New PC gamer here

[YouSoThirsty]

So hello people of the web, today I have a really noob questions about PC gaming. First off, I am not new to gaming in general. I have own an xbox 360 since 2007 and I loved all of those years with it. As everyone of my friends did I moved on to the next gen, but I really miss the 360 days and it just doesn't feel the same. I have had my xbox one for a while and it is solid, I do like it a gaming machine and I do like its layout. But sadly I just don't think consoles are not for me anymore, a lot of my friends have moved on and I want to do some things that PCs are inherently better at like using other programs and having better experiences with games like minecraft. The whole build is already planned and it is expensive, but every part has a purpose and I do want the best experience with any game I play or any program I run.
Here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s4VMhM
Anyway, I will be purchasing the parts soon and the only game I have is minecraft which I loved on both the one and 360. I bought an account a year ago but never really used it because my PC is rubbish, but ill be able to demolish anything with my new one, so no worries about that. The thing is I am still very new to PC and I do not know anybody on here to play with, or any good survival or faction servers for minecraft, or anything at all really besides the hardware aspect. So is there a good PC Gamer forum full of people with knowledge which would be better suited for me rather than AnandTech? Any tips for getting started? I just really want to get into a solid group of people that play games like Arma, Minecraft and any fun games. The hardest part will probally be just that, the rest I have YouTube .

 

[Craig234]

AT seems more just for some chat about games than much community playing though there is some of that.

For meeting people to game with my guess you might try the forums for specific games first, and maybe the game's forum on Steam second.

 

[dmoney1980]

Welcome to the forums! Couple of questions and notes about your build:

1 - do you plan on overclocking? If not, ditch the cooler, it's way overpriced. Even if you do plan to OC, you can get something for less. Phanteks makes a good cooler - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709011
or for $10-$15 more get a noctua d15

2- while I do agree that the Sammy SSD is a beast, I'm not sure if it's speed will affect gaming all that much. For the price of the drive and the 2tb black, you could get a 512gb SSD and a standard 7200rpm HDD. The larger SSD will give you more space for apps and games. While the black series is fast, in the end its still a 7200 rpm disk drive.

3- you can get faster RAM for about $15-$20 more, up to you. I'd suggest DDR4 3000. Or stick with what you have....

Everything else seems to be standard fare. I won't comment on the monitor since the high refresh rate helps, but it is a TN panel.

This is a great forum for pc gamers, so get involved and chat away! And don't start threads asking if Nvidia is better than AMD

 

[calyco]

https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums ?

If you get into PCs, stick around. AT is an awesome resource for hardware/software help.

 

[AgentUnknown]

Arma 3 has a big community. But I do not like that game. You need to join the anandtech steam group. Have fun!

 

[Blitzvogel]

Jumping into PC gaming doesn't mean having to spend that kind of money. Realistically a 6 core Intel processor won't give you the kind of leg up over a 4 core Intel you might be expecting. That is by virtue of so many games being designed around what the current crop of consoles can do, not by top of the line PC hardware.

There is merit to the 980Ti if you want to maybe dabble into 4k gaming, though I would spring for a model with more VRAM, but it also makes sense for that 144 Hz BenQ monitor if you're shooting for framerates that it is capable of.

Basically, a great 1080p PC gaming experience can be had for under half of what you are spending. Many PCers prefer to go "medium end" when it comes to hardware so they can afford to upgrade more often. Medium end tends to render the best value too I would say. $2600 is ALOT of money to spend on a gaming computer. Sure you can use it for other things, and many people certainly do. However, do you think you'll get 6x the gaming value out of this system compared to a PS4 or Xbone which cost 6x less (not adjusting for online Subscriptions, higher game prices, etc)? I'm just not sure if you'll be as impressed as you think you might be when it's all said and done.

Also, be sure to look for bundle deals. I got my CPU and mobo bundled at Microcenter for $250 after tax in January and saved probably $70, even compared to Newegg.

 

[AgentUnknown]

$2600 just to play minecraft? You don't need an i7. You can do a cheaper midrange build. If first build, spend less than half of that.

 

[xantub]

If you spend more than $1000 for a computer to play Minecraft, you're doing something wrong.
First advice... NEVER buy the top of the line video cards, always buy the 'previous generation' cards. Top of the line ones are too expensive, and when the next generation comes out, the previous generation drops in price. But then there is VR to consider, so slight change there this year. I would recommend a GTX970, much better bang for the buck.
Second, unless you plan to do heavy video editing, you really don't need 6 cores. 4 cores is more than enough.
Third, you don't need liquid cooling unless you're going to do heavy overclocking. Since you're just getting into PC gaming, I recommend not doing any OC to start. The processor is not really what matters for most games anyway.
Memory is cheap, but easily expandable when needed, so you can save some bucks by going 8GB instead of 16GB (which doesn't make much difference for gaming).
The SSD looks expensive to me. Price of SSDs are around 30 cents per GB nowadays. You can probably find a 500GB SSD for $150 or less. With a 500GB SSD you might not need 2TB hard drive unless you plan to download lots of movies for a media center, or you are a youtuber making lots of videos.

 

[Stringjam]

The whole build is already planned and it is expensive, but every part has a purpose and I do want the best experience with any game I play or any program I run.
Here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s4VMhM

I think some responses didn't read the line.

