Need help picking parts for new PC

F

Funkygodzilla

New Member
I have roughly a 1400 dollar budget and would prefer to spend around this amount or close to as possible.

Some general stuff about the setup, well firstly this will be my first custom built PC, I will probably end up at a computer shop with someone helping me build it.

want lots of ram like 12-16 or so, I realize 8 is fine but I'm looking to invest in a bit more so it lasts awhile who knows if I will want to host a server or something for a game.

prefer to stick with nvidia cards

had bad experience with liquid cooling so would like to go with a normal fan

i5 or i7? I don't even know, I guess I always prefer later more advanced stuff but again would love to keep this in budget target.

I'm not that great with pc's and don't understand the whole "overclocking" stuff so I would prefer to avoid that and build a pc that doesn't need that done for maximum potential compared to standard speeds.

Also solid state drive? I never had one but heard they were great so worth investing in? anything I should know?

basically if you had 1.4 k, what would you build with these guidelines for a quality gaming pc? want to run cry engine, league, lots of big world multiplayer games, etc.

Thanks for the help if you choose to respond.
 
I would use www.pcpartpicker.com

Get an i7 Haswell.

Gigabyte makes good boards. They have dual BIOS in case one messes up. I think ASUS has that too though. Gigabyte boards use extra copper and I guess their Caps are good too.

SSDs are better than a platter. Just make sure you delete the partition and format with the Windows OS installer. This should keep the drive aligned. Before installing the OS go into BIOS and set AHCI on. You might want to get an extra 1 TB platter. Western Digital black is what I'd get. You can use AS SSD to check if the SSD is aligned. Never defrag a SSD! You don't have to anyway. SSDs are different compared to a platter. Make sure you click properties of the SSD and uncheck auto defrag.

You will want a good GPU. I would look at the minimum specs of those games and come up with a card. Use this website, pick a title and select view requirements. The automatic check uses ActiveX and is not always right. http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

To find what wattage PSU you need try this website. Add at least 15% capacitor aging if you plan on keeping your PSU for a while. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp


Since you don't want to go liquid cooling I'd use a Hyper 212 Evo. Make sure the case you pick can fit it.

Well, I was picking parts and lost the damn page. On the video card and based on those games you could get by with a GTX 680. But to future prof things consider a GTX 960. I see a 4GB GTX 960 EVGA for around $250. Not too bad. At Newegg it had a 15 five star rating. I was up to around $900 bucks minus the OS, case, and optical drive. I chose the Haswell i7 4790k as the CPU.

Here's the GPU. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487128&cm_re=GTX_960-_-14-487-128-_-Product

As for the server idea you should use a dedicated PC for that. If you are gaming and hosting a server at the same time the CPU could spike and produce lag on the server. I would go to www.webhostingtalk.com and look in their dedicated gaming server subforum and research what host is best. On average a 10 slot player server is around $10 a month. If you host your own server at home you also need a fast upload on your Internet connection. Probably no less than 750 KbPS depending on how many players you allow on the server. Go to www.speedtest.net and measure your current speed. If WIFI is your current Internet connection I would not use that to host a server.
 
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thanks for the reply. I will probably end up going with the gtx 960 because yes i would love to be able to play pretty much any new game for at least a few years and 'future proof'



as for the SSD, I keep hearing they are amazing. but this whole 'delete the partition' and 'format' etc is like alien language to me unfortunately. I still would like to do this but it might be one of those things I need someone to help me with so I don't ruin an expensive piece of machinery.

currently posting from safe mode because normal mode won't even start without a blue screen of death. I've had problems before with the cooling of the gpu about a year ago and I think this computer is just about finished, I kind of been wanting to upgrade the graphics card anyway so It's a good time and excuse to start fresh i guess.

would you recommend windows 8 slapped on all this?

Also I got stuck at "sockets" unfortunately at the power supply calc, i'm pretty much a total noob at this.

I'm pretty much looking for a list of stuff to buy for the budget, I'm not at all opposed to learning about computers though I'm hoping to be involved with building the computer but I'm pretty confident I couldn't do it myself.
 
