1st PC advice and comments needed!

[Fuzzylogik]

Hi Forum!

Another build newbie here so I wanted to get opinions/advise on my future build.

Under $2000 budget but I don't need crazy expensive or over the top parts for a high performance gaming PC. I'm in Australia and I wanted to build just a small sized PC for home (study and web surfing) with some casual gaming on the side. Mostly battle royal style games I can play with friends: Apex, Fortnite etc. 

Basically I want a decent little system but I hate slow ANYTHING so wanted higher performance and quality parts so I wont have to deal with slow system (I aimed at mid to high end parts).

 

I already have a monitor but I 'm unsure of my selected peripherals from pc part picker (see below). I basically wanted better gaming performance than my PS4 which shouldn't be too hard considering I'm transitioning to the master race from console haha.

I know I've gone overkill on the PSU (well i think i have anyway haha) and I'm completely unsure about the GPU. I figured a GTX 1660 being modern and half decently priced would be ok. 

I was wondering if i should use stock cpu cooler and get a cooler for the graphics card? I don't intend to manually overclock in the near future.

Any advise would be amazing. I picked the evolv case for its small size and it should be easy to build in. I actually really wanted to build in the Cerebus (which would obviously drastically change my parts list haha) but that is waaaaaay out of my league. PC part picker didn't find any compatibility issues with the setup but when i get the time i will get dimensions and check everything will fit inside.

 

Any and all comments will be appreciated!

 

Here's a link to my parts list That is detailed below.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rFtrkd

 

Thanks everyone!

 

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.89 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($113.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($67.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($297.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB AORUS Video Card  ($309.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv TG (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($115.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($99.39 @ OutletPC) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($85.89 @ OutletPC) 
Keyboard: Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($171.99 @ Amazon) 
Mouse: Corsair - M65 RGB ELITE Wired Optical Mouse  ($54.84 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1697.82
 

 

[NunoLava1998]

You haven't gone overkill on the PSU lol

[Dedayog]

You don't need a CPU cooler that's over 50% the cost of the CPU itself, and the stock cooler is rather good if you're not pushing overclocks.  Same with the GPU, its cooler is fine.

 

I love your SSD setup.  

 

PSU isn't overkill, you could get away with a 550 if you wanted, but 650 is fine.  850+ would be overkill.

 

Lose that Windows price and buy it off a 3rd party site.

 

Case, keyboard and mouse are personal choices, don't have any comments.

[Brooksie359]

Honestly I would stick with the stock cooler if you dont plan to overclock. 

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

Dude, wtf is this for?   

Sorry lol

I meant to say that getting a 860 EVO M.2 literally is the exact same as just getting a normal 860 EVO, they're both SATA. You need to go for a NVMe drive for the increased speeds.

[Dedayog]

Just now, NunoLava1998 said:

Sorry lol

I meant to say that getting a 860 EVO M.2 literally is the exact same as just getting a normal 860 EVO, they're both SATA. You need to go for a NVMe drive for the increased speeds.

Well, NVMe wouldn't increase his speeds, as real world usage is damn near the same.  Only warrants a small correction of his choice, not bashing his IQ.  He made a good call going SATA SSD for both, tho I probably would have gone 2.5" for both due to price differences.

 

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

Well, NVMe wouldn't increase his speeds, as real world usage is damn near the same.  Only warrants a small correction of his choice, not bashing his IQ.  He made a good call going SATA SSD for both, tho I probably would have gone 2.5" for both due to price differences.

 

Yeah, NVMe barely does make any real world difference. Sorry for that

@Fuzzylogik I'd recommend just going for a Crucial MX500 2TB M.2 fyi

[zhubaohi]

1.2600 is a better value CPU than 2600x, as 2600 can be manually overclocked to 2600x is capable of, so if you want to save a few bucks, you can do the swap.

2.For mid range card like 1660ti, you should go for the cheapest one out there @280 USD. 

[paddy-stone]

OP, why have you done the build in US$ ?

