Assistance Needed (Picking Parts for First PC Build)

ExpertAmateur

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I am going to be buying parts to build my gaming/streaming PC over black friday/cyber monday weekend while there are sales. Currently I have http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GpW2yc (Apologies if links are not allowed). My hope is to not spend over $1,200 USD with the sales included. I do not yet have any of these parts, it is just a list of what I'm planning/considering purchasing.

The uses for this desktop will be recording/streaming/playing demanding AAA games such as GTA V, MGS:V Phantom Pain, Mafia 3 (Upon Release), along with APB and Battlefield, etc. on the highest settings possible without breaking the bank. Additional uses include video editing and Photoshop work.

I do not know anything about motherboards, and don't know much about parts. I also need help with selecting a monitor and case. Eventually, I plan to have two screens -- one being the game and another being the stream. Any help is appreciated, as well as people looking over the parts list and suggesting changes in general. Thank you.
 
Solution
No point of a Z170 board, with a locked i7, unless you want to go SLI, which that board does not support. Unless these go super cheap, on black friday, save your money and go with a Haswell 1231v3, with an H97 board instead. No need for the Hyper 212 either.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($162.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital...

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
No point of a Z170 board, with a locked i7, unless you want to go SLI, which that board does not support. Unless these go super cheap, on black friday, save your money and go with a Haswell 1231v3, with an H97 board instead. No need for the Hyper 212 either.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($162.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($332.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer G236HLBbd 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($143.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1471.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-21 14:56 EDT-0400
 
Solution

ExpertAmateur

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1. Between the two monitors, which would you choose?
2. I'm looking for DDR4 memory.
3. What's the difference between the Xeon and the i7 and how does it affect my needs?
4. Is that a good case?
5. Why is there not a need for the 212 CPU Cooler?
 

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
1) Asus monitor is a better one.

2) DDR3 vs DDR4 means little. The performance differences are pretty minor.

3) The Xeon, that I picked, is essentially an i7 4470, without the integrated graphics, and is more than $80 cheaper than that i7 6700.

4) Case is fine.

5) Intel's locked cpu's come with a fan, and are generally sufficient for them. IIRC, the Xeon cooler is a bit better than the one the i5 and i7 use.

Skylake is slightly faster, than haswell, but not enough that you would notice, in real world usage, nor is the minor performance boost, worth the added cost.