First Build Draft - Advice Appreciated

[ben127127]

Hey guys,

This is my first ever build, and I'd appreciate any advice. My budget is around the 1600$ mark where it is now. This PC will be used for gaming - right now, I mostly play League of Legends, but I want a computer that can expand to other games if necessary. I would like only one monitor, I'll be running Windows 10, and all my peripherals are included in the build. One main question I have is if my cooling will be enough - please take a look and let me know if it is (there's a "case fans" option I haven't selected anything for? Do I need those?). It seems like not much, but I can't find anything suggesting it won't be enough. Thanks for any and all advice!

 

The Build: 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$239.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	be quiet! - Pure Rock Slim 35.14 CFM CPU Cooler	$27.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	ASRock - Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$99.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$129.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$53.00 @ Amazon
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Black 500 GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$63.95 @ Newegg
Video Card	MSI - Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB Air Boost 8G OC Video Card	$389.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	NZXT - H500 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case	$82.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$39.99 @ Newegg Business
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$98.89 @ OutletPC
Monitor	AOC - G2460PF 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor	$179.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard	Logitech - G512 CARBON Wired Gaming Keyboard	$99.99
Mouse	Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse	$39.00 @ Dell
Headphones	Logitech - G PRO Headset	$86.99 @ Amazon
Other	G440 HARD GAMING MOUSEPAD	$29.99
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1702.62
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$1662.62
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-24 18:34 EST-0500

 

 

 

[Dxer]

Hmmm, I am not liking the power supply option for the power hungry Vega 56.  If you are not dead set on the Vega, I'd opt for a GTX1070 for about the same price and uses less power.  

Secondly, why only a 500gb mechanical hard drive?  You could likely get larger for the same price.

[mopman94]

I recently did a new build and my first draft was similar to yours. In the end I switched to AMD for the CPU and fitted at Ryzen 5 2600 and don't regret it. It was a fair amount cheaper and the performance has been great.

 

As for cooling, are you planning on overclocking? If not you'll be fine with the stock CPU cooler until you do so can save yourself a few quid there.

 

Your storage isn't great. I would go for at least a 500GB SSD and at least a 1TB HDD. You can use the money saved from losing the CPU cooler (assuming again you're not going to OC any time soon) to upgrade those. You will fill up 750GB in no time at all. I personally have 3.75TB in my system.

 

EDIT: Oh and that case is great! I used the same one, it comes with two fans fitted in exhaust, as long as you aren't putting the PC on a carpet and the room is generally dust free (no smoking etc) that set up is fine

[Slottr]

Few things you could change:

 

- The cooler won't be enough for sure, look at the U12S from Noctua or an Arctic Esports

-The hard drive is mediocre. Look at just getting a 1TB WD Blue drive, its adequate and much quieter than the black drive - you'll notice no performance loss.

- Is it important that you run freesync? The gpu is good for gaming and high refresh rate, but runs hot and power hungry. I'd look into an RX 590 if you still want freesync or 1070/1070ti if you don't care.

[ben127127]

39 minutes ago, Dxer said:

Hmmm, I am not liking the power supply option for the power hungry Vega 56.  If you are not dead set on the Vega, I'd opt for a GTX1070 for about the same price and uses less power.  

Secondly, why only a 500gb mechanical hard drive?  You could likely get larger for the same price.

I was just trying to get FreeSync compatibility, but if the consensus is it's not worth it, I'll make the swap. Is FreeSync worth sticking to AMD, or is it better to have neither FreeSync nor G-Sync but have a stronger GPU? You're right about the HDD, I'll make the leap. Thanks so much.

[ben127127]

37 minutes ago, mopman94 said:

I recently did a new build and my first draft was similar to yours. In the end I switched to AMD for the CPU and fitted at Ryzen 5 2600 and don't regret it. It was a fair amount cheaper and the performance has been great.

 

As for cooling, are you planning on overclocking? If not you'll be fine with the stock CPU cooler until you do so can save yourself a few quid there.

 

Your storage isn't great. I would go for at least a 500GB SSD and at least a 1TB HDD. You can use the money saved from losing the CPU cooler (assuming again you're not going to OC any time soon) to upgrade those. You will fill up 750GB in no time at all. I personally have 3.75TB in my system.

 

EDIT: Oh and that case is great! I used the same one, it comes with two fans fitted in exhaust, as long as you aren't putting the PC on a carpet and the room is generally dust free (no smoking etc) that set up is fine

I might make the CPU switch if I want to save a little bit. If I do, then I'll drop the cooler - only issue is the CPU I have right now does not come with a cooler - and no, I'm not planning on OCing. As for the HDD, I'll definitely make the leap to 1TB. And thanks for the reassurance about the case!

