Building a new gaming rig - (£650-700 budget)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£156.87 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£36.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£109.04 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£189.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£54.62 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£12.50 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£69.32 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £820.44
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 17:08 GMT+0000)

I realize it's £70 over the budget, but you didn't specify if you needed an OS.

Here's what I would do:
Take the stock fans and put them both in the front. This gives you 2x120mm front intake. Take the CM CPU cooler and mount it in the rear as an exhaust, this gives you 1x120mm exhaust. Mount your PSU with the fan inside the case, that'll provide around half a 120mm, which all in all gives you a very balanced airflow.
 
Last edited:
Thanks very much for the reply, looks a pretty solid build, reckon id have to take it to someone who can build it because that sounded like french lol..
Is the solid state drive really necessary with the TB hard drive? because if it isnt i could take it out and cut down on some money spent, but if not i reckon i could wiggle the budget a little:)

thanks again!
 
SSD is only necessary if you want fast boot times and programs to run quickly. If you've got the money, by all means get one. I love 'em. :good:

I appreciate a lot of people here like PC Part Picker because it allows you get the cheapest prices, but I would always recommend buying from one store if you can. It just makes it so much easier if you ever need to send anything back, and you know it will all arrive together. :)

Not used Scan myself but I've heard they're not so good. Aria is meant to be OK. I actually like and use Novatech.co.uk myself. Whenever I've ordered from them, even with free delivery I've had it next day. :good: You could take a look at Overclockers.co.uk too. They're based up in Newcastle-under-Lyme I believe.

The GTX 760 is a good card but I think I'd go for a Radeon R9 270X instead if this is for gaming. It's about the same speed I think but is usually cheaper. They're good cards.

Maybe save on the CPU and motherboard by dropping the i5 and the Z87 board and instead going for an AMD FX-8320 and a 990FXA board. You wouldn't lose a lot of performance but your build would be cheaper. The Gigabyte GA-990FAX-UD3 would be a nice board to get if you go AMD. Alternatively, even the 970 boards are good.

You could put more money into the case that way. Maybe get yourself a Corsair 200R or a 300R or something a bit nicer than the Source 210. You could also afford a better graphics card maybe. So take a look.

You could also save money by getting rid of the aftermarket cooler. You don't need that right away unless overclocking. Save £37 - put it towards case or graphics card instead.

By making those changes you'd probably get a better gaming rig overall.
 
I use SSDs, and I'll never go back. It's a must for me now.
In regards to PCPartpicker, I have no idea about which e-tailers that are good in England, but PCPP gives you a list of all the stores that sell the item. I also think there's an option to keep it for one store only, but I can't use that when I don't know which to pick.

I really would buy the CPU cooler tho, but it's different. I'm used to them costing £50, so when I see it at £37 it's a done deal. And regardless of AMD or Intel, the stock coolers are bad.
Recently built a PC at work. i5-3570 (non-K) with a stock cooler. Ran some stress test (OCCT Linpack AVX) and it broke 90C (made sure it was seated alright)
A few days later the CM Hyper 212 Evo arrived, installed it and it didn't go above 65C. And the 212 Evo was dead silent.
 
Interesting. I have an i5-3570 and stock cooler and I have the alarm in the BIOS set at 60C. Never heard the alarm, so far so good. I don't know how much stress I gave the system while using it.

I don't play the extensive games or video editing so I guess I'm just a casual user and I'm safe. Only 3D game I play is Duke Nukem 3D, yea I know old but I like it for the easy controls. :)
 
I appreciate that the stock coolers aren't great, but I've built several machines now using Intel CPUs and those pathetic coolers and they're all OK (i5 760, i3 3220, i7 3770 - all ran/running fine). He can save £37 by not buying one - the £37 could go towards a stronger graphics card or a better case. If he got a better case, he'd have better cooling and airflow anyway - meaning his CPU would run cooler.
 
Interesting. I have an i5-3570 and stock cooler and I have the alarm in the BIOS set at 60C. Never heard the alarm, so far so good. I don't know how much stress I gave the system while using it.

I don't play the extensive games or video editing so I guess I'm just a casual user and I'm safe. Only 3D game I play is Duke Nukem 3D, yea I know old but I like it for the easy controls. :)

OCCT puts the most stress on an Intel CPU in my experience. Also uses 90% RAM. You should try and run it for an hour and see your temps, I'm sure they would go above 60C.
I'm also a bit of a silence freak to be honest, and my main issue with stock coolers is the noise. They work of course, otherwise they wouldn't be shipped with the CPU.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£156.87 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£36.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£109.04 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.50 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£189.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£54.62 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£12.50 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) (£69.32 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £820.44
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-04 17:08 GMT+0000)

I realize it's £70 over the budget, but you didn't specify if you needed an OS.

Here's what I would do:
Take the stock fans and put them both in the front. This gives you 2x120mm front intake. Take the CM CPU cooler and mount it in the rear as an exhaust, this gives you 1x120mm exhaust. Mount your PSU with the fan inside the case, that'll provide around half a 120mm, which all in all gives you a very balanced airflow.

mount the psu fan inside????? no ofcourse not it has to by on the bottom.
it wont do that much for airflow, and we all no what whe do, o just do this quick and we go in the pc, turn louse a screw, it fall in the psu, done no psu.
 
I agree with turbo. If your case allows it the psu should be intaking air from outside. Its much more important to keep a psu cool than a case cool. Just add another 120mm fan instead, they're cheap.

Also, what games are you intending to play and at what resolution?
 
Games like Borderlands 2, BF4 and games like that, looking for a kind of gaming pc for the best possible gaming experience..Im not really great at building so if any one of you guys could give me like a list of parts that cost as close to 750 and would give me the optimum gaming that would be great.

All of you guys help is greatly appreciated:D
 
Games like Borderlands 2, BF4 and games like that, looking for a kind of gaming pc for the best possible gaming experience..Im not really great at building so if any one of you guys could give me like a list of parts that cost as close to 750 and would give me the optimum gaming that would be great.

All of you guys help is greatly appreciated:D

Use Jiniix list but drop SSd and cooler
 
I prefer mounting the PSU with the fan inside because it draws air away from the GPU.
Sure the air may be a bit hotter than if it came from the outside, but quality PSUs (Corsair, Fractal Design, Seasonic etc) earn their rating with hot air anyway (50C+), and it saves you from cleaning the dust filter behind+under your PC, leaving the only intakes on the front, easily accessible.
I also think that the budget should be wiggled to keep the SSD yeah. Take an old PC and add an SSD and it feels like a brand new PC. Worth it.
 
Last edited:
Thanks again guys for the help, ill take Jiniix's build and try to wiggle the cost down a little bit (cheaper SSD), and ill take it to a local company to help me to build it, thanks again you guys have been a great help!
 
Back
Top