Need help choosing components for my new rig

[belikompie]

Hi guys, first time going to buy my own gaming rig here. I will appreciate it if you can spare some time to help me.

After looking at online recommendations, I know that I want the following
- i5-4460 or i5-4690 (not planning to overclock, undecided between these 2)
- gtx 970
- 8 GB RAM
- 250 GB SSD
- 4 TB HDD (I prefer a better quality HDD, because I know the pain of HDD failure)
- No need OS and DVDRW
- I prefer small form factor PC (mini ITX or micro ATX, I prefer slim cases)
- displayport or miniDP slot

I do not have specific budget range as long as my rig is durable enough to survive for ~5 years. Planning to play games such as GTA V and The Witcher.

Now, the problem is I'm not sure which brand to choose for each component. Also, do I need additional cooling system? What is the suitable PSU for that config?

I also need a help to build my rig. Which shop in SLS is the better one for assembling PC?

Thank you for any help.

 

[monikernemo]

Hi guys, first time going to buy my own gaming rig here. I will appreciate it if you can spare some time to help me.

After looking at online recommendations, I know that I want the following
- i5-4460 or i5-4690 (not planning to overclock, undecided between these 2)
- gtx 970
- 8 GB RAM
- 250 GB SSD
- 4 TB HDD (I prefer a better quality HDD, because I know the pain of HDD failure)
- No need OS and DVDRW
- I prefer small form factor PC (mini ITX or micro ATX, I prefer slim cases)
- displayport or miniDP slot

I do not have specific budget range as long as my rig is durable enough to survive for ~5 years. Planning to play games such as GTA V and The Witcher.

Now, the problem is I'm not sure which brand to choose for each component. Also, do I need additional cooling system? What is the suitable PSU for that config?

I also need a help to build my rig. Which shop in SLS is the better one for assembling PC?

Thank you for any help.

As quoted from PCT Dropbox:

i5 4460
MSI H81i ~ 358
Kingston 8 GB Valueram ~ 97
Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD ~ 159
Toshiba 2TB HDD ~ 100 / 4TB Seagate ~ 189
Zotac Twin Fan GTX 970 ~ 469 (or lazada discount, prolly a lot cheaper)
SILVERSTONE SFX 600W GOLD ~ 189
SILVERSTONE RV Z01 CASE ~ 129


Cost: 1501 (2TB Variant)/1590 (4TB Variant)
1. Budget?

2. Why 4TB, 2TB enough IMO. 4TB you either have to go with Seagate, or WD (very unreliable based on some stats if found online, but dk why the source state Toshiba most stable lol). 2TB is plenty. Included option nonetheless.

Unless you want like stable WD Red/Purple (used for RAID and Surveillance) but also trade off performance due to lower RPM or WD Blacks, which are costly as hell. (Blacks>Red/Purp>Seagate)

3. Chose a SFX PSU for your slim case. But comes at increased cost. Not really worth it. Other wise can consider other cheaper offerings like Thermaltake Core V1 @ $79/CM N 200 @ $55 with cheap ATX PSU (M12II or S12G from Seasonic which are 520 and 550W respectively, costs $100 +/-). 500 W is enough for your set-up, but there are no SFX PSU that goes with your case @ 500W avail at PCT. So need to get a lot more exorbitant PSU at 600W.

Zotac Twin Fan also fits your chasis well (i suppose)

4. Additional cooling not necessary, make sure your room is well-ventilated because you are using a m-itx cramped chasis. Ambient temperature/ventilation will help a lot.

5. Of course in PCT, since I quoted from PCT. Heard they charge for a fee, but you pay for customer service (esp important for newbirds!!)

 

[Alternative X]

CPU+ Mobo: ASUS H81i-PLUS + i5 4460 (369)
RAM: G.SKILL RIPJAWS-X 1600MHZ ( 4GBx2pcs ) CL9 (115)
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 970 4GB TWIN FAN (469)
SSD: OCZ VERTEX 460 240GB (165)
HDD: WD 4 TB PURPLE (241)
PSU: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G SFX 450W (139)
Case: SILVERSTONE ML07 (119)

Total cost: $1617

Buy at PC Themes, #04-15, and ask for discounts. DIY yourself. If you can't into DIY, get PC Themes to assemble for you for a fee.

Notes:

1) This rig should be capable of playing GTA V and Witcher 3 at max settings in 1080p.

2) The i5 4460 is chosen as the 0.3-0.5Ghz increase in the i5 4690 will translate to an increase of 1-3 FPS at best and I am not very sure if it is worth paying so much $$$ for so little gains.

