Build the Perfect Gaming PC – Holiday Buyer’s Guide 2017

These builds serve more to show how expensive it is to get everything from a single store, compared to just using PCPP. The GPU should be at least 1-2 tiers higher for all of the builds, and you should get PSUs that aren't fire hazards, even if the build costs $600.

Not to mention the questionable motherboard choices

orbitalbuzzsaw · November 22, 2017

15 minutes ago, seon123 said:

These builds serve more to show how expensive it is to get everything from a single store, compared to just using PCPP. The GPU should be at least 1-2 tiers higher for all of the builds, and you should get PSUs that aren't fire hazards, even if the build costs $600.

Not to mention the questionable motherboard choices

I know, right! That $2000 build is GARBAGE. Here's a (technically) sub-2000 build with an 8600k, Asus mATX Z370 board 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD/2TB HDD, GTX 1080, Fractal TG case, EVGA 750w 80+ Gold PSU.

- https://pcpartpicker.com/list/T9d6TH

seon123 · November 22, 2017

8 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

I know, right! That $2000 build is GARBAGE. Here's a (technically) sub-2000 build with an 8600k, Asus mATX Z370 board 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD/2TB HDD, GTX 1080, Fractal TG case, EVGA 750w 80+ Gold PSU.

- https://pcpartpicker.com/list/T9d6TH

Where did the budget go in your build?

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($414.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($42.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($237.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB STRIX GAMING Video Card ($758.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1884.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-22 17:01 EST-0500

All of them were pretty bad, tbh. Even considering they didn't use rebates and were limited to Amazon and Newegg,

orbitalbuzzsaw · November 22, 2017

Just now, seon123 said:

Where did the budget go in your build?

Hide contents

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($414.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($42.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($237.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB STRIX GAMING Video Card ($758.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1884.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-22 17:01 EST-0500

All of them were pretty bad, tbh. Even considering they didn't use rebates and were limited to Amazon and Newegg,

To a 240 mil AIO and to a better form factor (mATX)

0Koch0 · November 22, 2017

7800x? What's the reasoning behind putting a cpu that is almost as good at a ryzen 1600 in every aspect?

orbitalbuzzsaw · November 22, 2017

Just now, 0Koch0 said:

7800x? What's the reasoning behind putting a cpu that is almost as good at a ryzen 1600 in every aspect?

Yeah. That makes no sense.

mariushm · November 22, 2017

I guess this is another video that was scripted and recorded weeks ago.

Anyway .. writing as i watch the video..

the 500$ build .. seriously? An A320 board? No overclocking with a processor that can do overclocking quite easy. Yeah, it was 45$ but for 20$ more you get a decent B350 motherboard and you can definitely find places to save those 20$.

For example, forget the SSHD for 55$ and buy a WD Blue 1TB or something like that for 45-50$ ... there's your 5-10$. Check weekly sales on Newegg and get a case for 20$ and a power supply for 30-35$ after MIR (ex Corsair VS series are often 30-40$ even without sale) .. so you save 5-10$ there as well.

And you could save around 5-10$ maybe even more by going with plain GTX 1050 instead of GTX 1050ti ... would certainly make for a more balanced system.

the 1000$ board... do you really need to waste 130$ on a 525 GB SSD? A 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO is 90$ and is plenty fast and enough for an operating system. Add a 2 TB WD Blue to store the Steam games for 65$ and you're still at only 155$ , just 25$ more expensive than only one SSD

You argued that you can buy the SSD and buy a hard drive later on when you have more pocket money, but a smarter decision would be to buy just ONE stick of memory because you'll be able to use the computer just fine with 8 GB and buy a second one when you can afford it (next salary, whatever). You can practically buy a 2-3 TB hard drive with the money you spend on a 8 GB memory stick these days.

The power supply (B3) is crap for a 1000$ + system. Spend 5-10$ more on power supply and you could even get a gold efficiency power supply from a good brand. For example, Seasonic S12G 550w is 65$ and that's the no-sale price , it's 45$ after rebate : newegg link

It's not modular, but with that average case would you really care?

why would you suggest as alternative an i5 7500 with a b250 board so you won't have any overclocking...

The 2000$ build ... ouch ... very weird combinations of components.

Cheapening out again on the power supply. You could have spend 5-10$ more and get full modular.

Age of 9394 · November 22, 2017

No cheap RGB guide?

Carlos Andrade · November 23, 2017

i7-7800X? Why? Both the Ryzen 5 1600 and i7-8700K are better in every way, not to mention they have no "X299 Tax"

lefthandsword · November 23, 2017

For the $2000 build you're much better off getting Coffee Lake i5/17 or Ryzen 1600 and use the savings toward a 1080Ti and optionally a NVMe SSD

Egg-Roll · November 23, 2017

Ugh.... RAM since they made this video increased by $25 on the cheapest level... THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T MAKE VIDEOS TOO FAR OUT FROM THE RELEASE DATE!

