Planning on New Gaming PC

[Yobbo1]

I'm looking to build a PC but I'm new to this, pretty clueless, and the amount of choice is overwhelming. Hopefully I can get some help.
Just some pointers on how much you'd recommend to spend on each part would be incredibly helpful.

1. Gaming.

2. $1000/£700 including OS.

3. I'm from the UK.

4. Mainly http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and http://www.scan.co.uk/

5. No preference.

6. Keyboard, mouse, headset/speakers, BenQ GL2250HM monitor.

7. Not planning on overclocking.

8. 1080p

9. ASAP. I don't really have a time scale set up, but the sooner the better.

 

[mfenn]

Here's what I came up with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£70.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£48.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£67.99 @ Dabs)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card (£229.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.83 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.93 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £717.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-04 19:02 BST+0100

 

[Yobbo1]

Here's what I came up with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£70.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£48.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£67.99 @ Dabs)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card (£229.90 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.83 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.93 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£74.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £717.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-04 19:02 BST+0100

Most of this looks pretty solid, and not too far off what I had originally planned. I was thinking of the following changes though.
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

This puts me slightly over budget, but I'm going to try and get the OS cheaper through my school so hopefully it works out.

How do these changes sound to you?

 

[Yobbo1]

I was thinking of swapping out the following:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

How do these changes sound to you? It puts me slightly over budget, but I was going to try and get a discount on the OS through my school.

 

[Morbus]

Pretty outstanding rig for the price. I like that configuration.

That said, without experience, are you ok assembling the PC yourself? The hardest part is putting the CPU in, the rest is just plugs and screws, pretty much.

 

[Yobbo1]

I've never fully built a PC before, but I have swapped out parts and replaced some cables so I think I should be able to manage. I'll check out some guides beforehand and ask my more tech savvy friends for advice if it comes to it.

 

[escrow4]

Only thing I would change is the CPU. Get a 4690 non K, via MCE all cores will boost to 3.9GHz, 4460 only hits 3.4GHz. 500MHz boost out of the box is pretty substantial.

 

[Yobbo1]

Only thing I would change is the CPU. Get a 4690 non K, via MCE all cores will boost to 3.9GHz, 4460 only hits 3.4GHz. 500MHz boost out of the box is pretty substantial.

Is there any difference between the K version and the non K version other than the overclocking? After looking into it I'll get the non K version because it appears my currently planned motherboard, the H97, doesn't even allow for proper overclocking with the 4690K CPU, and it's ever so slightly cheaper.

Also, what does MCE stand for?

 

[Yobbo1]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mz6wZL

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
GPU: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB PCS+ Video Card
Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply

I'm also planning on picking up a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler.
How does this build sound to you? I can't afford to upgrade anymore as my budget is £750.

Duplicate thread merged in here. Please stick to one thread per build.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

 

[mfenn]

I was thinking of swapping out the following:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

How do these changes sound to you? It puts me slightly over budget, but I was going to try and get a discount on the OS through my school.

You should stick with a dual-channel configuration on the memory (2x4GB). The motherboard has 4 slots so there's no real need to hamper performance by only going with one stick.

If you're OK going over budget, then getting a 4690 would be fine.

 

[mfenn]

Also, what does MCE stand for?

Multi-Core Enhancement. Basically that is a marketing term for running all four cores at the maximum single core Turbo Boost frequency.