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Forums - PC Discussion - Advice for new PC build

Hello everyone.  I'm not a frequent poster on VGChartz but I do notice that there are quite a few knowledgable people on here when it comes to PCs.  So I would like to ask for a bit of advice on a new build.  

Now, I'm not a total newb when it comes to putting together a PC.  In fact, I just finished helping my brother put together a very low budget PC to replace his over 10 year old machine that was constantly freezing up on him.  As for myself, I'm also badly in need of an upgrade as my current laptop is nearing 7 years in age so I figure, what the heck, I have the money, maybe I should do a new build for myself as well.  Only problem is that it's been over 10 years since I last built a PC (not counting the one I just finished for my brother).  A ton has changed and I feel there are more options than ever that it is a bit overwhelming.

So with that said, let me run some ideas by you guys and give you an idea of what I'm looking for in a new PC.

Ok, first of all, budget wise I would like to keep it as close to $1000 as possible.  I would like a system I can game on, but it doesn't have to have top of the line stuff.  I would more like to focus on future proofing it so I can upgrade components later.  

The CPU I was thinking of using is the core-i5 6600 Skylake but there is also the 6600k and other than a slightly faster clock speed I don't really know what makes the 6600k better.  It would be a tad more expensive and I would have to buy a CPU cooler seperate since it isn't included.  Is it worth the extra money when it comes to gaming?

The motherboard doesn't have to be anything fancy but I would like it to have m.2 support and at least 1 USB 3.1 slot.  I was thinking of something like this Gigabyte one.

As far as the graphics card goes, I don't want to spend too much as I might upgrade it when the new cards from Nvidia start rolling out.  Something to get me by until then will do.  The one I was looking at was the GTX 960 as there were several cards available for near $200.

Then there is RAM.  Does speed matter much for gaming?  I don't think I'll put more than 16GB, but I is it possible to even get by with 8 GB if gaming is my main concern?

Well, those are my main concerns, I can probably figure out storage/case/power supply solutions on my own.  I'll need a monitor too so if you guys have any suggestions there for an inexpensive one (It doesn't have to be huge, something along the lines of 23" would do just fine).  Thanks in advance guys!



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My main recommendations are a great power supply (in my opinion, the most important part of the build), an ssd for the OS (lightning-quick bootup and apps).

You should use pcpartpicker.com to put together a suggested build. the best part about the site is that it automatically screens your build for any compatibility issues.

My rig has a GTX 970, 8 gb ram, and an i5-4670k. It works really well for me.

If you have a 1000 dollar budget, you should not get a 960. I would at least get a 970 or a 390 with its 8 gb of vram.

You should put together a build on pcpartpicker and then either post it here or on the buildapc subreddit (where I went 3 years ago when I built mine). Good luck!



Hi

The i5-6600K is worth it IMO since you could overclock that thing to 4.5GHz like I did ... (For the CPU cooler I recommend a Noctua NH-D15 if your case is big enough along with your RAM being small enough.)

Don't cheap out on the RAM either so get 16GB minimum and don't get them at a low speed of 2133 megatransfers like I did when some games depend on memory performance ...

I would also be looking for a used graphics card too if your going to upgrade soon cause buying a GTX 960 at full price is a total waste since you could get a higher performing R9 280X or 290 on eBay near that price ...



Wow, that's a very useful site. Thank you very much.



For $1000, you can get some really good stuff, especially if you're planning to save by getting a weaker graphics card. It's almost never a good idea to wait for new components to come out though because by the time they arrive, something new is already on the horizon. You might want to reconsider and get a proper graphics card right away instead.

Intel CPUs with the K suffix can be overclocked. I don't think they have any other major advantages (in fact, I thought they didn't have any other advantages), but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Get 16 GB of RAM. 8 GB is more than enough, but 16 GB will be more future-proof and RAM is cheap. We're already getting to the point where games require 8 GB, so it shouldn't take too-too long until they require more. Sounds like you're not planning to do any major upgrades any time soon though, so go for the future-proof route.

For $1000, you should really get a smaller SSD (but at least 240 GB; I have 120 GB, and it's just barely enough) for speed as well as a traditional HDD for more storage (I think 1 TB hits a pretty sweet spot for capacity vs. price).

I'm afraid I can't offer any more advice, but I hope this is of some use at least. ^^



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Ok, how does this look then? I'd still like to shave a bit off of the price. I guess I could opt for a cheaper SSD, but I really like that one lol.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/62F2t6



The stronger the GPU, the stronger the CPU, Overkill and bottleneck is the worst.

Get the latest Motherboards, which support both the different designed CPU's (futurproofing)
If you get a good CPU, you don't need to go through all that trouble by replacing until years later.
A good GPU.

If you are bound to a strict budget, ignore disc-drive and monitors, etc etc etc etc.. Until you can afford it.

Fractual design R5 is cheap but is packed with top notch quality, or if you can find a cheaper and give a fuck about the quality of the case.

The smaller the budget, the more you need to sacrifice.

Try to push your budget as far as you can get, if you need 200$ more for a quality rig, i would safe up and then buy or buy the PC part's bit for bit. 
Put all of the money you have now on GPU, next month on CPU and so on. or a GPU and a CPU now, the rest next time. 

Those who wait, are waiting for something which are worth it!



 

PSN: Opticstrike90
Steam: opticstrike90

Halazar said:
Ok, how does this look then? I'd still like to shave a bit off of the price. I guess I could opt for a cheaper SSD, but I really like that one lol.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/62F2t6

 

 

That SSD is for Laptop. 

 

Here you go. 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA12K2GU8459



Instead of an SSD I would recommend hybrids like a SSHD since you get some benefits of both but with a much cheaper price ...

SSD's aren't worth the asking price just yet until we can get them for $0.20/GB ...



Vasto said:
Halazar said:
Ok, how does this look then? I'd still like to shave a bit off of the price. I guess I could opt for a cheaper SSD, but I really like that one lol.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/62F2t6

 

That SSD is for Laptop. 

No it's not. That's an M.2 drive that works perfectly fine with the motherboard he has picked. In fact M.2 drives are faster than regular SSDs that connect through SATA 3.0.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9702/samsung-950-pro-ssd-review-256gb-512gb

It's only drawback is that is almost twice the price of a regular SATA SSD.

 

OT. That's a good build, though it goes beyond your $1000 budget (and it doesn't include an OS).

To give you some alternatives, the SSD that Vasto has listed is very good and you won't really notice the difference between that and the M.2 drive. Also, the Hyper 212 is a very good CPU cooler, and a bit cheaper.

Oh, another thing I've noticed is about the case you've listed and the max length of the graphics card:

10.94" (278mm) With Drive Cages
16.54" (420mm) Without Drive Cages

And that MSI R9 390 is listed as 10.91" (277mm), so it will be very tight.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.