First PC Build

imdan · Apr 23, 2014

Approximate Purchase Date: April to June
Budget Range: $900 after tax/rebate/discount/shipping
System Usage: Gaming. Mainly Starcraft 2 and maybe some Hearthstone. Possibly some twitch streaming if my PC/internet can handle it.
Are you buying a monitor: Yes
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Location: California
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No

Parts Preferences:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($196.18 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($22.68 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($93.53 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($78.48 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 530 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($87.18 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($153.48 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.03 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.93 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($103.53 @ Best Buy)
Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor ($138.03 @ Newegg)
Total: $967.05
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-23 18:18 EDT-0400)

Hey guys. I am looking to build a budget gaming pc to replace my 2011 13' Macbook Pro (which is terrible for gaming). This will be my first build so I am looking for some insight. I did some research and made a list of my current to-buy list on pcpartpicker.com. The total price is around ~$950. It would be great if I can take off an extra 50 but it wouldn't kill me. Please note that the prices include tax for my area. Also, I'm probably looking to get all the parts before summer.

In terms of my selected gpu, will it be sufficient for my needs? I don't plan on playing any graphics intensive games such as Crysis, BF4, Bioshock, etc.

Let me know if you have any suggestions or a better build. Thanks in advance!

chicken4thewin · Apr 23, 2014

Get a Hyper 212 EVO instead of the Plus for the cooler; a Rosewill Challenger for the case; Win7 for the OS; WD Caviar Blue 1TB for the storage.

imdan · Apr 23, 2014

chicken4thewin :

What are the benefits to the EVO compared to the + version? I remember reading somewhere that there isn't much of a difference.. about 1 C. The + is on sale right now on newegg.

For the case are you talking about this?
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-case-challenger
What does the challenger include that the source 210 does not? I like the simple aesthetics of the 210, plus it's cheaper

For the OS, the price difference between the cheapest 8 and 7 is about 5 dollars. Does it just come down to preference?

For storage, I don't think I will be utilizing that much of it. The main things will be OS, SC2, Hearthstone, ~10 gb music, and school documents. Can I get away with a 120 gb ssd? I also read that ssd improves streaming. Is this true? Sorry, I don't remember the source. Thanks!

numanator · Apr 23, 2014

This is what I would do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($149.90 @ TigerDirect)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($98.88 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $890.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-23 19:16 EDT-0400)

Major Changes:
-RAM- Changed the RAM to 1866 mhz CL9 RAM at 1.5v. Intel recommends 1.5v ram for their Haswell CPUs and Mobos, also 1866 at CL9 is faster than 2133 at CL11 (Wiki link for CAS Latency). The wiki doesn't have the speeds for 1866 but I did the math myself. Also, $10 cheaper
-Mobo- Was on sale, pretty much only reason for this change.
-HDD/SSD- A 120gb SSD would fill up really fast. Plus you want to leave 5-10gb for OS updates/patches. You would be better off with a 1TB HDD and if you decide to stream that 120gb would fill up really fast if you have nowhere to move the files. If you have an external hardrive to store all of your music/movies/misc files then you could probably pull off going with a 120gb SSD.
-Case- Corsair 300R is a great case, on sale for $50 down from $90. If you don't get this, the NZXT 210 Elite is one of the 2 cases I recommend for that price range with the other being the Corsair 200R when on sale.
-PSU- Better quality than the EVGA power supply, Semi Modular

Edit: I would strongly suggest you get a GTX 760 since it is an awesome GPU in case you get into a more graphically intensive game but the gtx 750 TI will play the games you posted without a problem.

numanator · Apr 23, 2014

If you wanted you could add a 60GB or 120GB SSD to the build for your boot up and core games/applications. The biggest problem is that the price for a 60gb and 120gb SSD are really close and HDDs don't get much cheaper in price even if you cut the size in 1/2. Here are 2 SSDs I would recommend:

Crucial M500 - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct120m500ssd1
Samsung Evo - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7te120bw

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