Building my own PC!

[georgeishungry]

I'm saving up to build my own PC, and I'm trying to aim for the £350-450 range, and I thought I'd share what I'm planning on using with you. I have no idea how the finished product would turn out, and there's some things I'm not really sure on yet. :3

I'm looking to make a PC that'll run games like The Sims, etc as well as being very good at multi-tasking and things such as video & photo editing.

Parts/software
Processor: AMD Quad-Core A10-Series APU A10-6790K
RAM: Not sure what brand, etc yet. I want 12GB
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty FM2A88X+ Killer
Hard drive: Seagate 2TB Barracuda Internal Hard Drive
Operating system: Windows 8 64-bit (£74!)
CD drive: LiteOn iHAS124 24X Internal DVD Writer with SATA - OEM
Fan: Thermalright True Spirit 120M (BW) Rev.A CPU Cooler
Power supply: Antec VP450P 450W PSU

If you see anything that wouldn't be good or compatible with anything, please tell me! I'm a tech junky but I've never built a PC before :3

One question - will I need a graphics card as well as that processor? I read APUs have on-board graphics. :)

[Camazotz]

The integrated graphics on the motherboard will definitely not be enough to play newer videogames and edit video/photos.

If you're doing simple stuff like browsing the web and playing lower-intense games, what you have is fine. If you want to do all those things and last a few years, you'll definitely need a discrete graphics card and maybe a better CPU if you have the money.

So if you want to save money, get less RAM (4 might be okay, 8 is definitely enough), get a 1TB HDD (2TB is nice, but it'll run you up extra cash), make sure your CD Drive is only around 15 pounds. PSU will have to be upgraded to 600W if you decide to upgrade your CPU and get a GPU with that saved money.

These are just my recommendations assuming you want really want to stay on budget and edit videos (which takes a lot of processing power). If you don't plan on editing videos, then what you have is perfectly fine! :)

I suggest you use this (http://pcpartpicker.com/) website to figure stuff out, but I'm going to try to work on a good build for your price.

[Ethe14]

For the RAM I have Crucial memory for my Mac 16GB worth. Runs really smoothly and no hiccups. I would recommend them.

[jayce_xt]

This looks good. Just make sure that 1) your power supply can sustain all your bits, and 2) that your components have the right specs for gaming. Oh, and 3) don't focus so much on brand name as much as price. If you find two 3.5gHz processors, but one is half the price of the other, don't go for the more expensive one just because it's from a brand you've heard of. Regardless of what company produces a component, they're all made from the same materials, and almost always made in the same way. Marketing is just a trick to get you to pay more for something without actually getting more.

[Abyssal Echo]

ya might wanna talk to Charlie (CharlieHorse} he built his own and its working great :) so I'm sure he can give you some helpful advice and suggestions.

[DeadEyes]

This looks good. Just make sure that 1) your power supply can sustain all your bits, and 2) that your components have the right specs for gaming. Oh, and 3) don't focus so much on brand name as much as price. If you find two 3.5gHz processors, but one is half the price of the other, don't go for the more expensive one just because it's from a brand you've heard of. Regardless of what company produces a component, they're all made from the same materials, and almost always made in the same way. Marketing is just a trick to get you to pay more for something without actually getting more.

Shocking how you forgot something important there: some brands has better quality standards than others. Might be pretty much the same thing that doesn't mean it was put togheter with the same care.

Speaking of brands, you should be careful about the motherboard you choose because some are really badly designed and cheap.

Also, it's true that even though you choose an APU, you should still go for a dedicated graphics card. Even if it's not a very expensive one it will still be better than the main processor on it's own. You can use dual graphics with those chips if you get a Radeon card.


Please don't double post -Albert/Hypers

[georgeishungry]

I read an article saying that with an AMD APU, you could combine that with a lower-end graphics card such as the Gigabyte Radeon HD 6670 to increase performance by 80%. Is that true, do you think?

[Plane And Simple]

Just my 1 cent. You MUST get an Asus Motherboard. They're the best

[Verto]

I would suggest heading over to the whirlpool forums if your looking for professional level advice for building something this expensive. Or if you don't want to ask, look what other people are planning for theirs. They have enormous amounts of resources to help with this kind of thing.

If you manage to have spare money though and it hits all your requirements, I would consider getting a SSD. Once you go SSD you never go back.

[phuckphace]

12GB of RAM seems kind of unnecessary when this is a lower end PC with onboard video. maybe 8GB instead?

also avoid Windows 8, it's awful. stick with 7.

Just my 1 cent. You MUST get an Asus Motherboard. They're the best

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[Plane And Simple]

12GB of RAM seems kind of unnecessary when this is a lower end PC with onboard video. maybe 8GB instead?

also avoid Windows 8, it's awful. stick with 7.



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Agreed on everything. Win8 is made for touchscreens. And with 8gb you have more than enough ram. You may also want to Consider some average video card like the GTX660

[DeadEyes]

Just my 1 cent. You MUST get an Asus Motherboard. They're the best

Totally, that's what I was talking about, at least try to buy a motherboard from a company that makes boards for GPUs (in other words, video cards).

Agreed on everything. Win8 is made for touchscreens. And with 8gb you have more than enough ram. You may also want to Consider some average video card like the GTX660

Well, Windows 8.1 has a classic desktop screen with the start menu back where it should be so now it's closer to what you get with Win 7.
And I would recommend going for the GTX 660Ti instead, there's a bit of a price leap but a worthy leap in power as well.