Building a gaming PC

Pesmerga

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Jun 12, 2013
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First of all, I live in Malta, Europe, so prices will be significantly higher from here.. so I'll probably buy some of the components from abroad, probably overclockers.co.uk or computeruniverse.net. If anyone has used or knows someone who bought from these websites any feedback would be awesome. So, on to the specs.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Everyday stuff plus play some games. Mainly looking forward to playing Total War Rome II and the Witcher 3 when it comes out.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Looking for something around 1,000 euros, preferably less, including shipping and even a monitor if possible.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Malta, Europe

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

6) Will you be overclocking?
I'm buying the K version of the processor and a motherboard capable of overclocking but I'm no expert so probably won't overclock immediately. Still I prefer having the option and not using it than not having it.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Haven't bought one yet but probably a normal 21" monitor.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Probably July/August

For now I'm thinking about this:

Intel Core i5-4670k or i7-4770k (not sure about this yet. price difference is around 100 euros)

MSI Z87-G45 Gaming (chose this one since it's not that expensive and allows me to Crossfire)

Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 OC-Edition or Sapphire HD7950 Boost Edition

Patriot Viper 3 Black Mamba 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz (should I invest in 1866Mhz instead or is the difference not too noticeable?)

XFX Pro Series XXX Edition 750W (thoughts on this? should be enough for Crossfire but not sure about quality)

Western Digital Blue 1TB

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :D
 
Could you please answer questions 9 and 10?

Oh and since you're only gaming, no need for the 4770K. And no, don't bother with getting higher speed RAM.
 
Oh sorry forgot about those haha. Yeah I'll buy the Windows 7 64bit Home Premium locally but it's not included in the 1,000 euros. About the motherboard, I prefer if it gives me the ability to Crossfire in the future. Apart from that I don't really need any specific feature.

I was thinking about getting the i7 mainly for the PC to be more future proof since it would cost me a bit to change it in the future. But if it's really not that important it's actually better since I would save 100 euros :p
 
Also, what would be better a Seagate Barracuda or a WD Blue as an only harddrive? I know an SSD would be better but they're still quite expensive
 
Oh sorry forgot about those haha. Yeah I'll buy the Windows 7 64bit Home Premium locally but it's not included in the 1,000 euros. About the motherboard, I prefer if it gives me the ability to Crossfire in the future. Apart from that I don't really need any specific feature.
Then I recommend going with the cheaper Asus Z87-A motherboard.
I was thinking about getting the i7 mainly for the PC to be more future proof since it would cost me a bit to change it in the future. But if it's really not that important it's actually better since I would save 100 euros :p
Yeah, not worth it.
Also, what would be better a Seagate Barracuda or a WD Blue as an only harddrive? I know an SSD would be better but they're still quite expensive
Flip a coin between those two hard drives. However I would highly recommend getting a solid SSD for the OS and heavily used apps as that really would boost the performance of the system. See how much the Samsung 840 120GB SSD is.

What case are you planning on getting or using?
 
The SSD is still around 80 euros :/ so the SSD + the normal 1TB would be quite expensive..

Thanks about the motherboard suggestion. Looks great and it's cheaper. Sorry for all the questions but do you think a Gigabyte HD 7870 OC would be much worse than the 7950 I posted? Probably I won't overclock the 7950 since I'm no expert and I wouldn't want to risk it so a factory overclocked 7870 might be quite similar. Would I still be able to play future games like Rome II on high setting with it?

Regarding the case I have an old which I will probably re-use haha. It's full size so everything should fit in I think. If not I'll probably buy a lower end case since looks aren't that important. Or are you asking mainly because of airflow?

Also, I'm thinking about buying one of these monitors for the PC. Probably not very high end but in Malta they are a bit expensive and I won't risk getting one from abroad. These are the three I'm mainly thinking about:

http://www.scanmalta.com/eshop/21-5-...d-monitor.html
http://www.scanmalta.com/eshop/21-5-...d-monitor.html
http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowPr...5-up-to-22-LCD
 
The SSD is still around 80 euros :/ so the SSD + the normal 1TB would be quite expensive..
Still worth it.
Thanks about the motherboard suggestion. Looks great and it's cheaper. Sorry for all the questions but do you think a Gigabyte HD 7870 OC would be much worse than the 7950 I posted? Probably I won't overclock the 7950 since I'm no expert and I wouldn't want to risk it so a factory overclocked 7870 might be quite similar. Would I still be able to play future games like Rome II on high setting with it?
Can't answer your question until I find out what monitor you're planning on getting as there are 21" monitors that have a max resolution of 1680x1050 and some have a max resolution of 1920x1080. Those two different resolutions will require different video cards.

