Please help me make this PC I just bought 'gaming ready'!

I just bought an Acer Aspire TC-705 which I will be turning into a Gaming PC.

Specs:

• Quad Core (Haswell) Intel Core i7-4790 3.6Ghz (4Ghz Turbo)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 4GB Graphics Card
  
• 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz RAM
• 1000GB (7200rpm) HDD
• DVD Super-Multi 8X Drive
• IntergratedHigh Definition 5.1 channel Surround Sound Card
• WLAN 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet
• HDMI, DVI, RJ45, Audio, USB 2.0 (4) & USB 3.0 (2)
• SD-card reader
• 1 PCIe, 1 Mini PCI Express & 1 PCIe x16
• 300W Power Supply
• Genuine Windows 8.1 64bit

The items I put in bold are things that I am going to upgrade/replace and I need help with these. I do not plan to be overclocking the CPU. I think it will be fast enough already for stuff like Witcher 3, FarCry 4 etc.

### First on my list is obviously the power supply. I was thinking of getting something like this:
Super Flower Leadex 80Plus Gold PSU- 650 Watt. I liked this PSU because it's modular, 80+ Gold and the modular plugs have LEDs which I thought would be cool (but almost entirely irrelevant). Most important things for me though are: has to be Modular, quiet and energy efficient because the PC will be on a lot. Is €125 too much for this kind of PSU?

### Second will be the graphics card. I am going to upgrade that to either a GTX 970 or 980 (depends on budget). Obviously I will try and get the best that I can. Here is a GTX 970. And here is a GTX 980. I'll go for something from MSI or Gigabyte probably. In EU the cards are roughly €400 for GTX 970 and €600 for GTX 980. Is the 980 really worth the extra €200?

### Third will be the SSD. However I already have a Samsung 250GB 840 EVO in my laptop that I think I will just port over to the PC and put an older 1TB Hybrid drive I have lying around into the laptop for my girlfriend.

### Last will be the RAM. I am quite unsure what to really buy here. The stock RAM is only 8GB and is running only at 1600Mhz. A lot of well versed people within tech have been saying that with Haswell CPUs that 1600Mhz RAM isn't really "good enough" any more and that getting RAM with better speeds will yield performance boosts up to like 20% or more for very little cost. When it comes to RAM I really have no idea what to go for, and the past has taught me that a lot of people generally buy expensive memory that really isn't much better than a generic brand like Kingston. So could some people please recommend me some good RAM for use with the listed CPU that isn't going to cost an absolute fortune. Is it worth selling/replacing that stock 1600Mhz RAM and replacing it with faster RAM?

TL;DR Version​

I bought a new PC with the above specs. I need to replace the PSU, GPU and RAM (I can pick SSD myself). Please advise me on whether or not it's worth paying an extra €200 for the GTX 980 over the GTX 970 and please recommend me a good PSU that can run a GTX 970 or GTX 980, it needs to be Modular, Quiet and Energy Efficient. Also please recommend me some good fast RAM. Please don't recommend me stuff like GTX 980 Ti etc. (I simply cannot afford it)

Thanks so much people!

 

Get the 970. 970 and 980 Ti are the only Nvidia cards right now that are really "worth it" perf/price wise.

You don't need faster RAM, but you might want more RAM. 8GB could be cutting it close at times but 16GB is plenty. Make sure it is dual channel.

Everything else looks fine.

 

So you don't think that 16GB (8GB x2) of 1600MHz RAM is going to bottleneck the performance of the i7 4790 or GTX 970? I wouldn't get a boost of roughly 20% or more if I installed faster RAM?

The mobo that ships with the PC (not sure of its exact model, can't find it anywhere on the net) only comes with 2 DIMM slots. So I'd have to replace the current 8GB (2x 4GB) with 2x 8GB (16GB) when I do upgrade it.

 

No faster RAM is not worth it

 

Okay, well if no one else objects then I will probably just go with some generic 1600MHz Kingston Lifetime Warranty RAM and put the money aside for something else.

 

Put your money aside for a bigger SSD

 

If you have the money and are willing to break your upgrade order. . .

