Need advice with first PC build.

Hi, I'm planning on building a PC. My max budget is 600 euros, and it is not going to rise. This is what I have come up so far: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/user/iPed/saved/YHfkcf Please give me feedback. Also about the quantity of the thermal compound, case fans etc. If you have a better build, please give me a link to it. PS: It has to be from any country that ships to Estonia.

 

This looks pretty decent, the only thing i can say is ditch the thermal paste. The cooler master 212 hyper evo comes with a tube (at least mine and my friend's ones did)

EDIT: After further looking, if you can, put an SSD in there. A must have for gaming rigs. I would rather have an SSD than a sound card, for instance.

 

So the cpu cooler i'm looking at doesn't need thermal paste? Okay, that's great, I was already worrying about messing up with that. However, I haven't really gotten into sound cards, what are the advantages of having one?

 

This is what I came up with for Intel: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/bVXKMp
And for AMD...: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/zJXKMp
The AMD one is slightly over-budget but only by a couple of euros, and you could swap the 750k out for a 860k but I wanted to stay reasonably within budget.
The power supply was given a bit of head-room so you can overclock that Athlon or that Pentium and that 270 until your heart's content.
Just an FYI I don't live in the places where the Euro is used (UK) but I used the Dutch parts picker so hopefully it will be ok.
Hope this helps!

 

Unless you run a complicated speaker setup or are a professional musician or audiophile, you don't need a dedicated sound card. Almost all motherboards come with built-in sound cards that are sufficient for most people.

 

Thanks. Btw, Cameron, I can't see your AMD parts list. You copied the URL of the part picker site, not the build. Pointing that out for you

 

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/GF9VHx

Try this instead. You don't need a sound card, and an i3-4130 is a way better option than an FX-4300.

 

Oh dear, hang on...
http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/zJXKMp
That should work, god I'm tired...

 

Well, about any cpu cooler needs thermal paste, it's just that a tube of thermal paste is included with the cooler, so you don't need to buy a separate one.

PRO TIP: You only need a small line or even just a dot of thermal paste, so if you know how much you need, there isn't much to mess up.

 

To be perfectly honest I'd go with the Pentium any day, just because of the 4.5Ghz+ you can get on the Pentium, and cheaper by a sizable margin, but I agree the i3 is still a big step up from the FX-4300.

 

The Pentium is only a dual core. Many modern games require a quad core CPU. While the i3 isn't actually a quad core, it's hyperthreaded which makes for 4 threads, meaning those games that require a quad-core CPU will work.

Besides, I wouldn't want to have the name Pentium anywhere on my PC

 

I might go for the pentium build, but i still got loads of time until that. I need to save up some money, still dont have enough . (planning ahead)

 

I do see what you mean, the i3 does have hyper-threading which technically makes it a quad core but most games do not require a quad-core, yes it will offer an advantage but even with the Haswell-E series processors, such as the 5820K, normal games will run SLOWER than their Haswell counterparts, like a 4790k, at lower cost due to having more single core performance. With the Pentium name, to be perfectly honest I wouldn't mind having a Pentium but I guess some people are prouder of having a top-of-the-line PC than having the word "Pentium" written on the front of their pride and joy. Just opinions I guess.

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I know where you are coming from, I'm planning to get a H100i, new case, Z97 MOBO and 2nd 970 next Christmas!

 

Just a small question though; will that CPU cooler allow me to get about 4.3ghz without any problems?

 

I wouldn't buy a Pentium. One day you'll want to play a new game and it will not work, because it requires a quad-core CPU. Get the i3.

With a 270 or a 260X, I can assure you no game will be CPU bottlenecked, other than BeamNG.
I'd get the i3 because although there are very few games that require a quad core CPU, many new games (specially the AAA titles) do. I wouldn't want to find out that I can't play a game because I bought a dual-core CPU.

Also, it's not like the i3 is a high end CPU. It's not about having a top-of-the-line PC, it's about not having Pentium written on it. NetBurst doomed the Pentium name forever.

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It should. However, I'd rather get the i3 because four threads. Besides, H87/H97/B85 boards aren't made for overclocking, so I wouldn't expect to get very far on one of those, and Z87/97 boards are more expensive and might exceed your budget.

 

God yeah, because the Pentium is dual core and has no bells and whistles, it runs very cool so you could get to 4.3Ghz no problem.

 

Okay, thanks a lot, helped me so much
EDIT: I'll also think about the i3, since i have about half a year to decide anyway. I'll wait and see what time brings.

 

Although an H87/B85 board won't really like it. To get to 4.3 GHz you have to do a slight overvoltage, and non-Z boards aren't very good at that.

If you do buy the Pentium, take advantage of the lower price and buy a good Z97 board, that will allow you to overclock and make it easy to upgrade to a Devil's Canyon or Broadwell CPU in the future, without having to buy a new motherboard.

 

Of course you could go older and try and find a 3xxx or 2xxx i5 from Intel, I wouldn't recommend it though. But of course there is the AMD side with the 750k and 860k both with quad core. And as for the Motherboard what I would do if he (or she not going to judge) had a slightly higher budget like 650 euros I would go for a Z87/97 board so he could upgrade to a i5 or i7 when the funds are available, which is what I was planning to do with my build. Go for a Pentium, overclock the living crap out of it, get something like a 280x or 290, yeah it would bottleneck the hell out of it but the next time I get a substantial sum of money, I could get a i5 or i7 with full overclocking capabilities with the Z97 board.

 

Here's a good build:

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/fWvPcf

A good Z97 board will overclock the Pentium nicely, and allow an upgrade to Devil's Canyon or Broadwell without having to buy a new board.