Guidance on first build

[Rellikspy]

I have been learning as much as I can about modern features available to put together a parts list for c PC build that would get me to a happy starting point with a little room to grow.

1. Budget & Location

I would like to keep my under $1,200 US excluding the video card.

2. Aim

I would say that my primary aim is for gaming although I am a sucker for all sorts of multitasking. I tend to run several programs at once such as music/videos while playing games, chatting and researching online.

I've recently started playing around with streaming games for friends and random internet folks so a system that could handle that would be nice to have. I'm fine with running newer games in the medium/high range at 1080p and ignoring 4k and ultra settings for the newest titles.I would like to get into some of the games I have been missing out on lately like the Assassin's Creed series.

3. Monitors

I'll most likely only ever run a single monitor, but support for multiple displays in the future couldn't hurt. My current monitor is a 23 inch HP at 1920x1080 using a vga cable, but it does support HDMI as well. I would get a new monitor in the future and use this one as a backup on another computer if it is still alive by then, but I'd like to use it currently to save some money for the new build.

4. Peripherals

I'm set on keyboards, mice, speakers and displays for now.

5. Why are you upgrading?

I'm upgrading because my current PC is a store bought HP pavilion from 2009 and running with only a 2.8 AMD quad core and a GT 430.  It can barely handle games from 5 years ago without dropping settings to the lowest possible.  I have some stuff in the works to upgrade the GPU and storage so I can squeeze a little life out of it and maybe have a lower end backup that my gf could use to game beside me while I talk her into getting a new PC built for herself. (She would actually need something geared more toward editing and artwork).

 

I've watched days worth of videos from a bunch of different tech channels, read spec sheets and played around on PC building websites ( https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/Hkbmcc  my first plan). 

My first thought was to go higher up my want mountain on the parts that I'm a little less confident to remove and upgrade later like the CPU/motherboard and then go more of the upper middle for others. That way, I could get in fairly quickly/cheaply/easily and only have a few upgrades to end up in that spot where I'd be really excited at what I had. 

 

I would like a motherboard that had 4 slots for ram even if I only start with 2x8GB or 2x4GB RAM so there would be room to grow from 8 GB to 16 or 16 to 32 if we decided to pump mine up to a workhorse and just build her a nice gaming setup making mine pull double duty. I don't see myself needed to bridge multiple GPU's unless PS and 3D rendering applications would benefit/need this. I can't really see needing 8 slots or anything that can handle more than 64GB total RAM since I'm not a serious streamer and we won't be rendering long videos.

I'm curious about the options for storage using  M.2 for the future since it seems this isn't fully utilized at this point and especially not for gaming. An older SATA SSD would likely suit me fine for now and Bigger HDD or Hybrid HDD for main storage.

I was planning on shooting straight to the i7-7700k since I was a little unsure of unseating the cooler and replacing the CPU from an i5 to an i7.

I'm not too picky about the case as long as it has enough room for my hands to get in there and enough space for cable management. I would love to do a black/orange, gray/orange or even a white/orange scheme overall, but I'm not married to this idea if a much better case for setting up would be more sensible.The be quiet! Silent Base 600 gives a nice subtle orange accent with a really sleek design if it makes sense to spend over $100 on a case.

I was thinking 700-800W for the power supply so I would have more than enough power to grow without having to remove the old one and rewire all the power plugs if I started too low before later upgrades.

 

I hope this was enough to give you folks an idea of what I was looking at so far and where I may have made some bad choices (other than the case in that current pcpartpicker list of course).I have a basic understanding of how the different components work together and that I need to keep the video card and CPU somewhat close in scale so that I'm not wasting potential power and money. Any advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm excited to take the plunge into building my own pc and want to make sure I get all of my ducks in a row before ending up with a poorly chosen mess and a bunch of wasted money.

 

 

[seon123]

You said USD, but you're using Pcpartpicker Canada? What would be your budget in CAD, since I'm assuming you live in Canada?

[unknownmiscreant]

I was in the same position as you for my build. My advice would be to spend the upfront on things like motherboard, CPU, GPU, power supply as in order to upgrade them, these have to be replaced. Other items such as RAM, SSDs, HDDs, fans etc can be added to the system.

 

If you have older parts lying around that are still in usable condition, use those in your system and buy better parts down the line. I did that with power supplys and storage for my build

[Jtrain]

Why not go for something like a ryzen 1600? Plenty of room for multi-tasking and upgradabilty. I linked a decent build below.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PGCTcc

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Jtrain said:

Why not go for something like a ryzen 1600? Plenty of room for multi-tasking and upgradabilty. I linked a decent build below.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PGCTcc

with a budget like his, why would you?

[Rellikspy]

Oops. I'm definitely in the US. My current PC is an HP Pavilion with a 2.8GHz Phenom processer, 4X2 GB sticks of ram, a really old WD 1TB Green HDD and GT 430 1GB video card. Not much I could salvage other than the Hard Drive and I'd really like to keep that pc as a backup since it still runs reasonably well for being so dated and then build something new for my main PC.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Rellikspy said:

Oops. I'm definitely in the US. My current PC is an HP Pavilion with a 2.8GHz Phenom processer, 4X2 GB sticks of ram, a really old WD 1TB Green HDD and GT 430 1GB video card. Not much I could salvage other than the Hard Drive and I'd really like to keep that pc as a backup since it still runs reasonably well for being so dated and then build something new for my main PC.

maybe not even the hdd, it may be IDE instead of SATA?

