Looking to build a new gaming PC?

[PomPui]

Not the richest guy in the world so looking for a good value for money system.

Would love a dual monitor as I had that at work its a god send

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Cheers

PomPui

[Bardeh]

If you go into any JIB store they have a big list of components and prices at the counter. You can pick and choose what you want and they'll build it for you right there for free. The prices in store are the same as on their website, so it's pretty reasonable.

I paid around 25,000 baht for a very decent system (excluding monitor because I already had one), but if you want top of the line including monitors you'll probably be looking at 35-40k.

I can recommend some parts for you if you like. What's your budget?

[PomPui]

oh Thanks Bardeh

25 to 30k not including monitor is fine

[Bardeh]

oh Thanks Bardeh

25 to 30k not including monitor is fine

I just wrote up a post but got an error when I clicked 'Post' and lost it all.

Basically:

Core i5 4590 CPU

ASRock Z97 Pro 4 Motherboard

Asus Strix GTX 960 Graphics Card

Kingston Hyper X 120 GB Solid State Drive

Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD

4 GB RAM PC DDR3/1600 G.SKILL AEGIS (two of these for 8 gigs total RAM)

Corsair CX 500M Power Supply

Cougar Spike Case (i have this one and it's cheap, small and looks fine, but it doesnt really matter which case you go for)

Total is just under 30k baht. You could save a few thousand by changing the graphics card to a GTX 750Ti but you'd need to turn some settings down on newer games.

This PC would run every new game maxxed out for the forseeable future. Good luck!

[PomPui]

Wonderful Bardeh

Thanks so much for your help

[phazey]

Bang on that spec.

Is there a price difference to jump to a i5 4670k - at least then you are given some overlocking freedom..

[Cheesekraft]

oh Thanks Bardeh

25 to 30k not including monitor is fine

I just wrote up a post but got an error when I clicked 'Post' and lost it all.

Basically:

Core i5 4590 CPU

ASRock Z97 Pro 4 Motherboard

Asus Strix GTX 960 Graphics Card

Kingston Hyper X 120 GB Solid State Drive

Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD

4 GB RAM PC DDR3/1600 G.SKILL AEGIS (two of these for 8 gigs total RAM)

Corsair CX 500M Power Supply

Cougar Spike Case (i have this one and it's cheap, small and looks fine, but it doesnt really matter which case you go for)

Total is just under 30k baht. You could save a few thousand by changing the graphics card to a GTX 750Ti but you'd need to turn some settings down on newer games.

This PC would run every new game maxxed out for the forseeable future. Good luck!

I would recommend getting a platinum, quality power supply. Even if it is more expensive, if you pay more than government rate for electricity, you will easily save money long term. I would also use an online calculator to make sure 500w is enough as it seems to be pushing it. I wouldn't make a system without 16 GB ram nowadays, but I do multitasking as well as gaming.

You can get a lot of used, very high quality graphics cards for cheap, due to cryptocurrency mining becoming unprofitable, there are loads of hd 7950, R9 280x cards, which can run games on ultra settings just fine, for dirt cheap on the markets.

[Bardeh]

500W is more than enough for this system. The new Nvidia cards are very power efficient. For gaming, you don't need more than 8 gigs right now, and RAM is one of the things that it's very easy to upgrade down the line when you have some spare cash lying around. For a 30k budget I don't think you can do much better than the system I posted, but I do admit to not knowing as much about the AMD side of things as far as graphics cards go.

Phazey, having a look the 4690k is actually only 1200 more baht than the 4590, but you'd also need to pay extra for a better motherboard to enable the overclocking (I think?) and a 4590 is going to be plenty enough for gaming for a long time to come. I think for this budget I'd prefer to put the extra cash towards a beefier graphics card.

[phazey]

FWIW it's worth, i've been uhming and ahhring with the choice of a GTX 960 vs a GTX 970. the price difference is about £100 between the cards, but the performance....Woah!