Newegg is having a promo on EVO 850 250GB @ 90USD new.
Email promotion code is EMCANAW22

[EDIT] If your willing to buy used, and willing to put in the effort to trade secure, r/hardwareswap is a decent place to get good deals.

Golden rule: Never gift, always Verified Paypal.

[EDIT2] An EVGA 980 FTW (amazon priced new at 535USD) is up with an asking price at 420USD today on r/hardwareswap

 

I live in the EU. Newegg won't ship to me and well after import tax it's almost exactly the same cost (especially if you considered shipping too):
http://www.systemastore.fi/product_info.php?products_id=124469

I think I am happy with this 840 currently that I have in a laptop. It's still very, very fast. I'm not that reliant on fast storage space. I'm more interested in getting a good dedicated GPU and a solid choice of 16GB of RAM.

P.S. Everything on the first 5 pages of that reddit subforum are all US/CA based..

 

It looks like the 980 performs about 15-20% better than the 970 whereas the 980 is (using the links listed in OP) ~45% more expensive than the 970.
SO~ the 970 clearly is a better bang for your buck card. As for the brand I've always been a fan of msi, my 560 ti w/ extra OC kept frosty cool when I still had it.

[EDIT] I think you would also be fine with a 500W PSU instead of a 650W. The Antec BP550 is modular and 80+ certified, and only 61USD on amazon.

[EDIT2] I just skimmed (actually jumped to the conclusion) of a bit-tech review of three different brands of 970s (ASUS, msi, EVGA). They all seem so similar I wouldn't be able to decide, but bit-tech rates the msi as prefered.

Oh, I think I found a international seller for the Antec BP550 if you end up deciding upon that.

 

If you can wait a couple weeks, the AMD Fury might be worth your money.

 

I doubt OP wants to wait weeks for a GPU he has neither the budget nor case/cooling for

 

He was considering the 980 and the Fury will launch at $550.

 

Ah but is the air cooled Fury not using the typical AMD crappo blower trying to contain a nearly 300W GPU? Flirting with disaster putting it inside a cramped Acer case with only a single exhaust in the back.

 

OP, what's your budget? Also by that nickname I'm guessing you are from Germany.

125EUR for a good PSU is quite normal. If you want something modular and for cheap while still being a good unit, you could look at Seasonic M12II Evo series (620W should be enough for you), which costs less than 100EUR on Amazon.de. But beware, people are reporting that under load it can get quite loud.

Now GPU. If you are using a 1080p monitor, 970 will be enough. Like octiceps has already mentioned, 970 has a great price/performance ratio. 980 could be more future proof, but I personally would go for 200EUR in my pocket, which can be spent on a new and better GPU a couple of years later. Or for upgrades now.

RAM. This is a tricky one. Not the frequency though. 1600MHz is more than enough for gaming. Only when doing productivity work (and I mean a real pro work, not some amateur stuff like university Inventor work), it will matter.
Technically 8GB should be enough, but this is where it goes tricky. I, for example, am fine with 8GB (I had GTA V and AutoCAD running at the same time and RAM usage didn't go over 7GB), some need 16GB, while the others have 64GB for some reason. If you have money to spend, go for 16GB. It's the future sweet spot for RAM. If not, leave it at 8GB for now. You can always add some more later. If you are not sure how much RAM you need/use, look at Windows Performance Monitor (and whatever it is called) in Task Manager. Launch a game, leave your mostly used programs on (browser, music player, etc.), Alt-Tab, turn on Task Manager, and see how much RAM your system consumes.
Also, does your rig came with one stick or two? Some pre-built system sometimes ship with only one stick installed.

SSD. You already have one - use it, see how it goes. Again, this is like RAM. If you will find that 250GB isn't enough or that Sammy isn't fast enough, you can always get and add a new one later.

Basically what you need right now is a new PSU and GPU. For now, concentrate on them. If you will still have some money leftovers, either put them aside for the future, or get a bigger SSD or moar RAM, whichever you personally prefer..

