My 1st Build (Help!)

[SexySuperVillain]

So, I've never built a computer before and honestly I'm quite a bit hesitant to start. I'm tempted to purchase a prebuilt from CyberpowerPC because; and I know this is going to sound ridiculous to many of you, I am very nervous about actually installing Windows and doing any BIOS stuff or driver installation. I am a novice, forgive me. I'm also kind of scared of cable connection and management (I have no idea what/where motherboard connections are or what UEFI is). I've only been interested in builds and learned the basic components and steps within the past 2 years, thanks in large part to LinusTechTips (and also Bitwit). Unfortunately, most build videos rush through the cable connection and management section and just about all ignore Windows installation and driver updates. I'm still not even sure what a Bios is. Also, I would overclock, a little, if I could figure out how, but it isn't a requirement.  

 

I am also not a PC gamer; I prefer consoles. Now, that is likely because I've never played a PC game or simply because I'm not into shooters. Aside from the occasional fighter (Soul Calibur, DBZ, etc.), I am almost exclussively an RPG-gamer. My computer will be used primarily for web browsing, school work (I am in college for Social Work; I'm also 39-years-old), writing (I am an avid writer and both a novelist), playing video games via my emulator (these games run from NES to PS2 and everything in between, so, not too demanding), watching Youtube videos and Netflix movies/shows, and possibly recording music (I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface). 

 

I have an ASUS Designo MX279H (1920 x 1080) monitor and both a wireless mouse and keyboard from Logitech that are fine by me. I will need Windows 10 and my location is Maryland, U.S. I could upgrade my monitor in the future if necessary.

 

I would like an aesthetically pleasing build and would like to stay under $1500 (less is obviously better). RGB is not important. I would like, perhaps, a black and red look (point is, I'd like a single or dual color rather than multicolor or RGB)

 

I was thinking:

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 3700x

CPU Fan - ? (maybe NZXT Kraken x62 but I'm hearing air may be better than liquid. but I think the Kraken is sexy)

Motherboard - MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WIFI ATX (I would prefer a motherboard with WIFI as I'm not tech savvy and would like a reliable wireless connection)

RAM -  16 GB (8x2) DDR4/3000MHz GSKILL Trident Z (RGB) (Maybe 3200 would be better, but also may be overkill?)

Video Card - [this is where I struggle as I don't plan on gaming with modern games] - RTX 2060 Super 8GB GDDR6

Power Supply - 750 Watt Corsair RMx Series RM750x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular Ultra Quiet (I'd prefer fully modular)

Primary Hard Drive - 250GB M.2 PCIE NVMe Samsung 970 Evo

Secondary Hard Drive - 6 TB SATA-III 64MB Cache 7200 RPM HDD

Fans - (no idea, but red to match color scheme?)

Case - Phanteks Evolv X or Lian Li PC-011 

Wiring - Red and Black

 

This may be overkill, but I don't know as the only info I can find on builds is for gaming rigs. I want a fast and attractive computer capable of storing my 2 decades worth of writing and my digital media (music and games [I have approx. 2.5TB worth of games currently stored on an external HD]), and I'd like to future-proof the build. Also, I may game at some point, especially if I pick up a PC-only RPG, but right now cheaper is more important as I can upgrade once I graduate from college next year and begin my career.  

 

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! 

[Slottr]

So your main goal is to build a general usage pc with the *possibility* of occasionally playing low resource games at 1080p 60hz?

[aDoomGuy]

Well, first of all.. there is no such thing as "future proof". You say that you can upgrade it down the line as you are in college  so with that in mind.. bear with me?

 

You say you wont play modern games on the machine. So why don't you cheap out on a GTX 1650 or 1660? If you're not gonna play them Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077 on the machine what is the point of spending so much? Cheap out now and upgrade later?

 

My Corsair RM 650x runs a Ryzen 5 3600x and a 2060 Super ROG Strix without a problem so unless you are going all out for a 2080 Super or Ti you dont need more power than this from the PSU. That MSI motherboard seems like a good deal to me though so maybe wanna go for that so that you have PCIe 4.0. 

 

You seem to care more about the appearance than performance, so I'm not sure about red fans these days. Corsair ML 120 or 140 Pro and set LED to red?

If you want silence and don't mind fans to be black Noctua Chromax Black NF-S12A PWM for the case and a Dark Rock 4 or even Dark Rock Pro or a Noctua NH-D14 Chromax Black for the CPU unless you want the AIO then you can go for the Kraken. 

 

3200 MHz RAM is fine, just make sure the actual stick is on the motherboards QVL (if you are unsure just ask and I'm sure you get help to find out).

[BobbyPdue]

12 hours ago, SexySuperVillain said:

My computer will be used primarily for web browsing, school work (I am in college for Social Work; I'm also 39-years-old), writing (I am an avid writer and both a novelist), playing video games via my emulator (these games run from NES to PS2 and everything in between, so, not too demanding), watching Youtube videos and Netflix movies/shows, and possibly recording music (I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface). 

