evolution The Gaming PC 7 Years In the Making

[Junky987]

It all started back in around 2008 when I was able to finally convince my parents to buy me my very first computer, after spending hours of time at the school library afterhours just to play runescape, and getting in trouble for installing Warcraft3 on a science lab station computer. I was finally indulged by my very video game disapproving father with a 199$ notebook from Costco. I played League of Legends when it was in Open Beta, I played the alpha version of Mine-craft and even picked up playing Team Fortress 2 at a competetive level a good three years into owning the 25FPS laptop setup (I only got to silver in highlander). But it just not that enjoyable of an experience, I ended up hating the situation that using the small and clunky keyboard that was with the thing I could use and my roller ball USB mouse was a nightmare to utilize, and it was way worse than you could think it was, I ended up making the laptop a psuedo gaming tower by turning it heat sink side up, hooking a VGA monitor to it and using a USB keyboard and mouse on a desk made of couch tables. So I had worked my way onto craigslist and ended up trading my Laptop for a solid Full ATX sized Gaming computer in 2012. with reasonable specifications and hardware for a gaming computer, in my mind. 

 

Unfortunately I was vastly mistaken, I had ended up inheriting a computer that was made around the same time my laptop was, and while the computer was probably rock solid back in 2007, it was 2012 dude. The AMD Quad core was rocking a ,to this day, unknown chip-set with an amazingly fast 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, A Radeon HD 5870, 2 500 GB HDD from Seagate (in raid 0, which I only found out was the case just recently as I upgraded the beast, more on that later) and a stupidly overkill 1000W Server Power Supply from Great Power (See image Attached)

 

 

and had this relatively low to mid tier setup for around 2 more years untill I finally turned 16 in 2013 and worked my first job at a roller rink. Where I spent all of my first 4 paychecks into buying an Nvidia GTX 970 SC from EVGA. While this enormously improved the quality of GPU centered games. I would have horrible mid game crashes due to CPU bottlenecking and have weird situations where in games would be running fine for hours and then not be able to run more than 20 FPS until an entire system restart was preformed. And now, as a full time enterprise communication helpdesk worker, I was finally able to put the parts that I wanted and made this frankenstein of a computer. Full list of PC parts and Image of final setup below.

 

Case - Antec Twelve Hundred V3

Power Supply - Great Power, 1000W Semi-modular Server Power Supply

Mother Board - ASUS H170-Plus D3

CPU - Intel Core i5-6400

Cooling -  All-in-one Closed Loop Corsair H75 Water Cooled Heat Sink

Ram - PNY Anarchy 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3 2133MHz (PC3-17000)

Storage - 1 TB Seagate Hardrive, and a 128 GB ADATA SSD

(And a Blue Ray Optical Drive)

With this set up (Running at 1080P 60Hz) I have never run into a single game that I cannot run at Ultra setting with AA and MSAA under 60 FPS, and I cannot be any happier. I would love to get some input on what I can do to this setup to make it a "better build" and I love to hear any feedback that more experienced PC builders may have for a new builder like me. Cheers!

 

 

Update #1: I do just want to make it clear I did not purchase either of the case or the PSU, they both came inside of the older computer package deal I traded my laptop and tablet for on craigslist, should I be looking to change the power supply/case?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Curufinwe_wins]

Need to fix images (add them to the post directly), but that's the main thing.

 

PSU is insane overkill as usual for newer builders, aio is rather inefficient from a cost/value and noise/performance perspective, super huge not fan of the 1200 case. 

 

But as long as you like it sweet! Look forward to see your cable management/build pics!

[ARikozuM]

Not running Windows XP? Too new for me.

 

I would upgrade the SSD to +240GB.

[glitchmaster0001]

my first computer that i can call my very own, i built it in 2015. all the parts were from my schools edump and they were from like 2006. 

AMD Phenon X4 9750

Stock AMD Heatsink

8GB DDR2

Gigabyte AM2+ motherboard

R7 240

Antec 650w PSU

1TB HDD

 

it wasnt bad for a first computer and i still have it even after building multiple better used PCs i still keep it as a reminder 

 

[mDox]

I love hearing the stories of how Frankenstein computers come to be. I love even more reminiscing about first computers. I remembering upgrading my family's living room computer with Geforce 3 (Circa 2002!?) so that I could play Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It was revolutionary. @Junky987 Just give it a few more years and you'll be successful enough to really indulge in the hobby, it grows with you. Check out my current build project,15-ish years after my first PC DIY.

[ARikozuM]

My first PC ran Windows 95 and I added an ATI Rage card so that I could play Age of Empires reasonably well. Junkyard builds were awesome and scary back then.