 350W, a good 650W (better if modular) will cost a little less, will more than suffice, and will usually perform better.
Click to expand...

Normally with PSU's I spec 100W over what is required by the system, which 99% of the time is 650/700W.
As long as the PSU covers the amount of AMPS required by the components.. Graphics cards normally require around 35A along the 12V Rail..

In my experience I find that as long as the PSU is good enough for the use intended for there are much of a muchness... But then now most PSU's are pretty much all Bronze certified now and cover the amount of AMPS required then any PSU will do the job.

But then different people believe different components are the most important, I personally would never spend less than £150 on a motherboard and see this as the most important component.

*aLe said:
Is it me the only one that would recommend a case in which the PSU sits at the bottom?
Is there really any noticeable difference in the airflow?
Click to expand...

Pretty much all cases the PSU now sits at the bottom, so if he buys a gaming case now the chances are the PSU will sit at the bottom.
 
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Is it possible to build a portable gaming PC I would like to probably spend £400-500 and mainly play pro and FM manager
 
I have done a quick specification for you so you can see what you can get for your money..

I have spec'd a R9 280X GPU as PES and FIFA do not require a decent amount of GPU grunt to be able to play at high resolutions.

If you wanted too the CPU and RAM could be downgraded to an i3 and 4GB RAM, but it depends on the performance you want from Football Manager.. FM is a very CPU intensive game and you would be able to do a season an awful lot quicker with an i5 over and i3, but you would shave £100 of the system price.

I would also recommend a modular PSU with a small form factor case to help airflow, not so many unused wires lying around on the system. The PSU spec'd is just a price reference point.
The case selected is the Factual Design Node chassis as I personally really like case and it allows the installation of a full length GPU.

There is also no HD, but this is down to whether you would prefer an HD or SSD, personally I would never recommend an HD ever.. So I would get a 256GB SSD to be on the safe side, because although you say you would only play FM and PES, once you see how much better PC games are over consoles, you will start playing all games on the PC.

There are a few modifications you can make to get the machine more in your price range, and you could also look at purchasing a 2nd hand GPU, like the GTX 680 or GTX 670 as these are both way more than capable and should both be available at a cheap price point, but things like processors and RAM.. I would never buy 2nd hand as you don't know how well they have been installed or if they been overclocked to the point the CPU is near death, also with 2nd hand components I seriously doubt RAM would ever of been installed correctly with proper ESD protection.

PCSPEC.png
 
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Here is information regarding PSU's..

This is the tier system information which you should consider when buying a PSU:

This list looks at the main and critical sectors of a Power Supply Unit -

Components - Higher quality components means more stable functionality, thus longer life on power supply and components of PC. Low quality components can affect the life of the unit and all components of your PC.

Stability - A power supply that can output it's wattage and ampere current at a stable temperature and beyond or below capable with minimal ripple and without shutting down shows that the unit is more than capable of powering any PC within it's labelled wattage. A power supply that can't must be avoided.

Efficiency - Although not really relevant to the quality or the stability of any power supply, but it can contribute to saving money on energy bills and can even be close to virtually silent. Perform research on your desired PSU to see if it can reach its labelled efficiency rating. Link above for more information.

Safety - A power supply must be capable of working without short circuiting or causing any serious harm to you or others around you if it fails. Perform critical research on your desired PSU to make sure it is safe to use with all safety switches, such as over-temperature protection included. Stay away from units with close to no safety switches at all, for the safety of you and others around you.

All PSUs will be colored in co-ordination of the Ecova 80+ efficiency ratings (true efficiency only) below -

Standard
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Titanium

Again, all PSUs are researched by reading professional, unbiased reviews with the correct testing equipment. Some units won't be returning, due to discontinuation and / or too old.

List updated - March 19th 2015

Tier One
The highest quality and most stable Power Supply Units available. Protected by industrial grade protection circuitry and can output wattage at a rated maximum temperature of 50°C or below. These units are also Haswell certified, meaning they can cope with the C6 and C7 sleep states of 0.05Amps without triggering the under-current protection switch. May even go over labelled wattage and still work until it safely shuts down.