Also, may I ask you something - why did you went with a pre-built system?

 

I don't really like AMD cards. No PhyX, no CUDA, Driver releases always seem to be so, so much slower than Nvidia plenty of games run better imo on Nvidia (except okay stuff like TressFX). I've owned a 7970 and my friend owns an R9 280 and neither of us really liked our cards at all. I've always been a Nvidia person ever since my old 8800GTX which lasted me years before dying. Which I then baked it in the oven back to life and it lasted me yet another 6 months without a hitch. Yeah Nvidia is more expensive but imo you get what you paid for and I like the extra bells and whistles. The only time I'd ever go AMD is if they had something comparable to PhyX, CUDA and if they started releasing driver updates way more often. Also I'd like them to really overhaul their software driver interface too.

Anyway I am sure it will be an amazing card but I've gone down the AMD route before and I don't think I want to do it again. Thanks for the tip though.

Thanks a lot for all the searching!

I was actually thinking about this PSU (after I had a look around):
Thermaltake LONDON 550W 80 PLUS GOLD PSU

It's a 550W (so I absolutely have enough headroom) and it's still 80 Plus gold. I had an 80 Plus Bronze Thermaltake Toughpower 575W in my last PC and it was pretty good I guess.

I was also thinking I could go for a totally Fanless PSU like:
Super Flower Golden Silent 80 Plus Platinum Fanless 500W

It's the only thing I could really find in the EU that was around 500W and still Fanless. It's 80 Plus Platinum and it's fanless which is nice but it's also super super expensive. I mean for that price I could get a decent 1000W PSU (not that I remotely need that kind of power). Also I kind of decided maybe Fanless isn't a good idea anyway because there's no point getting fanless stuff for my PC if I am going to be gaming with a GTX 970 with as much stuff in-game set to MAX as I can. I don't really expect that card to be quiet; though I also don't expect it to be a helicopter either. Getting a fanless PSU would also mean that I have to get a new case with a slot at the bottom for the PSU because a fanless PSU has to be mounted up (heat rises) and obviously I couldn't mount a fanless PSU against the top of the stock case...

 

Judging by recent nVidia driver releases, more frequent releases don't necessary mean quality...

 

I'm in Finland. Initially I wanted something really quiet, but then I figured that was pointless seeing as I am going to be running some pretty high-def games and I expect the CPU and GPU to get quite loud, and well buying a fanless PSU might be a bad idea. Especially until I replace the case (which I will also replace sometime in the future, though it's not a priority at the moment). I figured that my current laptop is already 45+ dBa which I consider annoyingly loud. My new PC probably won't get as loud and I'd rather it to run cooler (and louder) than quieter and hotter... Fanless PSUs also need to be mounted up (heat rises) I can't do that on this case as the PSU would cook itself against the top side of the case. So if I got fanless I'd have yet another thing to have to buy first (a new case) which I wouldn't have to if I didn't go fanless.

I'd like to go 1440p one day but that won't realistically happen for a long time. So yeah just 1080p for now. I can imagine that the GTX 970 will still be worth something for quite a few years so I can always sell it back and use the difference on a new GPU if I ever want to get to 1440p. At the moment though I think the GTX 980 is out of my reach (budget-wise) and I don't feel that it is worth the extra €200. I read a lot of reviews and the performance difference ranged from 12-20% depending on the game which is not what I consider worth €200 extra. In some games the performance jump was big, and in others it was very, very small.

Thanks for clarifying. So many blogs and tech sources are trying to get people to go over 1600MHz with Haswell CPUs stating that you can get a huge performance increase with faster RAM. I'm glad to hear that running 1600MHz will be enough. I was trying to look for something around CL8 but still at 1600MHz. Some people said that if you undervolted G.SKill Snipers they ran at CL8 @ 1600MHz. I am not sure what Mobo I am getting in this PC I bought so I am not sure what options I will have over RAM. All I know is that it is "Intel H81 Express". There's only 2 slots on the Mobo for RAM and I am not sure if it's shipped with 2x 4GB or 1x 8GB. I will definitely upgrade to 16GB though. It will be one of the first things that I do.

