My First Ever PC Build

[ProfBrown]

So as the title suggests, this is my first PC build ever. Previous to this the most experience with touching PCs was the typical out of box pre built install at the office, switching out hard drives, swapping memory, and GPUs. This was a very fun experience, I used the typical big names on Youtube to guide me, including LTT. All of which were extremely helpful.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor	$209.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Thermaltake - Floe Riing RGB 240 TT Premium Edition 42.34 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$135.37 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$139.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$74.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Kingston - A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$29.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Inland - Professional 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$54.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	PNY - GeForce GTX 1050 2 GB Video Card	$159.99 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design - Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$89.99 @ Walmart
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$95.88 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	Thermaltake - Riing Plus 12 RGB TT Premium Edition (3 Fan Pack) 48.34 CFM 120 mm Fans	$85.66 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1151.74
	Mail-in rebates	-$75.00
	Total	$1076.74
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-16 17:04 EDT-0400

 

Now I know at least one of you will question, "why built now?" with the Zen 2 stuff coming soon and Navi as well, but here is why. The price of the Ryzen 2700 at the local Micro Center was 179 bucks, the x470 Prime Mobo, only $118. Think its safe to say that the 2700 has hit the lowest price, or close to the lowest, that it will be for a while. And the performance per dollar is quite a nice proposition. Additionally, I was looking at the Ryzen 3600 and that would start at $200, but with the idea of streaming and gaming on one system, the 2700 seems to be the better bet. Also, for those laughing at the GPU, that I will continue to wait until Navi shakes up the market. Navi doesn't seem to have affected Nvidia pricing of their cards or the other board makers, and while I was looking at the RTX 2070, if Navi is half as good as they say, Nvidia will likely drop pricing and I may be able to get more for the same or less. And while the 1050 was never an amazing gaming card, it holds what I need (or can accept) for the time being. Please note the 1050 was not a purchase at this time, it was sitting in my old set up, which is why I know it does what I need for now.

 

Another note, the AIO, and the 240 GB SSD I already had sitting around from trading with a friend so I did not buy them.

 

Overall, the first build experience was exiting and interesting. The CPU placement into the socket was a bit scary at first, but went so easy I do not even know why I was scared in the first place lol. Cable management could really use some work on my end honestly. I do not currently have any pictures of said management, but I will post some if requested. Honestly, the reason this cable management got so bad is because of the case fans. Thermal take makes a nice product, but those case fan cables are a mile long, and they are not tiny to begin with. To add to that the fan controller is kinda bulky, and since my MOBO doesn't support the TT Sync connector from Thermaltake, I am stuck daisy chaining two of the 5 fan controllers which get rather bulky really quickly. Partially due to this, I will not be running HDDs. These fan controllers are just too thick to place on the back of the motherboard tray in this case. This drive storage is not necessarily an issue, as the cost of SSDs have fallen so aggressively, I plan on just picking up another SSD here in the future when needed. the 960GB mark seems to be promising at less than 90 bucks. Ironically enough the top half of the case has really nice cable management and PSU sheild at the bottom turned into a bit of a stuff fest. But overall, I am very happy with my first build! 

 

When I go to upgrade the GPU, I will be getting cable mod cables that are white and have the cable combs. I feel this will tie more of the storm trooper look into the build which was something I wanted to incorporate. Reason for going with cable mod over just extensions is the drive to avoid extra cables to manage lol.

 

Pictures will be posted in a comment to this thread.

 

[ProfBrown]

 

 

 

[BigDamn]

Looks really good man, congrats! If you wanna be a real baller go triple monitor

 

One question tho. Why is the PC sitting on that little desk? All that hot air gonna blow in your area and make you sweat your balls off, just sayin.

[ProfBrown]

3 minutes ago, BigDamn said:

Looks really good man, congrats! If you wanna be a real baller go triple monitor

 

One question tho. Why is the PC sitting on that little desk? All that hot air gonna blow in your area and make you sweat your balls off, just sayin.

