Gaming PCs Thread...time for a sticky / running thread?

[pimpchez]

pimpchez said:

Since this is the appropriate thread.


My poor old HP i3 laptop is now overdue a upgrade (battery has long broke and dropped out) after 5 years. It served me well using at uni and rendering my solidworks models for my dissertation.

So i thought get a PC , i was also jealous of the fact PC gaming seems to be better (mods ,more obscure cheaper games ) than my ps4.
This rig needs to be a great all-rounder , being fast enough to be a good gaming pc at 1080p and run CAD software like a breeze.I wanted a mini-itx as this is going in the living room as i dont have a mans cave until i stop pissing money up the wall with fast cars and move.

The main limitation for me is that im tight and a bargain hunter.I am in no big rush to build but with black-friday coming up i might have to purchase the remaining in one hit.

So far , i have/ordered the following.

Kingston 120gb SSD £26.99
Bitfenix colossus mini itx case £42.50
550W Cooler Master VS Series Hybrid Modular, 80PLUS GOLD £43
Phobya Y-Kabel 4Pin PWM 3x 4Pin PWM £2.64

What is left

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£168.45 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler:Noctua NH-C12P SE14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£38.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard:Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£52.38 @ Amazon UK)
Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card:MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£262.31 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard:Gear Head KB1700U Wired Mini Keyboard (£11.50 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £600.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-20 11:24 GMT+0000

So far with the more research i have done , i have blown my initial £500 delivered budget out the water. Ultimately this needs to handle the next 5 years in my household. I am more inclined to go with a 390 8gb GPU instead to future proof. The OS will be windows 10.

I will keep this updated throughout the build with benchmarks at the end.

Edited by pimpchez on Friday 20th November 11:35

After doing some more research. I realised that overclocking isnt for me. Now black friday is over , my list has been revised to a skylake build.

The cpu is on amazon back order , so once that has been dispatched i will order the gpu for next day delivery.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For £155.00)
CPU Cooler:Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Rev. 2 36.7 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For £8.99)
Motherboard:ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For £70.05)
Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (Purchased For £37.81)
Storage:Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £26.99)
Storage:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £31.03)
Video Card:MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (£297.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case:BitFenix Colossus Mini Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For £42.50)
Power Supply:Cooler Master VSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £45.00)
Total: £715.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-29 21:12 GMT+0000

[Guvernator]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I keep hearing about this steam controller, what's the deal? This now seems to be the popular choice of controller for the PC? What makes it better than other controllers. I've seen images of it and not sure if I like the touchpad in place of the second thumb-stick idea but keen to hear why it's better?

I think I've been spoilt by controllers on consoles for too long, my keyboard muscle memory isn't what it used to be and if your not playing competitively online, I really miss the simplicity of a decent controller, especially since it will mean I could play on the couch sometimes.

[wolves_wanderer]

pimpchez said:

After doing some more research. I realised that overclocking isnt for me. Now black friday is over , my list has been revised to a skylake build.

The cpu is on amazon back order , so once that has been dispatched i will order the gpu for next day delivery.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For £155.00)
CPU Cooler:Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Rev. 2 36.7 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For £8.99)
Motherboard:ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For £70.05)
Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (Purchased For £37.81)
Storage:Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £26.99)
Storage:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £31.03)
Video Card:MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (£297.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case:BitFenix Colossus Mini Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For £42.50)
Power Supply:Cooler Master VSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £45.00)
Total: £715.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-29 21:12 GMT+0000

Decent spec but if you look about you will be able to get a 390x for pretty much the same price as your 390 (unless you have some reason for sticking to MSI)

[Guvernator]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just done a bit of background reading, VERY interesting concept and it sounds like it could work but it looks like this first attempt might have a few teething problems. I'd be interested in your thoughts on it over the next few weeks to see if you acclimatise to it and whether the community starts to get behind it.

I've just bought myself a new Logitech G700s mouse which should arrive today so I am hoping that will remove some of my frustrations as my current mouse is crap and my keyboards skill aren't what they used to be but I'd still like to purchase a controller at some point for couch play.

[Squirrelofwoe]

Guvernator said:

I've just bought myself a new Logitech G700s mouse which should arrive today so I am hoping that will remove some of my frustrations as my current mouse is crap and my keyboards skill aren't what they used to be but I'd still like to purchase a controller at some point for couch play.