I am happy with this SSD. It runs well and it doesn't lock up like my old Crucial M4 did all the time even with firmware updates. It's a good SSD and I don't really think I need another. However I may end up upgrading in the future and running 2 in RAID. Though that's really not much of a priority.

I had few choices in Finland on buying a new PC at around the €1000 mark. I had this PC with the specs in post 1, or another with an i5 but with a GTX 770 (too old for me and still under par on what I want). I went for this PC for a few reasons:

1. I can't afford the whole thing in 1 go so I can pay this off in a timely fashion and still get a good PC to use in the meantime.
2. Whilst I would love to build my own PC, I think it would take me 6 months on my budget to be able to have something that even slightly resembles a bootable PC and by then all of the parts would be somewhat out-of-date and in that entire 6 months I would just be stuck with parts in my closet that I can't use. Also it would cause me the same kind of issue when it would come to buying a good CPU or GPU as I may not be able to buy either of them in 1 go. If I had €1000 in cash now to spend on parts for a custom PC I would be doing that, but I don't. So I think my only option is to get a pre-built PC and replace what I can bit by bit, and sell what is replaced.
3. This PC comes with a good CPU and only really needs a better PSU and GPU before I can game comfortably and it supports up to 16GB of RAM which is plenty for me. I had other options but I would rather replace a GPU than CPU any day (as there is comparably a much larger performance boost in replacing the GPU than going from i5 to i7). It made sense to get this because I don't want SLI, I don't need more than 16GB RAM and all I have to do is replace the PSU and GPU, upgrade the RAM a bit and get a new case someday.

Perhaps but the fact that it takes MONTHS for AMD to release new drivers just isn't good enough for me. It's often that you have to wait ages for drivers to be optimised for new games. I really feel like AMD relies so much more on brute throughput in order to play games well than good optimisation. I have nothing against AMD at all, and I've given them a fair amount of use. I just don't think I want to any more. I'll mainly be playing games like WoW, Witcher 3 etc. Both of which run better on Nvidia + there's the other bells and whistles I mentioned that I'd rather have than not have. The Fury looks like a really nice card though but there's always a risk of buying super new tech. The 970 has been around for awhile and shown what a good value card it is. I'd rather go with a safer option.

Also this:

Lastly it's important to note that EU law gives me 2 weeks to decide if I want to return this PC or not. If for some reason it looks like it was a bad buy I will simply pack it up and send it back. Though at this point I feel like it's very similarly priced with other PCs that already come with a GTX 970, compatible PSU & still only 8GB of RAM.

 

@Hauptplatine forget the Thermaltake PSU, it's made by CWT who is not on the same tier of OEM as Super Flower. Stick with your original pick.

 

I'm building a clevo P750zm-G from barebones atm and spent a good deal of yesterday looking for hardware deals that would help me push the price to ~1700USD, so I guess I was in PC build mode .

As for the power supply, I've never had any issue with the fans inside my PSUs as they are usually large and as such avoid that irritating whistle that smaller fans have. I've never had a fanless PSU or built a "quiet" system though so I can't attest to the difference in noise levels. When I build desktop PCs I usually go for the most inexpensive 80+ PSU that fits my needs (and isn't of sketchy manufacturing).

If my PSU blows up I'll just return it under warranty to the manufacturer, the 80+ cert is so the thing doesn't take my entire system with it. I don't need greater efficiency as I'm not all that concerned about power usage; I'm not sure if it would actually make a difference on energy bills. I'd put the savings to either the video card upgrade or a xonar DG for some better audio quality/features.

 

Thanks. The Mobo also comes with 1 free PCIe 1x so I'll get a better audio card sometime in the future. I think the super flower is a good choice. My mate said that 80+ has little do with anything other than yes, not taking your entire system with it. However I think I'd like a solid PSU that I can rely on. The Super Flower has a 5 year warranty which I really like as I don't remotely want to have to buy another PSU in that time. The energy efficiency would be nice as my bill is quite high and I do plan on running the PC a lot. Though I don't think after 'Gold rating' there's much of a difference. I'll stick with the Super Flower.