I mostly play Arma 3, and compared to a GTX960, a 970 will push about 29/32 FPS more on the same spec - I'm also planning to get a 1440p monitor, so if your budget can stretch, 970 all the way.

[crabdog]

I would also recommend the GTX 970 especially if you're gaming at anything higher than 1920x1080. There are some compelling choices from ATI in the same price range but at the moment I could not recommend them because I've had constant artifacting and ridiculous temps with my R9 280X.

Also if you're buiding specifically for gaming I would suggest you pay a bit extra for a 120/144Hz monitor. I'm very happy with my Benq 2420Z but you might want to consider spending a bit more for something with GSync capability, particularly if you go with an Nvidia card.

[KunMatt]

I've always been a console gamer, I have a PS3, PS4 and a WiiU here but I've just built a gaming PC in Bangkok too. I totally overspec'd it so it will be able to run games for a few years at Ultra settings;

My build is

CPU: Intel i7-4790k

Motherboard: Asus Z97K

Graphics Card: Asus STRIX GTX970

RAM : 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance (I will add another 2x 4GB whenever this isn't enough)

SSD: 120GB for OS

HDD: 2x 4TB for Data

PSU: Corsair RM750

Case: Corsair

Like I say, totally overspec'd for the games I use it for, I think altogether it cost me about 55k baht but it was a lot of fun building it and I did it in a few stages over a couple of months upgrading some different components each time. There is still room for upgrading, I can overclock the CPU and graphics card but I don't need to for now, I can add more RAM and another graphics card to be used in parallel with the first.

When benchmarking Bioshock it runs at 850fps on Ultra settings at 1080p! Newer games all run over 120fps at 1080p on Ultra however I only have a 60Hz 1080p TV so anything that runs over 60fps has screen tearing and can look quite bad when you pan around. At some point I will upgrade to a 4K TV (hopefully one that has a 120Hz refresh rate) and add another GTX970 to run in SLI to run games in Ultra settings at 4k resolution, then I'll either run games at 4k 60fps (or more if possible) or at 1080p (or higher) at 120fps.

It was expensive and I didn't need a machine this powerful but I absolutely adore my gaming PC and I've saved about 4k baht this month alone on Steam games that I would've bought for more than twice the price for PS4 but they run at much higher graphics settings on my PC. Now I use my PC for games that are released on multi-platforms and I just use the consoles for exclusive games.

If you have a 1080p 60Hz TV or monitor then you can build a gaming PC to run any game in 1080p 60fps with an i5, 4GB RAM and a half decent graphics card. Just build to your budget, have of the fun is in the build any way.

[KunMatt]

FWIW it's worth, i've been uhming and ahhring with the choice of a GTX 960 vs a GTX 970. the price difference is about £100 between the cards, but the performance....Woah!

I mostly play Arma 3, and compared to a GTX960, a 970 will push about 29/32 FPS more on the same spec - I'm also planning to get a 1440p monitor, so if your budget can stretch, 970 all the way.

I agree, the GTX970 is stunning. It was the first component I upgraded in a basic Intel 930 CPU, Win7 32 bit and 4GB RAM PC and just by adding the GTX970 I could play most games in 1080p over 60fps in Ultra or Very High settings.

I was weighing up the GTX970 vs GTX980 and for the price and performance difference the GTX980 just isn't worth it.

[KunMatt]

OP, I bought a lot of the components from JIB because all of their products are on their website so you can easily price up your build. http://www.jib.co.th/web/

You can also call them and inquire about stock, however you can price up your system with them and then go to any of the other shops in Panthip with the list and ask for a discount, something that JIB will not give you. However I trust JIB for returns and warranties much more than I do any of the private shops.