I finally 'invested' in new mouse & keyboard earlier this year after about 9 years with a cheapy wireless mouse/keyboard combo. I'd always resisted the urge as I could never see the difference with the fancy stuff.

I picked up a Logitech G510 keyboard second hand for £30 and found a Logitech Proteus G502 mouse on sale in Currys/PC world of all places for £27.

I now can't believe it took me this long to buy a dedicated gaming mouse/keyboard!

[Mannginger]

Guvernator said:

Just done a bit of background reading, VERY interesting concept and it sounds like it could work but it looks like this first attempt might have a few teething problems. I'd be interested in your thoughts on it over the next few weeks to see if you acclimatise to it and whether the community starts to get behind it.

I've just bought myself a new Logitech G700s mouse which should arrive today so I am hoping that will remove some of my frustrations as my current mouse is crap and my keyboards skill aren't what they used to be but I'd still like to purchase a controller at some point for couch play.

I'm struggling with it as an FPS controller, find the mouse track/pad on RH thumb just a bit odd. Need to spend more time looking for or waiting for a better crowd-sourced setup. It's pretty good for non-FPS games like Civilization though. I spent yesterday playing on my PC in the living room using the Steam-link and Steam controller. Steam Link is Plug and play and just works nicely.

Very good addition to my PC IMO

[Guvernator]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I hated using a controller when I first moved away from PC gaming, it just felt so imprecise and now coming back to PC's after years of console gaming, I am struggling with Mouse and Keyboard so there is always a learning curve to an extent. Now I realise both control types have their good and bad points, controller is definitely better for movement and button placement and the mouse is more precise for aiming.

Hopefully the problem with the Steam controller is just acclimatisation and not that it doesn't work properly as IF it works, it looks like it has some amazing potential to be the best of both worlds.

[garylythgoe]

Gutted, I didn't see this thread before the weekend! Genuinely gutted

I built my last gaming rig about 8-9 years ago, and have been console gaming since.

Just recently, I've had the desire to build a new machine in my man cave (the spare room), so if the gf is watching Geordie Shore or similar on the TV, I can jump into the spare room and play some games etc. Plus after a new furniture overhaul, the old massive tower can no longer fit, so I wanted a Micro-ATX setup.

I spent all weekend researching, understanding and .... Wow, things have really moved on. My aim was for a budget build (aren't they always?), which could play games well, be small form factor and be upgrade-able.

As I said, I'm gutted I didn't see this thread but here's what I've gone for and I hope it doesnt let me down.

Case: BitFenix Phenom-MATX
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming
CPU: Intel Skylake i5 6400
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini 4GB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666mhz 16GB (2x8GB)
PSU: EVGA 600w Bronze
HDD: I have an SSD (2yr old which I'll re-use), but am tempted by an M.2 one

I'm hoping this will do me proud?

I still need to choose a decent CPU cooler, am tempted by the Corsair Watercooling stuff? But I guess I won't know until it's built and I can see what will/won't fit. I've read that it's hard working in the case, so I'll be patient and get it right.

I guess my only really question is whether it's worth upgrading to an M.2 SSD drive? The board seems really good, and will allow me to up the CPU at a later date and graphics card was a good blend of performance, price and size.

I'm excited

[Guvernator]

garylythgoe said:

Gutted, I didn't see this thread before the weekend! Genuinely gutted

I built my last gaming rig about 8-9 years ago, and have been console gaming since.

Just recently, I've had the desire to build a new machine in my man cave (the spare room), so if the gf is watching Geordie Shore or similar on the TV, I can jump into the spare room and play some games etc. Plus after a new furniture overhaul, the old massive tower can no longer fit, so I wanted a Micro-ATX setup.

I spent all weekend researching, understanding and .... Wow, things have really moved on. My aim was for a budget build (aren't they always?), which could play games well, be small form factor and be upgrade-able.

As I said, I'm gutted I didn't see this thread but here's what I've gone for and I hope it doesnt let me down.

Case: BitFenix Phenom-MATX
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming
CPU: Intel Skylake i5 6400
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini 4GB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666mhz 16GB (2x8GB)
PSU: EVGA 600w Bronze
HDD: I have an SSD (2yr old which I'll re-use), but am tempted by an M.2 one

I'm hoping this will do me proud?

I still need to choose a decent CPU cooler, am tempted by the Corsair Watercooling stuff? But I guess I won't know until it's built and I can see what will/won't fit. I've read that it's hard working in the case, so I'll be patient and get it right.

