Just Another ROTM Gaming PC

-ism · August 30, 2017

Sold my old 3570k rig about a year ago and decided to stop gaming to "pursue life" & other hippie crap, and while pursuing life I got a new job where I coincidentally found myself working besides a bunch of gamers. I'm sick and tired of playing games on a GTX 960m craptop that can barely run PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on low at 720p, so I decided it's time to build myself a new rig. This PC will eventually evolve into something great, but for now it's just your generic run-of-the-mill gaming box. I'm a poor-ish college student with a limited budget so I tried to source as much as I could from Craigslist. Anyways, here are the specs.

Case: Fractal Design Define R5

I wanted a case with good cable management and sound deadening material, so I went with the R5. Purchased off of Newegg, which I instantly regretted because I found an NZXT H440 on craigslist for only $70, which imo is uglier on the outside but way prettier on the inside with it's split power supply drawer. But alas. Price: $140 on Newegg

Motherboard: ASUS Z270 Tuf Mark 2

I was going to buy the ASUS z270 Prime-A but then I found this board on craigslist for $120. Offered the guy $100 but he was firm, and that was a fair price, especially considering the fact that I don't have to pay tax or shipping. New in box, guy purchased it then tried to return it to get an AMD board but Amazon messed up and refunded him and he got to keep it. I think the yellow accents completely ruin the board so I may plastidip portions of it soon if I don't end up upgrading to Coffee Lake.

PSU: EVGA G3 650watt

Another great craigslist find, $80 new in box. I think it's hideously ugly but it will do for the time being. No need to upgrade, might paint the part visible from the case if I can.

CPU: Intel i5-7600k

Bought from Frys for $220 with my Barracuda HDD, came out to $302 out the door. Didn't want to buy a used CPU plus there aren't any for sale in my area. Gotta love that Cali tax. Also didn't realize that the CPU didn't come with a cooler, was gonna use a stock cooler for a while until I got the rest of my setup situated (monitor and all that). Frys had a limited selection.

SSD: Samsung 256GB Evo Pro $90

Bought from a user on the LTT classifieds, hasn't arrived yet.

HDD: Seagate 2TB barracuda

Frys pricematched to Amazon, $10 off $59 before tax.

Cooler: Corsair H100i $60

Picking it up tomorrow from a guy on craigslist for $60. Wanted to get the Kraken X62 or BeQuiet! silent loop 280mm but both of those are more than twice the price of the H100i plus shipping. Really wish I didn't have to buy the H100i, I had 2 before and hated them both with a passion because of their noise and irritating clicking noise. I would get an air cooler, but don't want to have to worry if the RAM will have enough room.

GPU: Any GTX 1080 I can find on Craigslist for less than 500, will have the money for it next week.

RAM: 16GB of Corsair Dominator 3000mhz

Craigslist again, $120 and they are already painted white so they will match the inside of the Define R5.

Total Investment: $820 so far, after GPU a little under $1300

I will add more pictures and round out the post a bit more once I get off of work. Talk to you all in a bit. If you guys would have done some things differently to save money, let me know! Interested to hear what you all have to say.