3) Most GTX 970 GPUs should come with at least a DP output.

4) The Silverstone ML07 ITX case is chosen as it is a very slim casing and should suit your tastes. However, do note that the ML07 is so slim, it uses a more uncommon SFX form factor PSUs and you will need to take extra care in choosing a replacement PSU in the distant future.

5) If not overclocking, Intel's stock cooler should be sufficient for cooling. If you still want an aftermarket cooler, do note that the ML07 has a CPU cooler height clearance of 83mm only and thus only low profile coolers can fit into the ML07.

6) Not very sure how much quality do you want in your HDD, so a WD Purple 4TB HDD is suggested. WD Purple HDDs are designed for use as storage drives for surveillance systems, thus these HDDs are designed to have enhanced write endurance for increased durability over many data writes to the HDD and thus should be durable.

However, there is no guarantee that the increased write durability of WD Purple HDDs will translate to enhanced reliability and it may be prudent to invest in a NAS instead.

7) Got Mastercard? Consider buying the GPU, PSU and casing at Lazada.com on a Monday and enjoy 10% discounts when you pay with a Mastercard. Do note that discounts are capped at $25 and you may want to buy these items seperately. You can bring the purchased parts from Lazada.com to Sim Lim Square and have the shop assemble your rig for you with the parts brought from the shop and the parts that you have brought from Lazada.com.

In case the shop does not want to use the parts brought from Lazada.com, bring all the parts purchased from both retailers to PC Care & Solutions, #02-32, Sim Lim Square, and have Nigel assemble your rig for you for a fee.

 

[belikompie]

Thank you for the helps I forgot to ask one more thing, if one day I need a wifi card, is it still possible to put it inside (since the case is very small)?

1. Budget?

2. Why 4TB, 2TB enough IMO. 4TB you either have to go with Seagate, or WD (very unreliable based on some stats if found online, but dk why the source state Toshiba most stable lol). 2TB is plenty. Included option nonetheless.

Unless you want like stable WD Red/Purple (used for RAID and Surveillance) but also trade off performance due to lower RPM or WD Blacks, which are costly as hell. (Blacks>Red/Purp>Seagate)

1. I don't have a specific budget, because CNY I expected around 2.5k, but looks like I can get a decent one with 1.5k based on your suggestion

2. After deleting movies and some cleanup, my old laptop has 500GB of data and one of my external HDD has 1TB of data, both of them are in danger of HDD failure. So I'm planning to move them to my new PC. That's why 2TB is not enough.

Is Toshiba really the most stable? Both my friend's external HDD and mine are Toshiba and both fail after 2-3 years. It might not be a good comparison because one is external and the other is internal, but if their internal HDD is good, I might go for Toshiba 3TB.

2) The i5 4460 is chosen as the 0.3-0.5Ghz increase in the i5 4690 will translate to an increase of 1-3 FPS at best and I am not very sure if it is worth paying so much $$$ for so little gains.

4) The Silverstone ML07 ITX case is chosen as it is a very slim casing and should suit your tastes. However, do note that the ML07 is so slim, it uses a more uncommon SFX form factor PSUs and you will need to take extra care in choosing a replacement PSU in the distant future.

2. That's what I heard also, I will stick to 4460 then.

4. Is 450W enough?

 

[monikernemo]

Thank you for the helps I forgot to ask one more thing, if one day I need a wifi card, is it still possible to put it inside (since the case is very small)?



1. I don't have a specific budget, because CNY I expected around 2.5k, but looks like I can get a decent one with 1.5k based on your suggestion

2. After deleting movies and some cleanup, my old laptop has 500GB of data and one of my external HDD has 1TB of data, both of them are in danger of HDD failure. So I'm planning to move them to my new PC. That's why 2TB is not enough.

Is Toshiba really the most stable? Both my friend's external HDD and mine are Toshiba and both fail after 2-3 years. It might not be a good comparison because one is external and the other is internal, but if their internal HDD is good, I might go for Toshiba 3TB.



2. That's what I heard also, I will stick to 4460 then.

4. Is 450W enough?

1. Itx cannot have additional WiFi cards but got H97 itx from MSI Asrock and gigabyte that has onboard WiFi. Get USB adapter would be an cheaper option.

2. Its a graph from some dubious source.4TB though large operates at lower rpm? Get WD Blacks since you have additional budget?