 

Here's your list in AU$

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$295.00 @ Shopping Express
CPU Cooler	Corsair - H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$170.94 @ Amazon Australia
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$145.00 @ JW Computers
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$204.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$88.00 @ Centre Com
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$448.00 @ Shopping Express
Video Card	Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB AORUS Video Card	$506.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv TG (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$199.00 @ PCCaseGear
Power Supply	Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$153.00 @ Austin Computers
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Wireless Network Adapter	Asus - PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter	$104.00 @ Shopping Express
Keyboard	Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard	$249.00 @ Austin Computers
Mouse	Corsair - M65 RGB ELITE Wired Optical Mouse	$99.00 @ Austin Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2660.94
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-15 23:36 AEST+1000

 

[paddy-stone]

With some changes, it comes in just under your budget, assuming budget was actually in AU$?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$244.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$145.00 @ JW Computers
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$204.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Storage	ADATA - SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.00 @ PCCaseGear
Storage	ADATA - SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.00 @ PCCaseGear
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$119.00 @ PLE Computers
Video Card	MSI - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB AERO ITX OC Video Card	$379.00 @ Shopping Express
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv TG (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$199.00 @ PCCaseGear
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$139.00 @ Shopping Express
Wireless Network Adapter	Asus - PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter	$104.00 @ Shopping Express
Keyboard	Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard	$249.00 @ Austin Computers
Mouse	Corsair - M65 RGB ELITE Wired Optical Mouse	$99.00 @ Austin Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1971.00
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-15 23:44 AEST+1000

 

This is with cheapest 1660ti, you can save some more money with a cheaper PSU, but I don't like recommending lower PSUs, so just chose one of my "go to" ones for now.

For HDD/SSD, chose a couple SATA SSDs, one for boot/os drive, and the other to use as a cache drive to make the 3TB HDD a bit faster for your bulk storage... this is where the best bang for buck is ATM, your budget goes through the roof if you actually want a 2TB SSD?

Also removed the windows licence, just download (or get a friend to), and pop it on a USB installer drive, and get a licence key from kinguin or wherever... or run it without licence even, your choice.

[Fuzzylogik]

14 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

With some changes, it comes in just under your budget, assuming budget was actually in AU$?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$244.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$145.00 @ JW Computers
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$204.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Storage	ADATA - SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.00 @ PCCaseGear
Storage	ADATA - SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.00 @ PCCaseGear
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$119.00 @ PLE Computers
Video Card	MSI - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB AERO ITX OC Video Card	$379.00 @ Shopping Express
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv TG (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$199.00 @ PCCaseGear
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$139.00 @ Shopping Express
Wireless Network Adapter	Asus - PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter	$104.00 @ Shopping Express
Keyboard	Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard	$249.00 @ Austin Computers
Mouse	Corsair - M65 RGB ELITE Wired Optical Mouse	$99.00 @ Austin Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1971.00
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-15 23:44 AEST+1000

 

This is with cheapest 1660ti, you can save some more money with a cheaper PSU, but I don't like recommending lower PSUs, so just chose one of my "go to" ones for now.

For HDD/SSD, chose a couple SATA SSDs, one for boot/os drive, and the other to use as a cache drive to make the 3TB HDD a bit faster for your bulk storage... this is where the best bang for buck is ATM, your budget goes through the roof if you actually want a 2TB SSD?

Also removed the windows licence, just download (or get a friend to), and pop it on a USB installer drive, and get a licence key from kinguin or wherever... or run it without licence even, your choice.

I took your advice @paddy-stone! Thanks for all the effort! You are a great member of the community! Didn't realize I had it on US prices - good catch. I swapped to a cheaper keyboard and different Wifi card (has included Bluetooth which is handy). I had heard of kinguin but it sounded dodgy. Does the SSD cache drive make a noticeable difference to HDD write speeds? Do you have any recommendations for graphics cards? 

[LienusLateTips]

30 minutes ago, Fuzzylogik said:

I took your advice @paddy-stone! Thanks for all the effort! You are a great member of the community! Didn't realize I had it on US prices - good catch. I swapped to a cheaper keyboard and different Wifi card (has included Bluetooth which is handy). I had heard of kinguin but it sounded dodgy. Does the SSD cache drive make a noticeable difference to HDD write speeds? Do you have any recommendations for graphics cards? 

I'd just go with a ebay key. Better buyer protection that way.

