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Hi,

My name is Jelle, I'm from Belgium. I'm new to the whole pc building so I really don't know what parts I should take.
I would like to play BF3 on high quality on it. My budget is around 1500 euro. I would also like a good sound cart since I have a corsair sp2500 sound system. I also need a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Probably a razer deathadder mouse and a mechanical azerty keyboard. Some suggestions?

This is what I got so far:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz quad-core LGA1150 processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H
Memory: 2x4 GiB PC3-14900 Crucial BLE2CP4G3D1869DE1TX0 (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V)
Graphics: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 Boost
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB
Seagate Barracuda 7,200 RPM 3TB
LG BH16NS40 Blu-ray Disc
Audio: Soundblaster Z
Enclosure: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D
Power supply: Corsair HX650W
CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
Monitor Dell UltraSharp U2312HM
Mouse: Razer Deathadder

Greets

Welcome to the Tech Report!

Have you read the System Guide?
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=47062

We should probably expect Haswell Core i5-4670K to replace Ivy Bridge Core i5-3570K or i5-3470 in the next version of the system guide, but the systems suggested there should help you get started.

I'm watching the vid right now

Do you already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard?

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Do you already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard?

Oh yes, forgot to mention, yes I also need a monitor, mouse and keyboard. I was thinking to buy a razer deathadder mouse. I would like my keyboard to be a mechanical azerty. I have no idea for a monitor.

You want your monitor to have 1920x1080 or higher resolution. Think of a 23" IPS LCD like the Acer H236HLbid, LG IPS234V-PN, ViewSonic VX2370Smh-LED, Asus VS239H-P, AOC i2367Fh or Dell UltraSharp U2312HM as a good starting point if the budget is tight. If you have another 200-300 euros to spend, a 2560x1440 monitor would be great.

You want your mouse to have 5 buttons (button 4 works as "back" in most applications). A Logitech G400 or G500 or a Razer DeathAdder would be a good starting point.

I am unfamiliar with Belgian/French AZERTY keyboard models.

Consider some of these components:
Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz quad-core LGA1150 processor
optional CoolerMaster Hyper212 Evo cooler
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H micro-ATX LGA1150 motherboard
2x8 or 2x4 GiB PC3-14900 (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V)
Radeon HD7870 2GB graphics card
or GeForce GTX660Ti 2GB
or Radeon HD7950 3GB
250 GB Samsung 840 Series SSD
3 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 hard-drive
Blu-ray drive
Card reader
Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 or similar micro-ATX mid-tower case
500 to 660 watt modular ATX power supply

Welcome to the Forums!

I don't know what sites you use in Belgium and what kinds of brands are available, so I'll just post from Newegg and you can go from there.

I don't know if there is a real need to spend $60 (probably 50-60 Euros) on a "gaming" mouse. I don't really know if there is any benefit to 6400dpi v. 1600. I recently bought and am enjoying this Gigabyte gaming mouse. It is comfortable to use and has 1600dpi, though I don't know what the polling rate is.

As for the graphics card, a 7950 is a good choice, but you can also consider the Tahiti LE version of the 7870. The 7870 is $250 in the States v. about $300 for the 7950. Not a huge difference, and you seem to have a pretty large budget, but there's no point in spending $50 or Euros more on only a little better performance.

As for the CPU cooler, you may want to consider the Hyper 212 *Evo* instead of the Plus. They look very similar, but the contacts on the bottom of the Evo are flat rather than ridged like on the Plus. That makes for easier and more efficient heat transfer, which should keep temps down really low. My 4.1ghz overclocked 3570k (stock voltage) with 212 Evo in a Corsair Carbide 500r case idles at 28-29C and only gets up to 50C under load. How much overclocking do you plan on doing?

That 650D is a great case too!

Jellon wrote:

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK

Those are fine choices for Ivy Bridge. Do consider the recently-released Haswell option (core i5-4670K) for just a few euros more. Micro-ATX's 4 PCIe slots are probably sufficient, so choosing a micro-ATX motherboard could let you make a more compact system than with a 6-slot ATX motherboard.

Jellon wrote:

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600

8 GiB is probably sufficient. Do look for PC3-14900 (DDR3-1866) that runs with CAS 9 or less at 1.5 V or less.

Jellon wrote:

Graphics: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 Boost

The Radeon HD7950 Boost is terrific (I recently got a Sapphire version for myself).

