My First Build!

[AcousticLeo]

 

1. Budget & Location

$1,700 USD - 'Merica

2. Aim

High-end gaming and streaming, video and audio recording and editing, photography. My all in one.

3. Monitors

I plan on always running 2 monitors. I don't know if I'll upgrade to three in the future but that option is open.

4. Peripherals

Yes, I need everything! I'm building from scratch.

5. Why are you upgrading?

I had a budget laptop that lasted 8 years before it died on me last year. I'm wanting to build a PC because I know you can get more bang for your buck this way than going with a pre-built.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YNqyD3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YNqyD3/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($348.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($6.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($156.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($87.77 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($47.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($84.99 @ NCIX US) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($119.99 @ Micro Center) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($119.99 @ Micro Center) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master OCTANE Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Windows 10 Pro ($29.69)
Total: $1629.11
 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[Vercii]

That build looks fine. I don't see any problems with it. 

[crysilis]

I feel u went a bit overkill and spent too much on the cpu the general rule is to typically make sure your not spending more money on the cpu and rather the gpu and your cpu costs more thna the cpu U usually want to spend more on your gpu but not so much that our cpu is bottlencking dat gpu

[cc143]

No need to get thermal compound you get some with most coolers.

 

You should consider a larger SSD to use for current projects i.e. putting all your photos to edit them and then move them to your HDD. Also, 250gb fills up very fast. 

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WQwWMp

 

apart from that, perhaps going for a single bigger ultrawide display would be more beneficial, gaming in dual monitor setups is awful (I actually keep it on single monitor for gaming) and unless you are running 2 or 3 different tasks at once, a bigger monitor would be best.  

[AcousticLeo]

13 minutes ago, Vercii said:

That build looks fine. I don't see any problems with it. 

Thanks! Also, should those monitors serve me well? 

4 minutes ago, crysilis said:

I feel u went a bit overkill and spent too much on the cpu the general rule is to typically make sure your not spending more money on the cpu and rather the gpu and your cpu costs more thna the cpu U usually want to spend more on your gpu but not so much that our cpu is bottlencking dat gpu

With the new generation of gpu's on the horizon I wanted to keep my options open and standing better for future upgrades. If my CPU and MOBO is solid, I should be able to upgrade a GPU no problem in the future... However, if i wanted a better GPU later but found out I was being held back by my CPU I'd kick myself.

[DocSwag]

You might want to consider the 5820k since it's extra cores will be useful for video editing

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jm7Vt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jm7Vt6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($369.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI PLUS ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($193.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($87.77 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card  ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($61.59 @ NZXT) 
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($84.99 @ NCIX US) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($119.99 @ Micro Center) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($119.99 @ Micro Center) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master OCTANE Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Windows 10 Pro ($29.69)
Total: $1693.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-13 17:50 EDT-0400

 

[crysilis]

3 minutes ago, AcousticLeo said:

Thanks! Also, should those monitors serve me well? 

With the new generation of gpu's on the horizon I wanted to keep my options open and standing better for future upgrades. If my CPU and MOBO is solid, I should be able to upgrade a GPU no problem in the future... However, if i wanted a better GPU later but found out I was being held back by my CPU I'd kick myself.

then you should just wait for polaris/ pascal prices of older gpus will go down and we will get new more powerful gpus so you can afford SLI and such

[AcousticLeo]

Thanks everyone for the great input! I've been doing research and just started learning all of this so don't be afraid to point something out to me. 

5 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

You might want to consider the 5820k since it's extra cores will be useful for video editing

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jm7Vt6

 

Thanks I'll look into it! If the only slightly lessens the load of working with video or if I take a blow to multitasking or gaming I'll stay with 6700k. I wanna test the waters of overclocking haha.

11 minutes ago, cc143 said:

No need to get thermal compound you get some with most coolers.

 

You should consider a larger SSD to use for current projects i.e. putting all your photos to edit them and then move them to your HDD. Also, 250gb fills up very fast. 

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WQwWMp

 

apart from that, perhaps going for a single bigger ultrawide display would be more beneficial, gaming in dual monitor setups is awful (I actually keep it on single monitor for gaming) and unless you are running 2 or 3 different tasks at once, a bigger monitor would be best.  

I *thought* I read somewhere that the thermal compound that comes stock on items, as a general rule, is junk and should always apply my own. Is that not true? Also, yeah, I'm always multitasking and I hate alt-tabbing between programs when I'm full screen so I need at least 2 monitors. Are they ok?

[DocSwag]

Just now, AcousticLeo said:

I *thought* I read somewhere that the thermal compound that comes stock on items, as a general rule, is junk and should always apply my own. Is that not true?

It depends. Cheap coolers generally come with cheap thermal compound. Generally, though, higher end coolers do come with decent thermal compound. High-end aftermarket thermal compound, though, will probably be a little better than the stuff that comes with your cooler.

[cc143]

Just now, AcousticLeo said:

Thanks everyone for the great input! I've been doing research and just started learning all of this so don't be afraid to point something out to me. 

Thanks I'll look into it! If the only slightly lessens the load of working with video or if I take a blow to multitasking or gaming I'll stay with 6700k. I wanna test the waters of overclocking haha.

I *thought* I read somewhere that the thermal compound that comes stock on items, as a general rule, is junk and should always apply my own. Is that not true? Also, yeah, I'm always multitasking and I hate alt-tabbing between programs when I'm full screen so I need at least 2 monitors. Are they ok?

The compound that comes with the cooler is ok, not enough of a difference to bother buying anything else, unless you are going to go for subzero cooling, no difference is actually noticeable. 

 

The monitors are ok for the price you could do better, like IPS panel etc but realistically it would cost too much to get 2 of them.