Building my own gaming pc from scratch

With Intel, except for Skylake K processors, the boxed processors come with a cooler. You don't have to buy an aftermarket one unless you want to overclock the processor or make your build quieter by upgrading it.

The 4690K is able to be overclocked provided the motherboard supports overclocking, the regular 4690 cannot be OC'd. That said at this point there's not really much reason to go with older parts when the price of the much newer Skylake series CPU's has come down

For a strictly gaming machine I'd usually go with an i5 of some sort. Games don't typically take advantage of hyperthreaded CPU's, so it's hard to justify the increased cost in my mind. Overclocking is completely up to you though. An i5-6500 is going to perform perfectly fine in virtually every gaming situation, so it kind of comes down to a question of budget. On an unlocked CPU from Skylake you need to purchase an additional CPU Cooler as the processor doesn't come with one. If budget isn't a huge factor I would personally go for an unlocked CPU and the right motherboard and keep my options open in case I wanted to overclock in the future

The i5 6600K is the one that can be overclocked. Fill this out and people will give you some suggested builds:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgrade-advice

**EDIT** OP removed the comment that the thread was closed.

Copy & Paste the form into this thread & complete it.


Approximate Purchase Date: Buying parts sparately so don't know.

Budget Range: €800 / $900 max
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, editing, movies, school

Are you buying a monitor: Yes



Parts to Upgrade: Buying all parts needed for a gaming PC.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, Amazon.com

Location: Limburg, Belgium (doesn't matter where they ship from)

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Nvidia Graphics Card.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: any monitor between 1440x900 and 1920x1200

Additional Comments: Want to play GTA V with mods on it, would like the intel core i5-6600K processor so i can overclock if i need to and if i want to, if i can buy cheaper similair parts i'd rather do that than paying a lot more for pretty much the same specs.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I'm building my first gaming pc, need help.


Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: this week (the closer the better)

Budget Range: (e.g.: 300-400) Before / After Rebates; Before / After Shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: (e.g.: Folding@Home, gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies)

Are you buying a monitor: Yes / No



Parts to Upgrade: (e.g.: CPU, mobo, RAM) **Include Power Supply Make & Model If Re-using**

Do you need to buy OS: Yes / No
Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (e.g.: newegg.com, ncix.com -- to show us selection & pricing)

Location: City, State/Region, Country - we need to know where these parts are being assembled and whether there are good store-only deals available

Parts Preferences: by brand or type (e.g.: I would like to upgrade to Intel CPU)

Overclocking: Yes / No / Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Yes / No / Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: (e.g.: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200 or if you're upgrading please state what you'd want to get)

Additional Comments: (e.g.: Need to have a window and lots of bling, I would like a quiet PC. Please also list specific software or games you're using)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: (e.g. I'm having trouble running game X or my PSU broke)

I'll let someone else try for a build, but needing the OS and a monitor (not sure if you have keyboard and mouse yet either) really chews into the overall budget for the rest of the machine. It might be a better idea to hold off on the overclockable CPU and motherboard for the time being in order to save money to get a better GPU, as that's what's going to limit a lot of performance in a build

So, your 800EUR budget doesn't have to include the OS or Monitor etc? In that case you can have a pretty decent rig.

That build isn't going to work, it's over 900EUR when you price it up for the OP, without the PSU. I know they didn't mind where it shipped from, but shipping/customs/import is going to add quite a bit to Belgium - I think sticking within the EU makes the most sense.



It really depends. An OS and monitor really eat away the budget quickly.

800EUR build, from Germany.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€202.26 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€89.63 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€53.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€89.39 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€48.50 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card (€187.86 @ Mindfactory)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€49.90 @ Caseking)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€72.74 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €794.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-05 21:37 CEST+0200

No overclocking though.

If you wanted an OS & Monitor in there, you really drop the spec of the rig.

You'd still be able to game pretty well, the i3 is still a good CPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€119.96 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€59.23 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€28.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€49.77 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card (€187.86 @ Mindfactory)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case (€36.70 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€66.90 @ Caseking)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (€98.20 @ Mindfactory)
Monitor: Asus VS247HR 60Hz 23.6" Monitor (€129.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €777.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-05 21:41 CEST+0200

Personally I'd go for a R9 390 over the GTX 970, since it tends to out perform the Nvidia card from my personal experience, but the 970 will perform great as well. (forgot to set it to Germany, but the price is virtually the same)

i5-6500 Build

How about this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€202.26 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€69.77 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€28.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€49.77 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (€329.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€56.19 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€66.46 @ Mindfactory)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)
Total: €802.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-05 22:05 CEST+0200

The i3 6100 is no slouch. Watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJuadijvTSU

But the i5 will let you upgrade your GPU later without upgrading the CPU.

The monitor part numbers are different there, I think. This is an IPS monitor. I could find something less expensive if we need to.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€202.26 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€69.77 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€28.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€49.77 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (€329.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€56.19 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€66.46 @ Mindfactory)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)
Monitor: Asus VX239H 60Hz 23.0" Monitor (€182.81 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €985.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-05 22:27 CEST+0200