Planning first build

thunderjolter · July 13, 2015

Howdy! From the US; I don't want to go over $600 USD, but $800 is the absolute limit.

I want to build my first PC after watching 20+ youtube videos of DIY builds and such. I still don't understand everything, but I suppose I don't need to. I'm only a casual gamer and am not looking for high end anything. Currently, I edit videos and play League of Legends (low settings) on my laptop (ASUS U52F, intel core i3), and I'd say I'm okay with it's performance. However, I want to play higher-end games such as Final Fantasy XIV or something like WoW, and I realize my laptop can't do that. I'm not particular about high graphics, as long as the game doesn't freeze or stutter.

I've got a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. My school also gives students windows 8 for like $10 as well. I don't have any speakers, but I don't suppose I'd need anything fancy for sound (don't want to use headphones).

Also, I'm the type of person that gets attached to one or two games and plays them forever, so I wouldn't be downloading tons of games or anything.

So, what should I be looking for in this pc build? I will mostly use it for school stuff, casual video editing, and playing an MMO game or two.

Catman007 · July 13, 2015

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

If you are not into SSD thats 45 saved there. Its over 600 but you said you can spend 800 max trust me its better to add little extra if posible and to make PC last longer. Btw hope you saved old case if you have one its a waste of money to buy new.

dunde · July 13, 2015

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

If you are not into SSD thats 45 saved there. Its over 600 but you said you can spend 800 max trust me its better to add little extra if posible and to make PC last longer

100* bro, but the build is very good.

IMO i would buy a 600w psu, because you never know if you want to upgrade your gpu in the future

Dzzope · July 13, 2015

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

If you are not into SSD thats 45 saved there. Its over 600 but you said you can spend 800 max trust me its better to add little extra if posible and to make PC last longer. Btw hope you saved old case if you have one its a waste of money to buy new.

Thats not a shareable link..

Dzzope · July 13, 2015

SNIP

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Try this out... you can go for some cheaper bits here and there..

The CPU.. well Intel provides the best performance per core, unless you go for an 8 core AMD (for rendering and such) this is the best bang to buck all round CPU at the moment.

Board, cheap and cheerful. Front USB, will take any i5 i7 or even Xeon E3.. But no overclocking(as far as I'm aware, some of the lower boards can) or SLI

Ram.. 1 stick as you'll be able to add more later.. Board has 4 slots for up to 32GB... If you get into making videos in a serious way.. Single to dual channel isn't very important.

Storage.. SSD, decent 240GB drive.. nice for fast scratch disk and overall system responsivness.. Watch for deals on this drive.. see it go for $70 regularly. 1 TB hdd for media and such.

GTX 970... fits the budget and will run 99% of games at max in 1080.. Feel free to change to AMD alternative of your choice or a smaller card. Though I'd say it's about the sweet spot (Price wise.. $25 - 350 usually)

Case.. looks decent, reasonable features and comes with 3 fans installed and is pretty cheap.

PSU.. solid seasonic built (good brand) unit and cheap

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.00 @ Amazon)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($317.44 @ Amazon)

Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.99 @ Directron)

Power Supply: XFX Core Edition 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $811.32