It's a solid build, but you can save some money on the processor. Getting an i7-4790k will save you $200+ and you will likely get better performance for gaming due to the higher clock rate. Keep in mind you'll need to change your MB to a Z97.

I would personally change up the drive configuration a bit:

Get a smaller SSD just to run your OS / common apps off of. You can get a Samsung EVO for about $80.

Get a 500GB SSD to load your games on. Once again - Samsung EVO - about $170.

Keep the standard HD for data storage....and even better, get another one and run it in RAID 1 (mirrored) so you have redundant storage. It's cheap, and when a drive fails, you just pop it out, pop the new one in, and it automatically rebuilds the array with the other disk. No downtime.

Other than that - looks like a solid build. I prefer a 27" monitor - 24" just seems way too small to me now. But that's just personal preference. The monitor is a big part of the experience so make sure it's what you want.

 

[Gryz]

This might be a better forum here at AnandTech:
http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4
I see more people asking for hardware advice there.

You don't need to buy the very best hardware to play 99% of games. Usually it is much more cost-effective to buy components that are just a little under the top. Even if you have a high budget, it is probably smarter if you buy a new cheaper computer every 2 years, than buying the most expensive one every 5 years. Also, if you buy in a smarter way, you can upgrade individual components when needed, or when they give you the best bang for your buck.

You picked a very expensive CPU. That one is not gonna give you much benefit in most games. That money could be spend better somewhere else. Also, that family of CPUs requires more expensive motherboards. You can save $100-$150 on the motherboard alone.

I'm gonna assume you do have a good budget, so I won't try to minimize cost to a minimum. But this would be cheaper than what you picked now.

1) CPU. The top-end i5 processor is usually good enough for games. Today that is the i5-6600K ($255). If you spend $150 more and get a i7-6700K ($400), that might give slightly higher fps in a few games. But generally it is better to buy the i5, and spend the extra money on the videocard. But then, if you don't mind spending extra money, buy the i7-6700K. (But buying the i7-5930K is really just a waste of $200).

2) The i5-6600K and i7-6700K use the 1151 socket. Motherboards with a 1151 socket are cheaper than for the CPU you picked. ASRock is a fine brand, with slightly cheaper prices than the others. If not ASRock, buy a Asus, MSI or GigaByte board. If you want to spend a little extra, buy one with the Z170 chipset. (They usually have Z170 in their name). But other 1151 motherboard with other chipsets are probably just as good for you.

Buying a SSD is good. I myself started with a 60GB SSD. And for the last 3 years I have a 256GB SSD. It starts to feel small. I have my Windows and Users folder on it. And a bunch of games. I usually move games around to my HDD after I finish playing them (or uninstall them). Still, I feel it is time to buy a 500GB SSD. If you buy a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, that should be cheaper than the 256GB SSD that you picked.

The videocard is good. $650 is a lot of money for a videocard. But if you have the budget, it is certainly worth it. If you'd want to go a little cheaper, the GTX970 is certainly a viable option too (and even more bang for the buck). nVidia and AMD will be releasing their new generation of videocards in 6 to 9 months. You could buy a GTX970 now. And then when the new cards come, buy one of those, and sell the GTX970 secondhand.

Everything else on your list looks fine. Sometimes a matter of personal taste. Sometimes it doesn't matter that much (like the PSU). CPU, mobo, ram and GPU are the most important factors for the performance of a gaming PC. If you really want to spend more money, you should consider buying a larger 144Hz G-Sync monitor.

 

[Aikouka]

There's already some great advice in here, and mine will just be a mirror of it. Anyway...

Don't waste money on the Enthusiast brand processors. They won't really help with gaming as most games don't stress the CPU. The most common for that are the heavy sims (Civilization, etc.). As others have mentioned, I'd go with an i5. Skylake is fine, but if you can get Haswell on a heavy discount, I'd go with that instead. Although, when another person was asking me about PC part advice, I did make another remark about CPUs that's important to keep in mind.

So, sometimes CPU advancements disappoint us in the gaming world. We don't always gain much as other areas do. However, sometimes the better benefits of an micro-architecture change aren't really with the CPU. Essentially, the newer motherboards may have features that you want, or more of the same feature (e.g. more USB 3 ports). It's definitely worthwhile to consider the motherboard's functionality in your system. I know when I bought mine, I tried to make sure to get one with a lot of USB ports, because I always seem to use a lot of them. It's also worth noting that one advantage of Skylake over Haswell is that Skylake CPUs have 20 PCI-E lanes coming off the processor where Haswell and prior only have 16. This is a bigger deal because we normally use 16 lanes for the GPU or 8/8 for dual-GPU. The prior isn't as important, but the latter is... especially with Nvidia as they require 8 lanes per GPU for SLI.

I also agree with their assessment on the SSD. You won't see much in real world difference between the fancy NVMe PCI-E SSD and something like an 850 EVO. In fact, there's a deal going on at Newegg right now for the 850 EVO where you get the latest Assassin's Creed game for free. I don't know if you like the game, but there's a free game for your new rig! But the big deal is that you can get around double the SSD for the same price as that newer model that you currently have selected.