First Timer Build

MrBaron · November 29, 2017

udget

+1750€, Netherlands.

Aim

Streaming 1080p / 60fps, Few years PC, Nice look with LED/RGB. I am streaming Total War gamers, I am looking for a build which easy runs + stream Current Total War + coming Total War content on the absolute best settings at all time.

Monitors

2 (TV screen + 1080p monitor)

Why are you upgrading?

My current gaming system turns +5 years and start to... Get slow... with a new 1070 GTX from this year so feel its time to spoil myself with a new Super PC I build and pick myself for the first time.

Update: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6RbvHN

£1617.53

CPU - Intel i7-8700k

CPU Fan - Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8

CASE - Cooler Master MasterCase H500p

Motherb. - MSI Z370 Gaming M5

RAM - G.Skill Trident Z 8GB x2 3600MHz

PSU - EVGA 850W 80+ Gold

~~GPU - 1070 GTX~~ (Owned)

Storage - Samsung 850 Pro 512BG

HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

~~Optical Drive - ??~~ (Owned)

OP - Windows 10 64bits (I know many gamers + streamer suggest W7, I use a lot of documents & office work, and therefore find W10 more fitting my other use.)

Case Fans - MasterFan Pro 120 RGB x3 with RGB LED controller

Questions + Feedback:

Because it's my first build ever I am unsure if my parts works together, according my info-digging it does, but wanna make sure any experienced builder can give me feedback or help me before I order the parts.

- I have tons of questions about overclocking CPU and RAM, I recently learned how to overclock my GPU, but never had the need of it with my current RAM or CPU. Does that matters when picking RAM clock speed for example?

- I am going for a Full PSU (Without cables), what cables is needed for my build? I will add some extra as spare but as current.

- As mentioned, when it comes to storage I'm lost. What am I looking for who's having things small and very well organised?

- Is this a build I will be satisfied with, which can achieve my expectations in performance of gaming but mostly be a long term PC?

- Would Z370 Godlike Gaming make a huge different compare to Gaming M5? Double cost - 200 vs 400. Or just scam?

- I recently joined the "tec. world" with low knowledge about current hardware products and what's expected 2018. Is building a super PC at end of 2017 already "last year"? Maybe I should save up for 2018s gaming parts?

I hope you like my build, if you would add or remove something please tell me. I'll probably add some questions the closer it gets.

r4q · November 29, 2017

Hi there,

most of your build looks fine to my on the first glance but as you stated in questions there are few things worth double-checking before you order it.

1. You asked about RAM speeds and overclocking, but the first thing you should do is to check your motherboard manufacturers QVL (Qualified Vendor's List) available on the website probably, so that you don't have any unexpected surprises later. When it comes to speeds and latency it does make a difference but it's so small you shouldn't be worried about it with your first build - just look for the highest clocked RAM compatible with your motherboad/cpu that you can fit in your budget and you're good to go

2. Overclocking the CPU is not probably not gonna be a problem, to achieve some little OC you just need to look for some guide or thread somewhere on the internet and you're gonna find some recommended values, although the sillicon lottery plays a role here too. But the 8700K is gonna do just fine for your needs out of the box, you can tinker with it later if you want to.

3. Modular PSU - if you don't want any stock cables you're might want to check out some custom cable vendors' websites i.e. cablemod where you can find full sets in some custom sleeving and they also say for which PSU they can be used for.

https://cablemod.com/product-category/basic-cable-kits/?filter_series=e-series

4. Storage - I personally recently upgraded to M.2 drive and I'm amazed by how fast it is - they're still goddam expensive though, and if you need some more space I wouldn't go for it, at least not as your only drive. I got M.2 for system and work, and 1TB SSD for games and some good ol' HDD for backups and random stuff.

But I think you'd be just fine with 1 or 2 SSDs (I mean 2 if you want to separate games from work or want to raid them or simply because sometimes 2x500GB SSD can be cheaper than 1x1TB) Nevertheless an SSD is a must imho, M.2 maybe not yet.

5. I'm no expert in MSI motherboards but I'd guess that the main difference between Godlike Gaming and Gaming M5 would be for some HEAVY OC stuff, SLI compatibility, M.2 slots and whatever else that you won't probably need right now, at least not with this build so I guess you're just fine with M5, no need to worry about that.

6. I guess you will be truelly satisfied with your PC if your old rig is like 5 years old and to be honest the late 2017 is right now kinda like early 2018 since AMD pushed a lot of their stuff out and both Intel and Nvidia responded to it in one way or another, so if I had to take a quess I'd say that we're not going to expect a lot of surprises in the upcoming few months and your system is going to be somehow futureproof for the next few years because you're using the latest socket from Intel - that's very unlikely to change in a year, maybe two. You're already on DDR4 and still have room for 2 more sticks if you want to upgrade in the future - all this looks solid.

One last thing, if you check the RAM compatibility with your motherboard/cpu and decide if you want to OC or not I would try to use some calculator for the PSU just to be sure that you're giving it enough power to run on (Overclocking can draw lots more power from the PSU than stock). Even if 850 Watt sounds like pretty much I'd reconsider the 80+ Bronze for maybe Silver or Gold, and remember to check how much power can it deliver to which components (had to troubleshoot a friend's build once where he'd get random PC shutdowns during gaming and it came out that his PSU could provide enough power to the CPU to boot and run daily tasks but when it went to TurboBoost the PSU couldn't hold up and the whole system would just turn off)

All that said, I hope you enjoy your new build and welcome to the tech world

Cheers!

