Random PC Builds

I use Win7. Also, updated build:

AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (two kits, for 32GB total)
Corsair Vengeance Airflow Memory cooling fan
Corsair Force LX Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Already acquired)
Aerocool DS-Cube Red MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Aerocool DS Red fan (1x 140mm replacing rear 120mm case fan, 2x 120mm replacing the H100i's stock fans)
Aerocool DS Cube Case Window Panel (The illuminated fans demand it!)
200mm Ultra Thin Flexible Fan Dust Filter (0.45mm Thick) (For the front case fan)
SeaSonic 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Replacing the Corsair 760W - SS is their OEM anyway)
Rosewill RNX-N250PC2 802.11b/g/n PCI Wi-Fi Adapter (Replacing its PCI-Express version)
To-be-determined video capture card?
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
 
I use Win7. Also, updated build:

AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (two kits, for 32GB total)
Corsair Vengeance Airflow Memory cooling fan
Corsair Force LX Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Already acquired)
Aerocool DS-Cube Red MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Aerocool DS Red fan (1x 140mm replacing rear 120mm case fan, 2x 120mm replacing the H100i's stock fans)
Aerocool DS Cube Case Window Panel (The illuminated fans demand it!)
200mm Ultra Thin Flexible Fan Dust Filter (0.45mm Thick) (For the front case fan)
SeaSonic 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Replacing the Corsair 760W - SS is their OEM anyway)
Rosewill RNX-N250PC2 802.11b/g/n PCI Wi-Fi Adapter (Replacing its PCI-Express version)
To-be-determined video capture card?
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
You said gaming/media, right? What are you going to do with 32 gigs of ram? Only SSD? Quad core AMD APU? I am fairly new to all this, but I don't understand why you picked these things. XD
 
I use Win7. Also, updated build:

AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (two kits, for 32GB total)
Corsair Vengeance Airflow Memory cooling fan
Corsair Force LX Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Already acquired)
Aerocool DS-Cube Red MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Aerocool DS Red fan (1x 140mm replacing rear 120mm case fan, 2x 120mm replacing the H100i's stock fans)
Aerocool DS Cube Case Window Panel (The illuminated fans demand it!)
200mm Ultra Thin Flexible Fan Dust Filter (0.45mm Thick) (For the front case fan)
SeaSonic 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Replacing the Corsair 760W - SS is their OEM anyway)
Rosewill RNX-N250PC2 802.11b/g/n PCI Wi-Fi Adapter (Replacing its PCI-Express version)
To-be-determined video capture card?
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
To be honest, performance is wasted in several areas here. Here is what I would go with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($122.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($140.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($329.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Fire Red MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($146.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N250PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1261.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-31 08:03 EST-0500

The i5, while being only 4 cores/4 threads, definitely performs better with media tasks than the A10 APU you have (There's probably enough room in the budget for an i7 if you need more power). RAM is RAM, and the one I included is at a nice sweet spot (also, you won't see tangible benefits past 16GB unless you do very heavy multitasking/rendering). You don't need to cool your memory, that's why the heat spreaders are there. Since you already own an SSD, I just added an HDD for storage. If you liked that Aerocool case, you'll like this Bitfenix case (very popular with small-form-factor builders). Most cases, this one included, come with dust filters. Since you already have a PSU that's enough wattage (probably enough for 970 SLI), I left one out of the list (Unless you don't plan on reusing it; in this case, I'd use a 550-750W depending on your needs). You won't need case fans as this case comes with 2 already. Wireless network adapter is pretty much the same but in PCI-E (To be honest here, unless you're going for portability, I'd use wired ethernet, or if you don't want to route cables everywhere, I'd use Ethernet over Power). If you plan on using any more than 16GB of RAM, go with Win7 Pro because Home Premium only supports 16GB.
 
