Making my first build

[Fordington]

Hey LTT Forums, it's my birthday soon and with the cash from it I'm hoping to build my first gaming PC. My current custom PC is nearing 4 years old and while I could upgrade my gpu and maybe my RAM, I personally think it's time to just build my first system as my current one was built for me by my local PC shop, so I was wondering what you guys thought of my choice of components and if you had any advice for me.

The components I've chosen are as follows:

MoBo: ASRock H270 Pro4 

CPU:  Intel Core i5 7500

GPU: NVidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB EVGA Superclocked (Maybe a 1080)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR 4 2x8 GB 2400mhz (

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W G2

Case: NZXT S340 Mid Tower

My location is the UK and my budget is around £1000 but I can go slightly over

[Herman Mcpootis]

get a ryzen 1600 or i5 8400 instead of kabylake. need os/monitor/peripherals?

[Damascus]

7400 is terrible and dead, get an r5 or 8th gen i5.

[AMDPRO]

2 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

get a ryzen 1600 or i5 8400 instead of kabylake. need os/monitor/peripherals?

I agree and believe that you should get Ryzen 1600 and a b350 mobo.

For axpromiatley your budget, this is a lot better

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/TNFfrH/great-amd-gaming-build

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, AMDPRO said:

I agree and believe that you should get Ryzen 1600 and a b350 mobo.

For axpromiatley your budget, this is a lot better

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/TNFfrH/great-amd-gaming-build

don't just keep spamming that one build, prices and avalibility varies alot in different countries.

[AMDPRO]

Just now, herman mcpootis said:

don't just keep spamming that one build, prices and avalibility varies alot in different countries.

I personally think its a great build. Ik that prices vary, Its just a recommendation. Alot of people are getting 1050 ti till I show them this part list, and with the same budget they get a 1080

[NTDaws]

Intel CPUs 7th Gen and down are dead now, unless u can't afford anything better. I5 8400 is the best option for gaming atm. I own one, it's lit.

[Fardin]

consider something like this!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£187.42 @ Ebuyer) 
Motherboard: MSI - Z370-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£96.56 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£128.72 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: SK hynix - SL308 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£77.93 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£52.96 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Mini Video Card  (£365.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Case: Phanteks - Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Case  (£51.95 @ Aria PC) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£73.71 @ Box Limited) 
Total: £1035.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-12 16:25 BST+0100

[Guest]

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/JWcsd6
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/JWcsd6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor  (£187.42 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£103.27 @ More Computers)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (£128.72 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston - SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£73.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card  (£383.94 @ Aria PC)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  (£43.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: Corsair - Builder 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£55.47 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1014.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-12 16:33 BST+0100

 

[Fordington]

On 12/10/2017 at 3:54 PM, herman mcpootis said:

get a ryzen 1600 or i5 8400 instead of kabylake. need os/monitor/peripherals?

Thanks for the advice, I don't need monitor, or peripherals as I'm set for those and I'm using my current storage so I don't need a new OS(I believe). What is wrong with Kabylake?

[Fordington]

On 12/10/2017 at 4:13 PM, Being Delirious said:

Intel CPUs 7th Gen and down are dead now, unless u can't afford anything better. I5 8400 is the best option for gaming atm. I own one, it's lit.

What's better about it compared to the 7500 or the 7600? I thought the lower clock speed would effect it and 4 cores is usually the necessary amount for games

 

[AncientNerd]

9 minutes ago, Fordington said:

What's better about it compared to the 7500 or the 7600? I thought the lower clock speed would effect it and 4 cores is usually the necessary amount for games

 

Basically for the 8400 the single core boost clock is actually higher, even though the base clock is lower. It has the additional cores available for the applications that will actually use additional cores.

 

For the 1600, additional cores/threads for applications that use additional cores. For pure gaming it is about on par with the 7600 but it will do better when overclocked, plus the mother board support is supposed to last for at least two generations of AMD processors.

[Fordington]

2 minutes ago, AncientNerd said:

Basically for the 8400 the single core boost clock is actually higher, even though the base clock is lower. It has the additional cores available for the applications that will actually use additional cores.

 

For the 1600, additional cores/threads for applications that use additional cores. For pure gaming it is about on par with the 7600 but it will do better when overclocked, plus the mother board support is supposed to last for at least two generations of AMD processors.

Ah okay thanks, I've never really gone with AMD components so I don't know where to start. I have a dual monitor set up so I can play games and watch youtube/netflix etc. but that's all I would be doing. Would Ryzen be a better choice or should I stick with Intel? I've never tried overclocking and I'm still not interested in overclockable CPU's as I don't want to spend the extra money on them.

