My First Build. What should I upgrade and when?

[Noah_43]

Hey Guys,
I built a computer on January 9th for gaming/editing purposes. I am a Junior in highschool and will use it more for 1080p gaming than anything else. I spent around $650 on the following components:
-Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Series PH-EC416P_BK Satin Black Steel Side Window ATX Mid Tower Case with 10 Color RGB Downlight
-Motherboard: MSI Gaming B150 Gaming M3 LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
-CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3M 3.7 GHz LGA 1151 BX80662I36100 Desktop Processor(stock cooler, What cooler should I get if/when I overclock?)
-GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N105TOC-4GD 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
-Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone-G550, Capstone G Series 550W Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire Ready
-RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CT2K4G4DFS8213(Will Get 16 more)
-OS Storage: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC240GB
-Other Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb SSD
-Storage to be added soon:-Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST2000DX002
-RAM to be added soon: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CMK16GX4M2A2133C13R(Any better options would be greatly appreciated.
-Fans I was considering to get for airflow improvement: APEVIA CF12SL-URED 120mm Red LED Cooling Fan

I was not thinking of the look when getting the parts. I am more price/performance oriented and am attempting to (If possible) Keep a black and red, minimalist Theme going.

Some Questions:
1. Can I possibly buy a 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) and add it. The motherboard does have the slots for it? If I can what would I have to do in order to get the maximum performance?
2. I have windows 10 installed. It runs well so far. Is there anything I should do to achieve better performance or use of features I don't know?
3. Is there anything I should look out for or know in order to maintain this PC?
4. What parts do you think I should upgrade and when should I upgrade them?

I will add questions as I have them. This is an open discussion and any information would be greatly appreciated since I am very new to all of this. Thank you for taking your time to read and/respond to my questions. If you have anything you would like me to clarify please leave a comment. Any Build upgrade ideas will be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE1: I have just earned a bit of money. Should I save and get an i5 and just try to resell the i3(I've already lost the box so I don't know what to do. Maybe resell it using the i5 box? I won't try to sell it as an i5 though). Or should I get a Seagate Fircuda 2Tb 3.5" hard disk?

 

[greens]

Hey Guys,
I built a computer on January 9th for gaming/editing purposes. I am a Junior in highschool and will use it more for 1080p gaming than anything else. I spent around $650 on the following components:
-Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Series PH-EC416P_BK Satin Black Steel Side Window ATX Mid Tower Case with 10 Color RGB Downlight
-Motherboard: MSI Gaming B150 Gaming M3 LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
-CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3M 3.7 GHz LGA 1151 BX80662I36100 Desktop Processor(stock cooler, What cooler should I get if/when I overclock?)
-GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N105TOC-4GD 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
-Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone-G550, Capstone G Series 550W Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire Ready
-RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CT2K4G4DFS8213(Will Get 16 more)
-OS Storage: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC240GB
-Other Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb SSD
-Storage to be added soon:-Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST2000DX002
-RAM to be added soon: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CMK16GX4M2A2133C13R(Any better options would be greatly appreciated.
-Fans I was considering to get for airflow improvement: APEVIA CF12SL-URED 120mm Red LED Cooling Fan

I was not thinking of the look when getting the parts. I am more price/performance oriented and am attempting to (If possible) Keep a black and red, minimalist Theme going.

Some Questions:
1. Can I possibly buy a 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) and add it. The motherboard does have the slots for it? If I can what would I have to do in order to get the maximum performance?
2. I have windows 10 installed. It runs well so far. Is there anything I should do to achieve better performance or use of features I don't know?
3. Is there anything I should look out for or know in order to maintain this PC?
4. What parts do you think I should upgrade and when should I upgrade them?

I will add questions as I have them. This is an open discussion and any information would be greatly appreciated since I am very new to all of this. Thank you for taking your time to read and/respond to my questions. If you have anything you would like me to clarify please leave a comment.

You can add ram but it isn't going to improve performance.

You're being held back by your processor and graphics card.

You could go to an i5 6500 and that would give you breathing room for a card as high end as like a GTX 1070.

I'd strongly advise you to keep your entry level build, and get it up to enthusiast status - rather than worrying about color schemes.

 

[The Paladin]

when I was a junior in High school I was busy chasing skirts, not color coding my desktop

I agree, I5 with a 1070 will do the trick., swap the 16Gb for the 8Gb I would not mix those ram sets like that.
otherwise looks good.