3. Nvidia reccomends 500W. But there has been some consensus that 450W can even run GTX 780. So its your call to be kiasu or mot

 

[Goodshot]

4. Is 450W enough?[/QUOTEDun ever save $$ on psu , get a decent 550w above one , the superflower $99 one is good

 

[kandinsky]

2. After deleting movies and some cleanup, my old laptop has 500GB of data and one of my external HDD has 1TB of data, both of them are in danger of HDD failure. So I'm planning to move them to my new PC. That's why 2TB is not enough.

Btw, if you're worried about failure, technically your previous solution was 'somewhat' better since your risk is kinda spread over two drives. Although it only reduces chance of total loss, as you'll still lose data if none of the data is backed up.

If you're putting all your eggs in one single 4TB, it'll be even more important to have a backup, if the drive goes, all gone.

 

[Alternative X]

Thank you for the helps I forgot to ask one more thing, if one day I need a wifi card, is it still possible to put it inside (since the case is very small)?

1. I don't have a specific budget, because CNY I expected around 2.5k, but looks like I can get a decent one with 1.5k based on your suggestion

2. After deleting movies and some cleanup, my old laptop has 500GB of data and one of my external HDD has 1TB of data, both of them are in danger of HDD failure. So I'm planning to move them to my new PC. That's why 2TB is not enough.

Is Toshiba really the most stable? Both my friend's external HDD and mine are Toshiba and both fail after 2-3 years. It might not be a good comparison because one is external and the other is internal, but if their internal HDD is good, I might go for Toshiba 3TB.

2. That's what I heard also, I will stick to 4460 then.

4. Is 450W enough?

1) No space for a PCI-E wifi card in an ITX build. You will either have to buy a USB wifi adapter or buy a mobo with onboard wifi, but mobos with onboard wifi are relatively expensive.

2) To be honest, there is not a lot of concrete data on the reliability of Toshiba HDDs as Backblaze, the cloud storage firm that publishes HDD reliabity data, mainly uses Hitachi, Seagate and WD HDDs. However, as Toshiba 3.5'' HDDs are built based on Hitachi's 3.5'' HDD technology, Toshiba's HDDs should also be reasonably reliable as well.

However, even if you are to get the most reliable HDD, there is no guarantee that the HDD will be capable of lasting you a long time and thus it is best that you also supplement this with a proper data backup plan as well.

3) The GTX 970 is a power sipping GPU and thus a 450W PSU should be enough for your rig. If you want a more powerful PSU, can also go for the Silverstone SX600-G 600W SFX PSU for $189 instead.

 

[Entry Level PC]

If you want to buy INSURANCE for your HDD.
Go buy 2x HDD and go RAID1.
This way if 1x HDD spoil liao, the other will still be intact with your data.

 

[belikompie]

Thank you everyone. Looks like this should be the version that I'm going to buy (basically, combining the suggestions above)

CPU+Mobo: ASUS H81i-PLUS + i5 4460 (369)
RAM: G.SKILL RIPJAWS-X 1600MHZ (4GBx2pcs) CL9 (115)
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 970 4GB TWIN FAN (469)
SSD: Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD (159)
HDD: Toshiba 3TB HDD (138)
PSU: SILVERSTONE SFX 600W GOLD (189)
Case: SILVERSTONE RV Z01 CASE (129)

Total Cost: $1568

WD black costs almost twice of Toshiba and yeah, there's no guarantee that even WD black will last a long time. RAID1 is too ex, I think, and for buying two drives, can the HDDs even fit inside the case?

I'm not really sure about the PSU, but better be safe than sorry.

I have an old USB Stick from M1 (which is Huawei E1820), can that thing be used as a USB adapter? If not, do you have any recommendations?

And lastly, while browsing through some sites, I found that samsung ssd (850 EVO and Pro) seems to have positive reviews. Is it worth the extra price?

 

[shadow84]

Thank you everyone. Looks like this should be the version that I'm going to buy (basically, combining the suggestions above)

CPU+Mobo: ASUS H81i-PLUS + i5 4460 (369)
RAM: G.SKILL RIPJAWS-X 1600MHZ (4GBx2pcs) CL9 (115)
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 970 4GB TWIN FAN (469)
SSD: Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD (159)
HDD: Toshiba 3TB HDD (138)
PSU: SILVERSTONE SFX 600W GOLD (189)
Case: SILVERSTONE RV Z01 CASE (129)

Total Cost: $1568

WD black costs almost twice of Toshiba and yeah, there's no guarantee that even WD black will last a long time. RAID1 is too ex, I think, and for buying two drives, can the HDDs even fit inside the case?