MrBaron · November 30, 2017

6 hours ago, r4q said:

Hi there,

most of your build looks fine to my on the first glance but as you stated in questions there are few things worth double-checking before you order it.

1. You asked about RAM speeds and overclocking, but the first thing you should do is to check your motherboard manufacturers QVL (Qualified Vendor's List) available on the website probably, so that you don't have any unexpected surprises later. When it comes to speeds and latency it does make a difference but it's so small you shouldn't be worried about it with your first build - just look for the highest clocked RAM compatible with your motherboad/cpu that you can fit in your budget and you're good to go

2. Overclocking the CPU is not probably not gonna be a problem, to achieve some little OC you just need to look for some guide or thread somewhere on the internet and you're gonna find some recommended values, although the sillicon lottery plays a role here too. But the 8700K is gonna do just fine for your needs out of the box, you can tinker with it later if you want to.

3. Modular PSU - if you don't want any stock cables you're might want to check out some custom cable vendors' websites i.e. cablemod where you can find full sets in some custom sleeving and they also say for which PSU they can be used for.

https://cablemod.com/product-category/basic-cable-kits/?filter_series=e-series

4. Storage - I personally recently upgraded to M.2 drive and I'm amazed by how fast it is - they're still goddam expensive though, and if you need some more space I wouldn't go for it, at least not as your only drive. I got M.2 for system and work, and 1TB SSD for games and some good ol' HDD for backups and random stuff.

But I think you'd be just fine with 1 or 2 SSDs (I mean 2 if you want to separate games from work or want to raid them or simply because sometimes 2x500GB SSD can be cheaper than 1x1TB) Nevertheless an SSD is a must imho, M.2 maybe not yet.

5. I'm no expert in MSI motherboards but I'd guess that the main difference between Godlike Gaming and Gaming M5 would be for some HEAVY OC stuff, SLI compatibility, M.2 slots and whatever else that you won't probably need right now, at least not with this build so I guess you're just fine with M5, no need to worry about that.

6. I guess you will be truelly satisfied with your PC if your old rig is like 5 years old and to be honest the late 2017 is right now kinda like early 2018 since AMD pushed a lot of their stuff out and both Intel and Nvidia responded to it in one way or another, so if I had to take a quess I'd say that we're not going to expect a lot of surprises in the upcoming few months and your system is going to be somehow futureproof for the next few years because you're using the latest socket from Intel - that's very unlikely to change in a year, maybe two. You're already on DDR4 and still have room for 2 more sticks if you want to upgrade in the future - all this looks solid.

One last thing, if you check the RAM compatibility with your motherboard/cpu and decide if you want to OC or not I would try to use some calculator for the PSU just to be sure that you're giving it enough power to run on (Overclocking can draw lots more power from the PSU than stock). Even if 850 Watt sounds like pretty much I'd reconsider the 80+ Bronze for maybe Silver or Gold, and remember to check how much power can it deliver to which components (had to troubleshoot a friend's build once where he'd get random PC shutdowns during gaming and it came out that his PSU could provide enough power to the CPU to boot and run daily tasks but when it went to TurboBoost the PSU couldn't hold up and the whole system would just turn off)

All that said, I hope you enjoy your new build and welcome to the tech world

Cheers!

Thank you very much sir for some information, cleared some things out. + the cable website, awesome! Any SSD you or the community suggest? Want two units, one for OP and programs, other for documents and recordings.

When it comes to RAM, 4000+(OC)/ 3866(OC)/ 3733(OC)/ 3600(OC)/ 3466(OC)/ 3400(OC)/ 3333(OC)/ 3300(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3000(OC)/ 2800(OC)/ 2667/ 2400/ 2133 MHz - Gaming M5. So I am looking for G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-4000 Memory? Gonna add x1. Having 32 feels little to much at early stage.

And yes small extra cost from Bronze to Gold, thanks.

PETRGangKing · November 30, 2017

https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-650FX2&c=CJ

That is a very good power supply at a good price, they're usually closer to 100. 650w is plenty, even with overclocking.

r4q · November 30, 2017

1 hour ago, MrBaron said:

When it comes to RAM, 4000+(OC)/ 3866(OC)/ 3733(OC)/ 3600(OC)/ 3466(OC)/ 3400(OC)/ 3333(OC)/ 3300(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3000(OC)/ 2800(OC)/ 2667/ 2400/ 2133 MHz - Gaming M5. So I am looking for G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-4000 Memory? Gonna add x1. Having 32 feels little to much at early stage.

What I meant was to double check if the exact RAM is compatible with this Motherboard, the speeds alone listed on amazon/newegg or other site might be sometimes misleading.

here's the link : https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z370-GAMING-M5.html#support-mem-5

and on the first glance I didn't see any 4000Mhz RAM from G.Skill on the list...

Actually only 4000Mhz RAM they have there is from Team or Corsair.

This list contains the RAM modules that are tested by MSI with this Motherboard and CoffeLake CPU, others might work too, but don't have to - or you will end up buying a 4000Mhz memory that will be only able to run at 3800 - not a big difference but well why pay extra for something you can't use, right ?