First time build - Aiming for solid mid range

[JonDoh]

My old computer is an ancient Dell machine I bought in 2007. It is still running windows XP, with Ubuntu as my go-to OS. It is long past time for me to completely replace this ancient old machine.

 

This is my first build. I am not aiming for the best of the best. I want to get solid performance for a reasonable price. Keeping options open for upgrading later is great but I expect to entirely replace this first build within a few years. I want to use this machine I am building to get my feet wet in the tech world. I am learning a whole lot and this machine is going to be a part of that. I want to be able to try out a wide range of things, so I want at least enough power to not be severely handicapped by the machine. I expect to know more about how I want to specialize by the next machine, a few years from now. For now, I just want a machine that will let me try out things like programming, content creation, rendering and other tasks I may get into in the course of my learning progress. I do enjoy gaming and am looking forward to having a machine that can run decent titles again, but I am not upset if I am missing out on a few frames.

 

Part of the learning for me will be overclocking. I want to learn to overclock all the things with this build. I hope it will give me a some extra performance, but a big part of the reason I want to overclock is simply for the experience of learning how to do it.

 

The style of the build is of very little consequence to me. I do not want RGB lighting and am not interested in any particular visual theme. I care about price to performance. I do care about noise levels, but I am not expecting miracles from my machine. However, I would spend a little extra for a little better noise levels.

 

I don't mind paying a few extra bucks for quality products as well. I am not very familiar with brands and manufacturers, so I only know what I have picked up from doing research for this build. I don't want to pay extra to have some hip logo printed on a part, but I don't mind paying a bit more for higher quality parts.

 

PC Parts Picker Link:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gkgyGf

 

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon RX 580 8GB Gaming 8G Video Card
Case: Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 8.1 Pro OEM 64-bit

 

I already have the Case, Power Supply, and Optical Drive.

 

I intend to run in Linux primarily. I have considered not getting Windows at all. I do not want to put Windows 10 on this machine for sure. I am thinking of running a duel boot to Windows 8.1 just because some programs I may want to use are a pain to run in wine. I hope by the time Windows 8 stops working for me I will either not need Windows at all or Windows 10 will have been improved a whole lot. (Hopefully I don't derail my own thread with this.)

 

I am thinking the Ryzen 7 1700 over the Intel chips because I don't mind being a few frames behind for games, and I want the extra threads/cores for other tasks I want to explore.

 

For the Video Card I am looking at the RX 580 because I want to go Freesync for the monitor. I am not stuck on the brand of card, I just selected the cheapest one from what seemed like a quality manufacturer.

 

I would appreciate any suggestions for what upgrades would make the most noticeable difference for this build. If there is anywhere I can cut cost without cutting performance I am interested in that. And I am interested in any observations that may help me reduce noise levels.

 

Again, I want the build to be able to handle at least an intro to a wide range of tasks as I learn and explore tech related pursuits. I do expect to play games, but I don't mind not using ultimate settings all the time. I will probably play a lot of shooters, and MMOs. A game I have enjoyed in the past, and expect to get into again, is Eve Online. It would be sweet if I could PvP with multiple accounts open, which I have heard is a CPU intensive situation.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

-JD

 

[seon123]

If you'll overclock the CPU with that cooler, get a motherboard with better VRMs. The Asus X370 Prime Pro is available for $115, atm.

You can definitely get cheaper RAM at the same speed. 

The SL308 is available for $20 less, and is a very decent SSD. 

You should be able to get a slightly cheaper HDD. Just get whatever is 7200 RPM with ≥64MB cache. 

Gigabyte makes really bad AMD cards. The card is worse than the reference design, by a significant amount. 

You can get a windows key for ~$25 on Reddit or Kinguin