Budget Gamer / Streamer

[Tangent_Turner]

1. Budget & Location

USA

Budget: $1000.00 USB (Not including GPU)

 

2. Aim
I have been playing video games, streaming on twitch, and generally spending the majority of my time I'm not at work, sitting in front of my ASUS N56V Laptop. I purchased it while I was living in Japan, and it has been an amazing machine for me.

 

I am a Twitch Streamer, a very wee little unimportant Twitch Streamer with delusions of 9th rate grandeur. I may have carried the decimal point too far on that one ... Regardless I need a new machine, a desktop, that is not going to break my poor neglected wallet into a million pieces.

 

Linus's Videos, as well as those of NCIX have been instrumental in bringing me back up to speed with custom built PCs, seeing as the last time I built a machine, was an Intel Core 2 Duo.

 

I play a lot of games, most of which are NOT AAA titles. Fallout 4 is about as high end as I have played recently. However I have become far too used to playing my games a sub-standard frame rates ... I consider myself lucky if my game runs remotely close to 25 frames per second.

 

But enough about me, let's get into this.

3. Monitors & Peripherals
I will be running 2 monitors, a 16:9 widescreen something or other I haven't bought yet, not super high end mind you. Probably only going to hit the $200 max price on it. The other is a very old piece of ... living history, let's call it. Its square, VGA, and only used so i can see my Twitch chat and OBS windows while I am gaming.

Typical Peripherals are going to be purchased as I save it up after the build, and are not a concern for this post.

4. Why are you upgrading?
 

I am currently playing and streaming from:

 

ASUS N56V LAPTOP

Intel Core i7-3630QM @ 2.40 Ghz

12 GB Ram

Running 64 bit Windows 8.1

GeForce GT 635M with 2GB DDR3 Dedicated and 2 GB Shared System Memory

 

It has been an amazing machine and most of the gripes I have with it, pertain to its country of origin (Why the keyboard is actually soldered and RIVETTED to the laptop case I will never know.)

 

But come on ... its a laptop. Must upgrade. I've assembled the list as best as I can, and I will explain the choices as best as I can, and any helpful advice, suggestions, or remarks are enthusiastically accepted.

 

CASE: Corsair Vengeance C70 (MIlitary Green)

Why: Its pretty. I like it, seems to have ok air flow.

 

Motherboard: I have absolutely NO idea, aside from apparently its called a Z170

Why: Thats what the youtube videos said? Honestly though, this is the core reason I'm here. I have no idea what I'm judging by when it comes to motherboards. Hopefully looking at the rest of my list will help others lead me to the right choice here.

 

CPU: Intel i5 6600K

Why: I could say that I'm an Intel snob, but quite honestly ... well yes ... I'm an intel snob. Why not the i7 6700K?! Because its $150 more right now ($250 vs $400) I'm worried that I will need that extra $150 for other parts. I could be wrong, I am definatly open to moving up to the i7, but its going to require some numbers and explanations ... and maybe a graph or two, i like graphs ... and cookies.

 

Overclocking: Do you plan to do it?: Um ... not really ... I'm out of my league again when it comes to OC. No Idea what I'm doing, and I'm a pansy for voiding warranties. I like the idea that I COULD overclock my CPU and GPU. I could drive my car 160 MPH .... speed limits only 55, but I COULD.

 

Ram: DDR4 2400 16 GB (2 x 8GB sticks) Whatever happens to be on sale and from a reputable company

 

 

PSU: 650W Fully Modular with at least 80 Bronze, but preferably 80 Gold, again whatever is on sale from a reputable company (Leaning towards EVGA)

 

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO, 250GB or 500GB whatever I have money left over for.

 

HDD: Cheaping out with the cheapest 1 or 2 Tb drive I can find. I probably need more storage space, but I can always invest in a NAS later (see above peripherals comment)

 

GPU: This is not included in my $1000 budget. I am planning on getting a GTX 970. I have about $350 Credit with Amazon, and am just going to use the gift cards for the GPU. I don't really know WHICH one I should get. So many brand names and cooler types make my head spin, 

 

SO there's what I have in mind.

 

Case - $140

Mobo - ?

CPU - $260

RAM - $90

PSU - $90

SSD - ?

HDD - ?

(price guesses for the most part, i know you can get better prices)

 

Of course there are always rebates, sales, and incidental expenses like thermal paste, fans, cooler for the cpu, york peppermint patties, etc.