Antec High Current Pro Platinum Delta Electronics
Be Quiet Dark Power Pro P10 / 850w FSP (550w - 750w) / Seasonic (850w - 1200w)

Corsair
AX / AXi series 760w - 1200w Seasonic (AX) / Flextronics (AXi)
AX1500i Flextronics
HXi Channel Well Technology

Cooler Master V series / V series 1200w Seasonic
EVGA SuperNova G2 / P2 / T2 Super Flower
Firepower Silencer MK3 1200w Super Flower
FSP Aurum PT FSP
LEPA G1600 Enermax

Seasonic
Platinum series Seasonic
Snow Silent 1050w Seasonic
X series / X series XM2 Seasonic

Silverstone Nightjar Platinum 520w Seasonic

Super Flower
Leadex Gold / Platinum Super Flower
Golden King Super Flower
Golden Silent / 430w Super Flower

XFX
Pro series Black edition Seasonic
Pro series Black edition Limited Edition 1000w Seasonic
Pro series XXX / Semi-Modular Seasonic
XTS Fanless Seasonic


Tier Two
As above, just slightly lower quality. Still safe to use and are all stable for any PC of today's standards, including Haswell C Stepping certification and 100% Japanese Capacitors. It is rare to find a PSU here with Taiwanese Capacitors and perform very well here, but they are here just in case.

Andyson Platinum-R 1200 (Some Teapo caps on secondary side, but check out Jonnyguru's review for this unit). Andyson

Antec
EDGE Seasonic
Earthwatts / Earthwatts Platinum Delta Electronics
High Current Gamer Delta Electronics (Non-Modular) / Seasonic (Semi-Modular)
Truepower Classic Seasonic (Essentially a Non-Modular version of the EDGE series)

Azza Platinum Super Flower
Cooler Master VS Series Enhance
Enermax Platimax Enermax

EVGA
Supernova B2 Super Flower
Supernova GS 850 Seasonic

Firepower
Silencer MK III 400 500 600 / 750 850 Super Flower
ZX Great Wall

Fractal Design Edison M Seasonic
High Power / Sirfa Astro GD Sirfa

Rosewill
Capstone series Super Flower
Lightning series Super Flower
Silent Night 500 Watts Super Flower
Tachyon series Super Flower

Seasonic
G series / G series V2 Seasonic
M12-II EVO (fully modular) Seasonic
S12G (Think of 2011 - 2013 Seasonic G series) Seasonic
S12-II Seasonic

Silverpower
SP 460w Fully Modular Seasonic
SP Semi-modular Seasonic

Silverstone
Strider Gold Evolution Enhance
Strider Plus 750w 850w 1000w 600w Enhance

Super Flower Golden Green / Modular / HX series Super Flower
Sentey Golden Steel Power 850 Watts Super Flower

Thermaltake
Toughpower Gold 850M Enhance
Toughpower Grand Platinum 850w Enhance
Toughpower DPS Gold Channel Well Technology

XFX
TS 430w / 550w-SEW Seasonic
XTR series Seasonic


Tier Three
Some Haswell compatible, some not (maybe unconfirmed). Still safe to use and stable, just lower quality components. Some capacitors maybe Japanese, but can include the Taiwanese capacitors. Not really ideal in serious overclocking or super-high load situations, such as a Bitcoin mining rig or a high end gaming system.


Antec VP / VP w/P or F suffix Delta Electronics

Be Quiet
Power zone series 650 850 750 1000 FSP
Pure Power / Pure Power CM HEC Compucase
Straight power E9 FSP
Straight Power 10 FSP

Cooler Master
G Modular Channel Well Technology
GX II Enhance
Silent pro M2 / Gold / Platinum Enhance

Corsair
CS Great Wall
CX / CXM Channel Well Technology
RM Channel Well Technology (450w - 650w, 1000w) / Chicony (750w - 850w)
VS Channel Well Technology

Deepcool Quanta 750w 1000w 1200w Channel Well Technology

Enermax
naXn ADV 650 Watts Enermax
Revolution X't series Enermax
Triathlor / Triathlor FC series Enermax

EVGA
430W / 500W HEC Compucase
500B / 600B HEC Compucase
Supernova NEXB / NEXG 750 Watts FSP

Firepower
Fatal1ty 2012 1000w Gold Channel Well technology
ZT series Sirfa

FSP
Aurum 92+ FSP
Aurum Gold FSP
Aurum S FSP
Aurum Xilencer FSP

Fractal Design
Integra M series High Power / Sirfa
Newton R3 Series ATNG

InWin
Commander III InWin / Powerman
GreenMe series InWin / Powerman [/b]

Kingwin Powerforce 850w High Power / Sirfa

LEPA
G500 Enermax
Lepa G900 Enermax

NZXT Hale 90 V2 ATNG

Rosewill
Fortress Series ATNG
Hercules 1600 Watts High Power / Sirfa
Hive / Hive S series High Power / Sirfa
Photon 750w High Power / Sirfa

