Yet another first time build

[total_noob]

Just want to start off with a quick thank you for helping me out, I'm so grateful this forum exists. I have been doing as much homework as I can but I'm new to this and there are so many options that I'm struggling not to get lost.

 

Ok, per your build plan recommendations: 

 

1. Budget & Location

 

$1200-1500; BC, Canada

 

2. Aim

 

I need a new computer for 1080p gaming (fallout 4, Farming Simulator 17, etc) that can also easily run Adobe Photoshop & InDesign, as well as sound recording/editing software like Reaper for making podcasts (maybe music as well in the future), maybe also some light video editing, but nothing too crazy. I am hoping to build a decent, yet moderate rig with lots of room to expand and upgrade.

 

3. Monitors

 

Right now I have one 1080p monitor, I might add a second for work stuff, but not necessarily for gaming.

 

4. Peripherals

 

I already have all the peripherals I'll need. Although I'll need to pick up windows 10.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

 

My Lenovo Y510p laptop kicked the bucket, and although I could probably get it fixed it's getting pretty old (+5 years) and I would rather just get a desktop anyways. 

 

Where I'm at so far.

 

Here I'll list some components I've picked out and why I think they're a good pick. Obviously I'm looking for your help so feel free to suggest alternatives or tell me I'm way off the mark.

 

Case: Corsair Vengeance Series C70 - I feel dumb listing this first but I feel like it is the only thing I've settled on. It's a quality build, the aesthetic is right up my alley, and there is a ton of room for expandability and improvement. The price is a little much, but worth it.

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 - I would also consider an i5 8600, no brand preference. I feel like this would give me enough power for image layout/editing and sound editing without going overkill on the budget. The 1600 also comes with a stock air cooler, something that I want to be able to upgrade in the future, but for now will work as is.

 

GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 3GB - based 100% on the LTT video last month. I'm going to be keeping it 1080p for the foreseeable future. Plus I had a GeForce graphics card in my laptop and I was pretty happy with it.

 

RAM: 8GB - I'm a little up in the air about 8GB or 16GB, but I figure to keep the costs reasonable I can keep it to 8 for now and get another 8 in the future. (is it better to get one 8GB stick or two 4GB sticks?)

 

Motherboard: MSI 350 Tomahawk - There are so many motherboards on newegg that I'm completely overwhelmed. This one stands out because the design isn't over the top, but more importantly is has USB 3.1 (with a Type-C port!!), 4 RAM slots and a reasonable price (although I don't know if I'm going to want a seperate sound card or this is going to be good enough).  

 

PSU: Seasonic 550FX - quality PSU with great reviews, big enough for what's listed above with room to grow.

 

Storage: I was going to start off with one 500GB SSD and one 4TB HDD, and the case offers a ton of room to grow.

 

So this is where I'm at now. Please feel free to ask questions or pick apart my selection. The only thing I'm really set on is the case and my budget, everything else is up for scrutiny. And thank you again for your time, I'm very grateful.

[givingtnt]

tip of the day :
use this website : https://ca.pcpartpicker.com

 

also, pretty good start. make sure you get at least 2400Mhz ram. rysen is really dependent on ram speed.

[Exploded117]

Overall, you've got a pretty solid build going here that will definitely never have a problem with 1080p gaming. As far as RAM, 8GB is fine for now, but I would suggest upgrading in the future. (And if you plan on upgrading to 16 later down the road, one 8GB stick would be better than two 4GB sticks) Another thing would be to maybe get a slightly better 1060. You could get a 6GB 1060 instead of a 3GB one for not much more, and the extra VRAM will definitely help out especially if you maybe get another monitor down the road.

[Energycore]

Good choice on the PSU the 650W model costs the same on pcpp so I'll add that.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($249.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Patriot - Viper Elite 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($152.99 @ PC Canada)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($167.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.99 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING Video Card  ($329.99 @ Memory Express)
Case: Corsair - Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($139.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($116.75 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1477.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-29 23:37 EST-0500

 

Here's the gist with this build. You may find Windows cheaper somewhere places. If you do and change to 275GB MX300, you can afford a Ryzen 7 1700, which you'll like if you're doing Photoshop and InDesign especially if you game while exporting RAW files.

