Part selection help wanted for first build

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Zeikcied

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Jul 31, 2017
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I've never built my own computer before. I'm researching this method because I'm having trouble finding a pre-built machine from a good brand that has exactly what I want. One part that has me confused is what parts to get, so I'm turning to the fine folks on this forum for help.

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next week, hopefully

Budget Range: I'd say around $700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Some PC games, web surfing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: BestBuy.com

Location: Northeast Ohio (I honestly don't like getting too specific.)

Parts Preferences: Intel Core i5 7400 (or 7500), GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, optical drive, 1-2TB HDD (no SSD)

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024

Additional Comments: I plan on dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux.
Probably the most graphics-intensive game I want to play on the machine, at least at this time, is Overwatch.
I'm undecided on buying a new monitor, but if I will get one it has to be around 19" to fit on my desk.
I'm looking for good brands, but also good prices. Using Best Buy so I can put it all on my Best Buy card.
And I'm doing the upgrade because my current PC, an HP Pavilion desktop, is seven years old and I really could use a new machine.

I'm also terrified of screwing something up once I have all the parts and am ready to start building. This is easy enough, right?
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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Apr 20, 2016
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AMD Ryzen...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($93.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($83.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($158.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($46.89 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $738.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-31 14:43 EDT-0400

Intel Kabylake...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.59 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($158.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($46.89 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $707.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-31 14:45 EDT-0400


I would rather look at the Ryzen build as its better value and will last you longer. Also not sure why you dont want a SSD, as it can really increase the pc performance.
 
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Finstar

Finstar

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Sep 7, 2013
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($129.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($82.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($145.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair - Carbide SPEC-04 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Corsair)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $688.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

I chose the Ryzen 3 1300x over the i5 7400 because they perform pretty much identically with the 1300x being cheaper + you'll have a better upgrade path since AM4 will be supported until 2020.

I also chose not to pick the parts from bestbuy since they have a really limited selection of components and their prices are just simply bad.
 
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somesh101

somesh101

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Jul 16, 2015
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even i don't have an ssd. it won't make a dirrfence for me i boot once in morning and shutdown at night. (sometimes my pc runs for days)
and my program will load in 1 sec instead of 3. not a trouble i am never using one single program.
 
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somesh101

somesh101

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Jul 16, 2015
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ohkay tell me ..

how much speed does reading these apps take.

browser.
text editor
playing a movie (untill unless you can watch the movie at 16x speed comfortably)
Medium games.
Office suits
programing IDE
 
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somesh101

somesh101

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Jul 16, 2015
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looks like i am hammerring my head on wall here. an ssd won't make a diffrence for everyone.
ssd is good for large read and writes.
i won't recomend it if all you are doing with is booting fast and your browser loads in 1 sec instead of 3.
 
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seagate_surfer

seagate_surfer

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Mar 31, 2017
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While SSD is king for performance, it is still quite expensive and the budget you've listed is borderline on whether it typically includes an SSD or not, usually in this price range it can require compromises in other areas of the build, so we can see why you would not want one here. However, one solution that could get you some of that SSD benefit, doesn't cost much more than a standard HDD, and still gives you a solid amount of storage space for your money is an SSHD or Solid-State Hybrid Drive (current Seagate branding: FireCuda). These drives place your most frequently accessed data on an SSD cache for faster performance, then also have a larger spinning disk storage capacity for the rest of your data.

Also, if you'd like a little more information on how these drives stack up performance-wise, here are a couple of charts we would like to share:

The first one compares startup times across several popular games on a traditional spinning 7200 RPM HDD, our SSHD, and an M.2 SSD (128GB). The white is for SSD, the orange is for our SSHD, and the gray is for the 7200 spinning HDD.

Startup Times

The next one compares the first 3 days of gaming storage utilization across several popular titles, and SYSmark ratings from various drive types and combinations. First of the grays is 7200 RPM 1TB spinning HDD, second (lightest gray) is our SSHD, third (darkest gray) is an SSD + 7200 RPM HDD combo, purple is SSD + our SSHD combo, and lastly blue is SSD.

First 3 Days Gaming Storage Utilization

Regardless of which drive you determine is right for your needs in the end, thank you for considering Seagate!
 
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Z

Zeikcied

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Jul 31, 2017
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510


I found most of the parts (and comparable replacements for those that I couldn't) at Micro Center. I haven't purchased them yet, I plan on going out there on Monday. However, I wanted to make sure of something. The Corsair SPEC-01 case comes with one fan, and has spots for mounting others. Would I need more than the one fan for the Intel build? I don't plan on overclocking or anything, but I've never built a computer before, so I don't know how much cooling I should have.

Also, could I replace the case option with any ATX mid-tower? I know I just asked about the fan thing, but that could apply to any case, I suppose.
 
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Z

Zeikcied

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Jul 31, 2017
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The fans don't cost much, but do I really need all those case fans if I'm not overclocking or anything? Would one fan be enough?
 
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Z

Zeikcied

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Jul 31, 2017
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510
When I was shopping for parts on Micro Center's website (they have a local store), I came across this pre-built machine with the exact specs I wanted, and on sale for cheaper than what it would have cost to buy the individual parts. http://www.microcenter.com/product/474288/G151_Desktop_Computer

I know it's kind of off-topic, but does that look like a good machine? I know the CPU, GPU, RAM, and HDD are what I want. We bought a PowerSpec back in 2000, and it was pretty good, for a Win98 computer. Something went wonky with one of the sticks of RAM after a while, and I don't know if it was the one that came with the system or one I installed after the fact, but otherwise it wasn't bad. Since then I've only had Compaq and HP, so I don't know if PowerSpec is still good.
 
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Z

Zeikcied

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Jul 31, 2017
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510


The one side photo of the computer shows it's an EVGA 400w PSU.
 
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Hellfire13

Hellfire13

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Apr 20, 2016
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EVGA 400w is a mediocre unit. See if you can get it changed to a better one.
 
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