Silverstone Strider Essential 400w 500w 600w High Power / Sirfa

Thermaltake
London 550w Channel Well Technology
Toughpower1200M 1350M 1500M Channel Well Technology
Toughpower Gold 1200w Enhance
Toughpower XT 775M Channel Well Technology
Toughpower XT Gold series (Really confusing name, since they are rated Platinum) Channel Well Technology
Toughpower XT Platinum 1275w (Please don't confuse this one with the XT Gold line) Channel Well Technology

XigmatekMaverick S 500w Andyson
Xilence Performance A series HEC Compucase


Tier Four
No Japanese capacitors found. Only Taiwanese capacitors and may even include Chinese capacitors. Very basic safety circuits or even thin gauge wiring used. Not for gaming rigs or overclocking systems of any kind. Avoid unless your budget dictates your choice.

Aerocool
GT Series 500s 700s 1050s HEC Compucase / Andyson (1050S model only)
Integrator 600w HEC Compucase
Strike-X series 800w 1100w Andyson
Templarius Imperator series Channel Well Technology ( 550W, 650W) / Andyson (750W - 1150W)

Cooler Master Elite II 550w (technically a 500w unit, maybe a typo from design department) Unknown OEM. Possibly HEC Compucase
Firepower Fatal1ty 2013 High Power / Sirfa
FSP Raider series FSP
InWin Glacier ATNG

LEPA
MaxBron B1000M Yuelin
MX-F1 series (Trigger-happy Overcurrent protection and very poor quality capacitors) Channel Well Technology

NZXT
Hale82N 650w FSP
Hale82 V2 700w High Power / Sirfa

Raidmax Cobrapower 500w (Not to be confused with Akasa's Cobra series) Andyson
Thermaltake Smart / Smart M Channel Well Technology (M Suffix, 550P, 650P, 750P) / HEC Compucase (430P, 530P, 630P, 730P) / High Power (1000M, 1200M)

Tier Five
Avoid IMMEDIATELY. These units are highly unsafe to use. No such protections added, very thin gauge wiring used, false advertising and too much to list. Reference to a higher tiered unit for a better, money saving and a much safer unit. For your safety's sake, please don't order or pick one up for use in your system. These units are a potential fire hazard and could even kill you, let alone your system.


A-TOP technology
Apevia
Apex (SUPERCASE/ALLIED)
Artic / Ace (They're the same company)
Aspire (Turbocase)
ATADC
ATRIX
Broadway Com Corp
CIT
Coolmax
Deer
Diablotek
Dynapower
Dynex
Eagletech
Enlight
Evo labs
EZ-cool
Foxconn
G7
HEC / Compucase Orion
HEDY (should be WAAAYYY lower down than these units. They're that bad)
iBall
iStar computer co.
Jeantec
JPac
Just PC
Linkworld electronics
Logisys computer
Macron
MSi (just stick to their GPUs and motherboards)
NMEDIAPC
Norwood Micro/ CompUSA
Okia
Powercool
Powmax
Pulsepower
Q-tec
Rocketfish
SFC
Sharkoon
Shuttle
Skyhawk
Startech
Storm
Sumvision
Tesla
Ultra
 
aitken said:
so i am looking to upgrade my graphics card, my current case is:- http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cpc-t45ub-u01.html, i'm looking to pick up:- http://www.ebuyer.com/663452-zotac-...-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-zt-90101-10p

I was thinking that surely my case would be big enough to fit? i thought i'd ask first before purchasing it.
Click to expand...

Looking at the dimensions of your case, I don't see you having an issues at installing a GTX 970..

Just make sure where you buy your card them they guarentee to give you the 2 Nvidia games free at the moment.. Batman: Arkham Knight and Witcher 3.
 
bsmaff said:
Looking at the dimensions of your case, I don't see you having an issues at installing a GTX 970..

Just make sure where you buy your card them they guarentee to give you the 2 Nvidia games free at the moment.. Batman: Arkham Knight and Witcher 3.
Click to expand...

Yeah I seen nvidia started offering batman for free aswell so more urgency to pick up the card, thanks for the help :D
 
Got my gtx 970 installed, only issue is now my computer takes a long time to boot and freezes/slows down at times, any advice/help on what issue could be?
 
aitken said:
Got my gtx 970 installed, only issue is now my computer takes a long time to boot and freezes/slows down at times, any advice/help on what issue could be?
Click to expand...

If it isn't your PSU, then other suggestions would be are you previous drivers for grpahics still installed.

When is it stuttering? Maybe try a fresh install of Windows.
 
