About to build first PC and need some advice

[ncko10]

Hey guys,

I'm about to build my first ever PC, parts here:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/psjzQ7

I'm planning on using it for gaming on 1900x1200. All parts will be bought on PC partpicker.

My friend has suggested I should try and get a better GPU, however this build is already barely under my limit of $1200 so is it worth it / how can I make the build cheaper?

Please note that I'm trying to make the build so I can afford to upgrade parts (like the GPU) in the next year or two.

Thank you all for being awesome, this community is great!

 

[DigDog]

1. you do not need a Z-series mobo as your CPU does not overclock. switching to a H97 will save you a hundred bucks.
2. i think you can do better than that corsair PSU for $100.
3. i would use the saved money to upgrade to a 970.

 

[Ken g6]

Not that this helps your budget situation at all, but...

- You should go for the latest LGA1151 boards and CPUs.
- With that you should go for Z170 boards to support faster RAM.
- If you care about audio quality you might want an ALC1150 chip.

All of which leads to this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: *ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($235.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: *Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($131.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($279.00 @ Centre Com)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: *Antec Neo Eco 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($82.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1191.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 16:30 AEDT+1100

Hey, I did keep it within your budget! :biggrin:

If you want to upgrade the CPU later you could drop to an i3-6100. Which [thread=2452438]is not bad[/thread].

 

[Seba]

If this is a gaming PC, I do not see the point of an expensive motherboard and then cutting corners on the graphics card.

If there isn't a big price difference, at least pick a GTX 960 4GB, but better aim for GTX 970/R9 390.

 

[cyclohexane]

Not that this helps your budget situation at all, but...

- You should go for the latest LGA1151 boards and CPUs.
- With that you should go for Z170 boards to support faster RAM.
- If you care about audio quality you might want an ALC1150 chip.

All of which leads to this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: *ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($235.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: *Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($131.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($279.00 @ Centre Com)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: *Antec Neo Eco 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($82.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1191.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 16:30 AEDT+1100

Hey, I did keep it within your budget! :biggrin:

If you want to upgrade the CPU later you could drop to an i3-6100. Which [thread=2452438]is not bad[/thread].

That 960 2gb is horrible.
Also, that z170 board is overkill for this build. Go with a no frills gigabyte z170 hd3 or equivalent ($90).

Get 16gb of ram, and a r9-380x.

 

[Seba]

16 GB of RAM is useless for games, at least with a mainstream graphics card. 8GB of RAM is enough for this configuration.

R9 380X is usually overpriced. Barely better than GTX 960 4GB or R9 380 4GB, so it should be an option only if the price is not much higher than the price of those cards.

 

[ncko10]

So I've changed the mobo to ASRock H97M and the GPU to EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ only because my budget is very strict and going any higher to a 970 or 390 would go over. Also changed power supply to CS450M.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now, it's pretty late. I expect this post to be buried by tomorrow so thanks everyone for helping me out, you guys are all awesome

 

[Seba]

If GTX 960 2GB is 279 AUD and GTX 960 4GB is 355 AUD, then get the 2GB version. The 4GB version does not justify a 27% price increase.

If going with a Socket 1150 build, with non-K CPU, you can pick even a H81 or B85 motherboard.

How much a Seasonic S12G-550 would be? This is a good power supply and will allow you to later upgrade to any graphics card (up to at least 300 Watt) with no problems.

 

[DigDog]

i agree that 16Gb is useless unless you have virtual machines running inside your pc(or you do some other kind of editing). 8Gb is more than enough.

the 960 is a disappointment, it just does not give enough power for the money. either look at a 970, or a 290, or a 380.

look at EVGA deals for PSUs.

 

[Craig234]

Or, $72 instead of $131 for the Samsung EVO 850 250GB, code EMCKNAR48:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16820147372&cm_sp=

 

[Ken g6]

Also, that z170 board is overkill for this build.

In a build where you're going to upgrade later, I'd say the mobo is the most important thing to spend money on. This one has, from most important to least important LGA1151, 4 RAM slots, overclocking potential, and ALC 1150 audio.

Don't care about audio? Get a cheaper Gigabyte. Never going to overclock, not even the RAM? Get a B150 board.

I'd say the PSU is the second-most important thing to get right. You should be going up in power from 500W, not down.

