Hello all,
I have been researching the past couple weeks and am planning on building my first custom PC this Christmas (hopefully catching some nice deals). Im looking to hang around the $1,000 mark. It will be a mini ITX rig mainly for gaming with some video editing, nothing too heavy, and a ton of multitasking. Ill probably be moving it from school back home on holidays and other visits so I like the portability that ITX (especially the Prodigy) has to offer. So here it is:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($248.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.99 @ Directron)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($356.13 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1031.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-20 15:52 EST-0500
Ill explain a little on why I went with some of these parts. The Xeon has been recommended to me a couple of times and has actually really struck me as a good option. I really cannot afford an i7 right now (who knows what prices will do), and the Xeon being basically a locked i7 without on board GPU seems like a really good option considering I dont plan on overclocking anyway and have no need for an iGPU. That way I get the "future proofing" (I know people will rant over that term) with hyper-threading for a cheaper price.
The mobo seemed like a good option although I do not know much about motherboards. Plus it went with the black/white theme I am keeping in the case.
The RAM seems like a nicer option, plus its white. I went with 1 8gb stick to allow for an easy upgrade later.
The storage I just looked for decent branding with a good price.
I wanted to get the best video card offered for my price range for the best performance while gaming, so the obvious choice was a 970.
For the power supply I am not really sure what to go with. I need something to fit in the Prodigy and possibly modular to help with cable management. Maybe you guys could help me there? Like I said I love the Prodigy case, and I chose black for the extra front ventilation and aesthetics.
I am also looking for help with a cooling setup. I want to go with an h100i in the top with 2 white LED spectre 120s for the fans, a spectre 230mm white LED in the front (dont need the optical drive bay and will have to lose the storage drive bays too) and then a white LED spectre 140mm in the back for exhaust.
Like I said I would like to keep it around the $1,000 range. I know right now it is going to run me about $1,200 but I am hoping holiday prices bump that down a bit.
I know there are a lot of experienced builders on this forum, so what do you guys think? What PSU would you suggest? Will that cooling setup perform well? Also I have not really looked into cabling that much, is there anything that I should grab to make cable management easier (I hope to mod the case with a window at some point)? Am I missing anything? Does the build in general seem like a good one?
Thanks,
Dylan
I have been researching the past couple weeks and am planning on building my first custom PC this Christmas (hopefully catching some nice deals). Im looking to hang around the $1,000 mark. It will be a mini ITX rig mainly for gaming with some video editing, nothing too heavy, and a ton of multitasking. Ill probably be moving it from school back home on holidays and other visits so I like the portability that ITX (especially the Prodigy) has to offer. So here it is:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($248.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.99 @ Directron)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($356.13 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1031.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-20 15:52 EST-0500
Ill explain a little on why I went with some of these parts. The Xeon has been recommended to me a couple of times and has actually really struck me as a good option. I really cannot afford an i7 right now (who knows what prices will do), and the Xeon being basically a locked i7 without on board GPU seems like a really good option considering I dont plan on overclocking anyway and have no need for an iGPU. That way I get the "future proofing" (I know people will rant over that term) with hyper-threading for a cheaper price.
The mobo seemed like a good option although I do not know much about motherboards. Plus it went with the black/white theme I am keeping in the case.
The RAM seems like a nicer option, plus its white. I went with 1 8gb stick to allow for an easy upgrade later.
The storage I just looked for decent branding with a good price.
I wanted to get the best video card offered for my price range for the best performance while gaming, so the obvious choice was a 970.
For the power supply I am not really sure what to go with. I need something to fit in the Prodigy and possibly modular to help with cable management. Maybe you guys could help me there? Like I said I love the Prodigy case, and I chose black for the extra front ventilation and aesthetics.
I am also looking for help with a cooling setup. I want to go with an h100i in the top with 2 white LED spectre 120s for the fans, a spectre 230mm white LED in the front (dont need the optical drive bay and will have to lose the storage drive bays too) and then a white LED spectre 140mm in the back for exhaust.
Like I said I would like to keep it around the $1,000 range. I know right now it is going to run me about $1,200 but I am hoping holiday prices bump that down a bit.
I know there are a lot of experienced builders on this forum, so what do you guys think? What PSU would you suggest? Will that cooling setup perform well? Also I have not really looked into cabling that much, is there anything that I should grab to make cable management easier (I hope to mod the case with a window at some point)? Am I missing anything? Does the build in general seem like a good one?
Thanks,
Dylan