A few shops in Panthip have their own website, I used these guys for a bunch of fans and a controller and got more than a 10% discount each time, they also have an online catalogue. http://www.tkcom99.com

[PomPui]

Hi Guys

Laptop finally went bang so getting this PC has suddenly jumped to must have ASAP. Just wanted to check that the specs in the is thread are still current? I will use the the system mainly for working but I will play a few games, currently on my list to play Witcher 3 and the new Star Wars games (will only buy after reading a review) don't trust EA or Dice to preorder.

I will buy one monitor and connected up a spare 50" LED TV I have not sure if that's important but thought I would mention it.

Cheers

PomPui

[KunMatt]

Which specs are you referring to?

I've noticed that some recent games are now recommending an i7 instead of an i5, eg Arkham Knight: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-23-batman-arkham-knight-pc-system-requirements-detailed

I have a 4GHz i7 with a GTX970 and I believe I can run GTA5, Arkham Knight and Star Wars Battlefront at 1080p Ultra settings. I'm getting Star Wars Battlefront day 1 even if it gets bad reviews as it looks incredible!

[PomPui]

I've always been a console gamer, I have a PS3, PS4 and a WiiU here but I've just built a gaming PC in Bangkok too. I totally overspec'd it so it will be able to run games for a few years at Ultra settings;

My build is

CPU: Intel i7-4790k

Motherboard: Asus Z97K

Graphics Card: Asus STRIX GTX970

RAM : 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance (I will add another 2x 4GB whenever this isn't enough)

SSD: 120GB for OS

HDD: 2x 4TB for Data

PSU: Corsair RM750

Case: Corsair

These specs

[PomPui]

Basically:

Core i5 4590 CPU

ASRock Z97 Pro 4 Motherboard

Asus Strix GTX 960 Graphics Card

Kingston Hyper X 120 GB Solid State Drive

Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD

4 GB RAM PC DDR3/1600 G.SKILL AEGIS (two of these for 8 gigs total RAM)

Corsair CX 500M Power Supply

Cougar Spike Case (i have this one and it's cheap, small and looks fine, but it doesnt really matter which case you go for)

These specs as well

[KunMatt]

I've always been a console gamer, I have a PS3, PS4 and a WiiU here but I've just built a gaming PC in Bangkok too. I totally overspec'd it so it will be able to run games for a few years at Ultra settings;

My build is

CPU: Intel i7-4790k

Motherboard: Asus Z97K

Graphics Card: Asus STRIX GTX970

RAM : 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance (I will add another 2x 4GB whenever this isn't enough)

SSD: 120GB for OS

HDD: 2x 4TB for Data

PSU: Corsair RM750

Case: Corsair

These specs

These are my specs!

[PomPui]

Would you still buy the same specs today? How much did your set up cost?

I know it's only 1.5 months later but the PC hardware moves very fast. Example GFX cards go in and out of fashion very quickly.

Cheers

Pom Pui

[KunMatt]

Yeah I would buy everything I bought all over again, it all cost me about 50k to 60k in Thailand.

I have a bit of an issue with the GTX970 with the VRAM scandal where instead of the 4GB the graphics card is supposed to be it is, in all purposes, a 3.5GB card in disguise which means that windows believes the card is 4GB but anything over 3.5GB is basically unusable by the game. Most games use about 2GB in 1080p but I frequently notice that the used VRAM is up at 3.6GB meaning it is bottlenecking the performance. I don't really notice any major issues because of this however, I run games VSync'd at 60 fps and it is always running rock solid at this fps. The occasional blip does happen when changing maps and it could be HDD loading times or it could be the effect of this he VRAM scandal.

For the price point it is the best card on the market. If I didn't care about the performance to cost ratio then I would get a GTX980 which is only about 5% better performance than the GTX970 for nearly twice the price but it is a true 4GB card.

To be honest it would have been more practical for me to buy a top of the range gaming laptop so I could use it everywhere I went. I could have bought a laptop to almost compete with my PC for about £1500.

[PomPui]

Thanks for the response KunMatt 50 to 60K is out lf my reach at the moment

I will wait for Bardeh to respond he had a build for about 25K will see if he has any suggestions.

