Help design my first self-built computer.

Brian_99

Reputable
Dec 19, 2015
144
0
4,710
Hello all,

I'm building my first computer, and the first part of the process is, of course, choosing the components. To give you a bit of background, I intend to use this PC (Desktop) for moderate quality gaming (1080p, 50-60 screens per second), limited graphics, programming, and basic functions such as Web Browsing, Skype, Documents, etc. I am hoping to build this computer for a reasonable price preferably around $1,000.00 USD. As that may well be a pipe dream, I have an upper budget limit of $2,000.00 USD. The device size will be a Full-Sized ATX. I want for the parts to have a viable resale price for when upgrades are needed. So far, I have selected a few basic components. They are as follows:

CPU - Intel Core i7-6700K CPU
Motherboard - ASRock Z97 Extreme6
SSD - SanDisk Extreme PRO (256 GB)
Case - HAF 932 Full Tower Case

I know there are quite a few other components needed (Graphics Card, Sound Card, WiFi Card, Water Cooling Unit, Power Supply, RAM 8-16GB, Hard Drive with 2TB). I, unfortunately, am not incredibly experienced in these areas and would ask for recommendations as to what specific items to buy to fill these needs. I would ask for the best performance units possible available for a reasonable price. Also, if I am missing any additional components, I would appreciate the heads-up and any suggestions regarding them.

Thank You
 

Mattz982

Honorable
Nov 5, 2013
748
0
11,360
Ok so I kinda ignored a lot of your parts and just went from scratch, mainly because you say 6700K, and select a Z97 mobo which, unfortunately, aren't compatible

Anyway, here we go:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($495.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($104.20 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($77.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card ($644.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.46 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax EW-7811UTC 802.11a/b/g/n/ac USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($13.38 @ Amazon)
Total: $1840.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-22 13:29 EST-0500
 

Chayan4400

Honorable
I think you mean 50-60 FPS per second :). 50-60 screens would need a $10,000 PC to even boot. That is totally doable for $1000!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.75 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($32.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($118.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($77.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($318.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1014.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-22 14:01 EST-0500

Let's start with the explanations. The CPU- you don't need an i7 to game. It has been proven in numerous tests that an i7 has absolutely no advantage over an i5. Games are still mostly single threaded (Rely primarily on one core) and those that are multithreaded see no appreciable increase in performance with more than 4 cores. An i5 is ideal for this build.

Next the motherboard. A good motherboard with a substantial amount of features for the right price. I see that you are an amateur in PC building (No offense), so I picked this board because in the future you can overclock your CPU for more performance. Generally, you can't do this as you require a K-series CPU to overclock, like the i5 6600K. CPUS like the 6500 are what we called locked, and don't support overclocking. However, due to a loophole in Intel's 6th Gen CPUs, motherboard manufacturers can enable overclocking on their boards via a BIOS update. ASRock has been the first to implement this, hence the board :). You don't need to overclock right away; the 6500 is a very powerful CPU. However, if you need it in the future due to a bottleneck, the option is always there.

Moving on to the RAM, nice set of DDR4 memory with good clock speeds and timings for the right price. 99% of games don't need more than 8GB, so you're fine with it.

Storage is next. The Hitachi HDD is pretty much just that, an HDD. Nothing much to say about it, save that I went with Hitachi because their failure rates have been shown in a study by backblaze to be much lower than competing vendors. The 250GB SSD is for Windows + any applications that you frequently use. It'll make your PC much more responsive and reduce boot and load times drastically (I get a 15 second boot time consistently on mine!). The Samsung 850 series EVO is one of the best consumer SSDs on the market.

Now the most important item, the GPU. The 970 is a favorite of the gaming community because it's the card that lets you max out any game on a 1080p monitor and still get solid FPS, even with the 3.5GB issue. In fact, 50-60 FPs is easily attainable in virtually any game. It's also relatively low power and runs cool.

The case is one of my personal favorites. Minimalistic, professional, very well ventilated and extremely high quality (95% of it is metal). It doesn't have any 5.25" bays for an optical drive, however. Keep in mind though the case is a matter of personal taste, so if you don't like it go find one that you do, tell us what is is and we'll tell you if it is good or not :).

Lastly the PSU. 550W is technically enough but I went with a 650W to keep some headroom for both CPU and GPU overclocking later on should you choose to do so. The G2 is one of the best PSUs on the market, with a 7 year warranty! Fully modular, 80+ Gold and has extremely good reviews. Definitely the PSU to buy if you have the budget. I've got a 550W one myself, with the now discontinued 10 year warranty!

Overall, this build will handle whatever you throw at it extremely well at 1080p, and will allow you to max out virtually any game. If you made it this far, I hope your questions are answered. If you have any further questions, please do ask!
 

Chayan4400

Honorable


+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are truly bad. How bad? This bad:

blog_seagate_3tb_2012_failures.jpg