 

I have a Blueray drive from a previous machine that is still good and will be my obligatory optical drive. I have a 750gb sata harddrive from the same previous machine that can work for a couple of months until i can put a newer hdd in if needs be.

 

I like SSD, but only my boot device and Game files will be stored on it. My Current SteamLibrary is at 160 GB ... but thats only with 21 of my 175 games installed, which makes me think I need the 500 GB one. I don't do YouTube anymore, but once I get my stream machine built and get on a more regular schedule, its definately possible I will be doing some Youtube video, although nothing with heavy video editing, Probably just some Sony Vegas 10 stuff.

 

Please let me know what you think thus far, suggestions, ideas, anything thats completely obvious that I haven't even thought about, etc.

 

Also let me know if you need any more information about my plans.

 

[Streetguru]

1. Budget & Location

so you're buying this in the US with a $1000 USD? What's the full budget? Looks like $1k + 350 you could buy a variety of the components from amazon

 

and you don't already have decent monitors?

In any case, there ya go, Xeon 1231v3 is just a cheap i7, unlocked skylake i5 would be a waste of money over it especially for streaming.

 

390 is overall faster than the 970 and potentially gives you better DX12/Vulkan support and you'd save money on a free-sync display vs a G-sync display.

 

 

There's some room left so what you could do is upgrade one of the displays to either a 144hz TN or 21:9 1080p IPS Free-sync display,   OR just get a 1440p IPS display, those all cost around $250

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tkvRQ7

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tkvRQ7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($78.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($133.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.88 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card  ($299.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Monitor: AOC I2269VW 60Hz 21.5" Monitor  ($99.99 @ Best Buy)

Monitor: AOC I2269VW 60Hz 21.5" Monitor  ($99.99 @ Best Buy)

Total: $1186.79

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-29 03:43 EST-0500

[The_Sandman]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card  ($379.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor  ($249.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1380.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-29 04:23 EST-0500

[Streetguru]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

You have a locked i7 with a Z170 board, not sure if MSI has pushed out an update to allow for overclocking there

 

the 390X isn't generally a good buy in the US market, and you have a 144hz display that isn't free-sync there, you could get a free-sync display for the same price

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-g2460pf

[The_Sandman]

You have a locked i7 with a Z170 board, not sure if MSI has pushed out an update to allow for overclocking there

 

the 390X isn't generally a good buy in the US market, and you have a 144hz display that isn't free-sync there, you could get a free-sync display for the same price

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-g2460pf

 

I know that the i7 is locked, i mainly picked the Z170 board because it was fairly cheap. And the locked CPU is because OP doesn't want to overclock.

 

Ok, i didn't know about the 390X, but i could fit it in the budget so i thought why not go for the 390X instead of the 390. Thanks for the info, but why isn't it a good buy in the US?

 

And yes the freesync display is the better choice, thanks for pointing that out

[Streetguru]

I know that the i7 is locked, i mainly picked the Z170 board because it was fairly cheap. And the locked CPU is because OP doesn't want to overclock.

 

Ok, i didn't know about the 390X, but i could fit it in the budget so i thought why not go for the 390X instead of the 390. Thanks for the info, but why isn't it a good buy in the US?

 

And yes the freesync display is the better choice, thanks for pointing that out

Because a 390 gives you better bang for your buck given the price difference.

 

however in australia at least the 390X is only like $50 more there, so it makes a lot more sense over there.

 

far as the motherboard goes, you could save even more here with an H170 board, as the main advantage of the Z170 board would be wasted

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h170mpro4

 

and in any case the Xeon 1231v3 is a way better choice compared to most i7s, especially given the cost of the skylake i7s right now, you'd want to X99 if you needed the CPU performance they give.

[The_Sandman]

-

 

Ok, thanks

 

 

So here's an updated Build:

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($329.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock H170M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($82.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.88 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card  ($279.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Monitor: AOC G2460PF 144Hz 24.0" Monitor  ($249.99 @ Best Buy)

Total: $1274.80

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-29 07:47 EST-0500

[InfiniteZero0]

Xeon E3-1231 v3

MSI B85-G41

Whatever 16GB DDR3 you want

250GB 850 Evo

1TB WD Blue

GTX 970 for 1080p, R9 390 for 1440p

EVGA 600B

In case you didn't know by the way, overclocking generally doesn't void warranties and in the case of GPUs is very, very simple. The CPU isn't overclockable anyway.