That computer is overkill, but I get wanting to build an awesome computer with your own two hands and you want it to something to be proud of.  I think you need to step back and make sure you know you'll never stress this computer at all.  There is a chance you'll find a game that will use all of your systems resources and it won't be overkill anymore, but perhaps you won't.  You need to really think about how much money you want to spend on something you might never use more than 20% of its capability 

 

If you never play anything more than easy to run older titles I'd go with the previous gen Ryzen 5 2600x and a 1660 super. 

If you want something that will save you some money and give you better performance go with the 3600 and a 2060 super

Above that go with the 3700x or 3900X and a 2070 super. 

 

If you are going to go with 3rd gen Ryzen I'd go with 3600MHz RAM supposedly the performance increase is between 5% - 10% for only $15 - $30 more.

 

For your primary drive I would go with a 1TB Sata driver rather than a super expensive NVME drive from Samsung. That way you'll have room for your OS and two to three of your commonly played games. 

 

I think your choice of power supplies is a good one.  I prefer to under stress my power supplies so they run cooler and quieter. 

[boggy77]

i think something like this is perfect for your use case. the beauty with pcs is they are easy to upgrade once you have the main components installed, so it's cheaper to update more often with mid-tier components that are best performance/$ at their time, rather than try to future proof by going with very expensive stuff.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	NZXT Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$128.93 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard	$183.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$79.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$99.99 @ B&H
Storage	Toshiba N300 6 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$139.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$303.98 @ Newegg
Case	Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic ATX Full Tower Case	$139.00 @ Adorama
Power Supply	BitFenix Whisper M 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$93.00 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1363.86
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1343.86
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-10 09:19 EDT-0400

 

[SexySuperVillain]

17 hours ago, Slottr said:

So your main goal is to build a general usage pc with the *possibility* of occasionally playing low resource games at 1080p 60hz?

The main goal is general usage but I want it to be fast and reliable. I would also like to be able to make music. Right now, I'm using my late-2015 MacBook Pro for music production, but the laptop has been acting odd lately and I miss using a desktop. My desktop is a Dell from Walmart that's 12-14 years old that takes forever to load pages so is just taking up space. I will definitely play my low resource games via an emulator too. I assume 1080p 60hz is the monitor? I'm good with it as is, but can upgrade if necessary.

[SexySuperVillain]

16 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

Well, first of all.. there is no such thing as "future proof". You say that you can upgrade it down the line as you are in college  so with that in mind.. bear with me?

 

You say you wont play modern games on the machine. So why don't you cheap out on a GTX 1650 or 1660? If you're not gonna play them Red Dead Redemption 2 or Cyberpunk 2077 on the machine what is the point of spending so much? Cheap out now and upgrade later?

 

My Corsair RM 650x runs a Ryzen 5 3600x and a 2060 Super ROG Strix without a problem so unless you are going all out for a 2080 Super or Ti you dont need more power than this from the PSU. That MSI motherboard seems like a good deal to me though so maybe wanna go for that so that you have PCIe 4.0. 

 

You seem to care more about the appearance than performance, so I'm not sure about red fans these days. Corsair ML 120 or 140 Pro and set LED to red?

If you want silence and don't mind fans to be black Noctua Chromax Black NF-S12A PWM for the case and a Dark Rock 4 or even Dark Rock Pro or a Noctua NH-D14 Chromax Black for the CPU unless you want the AIO then you can go for the Kraken. 

 

3200 MHz RAM is fine, just make sure the actual stick is on the motherboards QVL (if you are unsure just ask and I'm sure you get help to find out).

So, I talked to someone about getting cheaper parts and his response was that I needed to purchase newer parts because of compatibility issues, but I'm not sure he's a reliable source. Also, the parts I listed were only chosen because they were the parts I picked from a very limited selection on CyberpowerPC. If I can figure out how to do the Windows and drivers installation, I may just build it myself. If I do, I think your suggestions make a lot of sense. I know I probably only need a basic GPU. As for the CPU, I thought that was an important part for running non-gaming speed and reliability. Also thank you for answering a question I forgot to ask which was "can you set RGB to a specific color", which, now that I know you can, I'm happy to go with the Corsair ML 120. Thanks for the response and advice! 

[SexySuperVillain]

5 hours ago, BobbyPdue said:

That computer is overkill, but I get wanting to build an awesome computer with your own two hands and you want it to something to be proud of.  I think you need to step back and make sure you know you'll never stress this computer at all.  There is a chance you'll find a game that will use all of your systems resources and it won't be overkill anymore, but perhaps you won't.  You need to really think about how much money you want to spend on something you might never use more than 20% of its capability 

 

If you never play anything more than easy to run older titles I'd go with the previous gen Ryzen 5 2600x and a 1660 super. 

If you want something that will save you some money and give you better performance go with the 3600 and a 2060 super

Above that go with the 3700x or 3900X and a 2070 super. 

 

If you are going to go with 3rd gen Ryzen I'd go with 3600MHz RAM supposedly the performance increase is between 5% - 10% for only $15 - $30 more.

