New PC

[Hafnia]

Took the plunge and built myself a PC.... I'm not great at stuff like this cos I'm impatient and heavy handed and have a tendency to get bored reading instructions... but I thought I would share my journey.

Got 2 little boys who are interested in games, ipads etc and thought I would try and avoid the madness of overpriced consoles which are obsolete every 3 years after spending hundreds on games that end up being stashed away or sold for £3.

Self led research is one of my things that I really enjoy so here's Jovi got what I bought....

 

MONITOR:- 

20 inch, 24 inch, 27 inch or 32 inch?.... the bigger the number the higher the resolution you will need to get quality images....27 inch would have 1080p looking less sharp than it would on a 24.  A 32 inch screen is too big really which led me to 27 as a nice number.... so with that in mind I knew 1440 or 4k res would be needed. 4k 27 inch monitors running at a high refresh rate and response cost a fortune.  So 1440p it was.....

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/model/UM.HG0EE.001

Got a great deal £220... looks brill. And it will be freesync compatible with Nvidia cards.... only 1 of 20 tested that does work. Freesync basically matches your screen and GPU for smooth gaming. 

 

CASE:- 

meshify c by fractal design..... cracking unit, well designed. Tricky in places but overall a nice find. 

https://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/meshify/meshify-c

 

MOTHERBOARD and CPU:-

When picking a motherboard You need to decide if you are gonna use Intel or AMD as your CPU.  The Ryzen chip is amazing value... went with the 2600 which cost about £140.... 6 cores.... Plenty of power.  Loads cheaper than Intel. 

So the motherboard was an MSI x470 gaming plus. Has new tech that intelligently restores your data in most appropriate drives... so if you have an SSD and old fashioned hard drive then it works out which needs to be accessed on the quicker running drive.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-x470-gaming-plus-amd-x470-s-am4-ddr4-sata3-dual-m2-3-way-crossfire-gbe-usb-31-gen2-a-atx

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-5-2600

 

RAM:-

you need 16gb these days... bought 2x8gb which run at 3000mhz... speed is important. 3000 is a nice price performance match.

 

PSU:-

this is the power supply... bough a corsair 650 watt.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B06WVWXPVZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

 

STORAGE:-

In the old days we all had a spinning hard drive which after a few years meant just booting up your pc took 10 minutes.  Solid State Drives have obliterated those load times as the PC doesn't need to go searching... it's there.  I've got a 250gb SSD that I used in my old pc which meant I could have used my old pc perfectly fine after it ground to a halt. I just wanted a new pc for gaming, storage (old one had 500gb) and in case my new career change warrants tech improvements.

So to go with the 250 SSD which will boot up windows in a flash and other priority software I bought 4TB SanDisk HDD. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07D9C7SQH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

 

GRAPHICS CARD:-

Ok..... the most expensive part and links in heavily with monitor and CPU.  

Essentially you need something that will give you enough resolution and frame rate for the settings..... in my case 1440 at a decent frame rate at ultra settings....

You can go down the AMD route and the Vega 56 was a good option.  But I have an Nvidia shield and want to stream games from my pc to the shield so the boys can have console gaming.   The RTX 2060 was the pick

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/graphics-cards/rtx-2060/

 

THE BUILD:-

So.... Wednesday night after what has been 2 tough months at work.... generally shattered I had all my stuff laid out. Looked straight forward.... yeah an hour or 2 I reckon.....

 

1.  Attach CPU to motherboard.  Nice and easy... pop the cooler fan on top. Screw in place.

2. Pop ram in the slots. Make sure in the correct slots (2 from 4)

3.  Prep the case to take the motherboard. Place upstands in the case which will allow you to screw the motherboard in. DICKHEAD HERE DIDNT READ THE MOTHERBOARD INSTRUCTIONS AND PLACED UPSTANDS IN A FORMATION THAT WOULD HAVE FRIED THE MOTHERBOARD AS INDICATED ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE MB.  Fortunately I realised this and removed them. 

4. Attach motherboard in. Easy.

5. Attach PSU to case.... nice and easy.  

6. Attach SSD and Hard drives to case.... trickier than I thought.... me being stupid really. 

7. Attach all cables to the motherboard........ personally this was the hardest part. I'm heavy handed and some parts have very specific fragile pins..... this looked like a nightmare.  I went to bed and left it. Started up the next day.