 

No it isn't. 80+ isn't an indication of PSU quality or reliability.

 

Is that one grand with monitor or without? If without, IMO should have went with a custom build. I recently spent 1050ish EUR on a new PC.
A top tier i5 is more than enough for gaming. I also don't suppose you will overclock, so dropping a K CPU with Z mobo would even further your savings.

 

I always read the certs as good (Bronze), very good (Silver), excellent (Gold) and best (Platinum). As I understand it a Silver cert will almost always be an upgrade to a Bronze cert, and apart from significant defects a silver PSU will last on average (and maintain its performance) longer than a bronze PSU .

 

That's a really nice build imo. Mine was without a monitor. I already have a 1080p Samsung Monitor which I will use for awhile. I realise that I could definitely get a better machine as a custom build but I can't do a part/monthly payment on a custom build. I suppose I could buy all of the components on part payments but that could get super out of control. Buying them in parts as a one-off payment would result in (as I explained) me having parts in my closet for months before I could put them together finally...

I did an unimaginable amount of number crunching and this was the only way that I really felt like I could afford to get a decent PC on my current budget. I have a lot of other bills already.
Sure I don't get a brand new monitor or anything but at current all I have to do is double the RAM which costs next to nothing, and buy a new PSU which is also pretty cheap. The GPU is the only 'expensive' thing I have to buy.

It's important to mention that there's no way in the EU you could get all of those parts for that cheap. Americans seriously have no understanding of prices over here (zero offence intended).
Here is a quick example. That GTX 970 you got was only $330 US (which is roughly €290). If you want to buy a GTX 970 within the EU (VAT Paid) then it's a minimum of €400. That's €110 or roughly $125 USD extra. Like I said, you CANNOT pay that little for these components within the EU. I could try getting some parts from shady as f- sites but I couldn't be sure that the parts would be new (unboxed, untampered, non-refurbs). The only way I could seriously ever get a build as cheap as that is if I bought refurbs with zero warranty, or if I bought used and that is not going to happen. I suppose I could take a trip to the US, buy the PC and then try and smuggle it back, but EU customs aren't even slightly stupid. If you don't have receipts of ALL of the components to show that the entire cost was under €1000 then they will either confiscate the item, go by the market value and charge you VAT on EVERY SINGLE ITEM. I'm sure I could find a way to take it in as 'tax free' but the chances would be slim and I'd still need to buy a return ticket from the US hahaha.

So I guess now you can maybe understand that taking a pre-built computer at €999 that I can pay off in 3-4 payments was seriously the only option that was open to me if I wanted a computer like this.

You guys have it so easy with Newegg and Amazon US. I've tried buying from them before and I even tried to have a repackaging company ship the item overseas but after calculating VAT import TAX it's completely pointless. You save nothing, or actually it costs more after you add the import tax, insurance, cost of repacking company + the shipping costs. I guess the only way that it even slightly 'evens' out is that we get paid more here in the EU and our money is worth a percentage more. The only time I would import anything from outside the EU is if whatever it was, was completely impossible to get within the EU and if it was still cheaper than something compatible that was available within the EU.

Same here. Sure the certs give you absolutely no real indication of how 'good' the PSU is but generally you can't get those efficiencies without very good components and craftsmanship. The chances of buying a Gold/Platinum Cert PSU and having it blow up in under a year, or taking other parts with it is probably less than 0.01%. The fact that I will be running my PC a lot just adds to the fact that I would go for a minimum Gold Cert, which is what I will end up doing.

 

I'm from EU, man. That 970 cost me about 370 EUR. With monitor and keyboard my PC was 1305 EUR. 1305 - 256 - 11 = 1038 EUR for the rig itself. If I would add a cost of my SSD I bought a year ago it would go up to 1260 EUR.

Sorry I've missed the part where you've said that you are buying a new machine in credit.
What about waiting and saving some money? I myself put a goal on what kind of system I wanted and put aside money for my build. Not a fan of lending money. Obviously I didn't buy an exact PC I wanted (better case, modular PSU, 16GB RAM), but I succeeded and getting "basics" (4690K and GTX 970). In the end I'm a very happy camper! And don't have to pay anyone any money!