Regarding the case I have an old which I will probably re-use haha. It's full size so everything should fit in I think. If not I'll probably buy a lower end case since looks aren't that important. Or are you asking mainly because of airflow?
Airflow mainly. Some cheap new cases have crappier cooling than older full-size cases and vice versa. So please find out what case you actually have.

Also, I'm thinking about buying one of these monitors for the PC. Probably not very high end but in Malta they are a bit expensive and I won't risk getting one from abroad. These are the three I'm mainly thinking about:

http://www.scanmalta.com/eshop/21-5-...d-monitor.html
http://www.scanmalta.com/eshop/21-5-...d-monitor.html
http://www.simarksupplies.com/ShowPr...5-up-to-22-LCD
None of those links work. As noted earlier, can't help you in regards to the video cards until I know what monitors you're going for. So please fix those links.
 
Willing to pay 100 euros premium for an i7 over an i5 - completely useless upgrade - and balking at 80 euros for an SSD? You should be doing a lot more research about where to place your priorities.
 
i7 over i5: not worth it.
SSD: totally worth it. When you use a pc with OS installed on a good SSD, you'll never want to go back with traditional HDD, OS and programs load time are likely 3-5 times faster.
8GB DDR3 1600 is plentiful (in term of both capacity and speed.)
750W PSU is a waste for a single VGA system. Go with some good 550W or at most a 650W PSU.
HD 7870 or 7950 will not be able to maxed out some new games. HD 7970 or GTX 770 is recommended for max eye candy and a smooth gaming experience @1080p.
 
Though I would get 1866 MHz RAM being the G.Skill Ripjaws 1866 isn't that much more then 1600.
 
Willing to pay 100 euros premium for an i7 over an i5 - completely useless upgrade - and balking at 80 euros for an SSD? You should be doing a lot more research about where to place your priorities.

Upgrading to an SSD in the future wouldn't cost me much since I would just have to add it without removing the other harddrive. If I wanted to upgrade to an i7 in the future then I would have to throw out my 200 euro CPU to buy a 300 euro CPU. It would be more worth it to just buy an i7 now. Also, Rome II is more CPU reliant than other games plus people are saying that with the announcement of the new XBOX One and PS4 games are going to become more CPU reliant. Also right now I'm using a three year old laptop and OS loading time are still fast enough for me without an SSD. I know I'm not a computer genius but I've done my research so don't worry.

Also, about the monitors, one of them is a 21.5" Acer G226HQLBBD and the other is a 21.5" Acer G226HQLBBD. Both their maximum resolution is set at 19200 x 1080 according to the shop I'm thinking of buying from. Both are around the same price.

The case I really don't know the model or even the make. It's quite old now..
 
Upgrading to an SSD in the future wouldn't cost me much since I would just have to add it without removing the other harddrive. If I wanted to upgrade to an i7 in the future then I would have to throw out my 200 euro CPU to buy a 300 euro CPU. It would be more worth it to just buy an i7 now. Also, Rome II is more CPU reliant than other games plus people are saying that with the announcement of the new XBOX One and PS4 games are going to become more CPU reliant. Also right now I'm using a three year old laptop and OS loading time are still fast enough for me without an SSD. I know I'm not a computer genius but I've done my research so don't worry.
Still though, as of right now, there's very little evidence showing that going with the 4770K will actually extend the life of your system that much longer to justify the extra costs. The key difference between the 4770K and the 4670K is HT. AFAIK, there's no info showing that the Total War: Rome II is that heavily multi-threaded. It may be CPU heavy/reliant but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be heavily multi-threaded to the point where it scales past four cores and therefore make HT extremely useful.
Also, about the monitors, one of them is a 21.5" Acer G226HQLBBD and the other is a 21.5" Acer G226HQLBBD. Both their maximum resolution is set at 19200 x 1080 according to the shop I'm thinking of buying from. Both are around the same price.
You listed the same monitor twice. In any case, if the monitors you're planning on getting have a resolution of 1920x1080, then you're going to want to get the HD 7950 3GB. The higher resolution demands a beefier video card. As for whether or not even the HD 7950 3GB will be enough to handle TW:Rome II at high settings, it should be enough but no guarantees. Remember that game isn't even out yet so very little chance of making an accurate guess of its actual performance requirements.
The case I really don't know the model or even the make. It's quite old now..
See how much the Corsair 200R is. As for your current case, if you absolutely want to reuse it, please find or post pictures of it (preferable of the inside, the side of the case with the side panel on, the rear of the case, and the top of the case).
 
Hyper Threading have been around since the pentium 4 days nearly a decade ago. If games aren't utilizing HT now, I don't foresee that changing in the next few years. Therefore as Danny and others have suggested. Go with the i5 and the extra 100 euros you would have spent on the i7, buy an SSD. You'll thank us after your first cold boot.
 