 

[Noah_43]

Hey Guys,
I built a computer on January 9th for gaming/editing purposes. I am a Junior in highschool and will use it more for 1080p gaming than anything else. I spent around $650 on the following components:
-Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Series PH-EC416P_BK Satin Black Steel Side Window ATX Mid Tower Case with 10 Color RGB Downlight
-Motherboard: MSI Gaming B150 Gaming M3 LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
-CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3M 3.7 GHz LGA 1151 BX80662I36100 Desktop Processor(stock cooler, What cooler should I get if/when I overclock?)
-GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N105TOC-4GD 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
-Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone-G550, Capstone G Series 550W Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire Ready
-RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CT2K4G4DFS8213(Will Get 16 more)
-OS Storage: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC240GB
-Other Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb SSD
-Storage to be added soon:-Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST2000DX002
-RAM to be added soon: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Desktop Memory Model CMK16GX4M2A2133C13R(Any better options would be greatly appreciated.
-Fans I was considering to get for airflow improvement: APEVIA CF12SL-URED 120mm Red LED Cooling Fan

I was not thinking of the look when getting the parts. I am more price/performance oriented and am attempting to (If possible) Keep a black and red, minimalist Theme going.

Some Questions:
1. Can I possibly buy a 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) and add it. The motherboard does have the slots for it? If I can what would I have to do in order to get the maximum performance?
2. I have windows 10 installed. It runs well so far. Is there anything I should do to achieve better performance or use of features I don't know?
3. Is there anything I should look out for or know in order to maintain this PC?
4. What parts do you think I should upgrade and when should I upgrade them?

I will add questions as I have them. This is an open discussion and any information would be greatly appreciated since I am very new to all of this. Thank you for taking your time to read and/respond to my questions. If you have anything you would like me to clarify please leave a comment.

You can add ram but it isn't going to improve performance.

You're being held back by your processor and graphics card.

You could go to an i5 6500 and that would give you breathing room for a card as high end as like a GTX 1070.

I'd strongly advise you to keep your entry level build, and get it up to enthusiast status - rather than worrying about color schemes.

I was wondering when I should upgrade to an i5. I just got the i3 and would like to get some decent use out of it. I think the 1050ti will suit me just fine for at least medium to high 1080p gaming. I wanted more RAM so when I did upgrade my processor I would have enough RAM to go with it and I also think that some games seem to need more to run better at higher? COD BO3 runs at 60fps which is where I cap it and it struggles sometimes when the map is big. I've also seen this in Just Cause, Mad Max,...etc. Would more RAM help as a short term upgrade?( For a year or two). And I'll take your advice and stick with making it an enthusiast status then I'll worry about look. Other than anything else you want to suggest? Anything from Peripherals to drives to processors is helpful. Thanks.

 

[greens]

Well... I posted a response and it glitched out

You'll need to check your usages. If your CPU is pegged at 100% then you'd be wise to upgrade that first.
If your GPU is pegged at 100% then your CPU is doing OK. If neither is pegged at 100% - but your ram is - only then would i believe going from 8GB to 16GB could improve performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti,4787-4.html

60FPS sounds about right.

The 1050ti is a very nice economical card (i believe AMD has the best economy cards right now but that is a moot point) But you also need to realize that Nvidia's flagship card absolutely demolishes it - being well over three times faster.

More than THREE TIMES faster is such a huge difference - the performance spectrum out there right now is so huge.

To give you an idea the 980 was barely double the performance of the 950....

 

[Noah_43]

Well... I posted a response and it glitched out

You'll need to check your usages. If your CPU is pegged at 100% then you'd be wise to upgrade that first.
If your GPU is pegged at 100% then your CPU is doing OK. If neither is pegged at 100% - but your ram is - only then would i believe going from 8GB to 16GB could improve performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti,4787-4.html

60FPS sounds about right.

The 1050ti is a very nice economical card (i believe AMD has the best economy cards right now but that is a moot point) But you also need to realize that Nvidia's flagship card absolutely demolishes it - being well over three times faster.

More than THREE TIMES faster is such a huge difference - the performance spectrum out there right now is so huge.

To give you an idea the 980 was barely double the performance of the 950....

