First PC Build - 17 yo Gamer/YouTuber

[xierdanx]

Hello everyone! I am 17 years old and have been following LMG for a couple of years, and just joined the forum. I bought a $500 typical 12 year old kid PC 5 years ago from Best Buy (HP). I started making YouTube videos ever since, and mainly used the computer to play WoW and then to record my Xbox Gaming. 5 years later at 17, I want something that can render videos without risking of my computer sounding like it's going into hyperspeed, can play most games at medium-high settings (I'm not interested in maxing out in 4k or anything), and can support streaming PC games (which I know will be more intensive than the following), and streaming/recording my Xbox gameplay as before.

 

Budget: $600-$800 (Looking to build/purchase around March-ish, before College)
Location: Ohio, United States of America
Preferred Retailer?: There is a Microcenter in a nearby town, but ordering online is fine.
Number of monitors: Currently 2, probably will expand to 3.
Watercooling: I would need to learn how to go about maintenance, but willing to learn!
OS: Currently Windows 10, would like to go with that once again.
FPS Outlook: Smooth 60ish FPS at Medium-High Settings in WOW, CS, COD. Would like to be able to run other games such as Tomb Raider, Arma etc. as well (perhaps at lower settings if needed).
Software: I use Sony Vegas and sometimes After Effects for videos, as well as OBS for Recording/Streaming. I render/record/stream at 720p 60fps currently.

 

I don't need monitors, headsets, keyboard, mouse etc.
I think I have included good spec information, but let me know if there is something you wish to know!

[brighteyes890]

How much research into building / part choosing have you done? I would say it is more than worth a month or two of solid research, rather than getting someone else to pick out the parts for you. Whilst there are plenty of people who could easily put a system together for you, I would suggest putting a build parts list together after doing some research and then putting it out there for people to critique.

[DarkBlade2117]

On a school computer though you are probably looking at a Xeon 1231v3 and like a R9 380, though if I were you I would go for a used 290x, though like you said you aren't looking to max anything out.

You can probably re-use your RAM and storage, if you need more storage something like a 1-2TB WD Red Pro would be fine.

As for the motherboard an H97 or B85 board that has features you would like can be good.

Power Supply, an EVGA 650w GS/GQ/G2 will be good, if it is more than 650w good, that will just allow for future upgrades.

As for a case, something like a NZXT S340, NZXTElite 210, or a cheap Fractal case will be good.

Just use stock cooling, it will be fine. 

Maybe like a 240-250GB SSD for your most played games. 

 

23 minutes ago, brighteyes890 said:

How much research into building / part choosing have you done? I would say it is more than worth a month or two of solid research, rather than getting someone else to pick out the parts for you. Whilst there are plenty of people who could easily put a system together for you, I would suggest putting a build parts list together after doing some research and then putting it out there for people to critique.

A month or two? What!? It took me a week of solid research and videos to realize what is good, and what is bad. Honestly... two months is crazy. Even a month is to long, we can not tell him what he can do but we can direct him in the right direction. 

[Starelementpoke]

Just now, DarkBlade2117 said:

A month or two? What!? It took me a week of solid research and videos to realize what is good, and what is bad. Honestly... two months is crazy. Even a month is to long, we can not tell him what he can do but we can direct him in the right direction. 

I spent over a year... Then again, took me that long to scrape together $320.

[brighteyes890]

18 minutes ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

On a school computer though you are probably looking at a Xeon 1231v3 and like a R9 380, though if I were you I would go for a used 290x, though like you said you aren't looking to max anything out.

You can probably re-use your RAM and storage, if you need more storage something like a 1-2TB WD Red Pro would be fine.

As for the motherboard an H97 or B85 board that has features you would like can be good.

Power Supply, an EVGA 650w GS/GQ/G2 will be good, if it is more than 650w good, that will just allow for future upgrades.

As for a case, something like a NZXT S340, NZXTElite 210, or a cheap Fractal case will be good.

Just use stock cooling, it will be fine. 

Maybe like a 240-250GB SSD for your most played games. 

Do not use a WD Red.. Blue or Black are your best bet for day to day usage like this fella wants.

 

16 minutes ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

A month or two? What!? It took me a week of solid research and videos to realize what is good, and what is bad. Honestly... two months is crazy. Even a month is to long, we can not tell him what he can do but we can direct him in the right direction. 