[KunMatt]

Thanks for the response KunMatt 50 to 60K is out lf my reach at the moment

I will wait for Bardeh to respond he had a build for about 25K will see if he has any suggestions.

About 10k of that was the 2x HDD which I use for my games library and back up.

I also got the K version of the CPU and Motherboard which is the over clocking models, you could just get a regular i7 and a H97 motherboard to save quite a bit of cash.

I also bought a 4k case and a 5k PSU.

The most important component is the graphics card. I used my GTX970 with an old Intel regular processor and only 4GB of RAM and most newer games were able to run at 60 fps in 1080p Ultra settings.

[PomPui]

Thanks Matt GTX970 certainly seems to be the way to go.

Going to head down to Pantip tomorrow and see what I can get for about 30k

[KunMatt]

Thanks Matt GTX970 certainly seems to be the way to go.

Going to head down to Pantip tomorrow and see what I can get for about 30k

You can price and spec it all up on here http://www.jib.co.th/web/

JIB prices are reasonable but they won't give you any discount. You can get an idea of how much your build will cost you and maybe you can get 10% off by going to another independent shop on Panthip.

For price to performance get an i5, H97 Motherboard, GTX970, 2x 4GB 1600 Mhz RAM. You will be able to play all games at 60 fps in 1080p because the graphics card is so powerful and your CPU and RAM will not be bottlenecks.

You need a 64 bit version of Windows too. I got windows 7 64 bit professional for £30 off of eBay from a seller selling ex office Dell PC keys. I didn't want to put a hookey OS which will be riddled with Malware and constantly pop up in windows that it is counterfeit and needs to be activated every time I am playing a game.

[Bardeh]

Hi PomPui, sorry I didn't see this. If you can afford it, go for the GTX 970. In my opinion it's the best bang-for-your-buck card out there right now. However, a GTX 960 will still run games very nicely at high settings. I still think an i5 processor will be more than enough for gaming for the forseeable future, but again, if you wanted to spring for an i7 it wouldn't do any harm.

If you have the budget, KunMatt's spec will serve you very nicely for years to come. If you want to spend a bit less, the one I posted originally is still what I'd recommend. Let us know what you end up getting!

[innerspace]

No mention of cpu coolers... do you all use intels stock?

That and power supply are the most overlooked but highly important parts in my view.

[KunMatt]

No mention of cpu coolers... do you all use intels stock?

That and power supply are the most overlooked but highly important parts in my view.

Yep at the moment I am using the stock CPU cooler for my 4790K but I am not overclocking it yet, also I added 5 more case fans which helps. I've looked at Corsair's CPU liquid cooler with the 2x 120mm radiator but I will worry about that later because my GPU gets much hotter than my CPU. If they sold the Arctic Accelero Extreme IV in Thailand anywhere I would buy it to upgrade my GTX970 stock fans but I spent half a day looking around Panthip and had no joy. Will purchase from Amazon for £45 when possible.

[PomPui]

Just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who commented on this thread.

I am going to Fortune Town Monday to price everything up and hopefully get the PC this week.

I have one final question I need to get one monitor which I will use to my day to day work.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Pompui

[KunMatt]

Just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who commented on this thread.

I am going to Fortune Town Monday to price everything up and hopefully get the PC this week.

I have one final question I need to get one monitor which I will use to my day to day work.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Pompui

Good luck and enjoy building your rig, post here if you need any help. No advice from me on monitors I'm afraid, too many things to consider. I have a PC setup with a low lag 32" Samsung monitor specifically for fighting games and I have a Pioneer 5090 for my main gaming TV. Soon I will buy a 120Hz 4k TV to replace the main monitor.

[PomPui]

I have a nice LED Panasonic I will want ot hook up to the new PC to watch media on etc

But will get an okay monitor to play games etc.

I do have 2 lovely 21" LG monitors in London but god knows when I will get them over (probably never)