I haven't seen it bottle neck until it's rendering a world. I will check out where my bottle neck is. Other than that do you have any suggestion as to when I should upgrade my processor? Maybe a model and a link to what kind of processors I should look at? Other than that When do you think I should upgrade my graphics card? I was thinking maybe 3 or 4 years. What do you think I should do with it afterwards? Also why shouldn't I mix the rams? Should I remove the 8's and just use two 16's?

 

[greens]

There is no time like the present in my opinion! But mostly when cost allows. You're young - save money for drugs and women.

You'll need to upgrade your CPU and GPU at the same time in all reality.

You could go with any Skylake or Kabylake chip when the time comes. You don't have an overclocking motherboard, so something like a i5 6500 would be good. You could pair that with a GTX 1070.
But again in a couple years those recommendations could be totally wrong.

I mean, you could sell it? But don't expect much. A used card, out of warranty, that only cost $150 new... I mean just don't expect it to hold any value.

But that is all GPUs. I have an R9 390 that is quite expensive - but the competition has demolished its value. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for a 390 new, letalone used. So yeah, that kind of thing happens and is unavoidable.

NEVER mix ram. They are binned together. People don't realize this but PC parts are quite... volatile? in production.

Did you know that Old athalons are simply crappy Denebs?
Did you know that the GTX 1060 3GB version of the GTX 1060 isn't intentionally gimped? There are defects in the processing unit - not enough to make it not work, but enough for it to not meet spec. So they throw it into a lesser card so it will meet spec.

That is what is called the lottery, and for RAM its got a bit to do with compatibility.

You can buy two sets of RAM from the SAME store at the SAME time from the SAME shelf and they won't work together. You can buy two sets of RAM from different places made by different people and they might work just fine. It is a total crap shoot. The only way to know for sure is to order the kit complete.

Never buy an 8GB stick and an 8GB stick. You get a 2x8GB kit. Same with adding ram.

In addition to that, as a rule you don't want to be mixing speeds, timings, and capacities either for similar reasons.

 

[Noah_43]

There is no time like the present in my opinion! But mostly when cost allows. You're young - save money for drugs and women.

You'll need to upgrade your CPU and GPU at the same time in all reality.

You could go with any Skylake or Kabylake chip when the time comes. You don't have an overclocking motherboard, so something like a i5 6500 would be good. You could pair that with a GTX 1070.
But again in a couple years those recommendations could be totally wrong.

I mean, you could sell it? But don't expect much. A used card, out of warranty, that only cost $150 new... I mean just don't expect it to hold any value.

But that is all GPUs. I have an R9 390 that is quite expensive - but the competition has demolished its value. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for a 390 new, letalone used. So yeah, that kind of thing happens and is unavoidable.

NEVER mix ram. They are binned together. People don't realize this but PC parts are quite... volatile? in production.

Did you know that Old athalons are simply crappy Denebs?
Did you know that the GTX 1060 3GB version of the GTX 1060 isn't intentionally gimped? There are defects in the processing unit - not enough to make it not work, but enough for it to not meet spec. So they throw it into a lesser card so it will meet spec.

That is what is called the lottery, and for RAM its got a bit to do with compatibility.

You can buy two sets of RAM from the SAME store at the SAME time from the SAME shelf and they won't work together. You can buy two sets of RAM from different places made by different people and they might work just fine. It is a total crap shoot. The only way to know for sure is to order the kit complete.

Never buy an 8GB stick and an 8GB stick. You get a 2x8GB kit. Same with adding ram.

In addition to that, as a rule you don't want to be mixing speeds, timings, and capacities either for similar reasons.

I'll be fine without the drugs and don't spend too much on women. I feel like I will be fine with the i3 and I'll upgrade to an i5 and a 1070 or 980. Okay. Then i'll just swap out the rams all together. When do you think the 1050ti and/or i3 be an issue with medium to high settings gaming?
Also what other parts should I consider upgrading. Like when should I upgrade the MOBO? When should I upgrade the Power supply? Any recommendations? My budget does get a bit of breathing room when the holidays and grading periods come by.

 

[greens]

There is no time like the present in my opinion! But mostly when cost allows. You're young - save money for drugs and women.

You'll need to upgrade your CPU and GPU at the same time in all reality.