To be honest, performance is wasted in several areas here. Here is what I would go with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($122.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($140.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($329.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Fire Red MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($146.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N250PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1261.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-31 08:03 EST-0500

The i5, while being only 4 cores/4 threads, definitely performs better with media tasks than the A10 APU you have (There's probably enough room in the budget for an i7 if you need more power). RAM is RAM, and the one I included is at a nice sweet spot (also, you won't see tangible benefits past 16GB unless you do very heavy multitasking/rendering). You don't need to cool your memory, that's why the heat spreaders are there. Since you already own an SSD, I just added an HDD for storage. If you liked that Aerocool case, you'll like this Bitfenix case (very popular with small-form-factor builders). Most cases, this one included, come with dust filters. Since you already have a PSU that's enough wattage (probably enough for 970 SLI), I left one out of the list (Unless you don't plan on reusing it; in this case, I'd use a 550-750W depending on your needs). You won't need case fans as this case comes with 2 already. Wireless network adapter is pretty much the same but in PCI-E (To be honest here, unless you're going for portability, I'd use wired ethernet, or if you don't want to route cables everywhere, I'd use Ethernet over Power). If you plan on using any more than 16GB of RAM, go with Win7 Pro because Home Premium only supports 16GB.

RAM is not RAM, and you suggested quad channel RAM when the motherboard supports dual channel RAM. Everything else has an almost negligible difference, which means it just comes down to preference. Overall, not a bad collection of information, just a bit overkill and a little under researched. But hey, ignoring the fact that I just started this sentence with a conjunction and am now currently typing a run-on sentence, you have to start somewhere if you want to get good! Oh, and I am by no means good myself.

Also, Windows 8.1 is not very bad as it introduced a lot of changes to the framework of Windows while also fixing a lot of problems with 8. Windows 10 sounds like it will be the next Windows 7 though, so hopefully it turns out great and improves on a bunch of things like it sounds like it will!

Also, I agree with you on the amount of RAM as I doubt she will need anything over 16gb in the near future.

I will be "upgrading" my computer sometime next week or the week after, so I will post my list of goodies here once I buy them!
 
RAM is not RAM

Probably should've elaborated on this. What I meant is that one brand doesn't usually make a difference from another in performance (i.e. Corsair Dominator Platinums won't perform much different than cheaper alternatives at the same speed, they just have nice heat spreaders and are better overclockers than other DIMMS.)

...and you suggested quad channel RAM when the motherboard supports dual channel RAM.

Huh, apparently PCPartPicker does not catch that automatically (it just assumes that 4 slots = 4 channels).

Also, Windows 8.1 is not very bad as it introduced a lot of changes to the framework of Windows while also fixing a lot of problems with 8. Windows 10 sounds like it will be the next Windows 7 though, so hopefully it turns out great and improves on a bunch of things like it sounds like it will!

Never said Windows 8(.1)/10 was bad, I was just going with the preference of krylani. I actually have Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 currently dual-booted on my SSD, they're quite nice.

I will be "upgrading" my computer sometime next week or the week after, so I will post my list of goodies here once I buy them!

Have fun with that!
 
Yes, it's slightly overkill, mostly in the aesthetics and "Ooh, that sounds fun."

I know I don't need to cool the RAM, but it looks badass to do so. I know I don't need 32GB, *yet*. The mobo can take 64GB, and eventually I'll have it. It also gives me room to ramdisk stuff if I want. I likely won't need to, but it's a fun idea. I know it'd be cheaper to get one set of four modules instead of two sets of two, but then I have to buy it all at once which takes longer to save up for. I've crunched the numbers and decided that having the system minimally operational a bit sooner is worth the slightly higher cost. I know there are cheaper brands out there than Corsair, but G.Skill just doesn't look right, almost like it's physically missing parts. In other words, it's not badass.

Same with the fans and radiator. Stock cooling would technically be sufficient (unless/until I get into overclocking) except 1) reportedly noisier than what I want, and 2) no glowy bits, so not badass. I've seen a couple of air coolers that on their own do look kinda badass, but the liquid cooling concept itself still puts the H100i ahead.

I've read positive reviews of the Prodigy case, but it looks too much like an Apple desktop from a decade ago. Extremely not badass. (On the other end of the spectrum, Aerocool's other cases, and "gaming" cases in general, look like server racks and/or are too flashy/visually complicated. I want the thing to look nice, of course, but the badass is all going on the inside.)

Win7 Pro was in the list from the start because I know Home is limited to 16GB.