Jellon wrote:

Enclosure: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D

Take a look at the micro-ATX 350D.

Hmm, so how do I find out which hardware I should take? I just have to read alot of revieuws? And how do I know they can all work together?

Reviews are a good place to learn about parts. TechReport will cover most any processor and graphics card you could be interested in, as well as some motherboards. Asking questions on forums is also good For your motherboard choice, be sure it has all the connections you want in the back - I made the mistake of buying a Mobo without an optical out audio connection, so I had to get a separate sound card for digital audio.

For making sure parts fit, you can try PCPartPicker. Just make sure the compatibility filter is on (it is on by default). Start with the part you definitely everything else to be compatible with (normally the processor) and then chose your next part (normally your motherboard). Use the fields on the right to filter down to the kinds of pieces you want, so you can choose what size motherboard (ATX, mATX, or Mini ITX) you want to use.

The non-cheating way to make sure the sockets are the same for your processor and motherboard and that your motherboard size is supported by your case. So, you will want an LGA 1155 motherboard to go with your LGA 1155 socket processor. And a case that supports mATX motherboards if that's the size Mobo you want to use.

The other thing to be aware of is that you need to be sure your RAM and aftermarket heatsink will play nicely together. Normally that's only an issue with really tall RAM. I'd look at some people's completed builds to see if they used similar parts if you have real concerns.

If you go with the 650D case you really don't have to worry about your graphics card fitting. You could fit a bus in that case.

http://www.pcpartpicker.com is pretty helpful with what will fit together and what won't. The prices may not work out for a Belgian, but I'm 99% sure they have euros listed for currency. The crowd here is always helpful, generally i'm more of a reader then a writer, but I think you've found a good home for your questions.

The build you have is sound. If you can find a deal on a slightly-older i5-2500K those CPU's have better temperatures when overclocked. You may be able to save a lot of money on one as well. Ivy Bridge and Haswell have problems with cooling at 4GHz+ clock speeds due a bug feature in Intel's assembly process. The hyper 212 Evo has up to 10c cooler temps when you overclock the CPU, but is only $5 more.

I don't have time for a long post right now, but if it's useful for the OP or others, I'd be using Komplett.be or Misco.be to price stuff up in Belgium.

Both of those stores are good for anything I have to do in Western Europe.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

You want your monitor to have 1920x1080 or higher resolution. Think of a 23" IPS LCD like the Acer H236HLbid, LG IPS234V-PN, ViewSonic VX2370Smh-LED, Asus VS239H-P, AOC i2367Fh or Dell UltraSharp U2312HM as a good starting point if the budget is tight. If you have another 200-300 euros to spend, a 2560x1440 monitor would be great.

Would the Asus VS247H-P or Asus VS248H-P be a good choice?

Jellon wrote:

Would the Asus VS247H-P or Asus VS248H-P be a good choice?

Please don't spend your money on an icky TN LCD monitor when your can get one of the inexpensive IPS LCDs that I listed for very nearly the same price.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Jellon wrote:

Would the Asus VS247H-P or Asus VS248H-P be a good choice?

Please don't spend your money on an icky TN LCD monitor when your can get one of the inexpensive IPS LCDs that I listed for very nearly the same price.

Guys, chill out with the IPS panels already, OP said he wants to make a gaming PC not one for photo editing or what have you.

Imo you should buy a 120+ Hz monitor with 1 ms response time. I haven't research much but the BenQ XL2411T comes with 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time.

To take full advantage of it you will need a beefier card so you'll have to make some compromises. I recommend buying the sound card and mechanical keyboard later, for now use the onboard HD audio and a cheap rubber dome keyboard. Also buy a cheaper case and you should be able to afford a good enough video card for such a rig.

Something the likes of an OCed GTX 770 or HD 7970 GHz Edition with custom cooler. Idk if a GTX 780 is feasible with your budget since idk the kind of prices you have there, but if you can squeeze it in at the expense of parts that you can buy later and make due with what you have, then do it.

Arclight wrote:

Guys, chill out with the IPS panels already, OP said he wants to make a gaming PC not one for photo editing or what have you.

Imo you should buy a 120+ Hz monitor with 1 ms response time. I haven't research much but the BenQ XL2411T comes with 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time.