Hyper Threading have been around since the pentium 4 days nearly a decade ago. If games aren't utilizing HT now, I don't foresee that changing in the next few years. Therefore as Danny and others have suggested. Go with the i5 and the extra 100 euros you would have spent on the i7, buy an SSD. You'll thank us after your first cold boot.

yeah I'll probably stick with the i5 thanks
 
Sorry for all the questions, but if you had to choose one of these which one would you choose? I listed them from least to most expensive.

Powercolor Radeon HD 7950 (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90449452/powercolor-radeon-hd-7950.asp)
XFX Radeon HD7950 DDS Edition (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90449462/xfx-radeon-hd7950-3gb-ddr5-dds-edition.asp)
MSI R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90509725/msi-r7950-2pmd3gd5-oc.asp)
Sapphire HD7950 Boost-Edition (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90499046/sapphire-hd7950-3gb-ddr5.asp)

Also, not sure about this, would it be better to buy a 7870 now and Crossfire it in the future if I need to? Since their prices will probably continue going down
 
Yeah you should get a new case. That case won't provide sufficient cooling for your planned setup.
The 21.5" Asus VE228NR is the other monitor I was meant to post sorry and I also found the LG E2251S-BN. Which one would you think is better?
Probably the Acer simply because it has more user reviews.

Sorry for all the questions, but if you had to choose one of these which one would you choose? I listed them from least to most expensive.

Powercolor Radeon HD 7950 (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90449452/powercolor-radeon-hd-7950.asp)
XFX Radeon HD7950 DDS Edition (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90449462/xfx-radeon-hd7950-3gb-ddr5-dds-edition.asp)
MSI R7950-2PMD3GD5/OC (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90509725/msi-r7950-2pmd3gd5-oc.asp)
Sapphire HD7950 Boost-Edition (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90499046/sapphire-hd7950-3gb-ddr5.asp)
I would go with the MSI.

Also, not sure about this, would it be better to buy a 7870 now and Crossfire it in the future if I need to? Since their prices will probably continue going down
No.
 
Thanks again for the info. Just wanted to ask one last question. What do you think about the HIS HD7950 Iceq X2? (http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-731.shtml) It's a bit more expensive than the others but it has pretty good reviews and it's a bit better than the others. Since I probably won't be overclocking I think it would be worth in the long run..
 
Thanks again for the info. Just wanted to ask one last question. What do you think about the HIS HD7950 Iceq X2? (http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-731.shtml) It's a bit more expensive than the others but it has pretty good reviews and it's a bit better than the others. Since I probably won't be overclocking I think it would be worth in the long run..
I don't trust HIS. I only recommend HIS if they're significantly cheaper than other cards. in this case, since it costs more, I'm not recommending it.
 
Could you please answer questions 9 and 10?

Oh and since you're only gaming, no need for the 4770K. And no, don't bother with getting higher speed RAM.
Games are still applications so the better the hardware the better, however 16GB of DDR3 2400 is perfect and a 4770K will be great.

Since you are gaming I'd get 2x MSI BE Lightning 7970GHZ-E gfx cards for video stability if doing multi monitor setups, sure you can run 6 displays off of one gfx card but that's unstable if you're going after max settings on each game. 2-3 cards is preferred but I work with video and that bandwidth is needed. For gaming though you never need more than 2 but that's just an old rule as games are getting heavier on gfx and so gfx card count needs to go up.

If you plan on PHYSX I still recommend AMD for video cards, nvidia is awesome but amd IMO is still the better gfx card but PhysX is awesome and can be used on amd cards. You'll just be capping your CPU instead of your GPU but even on my 3820 (it was expensive when it was first released...) it still plays at a playable 100FPS anything 60FPS> is preferred for gaming.

I'd also recommend Case-Labs cases over anything on the market, well built cases. They make the Tj11 look like an overpriced child's toy.
 
Games are still applications so the better the hardware the better, however 16GB of DDR3 2400 is perfect and a 4770K will be great.

Since you are gaming I'd get 2x MSI BE Lightning 7970GHZ-E gfx cards for video stability if doing multi monitor setups, sure you can run 6 displays off of one gfx card but that's unstable if you're going after max settings on each game. 2-3 cards is preferred but I work with video and that bandwidth is needed. For gaming though you never need more than 2 but that's just an old rule as games are getting heavier on gfx and so gfx card count needs to go up.

If you plan on PHYSX I still recommend AMD for video cards, nvidia is awesome but amd IMO is still the better gfx card but PhysX is awesome and can be used on amd cards. You'll just be capping your CPU instead of your GPU but even on my 3820 (it was expensive when it was first released...) it still plays at a playable 100FPS anything 60FPS> is preferred for gaming.

I'd also recommend Case-Labs cases over anything on the market, well built cases. They make the Tj11 look like an overpriced child's toy.
Dude, seriously? Did you not read what his budget is? And where the OP is from?
 