The PC is sitting on the little couch side table because my desk just flat out isn't big enough to put it on the desk at the moment. Going to pick up a used custom made desk here this coming Saturday, and I have a dual monitor vesa mount that is getting delivered tomorrow to free up even more desk space. The desk in the pics is rather small, 52 inches long, only 24 inches deep. The new desk will be 61.5 inches wide, and 30 inches deep giving me much more room. Also, the new desk doesn't have two big filing cabinets so I can offset where I sit better as well. Honeslty, this system runs rather cool. Running Cinebench before I experiment on overclocking this 2700 and it did't even get over 48c. Now gaming might tax this little 1050 a bit harder, but even with my overclock, it hasn't even gotten over 57c per MSI afterburner. I am not too worried about heat. Plus the radiator is set up as an exhaust so most of the hot air is exiting the top of the case!

 

Usually I play Overwatch as an FPS (so chaseing frames not looks), and recently have been messing around with Borderlands 2 with my friends in prep for Borderlands 3 to come out soon. 

[wildgg]

nice build!

[ProfBrown]

 

Just now, wildthing said:

nice build!

Thanks! I see we are using the same case!

[ProfBrown]

Update!

I took out all the Thermaltake products from the system. I was not a fan of the software or the quality of the controllers and how the fans would ramp up and down by anywhere from 100-300 rpm simply surfing the internet or playing a youtube video. I will be going to Corsair cooling this time around. Also going with 140mm fans and a 280mm rad. This will help with overall cooling but also spinning the fans at a lower rpm while moving the same air. So this means I can set a better RPM to just keep it consistently quiet and none of that up and down crap. Going with ML140mm RGB Pro fans as the exhaust on the top, and the 280mm rad on the front as intake. This case cannot fit a 140mm fan in the back. If I find that this is not enough cooling then Ill pick up an ML120 RGB pro fan as well for exhaust, but I am thinking the airflow will be fine. According to Gamers Nexus, the H115i Pro that I am planning on going with at its absolute loudest is only 37 db, and the fans on the top of the case according to Corsair only make 20db of noise at full tilt. Now I bet that is just marketing, but they run the same RPM as the fans that come on the radiator so I expect similar noise, or lack of noise lol. I am thinking if I run the top fans at a slightly higher RPM, I will promote airflow in the case and I won't need an additional exhaust. Or the other way around with intakes running higher rpm to pull air through the rad.

[ProfBrown]

Update!

Corsair stuff is way better, software works far better, although not without hiccups. Worst hiccup so far is needing to restart my computer to recognize all the stuff but that was after the first boot up with all the new stuff, so no real complaints there. I set my own custom fan curves, and this puppy is quite now! Sitting at about 500 RPM for the top exhaust fans and about 600-700 a piece on the intake fans to get more air through the front mounted rad now. Temps dropped about 2-3c on the CPU, could be from the changing of the radiator from a top mount exhaust style, to a front mount intake style, or likely from going to a 280 rad with dual 140mm fans over the 240 rad style. Regardless I am happy, the RGB control is far better, as well as the control for the fan speed. I lost the RGB pop, but with it being this way, I actually like it more, its less over the top. I am running custom RGB profiles I found off of a website that has a ton of Corsair lighting profiles. Another major bonus of Corsair software!

[ProfBrown]

BUILD UPDATE!

 

Shes finally complete! I picked up an RTX 2070 today. The EVGA XC Ultra to be exact. Went with this card because it was on sale for $60 off. It is the A bin 2070 chip so already better than the standard 2070 gpus. Happy as heck with it. Able to play anything I want on whatever settings I want maxed on my monitor (1080p) at 140+ FPS. Stayes plenty cool with the fat heat sink on it too. Rgb I was able to color match with my Corsair stuff by just getting the lighting numbers. 

 

Cables being stock are kinda ugly but it is fine with me lol

[TrainFan475]

That looks so awesome! The cable management really isn't bad compared to mine!

 

[ProfBrown]

Not bad for an OEM case my man! 

 

The cables were going fine until I switch to the Corsair stuff and this new gpu. The EVGA SuperNova G3 cables are all pretty nice but I wish the power connector for the pcie power was better design. The Corsair stuff just adds a jumble of wires but in the end it was worth it. Way more piece of mind and better cooling by a good bit. Far quieter.