I guess my only really question is whether it's worth upgrading to an M.2 SSD drive? The board seems really good, and will allow me to up the CPU at a later date and graphics card was a good blend of performance, price and size.

I'm excited

Looks like a pretty decent build, skylake is new so should see you through for a while although you might want to try to stretch to a K series chip as it will allow you to OC in the future. The 970 is a very good card for the price, not sure if your ATX case will support SLi but a second 970 is a good upgrade path for the future. As it is that build should be good for 1080p ultra settings quite well.

M.2 is VERY good, I have one and Windows 10 boots in less in about 7-8 seconds from the post screen and most games load in the same amount if time, however it is fairly new tech so it has a big price premium attached at the moment. Personally I'd stick with your existing SSD and wait for M.2 prices to drop.

Most CPU coolers are huge so I'd definately get the case first before ordering it. Alternatively if you by from somewhere like overclockers, they can usually advise if the cooler will fit your setup. The corsair watercooler stuff is good but other air coolers have been released since which are as good if not better without the faff of liquid cooling\radiators etc.

[pimpchez]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Mini ITX build , so you will always get raped by the mobo prices.

[pimpchez]

wolves_wanderer said:

pimpchez said:

After doing some more research. I realised that overclocking isnt for me. Now black friday is over , my list has been revised to a skylake build.

The cpu is on amazon back order , so once that has been dispatched i will order the gpu for next day delivery.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For £155.00)
CPU Cooler:Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Rev. 2 36.7 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For £8.99)
Motherboard:ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For £70.05)
Memory:Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (Purchased For £37.81)
Storage:Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £26.99)
Storage:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £31.03)
Video Card:MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (£297.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case:BitFenix Colossus Mini Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For £42.50)
Power Supply:Cooler Master VSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £45.00)
Total: £715.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-29 21:12 GMT+0000

Decent spec but if you look about you will be able to get a 390x for pretty much the same price as your 390 (unless you have some reason for sticking to MSI)

Firstly we are from the same town judging by your username . The only reason i prefer MSI is simply because the fans dont kick in until 40+ degrees which is ideal as the case is sat in the living room next to the tv.
When not gaming , the system should be pretty silent. Also when spending this much on a gpu , i prefer the security of using amazon. I did use flubit for the HDD, mobo and ram to get the price down.

[pimpchez]

garylythgoe said:

Gutted, I didn't see this thread before the weekend! Genuinely gutted

I built my last gaming rig about 8-9 years ago, and have been console gaming since.

Just recently, I've had the desire to build a new machine in my man cave (the spare room), so if the gf is watching Geordie Shore or similar on the TV, I can jump into the spare room and play some games etc. Plus after a new furniture overhaul, the old massive tower can no longer fit, so I wanted a Micro-ATX setup.

I spent all weekend researching, understanding and .... Wow, things have really moved on. My aim was for a budget build (aren't they always?), which could play games well, be small form factor and be upgrade-able.

As I said, I'm gutted I didn't see this thread but here's what I've gone for and I hope it doesnt let me down.

Case: BitFenix Phenom-MATX
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170MX-Gaming
CPU: Intel Skylake i5 6400
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini 4GB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666mhz 16GB (2x8GB)
PSU: EVGA 600w Bronze
HDD: I have an SSD (2yr old which I'll re-use), but am tempted by an M.2 one

I'm hoping this will do me proud?

I still need to choose a decent CPU cooler, am tempted by the Corsair Watercooling stuff? But I guess I won't know until it's built and I can see what will/won't fit. I've read that it's hard working in the case, so I'll be patient and get it right.

I guess my only really question is whether it's worth upgrading to an M.2 SSD drive? The board seems really good, and will allow me to up the CPU at a later date and graphics card was a good blend of performance, price and size.

I'm excited

If space is tight , why didnt you go for the slightly smaller and cheaper colussus mini itx case like i did. I think your ram is overkill for gaming and your mobo is overkill as you cant overclock that cpu. How much did you pay for that build ?

[wolves_wanderer]

pimpchez said:

Firstly we are from the same town judging by your username . The only reason i prefer MSI is simply because the fans dont kick in until 40+ degrees which is ideal as the case is sat in the living room next to the tv.
When not gaming , the system should be pretty silent. Also when spending this much on a gpu , i prefer the security of using amazon. I did use flubit for the HDD, mobo and ram to get the price down.

