Help Spec New Gaming PC Please

[Namsnik]

Looking to build new PC for / with my son. It will be used for gaming mostly, including Watchdogs. He has also backed Star Citizen so when that comes out will be looking to play that. Currently the recommended specs for that are:

Win 8, 64 bit
i5 2500, i7 2600, 2700 or better with a GTX 670 or greater.
And for a smooth experience at Maximum settings at 1080p, a R9 290x or GTX 780 will be required (a GTX 680/R9 280x will likely therefore very likely achieve high comfortably).

We hope to re-use:
Screen Mouse Keyboard and one of these power supplies if they will do the job?
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Or
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
2tb Hard drive
Blu-Ray Drive

Budget will be £600 to £700. This is what we came up with so far but really don't know what we are doing

Windows 8.1 student £49.99
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 WindForce 3x OC Rev2 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £173.99
Case with front ports at the top £35
Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £157.99
Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
Total £592.95


What is difference between the processor above and this one with a K in the name? Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
And he is also thinking he could make do with this graphics card for the next few months hoping to get better value in a few months.
HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M)

We would be most grateful for your suggestion about all of this. Would love to order today or tomorrow as that is his birthday

 

[Doomedspeed]

Hi,

Ill answer your questions first.

Those PSU's are great to reuse, both are good quality.

The difference between the 4670 and the 4670k is an unlocked multiplier, which means the K series can eb overclocked pretty easily, where the 4670's (non-K's) can't be.

The 7850 isn't a bad card but you may not need to use it, i've came up with 2 build, one top end, one bottom end. You can mix and match too.

This is the top end budget build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Windowed Tower Case - Black £44.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £642.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).



R9 290 GPU and Overclockable K series CPU. Should max out most games.

Case has I/O panels on the top but the front. I picked this case due to better airflow for the CPU and GPU.

Lower budget build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £155.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £513.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Non-K CPU.

R9 280 should still manage Max (high) settings.

Case with I/O's on top. But sacrificing Ariflow, though it should be okay for a non-OC CPU and a 280.

 

[Namsnik]

Thanks Doomedspeed I don't think he will overclock. So could he rely on the stock cooler, especially if he gets a case with ok cooling?

Despite what we said about the position of the i/o panel he is also looking at the Zalman Z1 Midi-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £30.95. No idea what it is really like but it has filters, fans and USB3.0 in the front panel. Do you know how that compares?

Need to ponder the graphics options more - big difference in £ - trying to work out the real life impact

(and I mustn't forget thermal paste lol)

 

[Doomedspeed]

Thanks Doomedspeed I don't think he will overclock. So could he rely on the stock cooler, especially if he gets a case with ok cooling?

Despite what we said about the position of the i/o panel he is also looking at the Zalman Z1 Midi-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £30.95. No idea what it is really like but it has filters, fans and USB3.0 in the front panel. Do you know how that compares?

Need to ponder the graphics options more - big difference in £ - trying to work out the real life impact

(and I mustn't forget thermal paste lol)

If he's not OCing you can drop from the K version and maybe drop the cooler, the only thing i don't like about the stock cooler is the noise but its bearable i guess.

I think the best case for him would be the Z3, the cooling isn't as good as the Z9 but for the money it has more features. The cooling is more than good enough for the rig though.

The case also has a PSU filter as does the Z1.

The stock cooler comes with pre-installed thermal paste, as do most aftermarket coolers.

So it looks like this now:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £155.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Zalman Z3 Midi-Tower - Black £34.99
Total : £493.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Namsnik]

Thanks again have ordered that except for the graphics card which we will think about a bit more (and hope for a nice offer to make the decision easier).
Will image the hard drive tonight and try to figure out the best way to clean install Win 8.1 without losing steam and itunes libraries.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Thanks again have ordered that except for the graphics card which we will think about a bit more (and hope for a nice offer to make the decision easier).

Good choices.

Im going to be honest, thats the best price i've seena R9 280 at (i know the MSI gaming is the same price but the windforce is MUCH better card) and i don't think they'll be getting much cheaper. Unless you pick up an older gen card secondhand (but there only the 7970 and GTX 680 which are better than the R9 280.

 

[Namsnik]

Good choices.

Im going to be honest, thats the best price i've seena R9 280 at (i know the MSI gaming is the same price but the windforce is MUCH better card) and i don't think they'll be getting much cheaper. Unless you pick up an older gen card secondhand (but there only the 7970 and GTX 680 which are better than the R9 280.

Thanks - he is still wondering if the R9 290 is worth the extra £100.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Thanks - he is still wondering if the R9 290 is worth the extra £100.

It is and it isn't.

If you want MAX FPS on everything at 1080p it is.

If you just want HIGH FPS at 1080p the 280 will suffice.