8. Attach graphics card.   Harder than I thought... especially when you are a tit who leaves the shroud on the GPU..... nerve wracking with a £350 investment.

9.  Switch it on......  and nothing..... SHIT!!!! £1100 worth of kit and I've fucked it up!!!!  Remove cables reattach them.... nothing.... then I spotted 1 tiny little cable dangling..... tiny..... it said "standby button".... popped it on and voila!!!  Led lights, fans, way hey!!!!

10. Pop a USB stick in the drive with Windows on it and install..... done!!!!

 

Overall a highly satisfying but ultimately risky process. Lots of money spent and to so it with no guidance was a bit of a gamble but YouTube videos do help.

 

Sorry for the long post but I think it may help others.... the PC would probably cost £1400 in pc world with lesser quality components..

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeO]

I went on ebay and clicked on a button and had mine delivered, that was technical enough for me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MSI-GL62M-7RDX-15-6-Gaming-Laptop-Core-i5-2-5GHz-8GB-RAM-1TB-Windows-10/382285979610?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

(paid a lot less than that though)

Respect though Haf, my needs are much less than yours obviously and it must be a very satisfying thing to do.

[Matt]

Blimey! That’s some top notch kit!

[Hafnia]

25 minutes ago, MikeO said:

I went on ebay and clicked on a button and had mine delivered, that was technical enough for me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MSI-GL62M-7RDX-15-6-Gaming-Laptop-Core-i5-2-5GHz-8GB-RAM-1TB-Windows-10/382285979610?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

(paid a lot less than that though)

Respect though Haf, my needs are much less than yours obviously and it must be a very satisfying thing to do.

Cracking laptop that Mike. 

I made the mistake twice now of buying substandard PC's for games.... just a few quid more gets you a lot.

My first one was 400 quid and was dell with on-board graphics... absolute shite. Second was a dual core medion for 500 from Tesco... not bad value but ultimately not good enough.

This one has 6 cores.... loads of ram... plenty of gpu power..... Will I game much??? I dunno.

I'm thinking of going self employed so I'm looking at developing some extra skills. 

[Matt]

2 minutes ago, hafnia said:

Cracking laptop that Mike. 

I made the mistake twice now of buying substandard PC's for games.... just a few quid more gets you a lot.

My first one was 400 quid and was dell with on-board graphics... absolute shite. Second was a dual core medion for 500 from Tesco... not bad value but ultimately not good enough.

This one has 6 cores.... loads of ram... plenty of gpu power..... Will I game much??? I dunno.

I'm thinking of going self employed so I'm looking at developing some extra skills. 

That’s why I upgraded last year. That extra few hundred opens up so many more possibilities. 

12 months ago I paid about the same on an i8700k, 16gb ram, 1080ti (fookin massive thing!). Amazing to see what difference a year makes!

[johnh]

Haf,  you forgot to get a punched card machine.

[Hafnia]

6 hours ago, Matt said:

That’s why I upgraded last year. That extra few hundred opens up so many more possibilities. 

12 months ago I paid about the same on an i8700k, 16gb ram, 1080ti (fookin massive thing!). Amazing to see what difference a year makes!

1080ti..... awesome card.  What did that set you back?  The 980ti is still a strong card. 

[Hafnia]

1 hour ago, johnh said:

Haf,  you forgot to get a punched card machine.

They are still rocking about I'm sure!!!!

[Matt]

8 hours ago, hafnia said:

1080ti..... awesome card.  What did that set you back?  The 980ti is still a strong card. 

About half the budget. Just realised though, I spent that much on the upgrade already having the case and a good monitor!

[Hafnia]

3 hours ago, Matt said:

About half the budget. Just realised though, I spent that much on the upgrade already having the case and a good monitor!

Mine was this:-

Case 85

GPU 355

4 TB HDD 90

Psu 77

Ram 99

MOTHERBOARD 120

CPU 145

Windows 10 - 8

Total:- £989...... happy with that!   

[Matt]

12 minutes ago, hafnia said:

Mine was this:-

Case 85

GPU 355

4 TB HDD 90

Psu 77

Ram 99

MOTHERBOARD 120

CPU 145

Windows 10 - 8

Total:- £989...... happy with that!   

Bloody Nora! That is one thing I miss about the UK, it’s soooo much cheaper!