Games are still applications so the better the hardware the better, however 16GB of DDR3 2400 is perfect and a 4770K will be great.

Since you are gaming I'd get 2x MSI BE Lightning 7970GHZ-E gfx cards for video stability if doing multi monitor setups, sure you can run 6 displays off of one gfx card but that's unstable if you're going after max settings on each game. 2-3 cards is preferred but I work with video and that bandwidth is needed. For gaming though you never need more than 2 but that's just an old rule as games are getting heavier on gfx and so gfx card count needs to go up.

If you plan on PHYSX I still recommend AMD for video cards, nvidia is awesome but amd IMO is still the better gfx card but PhysX is awesome and can be used on amd cards. You'll just be capping your CPU instead of your GPU but even on my 3820 (it was expensive when it was first released...) it still plays at a playable 100FPS anything 60FPS> is preferred for gaming.

I'd also recommend Case-Labs cases over anything on the market, well built cases. They make the Tj11 look like an overpriced child's toy.

a bit too expensive for my budget :/ but thanks anyway

I'm sorry for all these questions on the GPU but what do you think about the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X? (http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&psn=&lid=1&leg=0)

Also the 660Tis seem to be quite similar to the 7950s and some of them are even cheaper. What would you prefer personally?

Thanks again
 
Actually the MSI GTX670 OC Power Edition looks even better and it's at the same price as the Sapphire Vapor.. (sorry can't post a link cause im on my phone)
 
a bit too expensive for my budget :/ but thanks anyway

I'm sorry for all these questions on the GPU but what do you think about the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X? (http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&psn=&lid=1&leg=0)

Also the 660Tis seem to be quite similar to the 7950s and some of them are even cheaper. What would you prefer personally?

Thanks again

I'd personally try to shoot for the 7970GHZ edition, if you're just gaming your GPU should usually be your most expensive component.
 
I'd personally try to shoot for the 7970GHZ edition, if you're just gaming your GPU should usually be your most expensive component.

The 670 I referred to sometimes ranks higher than the 7970 and it's cheaper.. so I don't know yet
 
If you're thinking about a multi-GPU setup, then Nvidia is currently your choice, as tests on [H] have repeatedly shown. A 660 Ti will do fine for 1080p and a second will give you a considerable boost.
 
So many options haha.

So, which do you think is better:

2x 660 Ti
1x 670 Factory OC
1x 7950 Factory OC

These are the cards in my budget right now
 
I'd go for 1 card now - the best you can afford - and another in 6 months when prices have come down.
 
Well the HIS 7950 Iceq X2 is very similar to a stock GTX 670 so probably I'll go with it since it is still around 30-50 euros cheaper and I'm not a big fan of overclocking. Do you think it's a good choice?
 
I still do not think HIS is a good choice unless it is significantly cheaper than ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte cards.

Also are you getting a new case?
 
Cards in a similar price range to it are

ASUS: http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90480227/asus-hd7950-dc2-3gd5-v2.asp
MSI: http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90499131/msi-r7950-twinfrozr3.asp
Gigabyte: http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90449458/gigabyte-radeon-hd7950-oc-3gb-ddr5.asp
and there's also the Sapphire: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1547&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

On the ASUS one I couldn't find any reviews and the other 2 performed worse than the HIS..

Or otherwise for a few euros more there's the MSI GTX670 but again I can't find any reviews (http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90462639/msi-geforce-n670gtx-pm2d2gd5-oc-2gb5.asp)

For a case I'm thinking about something like this:

http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/case/mid-tower/elite-334u.html

do you think it's good enough? it's not that expensive so maybe I can choose something a bit more expensive. This one is around 85 euros from Malta
 
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I still recommend the MSI or Gigabyte. HIS' history of poor customer support outweighs whatever performance advantage they may have. However between GTX 670 and HD 7950 3GB, I'd go with the MSI GTX 670 if you can afford it.

As for the case, that Coolermaster isn't good enough. Not to mention a tad pricey considering that the better quality and better cooling Corsair 200R is cheaper:
http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90492054/corsair-carbide-200r.asp
 
Yeah I'm seriously thinking about the 670 since it's even better than an overclocked 7950 and with ocing it can probably surpass even the 7970.

Thanks for the link to the case. It's true it's cheaper and it even looks better.

Thanks again for all the advice and patience haha
 
Sorry to revive this thread but I found that the Palit GTX 770 Jet-Stream is only a few euros more expensive than the MSI 670 Power Edition. Is it worth it? I haven't heard a lot about the brand but apart from that all the reviews I found are positive and performance wise it's actually better than the 680 and the 7970
 
Those are some insane cases.
Don't mean to troll post. But, damn man. Thanks for posting.
I have never seen case-lab before.
 
YES! Get that GTX 770! It is totally worth it over the GTX 670.
 
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