Also, while stuff seems cheaper in the good ol' US of A, if they would pay taxes on the stuff they buy (like they technically must), prices would be pretty much equal. Stuff is expensive in the EU just because we pay a mandatory tax at the same time we buy stuff.

P.S. Finland eh? Are you by any chance German? Like I've said, your nickname sounds German.
When I lived in Germany I had a buddy who lived in Finland for a very long time, but came back to Germany to study at university.

 

Nickname was just something random I picked from Google Translate as I didn't know what to choose at the time. It means 'Motherboard' in German.

Well still your GTX 970 is only €30 cheaper than what they cost in my own country so we're not talking about really any savings here. I would blame higher VAT in Finland for that.
Did you buy all of your components from the US or something, or where did you get them from? How did you get them for so cheap or are those prices just some stock ones or something and not what you paid?

I'm fine with part payments. My salary is fine, I just can't save any money at this time due to other bills etc. (no I don't have any other part payments but I have other stuff to deal with). It would take me ages to be able to afford a decent computer because I am supporting my girlfriend at the same time for now. I can still sell all of the components in this PC and pay the difference later if I want an upgrade. Sure I'll lose some money but I don't like waiting and as I explained I don't need to upgrade much.

 

No, I bought everything locally. Importing electronics from US makes no sense, because with import tax it usually comes out even more expensive. Warranty is another factor one should consider when buying electronics. As a person who previously had to return two GPUs, warranty is very important to me. This 970 has a 3 year warranty, so that means I can torture it for that duration of time .
I actually wanted to buy everything in Germany, since 970 here previously also cost an arm and a leg (430 EUR). Amazon.de had exact parts selling for 1295 EUR, while a local Berlin electronics shop I know (Cyberport) had them for 1330 EUR. But later I decided to take a peek and see how prices are in my neck of the woods. It turned out that they somewhat went down and I was able to build the entire system 1305 EUR! So as soon as I calculated total I grabbed the parts and built myself a PC.

What kind of VAT does Finland have? 22%? If I'm not mistaken Finland has one, if not, the highest VATs in the entire EU.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates
Sort by VAT (far right). We're 6th highest. (24%) Germany is 19%

Nice that you got that machine for that price. For me, I've had 2 of the best (non-extreme) i7 CPUs in the last 2 PCs I've bought and I loved them. So I won't compensate there. I don't need a 'K' series processor because I won't OC. I don't really think I'd get much benefit out of it and I'd rather my gear run cooler and quieter. I seriously hate the noise that Laptops and PCs make, it gives me a huge headache. I'm going to put down some money especially to keep the machine as quiet as I can.

Like I said your list was really good, I wouldn't change out much except for example the CPU (I know yours can go faster but * above*), the RAM (I like Kingston), brand of GTX 970 (I like MSI, ASUS cards have always been too big and too loud for me), take the Fractal Define R5 case (due to it being more silent) and add an SSD (you probably did already though).

I used the site you linked to half-build my own:
My Custom Build

Anything marked (Purchased) is something I already own. Anything not, is what I would like to get. Obviously stuff like the RAM is really high priority whilst ex. the Sound Card is really low priority. I'm also not 100% sure on everything yet like what model the DL Burner in the PC I got will be, or the Mobo. So I left those blank.

Prices are the cheapest I could find for those components (in Finland) when using price-compare sites. I'm still looking on adding more stuff like cooling etc. but I haven't settled on those things yet. Obviously the list is subject to change (and it will be) but at current that's what I've done today.

 

So I got the pre-built computer today that I wished to upgrade and...

It sucks. It's by far one of the cheapest machines I've ever seen. Even cheaper and with less potential than one I bought from the same place 2 years prior! It wasn't even close to worth €999.
I thought I was buying a machine with at least some good deal of upgradability. I have never been more wrong.

