Is This a Good First Build?

[PH-G7]

Will this be a good build?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gt7Cf7

I will mostly be doing mild gaming at 1080p and my budget was around $1,000 with everything included.

[Vercii]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PsfnWZ

 

I just made this one up.

[aisle9]

15 minutes ago, PH-G7 said:

Will this be a good build?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gt7Cf7

I will mostly be doing mild gaming at 1080p and my budget was around $1,000 with everything included.

I'd go with an R9 380 over the GTX 960, and yes, I have a 960. If you're planning on upgrading this PC in the future, consider either a Haswell or Skylake i3, even an overclocked G3258, instead of the 860K.

 

Speaking of overclocking, if you need to do so, you'll need an aftermarket cooler. The Cryorig H7, Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and beQuiet! Pure Rock are all great places to start looking.

[barkloaf]

Alot of people when proposing new builds pick that network card, actually. I'd highly suggest something different. Get a Rosewill AC1200 PCE network card. It is a little bit more expensive, but the speeds and reliability is alot better.

[barkloaf]

Also, I think that you might want to lean more towards @Vercii's suggestion too.

[PH-G7]

21 minutes ago, AwesomeAustin226 said:

Alot of people when proposing new builds pick that network card, actually. I'd highly suggest something different. Get a Rosewill AC1200 PCE network card. It is a little bit more expensive, but the speeds and reliability is alot better.

That's interesting.  That card was recommended to me by many of people in the past.

[barkloaf]

1 minute ago, PH-G7 said:

That's interesting.  That card was recommended to me by many of people in the past.

You can still go with the TP-Link card. Do some further research and then make your choice.

[PH-G7]

30 minutes ago, Vercii said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cW8bFT

 

I just made this one up.

That's not too bad but I really need the extra vram that the 960 offers.

[Vercii]

Just now, PH-G7 said:

That's not too bad but I really need the extra vram that the 960 offers.

You can add in the 960 in if you want, I just tried to stay in your budget range. 

[PH-G7]

23 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I'd go with an R9 380 over the GTX 960, and yes, I have a 960. If you're planning on upgrading this PC in the future, consider either a Haswell or Skylake i3, even an overclocked G3258, instead of the 860K.

 

Speaking of overclocking, if you need to do so, you'll need an aftermarket cooler. The Cryorig H7, Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and beQuiet! Pure Rock are all great places to start looking.

CPU's are always tough when it comes to a gaming rig and I really spent a lot of time looking into the best CPU for me while it does lack a current upgrade path, the 860k offers, from what I can gather, similar or better performance than an i3 or the 3258 respectively.  I picked the 960 because I like NVidia's software like game optimization and shadowplay.  I do realize that the 380 has better performance.  In terms of overclocking I do think it's funny that you told be to buy an i3 which is not overclockable and then tell me what good CPU coolers I should get to overclock.  But yes, I was planning on adding an aftermarket cooler in the future.

[aisle9]

49 minutes ago, PH-G7 said:

CPU's are always tough when it comes to a gaming rig and I really spent a lot of time looking into the best CPU for me while it does lack a current upgrade path, the 860k offers, from what I can gather, similar or better performance than an i3 or the 3258 respectively.  I picked the 960 because I like NVidia's software like game optimization and shadowplay.  I do realize that the 380 has better performance.  In terms of overclocking I do think it's funny that you told be to buy an i3 which is not overclockable and then tell me what good CPU coolers I should get to overclock.  But yes, I was planning on adding an aftermarket cooler in the future.

You sound like me lol. The rig in my signature started off with a G3258 in it, entirely because I wanted an upgrade path rather than a rebuild in a year.

 

My rule of thumb is that if you want an upgrade path, go G3258 and overclock it to hell. If you want a cheap CPU that can handle itself well and avoid bottlenecking most GPUs, and you're not worried about an upgrade, grab the 860K. If you need a quad-core (or at least quad-threaded) processor and you want wiggle room for an upgrade, an i3 is your best bet.

 

I went with the 960 for two reasons: sale price and, more importantly, EVGA. I am extremely brand loyal to EVGA, and EVGA doesn't make AMD cards, so I'm a bit limited. I readily acknowledge that the 380 and 380X are more powerful, sometimes at lower prices, than their 960 equivalents, but it's not like a 960 can't hold its own. Once overclocked, they're great 1080p cards.

 

An aftermarket cooler, particularly a decent one, is never a bad idea imo if the budget allows. Stock coolers can be loud and don't always do a great job of dissipating heat. For the $35 an H7 would cost, you get a quieter, cooler machine that's ready to be overclocked, whether you've got your overclocker chip in there already or not.

[PH-G7]

11 hours ago, aisle9 said:

You sound like me lol. The rig in my signature started off with a G3258 in it, entirely because I wanted an upgrade path rather than a rebuild in a year.

 

My rule of thumb is that if you want an upgrade path, go G3258 and overclock it to hell. If you want a cheap CPU that can handle itself well and avoid bottlenecking most GPUs, and you're not worried about an upgrade, grab the 860K. If you need a quad-core (or at least quad-threaded) processor and you want wiggle room for an upgrade, an i3 is your best bet.

 

I went with the 960 for two reasons: sale price and, more importantly, EVGA. I am extremely brand loyal to EVGA, and EVGA doesn't make AMD cards, so I'm a bit limited. I readily acknowledge that the 380 and 380X are more powerful, sometimes at lower prices, than their 960 equivalents, but it's not like a 960 can't hold its own. Once overclocked, they're great 1080p cards.

 

An aftermarket cooler, particularly a decent one, is never a bad idea imo if the budget allows. Stock coolers can be loud and don't always do a great job of dissipating heat. For the $35 an H7 would cost, you get a quieter, cooler machine that's ready to be overclocked, whether you've got your overclocker chip in there already or not.

The thing about the upgrade path is that haswell chips is that at some point or another, they're going to stop making them and that could happen before I could get an upgrade.  If I go with an 860k while there is currently not an upgrade path, AMD usually keeps a certain platform through multiple generations.