AMD for the better onboard graphics (which will be all I'll have in the weeks/months between getting it operational and having the money to finish the build), the lower running temps for easier overclocking, and the higher base clock speed because some of my games only see one core so the CPU's internal optimization isn't as relevant. (And with this being a desktop, if I decide in a year or two that I want a different processor due to that core restriction going away or otherwise losing importance, it's at worst a couple weeks' pay to make that happen rather than the pain in the ass of having to replace the entire system like I've had to do with laptops.)

$4 for an extra dust filter for a rig like this? Negligible.

No HDD because I won't need it. This won't be my primary machine, and doesn't have to store things long-term. I have several hard drives sitting around anyway so even if I wanted to install one, I wouldn't bother putting it on the shopping list. (The SSD was purchased after I started planning the build, so it was on the list the first day.)

Same with the optical drive. I have a couple sitting around in old computers, but the last game I bought on physical media was Halo CE, so it'll just be a temporary thing for installing the OS, and I'd pull it anyway if I decide I want/need a fan controller. Movies? Got a standalone Bluray player already, but Netflix and such see far more use.

PCI for the wifi card instead of PCI-E in case I come across something I want that can make better use of the extra bandwidth. (If internet service and my local network ever outpace conventional PCI, I'll gladly buy another card.)

I've spent the last month going over this build almost on a daily basis, wondering if there's a "better" choice, but rarely finding one.
 
Extra $50 for features I won't use? I'll pass. But that's another one of those things that'll take all of five or ten minutes to switch to if I ever change my mind.
 
Double post for significant alteration to the build: I decided I wanted SLI capability, but that limited me to using a mobo with an Intel chipset (and thus an Intel CPU) and kicked the final build cost to about two grand. On the other hand, that seems to be the average for homebuilt gaming rigs, and an i7-4790k OC'd to 4.8GHz with twin GTX 970s = much computer, so power, very speed. wow. So I shouldn't have to add or change anything (except maybe HDDs) for at least five or six years. Oh, and the new mobo can Crossfire as well, so if AMD can ever match nVidia with something that doesn't run twice as hot (or more) they'll be an option, too.
 
Double post for significant alteration to the build: I decided I wanted SLI capability, but that limited me to using a mobo with an Intel chipset (and thus an Intel CPU) and kicked the final build cost to about two grand. On the other hand, that seems to be the average for homebuilt gaming rigs, and an i7-4790k OC'd to 4.8GHz with twin GTX 970s = much computer, so power, very speed. wow. So I shouldn't have to add or change anything (except maybe HDDs) for at least five or six years. Oh, and the new mobo can Crossfire as well, so if AMD can ever match nVidia with something that doesn't run twice as hot (or more) they'll be an option, too.
I can tell you now, you will never use that computer to it's full potential. But I have been there, and can attest with my computer that runs on two gtx 470s that it is nice to not have to worry about it for a long time. The only thing I could see your computer struggling to run is Star Citizen, in 4k, upon release.
 
With past machines, first time I saw the specs I was always like "Holy crap, I'm never gonna need all this." Three years later, "Holy crap, I need to upgrade all this!" So with this one I'm sticking to my five-year estimate. :p That being said, if I decided to sacrifice a bit of overall value to get the thing up and running sooner (using a single graphics card and cheaper Intel CPU, then still buying the i7 and 970s later) what would be a reasonable minimum? The R7 250X caught my eye at $75, just need to know how thrifty of a processor I can get away with. LGA1150 socket, of course, so I don't have to buy two mobos.
 
Got a 3GHz dual-core for $50. Might not be screaming fast, but it'll hold me over while I save up for the final build, which is more about maximizing my futureproofing rather than expecting "OMG ALL the gigglehertz!" right away. :) Thanks for all the advice!
 
With past machines, first time I saw the specs I was always like "Holy crap, I'm never gonna need all this." Three years later, "Holy crap, I need to upgrade all this!" So with this one I'm sticking to my five-year estimate. :p That being said, if I decided to sacrifice a bit of overall value to get the thing up and running sooner (using a single graphics card and cheaper Intel CPU, then still buying the i7 and 970s later) what would be a reasonable minimum? The R7 250X caught my eye at $75, just need to know how thrifty of a processor I can get away with. LGA1150 socket, of course, so I don't have to buy two mobos.