Ok rant over... here are a closer build to current needs of said prices:

$520 w/o OS BTW my case/power supply is only $40 Also could swap out (with windows 10 i strongly suggest you suffer lower graphics) the SSD for a better GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Mvn7f8

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair - Force LS 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($61.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $518.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-22 21:57 EST-0500

$1000

Got a 1070 Ti $50 more (once again, this time the Ti caused it), have the same SSD/HDD setup. Full Modular PSU and a cheap yet nice looking case.

Before anyone whines (I'll hand you cheese and a cup), I tried to get Gen 8 but that $100 killed it, there is a $100 gigabyte board out there for it, if willing.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Bdq3qk

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair - Force LS 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($61.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Video Card ($459.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Raidmax - Vortex ATX Mid Tower Case ($15.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1070.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-22 22:27 EST-0500

$2000

I got Gen 8 in this, also can choose the Thermaltake case Versa C22 RGB Snow Edition for a few bucks more, once again about $50 more...

Also before anyone whines (see above) the CFM for my fan is the same for the water they gave, therefore shouldn't make much difference (remember the fans dissipate the heat not the liquid).

I chose Gold because it's slightly cheaper than Red Pro, 4TB drive as well, lowered the SSD to 120GB shouldn't need more... Red is only 5400 RPM, so was forced up.

I focused on the higher end drive for this build due to the "work" function Linus stated. Else you could chop the HDD in half price wise possibly upgrading the TB as well

THIS BUILD IS RGB!

Edit: (this line) I put MSI as the CPU cooler for name sake nothing else, plus one could buy a RGB fan for it for about $20 but will lose some CFM in doing so.

Edit 2: Just noticed the RAM is red LED only, RGB is $50 more... Sorry , actually just get the Trident Z RGB 32GB It's $50 cheaper and brings it to their budget number.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hFL2pb

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($414.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: MSI - CORE FROZR L 71.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($49.94 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 TOMAHAWK ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($120.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($354.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Western Digital - Gold 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($167.20 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card ($739.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Pro 5 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.89 @ Amazon)
Total: $2032.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-23 00:05 EST-0500

Seriously... This kind of video should be done the week before release, not what seems to be a month.

Also i wish this forum had a preview option...

Edited November 23, 2017 by Egg-Roll
Mistakes in last build

GDRRiley · November 23, 2017

30 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

lowered the SSD to 120GB shouldn't need more.

BS I need my 750gb across 2 drives. for 2k you should be getting 250 gb+ SSD, and why a WD gold you could get a similar performing X300 for 110 or a 6tb for the same price.

Egg-Roll · November 23, 2017

1 hour ago, GDRRiley said:

BS I need my 750gb across 2 drives. for 2k you should be getting 250 gb+ SSD, and why a WD gold you could get a similar performing X300 for 110 or a 6tb for the same price.

I initially had 250GB but w/o sacrificing something else i had to lower it. But one could put a 212 EVO fan for $20 and get a 250GB with the price difference, but then it wouldn't be as nice looking. Alternatively you could lower the GPU, or remove the RGB RAM. One could reduce to a i5 but depending on the "work" being done this is not logical and would be better going to a Gen 7 i7.

1 hour ago, Egg-Roll said:

I focused on the higher end drive for this build due to the "work" function Linus stated. Else you could chop the HDD in half price wise possibly upgrading the TB as well

That's the reason why i put a Gold in. Because idk who does what, one could just take the total cost of the 2 drives and config your own setup.

For example if you wanted a 1TB SSD for a few bucks more than those 2 drives you could get the Crucial CT1050MX300SSD1.

But the fact i still built a better PC then they did... Sure it's not perfect but imo the SSD should be for OS and commonly used files that are too big to load fast on a secondary drive.

A few other combo's with a $222-$250 (downgrading to EVO)

Crucial CT275MX300SSD1 Seagate ST5000DM002 ($220 no EVO needed)

Corsair CSSD-F60GBLSB (OS only) Patriot PTL120GS25SSDR (random files that need a SSD, 120GB) Toshiba HDWE150XZSTA 5TB ($13 over budget given)

Corsair CSSD-F60GBLSB (OS only) Crucial CT275MX300SSD1 (random files that need a SSD, 275GB) Toshiba HDWE140XZSTA 4TB ($15 over)

Corsair CSSD-F60GBLSB (OS only) Crucial CT525MX300SSD1 (525GB) Toshiba HDWD130XZSTA 3TB ($35 over, this means a EVO +$5)

If you were to keep the SSD i mentioned above and kept the cooler you could swap the Gold for Toshiba HDWE160XZSTA or Seagate ST8000VN0022 if you go with the EVO plus spend $42 more...