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($458.46 @ Amazon Australia) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B360M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($115.00 @ PC Byte) 
Memory: G.Skill - Sniper X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($136.40 @ Newegg Australia) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($95.00 @ IJK) 
Storage: Toshiba - P300 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($71.00 @ IJK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($749.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Case: Antec - Dark Phantom DP301M MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.00 @ JW Computers) 
Power Supply: Rosewill - Capstone 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($116.50 @ Newegg Australia) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC56 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($49.00 @ Centre Com) 
Keyboard: G.Skill - RIPJAWS KM780R RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($108.78 @ Amazon Australia) 
Mouse: Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse  ($46.44 @ Amazon Australia) 
Total: $2014.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-16 17:39 AEST+1000

[paddy-stone]

6 hours ago, Fuzzylogik said:

I took your advice @paddy-stone! Thanks for all the effort! You are a great member of the community! Didn't realize I had it on US prices - good catch. I swapped to a cheaper keyboard and different Wifi card (has included Bluetooth which is handy). I had heard of kinguin but it sounded dodgy. Does the SSD cache drive make a noticeable difference to HDD write speeds? Do you have any recommendations for graphics cards? 

Actually, looking at the builds,if I take some recommendations from  @Herman Mcpootis I can fit the 2TB SSD back in the budget. So have the small SSD for the OS and programs, and the 2TB SSD for games and stuff.  I was tempted to try and fit the 2070 he recommended into the budget, but it makes you have to sacrifice something else.

So as it stands, I got it to a few hundred under budget, so you have some leeway for changing the peripherals and stuff if you like, and if you prefer intel, then you can change it to the CPU and mobo that @Herman Mcpootis suggested, or go with his build entirely.

 

To answer your question about the cache drive though, no it wouldn't make writes faster, what a smart cache does is have your most used files in it basically, to make reading them faster than a HDD would. But that's redundant now with the new config below

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$244.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$145.00 @ JW Computers
Memory	G.Skill - Sniper X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$136.40 @ Newegg Australia
Storage	ADATA - SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.00 @ PCCaseGear
Storage	Intel - 660p Series 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$331.00 @ Newegg Australia
Video Card	MSI - GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB AERO ITX OC Video Card	$379.00 @ Shopping Express
Case	Antec - Dark Phantom DP301M MicroATX Mid Tower Case	$69.00 @ JW Computers
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$139.00 @ Shopping Express
Wireless Network Adapter	Asus - PCE-AC68 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter	$104.00 @ Shopping Express
Keyboard	G.Skill - RIPJAWS KM780R RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard	$108.78 @ Amazon Australia
Mouse	Corsair - Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse	$46.44 @ Amazon Australia
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1747.62
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-16 21:53 AEST+1000

 

[Fuzzylogik]

@paddy-stone @Herman Mcpootis Thank you both especially so much for your help! I ended up going with the following list based on your recommendations and built it all a week ago! Seriously happy with how it turned out. I'm already looking for new parts and thinking of upgrading  . I popped in some RGB and an extra case fan on top of what you had recommended. The pictures i took make it look over-saturated with light but its a perfect amount of illumination. Took me about 5/6 hours to build with all my paranoid double checking and constantly re-watching build guides on youtube though hahaha.

 

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: Crucial - BX500 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Intel - 660p Series 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB OC Video Card
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo EVOLV TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Silverstone - Strider Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte - GC-WB867D-I PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140SP_BBK 82.1 CFM 140 mm Fan
Keyboard: Logitech - G810 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
 

 

Also a big shout out to @NunoLava1998 @jstudrawa @zhubaohi @LienusLateTips @Brooksie359 for the advice and taking the time to make a comment. Really makes a big impression on a newb  haha. I always second guess every choice but hearing the positive feedback on what I picked was a massive relief and super helpful. Much appreciated!

 

[Dedayog]

Looks really good!

 

I like your SSD choices, separating Windows and Libraries I assume.

 

 

[Fuzzylogik]

37 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Looks really good!

 

I like your SSD choices, separating Windows and Libraries I assume.

 

 

Thanks you! Yes, that's precisely what i wanted to do @jstudrawa

[paddy-stone]

47 minutes ago, Fuzzylogik said:

 

Snip!

Well done, glad I was some help.. but I can't remember it TBH

 

It's looking good, the only thing I would do differently really is tidy the cables up a little... they[re not BAD as such, just might be a slightly better way of arranging them through different grommets (if available).

For your first build though it's really good, and I am positive that my first build many many years ago wasn't as neat as yours in a big way, so don't be discouraged at my slight criticism. In fact IIRC my first build was a complete rats nest of cables and so on, just it didn't matter as much back then as the cases were fully enclosed with no window to see hardware etc anyway.

 

Anyway, really glad it all came together for you with no problems, keep up the good work