A month is perfectly fine. Big purchases like this should certainly take some good researching.

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, brighteyes890 said:

A month is perfectly fine. Big purchases like this should certainly take some good researching.

Or just get someone to make you a part list like this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/76RVhM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/76RVhM/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($61.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Mushkin Essentials 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($58.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($184.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $776.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-12 09:24 EST-0500

Assuming you won´t be reusing parts.

[cortexcortex]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($83.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($62.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380X 4GB DD XXX OC Video Card  ($213.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $773.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-12 09:25 EST-0500

 

is what I'd most likely go for.

[DarkBlade2117]

2 minutes ago, brighteyes890 said:

Do not use a WD Red.. Blue or Black are your best bet for day to day usage like this fella wants.

WD Reds are fine, Blacks will be loud and Blues are not in 2TB from m understanding. Many many people use Reds for everyday use. 

$600-$800 is a lot of money though I don't think you understand, we've had hundreds of people come on here with that budget and have perfect luck, some have even stuck around like myself. I came here to learn, researching PCs leads to many different answers and sometimes biased answered. A good portion of googling kept leading me to the shitty toms hardware site where everyone and everybody fanboys to no other, PCPartPicker is no help because everyone there seems to think a FX 8350 is a god of CPUs, any other website led to more questions and less answers. It is better to directly ask for parts list, then ask WHY that person chose that part. Not go research it yourself, what would be the point of this forum if we told everyone to go research for the next 1-2 months? Not very much, we would rarely be helping anyone. He came here for help, I am going to give him help. Not going to tell him to go research stuff that the people of LTT can answer in a much quicker time frame. It's like telling a 10 year old kid to research socialism

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, cortexcortex said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($83.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($62.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380X 4GB DD XXX OC Video Card  ($213.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $773.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-12 09:25 EST-0500

 

is what I'd most likely go for.

Not that psu, you can do much better. That case is a no. And you can´t oc this cpu, no real point in getting an after market cooler unless you want it quieter, but in that case just get the cheaper tx3 or t4.

[The_Sandman]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($70.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($67.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380X 4GB DD XXX OC Video Card  ($213.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.26 @ Mac Mall)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $747.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-12 09:38 EST-0500

[brighteyes890]

1 minute ago, Starelementpoke said:

And just like those people, he will also get many more people trying to give him good unbiased advice. There are those people on these forums as well.

OP can really do what he wants, I'm not too fussed. I just think doing your own research is a good part of learning about things you are purchasing. Having the answers ready for you is never the best way to learn anything!

[DarkBlade2117]

7 minutes ago, brighteyes890 said:

Because then people like you go and tell him to do something, and give him bad advice. Or biased advice, or whatever. You will get the same on every forum.

 

No, Some people like myself, Byalexandr, and MANY more people are the ones who tell people not to jump on the bandwagon, I may have given some WRONG advice and have been quickly corrected, in which I will do some further research to not make the mistake again. Though giving bad advice is like telling him to go get a Corair CX650 because Corsair makes it and Corsair is a trustworthy company, though don't ever buy something from a company because you like them. I may LOVE NZXT though I would never buy one of the Phantom Series, or I may love EVGA though that doesn't mean I am going to tell them to go buy one of their overpriced motherboards, or Corsairs overpriced PSUs, If someone says they want a Fury X, I tell them to get a 980Ti because frankly the 980Ti performs better, if someone wants a GTX 960, I direct them to a R9 380/x unless they need a 960 for example if they have a nvidia shield, otherwise a 380 will be better. If AMDs Zen can somehow perform better than Intel, I will have NO problem telling someone to go pick up a Zen CPU, Yeah, Maybe I do favor some companies though as stated, I like EVGA and NZXT, though I would never recommend some of their products. You seem to believe that every forum and forum user is the same, they all jump on the bandwagon and just say what everyone else says. Yeah, this may be true for a lot of people though simply a lot of other people can counter them and will hopefully come on top to help the OP go in the right path. Also for your second quote to me, yeah having the answers ready may not be the best, Though we, LTT can give him those answers and EXPLAIN the stuff in a much more user-friendly way. Research on technology leads to nothing but fanboys and people on the bandwagon, it is not good advice to tell someone to go research technology.