Best layout would be the first listed with 275GB 5TB drive.

Edit: just noticed you mentioned the x300.

GDRRiley · November 23, 2017

12 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

Edit: just noticed you mentioned the x300.

yeah its a fast drive. using 4gib and 4 passes it gets sequential reads and rights above 200 mbs for the 5tb x300

Egg-Roll · November 23, 2017

5 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

yeah its a fast drive. using 4gib and 4 passes it gets sequential reads and rights above 200 mbs for the 5tb x300

I find my Toshiba drives overall outperform my WD's, sadly one of my 2010's died this week(when it was Hitachi), however it was decent enough to let me get everything but 8GB of files of which 100% can be regot. When my WD 3TB Green drive self destructed corrupting all data it didn't even permit me to recover the data (it did once but not since), truth be told idk where i put that pos... I have a 2TB Green but after the 3TB incident i parked it after removing all data onto a different drive.

ahuckphin · November 23, 2017

Surprised that 5 years later they still don't actually build the pc

ahuckphin · November 23, 2017

7800X - i thought Linus hated the Skylake-X series

Carlos Andrade · November 23, 2017

6 hours ago, bindydad123 said:

7800X - i thought Linus hated the Skylake-X series

Not to mention the 8700K exists, and so does Ryzen 5

Daniel Z. · November 23, 2017

These guides are cool but really quite bad for the price. I can build this if you use PCPP.

Just Game replacement:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - Constellation ES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.00 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon RX 580 4GB AORUS 4G Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($21.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $555.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-23 15:11 EST-0500

I would recommend a masterbox but I needed to keep the SSD. If you want, you can remove the SSD from my Just Game replacement to and/or get a a masterbox lite 3.1.

Game Now replacement:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB AMP Edition Video Card ($468.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 3.1 TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1075.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-23 15:06 EST-0500

Game On replacement:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($414.89 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H115i 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($121.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 Video Card ($739.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design - Define Mini C TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $2023.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-23 15:00 EST-0500[/i

Daniel Z. · November 23, 2017

I really wish LTT would use PCPP and a person that can make budget builds. Sorry to whoever makes these. They are awesome at making creative stuff like Scrapyard wars but horrible at making a system people should actually buy at a reasonable price. I hope next time they use PCPP and stop getting craptastic PSUs.

WhoWhat · November 23, 2017

21 hours ago, mariushm said:

I guess this is another video that was scripted and recorded weeks ago.

Anyway .. writing as i watch the video..

the 500$ build .. seriously? An A320 board? No overclocking with a processor that can do overclocking quite easy. Yeah, it was 45$ but for 20$ more you get a decent B350 motherboard and you can definitely find places to save those 20$.

For example, forget the SSHD for 55$ and buy a WD Blue 1TB or something like that for 45-50$ ... there's your 5-10$. Check weekly sales on Newegg and get a case for 20$ and a power supply for 30-35$ after MIR (ex Corsair VS series are often 30-40$ even without sale) .. so you save 5-10$ there as well.

And you could save around 5-10$ maybe even more by going with plain GTX 1050 instead of GTX 1050ti ... would certainly make for a more balanced system.

the 1000$ board... do you really need to waste 130$ on a 525 GB SSD? A 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO is 90$ and is plenty fast and enough for an operating system. Add a 2 TB WD Blue to store the Steam games for 65$ and you're still at only 155$ , just 25$ more expensive than only one SSD

You argued that you can buy the SSD and buy a hard drive later on when you have more pocket money, but a smarter decision would be to buy just ONE stick of memory because you'll be able to use the computer just fine with 8 GB and buy a second one when you can afford it (next salary, whatever). You can practically buy a 2-3 TB hard drive with the money you spend on a 8 GB memory stick these days.

The power supply (B3) is crap for a 1000$ + system. Spend 5-10$ more on power supply and you could even get a gold efficiency power supply from a good brand. For example, Seasonic S12G 550w is 65$ and that's the no-sale price , it's 45$ after rebate : newegg link

It's not modular, but with that average case would you really care?

why would you suggest as alternative an i5 7500 with a b250 board so you won't have any overclocking...

The 2000$ build ... ouch ... very weird combinations of components.

Cheapening out again on the power supply. You could have spend 5-10$ more and get full modular.

The builds are more less meant as a structure reference for building or for noobs new to building. He said in the video(i think) the parts will get discounted and you dont have to buy what he recommends.

Daniel Z. · November 23, 2017

Just now, WhoWhat said:

The builds are more less meant as a structure reference for building or for noobs new to building. He said in the video(i think) the parts will get discounted and you dont have to buy what he recommends.

many noobs will buy what he says becuase they don't understand PCs

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