New Build Advice

Give us a link to the websites from which you intend to buy the parts.

What's the most intensive thing you do on the PC? Do you do that constantly, frequently, or occasionally?

Are you a serious game player? Moderately? Not at all?

Do you have overclocking intentions?

To clarify: which of these parts do you need to buy for 700 to 900 UK pounds:

Mouse
Keyboard
Monitor
CPU
Hard drive or SSD
Second (or third? hard drive)
Motherboard
RAM (8 GB is typically enough; 16 maybe)
Video card
Sound card
Case
Power supply
CPU cooler
DVD drive
Additional case fans
Operating system (you'll probably need to buy unless your Ultimate is a retail version)

For the case, take a look at Fractal Design; lots of models and generally highly regarded.

PSU: look for Seasonic, EVGA, XFX, Super Flower, or certain models from Corsair, in the 450 to 550 watt range.

How many years or hours of operation on your current PSU?

Motherboard: I'd lean toward Gigabyte, Asus, or Asrock, but you first have to decide on your socket/platform choice. The 4790K is socket 1150 and very strong, but it's likely the end of the line for that socket. The newer "Skylake" CPUs use the 1151 socket. If you think you have a legitimate use for more than 4 cores, there is yet another socket choice.

More details needed, particularly on the parts list. Most likely, you don't need every part on that list.

If you can give a link to your vendors of choice, we can go there and look over their choices and try to keep you under 900 pounds.

Don't forget to add in the cost of a good CPU cooler and case fans. The stock coolers that come with most processors aren't very good. A better cooling system will help your CPU live a longer, happier life.

Also factor in the cost of a new copy of Windows 7 if you don't have a retail copy. Changing the CPU and motherboard on a machine with an OEM license could invalidate that license. At the very least, you might have to call Microsoft and persuade them to let you reactivate your OEM copy on the new hardware. Worst case scenario is that you have to buy a new copy of Windows and use that key, or reinstall. Of course, since you have Windows Ultimate, this may not be an issue because I think that Ultimate was only available in retail versions (though I could be wrong), but it does need to be considered.

Here's a start with some decent suggestions just to give you an idea.


These parts total 521 pounds including VAT and do NOT include a video card. I'll leave that to others as I don't use them. I'm assuming you'd keep your current PSU.

You can of course cut back on the CPU or RAM amount as necessary to meet any particular budget.

I included a strong overclockable processor and an above average inexpensive cooler.


https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=6&subcat=3069

CPU: Intel 6600K; 200



Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 Motherboard (Socket 1151, Z170 Express, DDR4, S-ATA 600, ATX, USB 3.1): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 motherboard; 111



https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=8&subcat=2552

RAM: Crucial 16 GB, DDR4 2133; 80



https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...362&catid=2277

Case: Fractal Design R5: 85



https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...d=701&catid=10

Samsung DVD burner; 15



https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...701&catid=2330

Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo cooler; 30

You can Google around for the circumstances that might benefit from the hyper-threading on the 6700K. It has noticeable advantages in some cases, but those cases are not common---such as extensive video rendering. I have no idea if it's useful in 3D modeling.

If the i7 were only, say, 20 pounds more, then yeah, why not. But it's considerably more than that. On the other hand, maybe the price difference means little to you? On yet another hand, what if it helps you, but only once a week, where hyper-threading lets you do some task in 25 minutes rather than 30. Would that be a big deal to you?

Can't help on video cards, but I don't know why any particular 970 wouldn't be fine. There may be some versions of the 970 that are preferable to others and I wouldn't know anything about that.

You can read more about the Fractal case here, with 88 reviews:

Fractal Design Define R5 FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK Black Computer Case - Newegg.com

You'll have to buy some thermal paste if you don't have any. You shouldn't need any case fans as the Fractal includes 2.

If noise is an issue for you, you could replace the fan on that Coolermaster cooler or just buy another cooler known to be quieter--a Noctua maybe.

970 is a reasonable choice :)
MSI GeForce GTX 970 GTX 970 GAMING 4G 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card - Newegg.com

Linconclusive said:

Actually by good fortune I have another copy of Windows Ultimate (long story), but I'm OK for an OS. What sort of ballpark are prices for decent CPU fans?

Actually, ignatzatsonic recommended the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo, which is what I was going to recommend.