[Hafnia]

Just now, Matt said:

Bloody Nora! That is one thing I miss about the UK, it’s soooo much cheaper!

At this minute I'm in the process of activating storeMI on the motherboard.... essentially it will autopartition key things onto the SSD without me faffing around. 

[Haiku]

Where you bought the parts from? Most PC retailer offer to build the system for free. I mean it's not free, because they make a profit for every component, but you won't get it cheaper if you build it by yourself.

[aaron]

If PC was is so good then why isn'tt there a PC 2 then ay?

[MikeO]

On 03/02/2019 at 11:10, Haiku said:

Where you bought the parts from? Most PC retailer offer to build the system for free. I mean it's not free, because they make a profit for every component, but you won't get it cheaper if you build it by yourself.

That's assuming you buy all the bits from the same retailer which you wouldn't, you'd shop around and get the best price for each part. You also wouldn't have the same satisfaction as if you'd DIY'd.

[Hafnia]

On 03/02/2019 at 11:10, Haiku said:

Where you bought the parts from? Most PC retailer offer to build the system for free. I mean it's not free, because they make a profit for every component, but you won't get it cheaper if you build it by yourself.

Managed to source of from 2 shops.... not bad eh. 

[Palfy]

On 03/02/2019 at 09:41, hafnia said:

At this minute I'm in the process of activating storeMI on the motherboard.... essentially it will autopartition key things onto the SSD without me faffing around. 

Fair play mate haven’t got the foggiest what your on about but sounds like you know your stuff, I bought my missus the new Mac book for Christmas in gold 1300 notes, she’s completely appled up now with watch and phone like a Granny Smith. 

[Hafnia]

2 hours ago, Palfy said:

Fair play mate haven’t got the foggiest what your on about but sounds like you know your stuff, I bought my missus the new Mac book for Christmas in gold 1300 notes, she’s completely appled up now with watch and phone like a Granny Smith. 

Nice palf... great computers just bloody expensive and not really upgradeable.   But for space, looks, ease of use.... they are brilliant.

I love the freedom with pc's. Just set up a ps4 dual shock controller tonight... ordering a Bluetooth dongle.... all very exciting.  Perfect for a tinkerer like me. 

[Palfy]

17 hours ago, hafnia said:

Nice palf... great computers just bloody expensive and not really upgradeable.   But for space, looks, ease of use.... they are brilliant.

I love the freedom with pc's. Just set up a ps4 dual shock controller tonight... ordering a Bluetooth dongle.... all very exciting.  Perfect for a tinkerer like me. 

Haf you started this with built myself a PC not great at this, compared to me your Bill Gates mate you got all the terminology going on I can only take your word for it that your right it’s gone right over my head, sounds like your having fun mate have the kids been getting involved. 

I was wondering why I wasn’t see much of you on here lately now I know why. 

[Hafnia]

4 hours ago, Palfy said:

Haf you started this with built myself a PC not great at this, compared to me your Bill Gates mate you got all the terminology going on I can only take your word for it that your right it’s gone right over my head, sounds like your having fun mate have the kids been getting involved. 

I was wondering why I wasn’t see much of you on here lately now I know why. 

Haha.... guilty. 

My son was playing rise of the tomb raider earlier..... graphics are incredible.

I would explain that 35 years ago i used to move a block around s screen with keys after waiting for 15 minutes for the tape deck to load it..... but he probably wouldn't understand why I would do that. 

[MikeO]

4 minutes ago, hafnia said:

I would explain that 35 years ago i used to move a block around s screen with keys after waiting for 15 minutes for the tape deck to load it..... but he probably wouldn't understand why I would do that. 

In 1976 I rode my FS1E (worth a fortune they are now, wish I'd kept it) 30 miles into London to get a "ping-pong" game to plug into the telly, became a Grand Master eighth dan at that; shortly after I was the total master of Space Invaders and then Breakout in the pub, was unbeatable (though I say it myself). Happy days.

[Hafnia]

43 minutes ago, MikeO said:

In 1976 I rode my FS1E (worth a fortune they are now, wish I'd kept it) 30 miles into London to get a "ping-pong" game to plug into the telly, became a Grand Master eighth dan at that; shortly after I was the total master of Space Invaders and then Breakout in the pub, was unbeatable (though I say it myself). Happy days.

In the 80's you literally had whsmiths and menzies that sold computer games.... £7.99 mostly for a tape cassette....