[Fordington]

2 minutes ago, Fordington said:

Ah okay thanks, I've never really gone with AMD components so I don't know where to start. I have a dual monitor set up so I can play games and watch youtube/netflix etc. but that's all I would be doing. Would Ryzen be a better choice or should I stick with Intel? I've never tried overclocking and I'm still not interested in overclockable CPU's as I don't want to spend the extra money on them. Coffee Lake is also either very expensive or out of stock on all the UK sites I've seen, which makes me want to just go with Kaby Lake.

 

[AncientNerd]

1 minute ago, Fordington said:

Ah okay thanks, I've never really gone with AMD components so I don't know where to start. I have a dual monitor set up so I can play games and watch youtube/netflix etc. but that's all I would be doing. Would Ryzen be a better choice or should I stick with Intel? I've never tried overclocking and I'm still not interested in overclockable CPU's as I don't want to spend the extra money on them.

Well with what you describe it sounds like either one would be good, but the 1600 might be a bit better. Overclocking is dead easy anymore, and the Ryzens are all unlocked so there is no extra cost. There are a bunch of people willing (more than willing honestly , as you can see from this thread!) to give advice on builds. But just browsing around the forums will give some ideas and PC Part Picker is a good starting point for matching components, you could look at any of the links that are above and it would be a base to start from.

 

The issue with Kaby Lake is that it is a dead end, now I hesitate to say that is a completely bad thing as my last build for my daughter was with a "dead end" processor and she is completely happy with it. So it depends on how long you are going to keep the system and how much upgrade wiggle room you want in the processor/socket combination. 

[Fordington]

1 hour ago, AncientNerd said:

Well with what you describe it sounds like either one would be good, but the 1600 might be a bit better. Overclocking is dead easy anymore, and the Ryzens are all unlocked so there is no extra cost. There are a bunch of people willing (more than willing honestly , as you can see from this thread!) to give advice on builds. But just browsing around the forums will give some ideas and PC Part Picker is a good starting point for matching components, you could look at any of the links that are above and it would be a base to start from.

 

The issue with Kaby Lake is that it is a dead end, now I hesitate to say that is a completely bad thing as my last build for my daughter was with a "dead end" processor and she is completely happy with it. So it depends on how long you are going to keep the system and how much upgrade wiggle room you want in the processor/socket combination. 

Well I never upgraded my current rig as I didn't build it and knew nothing but now I'm starting to learn I feel like I may continue to upgrade in the future, the price and limited stock of Coffee Lake is kinda pushing me towards a Ryzen 1600  or maybe a 1600x. One other question I have is Coffee Lake only z370 compatible or is it compatible with other chipsets?

[AncientNerd]

39 minutes ago, Fordington said:

Well I never upgraded my current rig as I didn't build it and knew nothing but now I'm starting to learn I feel like I may continue to upgrade in the future, the price and limited stock of Coffee Lake is kinda pushing me towards a Ryzen 1600  or maybe a 1600x. One other question I have is Coffee Lake only z370 compatible or is it compatible with other chipsets?

Right now only Z370, but after the first of the year Intel is supposed to come out with the B360 and H series chipsets. Basically the non-overclockable chipsets are due Q1 2018, but for now just Z370.

[Fordington]

2 hours ago, AncientNerd said:

Right now only Z370, but after the first of the year Intel is supposed to come out with the B360 and H series chipsets. Basically the non-overclockable chipsets are due Q1 2018, but for now just Z370.

I've read rumours about the 8400 being negatively affected by the non z 300 series chipsets, plus if I get a z370 I have the option to buy a k series cpu instead and trying OC'ing in the future. I was also wondering your opinion on GPU, do you think I should stick with my choice of a 1070 or spend the extra on a 1080? I'm just unsure about bottlenecks etc.

[AncientNerd]

I personally like the options opened up by having a Z series motherboard even without a k series chip. Having said that it is possible to get stuck down the road with a combination where you can't get a CPU that will fit your Z series mb without spending more than a new CPU/motherboard combo will cost. I have known people who got into that situation when trying the mix of a non-k CPU with a Z series motherboard. But I have also known people who later got a great deal on a used k series CPU that was a great overclocker that dropped right into their one or two generation old motherboard for half or less what a new CPU would cost.

 

So, like everything in build it yourself - your mileage may vary and sometimes you win and sometimes you don't. I have won more than I have lost so I tend to take the risk.