I'm looking to build this year, within the next couple of months mainly, first new PC since about 2006
I'm not into the SLi/4K nonsense, I just want to build a good simple but nice quality gaming PC that'll last a good few years easily and can stay fairly cool. I really don't want to go beyond 2k AUD, preferably under but I know I'll be cutting close regardless, . My biggest issue is figuring out the right motherboard without overspending, the case too is kind of up in the air, I seem to prefer the NZXT cases but some of the cheaper ones don't come in white or seem to be able to fit a DVD drive etc.
The biggest issue seems to be finding the motherboard I want to go with this stuff, so any suggestions on things I can switch out or add in terms of brands and price and so on would be much appreciated.
You didn't mention what you were going to use the computer for. If it's just games, then the i5 4690K will give you the same performance as the more expensive i7 4790K in terms of framerate, as they are very similar processors. The only real difference between the two is the i7's hyperthreading feature, which games don't take advantage of.
Well, given that you won't be running multiple graphics cards or anything like that, you can get away with spending less than $150 AUD on a motherboard. I recommend the following:
Asus Z97-K for $139 - Realtek LAN and ALC887 audio, 6 x SATA, 1 x M.2, 4 x USB 3.0 at rear
Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 for $139 - Realtek LAN and ALC887 audio, 6 x SATA, 4 x USB 3.0 at rear
ASRock Z97 Pro4 for $145 - Intel LAN, Realtek ALC892 audio, 6 x SATA, 1 x M.2 and SATA Express, 4 x USB 3.0 at rear
MSI Z97 PC MATE for $149 - Realtek LAN and ALC887 audio, 6 x SATA, 4 x USB 3.0 at rear
All of them will do just fine, so it could come down to personal preference for one of these four brands, if you have any. I'd go for the ASRock motherboard as it has better LAN and support for future-leaning technology like M.2 and SATA Express which is nice to have the option for.
Are you sure you need a DVD drive? With everything coming via digital delivery nowadays, I haven't touched my DVD drive in over two years.
As for the case, how about the
NZXT H230 for $88? It's cheaper than the
NZXT Phantom 630 which is $184.
In one of the corners there is a cage that can hold two hard drives, and where the GPU would go on the motherboard, one end of the GPU is pushed to the other side of the case (where it could be screwed on), and the the other end is about 1.5cm away from the middle of the hard drive cage.
As it is, there is no way to even have 1 6-pin connected, partially because the cables are too rigid to bend around much. The best thing I could do is move the hard drive to open up a slight gap and attempt to pass the cables through there, but the two 6-pins are at different ends of a single small cable, so the bending is a real problem.
I should have insisted that my mate kept the old GPU and I could instead just get a cheap and half-size GTX 750 or something.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much you can do. Nobody makes low profile or right angle GPU power connector adaptors, and I'm pretty sure a GTX 750 would be faster than the 5830.
Unless you can change graphics cards, you'll need to change the case.
If you don't have the money and don't want to get a different graphics card or case... a more radical, improvised solution would be to use a
PCI-E riser extension cable so you don't have to slot the 5830 into the motherboard directly. But if you do go with that, then comes the question of where exactly you should put the graphics card so it's safe, and has to be close enough to connect to power supply GPU power cables.
Is it worth the trouble of scraping of the thermal pad on the OEM cooler and using after market thermal compound?
Depends on the cooler, what you're cooling, and which thermal paste you intend to use. I think only graphics cards or laptop PCs use thermal pads instead of thermal paste or grease. I linked to thermal paste roundup review by Tom's Hardware above, they tested it for processors and graphics cards, it's worth looking at.
