Questions about my first build

[Joop Moop]

Hey, so I'm new to this forum and to computers in general so I've got a few questions. I'm planning on building my first gaming pc and I'm not sure what components are absolutely necessary. Given that I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm basing my components off of this guy's post:

My components:

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

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($233.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($103.92 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($5.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($77.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card  ($317.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($109.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1179.72

 

 

Based on the comments, I trust this is a reasonable and suitable list of components. Anyway, I'm just curious about a few things.

 

-First, should I go for an i5 or an i7 processor? I'm just looking to get a stable 60fps on most AAA games so I'm not sure if an i7 would be worth the money (Note that my budget is around $1'500-$1'600 max)

-Second, what OS should I go for? It seems most games work on Windows 7 but there are a select few that have only been developed for Windows 8 or 10. Conversely, I've heard a lot of bad criticism on Win 8 and 10 so I'm leaning towards 7.

-And finally, any suggestions for peripherals? I don't need anything too fancy and I'd probably be fine with a simple office mouse and keyboard but I'm just curious if there are any particularly good and cheap gaming peripherals for beginners.

 

So tell me what you guys think. I'm hoping I can learn a lot from this forum.

[Starelementpoke]

3 minutes ago, Joop Moop said:

Hey, so I'm new to this forum and to computers in general so I've got a few questions. I'm planning on building my first gaming pc and I'm not sure what components are absolutely necessary. Given that I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm basing my components off of this guy's post:

My components:

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

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($233.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($103.92 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($5.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($77.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card  ($317.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($109.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1179.72

 

 

Based on the comments, I trust this is a reasonable and suitable list of components. Anyway, I'm just curious about a few things.

 

-First, should I go for an i5 or an i7 processor? I'm just looking to get a stable 60fps on most AAA games so I'm not sure if an i7 would be worth the money (Note that my budget is around $1'500-$1'600 max)

-Second, what OS should I go for? It seems most games work on Windows 7 but there are a select few that have only been developed for Windows 8 or 10. Conversely, I've heard a lot of bad criticism on Win 8 and 10 so I'm leaning towards 7.

-And finally, any suggestions for peripherals? I don't need anything too fancy and I'd probably be fine with a simple office mouse and keyboard but I'm just curious if there are any particularly good and cheap gaming peripherals for beginners.

 

So tell me what you guys think. I'm hoping I can learn a lot from this forum.

If just gaming, i5 is fine. Do you plan to OC?

[Moonzy]

10 minutes ago, Joop Moop said:

-First, should I go for an i5 or an i7 processor? I'm just looking to get a stable 60fps on most AAA games so I'm not sure if an i7 would be worth the money (Note that my budget is around $1'500-$1'600 max)

-Second, what OS should I go for? It seems most games work on Windows 7 but there are a select few that have only been developed for Windows 8 or 10. Conversely, I've heard a lot of bad criticism on Win 8 and 10 so I'm leaning towards 7.

-And finally, any suggestions for peripherals? I don't need anything too fancy and I'd probably be fine with a simple office mouse and keyboard but I'm just curious if there are any particularly good and cheap gaming peripherals for beginners.

1) i5 will do for gaming unless you plan to do something else like streaming and what not

2) windows 10 gets my recommendation over windows 7

3) cooler master devastator keyboard mouse combo is not bad, and its cheap

[Alexzz_]

a i5 should do just fine, a i7 is mostly only a upgrade for content creators for most games it is only a 5fps difference

[Mr.Meerkat]

Looks good but do you not want a mass storage drive? 256GB will fill up pretty quick if you plan on storing a few games  

[Joop Moop]

 

4 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Looks good but do you not want a mass storage drive? 256GB will fill up pretty quick if you plan on storing a few games  

Yeah, you're probably right haha. I missed that. I'll probably go for a 1TB drive. I haven't had a proper look and research on every single component so I'll probably make a few changes in the end.

[Elusivity]

First off, wait a month. The GTX 1070 or even 1080 will be in your price range and will blow the 390 out of the water most likely. Second, get a 1 or 2TB HDD for mass storage. 256GB fills up super quick. Third, W10 really isnt that bad, there are minimal issues. It will be supported long after 7 and 8.1, any real problems can be fixed with registry modification or online tools and it is the OS almost all big software companies target for optimisation. If you still aren't sure, you can still test it for a month then go back.

[Joop Moop]

25 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

If just gaming, i5 is fine. Do you plan to OC?

idk probably not. I've never overclocked before and I don't think it would be necessary given that I'm not gonna require anything too intensive (and since there are some trade-offs to it as well)

[Joop Moop]

6 minutes ago, Elusivity said:

First off, wait a month. The GTX 1070 or even 1080 will be in your price range and will blow the 390 out of the water most likely. Second, get a 1 or 2TB HDD for mass storage. 256GB fills up super quick. Third, W10 really isnt that bad, there are minimal issues. It will be supported long after 7 and 8.1, any real problems can be fixed with registry modification or online tools and it will is the OS almost all big software companies target for optimisation. If you still aren't sure, you can still test it for a month then go back.

Nice, thanks for the suggestions. I was planning to buy this in a month so I'll make sure to wait for the price drops.

[Elusivity]

3 minutes ago, Joop Moop said:

idk probably not. I've never overclocked before and I don't think it would be necessary given that I'm not gonna require anything too intensive (and since there are some trade-offs to it as well)

If this is the case you don't need a 6600K, a 6600 should suffice. Also liquid cooling would be overkill if you aren't OCing, but still nice to have in case you change your mind.