Don't get me wrong, I did the same thing and spent a butt load on my computer. Back in 2008.
I have upgraded the RAM since then, but that is all. I can still play most any game, but I think the motherboard has some grounding issues, so it is time to upgrade. That and I want a rig that can play Star Citizen without struggling, although once I build my new computer it will still need to be upgraded again to play Star Citizen upon release. As for the dual core, that will hold you over, but you'll notice some performance issues on newer games that run on lots of threads, at least until you upgrade. I understand what you are doing, and support it whole heartedly even if it is a little over kill, as I did the same thing and I am quite happy with the result. At the end of the day, as long as you're happy, you're doing it right.

However, with those spec I better see you in Star Citizen eventually :p
 
Finished! (Mostly.)
OGnh1Xe.jpg

Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview, MSI Z87M Gaming mATX LGA1150 motherboard, Pentium G3220 (3GHz dual core), MSI Radeon R7 250X, G.Skill Ripjaws X series DDR3-1600 (2x4GB), SeaSonic Platinum 860W PSU, Aerocool Dead Silence Cube (still with stock fans), and the 320GB HDD that was in my laptop before I upgraded it with the SSD. All I'm missing is a monitor, which I'll hopefully have later this week, and something to better manage those cables running along the edge of the mobo. :) Low-end, perhaps, but still a hell of a lot better than my Satellite from 2011.
 
So just to tease Jerzey because i love to do so.... Here is my new system i ordered yesterday and yes i ordered it because i do not have the time between work 12 hours a day and girlfriend to build the thing myself.

Processor: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (Six-Core)

Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE (Intel X99 Chipset)

System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)

Power Supply: 1200W Corsair AX1200i (Digitally Controlled Power)

Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)

Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (128GB Samsung 850 PRO) OS only

Storage Set 2: 1x SSD 256gb Samsung 840 Pro

Storage Set 3: 1x 500gb WD 10000rpm

Storage Set 4: 1x 1tb WD 7200 rpm

Storage Set 5: 1x 3tb WD 7200 rpm

Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (ASUS Strix Edition)

Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 3: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (2x Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)

H20 Tube Color: Red Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)

Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)

Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)

Airflow Control: Digital Storm Thermal Management Control Board & Software

CPU Overclock: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz

Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)

I chose a small SSD for the OS because i'll be gutting the 256gb SSD out of the PC i bought 5 years ago (and was replaced 2 years ago free of charge) which is also the same place the 500gb, 1tb and 3tb drive are coming from. The 256gb SSD will be for games that a SSD would benefit load times and the 500gb 10000 rpm drive will be for Steam games and all other games not installed on the SSD.
 
the OS only uses that much but if you figure in updates and cache and stuff downloaded your using more than what you say you are unless you're downloading to another drive and clearing your cache weekly. Plus windows updates needs extra space to download it's crap and so many other things than need an extra 20gb minimum.

and nothing i have is overkill
 
What sort of work are you doing now that makes twin 980s, 32GB of RAM, and a six-core processor not be overkill? Do you pimp your gigahertz out to the NSA or CERN or something between TF2 matches?
 
I am always multitasking. I'm playing archeage now and I'll play on one screen with Amazon prime open on the other with a Tv show paused and about 10 to 15 pages open in chrome,on average I'm using 10 to 15gb of ram at any given time. So half of it is for now and half of it is future proofing, the same with the gpu. As for dual 980's a lot of people said the same thing to me when my last pc was built with dual 580's and not even 2 years later games were using both a lot.

The 6 fans is because I live with someone who insists on keeping it between 70 and 80 In the house during the winter and my pc gets hot because of it. They're for the motherboard and everything not liquid cooled. I think that's everything you guys said.

Edit: yes my cpu is getting overclocked between 4.4 and 4.8ghz.
 
OK. I'm pricing out a PC, and I think my choices are more expensive than they should be. I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and/or Star Citizen without any issue, while possibly streaming (system specs are here for The Witcher. Looking at Intel chipset). I don't really plan on streaming, but I figure it's somewhat resource intensive. I'm also looking at learning to use Unity and Unreal. On newegg I've got most parts picked out, and I'm already going over $1k. Ideally, I'd like to keep it as close to the $1k price point as possible, so my wife doesn't totally meltdown. And, GO.
 
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