I'm not really sure about the PSU, but better be safe than sorry.

I have an old USB Stick from M1 (which is Huawei E1820), can that thing be used as a USB adapter? If not, do you have any recommendations?

And lastly, while browsing through some sites, I found that samsung ssd (850 EVO and Pro) seems to have positive reviews. Is it worth the extra price?

Huawei E1820 is wireless dongle, not USB thumbdrive..... Only use it has is if you have mobile broadband...

 

[Entry Level PC]

RAID1 is too ex, I think, and for buying two drives, can the HDDs even fit inside the case?

I went RAID1 and never look back.
Having a peace of mind that my **** has a backup lets me sleep peacefully at night.

 

[monikernemo]

Thank you everyone. Looks like this should be the version that I'm going to buy (basically, combining the suggestions above)

CPU+Mobo: ASUS H81i-PLUS + i5 4460 (369)
RAM: G.SKILL RIPJAWS-X 1600MHZ (4GBx2pcs) CL9 (115)
GPU: ZOTAC GTX 970 4GB TWIN FAN (469)
SSD: Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD (159)
HDD: Toshiba 3TB HDD (138)
PSU: SILVERSTONE SFX 600W GOLD (189)
Case: SILVERSTONE RV Z01 CASE (129)

Total Cost: $1568

WD black costs almost twice of Toshiba and yeah, there's no guarantee that even WD black will last a long time. RAID1 is too ex, I think, and for buying two drives, can the HDDs even fit inside the case?

I'm not really sure about the PSU, but better be safe than sorry.

I have an old USB Stick from M1 (which is Huawei E1820), can that thing be used as a USB adapter? If not, do you have any recommendations?

And lastly, while browsing through some sites, I found that samsung ssd (850 EVO and Pro) seems to have positive reviews. Is it worth the extra price?

Can only fit one 3.5 inch drive for that case.

Samsung drives has higher write speeds, but you don't need high write speeds for plying games. Crucial MX or m550 also can.

Wifi USB can look at TP link. Around 20 plus dollars.

IIRC h81 chipset don't even support raid?

 

[Alternative X]

IIRC h81 chipset don't even support raid?

Nope, H81 is budget chipset. You want a H87/97 or a Z87/97 mobo for RAID support.

 

[belikompie]

Huawei E1820 is wireless dongle, not USB thumbdrive..... Only use it has is if you have mobile broadband...

sorry, noob here

I went RAID1 and never look back.
Having a peace of mind that my **** has a backup lets me sleep peacefully at night.

This means 2 WD Red? +468 -138, so total cost becomes $1908. Still within my budget, but it's sort of strange that HDD becomes the most expensive part of my PC Since PC Theme only opens this Sat, I will think about it.

Speaking of which, is there any significant difference between different GTX 970s?

 

[belikompie]

Can only fit one 3.5 inch drive for that case.

Samsung drives has higher write speeds, but you don't need high write speeds for plying games. Crucial MX or m550 also can.

Wifi USB can look at TP link. Around 20 plus dollars.

IIRC h81 chipset don't even support raid?

Nope, H81 is budget chipset. You want a H87/97 or a Z87/97 mobo for RAID support.

Welp, never mind then.

 

[Entry Level PC]

This means 2 WD Red? +468 -138, so total cost becomes $1908. Still within my budget, but it's sort of strange that HDD becomes the most expensive part of my PC
Since PC Theme only opens this Sat, I will think about it.

Don't have to be WD Red can be Seagate or Toshiba.
No hardware RAID can use software RAID.

 

[belikompie]

Don't have to be WD Red can be Seagate or Toshiba.
No hardware RAID can use software RAID.

Wait, what? For software RAID, if my HDD fails, doesn't that mean the whole data gone because everything is in a single HDD?

 

[Op_Valkyrie]

Wait, what? For software RAID, if my HDD fails, doesn't that mean the whole data gone because everything is in a single HDD?

That's raid1, if it's a software raid all u need to do when a disk fail is to replace it and use Windows dynamic disk (for this example) to rebuild it back. Raid1 need minimum 2disks.....how to fail? Unless it's application or Os level issue then it's replicated onto both disks....

 

[Entry Level PC]

Wait, what? For software RAID, if my HDD fails, doesn't that mean the whole data gone because everything is in a single HDD?

Wrong.
You still need 2x HDD to go RAID.
Hardware RAID = your mobo support RAID, RAID via mobo drivers
Software RAID = RAID via software