Hi all,
First-time poster. I bought a really amazing Alienware desktop in 2001 and let me tell you, rarely have I had my mind blown to the degree it was when I saw Giants: Citizen Kabuto running on a GeForce3. Over the next five years I upgraded every component in the system except the case, until I sold the system in 2006, and I've been using take-home work PCs since then.
Now I want a new gaming PC of my own, but the build muscles are a bit rusty. I'd love some advice on the components I've chosen after a few days of research (including reading a ton of reviews and forum posts right here).
Please bear with my terminology; I'm pasting in the full names I found on Newegg. Also, I'm trying to do this relatively cheaply...I don't want shoddy components that will be obsolete in 6 months, but I also don't want to spend much more than a grand in the near term.
I'm planning to add a GTX 970 or the like in the very near future, but for the moment I want the bare minimum of components I can assemble and power on. I play a lot of old and indie games, so I think I can get by on onboard graphics for a while and wait to go back to Far Cry 4 when I get a video card.
I'm also planning to add a 7200rpm HDD down the road, but for now just the 500GB SSD should get me by. I've rarely filled a drive that big anyway, and I'll hold off on reinstalling Steam games I won't be playing immediately. Also I have an external optical drive if I need to load an old game from CD.
I've never been great at planning ventilation and cooling... I've read good things about the Corsair Hydro Series H100i cooler online, but I'm not sure whether I need that with my components and given I don't intent to overclock at all? If I did, would it fit into the case I selected?
Thanks for reading (big post), any and all input is much appreciated!
Rich
First-time poster. I bought a really amazing Alienware desktop in 2001 and let me tell you, rarely have I had my mind blown to the degree it was when I saw Giants: Citizen Kabuto running on a GeForce3. Over the next five years I upgraded every component in the system except the case, until I sold the system in 2006, and I've been using take-home work PCs since then.
Now I want a new gaming PC of my own, but the build muscles are a bit rusty. I'd love some advice on the components I've chosen after a few days of research (including reading a ton of reviews and forum posts right here).
Please bear with my terminology; I'm pasting in the full names I found on Newegg. Also, I'm trying to do this relatively cheaply...I don't want shoddy components that will be obsolete in 6 months, but I also don't want to spend much more than a grand in the near term.
Case: Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Black Steel ATX mid Tower Gaming case ATX (I don't need anything too fancy, but I do want front-mounted USB 3.0)
PSU: CORSAIR CX series CX750M 750W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 (I've read that Core i7 is unnecessary for gaming)
RAM: 2x 4GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (Specs seemed decent and the price was great)
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E500B/AM 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive
I'm planning to add a GTX 970 or the like in the very near future, but for the moment I want the bare minimum of components I can assemble and power on. I play a lot of old and indie games, so I think I can get by on onboard graphics for a while and wait to go back to Far Cry 4 when I get a video card.
I'm also planning to add a 7200rpm HDD down the road, but for now just the 500GB SSD should get me by. I've rarely filled a drive that big anyway, and I'll hold off on reinstalling Steam games I won't be playing immediately. Also I have an external optical drive if I need to load an old game from CD.
I've never been great at planning ventilation and cooling... I've read good things about the Corsair Hydro Series H100i cooler online, but I'm not sure whether I need that with my components and given I don't intent to overclock at all? If I did, would it fit into the case I selected?
Thanks for reading (big post), any and all input is much appreciated!
Rich
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