Alex’s Recommended PC builds (July 2014 Edition)
Welcome to a new monthly edition starting from now. These monthly articles will help users to decide on what kind of specifications they need. The specs will be decided on what type of PC you wish to build.
There are three categories:
Baseline
This will be for users don’t require anything spectacular but will get you a powerful build for gaming and content creation in 1080p
Performance
This build is just a better version than the baseline altogether, better CPU, GPU etc.
Ultra
This build is for PC gaming enthusiasts, only the best components in this build, for the people who want the best of everything and don’t care about money.
All prices listed are the cheapest found online using pcpartpicker.co.uk (Brand New parts only)
BASELINE
| Part | Component | Price |
| Case | Corsair Carbide 300R | £59.15 |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova NEX 650W Full Modular Power Supply (PSU) 80+ GOLD | £67.98 |
| Motherboard | MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £87.44 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | £161.94 |
| Cooler | Cooler MasterHyper 212 EVO | £24.25 |
| GPU | EVGA GTX 770 | £250 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance 8GB | £63.07 |
| Optical Drive | Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer | £11.74 |
| SSD | Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive | £63.99 |
| HDD | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB | £38.70 |
Total without additional parts listed below: £828.26
PC parts that are outside the build: peripherals, monitors, speakers etc.
| Part | Component | Price |
| Monitor | Asus VS247H-P LED Full HD 23.6″ Monitor | £137.09 |
| Speakers | LogitechLS21 | £55.25 |
| Keyboard | Roccat ROC-12-702 | £65.87 |
| Mouse | Logitech G400 | £43 |
Total with all parts listed: £1129.47
This build is best for users who want a powerful enough PC to run games on Ultra without emptying their bank account.
The GPU, GTX 770 makes this build what it is, amazing performance from this card letting you run games like BF4 on ultra. The PSU is very important, don’t skimp out where it matters. I decided to pick the 650W which has more than enough juice to power all of these components, in addition it is rated with 80+ Gold efficiency which is what in your PSU. The SSD and HDD can be changed to meet your needs but the ones picked out should be plenty. Storing the OS and applications on the 120GB SSD, whilst the 1TB HDD stores all your games, movies, music etc. This build will perform exceptionally well and will certainly meet your requirements.
The saved build can be found and purchased from this link: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/ALEXCL95/saved/fwK2FT
PERFORMANCE
| Part | Component | Price |
| Case | Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case | £121.76 |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | £75.30 |
| Motherboard | Asus Maximus VI Formula | £203.99 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | £227.99 |
| Cooler | Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | £80.81 |
| GPU | EVGA GTX 780 | £372 |
| RAM | Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) | £151.49 |
| Optical Drive | Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer | £80.05 |
| SSD | Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive | £124.45 |
| HDD | Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5″ | £52.79 |
Total without additional parts listed below: £1490.63
PC parts that are outside the build: peripherals, monitors, speakers etc.
| Part | Component | Price |
| Monitor | Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0″ | £258.29 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z623 200W 2.1ch Speakers | £117.59 |
| Keyboard | Cooler Master CM Storm Quick Fire TK | £69.99 |
| Mouse | Razer Taipan | £69.73 |
Total with all parts listed: £2006.63
This build is pretty much a remake of the Baseline build with much better components including better CPU cooling, a better and bigger case, increased storage from both the SSD and HDD, an amazing monitor with 144Hz, an increased PSU with 750W to power all of this kit, a fantastic mechanical keyboard, a mouse from razor with 8200 DPI.
The GPU and CPU have also been upgraded from the Baseline build. There is now a GTX 780 from EVGA, and a better CPU: i7 4770k 3.5 GHz.
The saved build can be found and purchased from this link:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/ALEXCL95/saved/hbxbt6
ULTRA
| Part | Component | Price |
| Case | Corsair 900D | £270.41 |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 1000G2 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular | £127.32 |
| Motherboard | ASRock X79 Extreme11 EATX LGA2011 | £434.98 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor | £412.50 |
| Cooler | Corsair H100i | £80.81 |
| GPU x2 | EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI)EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked Video Card (2-Way SLI) | £527.70£527.70
|
| RAM | Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) | £309.50 |
| Optical Drive | Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer | £80.05 |
| SSD | Samsung 840 EVO 1TB 2.5″ Solid State Drive | £320.39 |
| HDD | Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £71.99 |
| Network Adapter | Asus PCE-AC68 | £62.99 |
Total without additional parts listed below: £3226.34
PC parts that are outside the build: peripherals, monitors, speakers etc.
| Part | Component | Price |
| Monitor | Dell UP2414Q 60Hz 23.8″ | £749.09 |
| Speakers | Audioengine A2 (Black) 30W 2ch | £165 |
| Keyboard | Corsair Vengeance K95 | £251 |
| Mouse | Razer DeathAdder 2013 | £62.53 |
Total with all parts listed: £4453.96
This build is pretty mouth-watering to look at if you ask me, the best components money can buy, with a 2k monitor, running with 780 Ti SLI configuration, this beast will look amazing. In addition everything has been beefed up to max including storage devices with a wireless network adapter. Increased RAM is included along with a phenomenal motherboard all in a beast of a case, the 900D.
The saved build can be found and purchased from this link:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/ALEXCL95/saved/Nrn8TW