Hello! I came here previously to get some build advice and everyone was pretty helpful. Anyway as it's coming up to the sales period and my current rig is starting to struggle I would like to go for a new one. I'd like some ideas on what to keep an eye out for. Budget: £500 Main uses of intended build: Gaming I don't require everything to run at max and I don't have unrealistic expectations for my budget. Typical games I'd look to be playing would include any modern FPS like BF4 as well as games like Assassins Creed Black Flag. Multimedia & General Use Such as streaming to my large TV and typical internet usage. Parts required: Mobo, Case, RAM, CPU, CPU cooler, GPU Previous build information (list details of parts): Intel Q6600 Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX 8GB DDR2 Ram 500w OCZ power supply 120 GB SSD 1TB HDD Monitor resolution: Monitor 1680 x 1050, Also use TV hooked up for Netflix, movies and Steam Big Picture Storage requirements: None, I've got these fulfilled already. Will you be overclocking: No, I'd really prefer not to overlock. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): None. Extra information about desired system: I'd like a system that is both quiet and clean looking. I've been eyeing up the Fractal Design Define R4 although looking at the measurements it looks to be a bit of a chunky computer. It does seem ideal though for the sound proofing. Thanks in advance for any help.
Love budget builds, love 'em. I'm going to base this build on AMD parts, I could fit a Intel build into the budget but I want to leave room for a slightly more powerful GPU, keep it balanced though as to keep the bottleneck minimum. Case: Coolermaster Silencio 352 (~£44.82) Really good case. It has noise cancelling foam both on the front and side panels. A single 120mm fan (you could add another). The great thing about the case is the addition of multiple dust filters, will help keep the system quitter for longer, but I suspect you'll maintain the build regularly anyway. It also has rubber PSU mounts so vibration noise will be reduced. I think you'll get a really quite build with this case. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P (~£68.36) Nice board. The chipset is fine, you aren't looking for SLI/Crossfire so it will do nicely. I tried to find a board that was at a fair prince, adequate features and a clean look. The color scheme will go nice with almost all other components. Another option would be the ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 motherboard or an MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard, both would do nicely and are at similar price points. RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600MHz (~£65.76) Honestly the price difference between 1300MHz and 1600MHz was minimal. That said, you wont really see much performance gain from moving to 1600MHz but it's nice to have it, especially if the price difference (with this RAM) is so minimal. Great sticks though, clean too. I was keeping to the idea of you wanting a clean look so went with the low profile option instead of the with the giant heat spreaders. Fan clearance is good in the case so if you want the spikey hair do, that is an option. CPU: AMD FX 6350 (~£99.16) Pretty decent CPU for the money. I had a lot of trouble with this; I wanted at fist to stick with the 6300, but for a mere £10 you could have the 6350 with its out of the box overclock which would help in those large BF4 multiplayer maps. I also was looking at the 8320, but I don't think the performance gains over the 6350 warrant the price difference. In my opinion I think the 6350 is fine, but you have the budget for the 8320. CPU Cooler: Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 (£34.93) Between this and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. I choose this in the end based on the fan supplied with the heatsink. The Be Quite! fans are very quite and tend to have a nice sound. The fan RPM tends to be lower overall but still performs very well. GPU: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB (£155.12) The cooling system on this card is especially good and extremely quite. You can get away with 50% fan speeds and get a barely noticeable hum. With the noise proofing in the case, I suspect you likely wouldn't hear a thing. Also, performance wise, you're looking at playing AC4 and BF4 at your monitor resolution maximum settings comfortably, easily hitting the 60fps mark. It'll do that at 1080p too if you decide to upgrade your monitor in the future. Your 500w power supply will work with this system but you're going to need two 6-pin PCI power connectors. The corsair CX 500w power supply is a good one, cheap and helps keep things a little more clean. Reduce those wires. It's a quick draft but it's decent for what you want to use it for. You'll have no problems gaming at all and the noise levels with the parts chosen will be minimal. I suspect you'll hear a light hum and that's about it. Clean too! Hope it helps somewhat.