For the CPU socket to use in the calculator just Google "what type of socket does the i7 4790k use." That's the best advice I can give on finding out what socket a CPU uses. The Haswell i7 4790k is a LGA 1150 BTW. So pick a mother board and CPU cooler that supports LGA 1150. The Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler would be what I would get. It is very popular too!

It's not hard to erase and format the SSD. When you first install Windows the option will be there. As far as OS choice I personally like Windows 7. But others may say use Windows 8.1. I think 8.1 has the start button back. If not you could use Startisback or Classic Shell. Pretty freaking stupid to make an OS an App. I have no need for 8 so I stick with 7.

Since you're new to building a computer I would read as much as you can on the net on how to build a computer to get tips. I believe there's a sticky here on that. One thing a PC shop told me was that beginners fail to install the stand offs in the case for the motherboard. So make sure you screw in the stand offs otherwise you will short your board out. The motherboard manual will have all the info. you need pretty much. My bro built his first PC back in '07 and he's not as computer savvy. I was surprised.

I could give the pcpartpicker another shot. Just sucks I lost the parts list. Others may have different opinions on what to get. $1400 is a nice budget. I wouldn't skimp out on the GPU or CPU.
 
I'm landing on a build something like this. what think?

Intel Core i7 4790 4ghz quad-core
(280$ micro center)

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
(120$ newegg)

MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
(322$ amazon)

Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
(100$)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
(50$)

how is this build looking so far? any suggestions on current or additional parts?
 
Get the 4790K.

Get a Samsung 850 EVO and go with 250GB (thank yourself later! ;) )

Try and get 1866MHz or faster RAM (usually a tiny bit more expensive).

What motherboard are you going for?
 
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/d7NLnQ

Chose the Radeon R9 280X because of the price:performance over the GTX 970 but it's personal preference.

Left some extra $$$ to choose GPU & peripherals..

> by quincidence I agree with Spirit, adding my favorite Z97 board.
 
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Here's the parts list I put together. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GFDCkL

I'm particular with cases so you might want to change that. I would get a case that has USB 3.0 front connectors. I like mid tower, but others may like full tower. I chose a Blu-ray drive, but if you don't need that than a DVD/RW could suffice. Antec is a good PSU maker and that is what I got. I chose a Gold certified PSU and it's a 650 watt which would be plenty.

Here's the case. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Be sure to click each part and then click the Newegg link. Read the reviews.

On getting faster RAM than 1600 it's really not needed. You have money to spare if you want to. I would argue a lower CAS is better. I guess DDR4 isn't out yet?

Here's an updated parts list with 1866 speed RAM. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/d6HfjX

I'm not sure if the Evo 212 cooler will get in the way of the RAM. But the the Ripjaws are cheaper and have a CAS of 9 which would be faster. If there is clearance get these. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
 
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On your Blue screen. Have you updated the GPU driver? Use Driver sweeper and install a new driver if that's the case. http://www.guru3d.com/content-page/guru3d-driver-sweeper.html

You can use Whocrashed to give you an indication on what crashed the computer. http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Did you install any hardware or software prior to the crashing? Most BSODs are hardware or driver related. If all else fails and you have the OS disk you could do a repair install. But system restore is what I'd try first. What OS are you using? Actually, a repair install wouldn't do much if the problematic driver is still there causing the BSODs. System restore might be the better option.

You say your PC is on its way out, but unless it's the mother board I wouldn't give hope up. I know I could fix it. I was just given an old Dell Latitude C640 and when you pressed the power button the caps lock light would blink 10 times. Did a little research and found out it was most likely RAM. I removed the RAM, reseated several times and finally got the PC to boot. The laptop has many port options plus the old serial port and one USB port. I can use it for old legacy hardware. All hope is not lost when I mess with computers. If it was the motherboard I would have bought one on ebay. I'm sure they're not that expensive.
 
