First Build - Nervous and Need Help

[n8dogg59]

Hey everyone. I've been lurking around here for a long time and finally looking to pull the trigger to start buying parts for a build. Looking to get some deals around black Friday. This is my first build and I'm somewhat nervous about not getting the right components and screwing it up.

I'd like to keep it as close to $800 as possible. The primary use will be trading, using the internet, and streaming some videos. I don't play any games and don't need to overclock or have something the super robust. Just a couple questions/concerns - Is this a good wifi adapter? Is it ok to start with 8GB memory and then increase if I need too? Do I need any type of extra fan? Any recommendations for a case similar in quality to the Corsair 500r but less expensive?

If you could take a look below and just let me know if everything looks good or if there's any recommendations to replace certain components with others. Thanks in advance for the help. I really appreciate anyone that takes a look.


https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MDtRd6

CPU - Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard - MSI - B250 PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory - Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Storage - Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card - Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB G1 Gaming Video Card
Case - Corsair - 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply - Corsair - CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive - Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System - Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Wireless Network Adapter - Rosewill - N900PCE PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter

 

[Johan45]

There are a few ways to save some cash there. You can drop the Vid card and use the IGP on the CPU and you could also drop to an i3 7100 which is just over $100 with a higher base speed. The uses you have described are very light and an i3 would do the job. Also they come with a heatsink and preapplied paste. If you wanted to upgrade the paste that's fine but AS5 wouldn't be my choice I'd go with MX4

I made a few modifications to the list and added in a 250 GB M.2 for some pep https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qCsWxY

 

[n8dogg59]

Thanks for the help Johan. The i3 is a dual core and the i5 is a quad core. Does that make much of a difference with speed or any type of performance?

 

[trents]

Thanks for the help Johan. The i3 is a dual core and the i5 is a quad core. Does that make much of a difference with speed or any type of performance?

Yes, the i3 is a dual core but it has two additional processing "threads" (HT or Hyper Threading) that significantly boost it's performance in some applications. The i5 has four physical cores but no HT. Don't misunderstand me, the i5 will always outperform the i3 but it's not twice the processor. In some applications the two HT threads will boost the performance of the i3 by 20% or more than it would be if it did not have this technology. What Johan45 is saying is that you won't see much difference at all in your computing experience (given your listed uses) whether you go with an i5 or an i3. And the i5 is twice as expensive as the i3. The i3 is made exactly for people who do what you do with a computer.

 

[Daleon]

Mo'beta'bada.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RMFyJV

 

[trents]

Daleon's suggestions are good. No sense in not getting the latest generation Intel CPU and motherboard socket when the prices are almost the same as the previous generation. And the i3 Coffee Lake has four true cores I belive, departing from the convention Intel has used historically to define the i3 for the past several generations.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1186...ation-coffee-lake-hex-core-desktop-processors

 

[SPL Tech]

Get rid of the video card. The 7500k has onboard video. You dont need a video card just for watching movies on your computer. Video cards are for 3D applications mostly. You do not need the Arctic Silver 5 TIM if you're buying the CPU with the stock Intel cooler as it included TIM right on the cooler itself. Be sure the CPU you're buying comes with the stock Intel cooler as they sell them both with and without the cooler.

Get rid of the 1TB hard drive. An SSD is WORLDS faster. Get a 256 GB SSD, or even a 128 one if you cant afford one, and a 500 GB HD. Put it this way, the slowest SSD is faster than the fastest 20,000 RPM server SCSI hard drive.

I have used the 802.11n PCI version of the wifi adapter you have. It sucked for gaming. Using the Internet was fine. I'd fine something different since I wasent happy with mine, but that's just me. You could also buy a motherboard with onboard wifi which is what I would do. Less cards, less clutter. Just make sure it supports 802.11ac and not just 802.11n which pretty much any modern wifi adapter should.

I would get rid of the CD/ DVD drive. Optical disks are completely obsolete and serve little purpose for the mainstreem user at this point. Flash drives have taken their place. You sure as heck dont need a 650W PSU. Anything 450W or higher from a reputable brand is perfectly fine. Honestly, you could probably even get away with 350W, but I'd do 400-450W just to be safe. The CPU is the one section I would not downgrade. Slow CPUs really, really kill the system and you will notice a speed difference between the two. No you don’t need extra case fans. You should be fine as is. Yes you can upgrade the RAM later if you want to, but 8 GB is plenty for surfing the net. Even 4 GB would work, although at least 6 is preferable.

 

[n8dogg59]

I love this forum. Thank you all so much for the help. I'm going to go through all the recommendations and probably be back with a final list and maybe a couple more questions.

 

[n8dogg59]

Based on all the suggestions here is what I came up with https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4BKT8K . I'm going to use the i3-8100 but think I'll go with the Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS GAMING WIFI (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard instead of the ASRock Z370 Pro4 because the Gigabyte has built in wifi. Also changed to a Corsair 270R case from the 500r because it seems sufficient and is way cheaper. Also took out the optical drive as recommended and went down to a 550w psu instead of the 650. Hoping to find some deals next week on black friday or cyber money. Thanks for all the help.

 

[trents]

Ditch the Arctic Silver 5 and go for Arctic Cooling MX4. MX4 has two advantages. First, and foremost, it is not electrically capacitive as is AS 5. If AS 5 gets squished out from under the cooler base and dribbles over the side it can cause problems. Second, MX 4 is a better thermal conductor.

 

[Daleon]

For GPU, don't get a 2GB 1050 its just crap.
https://slickdeals.net/f/10842191-z...-card-135ac?src=SiteSearchV2_SearchBarV2Algo1

 

[SPL Tech]

Based on all the suggestions here is what I came up with https://pcpartpicker.com/list/4BKT8K . I'm going to use the i3-8100 but think I'll go with the Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS GAMING WIFI (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard instead of the ASRock Z370 Pro4 because the Gigabyte has built in wifi. Also changed to a Corsair 270R case from the 500r because it seems sufficient and is way cheaper. Also took out the optical drive as recommended and went down to a 550w psu instead of the 650. Hoping to find some deals next week on black friday or cyber money. Thanks for all the help.

There is no point in buying the Arctic Silver 5. The processor you listed comes with an OEM heatsink and the Intel OEM heatsink already has TIM applied on it from the factory. It's a gel-like substance that's embedded on the heatsink from the factory. You cannot add more TIM on top of that, you'll make things worse. You would have to remove the factory-applied stuff first. Further, there is no point. The OEM heatsink and OEM thermal interface material is perfectly fine for a stock Corei3 processor. You have nothing to gain. Arctic Silver 5 sucks anyway.

Regarding Windows 10, you can find it for a very small fraction of that cost legally elsewhere. Just Google it, the info is out there. I'd still get rid of the video card unless you're running 4K or QHD 1440p. If you're not playing 3D games, it's not going to do anything for you. You can always buy one later if you want one.

Here are some cheaper options for RAM:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144923

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231962

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231882

One of those doesent have the cool heat spreader on it and the other is only 2133 MHz, but neither will really matter for what you're using it for. For surfing the web and watching video literally any compatible memory stick on the market will work fine.

Ditch the Arctic Silver 5 and go for Arctic Cooling MX4. MX4 has two advantages. First, and foremost, it is not electrically capacitive as is AS 5. If AS 5 gets squished out from under the cooler base and dribbles over the side it can cause problems. Second, MX 4 is a better thermal conductor.

Accurate but irrelevant. He's using the OEM cooler which includes TIM on it applied at the factory. He's also using a stock Core i3 processor which isint exactly a heat generating monster.

 

[trents]

Though it is true the stock Intel cooler comes pre-applied thermal paste, I still think it is a good idea to pick up a tube of aftermarket TIM in case you ever remove the heatsink. That would necessitate a reappliction. I mean we're talking about less than $10 here.

 

[n8dogg59]

SPL Tech, thanks for the info and I'll definitely not buy the thermal paste and change the memory to one of those recommendations. Currently I use onboard graphics and it has been an issue so I'm going to buy a graphics card to not have to worry about that at all. Once I've researched more, the one I have listed has some pretty bad reviews so I'm trying to find something else. Probably going to get either the 1050, 1050 ti, or 1060.

 

[SPL Tech]

I'd just get the cheapest 1050 you can find online. There is not much difference between different cards within a chipset (e.g. 1050). They all use the same core processor, RAM, and memory buss. The difference is that different manufacturers put different cooling systems on the GPU and offer different stock overclock levels (which you can modify on any card easily yourself). Thus, I always recommend the cheapest non-reference GPU within a series because paying more money mostly just gets you stuff that really serves very little purpose.

You can also look into AMD, they might have cheap GPU options that will work for you. I am not an AMD guy so I cant recommend anything, but honest literally any modern PCI-E GPU would work fine for your application. You could even buy a used one and save some cash. Look up GTX 960s from last series and they might be cheaper than a new 1050.