I recall the Neo Geo when the mega drive was just making its name.... cost an absolute fortune. The games were 100's of quid.... you can download them for free on an emulator now.....

[MikeO]

5 minutes ago, hafnia said:

In the 80's you literally had whsmiths and menzies that sold computer games.... £7.99 mostly for a tape cassette....

Sure I've said it on here before but the problem with producing computer games on cassette was the fact that you had to try to reproduce a digital signal on an analogue medium, which is actually impossible. Games needed square waves ideally but cassettes couldn't cope with them, luckily we had an acoustics magician as a consultant who came in with a "magic box" one day and we cornered the market, certainly as far as reliability was concerned.

[Hafnia]

7 hours ago, MikeO said:

Sure I've said it on here before but the problem with producing computer games on cassette was the fact that you had to try to reproduce a digital signal on an analogue medium, which is actually impossible. Games needed square waves ideally but cassettes couldn't cope with them, luckily we had an acoustics magician as a consultant who came in with a "magic box" one day and we cornered the market, certainly as far as reliability was concerned.

I was always intrigued by that... there was always a volume setting that worked perfectly but you had to get it to the exact mark. 

[barryj]

My son wants a gaming PC and I’ve no idea where to start. I’ve always been a games console person. I’m not intending to spend lots of money on one as he has a tendency to break things quickly. All I wanted to know is would this spec be ok to start him off? Quad Core i5 8GB 1TB Win 10 2GB GT710? Any advice would be appreciated as it means the square root of diddly to me. 

[Matt]

7 hours ago, barryj said:

My son wants a gaming PC and I’ve no idea where to start. I’ve always been a games console person. I’m not intending to spend lots of money on one as he has a tendency to break things quickly. All I wanted to know is would this spec be ok to start him off? Quad Core i5 8GB 1TB Win 10 2GB GT710? Any advice would be appreciated as it means the square root of diddly to me. 

Depends what types of games he’s into and how important graphics etc are. But as a base unit, that should be ok for simple games and YouTube. 

[barryj]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

Depends what types of games he’s into and how important graphics etc are. But as a base unit, that should be ok for simple games and YouTube. 

Thanks Matt, he plays fortnite on Xbox and I assume he’d want to play this and maybe some strategy games. I assume you can just add/upgrade bits as you go along so long as there’s room in the case?

[Matt]

1 hour ago, barryj said:

Thanks Matt, he plays fortnite on Xbox and I assume he’d want to play this and maybe some strategy games. I assume you can just add/upgrade bits as you go along so long as there’s room in the case?

Yes you can upgrade as you go along but be careful as sometimes upgrading one part means upgrading others too (I found out by getting a new CPU that wasn’t compatible with the motherboard 

for Fortnite, just don’t install it and save the memory  

 

Fortnite: Recommended Requirements

• CPU: Core i5 2.8GHz.
• RAM: 8GB RAM.
• HDD: 16GB Free Space.
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 / AMD Radeon HD 7870 or equivalent video card with dedicated memory of 2GB or higher VRAM.
• OS: Windows 7, 8.1, or Windows 10 64-bit.
• DirectX: Version 11 or better.

[barryj]

2 hours ago, Matt said:

Yes you can upgrade as you go along but be careful as sometimes upgrading one part means upgrading others too (I found out by getting a new CPU that wasn’t compatible with the motherboard 

for Fortnite, just don’t install it and save the memory  

 

Fortnite: Recommended Requirements

• CPU: Core i5 2.8GHz.
• RAM: 8GB RAM.
• HDD: 16GB Free Space.
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 / AMD Radeon HD 7870 or equivalent video card with dedicated memory of 2GB or higher VRAM.
• OS: Windows 7, 8.1, or Windows 10 64-bit.
• DirectX: Version 11 or better.

Thanks

[Hafnia]

22 hours ago, barryj said:

My son wants a gaming PC and I’ve no idea where to start. I’ve always been a games console person. I’m not intending to spend lots of money on one as he has a tendency to break things quickly. All I wanted to know is would this spec be ok to start him off? Quad Core i5 8GB 1TB Win 10 2GB GT710? Any advice would be appreciated as it means the square root of diddly to me. 

Sign up here Barry... post about what your budget it is and what you are looking to get. Got some real experts on here...

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/budget-gaming-pc-build.18809858/