First PC build, want opinions/help

[Yose17]

Greetings! I was thinking about building a custom PC for my upcoming birthday, and I wanted to get some opinions/criticism on the following build below from PCPartPicker. I would like to mainly use it for gaming/productivity. I'm still fairly new to custom PC's and would like to get any help if there are any other parts that would lower the cost of this build. I want to keep it <$1000 as I am on a budget. Also, if most of the parts are from Amazon, that'd be much more convenient and if it's on newegg, that's also fine. I plan on using one monitor for now which I already have, but most likely will be upgrading to a second monitor in the future. If you have any parts that are compatible and are cheaper, feel free to post them! Saving money doesn't hurt anyone. :^)

 

PC Part Picker permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Lk4rTW

Edited February 7, 2016 by Yose17

[Benergy]

Just now, Yose17 said:

Greetings! I was thinking about building a custom PC for my upcoming birthday, and I wanted to get some opinions/criticism on the following build below from PCPartPicker. I would like to mainly use it for gaming/productivity. I'm still fairly new to custom PC's and would like to get any help if there are any other parts that would lower the cost of this build. I want to keep it <$1000 as I am on a budget. If you have any parts that are compatible and are cheaper, feel free to post them! Saving money doesn't hurt anyone. :^)

 

PC Part Picker permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Lk4rTW

• A WD blue would do fine instead of a black.
• You could lower the PSU to 500W if you want.
• That CPU isn't for overclocking if you wanted to do that, you need a 'K' SKU (I know it's technically possible with some boards but thoroughly not recommended)

Other than that it's pretty good. 

[Aytex]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($183.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($164.38 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($80.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($66.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($73.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($219.99 @ Micro Center) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($84.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($36.95 @ B&H) 
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($12.49 @ OutletPC) 
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($12.49 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $993.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 15:14 EST-0500

 

[aeroencychris]

Welcome to the forum!  This is a pretty good build as is, but could be even better with a few tweaks.

First, you can probably manage to get a cheaper Z170 motherboard (although I'd stay away from ASRock since they just discontinued BCLK overclocking). I got one in a very similar build for ~$120. Anything Z170 should be quality.

For RAM I doubt you'll be needing 16GB. Buy it if you can fit in into the budget (I can't argue much since I have 16GB as well) but 8GB is plenty for most tasks, you'd be surprised. You can always upgrade later.

Good SSD choice, but for your mass storage a WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda will be more than enough, unless you really care about speeds for your bigger files.

Your GPU is my biggest complaint here. With a budget like that, you should be able to fit a GTX 970 or R9 390 easily. It'll give you much better performance over a 960 and it'll last much longer in terms of long-term performance.

The CX PSU isn't great, so I'd look for something better (I don't know enough to recommend a better one).

For fans, get a two pack to save some money  http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-AF120-Quiet-High-Airflow/dp/B00F6S0XJO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454876071&sr=8-1&keywords=af120+red

 

Overall great build though! I wish you luck.

[aeroencychris]

3 minutes ago, Aytex said:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($183.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($164.38 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($80.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($66.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($73.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($219.99 @ Micro Center) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($84.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($36.95 @ B&H) 
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($12.49 @ OutletPC) 
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($12.49 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $993.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 15:14 EST-0500

 

For $10 more a 6500 is worth it imo. Also, 380?

[Aytex]

Just now, cdsboy2000 said:

For $10 more a 6500 is worth it imo. Also, 380?

the only difference between it is speed, fraction of a fps increase.. 

OP wanted it under 1k

[aeroencychris]

1 minute ago, Aytex said:

the only difference between it is speed, fraction of a fps increase.. 

OP wanted it under 1k

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you get a better OC in terms of BCLK overclocking with a higher starting multiplier?

[Aytex]

Just now, cdsboy2000 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you get a better OC in terms of BCLK overclocking with a higher starting multiplier?

if OP wants to OC, get a better cpu cooler thus making the price rise...

As I Recap they want it under 1k

[aeroencychris]

Just now, Aytex said:

if OP wants to OC, get a better cpu cooler thus making the price rise...

Hyper 212 Evo is fine for this situation.

 

 

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Hyper 212 Evo is fine for this situation.

 

 

What do you not understand... its going to make it above 1k (well in my build it is)

I'm just following OP's want's

[aeroencychris]

4 minutes ago, Aytex said:

What do you not understand... its going to make it above 1k (well in my build it is)

I'm just following OP's want's

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sXm6YJ

Didn't change the PSU but there's plenty left in the budget to get something better. 

[Yose17]

2 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sXm6YJ

Didn't change the PSU but there's plenty left in the budget to get something better. 

I'm not necessarily looking to be AT $1000, mostly trying to be below what my original PCPartPicker post was already at (about $950). I'll also be tweaking my build according to everyone's post (hopefully). Thank you everyone for your continuous feedback! I'll be posting the updated list shortly.

[aeroencychris]

1 minute ago, Yose17 said:

I'm not necessarily looking to be AT $1000, mostly trying to be below what my original PCPartPicker post was already at (about $950). I'll also be tweaking my build according to everyone's post (hopefully). Thank you everyone for your continuous feedback! I'll be posting the updated list shortly.

Got it  I tried to to make it as low as possible while still being relatively the same. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about the build (considering I build one nearly identical for my brother a month ago).

[ShiroArikawa]

He needs a, not 960 for a 1k budget.