Help a noob save some money please

[Guest]

Hi folks,

 

I need a bit of help planning my new build. Let me say this up front: I'm a total newbie. I'm a programmer, but I know quite little about hardware beyond the basics, so please forgive me if I say stupid stuff. I have attempted to put together a system, but I'm not sure if it's any good. (I adapted it from Linus' 2017 holiday buyers guide). https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/NhDgtg At the very least I need to get the price down a little bit, but I'm not sure where to cut. 

 

As a brief note, while I'm planning now, it will be quite a while before I can actually build something anyway. So I'm thinking of waiting for the price of GPUs and memory to come down a bit, but I'm not sure if that is smart. Thoughts?  

 

1. Budget & Location

Budget wise, I'd like to spend around 2000€  though that's not a hard limit. I'm doing the build in the Netherlands although I am planning to take it with me when I move to the UK in October, so it is a bit of a tricky situation. Like I said, the build I listed goes over that quite a bit but I'm unsure where to cut. 

 

2. Aim

I'm starting an AI PhD in October. I do lots of programming, AI and data research. So to allocate things like debuggers and emulators that I'll need for simulations every now and then I expect to need quite a bit of memory and a good CPU, and quite a bit of screen real estate, and fast storage. A note about the CPU though, not everything I do is very good at parallelizing so I need good single core performance.

 

I also do gaming and youtube watching etc. on the side.  I usually play RPGs and other narrative stuff, but very rarely competitive stuff so bleeding edge stuff is not required, although I would like to be able to comfortably run modern titles if I want. I'm okay with sticking with 1080p for the time being though 1440 would be nice to have. 

 

I don't care about overclocking to be honest, the troubleshooting doesn't seem worth it to me. Upgradability is not my main concern to be honest, I don't plan on upgrading very frequently. As long as I can comfortably run my IDEs and emulators I'll be happy for a while and I don't really keep up with new game releases that much so I'm not really concerned about keeping up with new technology that much. Ideally, it would be a set-it-and-forget-it system, but I'm open to other opinions. 

 

3. Monitors

Like I mentioned before briefly, I'm going to need quite some screen real estate. I'm planning on getting 2 monitors for the time being, with maybe a 3rd in the future. I'm okay with the monitors being 1080p, but the more the merrier, right? Though I think I'd rather have a higher refresh rate than a higher resolution to be honest. I included two options on my list, but again, open to suggestions. 

 

4. Peripherals

For monitors see the previous point, but I don't really need that many other peripherals. I'll use my old mice and keyboard, which are really nice. Maybe I'll need some new speakers, though I could still use my old ones for that as well. I'll also need a Windows home licence. 

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

Mostly because I have wanted to build my own PC for a long time. I have an old PC with my parents that is still capable but she's 7 years old at the time of writing. I'm considering building the PC as a gift to myself for graduating from my masters and getting the PhD position. 

 

Like I said, I don't know a lot about hardware so please be constructive  Thanks for the help y'all. Let me know if you need anything! 

[Princess Luna]

Just to make sure first, you have not bought any thing right?

[Sreno1]

Switch to an i7-8700 and pick a cheaper cooler and motherboard. That will save you some money and give you more cores. Don't get 1x16gb ram, it's usually more pricey and will perform worse than 2x8gb. Although that is a very good PSU you have picked, it seems pricey and 650w is too much, check out the "PSU Tier List" I have in my signature and pick something from tier 1 or 2 that is hopefully cheaper. You can get windows on third-party sites if you're interested in doing that, you could save 70 euros or more doing that, I have done it here in the US and I got windows for $35 instead of $100.

[Princess Luna]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  (€369.00 @ Paradigit)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (€89.90 @ Paradigit)
Motherboard: Asus - Prime Z370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€175.00 @ Paradigit)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (€219.00 @ Paradigit)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€149.99 @ Paradigit)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€47.99 @ Paradigit)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card  (€379.00 @ Paradigit)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterCase H500P ATX Mid Tower Case  (€139.00 @ Paradigit)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€84.95 @ Paradigit)
Monitor: LG - 34UM88C 34.0" 3440x1440 60Hz Monitor  (€579.00 @ Paradigit)
Total: €2232.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-03 14:17 CEST+0200

 

Can't have a stronger single thread performance than this, overclocking CPU and memory will give you all the processing power you need for your serious stuff, since gaming is secondary a GTX 1060 is more than enough, it will even run more demanding stuff all you have to do is adjust the graphical settings.

 

I chosen that monitor because it'll be 20 times better than having 2 monitors, ultrawides are the best.... you'll have in one screen lots of space and pixel density.

 

before people qq about GTX 1060 with 3440x1440p :

 

So that's it I think it's a solid build for what you want and need cheers!

[Brooksie359]

https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/zpKt8Y this is what I came up with. One monitor for gaming and another one for work and productivity. You will have more screen realistate with this.

[brob]

Given no interest in overclocking I would suggest going with an i7-8700. I don't believe the 100MHz clock difference justifies the price difference in this use case

 

Using the i7-8700 means that one can then opt for a B360 or H370 chipset motherboard leading to additional savings. Something like the Asus Prime B360 Plus offers decent features at a decent price.

 

One could use the stock cpu cooler. It will do a reasonably good job. If there is a bit of budget available, something like a Cryorig H7 would help to deliver a quieter and cooler running system.

 

An NVMe ssd will not offer enough additional performance to justify its added cost. You might consider going with a 1TB SATA III ssd in place of the NVMe and HDD. Using all solid state storage eliminates the small possibility of hdd damage when moving.

 

A 550W psu is more than sufficient for the build. You might consider the Seasonic Focus Gold semi-modular model to save a bit more. If more savings are needed, go with the Corsair CX450 or CX450M 80+ Bronze psu. 450W is quite sufficient for the outlined build.

 

I would suggest getting a better, more modern WiFi adapter.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (€299.00 @ Paradigit) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (€38.99 @ Azerty) 
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B360-PLUS (€89.00 @ Alternate)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  (€179.00 @ Paradigit) 
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€275.95 @ Paradigit) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card  (€559.00) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€49.95 @ Paradigit) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€48.90) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  (€109.00 @ Paradigit) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - Archer T9E PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  (€62.95 @ Paradigit) 
Total: €1711.74
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-03 16:30 CEST+0200

[Guest]

Thank everyone for the help, these builds are amazing! I'll post pics once I get around for it.