The case is built terribly and feels like it was worth about €30 worth of metal tops.
The HDD bays are side mounted with nothing to stop vibrations.
There's only 2 RAM bays (I was aware of that before though) and the single 8GB stick of RAM doesn't even have a brand label on it.
The biggest shock was the cheap Acer motherboard. It was a mATX board with absolutely no space for anything bigger than a tiny OEM graphics card.
The integrated graphics ports (VGA & HDMI) had been covered up by some weird plastic clips that said "Don't remove!" and there were only 3 SATA ports and I wasn't even sure if they were 6Gbps or not.. (2 were taken up by the HDD and DVD). The case was also a mid (small) case and not even close to a full case. There was also no included exhaust fan.
I thought for about 10 minutes whether or not I would be able to fit a GTX 970 on the board (even if I bought a new case) but due to the placement of the USB 3.0 pins on the Mobo I wouldn't be able to have any USB 3.0 ports if I got a bigger card.. and I would definitely have to get a bigger case first because the side mounted HDD bay was totally in the way.
Honestly after I looked at it long enough I realised that I would have to replace everything except for the CPU.

One hilarious thing I noticed immediately is that whoever the genius was that put the warranty sticker on hadn't stuck it properly to the side of the case to cause it to tear when the side of the case was opened. I was able to actually open and close the side of the machine without even slightly damaging the warranty sticker. All I did though was slide it off, have a look and I didn't even need to touch any of the components. I just closed it up after about 15 minutes and said to my girlfriend "It's back to the drawing board!"

We spent the next hour mulling over some numbers in how I can use part of my student loan to buy a decent PC. I will return the machine tomorrow.

In my half-expert opinion I guesstimate that the whole computer would cost less than half what they wanted me to pay for it over 10 months:

€40 (max) cheap OEM case.
€65 cheap Acer model mATX Motherboard
€40 cheap OEM 300W PSU
€285 Haswell i7-4790 (Stock cooler included)
€35 No-name brand 8GB RAM
€55 Caviar Blue 1TB Drive
€45 OEM GTX 745
€35 Wireless a/b/g/m mini-PCIe card

Being generous with the above prices the machine would cost about €650 in parts with almost half of that coming from the CPU. I know some will say what do you expect, but well what I expected was a better Mobo with some room to upgrade and a case that could take a GTX 970 after I just replaced the CPU. I also thought the RAM would at least have a brand sticker.

Anyway I am going to return it tomorrow. Thank god in the EU I get 2 weeks to decide if I want to keep something or not and I can return it within that time without even giving a reason. So I am going to return the computer and take out a student loan to build the PC of my dreams (or well.. close enough )

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with a lot of info and stuff. I'm sure I'll be back to ask questions about compatibilities and recommended configurations etc.

The people in this forum have given me the confidence to buy my PC piece by piece (no matter how long it takes) and whilst on my journey I learned a lot of very useful information.

Thanks again everyone!

 

*inhales air*
Told you to save up and build a custom PC.
*exhales*

 

I bought my computer in parts.

GA-Z97X-GAMING-5-CRUCIAL
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 + Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ballistix Sp
BX80646G3258
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition, LGA1150, 3,2GHz
209,90 €

First stop was mobo and cheap cpu. That was a killer deal, 8GB ram for free.

Then I decided I want to put them into a new case
RC-902XB-KKN2
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX-kotelo, musta (Uutuus!)
90,00 €

Couple months after that, jimm's put water cooling for sale, so I grabbed that and some thermal paste. Stock cooler with attempts to overclock living hell out of that Pentium AE was interesting

CW-9060009-WW
Corsair Hydro H100i
GELID solutions GC-Extreme , 3.5g
97,00 €

At that point I had PSU, GPU, SSD and hdd/odd from my old computer.
Then I got i7-4790 for a price I could not say no to.
And a week ago I replaced 660 with a GTX970 (405e).
PSU is doing fine, its XFX 550W.

I had upgraded my old gaming PC with future in mind. Basically changing just mobo+cpu+ram would have been enough. Now, 6 months later I have nothing left of the original computer I built in 2008. Finally.