Don't get hung up on the manufacturer's advertised response time. They all measure their response time in different ways so you are comparing apples to oranges. The overdrive function on monitors is really more important than response time anyway, even if the response times were accurate

For example here is a "8ms" monitor (overdrive on left)


vs a "2ms" monitor (overdrive on left)



and the input lag is actually lower on the 8ms monitor (neither would be noticeable however)



120hz monitors do offer benefits to gaming (particularly if you run at high framerates with no v-sync), but they also still carry a price premium (often costing about twice as much), and you are losing some color accuracy/quality by going with a TN panel. Because of the increased color fidelity IPS panels do look better even in games, but on the other hand 120hz is usually smoother (and less blurry) during motion. It's really a tradeoff and is a hard decision to make. Because 120hz mainly helps during fast motion, even the type of game you play makes a difference. A strategy game is going to see a lot less benefit from 120hz than a first-person-shooter would.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ has great in-depth monitor testing/reviews. You are really going down a rabbit hole when you start looking at monitors though. In some ways they are more difficult to choose than the rest of your PC parts combined. Right now every monitor technology has its strengths and weaknesses, so there is no perfect solution (until we get OLED displays).

Yeah, 120Hz screens are only really of value if they also implement lightboost, and it's the lightboost that makes the big difference.

Personally I've found that you need a ridiculously powerful PC to play modern games at more than 100FPS on anything other than minimum detail. I know it's not quite as smooth but I certainly prefer to run something with vsync at 60Hz, Unless your PC can mantain a minimum of 120FPS at all times, the change in framerate (with vsync on) or the tearing with vsync off is worse than the 60Hz limitation.

Which brings us back to IPS vs TN. TN has its place in lightboost 120Hz+ screens, but if you ever plan to play dark and atmospheric games, avoid TN like the plague; Colour accuracy aside, a good TN is at least passable for most situations, but unless it also has lightboost, there's absolutely no disadvantage to getting an IPS, and plenty of advantages.

EDIT:
Anandtech has recently reviewed a typical 120Hz gaming monitor, the Benq XL2720T and the review covers a lot of things - how LightBoost improves fluidity but also gave him a headache. The review also highlights low image quality, viewing angle issues that are distracting even when sitting square in front of the screen, and a low colour gamut (pale, washed out colours). The extra fuzziness he is talking about is just a low quality glare filter I think, since other 120Hz screens don't exhibit this in my experience. You really have to desperately want the extra fluidity to put up with all the shortcomings that just don't exist with an IPS screen.

I say this all the time and people think I'm an IPS fanboy, but the Anandtech article is clearly a review written by someone experiencing Lightboost for the first time.
Without any preconceptions, he concludes that he was disappointed with the expense, the washed out colours, the soft focus, the shifting gamma and contrast no matter where he sat, the headaches, the input lag, and the low resolution. Almost all of those are simply the limitations of TN as a grossly inferior display technology.

Jellon, you can save a lot of money by picking a different case. I am using a HAF 922 mid tower but it's big and it has about the best case ventilation on the market and comes with 2 200mm silent fans and a quiet 120mm fan. It has a honeycomb designed top and side panel and the front red LED light on the 200mm fan can be shut off. Yes the new ones come with front USB 3 support. Mine has only USB 2. On top of that it looks great and you can fit anything in it but maybe a 360mm water rad. Also I moved the top 200mm exhaust fan to the side as a intake fan when i first got it. Now i am running 5 120mm cougar fans, 2 intake on my side panel, 1 intake on the bottom in front of the PSU, 2 in push pull on my 120mm AIO water cooler and the stock 200mm front intake fan. All fans are controlled by a fan controller and its virtually silent unless I put my ear to the top of the case. I game with G930 usb wireless surround headphones so i have my 2 GPU fans go to 100% at 50c since i feel the cooler you keep components the longer they last. Plus my G930 headphone block 30db of sound just by putting them on

Plus it would save you $90. The 1500+ reviews speak for themselves 5 star average on newegg. Here is the link and I just noticed its on sale for 89$ a great price for a great case. It has only one downfall. No filters except on the front fan , so if you have cats and a dusty and smokey atmosphere you will have to blow thew dust out at least 3 rimes a year. But its good practice to clean your system that often anyways.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119197

The HAF 922 is a good case for cooling and building into, but goddamn that thing is pig-ugly!

