Zen

[Terra Firma]

Some context first.
This is my first PC build, i'm upgrading from a prebuilt Ironside system with an FX 6300 under liquid @ 4.6, and a GTX 960 which i later upgraded to the card in this system.
Prior to that, i had some budget laptops and a Sempron single core tower my dad built for me in middle school.
Not fun.

I've been doing the research since just before then, dreaming and reading and so forth
The prebuilt was out of lack of confidence, and because the financing options Ironside offered made it alot more feasible to own a computer that wasn't trash.
But when i got my first job, working a seasonal position at Amazon, i set aside most everything i made with this in mind.
The original plan was an 8700k and a 1070Ti but as you may have read, Amazon set some records this holiday season. they fulfilled those orders with 60hr/week mandatory overtime. this was my first job. i left before the schedule changed kicked in.
So. 8700k wasn't happening. 
Instead i settled for balance, as mentioned previously i upgraded the 960 in my old system to a Windforce 1060 6GB, and noticed very little performance increase due to the FX effect. But i knew this card wasn't bad if it could stretch it's legs, so i parted out with balancing this card in mind.
Thanks to some pretty neat holiday deals, i was able to collect these parts over the course of the month of November.
 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Mh4K6X
 

AMD R5 1600, all core overclock to 3.6Ghz with HWMonitor registering 1.26v  --  $179
  -- this was before Ryzen2 caused the price cuts, so a pretty good deal at the time
-and the stock cooler (i wanted the 1700 just for the RGB stock cooler but oh well)

MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon  --  $139

  -- i really wanted the aesthetics of the Gigabyte K7, and i also had some conflicting advice pertaining to VRM, power phases and overclockability but my experience so far is pretty good with the MSI board

2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz  --  $166
  -- this was and still is a steal, the same kit shot to $265 like three days after i placed my order. XMP3200 worked perfectly fine out of the gate, the reason i went with this kit in the first place

Gigabyte Windforce OC GTX 1060 6GB  --  $249

  -- bought this in the middle of last year, so even the first etherium craze hadn't yet affected the GPU market.

Crucial MX300 275GB  --  $80

  -- i really wanted an NVME, and failing that wanted a Samsung drive just for the peace of mind, but the extra few GBs on this one and the $10 i saved at the time made it reasonable.

Seagate 2TB 7200RPM  --  $60

Corsair RM650x  --  $90

NZXT S340 Elite  --  $90

  -- i really wanted a Corsair 570x to match the glass of my desk, but i couldn't justify the price premium with the tighter than anticipated budget.

 

I also got myself an NZXT Hue+ since my original intention was basically just a Black/Black and RGB LED theme, but i was missing the NZXT Kraken and RGB Corsair RAM i originally wanted.

Those are now on backburner for now, along with some Aer fans and an EVGA 1080 to accommodate the 1440p UW upgrade i plan on doing at some point, as well as my stubborn refusal to turn anything down from Ultra

 

I also opted to buy a USB version of Windows from Microsoft directly, fully understanding i could probably find cheaper means but i needed the physical USB version since i don't own a very good flash drive, and i wanted to have a legitimate copy on hand that could be transferred across any later systems anyway.

All in all i spent around $1,450 for the entire thing, including GPU as well as the Hue+ and Cablemod extensions i picked up. Not bad for a first build if you ask me, which took me a bit over 3hrs to do. Installing the stock cooler was a pain, but aside from that no hiccups and i got a post on my first attempt.

Due to my shorter time working and thus lower budget, i still have those few upgrades planned and i will update as they come along. I am also currently in a temporary living arrangement and don't have my full setup, otherwise i'd be posting a picture of the context this computer sits in as well. this i will also update with when i can.

Thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, anything you like, discussion in general would be appreciated.

[ImNotThere]

clean! did you try to push the 1600 to 3.8ghz or so?

[Princess Luna]

Eh... it sure is light-full.

[Jurrunio]

Isnt B350 Gaming Pro Carbon pretty much the same thing, just without SLI support?

[Terra Firma]

5 minutes ago, ImNotThere said:

clean! did you try to push the 1600 to 3.8ghz or so?

I did, got stable 3.8 with auto voltage but was slightly uncomfortable with temps, especially since I render 40 minute long videos, so decided it could wait until I get the Kraken

[Terra Firma]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

Isnt B350 Gaming Pro Carbon pretty much the same thing, just without SLI support?

I think so, but I think it had one less RGB element, or perhaps the discounts at the time made the X370 a better bet, I forget

[DocSwag]

Looks good! The only things I might've changed at the time would've been to see if you could get a gigabyte x370 gaming 5 instead (better vrm, still lots of rgb, but at a similar price) and to maybe save $10 or so on the psu since I think you can usually get high quality 80+ gold 650w psus like the EVGA g2, g3, seasonic focus plus gold, and corsair rmx/rmi psus for around $80. 

 

The fact that you ended up going with a sata drive was a good thing IMO. Nvme doesn't improve boot times or app launch times by a significant amount so unless you're doing stuff like video editing it's not worth it.

[TVwazhere]

Perfectly solid everywhere, including PSU which is often overlooked. Good cable management too. Perfect balance of CPU/GPU, proper selection of a suitable Case when it comes to cooling potential, and psu extensions are a plus. Good work!

[Terra Firma]

7 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Looks good! The only things I might've changed at the time would've been to see if you could get a gigabyte x370 gaming 5 instead (better vrm, still lots of rgb, but at a similar price) and to maybe save $10 or so on the psu since I think you can usually get high quality 80+ gold 650w psus like the EVGA g2, g3, seasonic focus plus gold, and corsair rmx/rmi psus for around $80. 

 

The fact that you ended up going with a sata drive was a good thing IMO. Nvme doesn't improve boot times or app launch times by a significant amount so unless you're doing stuff like video editing it's not worth it.

I'm a bit of an aesthetics slut tho, and simply preferred the Carbon lmao, but fair point.

PSU my criteria was Gold rating and full modular, I wanted the 750 for future proof but I know it's wholly overkill and the 650 will do for now.

The RM650x was on sale at the time for lower than anything else I liked so that was my decision made for me

[Terra Firma]

12 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Perfectly solid everywhere, including PSU which is often overlooked. Good cable management too. Perfect balance of CPU/GPU, proper selection of a suitable Case when it comes to cooling potential, and psu extensions are a plus. Good work!

Oh boy, if you could see the mess stuffed in the shroud you'd not be complimenting my management lmao

I should've gone for CableMod replacements instead of extensions but I'd heard a few reviews saying that didn't always work so I went with the safe option in extensions

[TVwazhere]

8 minutes ago, Terra Firma said:

Oh boy, if you could see the mess stuffed in the shroud you'd not be complimenting my management lmao

I should've gone for CableMod replacements instead of extensions but I'd heard a few reviews saying that didn't always work so I went with the safe option in extensions

They worked for me

And that's partially what the shroud is for  you can see more in my Blue build post in my signature