New Desktop PC

T

Tobias Rieper

Member
Hello,

I'm looking to buy a new desktop PC. I live in the UK.

My current PC is now 7 years old.

It will be used for gaming, but not extreme gaming. I have a PS3 for games.

Requirements:

Price range - £500 to £700 (just the tower only - I have keyboard, mouse etc)
Intel or AMD
i5/i7
Fast processor - quad core
good graphics
8GB
Windows 7/8

What does everyone recommend?
 
What do you guys think? (Shall I opt for the Blu-Ray drive?)


Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® Z87M-PLUS: m-ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6.0, XFIRE

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY

Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

£751.00 inc VAT and Delivery
 
Last edited:
Pounds in the UK, not Euros. :P

OK, my recommendations:

1 - get an i5 4670K - better at overclocking.

2 - go for an ATX motherboard. Look at the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H or perhaps or the equivalent ASUS.

3 - the GTX 660 is old. Look at the GTX 760 now, or the Radeon R9 270/270X.

4 - I'd get a higher wattage PSU. Look at the Corsair CX600M. Semi-modular and 600W.

I would recommend you build yourself. Novatech.co.uk is a good place to buy parts from. I take it your budget is about £800 or so? That's a decent amount - the parts I posted could probably be purchased with that money.
 
spirit said:
Pounds in the UK, not Euros. :P

OK, my recommendations:

1 - get an i5 4670K - better at overclocking.

2 - go for an ATX motherboard. Look at the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H or perhaps or the equivalent ASUS.

3 - the GTX 660 is old. Look at the GTX 760 now, or the Radeon R9 270/270X.

4 - I'd get a higher wattage PSU. Look at the Corsair CX600M. Semi-modular and 600W.

I would recommend you build yourself. Novatech.co.uk is a good place to buy parts from. I take it your budget is about £800 or so? That's a decent amount - the parts I posted could probably be purchased with that money.
Click to expand...

Cheers guys,

I'm a newbie at this, however, I have read, researched and googled alot, so I know what I want, its just finding the right place ie PC Specialist, Dell, Amazon etc and then finding all you want ie choosing parts and for the right price...and also compatibility etc, thats where I am weak.

I know I want an Intel Core i5 4670k 3.4GHz processor
I know I need 8GB RAM
I know I ideally require NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 760 graphics
I know I want 1TB memory
I know the power supply must be between 450-650w ?
I know I need a fan cooler of some nature ?
I know I need an OS Windows 7 or even 8.1 64 bit ?

Bearing all this in mind above, what do you guys think I should do?

ie Partpicker, Novatach, PC Specalist, Dino PC, NewEgg, Dell, Amazon ???

(My last desktop PC purchase was 7 years ago and off the shelf - HP 7670)
 
I'd honestly recommend going to Novatech.co.uk, ordering the parts from somewhere like them (or Overclockers.co.uk) and building it all yourself.

You'll save so much money but gain experience and have fun. :)

I'm building a PC again for a client in a couple of days and I can't wait. I haven't done it for a while. :)
 
Thanks Spirit.

Have a butchers at this:

Price: £771.00 inc. VAT

Gigadon 4670K

Standard Specification:

CPU: NEW! Intel Core i5 4670K
CPU Overclocking: 4.1Ghz - Mild overclock
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS5X Performa
Operating System: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-HD3
RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: Zalman Z11
PSU: 550W Corsair VS
Warranty: 3 Year SureCare Warranty

This appears to meet all my requirements?

btw, how do I pick and choose on the Novatech website, it just brings me up machines that I dont wish for when I filter?
 
Last edited:
Yeah that looks like a decent config.

And on Novatech, you buy all of the parts separately. The pre-built machines which they sell are 'as is' really - they can;t be changed. But you can buy all the individual parts and then assemble them yourself when they turn up at your doorstep. :)

Their PC Components section can be viewed here http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/
 
Cheers Spirit, I can see you're very experienced/qualified at this. Sadly, I am not and I could never assemble the parts and build it once they came. It would have to be all done for me! :)
 
Tobias Rieper said:
Cheers Spirit, I can see you're very experienced/qualified at this. Sadly, I am not and I could never assemble the parts and build it once they came. It would have to be all done for me! :)
Click to expand...

Rubbish! :P It's easy! Honestly, just watch a few videos on YouTube and you'll see how easy it is.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+assemble+a+computer+step+by+step&sm=3

Honestly, it's not as hard as everybody thinks and you'll save money. You'll learn a lot too. You'll make some errors and go wrong, but there's people, like us, willing to help you out. :)

I wholeheartedly recommend it.
 
spirit said:
So you're going to build it yourself now? ;)
Click to expand...

I will definitely pick and choose the parts, but will probably get the experts to assemble this time around even if it costs me a bit extra. I'm picking up tonnes of info though, my brain hurts.

I was wondering, from watching those youtube links of 'building a PC' by Newegg.

I always used to download drivers from the ATI (AMD) website, but these were the graphics drivers only.

I don't really remember downloading/updating any other drivers when I got my PC, albeit 7 years ago and todate.

Is the reason for this because pre-built you don't really need to as such (maybe bar graphics?) and that, 'build your own', you have to do this before you commence?

I must admit, this procedure i.e. before windows updates, after, before logging onto the internet etc worried me a bit, this is when I started to get a little confused :confused:
 
It's quite simple installing drivers on a custom-built machine. Usually the motherboard comes with a driver CD. Once it's all built and you've installed Windows, install the drivers on that disc. Then go and do your graphics drivers etc (probably best to download those from the manufacturer though so you get the newest drivers).

Really, you don't need to pay 'experts' to build it. It's easy to do it yourself. You've been watching those videos, you've seen it's not too difficult, right? ;)

Many people think of it like a big Lego set. :P
 
Lads,

Thanks for being patient.

Have to bother you again.

Out of interest, look here:

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW...0K-94p1724.htm

The only thing I would change here is the GPU to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB

I'm not really interested in the overclocking, so I would go with just the 4670.

Upgrading the above GPU and downgrading the CPU slightly, equates to approx £756....

It is a UK based company in London NW10.

I have researched them and read the reviews on Trust Pilot, it looks good.

Looking at all those specs and comparing them to all the other UK based companies, you do get bang for your buck as the rest come out at £900-£1000.

Please tell me what you think, especially in terms of compatibility issues?

Many thanks

Cheers
 
It looks good. Definitely replace the GTX 660 with a 760 though - thank yourself later. ;)

Usually with these pre-built machines you have to be a bit careful about what components they use, but these guys seem to use good parts. The power supply is usually what they end up cheaping out on, but this one has a decent one. You should be able to get away with a 550W Corsair and be fine. Maybe upgrade to a 600W if you can.
 
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