I did notice previous drivers so i have completely removed which has increased performance for most part but still experience some issues, will give it a fresh install and see if that helps it.
 
Sorry for potentially stupid q, but I just installed my GTX 960 in place of my old 560 ti Boost - I believe I could SLI them togethe r- is there any point in that?
 
beachryan said:
Sorry for potentially stupid q, but I just installed my GTX 960 in place of my old 560 ti Boost - I believe I could SLI them togethe r- is there any point in that?
Click to expand...

I've never done it and not sure how you'd go about it but you should be able to use your 560ti as a dedicated PhysX card?
 
DagsJT said:
I've never done it and not sure how you'd go about it but you should be able to use your 560ti as a dedicated PhysX card?
Click to expand...

Interesting, I shall use the Google to look into that, cheers.

One more slightly terrifying question on hindsight (as I'm happily typing on the computer I installed it into):

My old card used a 6-pin PCI-E power plug, but the new one wanted 8-pin, so my connector seemed to have a little 2pin addition to the 6pin, and they fit together nicely to make an 8-pin power plug. It all fit fine and the card id working - but suddenly wondering if that is how it's supposed to work?
 
Thespeedster84 said:
yes.

M12-19.jpg


I thought gtx 960 uses less power than gtx 560 ti. Why 8 pin, is it OC edition or something ?
Click to expand...

Phew, thanks! Yeah, it's the 'super' superoverclocked or some other marketing crap :)

Read up on using the old card as a PhysX dedicated one, but I don't think I have enough power (500W) to do both so not going to bother.

Worryingly, my previously-silkly-smooth GTAV experience had a slight stutter every few minutes when I tried it out. Doing a clean reinstall of the nvidia drivers, hoping that helps.
 
beachryan said:
Phew, thanks! Yeah, it's the 'super' superoverclocked or some other marketing crap :)

Read up on using the old card as a PhysX dedicated one, but I don't think I have enough power (500W) to do both so not going to bother.

Worryingly, my previously-silkly-smooth GTAV experience had a slight stutter every few minutes when I tried it out. Doing a clean reinstall of the nvidia drivers, hoping that helps.
Click to expand...

Try Display Driver Uninstaller, if you're not already using it. I've seen it mentioned a lot for fixing driver issues.
 
hi guys I've been offered a gaming pc in swap for my ps4! specs ARCTIC Freezer 13 - 200 Watt Multicompatible Low Noise CPU Cooler Aerocool, Strike-X One Advance Mid-Tower USB 3 Screwless Gaming Case with Red LED Fan.Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 Motherboard (AMD 970/SB950, DDR3, 6 x S-ATA 600, ATX, PCI-Express 2.0, USB 3.0, Socket AM3+).AMD FX8320 Black Edition 8 Core (3.5/4.0GHz, 8MB Level 3 Cache, 8MB Level 2 Cache, Socket AM3+, 125W, .Cooler Master GM Series G750M - 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply Unit.Asus R9270X-DC2T-2GD5 1120Mhz 2048MB GDDR 5 PCI Express Graphics Card... would it be a good deal and would I be able to play games like witcher 3 gta5 with better settings and fraps than on my ps4?
Thanks for advice.
 
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At a guess I'd say it's fairly close in value to a PS4, yes you'd be able to play both games in a better visuals than PS4, I have fairly similar specs myself and run both of them at 1080p high/ultra settings.
 
I currently have a rig from late 2009 featuring these components:
  • Intel Core i7 920 @2,67GHz (the stock cooler allowed me to reach 3GHz last winter, but I'm planning to replace it)
  • 3x2GB DDR3 RAM modules @1066MHz
  • AMD Radeon R9 270X graphics card (updated last summer)
I'm unsure if trying to make it last a pair of years longer and wait for Zen to come out (in this case, the only expense I'm going to face is buying a new heatsink on the CPU, as it is starting to suffer even at default speed with this weather when encoding videos) or to build one at the end of the year and consider keeping it until 2020 (budget is 1000€, I could spend an occasional 10/20€ more if really necessary).

If I decided to change my PC by the end of the year, how would you rate this config for general purpose (so gaming of course, but also photo and video editing/encoding and a bit of Blender)?
yb2iGai.png


I went for a H97 motherboard as the Xeon isn't unlocked so the Z97 chipset would pretty much be an overkill. I don't think I'll overclock anyway, so for now also the stock cooler might do.
Optical media drive (BD recorder) and HD will be taken from my current rig probably as they're pretty new.
The PSU is the 550W Antec EDGE by the way.
 
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