Need help with my first build

[SteveDice]

I was going to buy a PC for my new year in college and, inspired by scrapyard wars, I figured, why not build it myself? Since I'm on a tight budget and my main activities are gonna be casual gaming and college related stuff I focused on upgradeability rather than performance. 

This is how my build looks right now:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VVXzTW

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core 

I went with this processor mainly because its socket allows me to upgrade to an i7 in the future. There's two little things that have me worried, though. First: it has proven to be better than the i5-4440 in every benchmark I've seen but it's still cheaper, what's up with that? And second: The new consoles are both multicore AMDs, so they have me on the fence of switching to an FX8350. Should I do that? 

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

It's gigabyte and cheap. I'm not looking to overclock, anyway. 

 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

No dual-channel to make room for another stick later on. 

 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Is Kingston good enough? Or should I go Intel? 

 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card

I got this brand new for ~140 USD (Yay!), so no changes there.

 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case

 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

What do you guys think of this PSU? 

 

All of that paired with a 1080p monitor and a 1TB WD. 

 

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback you might have! 

[Laputacake]

What's your budget and is the 960 the only thing you've purchased?

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RcKDgs

Made some very small changes, including switching the cpu for one that's 100mhz faster and adding a basic CPU cooler. I've used it a bunch of times and it's much better than the stock intel one.

[SteveDice]

What's your budget and is the 960 the only thing you've purchased?

Something around 600~ USD. I'm not really locked at that but I wouldn't like to spend too much on a PC since I have to eat. And yes, the 960 is the only thing I've purchased.

 

Thanks for the reply! 

[Laputacake]

Something around 600~ USD. I'm not really locked at that but I wouldn't like to spend too much on a PC since I have to eat. And yes, the 960 is the only thing I've purchased.

 

Thanks for the reply!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($235.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.49 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($140.00)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($35.10 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $601.37

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 20:06 EDT-0400

[SteveDice]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RcKDgs

Made some very small changes, including switching the cpu for one that's 100mhz faster and adding a basic CPU cooler. I've used it a bunch of times and it's much better than the stock intel one.

You didn't change the CPU; should I still get the cooler? Also, how well is the i3-4150 working for you? 

[SteveDice]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($235.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.49 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($140.00)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($35.10 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $601.37

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 20:06 EDT-0400

God, this is sweet. Any input on the Kingston SSD reliability? I already have a 1TB WD HDD lying around. It was free so I didn't include it in the budget. 

[Laputacake]

God, this is sweet. Any input on the Kingston SSD reliability? I already have a 1TB WD HDD lying around. It was free so I didn't include it in the budget.

Ah, didn't realise that,

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($235.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($140.00)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($35.10 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.40 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $599.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 20:25 EDT-0400

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

You didn't change the CPU; should I still get the cooler? Also, how well is the i3-4150 working for you? 

Works wonderfully Yeah I did change the CPU, you had the 4440, I changed it to the 4460 which is 5$ cheaper and yeah the cooler is really good and I highly recommend it.

[Saroop15]

DO NOT get the kingston v300 sdd its horrible and alot of other people also say to stay away from it i suggest you save a bit of money and get something like a crucial ssd or even better a intel ssd

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct120bx100ssd1

or better 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-internal-hard-drive-ssdsc2bw120a401

 

the rest looks pretty good

[Serpius]

 

I was going to buy a PC for my new year in college and, inspired by scrapyard wars, I figured, why not build it myself? Since I'm on a tight budget and my main activities are gonna be casual gaming and college related stuff I focused on upgradeability rather than performance. 

This is how my build looks right now:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VVXzTW

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core 

I went with this processor mainly because its socket allows me to upgrade to an i7 in the future. There's two little things that have me worried, though. First: it has proven to be better than the i5-4440 in every benchmark I've seen but it's still cheaper, what's up with that? And second: The new consoles are both multicore AMDs, so they have me on the fence of switching to an FX8350. Should I do that? 

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

It's gigabyte and cheap. I'm not looking to overclock, anyway. 

 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

No dual-channel to make room for another stick later on. 

 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Is Kingston good enough? Or should I go Intel? 

 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card

I got this brand new for ~140 USD (Yay!), so no changes there.

 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case

 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

What do you guys think of this PSU? 

 

All of that paired with a 1080p monitor and a 1TB WD. 

 

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback you might have! 

 

 

Steve,

 

Here's my recommended computer build that will go very nicely with your new graphics card.

 

The setup is fast and powerful for your computing needs.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Directron) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Team Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($74.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 

Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($47.99 @ Directron) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($59.40 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $593.84

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 23:43 EDT-0400

[SteveDice]

So, I'm going with this build:
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cNBRP6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cNBRP6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($166.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($41.40 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 535 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($67.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card  ($140.00)
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($59.40 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $515.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-06 02:10 EDT-0400

I cheaped out on the CPU because the USD just got more expensive, but if it comes down again, I'll go with the Xeon.

Thanks for your help!