Also, everyone, remember this is an Australian build. $1200AUD ~= $700USD.

 

[nsafreak]

Here's the build that I would suggest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 37.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($79.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($125.00 @ Umart)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($309.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($64.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($72.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1098.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-05 08:20 AEDT+1100

It's actually a bit lower priced than your current build so I'm sure that's always nice. I tried my best to see if I could squeeze a GTX 970 in there but given your budget that's just not going to happen unfortunately.

 

[ncko10]

Good to see you are all still here!!!

A lot of the parts in Australia are either unavailable or more expensive than you might be used to. Eg. the cheapest 970 is $500 (same goes for 390) so I can't really afford to buy that without needing to upgrade CPU and motherboard later on (which I'd prefer not to do).

It's tough with the PSU because to keep within the budget, it needs to be about $80 to $120 (AUD) which the only semi-mod one above 500W (available in Australia) is the CX 600W for $115.

The sale on the SSD is in USD so that would still be $125 over here.

So from all the suggestions I've received, this is the build I've come to.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/f3N8D3

I've decided to keep the 960 4gb as it's the cheapest 4gb available within my price range.

I've gone for the CX 600W for the reasons above.

I got the cheapest H170 I could which looked good enough and had enough support for all the essentials.

And I went with a 6400 because the 6500 gets a little bit too close to my limit.

Thank you all for your help and I think whatever I go for, good or bad, will help me learn about my decisions in the future but will still perform good enough for me to play all the games I want to at good enough settings.

 

[RussianSensation]

Here's the build that I would suggest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00 @ PCCaseGear)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 37.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($79.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($125.00 @ Umart)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($309.00 @ CPL Online)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($64.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($72.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1098.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-05 08:20 AEDT+1100

It's actually a bit lower priced than your current build so I'm sure that's always nice. I tried my best to see if I could squeeze a GTX 970 in there but given your budget that's just not going to happen unfortunately.

Drop the i5-6500 for the i5-6400 and get $26 savings.
http://www.centrecom.com.au/intel-core-i5-6400-270ghz-quad-core-cpu

Drop the budget garbage CPU cooler entirely. If not going with a good cooler, might as well keep the stock Intel one. The cooler you linked is crap for overclocking so what's the point? $19 savings.

The PSU you linked is out of stock. In any case, I'd spend $8 more for the Antec 600W.
http://www.mwave.com.au/product/antec-vp600p-600w-atx-power-supply-ab55131

The GPU you linked is $309. That means with a $1200 budget we get:

$1200 - $1098 your parts = $102 left over from budget
+ $309 from 960 4GB
+ $19 from using stock CPU cooler
+ $26 from i5 6400
- $8 for 600W Antec PSU
= $448 left over for a proper GPU.

PowerColor PCS+ R9 390 = $475 AU.
http://cplonline.com.au/powercolor-radeon-r9-390-pcs-8gb-graphic-card.html

R9 390 133% / GTX960 75% = Just $27 AU over budget to get 77% higher gaming performance.

Good to see you are all still here!!!

A lot of the parts in Australia are either unavailable or more expensive than you might be used to. Eg. the cheapest 970 is $500 (same goes for 390) so I can't really afford to buy that without needing to upgrade CPU and motherboard later on (which I'd prefer not to do).

You can squeeze an i5-6400 + R9 390 into your build for just $27 above $1200 as I outlined in your post and my build has a solid Antec PSU. With a limited budget, you should allocated spending $ on the most important parts for gaming = PSU, GPU and CPU. No point in going with a semi-modular or modular crappy PSU if you cannot fit it into your budget. Also, no point in saving $30-50 and getting nearly 80% less performance with a 960.

960 is one of the worst cards to buy right now for price/performance of your $1200 build cost.

 

[ncko10]

I'm actually trying to avoid CPL online due to terrible reviews so it would be more like $60 over budget.

 

[DigDog]

CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 37.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.00 @ CPL Online)

doesn't the 6500 come with its own cooler? or did they stop doing that?

my 4790k runs on stock cooler and it's much better than the C2D ones.

 

[Seba]

Skylake K CPUs (boxed or tray) do not come with a cooler.

Skylake non-K "boxed" CPUs are still delivered with a cooler. For "tray" versions you do not get a cooler, as always.