 

It's also not particularly great looking. If you want aesthetics you'll have to change a couple things but it is doable to color match the stuff in there.

 

If you have some spare cash grab an aftermarket cooler for the Ryzen - https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/93Crxr/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h7

[total_noob]

3 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

tip of the day :
use this website : https://ca.pcpartpicker.com

I know I picked a fitting username. I had no idea this existed, it looks awesome! Thank you!!

[Psychopath]

Would defo recommend bumping the 1060 up to a 6GB model, this is due to past experience in having a 1060 3GB which I regularly maxed out with just one 1080p/60Hz monitor at medium to high settings in some demanding games. Whatever card is cheapest on the day you are buying the pc really as the clock speeds from manufacturer to manufacturer do not vary greatly. This can be checked as givingtnt said on ca.pcpartpicker.com.

If you can in the initial budget try to aim for 16GB in a 2x8GB config if you can as 8GB is quickly becoming too little RAM for more demanding games if you want to run them at full/ultra like PUBG, Ghost Recon Wildlands and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

If you want to pick up windows 10 cheaper then www.kinguin.net has always been perfect for me (although I have had to activate over the phone once) but do make sure you include the buyer protection for peace of mind. This link should be what you are looking  for: www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/#

 

But the rest of the spec you have chosen seems solid.

[total_noob]

9 minutes ago, Energycore said:

It's also not particularly great looking. If you want aesthetics you'll have to change a couple things but it is doable to color match the stuff in there.

What would you recommend changing? I was thinking about the green case with minimal white leds, was also thinking about going with the B350 tomahawk arctic, to really push the white interior, perhaps even with a white 1060. Would that be overdoing it? 

[Energycore]

1 hour ago, total_noob said:

What would you recommend changing? I was thinking about the green case with minimal white leds, was also thinking about going with the B350 tomahawk arctic, to really push the white interior, perhaps even with a white 1060. Would that be overdoing it? 

Let's see if we can fit the white inside green C70 theme into the budget.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($249.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($127.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($204.54 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.99 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: Asus - Radeon RX 580 4GB Dual Video Card  ($331.99 @ PC Canada)
Case: Corsair - C70 Military Green (Green) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($163.99 @ PC Canada)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($116.75 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1504.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-30 01:36 EST-0500

 

Notice we lose out on a bit of SSD space. I gave you an RX 580 since it's got an actual competitive price in canada, this model is black with white accents.

The LED memory has white lights, that'll look good when the lights are off and goes well with the 580

 

If you want to go even further on theme, you can make custom cables over at custom.cablemod.com (not an ad just a recommendation) which will look pretty good also.

 

Happy building

[total_noob]

Just want to say thanks to all of you for giving me a hand, especially Energycore. I'll update this when I build it up!! I'm so stoked!!

[total_noob]

Ok, So I've started buying parts, splitting it up between two paychecks. I just bought the CPU, Motherboard, PSU, and Case. The first parts should be arriving tomorrow. But I am kind of going into crisis mode because of the rapid inflation of GPU prices. Since I first posted this the price of a 1060 has gone up around 50-70% and a RX580 is no longer available. It seems like everyday it's a few more dollars. At this point it seems ridiculous to by a 1060 for the same amount I could get a 1070 for just two weeks ago.

 

I'm thinking of just buying something really damn cheap like a 1050 or an RX460 as a temporary GPU just so I can finish this build and have a working computer. I'm literally writing this on my Raspberry Pi 3 that I have set up as my desktop right now, So even if I have to hold off on gaming I really need this computer built.  Plus if I buy a temp GPU now and hold out a month or two for prices to get back to normal I can likely save up for a 1070 instead.

 

Penny for your thoughts.