 

39 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Few things you could change:

 

- The cooler won't be enough for sure, look at the U12S from Noctua or an Arctic Esports

-The hard drive is mediocre. Look at just getting a 1TB WD Blue drive, its adequate and much quieter than the black drive - you'll notice no performance loss.

- Is it important that you run freesync? The gpu is good for gaming and high refresh rate, but runs hot and power hungry. I'd look into an RX 590 if you still want freesync or 1070/1070ti if you don't care.

I think I will make the leap to the U12S from Noctua, thanks for the advice. I was shying away from it because the brown doesn't fit very well with my PC's color scheme, but it's worth it based on the reviews I read. I've increased the HDD to the Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive. However, on PartPicker, that costs $40, even less than the 500GB, and its "BLACK SERIES" counterpart (not sure what the difference is) costs 75$. Is there a reason for this price change? All the specs seem the same. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about a well-priced HDD, I just want to make sure I'm not getting a cheap HDD.  As for the third point - I don't have my heart set on freesync, but from the research I did almost everyone reccomended it. Would I get better performance with an RX 590 and FreeSync, or no FreeSync but a 1070ti? Thanks again for all your help.

[Slottr]

20 minutes ago, ben127127 said:

Is there a reason for this price change?

Blacks are faster, but cost for performance boost is very uneven. Blue drives are great, don't worry.

 

20 minutes ago, ben127127 said:

Would I get better performance with an RX 590 and FreeSync, or no FreeSync but a 1070ti? 

Depends on you kinda, if you have the AMD card with freesync it will totally eliminate tearing. With the 1070ti it will still be existent. I'd personally opt for the 1070ti - I use a 1080 on a monitor with freesync (So I can't utilize it) and don't have any issues with tearing.

[ben127127]

24 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Blacks are faster, but cost for performance boost is very uneven. Blue drives are great, don't worry.

 

Depends on you kinda, if you have the AMD card with freesync it will totally eliminate tearing. With the 1070ti it will still be existent. I'd personally opt for the 1070ti - I use a 1080 on a monitor with freesync (So I can't utilize it) and don't have any issues with tearing.

Makes sense with the drives, thanks! As for the FreeSync question, I'm kinda torn. This is my first real PC so I don't have any real experience to draw on. However, everyone says once you use FreeSync you can't go back - but everyone also says I should upgrade my GPU to a 1070ti. Tough choice. If I did keep FreeSync, is it worth it to switch to an RX 590? Just how serious is the power usage and heat problems of the Vega 56? If I use the cooler you recommended, will it still be a problem? The Vega 56 performs better, so if possible I'd like to keep it, but if the power usage/heat is going to be an issue for my PC I'm willing to cut it.

[Herman Mcpootis]

Made some changes for an 8700k, better cooler and storage, but you lose out on freesync.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe - SCNJ-4000 84.64 CFM CPU Cooler  ($39.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($42.99 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Toshiba - P300 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Mini Video Card  ($349.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 275R (Black w/Tempered Glass) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Rosewill - Capstone 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($98.89 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: MSI - Optix MAG24C 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  ($169.99 @ B&H) 
Keyboard: Logitech - G512 CARBON Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($99.99) 
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse  ($39.00 @ Dell) 
Headphones: Logitech - G PRO  Headset  ($86.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: G440 HARD GAMING MOUSEPAD ($29.99)
Total: $1657.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-24 20:40 EST-0500

[ben127127]

2 hours ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

Made some changes for an 8700k, better cooler and storage, but you lose out on freesync.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe - SCNJ-4000 84.64 CFM CPU Cooler  ($39.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($42.99 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Toshiba - P300 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Mini Video Card  ($349.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 275R (Black w/Tempered Glass) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Rosewill - Capstone 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($98.89 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: MSI - Optix MAG24C 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  ($169.99 @ B&H) 
Keyboard: Logitech - G512 CARBON Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($99.99) 
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse  ($39.00 @ Dell) 
Headphones: Logitech - G PRO  Headset  ($86.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: G440 HARD GAMING MOUSEPAD ($29.99)
Total: $1657.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-24 20:40 EST-0500

I appreciate the changes. I'm still torn on the GPU aspect though. I keep getting mixed reviews about the value of FreeSync - is it worth it to upgrade to the 1070 Ti  even if I lose the FreeSync? Is it not much of a difference?

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, ben127127 said:

I appreciate the changes. I'm still torn on the GPU aspect though. I keep getting mixed reviews about the value of FreeSync - is it worth it to upgrade to the 1070 Ti  even if I lose the FreeSync? Is it not much of a difference?

if you're willing to settle for a louder fan and higher temps, the reference vega 56 is about the same price as the 1070ti. performance wise it's alittle worse the having freesync makes up for it.