Tech Intending to build a gaming pc

[Steve-O]

soooo yeah, i'm currently looking at getting a gaming pc built for myself, it also for my university modelling and that

I'm doing it because my current medion pc has no upgrading options apart from quicker ram 'not more memory' and a graphic card with a better psu installed, sooo i'm just going to build a new system, as to do anything else with my current pc would mean a new motherboard D:

i ordered 2 parts already.... note that these was intended for my current pc 'defo the gfx card, as it could handle my psu' these are

8GB DDR3 RAM (1666 MHz)
Asus Nvidia GeForce GT 640 (I Will be upgrading this at some point)

the other parts I intend to get can be seen here: http://www.ebuyer.com/lists/list/128415

but here the list:

Asus P8Z77-V LX
Intel Core i5 3470 3.20GHz
Coolermaster GX 650W PSU
Toshiba 1TB 3.5 Hard Drive
DVD Drive
Casecom 6788 All Black Case
and a Anti Static mat to build on

i'm aiming for £550 - £600 total cost after buying windows (current total cost is £555)

sooo pretty much...... comments........ my main question is the motherboard.... as i'm wondering whenever to go for that one or a gigabyte

Edit: I intend to spend £250 per a term...... my ram and graphic card came to £107.84, I'm planning to get the disc drive and the psu next

 

[AuronX]

Both Asus and Gigabyte are solid companies for motherboards. When I built my gaming PC I ended up going with Gigabyte because their boards had more ports/features for equal price to the Asus boards I looked at (this was a couple years ago now, though). Seems like a solid list to me! There's still room to make it even more beastly, but for a budget build you should get a lot of performance out of those selections.

 

[Steve-O]

I saw that, there was a gigabyte motherboard for around the same price as the asus... i think it had more pci ports http://www.ebuyer.com/351598-gigaby...mi-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z77-d3h

i heard that they have something called 'dual bio's' also, it means that if the bios get corrupted or something... there a backup bio incase

 

[D00MTRAIN]

Modeling as in 3d work? Have you considered the AMD 8350? It's about the same price and for what you are doing it would help you out a lot more. And that GT 640 is horrible. I think the AMD 7750 edges it out in terms of performance, and it is cheaper. Since the newer cards are coming out, maybe wait for that to be the last part maybe? I know the 8000 series from AMD should be hitting soon.

 

[Twilight Sky]

As usual, I'm too late. But I wouldn't trust gigabyte MOBO's. They tend to be faulty.. I'll also add don't trust anything from MSI. Their cards included.

also you may want to check this out for parts too: http://newegg.com

 

[D00MTRAIN]

I'm pretty sure MSI and Gigabyte are part of the "big three" as in top 3 manufacturer's of motherboards. Since they sell so much more than other companies, it might appear that they sell more faulty boards, but that could just be because they manufacture far more boards than most company's. In my 4th build I've had no troubles with either company. I had a Gigabyte 890FX-UD5, and it kept my AMD 1100T @ 4.4ghz for a year and a half (until BC Hydro fried my PC LOL). And my MSI 6970 Lightning is overclocked @ 990mhz for the last 2 years (160mhz OC?). Motherboards are the most equal of all the computer parts. At the most, special motherboards offer only a maximum of 2% performance gain.

When looking for a mobo look for what features cater to you. SATAIII Ports, Overclocking, heat, performance, UEI, gaming, connection, sound etc.

 

[Twilight Sky]

I have bad experience with MSI. DOA mobos and Mobos with faulty CMOS thingys and then those little uh... donno what they are called, splitting open and all the gel inside coming out. I wanna tell you about my little adventure in trying to save a CPU because the fan somehow broke, and the heat sink was pretty much useless. Case was so small, I couldn't get a new fan ontop of the thing. Infact, I don't know how the heck they got that huge one in there in the first place. Must have assembled the case panel by panel @_@.

Ironically my mobo is a gigabyte one, and was built by Cyberpower.

 

[Del Boy]

I was thinking of getting a gaming PC.. but no point cheaper to just get an XBOX...

 

[Nocturne]

iBuypower.com

This is what I built

1 x Case (NZXT Phantom 410 Gaming Case - White))

1 x Processor (Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Processor (4x 3.50GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i7-3770K w/ Intel Performance Tuning Protection))

1 x Motherboard (ASUS P8Z77-V LX))

1 x Memory (16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand))

1 x Video Card (AMD Radeon HD 7870 - 2GB - HIS IceQ - Cooler, Quieter - Single Card))

1 x Case Lighting (Cold Cathode Neon Light - Blue))

1 x Power Supply (850 Watt - XFX Core Edition PRO))

1 x Processor Cooling (Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooling System - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow)))

1 x Primary Hard Drive (120 GB ADATA S510 SSD - Single Drive **FREE Upgrade to 256GB ADATA SP900 - Single Drive Only**))

1 x Optical Drive ([12X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive - Black))

1 x Sound Card (ASUS Xonar DG))

1 x Network Card (Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card))

 

[AuronX]

I was thinking of getting a gaming PC.. but no point cheaper to just get an XBOX...

"No point" depends on what you want it for. Obviously if the games you want are console exclusives, don't get a gaming PC. But if the games you want to play are on PC, you'll end up with the best possible graphics/sound and a plethora of additional function, too. Console browsers, for example, still struggle with a lot of websites. And then there's modding--even just texture enhancements can really make a game look amazing. And of course there's compatibility, too. Any console up through PS2 (original Xbox excluded) can be emulated quite nicely on a gaming PC. Then there's all the video and music you could ask for, and...well, the list goes on.

What consoles have over PCs is standardization. It's nice to be able to just hit a power button, pick up a controller, and start gaming. Everything is designed to a standard, so there's zero setup involved, and developers get a break too, which is why we have so many console exclusive games these days. There's definitely a place for both kinds of machine--I wouldn't say "there's no point" to either!

 

[Steve-O]

Wow, been a while, anyway I put the pc together today, was pretty fun with my dad helping, slight screwup with the cpu cooler (had to take the wire out the hook to plug it in as I placed it wrong xD) ,minus that it all ready to have windows installed tomorrow, it even booted first time

anyway here the specs:

After much madness, here are the specs of the PC I built today

Intel I5 3330 Quad Core @ 3.00 GHz
8GB DDR3 RAM @ 1666 MHz
Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard (them GUI Bios <3)
Asus Nvidia GT640 2GB GDDR5
1TB WD Hard Drive
128GB Sandisk SSD

All this in a Black Vantage Type-R Gaming Case

Just got windows to install tomorrow as I said