The first an only "desktop PC" I ever owned was a hand-me-down Spectrum in the early nineties. It's only been the last five years or so that I've had a laptop and that was a necessity due to my moving around and irregular work schedules making a desktop unfeasible. I've now acquired myself some cash money and am looking at building my first machine.

I started out at /r/pcmasterrace and looked at that their builds. The comments all seemed to be suggesting /r/cabalofthebuildmsiths instead so I hit up their UK Builds page and settled on their Performance build as my base.

Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Patriot Signature 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card
Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case
XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Sandisk X110 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

For reasons, including supporting local businesses and having all my components come in one order I've decided to get everything from Aria and this means I'm going to have to change a few things up due to availability. So what I'd like is your suggestions for alternate components.

The processor is a simple switch from the 4440 to the 4460. The rest I'm unsure of though someone has suggested switching to Kingston RAM. I also need a keyboard and a wireless network card. I already have a mouse and will be connecting to my HDTV for now rather than spending more on a monitor. I do have some wriggle room when it comes to prices but need to stay in roughly the same price range.

Thanking yous for your assistance.

EDIT: When posting suggestions please include Aria's quickcode so I can easily find the right component page.

9 years ago

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Would've been better to squeeze a bit more cash and buy another pair of 8 GB memory.

9 years ago
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RAMs cheap enough that I could fit it into my budget but I don't really need 16GB. If I do decide I do need more once the machine is up and running it's a simple upgrade. As it is though I'd rather put that money into something I'll actually need like the keyboard for example.

9 years ago
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You should use 2 x 4GB RAM instead of 1 x 8GB, else your system will not be able to use dual-channel architecture.
Also the Core i5-4400 supports DDR3-1600 memory, so you may choose that instead of 1333-Memory.

9 years ago
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Thanks for the suggestion. When I searched for the Kingston RAM for a price comparison I did actually check 1600.

9 years ago
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How much do you pay the 290? Why a micro atx board? :o

Edit: never mind, I saw the mb was listed in the "uk build" page :p

9 years ago
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The vendor listed on the build page prices it at just under £200. I understand what the parts are individually and what does what but having always used laptops upgrades have never been an issue so I don't really now what works together which is why I went looking for a build to work from rather than just going out and getting everything blind.

9 years ago
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I don't know much about the shop you want to support but if they have a physical store, why don't you go there and see what they have to offer? Maybe asking on that subreddit about a config based on parts only available on that store would be better :D

The 290 seems reasonably priced on their site so I'd got for that :D The cheapest 970 they have is 30£ more expensive, but it "should" come with batman. On a tight budget I'd skip the ssd for now, you can always add it later :3

9 years ago
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