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What do you guys think of this build?
I am a complete beginner when it comes to PC building, planning on building my first computer in a few months. I have made a build, have no idea if it's good or not. Here it is :
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.49 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£114.12 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.62 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.09 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£264.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£62.99 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor (£115.07 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £906.32
I picked only Amazon for ease of buying, and it wasn't that much more expensive, so why not. I also have a question, do I need a sound card or not? Thank you!
(Just like to add if there is anyway to make it cheaper and still pretty good please tell me!)
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.49 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£114.12 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.62 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.09 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£264.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£62.99 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor (£115.07 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £906.32
I picked only Amazon for ease of buying, and it wasn't that much more expensive, so why not. I also have a question, do I need a sound card or not? Thank you!
(Just like to add if there is anyway to make it cheaper and still pretty good please tell me!)
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The problem is that Skylake right now doesn't offer much of a performance benefit over Haswell. DDR4 isn't faster than DDR3, and even if it is it doesn't affect performance either outside of benchmarks. Don't bother with Skylake, upgrade when Kaby Lake or Cannonlake are out. Haswell Refresh is far from dead with how negligible Skylake's benefits are.
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What about Skylake? Haswell (i*-4***) is a couple years old now. Skylake (i*-6***) has DDR4 (faster RAM) and has a future upgrade to Kaby Lake in a couple years. I did a quick search, and a H170 motherboard and i5-6500 would be about equal to the i5-4690 but burn less power and have faster RAM. Haswell is a dead platform now.
PS: Unless you have studio monitors or > $300 headphones, don't bother with the sound card. You need nice stuff before the audio codec on the motherboard makes a difference.
PS: Unless you have studio monitors or > $300 headphones, don't bother with the sound card. You need nice stuff before the audio codec on the motherboard makes a difference.
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Yup, H97 motherboard, stock cooler and paste, change the PSU to a better one, and then CPU is up to you:
- 4690k + Z97 if you want to overclock
- 4690 + H97 if you don't want to but want similar performance to a stock 4690k.
- 4590/4460 for a cheaper, locked CPU. It shouldn't make that big of a difference outside of benchmarks since most games rely more on the GPU.
By the way, if you're going to use the GTX 970, that MSI one has poor cooling in the VRMs, it shouldn't be too bad, but the G1 Gaming from Gigabyte has the best cooling overall, comes with a backplate, and has better clock and boost speeds, but it's also kind of loud.
- 4690k + Z97 if you want to overclock
- 4690 + H97 if you don't want to but want similar performance to a stock 4690k.
- 4590/4460 for a cheaper, locked CPU. It shouldn't make that big of a difference outside of benchmarks since most games rely more on the GPU.
By the way, if you're going to use the GTX 970, that MSI one has poor cooling in the VRMs, it shouldn't be too bad, but the G1 Gaming from Gigabyte has the best cooling overall, comes with a backplate, and has better clock and boost speeds, but it's also kind of loud.
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Thanks everyone for the help, so let me confirm this. I should change the motherboard to a H97, remove the cpu cooler, change cpu, then change the psu and remove the thermal paste? Thanks.
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-Why are you getting a locked 4690? If you want to get a locked CPU, go for a 4590 or 4460 and save for an SSD or something.
-It's pointless to get an aftermarket cooler and thermal compound for a locked CPU.
- The Z97 Chipset is pointless without an unlocked CPU, go for an H97 motherboard if you're getting a locked one, or a cheaper Z97 if you plan to upgrade the CPU later.
- I wouldn't recommend getting a GTX 970 over an R9 390 when you can find them for almost the same price and the R9 390 has similar or better performance, but it's your choice. I'd get the Sapphire R9 390 for thermals or the MSI R9 390 for overclocking.
- That PSU is terrible, NEVER cheap out on PSUs if you value your build, you can get the Antec HCG-620 for about the same price.
-It's pointless to get an aftermarket cooler and thermal compound for a locked CPU.
- The Z97 Chipset is pointless without an unlocked CPU, go for an H97 motherboard if you're getting a locked one, or a cheaper Z97 if you plan to upgrade the CPU later.
- I wouldn't recommend getting a GTX 970 over an R9 390 when you can find them for almost the same price and the R9 390 has similar or better performance, but it's your choice. I'd get the Sapphire R9 390 for thermals or the MSI R9 390 for overclocking.
- That PSU is terrible, NEVER cheap out on PSUs if you value your build, you can get the Antec HCG-620 for about the same price.
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iPhonyAlso, if you'd like to cut down on the price, I suggest looking for a cheaper motherboard and possibly going with an AMD processor, although you won't get as much power. I have the A8-7600 which is close to equivalent to your processor.
No, don't go with an AMD processor. They are so far behind Intel, it's not even a laughing matter anymore. Zen is going to be too late when it comes out I feel like.
Also a A8-7600 isn't anywhere close to an i5 in performance, just saying.
OP, why did you get a after market cooler on a locked CPU? It doesn't need one to cool it, nor do you need the thermal paste. Also get a cheaper motherboard, a z97 is for overclocking, which you won't be doing. I'd recommend a h97 or even a h81 board for your needs.
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It sounds like a pretty good PC. Expect to play Minecraft flawlessly, and most other games at medium-high settings. I'd also like to note that my GPU has the Twin Frozr cooler on it, and it's amazing. It's hard to get the card above 45C when gaming, and that's with low-ish fan settings too.
For sound, unless you're doing something really fancy, you won't need anything. Sound is pre-installed with your motherboard. Also, if you'd like to cut down on the price, I suggest looking for a cheaper motherboard and possibly going with an AMD processor, although you won't get as much power. I have the A8-7600 which is close to equivalent to your processor. Keep in mind that you have to make sure your motherboard is PCIe compatible, has the same socket as the processor you buy, and the memory type matches the motherboard (DDR3, DDR4, etc)
For sound, unless you're doing something really fancy, you won't need anything. Sound is pre-installed with your motherboard. Also, if you'd like to cut down on the price, I suggest looking for a cheaper motherboard and possibly going with an AMD processor, although you won't get as much power. I have the A8-7600 which is close to equivalent to your processor. Keep in mind that you have to make sure your motherboard is PCIe compatible, has the same socket as the processor you buy, and the memory type matches the motherboard (DDR3, DDR4, etc)
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Rule 1 when building a PC: NEVER buy amd cpus that are over $100
For the build, it seems good, but that mobo is useless unless you get an 4690k instead, I assume you want to overclock but forgot that you need an unlocked cpu? If you don't wanna overclock, save the money and keep the stock cooler and get a h81/h97 chip mobo and use the saved money for an ssd
For the build, it seems good, but that mobo is useless unless you get an 4690k instead, I assume you want to overclock but forgot that you need an unlocked cpu? If you don't wanna overclock, save the money and keep the stock cooler and get a h81/h97 chip mobo and use the saved money for an ssd
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Bump?