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Wow awesome parts list, this looks almost perfect for my needs and i will save the hundred or two dollars I will probably need to pay someone to help me put the thing together. the video card not having any reviews on that site makes me a bit skeptical but I might just be paranoid. overall I love this list I will basically use this as my base list for now.

As for when it crashed. nothing really changed that I can think of, I plugged in a webcam the day prior and was testing the cam out on omegle and skype (recently downloaded, although I had this program before on this pc and it didn't cause any problems to my knowledge)

A day later I was playing some torchlight 2 when out of nowhere screen freeze, blue pixel artifacts appeared on screen. screen wen't black. can't get on normal mode at all insta bluescreen with artifacts

other things I was doing was listening to a youtube video in the background


other then that no major changes to anything.
 
I was originally commenting on smiths but c4's looks great too, similar but also looks good. I don't know what to do now. I always kind of had brand loyalty with nvidia and might stick with it even if it's a tad less powerful, the reviews seem to be more varied for the 280x unless i'm looking at wrong thing.
 
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I prefer C4C's build - has a more powerful GPU (I think) and a better case.

With regards to the AMD vs NVIDIA debate go with whichever you prefer. I've only ever had one AMD card - all the rest I've owned have been NVIDIA. I prefer them, mainly for the drivers. The GTX 970 would be the card to look at. :good:

Remember too that you can get an i5 4690K and then get a GTX 970 or 980 (if you can't afford an i7 and a 970). The i5 is a perfect CPU for gaming.
 
spirit said:
I prefer C4C's build - has a more powerful GPU (I think) and a better case.

With regards to the AMD vs NVIDIA debate go with whichever you prefer. I've only ever had one AMD card - all the rest I've owned have been NVIDIA. I prefer them, mainly for the drivers. The GTX 970 would be the card to look at. :good:

Remember too that you can get an i5 4690K and then get a GTX 970 or 980 (if you can't afford an i7 and a 970). The i5 is a perfect CPU for gaming.
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If I did I probably would go with the 980... but if downgrading to i5 I still feel like the price would be teetering a bit over budget.

how much more power would i7 give me over i5 realistically?
compared to the 980 to 960 gpu?

again sorry I'm a total noob at computers.
 
Great balanced parts list. Faster RAM doesn't make a great deal of difference in gaming but it is most useful in desktop applications as everything loads much quicker.

Realistically an i5 4690k would have pretty similar performance to the i7 4790k in gaming. It would however be far better in editing etc as the 4790k is hyper threaded so it has 8 logical cores whereas the 4690k is not so it only has 4 cores(majority of games use 4 cores).. The 970 is probably your best bet the 980 is more powerful but for 1080p gaming the 970 will be fine.

The 980 is effectively twice as powerful as the 960 so that would be far more noticeable over the i7 vs i5.

Plus, it's pretty easy to build a pc. Save your money paying someone to build it for you and do it yourself :). Use that money to buy a 970 or 980. There are countless guides including a load here.
 
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Funkygodzilla said:
If I did I probably would go with the 980... but if downgrading to i5 I still feel like the price would be teetering a bit over budget.

how much more power would i7 give me over i5 realistically?
compared to the 980 to 960 gpu?

again sorry I'm a total noob at computers.
Click to expand...

The i5 is a very powerful CPU. The major difference between an i5 and an i7 is that the i5 doesn't have hyper-threading whereas the i7 does. That means that whilst the i5 has 4 cores and 4 threads, the i7 has 4 cores and 8 threads. Where the i7 comes in handy is when working with multi-threaded apps such as running virtual machines or rendering graphics or editing video and things like that because those types of applications can take advantage of the extra threads that the i7 has.

For gaming at the moment I believe only a handful of games are truly making use of quad-core CPUs and very few are taking advantage of CPUs with anything above 4 threads, which means that for the vast majority of games out there at the moment there is no, or very little, difference between gameplay on an i5 system and an i7 system.

You'll see a bigger performance increase in games by going from a GTX 960 or a 970 to a 980 than you will be going from an i5 to an i7 I think.