[Rellikspy]

Here's a US partpicker link https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PGCTcc

I'm thinking about maybe a GTX 1070 since I won't be running anything in 4k and it looks like I should be able to still get most games to run well in the High settings.

[Guest]

you say budget is 1200 without the gpu, so the final build can exceed it, correct?

[Rellikspy]

Right. The lower the better of course though.

[Rellikspy]

If I'm looking at going for a GTX 1070 for the eventual GPU since I'm not looking to play all the latest games in 4K or at the max settings, is the i7 7700K overkill for the card even though there will be a lot of multitasking and non gaming tasks like visual art and streaming?

 

[seon123]

Went for a sensible, but color matching build, with the Silent Base 600, an SLI capable board and a 750W PSU. For multitasking and streaming, the 1700 is better than the 7700K, though in just gaming, the 7700K will outperform it.

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wQp6tJ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wQp6tJ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($286.76 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($64.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI - X370 SLI PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($131.39 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: SK hynix - SL308 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K4000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.85 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($149.89 @ OutletPC) 
Case: be quiet! - Silent Base 600 w/Window (Black/Orange) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($109.18 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.90 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1152.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-27 23:08 EDT-0400

[Rellikspy]

So I need to decide where my slant should lean? If more for gaming it would go to the i7 and if more for a multitasking beast it would go to the Ryzen?

[xdeathshot20]

[PCPartPicker part list](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PKYs4C) / [Price breakdown by merchant](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PKYs4C/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD - Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VtFXsY/amd-ryzen-5-1500x-35ghz-quad-core-processor-yd150xbbaebox) | $176.99 @ SuperBiiz 
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master - MasterLiquid Lite 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TDdFf7/cooler-master-masterliquid-lite-120-667-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-mlw-d12m-a20pw-r1) | $45.93 @ Amazon 
**Motherboard** | [Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZHyxFT/asus-strix-b350-f-gaming-atx-am4-motherboard-strix-b350-f-gaming) | $91.98 @ Newegg 
**Memory** | [Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tPVBD3/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2a2400c16r) | $115.88 @ Amazon 
**Storage** | [Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3kL7YJ/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam) | $104.75 @ Newegg 
**Storage** | [Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Fz2kcf/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd1003fzex) | $70.89 @ OutletPC 
**Video Card** | [EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tJyxFT/evga-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-sc-gaming-video-card-06g-p4-6163-kr) | $294.88 @ OutletPC 
**Case** | [NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ms6BD3/nzxt-case-cas340wb1) | $49.99 @ Newegg 
**Power Supply** | [EVGA - SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/g63RsY/evga-power-supply-120g10650xr) | $74.88 @ OutletPC 
**Operating System** | [Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wtgPxr/microsoft-os-kw900140) | $89.89 @ OutletPC 
 | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
 | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1176.06
 | Mail-in rebates | -$60.00
 | **Total** | **$1116.06**
 | Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2017-07-27 23:18 EDT-0400 |

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Rellikspy said:

So I need to decide where my slant should lean? If more for gaming it would go to the i7 and if more for a multitasking beast it would go to the Ryzen?

pretty much yes

[seon123]

3 minutes ago, Rellikspy said:

So I need to decide where my slant should lean? If more for gaming it would go to the i7 and if more for a multitasking beast it would go to the Ryzen?

The difference in gaming usually starts showing at around 120 FPS. For lighter titles, it's higher before it shows. 

For a better overall CPU, the Ryzen is better, but for applications that use few threads, the 7700K will be better

[Rellikspy]

Is it possible for my to see how many cores on my current pc's quad core CPU are being utilized to help me with that decision?

[Guest]

going forward its assumed that more cores will be better, that hints on ryzen being more useful (but who knows the future right)

 

BUT since some people still play old cpu intensive games like MMOs that arent optimized for that many cores, its possible you might benefit more from high clocked 4 core...

 

it all depends

[Jtrain]

9 hours ago, Rellikspy said:

Is it possible for my to see how many cores on my current pc's quad core CPU are being utilized to help me with that decision?

I'll see if i can pull some screenshots of my task manager for you. Currently running a ryzen 7 1700 with 32gbs of ram, a 128GBM.2 Sata drive and a GTX780 (between a 1050ti and a 1060 but closer to 1060 3gb) to try and help you with everyday examples.

 

Edit: Heres a screen shot of task manager to see how easily these tasks can be handled.

Apps running:

Spotify streaming music

15 Google Chrome tabs open with 2x 1080p60 youtube videos playing

3 firefox tabs

2 opera tabs

2 teamviewer windows open connecting to VMs

A 6GB file transfer

 

 

[Rellikspy]

the cpu graphs look like they are being used very lightly across three board.  What Abbott usage during a decently intensive game?