I'm totally new to building PCs so I need some help and I've got a lot of questions. Please forgive my mistakes and blunders...
PCPartPicker preliminary build
Do I have a performance bottleneck in my build? Are there better options? I'm just flying by the seat of my pants here. I have literally no idea which video card or motherboard to choose and I'm also not sure how much cooling will be necessary. Also for power supply selection it's fairly straight forward to find wattage requirements, but I assume there's more to it than that. What about amp requirements? Even the best rated power supplies have horror stories about blown out CPUs and drives. How to avoid this?
What is your intended use for this build?
Starting a new job next week doing CAD work. Some of the time I'll have the opportunity to work from home, and my ancient behemoth of a laptop was good enough for college, but just isn't up to this. I'd like a machine that can smoothly handle somewhat complex assemblies. I'm not expecting to have to do any super intense rendering or datacrunching, but I do want to be able to quickly switch back and forth between different 3D models and do decently complex FEA in a timely manner.
In the past I haven't been much of a gamer, but I do see myself getting more into gaming in the future. I'd like to be able to play most games at 1080p with a smooth looking frames per second.
Approximate Purchase Date: This week
Budget Range: Ballpark estimate is $1500. I'm flexible to pay more if the increase in performance justifies it... but if I can get enough performance with a $1300 build, then I'd love to save the money... $1500 is a good target to aim for though.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: CAD (SolidWorks and Inventor, with some ANSYS thrown in), gaming, glorified reddit browser, and YouTube machine.
Are you buying a monitor: Yes
Parts to Upgrade: From scratch. Everything must be purchased.
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whatever's cheapest. newegg, OutletPC, NCIXUS, doesn't matter.
Location: Minnesota, a little ways north of the Twin Cities.
Parts Preferences: Prices include rebates but not shipping.
CPU - Pretty sure about this choice.
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor $318
Motherboard - I'm getting lots of conflicted advice about motherboards... It would be great if you could include a reason why I ought to go with one or another. Please offer suggestions for this.
ASRock z97 Extreme6 $140
Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 $175
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 $137
Video Card
I'm currently leaning towards the MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($310). Sounds like it has better performance than the GTX 970, but I've read that it runs really hot. Will that require special cooling or a beefy power source? How much performance would I sacrifice if I got something cheaper? Are there other options that will give a performance boost without much increase in cost? Are there other options that will give the same performance without hogging so much power and creating tons of heat? I'm open to different options here.
Power Supply
This is probably an overestimate of what I need, but it's a pretty good deal and I think it's compatible with everything. EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX $80
Storage
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" SSD $107
Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $50
CPU cooling - Will this be good enough? I really have no idea.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler $35
RAM - I don't really have a reason for picking this. I just went for 16Gb at a decent price. Open to suggestions. Not really sure which specs are most important.
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $75
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) $84
Case - Will this give me enough space or will it be cramped? It comes with preinstalled fans.
Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower $70
Monitor - Seems like a good price for a 27". Does it have downsides? Can I get better for cheaper?
AOC e2752She Glossy Black 27" 2ms Dual HDMI Widescreen $160
Mouse, Keyboard - Not real picky about this. I'll find something. Do you have favorites?
Optical drive - These are still useful I think.
OS - Should I go with windows 7 or 10? Will I have problems with my video card if I get windows 10?
Asus DRW 24b1ST Internal SATA DVD RW Drive $17
Overclocking: Maybe. Probably not, but I'd like to keep my options open. Should I get a better cooling system to future proof my build in case I do this?
SLI or Crossfire: This is for dual video cards, right? Don't think I need to worry about this.
Your Monitor Resolution: Will be purchasing a new monitor. 1080p seems like a good standard.
Additional Comments: I don't really care about bling or looks. I just want good performance. I'd prefer to avoid turning my room into a sauna with the sound of jet engines firing up. (a cool and quiet set up would be a big plus)
PCPartPicker preliminary build
Do I have a performance bottleneck in my build? Are there better options? I'm just flying by the seat of my pants here. I have literally no idea which video card or motherboard to choose and I'm also not sure how much cooling will be necessary. Also for power supply selection it's fairly straight forward to find wattage requirements, but I assume there's more to it than that. What about amp requirements? Even the best rated power supplies have horror stories about blown out CPUs and drives. How to avoid this?
What is your intended use for this build?
Starting a new job next week doing CAD work. Some of the time I'll have the opportunity to work from home, and my ancient behemoth of a laptop was good enough for college, but just isn't up to this. I'd like a machine that can smoothly handle somewhat complex assemblies. I'm not expecting to have to do any super intense rendering or datacrunching, but I do want to be able to quickly switch back and forth between different 3D models and do decently complex FEA in a timely manner.
In the past I haven't been much of a gamer, but I do see myself getting more into gaming in the future. I'd like to be able to play most games at 1080p with a smooth looking frames per second.
Approximate Purchase Date: This week
Budget Range: Ballpark estimate is $1500. I'm flexible to pay more if the increase in performance justifies it... but if I can get enough performance with a $1300 build, then I'd love to save the money... $1500 is a good target to aim for though.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: CAD (SolidWorks and Inventor, with some ANSYS thrown in), gaming, glorified reddit browser, and YouTube machine.
Are you buying a monitor: Yes
Parts to Upgrade: From scratch. Everything must be purchased.
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whatever's cheapest. newegg, OutletPC, NCIXUS, doesn't matter.
Location: Minnesota, a little ways north of the Twin Cities.
Parts Preferences: Prices include rebates but not shipping.
CPU - Pretty sure about this choice.
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor $318
Motherboard - I'm getting lots of conflicted advice about motherboards... It would be great if you could include a reason why I ought to go with one or another. Please offer suggestions for this.
ASRock z97 Extreme6 $140
Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 $175
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 $137
Video Card
I'm currently leaning towards the MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($310). Sounds like it has better performance than the GTX 970, but I've read that it runs really hot. Will that require special cooling or a beefy power source? How much performance would I sacrifice if I got something cheaper? Are there other options that will give a performance boost without much increase in cost? Are there other options that will give the same performance without hogging so much power and creating tons of heat? I'm open to different options here.
Power Supply
This is probably an overestimate of what I need, but it's a pretty good deal and I think it's compatible with everything. EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX $80
Storage
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" SSD $107
Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $50
CPU cooling - Will this be good enough? I really have no idea.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler $35
RAM - I don't really have a reason for picking this. I just went for 16Gb at a decent price. Open to suggestions. Not really sure which specs are most important.
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $75
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) $84
Case - Will this give me enough space or will it be cramped? It comes with preinstalled fans.
Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower $70
Monitor - Seems like a good price for a 27". Does it have downsides? Can I get better for cheaper?
AOC e2752She Glossy Black 27" 2ms Dual HDMI Widescreen $160
Mouse, Keyboard - Not real picky about this. I'll find something. Do you have favorites?
Optical drive - These are still useful I think.
OS - Should I go with windows 7 or 10? Will I have problems with my video card if I get windows 10?
Asus DRW 24b1ST Internal SATA DVD RW Drive $17
Overclocking: Maybe. Probably not, but I'd like to keep my options open. Should I get a better cooling system to future proof my build in case I do this?
SLI or Crossfire: This is for dual video cards, right? Don't think I need to worry about this.
Your Monitor Resolution: Will be purchasing a new monitor. 1080p seems like a good standard.
Additional Comments: I don't really care about bling or looks. I just want good performance. I'd prefer to avoid turning my room into a sauna with the sound of jet engines firing up. (a cool and quiet set up would be a big plus)
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