My first gaming PC build...

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
J

JClyde13

Reputable
Aug 10, 2014
9
0
4,510
I just need someone to check my parts list for me, and maybe offer some last minute suggestions before I pull the trigger on this project. I'm a 19 year old college student who has never touched the inside of a computer before, so this is all foreign territory for me, but I've spent many hours over the past week or so, reading about the parts, how they work, which ones are better than others, etc., and I think I have come up with a decent list for my budget (approximately $900), but I want to make sure that I'm not overspending on anything or making a bad decision with a certain part, etc. before I start putting the money into it. I'll basically be using this PC as if it were a game console. It will be hooked into a TV via HDMI. Also, I've intentionally omitted the OS from the parts list, because I'm not sure yet whether I'm going with Windows 7 or 8, and I am also unsure what my price will be since I'll be purchasing it from the university, at a student discount.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/JClyde13/saved/st8bt6
 
Solution
O
You have a 2.5 inch hard drive in the build . These are generally for laptops and very compact pc's . Use a 3.5 inch drive which is the standard size . A western digital 1 terabyte drive is about $60

Your processor is not a K sku part so it cant easily be overclocked . That means you can use a mb with an H97 chipset and potentially save some money . Performance is the same .
Having said that that is a very good price for a Z97 chip set board

IMO use windows 8 . The home user license lets you use it in 3 computers . One at a time . Seven is locked to the first mb .
The student edition might be different ???
You can easily add a start button to win 8 with Classic Shell . Its free .

Love that case !

EDIT...
Sort by date Sort by votes
O

Outlander_04

Titan
BANNED
Nov 18, 2008
20,308
4
74,960
You have a 2.5 inch hard drive in the build . These are generally for laptops and very compact pc's . Use a 3.5 inch drive which is the standard size . A western digital 1 terabyte drive is about $60

Your processor is not a K sku part so it cant easily be overclocked . That means you can use a mb with an H97 chipset and potentially save some money . Performance is the same .
Having said that that is a very good price for a Z97 chip set board

IMO use windows 8 . The home user license lets you use it in 3 computers . One at a time . Seven is locked to the first mb .
The student edition might be different ???
You can easily add a start button to win 8 with Classic Shell . Its free .

Love that case !

EDIT: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PfN6NG
Changed the motherboard and saved $20 . Its a m-ATX board with fewer expansion slots , but most people never use the 6 or 7 slots in an ATX board . The practical difference is more space in the case and $20

Changed the hard drive to a 1 terabyte hybrid drive . This has a small SSD built in . Your most frequently used programs should open a little faster and it will boot faster too .
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
J

JClyde13

Reputable
Aug 10, 2014
9
0
4,510
Alright, I swapped out the hard drive for a Western Digital WD10EZEX. I actually chose that motherboard over the similar H97 motherboards (which were only up to $10 cheaper, since I wanted one with USB 3.0 headers), because its color scheme matches the case better. Since the case has a window, I just want everything to roughly match.

EDIT: I should have added that I've already purchased the PSU, the disk drive, and the RAM
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
O

Outlander_04

Titan
BANNED
Nov 18, 2008
20,308
4
74,960


Yes that makes sense
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

kunthakenthe

Admirable
May 20, 2014
2,682
0
7,160
I know i really like cases with windows. That hdd is good have you considered a ssd. The ssd will make all your programs faster hybrid drives really arent worth the 2 second faster load ups where ssds are like hours and minutes faster. The z97 mobo is great because if you want to overclock in the future then it can do that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JClyde13

Reputable
Aug 10, 2014
9
0
4,510


Yes, I've considered an SSD, but there really isn't much more wiggle room in my budget. I am pretty close to my maximum price point right now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

JClyde13

Reputable
Aug 10, 2014
9
0
4,510
Yeah, I started out looking at an i7, a GTX 770, and a 90-something GB SSD (mostly to store the OS, with the 1TB HDD handling just about everything else), but then I realized how many paychecks would be going into such a build...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom