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First Desktop Build

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wonko said:
Don't apologize! This is the place to go for questions, and I've found a lot of help here.

If I were building a $1,000 rig (not including OS), here's what I would do:

Case - Corsair C70 - $120.33: http://tinyurl.com/kcy39rx
PSU - SeaSonic G Series 550W - $79.99: http://tinyurl.com/mx4djdy
Mobo - ASUS Z87 Pro - $199.99: http://tinyurl.com/kjtnoc9
CPU - Intel i5-4570 $199.29: http://tinyurl.com/kuv4n8k
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x4GB - $78.28:http://tinyurl.com/mcnkfmm
Video - GTX 760 - $249.99: http://tinyurl.com/khzsw3z
HDD - WD Black 1TB - $89.99: http://tinyurl.com/lmvl5r9
Optical - LG Blu Ray - $69.95: http://tinyurl.com/m2htt9s

Total Price: $997.82

I didn't shop around. I just looked on Amazon. All of those are Prime-qualified which means free shipping if you're a Prime member.

Don't worry about an after-market heatsink and fan. The one Intel includes with their CPU is specifically designed to cool it and you don't need anything different if you're not overclocking.

Put your money into the graphics card, mobo and the CPU for gaming. Memory is great, but you don't need to max out your mobo and you don't need to get ultra-high performance RAM either.

For the PSU, buy a quality PSU and it'll last for quite a while. Look for 5 year warranties.

For the mobo, look at USB 3.0 and SATA III.

For the case, you want it to be roomy for good airflow and so you can add fans, etc. later. I like Corsair because I think the build quality is great and this case is a nice one, and not horrendously expensive.

I skipped the SSD, because while those are great, I think it's better to spend the money on higher-quality stuff everywhere else and add the SSD later.

Each one of those parts are made by high-quality and well-known manufacturers with good warranties and reputations.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

For that build, drop the $200 motherboard and get one of the cheaper 1150 boards. You can't OC the CPU, so you don't need that motherboard.

After a small OC though, that FX-6350 will outperform the i5-4570.
 
wonko said:
You're looking at an AMD CPU and NVidia GPU. Generally, you want Intel/NVidia or AMD/ATI when you're matching parts. (My opinion... probably no basis in reality... LOL. But, AMD bought ATI, so it feels like they should be matched.)
Click to expand...

There is zero basis for that statement. I've been running AMD with nVidia for years without a hitch.
 
As I said, that build is an excellent foundation for future expansion. If he wants to overclock later, he can.

Also, I'm exposing my personal bias - I like Intel and not AMD. I am NOT looking for an argument here. It's a personal preference, and nothing more.

Regarding the statement I made, I pretty much pointed out it was an opinion, a feeling and not something that had any basis in reality.
 
wonko said:
As I said, that build is an excellent foundation for future expansion. If he wants to overclock later, he can.

Also, I'm exposing my personal bias - I like Intel and not AMD. I am NOT looking for an argument here. It's a personal preference, and nothing more.

Regarding the statement I made, I pretty much pointed out it was an opinion, a feeling and not something that had any basis in reality.
Click to expand...

My question here is, why make a foundation for overclocking when you can have a great overclock setup in the first place?

I know you pointed out that it was an opinion, but I wanted to point out to the OP that it wasn't true.
 
wonko said:
Don't apologize! This is the place to go for questions, and I've found a lot of help here.

If I were building a $1,000 rig (not including OS), here's what I would do:

Case - Corsair C70 - $120.33: http://tinyurl.com/kcy39rx
PSU - SeaSonic G Series 550W - $79.99: http://tinyurl.com/mx4djdy
Mobo - ASUS Z87 Pro - $199.99: http://tinyurl.com/kjtnoc9
CPU - Intel i5-4570 $199.29: http://tinyurl.com/kuv4n8k
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x4GB - $78.28:http://tinyurl.com/mcnkfmm
Video - GTX 760 - $249.99: http://tinyurl.com/khzsw3z
HDD - WD Black 1TB - $89.99: http://tinyurl.com/lmvl5r9
Optical - LG Blu Ray - $69.95: http://tinyurl.com/m2htt9s

Total Price: $997.82

I didn't shop around. I just looked on Amazon. All of those are Prime-qualified which means free shipping if you're a Prime member.

Don't worry about an after-market heatsink and fan. The one Intel includes with their CPU is specifically designed to cool it and you don't need anything different if you're not overclocking.

Put your money into the graphics card, mobo and the CPU for gaming. Memory is great, but you don't need to max out your mobo and you don't need to get ultra-high performance RAM either.

For the PSU, buy a quality PSU and it'll last for quite a while. Look for 5 year warranties.

For the mobo, look at USB 3.0 and SATA III.

For the case, you want it to be roomy for good airflow and so you can add fans, etc. later. I like Corsair because I think the build quality is great and this case is a nice one, and not horrendously expensive.

I skipped the SSD, because while those are great, I think it's better to spend the money on higher-quality stuff everywhere else and add the SSD later.

Each one of those parts are made by high-quality and well-known manufacturers with good warranties and reputations.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I think that the SSD would be useful for the gaming and since that is what the focus of the desktop will be for the next 2 years I want to know if I will notice a difference playing on a HDD rather than using a SSD and if it is cost effective.

In the RAM department, would it be fine to run with just 4 gb to start? That seems like a cheaper upgrade. Would only having that little RAM be the bottleneck for my programs then?

The case, motherboard and the video are all great, not sure whether the powersupply would be a better buy though. Thoughts on that?

I heard that Western Digital is not the most reliable company for drives and instead you should use Seagate. Thoughts?
 
The SSD will make the computer simply respond faster in Windows, as well as load games faster.

I would recommend 8GB over 4GB, as I do go over 4GB with a game, Teamspeak and Chrome running.

That's a great PSU.

I've only used WD for HDDs, love them. I've got at least 7 of them running right now.
 
I agree with ATM.

I'd spend the extra and get 8GB of Ram, and the WD drives are pretty solid, and when I have had problems (rarely), their RMA process is pretty easy. Those particular drives are the Caviar Black, which are pretty much the best you're going to get short of the Enterprise series drives. I've used pretty much nothing but WD drives for the last 5 years, at least, and have had almost zero problems... and I'm talking about installing them at customer sites and in disk-based backup systems. Probably close to 100 drives over that time.

The SSD drives are great, and they do perform better, but honestly, I think your money is better spent in the other components. You're not going to notice it that much.
 
Looking at just the case now, (thinking I am going to follow that build you threw up wonko), should I purchase additional fans to start? and if you have used that case, is there enough room inside to light it?
 
The C70 comes with 3x120mm fans already, so I don't think I'd worry about buying any more right now.

(http://www.corsair.com/us/pc-cases/...c70-mid-tower-gaming-case-gunmetal-black.html)

For now, I'd not spend on anything else until you have a better idea of how this is going to work. The mobo and video card should come with some utilities you can use to monitor heat, so you can keep an eye out on that to see if you need more cooling. If you do, then grab some more fans.

That case is actually pretty nifty. It's designed for lots of fans and for watercooling if you decide to go that route in the future.
 
wonko said:
The C70 comes with 3x120mm fans already, so I don't think I'd worry about buying any more right now.

(http://www.corsair.com/us/pc-cases/...c70-mid-tower-gaming-case-gunmetal-black.html)

For now, I'd not spend on anything else until you have a better idea of how this is going to work. The mobo and video card should come with some utilities you can use to monitor heat, so you can keep an eye out on that to see if you need more cooling. If you do, then grab some more fans.

That case is actually pretty nifty. It's designed for lots of fans and for watercooling if you decide to go that route in the future.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw the 2 intake fans and 1 exhaust fan and wasn't sure if that would be enough. Is the case roomy enough to drop in some lights? The cooler master I was looking at was full tower and came with 2 pre-lit fans, kinda liked the look and was thinking it could switch over here to the corsair easily enough.
 
Last edited:
ATMINSIDE said:
For that build, drop the $200 motherboard and get one of the cheaper 1150 boards. You can't OC the CPU, so you don't need that motherboard.

After a small OC though, that FX-6350 will outperform the i5-4570.
Click to expand...

+1, $200 for a MB is a bit up there for this build budget... and being able to OC = who doesn't like free horsepower? ;)

ATMINSIDE said:
The SSD will make the computer simply respond faster in Windows, as well as load games faster.
Click to expand...

I dig the performance boost I've seen on the two boxes in my household in which we run SSDs for OS/games. The all around difference between it and a platter drive for OS/Games is very noticeable. I'd keep that as part of your build.

somegeek
 
@ somegeek - Thinking I will probably want to get the SSD anyways. I have heard lots of good things about them as well.

Looking at the disc reader, seeing that there is a better option out there, unless I am missing something, thoughts on this comparison, looking at the Pioneer substituted for the LG.

LG Disc Drive - 69.95

Pioneer Disc Drive - 59.99

Also, the motherboard, which one is going to fit the best here? If I go back to getting the FX-6300?
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
You can easily get a really good board for a lot less than what I originally suggested:
http://www.amazon.com/ASROCK--LGA11...id=1375076480&sr=8-1&keywords=asrock+z87+pro3
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-LGA1150-I...&ie=UTF8&qid=1375076587&sr=1-1&keywords=Intel
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-...&ie=UTF8&qid=1375076737&sr=1-20&keywords=1150

I'd stick with an Intel CPU (I'm biased towards Intel - which may or may not be justifiable).

For the HDD, if you can squeeze in the SSD, that's great. However, if you go less on a motherboard, and stick with the platter HDD, you might be able to bump up to an i7.

Or, upgrade to a better video card.

I've been playing on an SSD with a decent video card for the last couple of years. My current rig has an old, slow SATA platter drive in it, but a snazzy video card. The difference in gaming is unbelievable. SSDs are great, but I disagree that they make that big a difference with gaming. I mean, your load times are faster, but gameplay is going to be impacted far more by the CPU and GPU you have, IMHO.
 
wonko said:
You can easily get a really good board for a lot less than what I originally suggested:
http://www.amazon.com/ASROCK--LGA11...id=1375076480&sr=8-1&keywords=asrock+z87+pro3
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-LGA1150-I...&ie=UTF8&qid=1375076587&sr=1-1&keywords=Intel
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-...&ie=UTF8&qid=1375076737&sr=1-20&keywords=1150

I'd stick with an Intel CPU (I'm biased towards Intel - which may or may not be justifiable).

For the HDD, if you can squeeze in the SSD, that's great. However, if you go less on a motherboard, and stick with the platter HDD, you might be able to bump up to an i7.

Or, upgrade to a better video card.

I've been playing on an SSD with a decent video card for the last couple of years. My current rig has an old, slow SATA platter drive in it, but a snazzy video card. The difference in gaming is unbelievable. SSDs are great, but I disagree that they make that big a difference with gaming. I mean, your load times are faster, but gameplay is going to be impacted far more by the CPU and GPU you have, IMHO.
Click to expand...

I think I am fine with the vid card I have now.
I think that the Gigabyte board will do what I want it to and the AMD has the right price for this build range compared to Intel.

Looking at those 2 different optical drives, the LG and the Pioneer, it seems to me like the Pioneer would be the best unless I am missing anything. Thoughts?

LG Disc Drive - 69.95

Pioneer Disc Drive - 59.99
 
Ugh... it looks like that LG is a slim drive (am I seeing that wrong?).

The Pioneer looks better to me. Faster for less money.
 
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