Whoo! Finally done planning my first gaming pc! Skylake, 1080p gaming pc, incl. peripherals (-OS) @ CHF 1500

[Arnav Bhatt]

So guys, after a lot of research, lot of lusting over the most expensive parts and pulling my hair out over that 3.5GB of vRAM lol I'm kidding, I have finally, finally finished configuring a system that I think is perfect for my needs. This fascination with building my PC as opposed to buying came about for several reasons. One, a friend of mine mentioned that he built his PC back in Sweden. That got me hooked. Two, when I did the research and found out all about overclocking and watercooling and modifying, I was just blown away. I didn't even know that a PC could be watercooled. Talk about living under a rock. Although I'm not doing any watercooling in this build, who knows, maybe with experience one day I just might. Third, it's like, a bajillion times cheaper. I've looked at some pre-built systems with this exact same configuration or as close as I can get to it, and it's at least CHF 300 more expensive. There's some shops that sell components and assemble it for you, but they charge an extra CHF 200 for that. So that's not gonna happen.

Anyway, why am I putting this here? You guys all probably already knew this already. Without any more delay, here is the build:

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K CHF 249.90
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CHF 44.50
Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming CHF 159.90
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 1x8GB DDR4 2133Mhz CHF 62.35
SSD: Kingston SM2280S3 120GB M.2 CHF 65.65
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200RPM CHF 52.20
Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 WindForce OC CHF 347.40
PSU: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold CHF 95.25
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 CHF 109.50
Case fans: Corsair Air Series AF120 White LED x 4 CHF 14.50 x 4
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 1080p CHF 109.50
Keyboard: RAZER BlackWidow Tournament Edition 2014 CHF 91.90
Mouse: Logitech G402 CHF 56.30
Mouse pad: ASUS Strix Glide Control Gaming Mousepad CHF 18.35

The total is CHF 1500.75. The website where I found these prices is: www.toppreise.ch Didn't include the OS in there because I am working on getting Windows 10 through either my uni or through work, or worst case scenario, I just try and boot up from a Windows 7 flash drive I have. Couple of things that I think are worth mentioning. I wanted to get the Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD, but it's not available through the site I used. I settled with Kingston as it's selling at a great price, at least right now. Two, I went with only one 8GB module of DDR4 memory because from what I've read it shouldn't make too much of a difference in games. This has the added side effect of allowing me to upgrade with another 8GB module for 16GBs total RAM down the road. Finally, I put in 4 extra white LED air flow fans from Corsair. These will do a nice job of providing excellent positive pressure inside the case, which is handy as the Define R5 has filters along the front and bottom panels which is where these fans will be going. This will make it very silent but still very efficient in terms of cooling because I will be using the fan controller.

This build I would say, is finally complete. The only thing I'll be doing now is monitoring the prices until I order because I'm literally dead on CHF 1500. Look forward to the comments. Cheers for contributing to this build with your feedback!

 

[Karadjgne]

If you are interested in oc, the hyper212 isn't gonna do the job, you'll need something with some more ability.

 

[Arnav Bhatt]

If you are interested in oc, the hyper212 isn't gonna do the job, you'll need something with some more ability.

I'll start with some modest overclocks to get a feel for it. I figure that with Skylake architecture being slightly more efficient, I could get away with 4Ghz, maybe 4.1Ghz. There's been reports of the Skylake CPUs going beyond 4.6Ghz. So I'm not really going all out, but when I do I'll get something like the Kraken or for overkill, the Swiftech H240-X because that thing is beast and could take a GPU and another 120mm rad all by itself

 

[Karadjgne]

I have a kraken x61 in my r5 and while it fits great, you'll not be able to use a regular fan for exhaust, you'll need a slim model. A regular fan is 25mm, there's @23mm worth of space left after installing the 280mm rad. Either that or break out the power drill and add some holes lower in the case, as the rear slots for 120mm / 140mm fans are still too high. I ended up moving the stock exhaust fan to 2nd intake, and added a fan by the psu as 3rd intake and use the kraken as sole exhaust. Works fine for an aio.

 

[Arnav Bhatt]

I'll think about it. Like I said it shouldn't be a problem just yet. The cooler I have right now should work fine, if need be I can put in push/pull.