Help Chrissy Build his New PC!

[Chrissy]

Help Chrissy build his new PC!

Hello PERPHeads, as some of you will already know, I am wanting to build a nice new machine since my lovely laptop is on its last legs and I finally game enough to justify the cost of a desktop PC.

So, I thought; why not let you guys help?
I'm planning on updating this thread periodically as time goes by with changes/progress etc. The parts will be bought over the period of a couple of months due to cash flow and then assembled in one sitting. What I want you guys to do is give me tips, advice and help me build the best machine for me.
-- INFORMATION --
I want to build a PC, that will be mainly used for gaming (GMod, CS:GO, Battlefield, GTA etc), school work and general tomfoolery.

-- THE PARTS --
These are the parts I plan to buy and will change. Those in non bolded italics are ones that i'm planning on changing or those that i'm not too sure about. Once i've bought them, they will be struck out.

Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad Core Processor
MSI H81M-E34 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Asus GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

You can see the parts here

CURRENT ESTIMATED COST: £433.96

-- WHAT I STILL NEED --
Some kind of powerline adapter( 2 floors between the router and my room)
Monitor(s)
Friends
Keyboard
Mouse
A new headset
An operating system (not a problem, can get it cheap)


-- UPDATES --​

08/06/2015: Upon the wise words of @ArnoldGerkin I have replaced the Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz with an Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz.​

​

 

[MattIs]

Good job with choosing an intel! Best around!

In terms of your headset, ive had the Mad Catz Strike Headset for a year and its one of the best purchases ive ever made. Nice drivers, sturdy construction and fantastic surroundsound. But on a budget, steelseries headsets are a great choice!

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I recommend getting a Razor Mouse. When my brother bought one I thought it looked ugly but they're actually really good for grip and it helps when playing FPS games.

Mine is very similar to this but in red.

 

[Standish]

Get a 750 Watt power supply

 

[danny]

For a monitor, I recently bought a Finlux 32HBD274B-N 32-Inch HD Ready LED TV (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finlux-32HB...8&qid=1433787852&sr=8-1&keywords=32+finlux+tv). Its a cheap, big, reliable T.V. It has 2 HDMI ports, 1 Scart Port, A USB Port, Headphone output port and a VGA port.

 

[netroak]

Instead of the 650, use a GTX 770, also your psu needs more watts

 

[Creepis]

Very dench build for the price, you get the most bang out of the buck with this one for sure, Chrissy.
I don't have any suggestions really, if you want to upgrade in the future you might want to get a 750W power supply (or a bit lower). Word of advice, never cheap out on power supplys, cheap ones tend to blow up and can cause some very nasty injuries or other things you may not want as for this one (not my picture mkay)

EVGA and Corsair are good enough, so you are pretty much rock solid with that PSU choice of yours.

As for PC builds, I am also planning on building my own one. Already got the parts here, please tell me if there are any cheaper/better alternatives, price: 578,73 Euro's , PSU is only around 450 Watt as I am pretty confident not to upgrade after around 2 years (can't be arsed to make my own thread too)

 

[Deleted member 5920]

I accidentally bought 16GB of RAM cause I got confused, maybe sure when it says 8GB of RAM it doesn't mean x2.

As for monitors, ask Ayjay, he has a good monitor, he's got the link.

 

[Chrissy]

Update 9/6/2015:
Added
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter and Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black. I'll probably change the card to a 660 when I get home. If a kind mod could update the OP I'd be grateful, if not then I'll do it when I get home.

Price: £490.71

 

[BooingBison]

Add like a 64GB Sandisk SSD just for the extremely fast booting times.
It doesn't cost that much but it adds a lot of speed to your system.
You'll regret buying a HDD only, I can ensure you will.
I've had a HDD for 6 years, everything went so slow, that I spent 300 euros on an SSD and new HDD.
http://www.sandisk.nl/products/ssd/sata/standard/?capacity=64GB

I also suggest you get another GPU, like a 750Ti. In this time, 1 GB is not nearly enough to play a game. You need at least 2 GB for most modern games to run at 60 fps.

Also, if you ever plan on adding more storage, you'll need to get a new motherboard or a RAID controller.

And believe me, I've got some knowledge about PC's so I know what I'm talking about.

 

[The Strange Deranged Mage]

Nice to see that I'm not the only one here with a $500 machine.

 

[Chrissy]

This is wildly out of date so I'll update it later. Build cost is now around £670.

 

[JC Denton]

Some kind of powerline adapter

?

You mean an Ethernet cable right?

 

[Chrissy]

So, uh. I kinda neglected this thread a bit. Woops.
Here's the finalised version of the parts that I have/will buy.

The pictures below are just packaging, knowing my fat fingers I'll break something if I take it out to take photos. The boxes have been opened just to check that it's all there and hasn't been broken in transit, the only component that has photos is the RAM as that only arrived today.

Spoiler: Zalman Z9 Case Picture

I am so pleased with this case it's unreal. It comes with space for up to 9 fans, a sturdy build quality and finish and a sleek, yet striking design. And it cost less than £40. I <3 Zalman.

Spoiler: MSI H81M-E34 Mobo Picture

This isn't the world's best motherboard and only has two slots for RAM but with RAM kits coming in formats of 2x8gb nowadays, who needs more than two? It seems sturdy and with MSI being a reputable brand and the fact that it comes with a decent warranty i'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Spoiler: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze PSU Picture

Fairly standard to be honest. A cheap yet fairly efficient PSU from a decent company that should provide more than enough power for what i'm planning to build.

Spoiler: 2x4GB Kingston HyperX Fury RAM Pictures

Fairly standard 1600MHz(I think? Might be more) RAM modules with a very sexy design indeed.

Spoiler: Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD Picture

It's a decent 1TB HDD from Seagate. I am buying an SSD, probably 250GB in capacity. I didn't ever fill 500GB so 1TB should be enough... right?

Spoiler: Corsair K30 Wired Keyboard Picture

So, some of you fucks *cough* @Alex_:D *cough* may be thinking "Ermaguuurd not mechanical, chrissy must be a pleb" but the simple fact is that I don't like mechanical keyboards. Granted I haven't used them for more than a day or so but my experiences with 2 mechanical keyboards haven't been that great. Not being a massive hardcore gamer I don't really give a shit about the fact that mechanical switches are more sensitive than rubber dome keyboards, they feel weird under my fingers and I'm not a fan of the noise. Mechanical keyboards simply aren't for me but I can see why some people prefer them. So, I settled with this. It's cheap, decent build quality and comes with a numpad and a few macro keys making it perfect for a less prolific gamer like me. The backlight is great and as red is the accent colour in my bedroom it fits in quite nicely. However for those of you that love LEDs ( i know you're out there), the next model up comes with interchangeable colours on each key.

Spoiler: EVGA GTX 960 4GB SuperSC Graphics Card Pictures

It's a 4GB 960. Not much to say really. Should do the trick for me to be honest, it has a decent clock speed that I can't remember off the top of my head, I'm not sure what makes it "Super superclocked" but hey ho, we'll see if it makes a difference later on.