Its a good representation of chintzy Asian design where everything has to look like the offspring of a giant Mecha robot warrior with decorative slashes, fake ducts, diffusers, lips, grooves, cuts, chunky square bits that serve no purpose etc.
Give me a discrete, flat-sided box any day

Chrispy_ wrote:

Give me a discrete, flat-sided box any day

78,65 € TTC Antec Three Hundred Two
115,01 € TTC Cooler Master Silencio 550
67,00 € TTC Antec VSK-3000E (micro-ATX)

+1 for the Silencio 550:

Really quiet, well-made case for the money. Not for SLI rigs though, only 3 120mm fans total.

Jellon, pick a case you like. Just make sure it will do everything you want. Like the ability to add a 240mm radiator if you think you will down the road ETC. Just make sure it meets your criteria:) Happy shopping....It's always fun to build your own custom configured DIY computer. Fire away with any more questions you have and give us the website your going to be shopping on along with your Max Budget if it has gone up. Along with what you are going to be doing with it besides gaming.

The Cooler Master HAf 922 does not look that bad! Lots of people love the look. Plus i knew i was running SLI when i built it so i thought it looked fine and went for functionality over looks.... and most people put towers under their desks. I have to say that Cooler Master Silencio 550 is a really sharp looking case. It just has horrible airflow from the looks of it. Also would a Cooler Master Hyper 212 fit without the top of it getting touched by the side panels noise dampening material? It would be awesome if it had side mounts for say 2x 120-140mm fans or a 200mm spinner. Then it would be perfect.

If i had to use the Cooler Master Silencio 550 I would get a H-80i to overclock and mount it on the rear as a intake with push pull fans since AIO water coolers do not throw off barely any heat. Nothing like the heat a hyper 212 or any decent tower air cooler would throw off into the case. Then I would upgrade the front intake fans with Silent High volume fans and since the case would be a positive pressure case i would get say a GTX 770 or 780 with the blower style cooler so the graphics card heat would be expelled out of the case. Actually The only graphics card i would put in it would be a blower style card. A high end hot running card like a MSI lightning or gigbyte trifan that just throws the heat into the case and make for a Hot running GPU along with hot Motherboard VRM;s Chipsets and such.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

You want your monitor to have 1920x1080 or higher resolution. Think of a 23" IPS LCD like the Acer H236HLbid, LG IPS234V-PN, ViewSonic VX2370Smh-LED, Asus VS239H-P, AOC i2367Fh or Dell UltraSharp U2312HM as a good starting point if the budget is tight.

I've looked at them all but I don't know which one to choose. Which one would you recommend me. It will only be used for gaming.

I went to a PC store last week and I found a lot of azerty keyboards, so that won't be a problem.

Jellon wrote:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz quad-core LGA1150 processor
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK

Oops! You have an LGA1155 motherboard and an LGA1150 processor there. They are not compatible.
Consider one of these micro-ATX LGA1150 motherboards with the Z87 chipset to go with that LGA1150 Haswell processor.
$115 ASRock Z87M Pro4
$117½ MSI Z87M-G43
$125 Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H <- My earlier suggestion
$140 Asus Z87M-Plus
$146 ASRock Z87M Extreme4
$180 Asus Gryphon Z87
$198 ASRock Z87M OC Formula
$210 Gigabyte GA-G1.Sniper M5
$210 Asus Maximus VI Gene

I believe that buying an ATX motherboard would add nothing to your build except for two obsolete PCI slots compared to the Micro-ATX motherboards listed above that have four PCIe slots each. If you absolutely must get an ATX motherboard, you would probably want something like these:
$110 MSI Z87-G41
$115 ASRock Z87 Pro4
$125 Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP
$140 Asus Z87-A
$150 ASRock Z87 Extreme4
$150 MSI Z87-G45 Gaming

P.S.: I didn't spot any Z87 LGA1150 motherboards at Misco. Komplett has the MSI Z87-G43 and two others.

Jellon wrote:

CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo is an improved version of this heatsink. You can see the differences in the Newegg video on the catalog page.

Jellon wrote:

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600

Here's some PC3-14900 memory:
75,07 € TTC 2x4 GiB PC3-14900 Crucial BLE2CP4G3D1869DE1TX0 (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V)
or 159,62 € TTC 2x8 GiB PC3-14900 Crucial BLE2CP8G3D1869DE1TX0 (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V)

Jellon wrote:

JustAnEngineer wrote:

You want your monitor to have 1920x1080 or higher resolution.