Looks like you've considered everything then!

[garylythgoe]

Guvernator said:

Looks like a pretty decent build, skylake is new so should see you through for a while although you might want to try to stretch to a K series chip as it will allow you to OC in the future. The 970 is a very good card for the price, not sure if your ATX case will support SLi but a second 970 is a good upgrade path for the future. As it is that build should be good for 1080p ultra settings quite well.

M.2 is VERY good, I have one and Windows 10 boots in less in about 7-8 seconds from the post screen and most games load in the same amount if time, however it is fairly new tech so it has a big price premium attached at the moment. Personally I'd stick with your existing SSD and wait for M.2 prices to drop.

Most CPU coolers are huge so I'd definately get the case first before ordering it. Alternatively if you by from somewhere like overclockers, they can usually advise if the cooler will fit your setup. The corsair watercooler stuff is good but other air coolers have been released since which are as good if not better without the faff of liquid cooling\radiators etc.

Thanks buddy.

My thinking was to just get on the platform/CPU/chipset, and then I can take advantage of a better CPU at a later date. I'd love to stretch to a K CPU but I'm not sure I'm going to get enough use out of it to warrant the extra cash right now. Plus, the difference in price between the 6400 and 6600K is a tank of fuel in my C63!

Thanks for the advice on the M.2, I will wait for the prices to fall a bit first!

Interesting on the air coolers... Any recommendations for me to start looking at?

Thanks again.

[garylythgoe]

pimpchez said:

If space is tight , why didnt you go for the slightly smaller and cheaper colussus mini itx case like i did. I think your ram is overkill for gaming and your mobo is overkill as you cant overclock that cpu. How much did you pay for that build ?

Because I preferred the look of the Phenom-MATX. My missus would think I'm a right geek if I put a case with colours and lights in there, and she'd be right! I like the subtle looks of the Phenom-MATX.

It probably is, but the RAM was about £7 more expensive, and gives me options in the future...

I'm not interested in disclosing the price of the build, it's not why I started this. It's within the budget I set in my head, and I'm happy with the outlay.

[Guvernator]

garylythgoe said:

Thanks buddy.

My thinking was to just get on the platform/CPU/chipset, and then I can take advantage of a better CPU at a later date. I'd love to stretch to a K CPU but I'm not sure I'm going to get enough use out of it to warrant the extra cash right now. Plus, the difference in price between the 6400 and 6600K is a tank of fuel in my C63!

Thanks for the advice on the M.2, I will wait for the prices to fall a bit first!

Interesting on the air coolers... Any recommendations for me to start looking at?

Thanks again.

To be honest I only looked at large coolers as I have a full size case but there are some decent smaller air coolers on the market now at around the 120mm fan size which should be fine. Having said that if you are not going to OC your CPU and your 970 GPU has a decent cooling setup, you probably won't need an after-market CPU cooler anyway.

Having said that if you are dead set on getting one, Noctua do the NH-L9i small cooler which is decent, also look at Scythe, they do a whole range of slimline coolers specifically designed for ATX cases.

[Guvernator]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

As mentioned in the JC thread I'd take the system back to as clean a state as possible so switch off any OC'ing and remove both cards and use the onboard graphics. Once you are happy the system is stable, try putting the cards back in one at a time as you've mentioned above. I think it's quite rare that cards fail so it's more likely to be a driver\sli issue. Also do you have any recent Windows recovery points? Reverting back to a a day or so before the incident has saved me much heartache in the past when Windows has just decided to spit it's dummy out for no reason.

The joys of PC gaming, when they work they are beautiful but they can be sooo frustrating at times, one of the reasons I moved to consoles in the first place

[130R]

Crashing to a black screen that requires a hard reboot has happened to me when I have either needed to bump the voltage up or drop the clock speed on the GPU(s).

[Guvernator]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Ouch, not good but unfortunately sometimes Windows takes a cr*p and just needs a sledgehammer taken to it. I think my longest time has been a Windows 7 laptop which managed to go a whole 2 and a bit years before getting so unresponsive that it needed a rebuild.

[Guvernator]

8/10 times it will be Windows or driver issues so I think your chances of recovery are good. I had my work laptop crap out on me a few weeks ago when I plugged in my phone to charge and synch some files from it and all the usb ports crapped out with lots of yellow signs in device manager. I thought I'd fried the usb hub somehow but a rebuild bought it all back to life because Windows