Remember that the 960 is a mid-range card but the 980 is the top-of-line current generation card!

It depends what you want to do with this PC really as to which you choose. If you are faced with the decision between an i7 and a 960 or an i5 and a 980 for gaming, take the i5 and the 980. If it's for video editing or anything like that, take the i7 and the 960. I guess an i7 and a 970 would be a 'sweet spot' that would work really well for most applications if you could afford it, but if you are looking solely at gaming then go i5 and 980.

But the i5 isn't a bad choice for editing and stuff like that. I do video editing and photo editing on my 4 year old i5 2500K (which is overclocked to 4.3GHz) with the latest Adobe software and it works great when paired with an NVIDIA graphics card (GTX 760 4GB) which helps to render. It's just an i7 would be a little faster for that kind of thing because of the extra threads.
 
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It's discouraging when people say it's really easy or it's just like "legos" believe me I was good at legos.... but these would be some darn expensive and fragile legos. I can't understand manually uninstalling drives for example, the more I think about building this the more defeated I feel. is cyberpower really as bad as everyone says it is on this forum? the last pc I had was from them and lasted a good 4-5 years. I was really into the idea of building myself until people post seemingly simple programs I should run to see what's wrong with my computer and I can't even figure out those...
 
after fiddling with the parts a bit I came to this and almost perfectly on budget
minus the disk slot

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HpYJHx

Also would a SSD be highly recommended for gaming or does it simply make loading times faster, if it doesn't actually increase FPS or have better durability longevity I might even want to swap out the SSD, but again i hear they are gangster and all the rage right now so I don't know.

I chose i7 simply because my last machine is/was i7 and wouldn't want to take a step back from that.
 
That looks like a nice build. The only problem with that build is Windows 7 Home. It's limited to 16GB of RAM including any RAM on your video card. So with 16GB of RAM and a 4GB video card Windows 7 would only be able to use 12GB of RAM. You need to get Professional or Ultimate if you want to use Windows 7 with 16GB RAM. :(

However, Windows 8.1 does not have this limitation.

I wouldn't put games on the SSD simply because they eat up a lot of space but what I would do is put the OS and all of your other programs on it. They will load much much quicker than they would do if installed on a traditional hard drive. Games though work fine on HDDs.

CyberPower aren't bad and they are on the better custom-builders you can use, but they are expensive. You can save a lot of money by saving it yourself. Computer parts aren't really that fragile to be honest and there are lots of great tutorials online and on YouTube that would be good starting points. :)
 
spirit said:
That looks like a nice build. The only problem with that build is Windows 7 Home. It's limited to 16GB of RAM including any RAM on your video card. So with 16GB of RAM and a 4GB video card Windows 7 would only be able to use 12GB of RAM. You need to get Professional or Ultimate if you want to use Windows 7 with 16GB RAM. :(

However, Windows 8.1 does not have this limitation.

I wouldn't put games on the SSD simply because they eat up a lot of space but what I would do is put the OS and all of your other programs on it. They will load much much quicker than they would do if installed on a traditional hard drive. Games though work fine on HDDs.

CyberPower aren't bad and they are on the better custom-builders you can use, but they are expensive. You can save a lot of money by saving it yourself. Computer parts aren't really that fragile to be honest and there are lots of great tutorials online and on YouTube that would be good starting points. :)
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Ok this is exactly why I ask and list parts. what is the best option then to keep it around the same budget, if I have to do windows 8.1 I will but i'm going to have to wait a paycheck or two.

Also, I recently was tinkering with stuff trying to figure out the BSOD problem, I uninstalled video card and could run normal mode, after it re-installed however it crashed again, I'm pretty sure my GPU is fried.

I was discouraged but recently talked to a friend who is fairly competent with computers but far from an "expert" so I still don't have a total peace of mind yet but still feel better about trying this myself with his help atleast. although he's never worked with SSD's before and i'm aware that there is some special stuff you need to do with/to these before you get the ball rolling. (i forgot what I read at the top of my head) something about configuring or aligning or something... blah
 
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