I've looked at them all but I don't know which one to choose. Which one would you recommend?

If all of those inexpensive 1920x1080 IPS LCD monitors are readily available for similar prices, I would choose the Dell UltraSharp for the best support. If the Dell UltraSharp model is too expensive or difficult to find in your part of the world, The Asus VS239H-P offers an appealing combination of low price and decent features.

P.S.:
Here are some inexpensive IPS LCD monitors from one of the suppliers that Chrispy_ recommended:
151,14 € TTC Acer V236HLbd
169,99 € TTC Viewsonic/VX2370SMH-LED
174,63 € TTC LG IPS231P.AEU
175,38 € TTC AOC Value i2369Vm
188,16 € TTC LG 24EA53VQ-P

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Jellon wrote:

Jellon wrote:

Graphics: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 Boost

The Radeon HD7950 Boost is terrific (I recently got a Sapphire version for myself).

What graphics card would you recommend? A Sapphire version?

Most of the graphics cards using the same GPU will perform the same.

A few may offer better (or worse!) cooling, exotic color schemes, exciting decals, LEDs, etc. Some manufacturers don't even make their own boards--they buy the AMD reference card from someone else and then slap their name on it. Some brands may engineer their own board designs vs. building a reference design. Some may use better or cheaper components. Some brands may offer a better warranty.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Most of the graphics cards using the same GPU will perform the same.

A few may offer better (or worse!) cooling, exotic color schemes, exciting decals, LEDs, etc. Some manufacturers don't even make their own boards--they buy the AMD reference card from someone else and then slap their name on it. Some brands may engineer their own board designs vs. building a reference design. Some may use better or cheaper components. Some brands may offer a better warranty.

Ok I guess I'll stay with the PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 Boost.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

P.S.:
Here are some inexpensive IPS LCD monitors from one of the suppliers that Chrispy_ recommended:
151,14 € TTC Acer V236HLbd
169,99 € TTC Viewsonic/VX2370SMH-LED
174,63 € TTC LG IPS231P.AEU
175,38 € TTC AOC Value i2369Vm
188,16 € TTC LG 24EA53VQ-P

I can get the Dell UltraSharp U2312HM for 180,29 euros so I'll go with that.

For the case I'll probably stay with the obsidian 650D so I can expand it in the next years.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Yeah, 120Hz screens are only really of value if they also implement lightboost, and it's the lightboost that makes the big difference.

Sorry but I have to vehemently disagree with you right there. Lightboost is great, yes, but 120Hz screens are definitely worth it even without it. It makes such a huge difference in input lag, animation smoothness and reduced tearing that the additional clarity of using lightboost is just the cherry on top for most people.

Firestarter wrote:

Chrispy_ wrote:

Yeah, 120Hz screens are only really of value if they also implement lightboost, and it's the lightboost that makes the big difference.

Sorry but I have to vehemently disagree with you right there. Lightboost is great, yes, but 120Hz screens are definitely worth it even without it. It makes such a huge difference in input lag, animation smoothness and reduced tearing that the additional clarity of using lightboost is just the cherry on top for most people.

Input lag is really more dependent on the particular model of the monitor. There are 120hz monitors with more input lag than 60hz monitors, and 60hz monitors with more input lag than 120hz monitors. Generally speaking 120hz monitors tend to have less input lag, but there are plenty of exceptions. It's also debatable at what level the difference is actually noticeable. Sure if you get a monitor with 30ms of input lag it's going to be noticeable, but can anyone other than the top-level professional gamers tell the difference between 3ms and 8ms of input lag? Besides if you really want zero input lag, a CRT is your only option.

I agree about the animation smoothness (particularly when panning FOV in a FPS) and reduced tearing though, and those can be significant differences particularly for people who play very fast paced games. I still think it's a very tough decision between 120hz and IPS though, since each has it's strengths. IPS generally has better colors, contrast, uniformity, and a lower pricetag. 120hz TN has better smoothness of motion and less blur. Ideally you'd probably want to have 2 monitors, one IPS and one 120hz so that you can switch between them depending on what you feel is most preferable in a given application/game.