Time for my first build. Am I doing this right?

[Drewbydrew]

Hi there! This is my first time actually participating in the LTT forums, so be gentle.

 

I'm a high school student (read: money is a little sparse) and I'm looking to build my first computer. It'll be used for gaming, but not anything terribly intense. I'll be throwing GTA V at it, as well as Just Cause 3 when it's out, but otherwise the games I play tend to not be very demanding.

 

I'm currently playing on a Win7 Boot Camp partition on my low-specc'd 2011 iMac (which cries when I play Cities: Skylines, and sits around 20 fps in Sims 3), which is what I'll be using as my monitor, so I'd like games to play at ~60+ fps at 1080p (maybe 1440p, because I'm hinting for a monitor upgrade for my birthday c:).

 

Becuase this is my first build, I'd like a second opinion on the parts I've chosen. Do you think this build can do what I want? Any suggestions for improvements and/or tips for a first-timer are muchly appreciated!

 

EDIT: Adding another 2 calls for help:

1. Should I get the case in black or aluminum?
2. Does anyone know of a way I might be able to use my USB mouse and keyboard for both machines without having to unplug them each time?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($295.95 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Rosewill RCX-Z775-LP 33.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($17.33 @ Newegg Canada)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Polysynthetic 1.75g Thermal Paste  ($2.80 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($199.49 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($114.98 @ NCIX)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($224.25 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card  ($414.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($114.82 @ DirectCanada)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit)  ($107.91 @ DirectCanada) (Grabbing a cheap copy of Win7 or 8.1 and upgrading to Win10)
Case Fan (x3): Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($29.99 @ Memory Express)
Other: NCASE M1 (Price not accurate; $241.36 w/o shipping + taxes) ($320.00 @ NCASE)
Total: $1902.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Prices are represented with the depressingly low Canadian dollar
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-15 00:51 EDT-0400

[EvanClarkPDX]

That's a pretty ballin case, to mach a ballin build! Looks great to me, have fun building

[Gale]

This actually looks better than most builds people post here. There are a few things you can change around for the better though.

 

Memory: 16GB is more than what you need for gaming. You can save some money by going for 8GB, but 16GB is okay if you want to keep it like that. Storage: You should look into pairing that SSD with a HDD to store things like games, music, videos, pictures, etc. Save the SSD for essential things like your OS, drivers, as well as games with huge loading times like GTA V. I'm not really sure how that CPU cooler performs, so I'm going to let someone else comment on that.

 

Also, dat case.

[STRMfrmXMN]

Hi there! This is my first time actually participating in the LTT forums, so be gentle.

 

I'm a high school student (read: money is a little sparse) and I'm looking to build my first computer. It'll be used for gaming, but not anything terribly intense. I'll be throwing GTA V at it, as well as Just Cause 3 when it's out, but otherwise the games I play tend to not be very demanding.

 

I'm currently playing on a Win7 Boot Camp partition on my low-specc'd 2011 iMac (which cries when I play Cities: Skylines, and sits around 20 fps in Sims 3), which is what I'll be using as my monitor, so I'd like games to play at ~60+ fps at 1080p (maybe 1440p, because I'm hinting for a monitor upgrade for my birthday c:).

 

Becuase this is my first build, I'd like a second opinion on the parts I've chosen. Do you think this build can do what I want? Any suggestions for improvements and/or tips for a first-timer are muchly appreciated!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchantCPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($295.95 @ Vuugo)CPU Cooler: Rosewill RCX-Z775-LP 33.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($17.33 @ Newegg Canada)Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Polysynthetic 1.75g Thermal Paste  ($2.80 @ DirectCanada)Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($199.49 @ DirectCanada)Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($114.98 @ NCIX)Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($224.25 @ Vuugo)Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card  ($414.99 @ NCIX)Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($114.82 @ DirectCanada)Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit)  ($107.91 @ DirectCanada) (Grabbing a cheap copy of Win7 or 8.1 and upgrading to Win10)Case Fan (x3): Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($29.99 @ Memory Express)Other: NCASE M1 (Price not accurate; $241.36 w/o shipping + taxes) ($320.00 @ NCASE)Total: $1902.42Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Prices are represented with the depressingly low Canadian dollarGenerated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-15 00:51 EDT-0400

Not much going for that CPU cooler. A hyper 212 Evo would be a better choice. As for the PSU I would swap if for an EVGA B2

[STRMfrmXMN]

Since editing is borked I take back the PSU thing since this is an SFX build

[roasted pinnaple]

looks good but id go for a hyper 212 evo or something

[Drewbydrew]

That's a pretty ballin case, to mach a ballin build! Looks great to me, have fun building

Thanks

 

This actually looks better than most builds people post here. There are a few things you can change around for the better though.

 

Memory: 16GB is more than what you need for gaming. You can save some money by going for 8GB, but 16GB is okay if you want to keep it like that. Storage: You should look into pairing that SSD with a HDD to store things like games, music, videos, pictures, etc. Save the SSD for essential things like your OS, drivers, as well as games with huge loading times like GTA V. I'm not really sure how that CPU cooler performs, so I'm going to let someone else comment on that.

 

Also, dat case.

I thought 16GB might be a bit much, but I just wanted to be sure. I might drop it down to a single 8GB stick and upgrade later if I have the spare cash. Also, I've (say it ain't so) never actually used a computer with an SSD, so I kinda want the full experience with everything on one But a few people (outside of here) have told me it'd make some sense to have both an SSD and an HDD, so I'll see

 

Not much going for that CPU cooler. A hyper 212 Evo would be a better choice.

looks good but id go for a hyper 212 evo or something

Duely noted, thanks. That was honestly a random cooler I picked, so no hard feelings losing that.