You could go with any Skylake or Kabylake chip when the time comes. You don't have an overclocking motherboard, so something like a i5 6500 would be good. You could pair that with a GTX 1070.
But again in a couple years those recommendations could be totally wrong.

I mean, you could sell it? But don't expect much. A used card, out of warranty, that only cost $150 new... I mean just don't expect it to hold any value.

But that is all GPUs. I have an R9 390 that is quite expensive - but the competition has demolished its value. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for a 390 new, letalone used. So yeah, that kind of thing happens and is unavoidable.

NEVER mix ram. They are binned together. People don't realize this but PC parts are quite... volatile? in production.

Did you know that Old athalons are simply crappy Denebs?
Did you know that the GTX 1060 3GB version of the GTX 1060 isn't intentionally gimped? There are defects in the processing unit - not enough to make it not work, but enough for it to not meet spec. So they throw it into a lesser card so it will meet spec.

That is what is called the lottery, and for RAM its got a bit to do with compatibility.

You can buy two sets of RAM from the SAME store at the SAME time from the SAME shelf and they won't work together. You can buy two sets of RAM from different places made by different people and they might work just fine. It is a total crap shoot. The only way to know for sure is to order the kit complete.

Never buy an 8GB stick and an 8GB stick. You get a 2x8GB kit. Same with adding ram.

In addition to that, as a rule you don't want to be mixing speeds, timings, and capacities either for similar reasons.

I'll be fine without the drugs and don't spend too much on women. I feel like I will be fine with the i3 and I'll upgrade to an i5 and a 1070 or 980. Okay. Then i'll just swap out the rams all together. When do you think the 1050ti and/or i3 be an issue with medium to high settings gaming?
Also what other parts should I consider upgrading. Like when should I upgrade the MOBO? When should I upgrade the Power supply? Any recommendations? My budget does get a bit of breathing room when the holidays and grading periods come by.

Day 1. You're already experiencing hits in BF1. Medium to low should get you a few years of enjoyment. Just turn down/off antialiasing and you'll be fine.

 

[Noah_43]

There is no time like the present in my opinion! But mostly when cost allows. You're young - save money for drugs and women.

You'll need to upgrade your CPU and GPU at the same time in all reality.

You could go with any Skylake or Kabylake chip when the time comes. You don't have an overclocking motherboard, so something like a i5 6500 would be good. You could pair that with a GTX 1070.
But again in a couple years those recommendations could be totally wrong.

I mean, you could sell it? But don't expect much. A used card, out of warranty, that only cost $150 new... I mean just don't expect it to hold any value.

But that is all GPUs. I have an R9 390 that is quite expensive - but the competition has demolished its value. No one in their right mind would pay $300 for a 390 new, letalone used. So yeah, that kind of thing happens and is unavoidable.

NEVER mix ram. They are binned together. People don't realize this but PC parts are quite... volatile? in production.

Did you know that Old athalons are simply crappy Denebs?
Did you know that the GTX 1060 3GB version of the GTX 1060 isn't intentionally gimped? There are defects in the processing unit - not enough to make it not work, but enough for it to not meet spec. So they throw it into a lesser card so it will meet spec.

That is what is called the lottery, and for RAM its got a bit to do with compatibility.

You can buy two sets of RAM from the SAME store at the SAME time from the SAME shelf and they won't work together. You can buy two sets of RAM from different places made by different people and they might work just fine. It is a total crap shoot. The only way to know for sure is to order the kit complete.

Never buy an 8GB stick and an 8GB stick. You get a 2x8GB kit. Same with adding ram.

In addition to that, as a rule you don't want to be mixing speeds, timings, and capacities either for similar reasons.

I'll be fine without the drugs and don't spend too much on women. I feel like I will be fine with the i3 and I'll upgrade to an i5 and a 1070 or 980. Okay. Then i'll just swap out the rams all together. When do you think the 1050ti and/or i3 be an issue with medium to high settings gaming?
Also what other parts should I consider upgrading. Like when should I upgrade the MOBO? When should I upgrade the Power supply? Any recommendations? My budget does get a bit of breathing room when the holidays and grading periods come by.

Day 1. You're already experiencing hits in BF1. Medium to low should get you a few years of enjoyment. Just turn down/off antialiasing and you'll be fine.

Okay any thoughts as to when I should swap out MOBO and Processor all together? And should I go Kaby Lake or should I keep my MOBO and get Kabylake/skylake?