 

For your primary drive I would go with a 1TB Sata driver rather than a super expensive NVME drive from Samsung. That way you'll have room for your OS and two to three of your commonly played games. 

 

I think your choice of power supplies is a good one.  I prefer to under stress my power supplies so they run cooler and quieter. 

So, a 3rd get Ryzen is sufficient for daily non-gaming use? I was told that the CPU was important for browsing and music production, but I'm starting to doubt the credibility of my source. Honestly, if I could get away with a $1000 build, that would make my year. My fiancee recently totaled our car and the cost of the new car has pretty much wiped me out. I really just want a computer that works fast and reliably. I have a 2015 MacBook Pro laptop and I often feel like it isn't as fast as I'd like. It sometimes freezes up when videos are playing, especially if I'm running Word at the same time. That may be because the Wifi in my area is horrible though and not necessarily the laptop. I really appreciate your response and advice! If I go with a 3rd gen, I'll get the 3600 RAM and your drive advice is sound. 

[SexySuperVillain]

5 hours ago, boggy77 said:

i think something like this is perfect for your use case. the beauty with pcs is they are easy to upgrade once you have the main components installed, so it's cheaper to update more often with mid-tier components that are best performance/$ at their time, rather than try to future proof by going with very expensive stuff.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	NZXT Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$128.93 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard	$183.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$79.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$99.99 @ B&H
Storage	Toshiba N300 6 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$139.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$303.98 @ Newegg
Case	Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic ATX Full Tower Case	$139.00 @ Adorama
Power Supply	BitFenix Whisper M 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$93.00 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1363.86
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1343.86
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-10 09:19 EDT-0400

 

Thank you very much!

[Slottr]

You should easily be able to get by with something like this:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$149.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard	MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$79.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$64.99 @ Newegg
Storage	TCSunBow X3 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$57.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.98 @ Newegg
Case	Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$44.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$58.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$511.91
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-10 14:21 EDT-0400

 

[aDoomGuy]

3 hours ago, SexySuperVillain said:

So, I talked to someone about getting cheaper parts and his response was that I needed to purchase newer parts because of compatibility issues, but I'm not sure he's a reliable source. Also, the parts I listed were only chosen because they were the parts I picked from a very limited selection on CyberpowerPC. If I can figure out how to do the Windows and drivers installation, I may just build it myself. If I do, I think your suggestions make a lot of sense. I know I probably only need a basic GPU. As for the CPU, I thought that was an important part for running non-gaming speed and reliability. Also thank you for answering a question I forgot to ask which was "can you set RGB to a specific color", which, now that I know you can, I'm happy to go with the Corsair ML 120. Thanks for the response and advice! 

Yes it is true to some degree that compatibility is an issue with some things. A 1660 and even a 1650 are both pretty new video cards. Released around the same time as the RTX series, meant to be some kind of hybrid between GTX 1000 series and RTX 2000 series. Basically they are fully compatible.

 

Okay so now I know where you got that parts list. Boggy spec list is pretty good. It's pretty much the same as my own but you can save maybe around 150 Dollars with a 1650, but if you want to pay that around 150 extra dollars to play some games then the 2060 Super is good card that can run everything with great graphics. The only game I don't run on smack full graphics in 1080p is Red Dead Redemption 2.

[seagate_surfer]

5 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

-Yes it is true to some degree that compatibility is an issue with some things. A 1660 and even a 1650 are both pretty new video cards. Released around the same time as the RTX series, meant to be some kind of hybrid between GTX 1000 series and RTX 2000 series. Basically they are fully compatible.-

The times I have seen incompatibility problems can be counted on one hand. There are so many possible combinations that this could be a possibility, but at the same time, manufacturers have worked so hard to make everything compatible that it is really really difficult to see this as the main cause of one problem.

 

[aDoomGuy]

10 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

The times I have seen incompatibility problems can be counted on one hand. There are so many possible combinations that this could be a possibility, but at the same time, manufacturers have worked so hard to make everything compatible that it is really really difficult to see this as the main cause of one problem.

 

Exactly. One would have to go back many many years to find graphics cards that are incompatible, one would have to go back to AGP cards or DDR 3 RAM on a DDR 4 motherboard.. Even old things with Windows Vista drivers as latest may work on Windows 10 so I found it strange that the representative told OP that, unless of course he wanted to be tricksy and try to fool OP.

[seagate_surfer]

8 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

-unless of course he wanted to be tricksy and try to fool OP.-

That could be a possibility, but no one can assure that this is the case, however, if the manufacturer creates a device and already knows in advance that it will not work the way the OP wants, they will automatically be freed of all responsibility.
I have seen in many cases that manufacturers create lists of devices that are compatible with their products, but in many cases it is because they have already tested these parts each other and as we all know, it is literally impossible to test everything that exists so the manufacturers are going to ask you to limit yourself to what they have tested beforehand, and if you want to experiment with other parts not tested to be compatible, it may work and probably it will work because the standards exist for a reason but they can decline to provide you the support.

A second call to tech support may be an option as well...