I want to build a pc for mild gaming (I'm switching from console to PC, so not many games yet), web browsing, school work and so on. I'm willing to pay for what I want... but not that much! Since I'm starting, I have no idea of the cost.
I'm from Canada and I have been looking on NewEgg.ca for my items. For peripherals, exept for a monitor, I should be ok. I have no idea what overclocking is, but I'm not closed to the idea. Finally I plan on using Windows 10.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/9MQmcf - i5, modest mb and case, nice psu, 8gb RAM, ssd, hdd, gtx960, same monitor etc ~ same'ish budget. You could drop out the ssd and bump up the gpu to a 4gb 380 or even a 970 etc.
There is no point in that ROG Gene motherboard in your list, its unnecessary for vanilla cpu's. 750ti's are too weak, 16gb of RAM is a little overkill for the average gaming pc, 8gb is plenty.
I was going for a motherboard that fitted in the case that I already had. It was at the bottom of the list, I had to add it manually. The ROG was the one fitting in size, but still had capacity. Similar reason for the choise of the graphic card (why is it weak?). I wanted something small that could be powerful.And... why would you recommend two hard drive? And I though more RAM was better... I have 8 gb now, so i though more would be better...
There are more than enough adequate mATX (which is the size of the motherboard, ATX is bigger, mini-ITX is smaller) motherboards on the market.
As @deejeta already stated: A Z97 chipset motherboard (as the one in your partpicker list) is overkill. You will not be running dual or more GPU and you will not overclock (since you did not choose a K or X series CPU). So a H97 chipset motherboard will be plenty. Choosing the ROG would probably be a 110 Dollar visual upgrade. The wifi adapter will probably look crappy when placed on a ROG board too.
There are no games that will push your RAM usage past 8 Gigabytes. Not even modded Minecraft. That's another 40 bucks saved. You can upgrade later if you really really need extra RAM (like I did because of working with VMs and stuff), RAM is cheap and stupidly easy to install. Populating more than 2 memory slots won't give you additional speed since you are limited to dual channel (only DDR4 boards and Server DDR3 boards offer quad-channel).
The 750ti is a 700 series GPU (800 was only mobile GPUs). We are currently at the 900 Series GPU at Nvidia. Choosing a last-gen GPU will deny you some features that you could get with a current gen card. Something like DirectX12 for example, which is rumoured to improve the performance in comparison to DX11 cards. You always want the latest features if possible.
as @lewis1990 already suggested: Get a SSD, you won't regret it.
Suggested changes in short: Replace the motherboard with a H97 board (socket LGA1150 just your information) Downgrade from 16 to 8 Gigs of RAM Upgrade from the 750ti to a 960 Add a 120 Gig SSD
A word on RAM: Since 8 years of warranty on the RAM is considered a "weak warranty" (Adata offers lifelong) RAM should not necessarily be a premium item. So get the cheapest DDR3-1600 with some years of warranty on it.
SSDs are nice for games that take a long time to load since the faster read/write and random access of the SSD will speed the loading process. You can make do with a 120 Gigabyte SSD for the moment (enough for windows and two large games, although you should not save your music to C:\Users\$username\Music anyway) and upgrade that after a while since SSD prices are falling and you have 6 SATA ports to play with (SATA SSDs will only increase in size for the same money, they won't get faster because we've hit the limit of the SATA connection) so there is room to grow.
Lastly: Are you going for a special colour scheme?
If that is the case, that is not very good. Such a small case is problematic since it simply does not fit full-size Graphics Cards. Meaning: Full height PCIe (PCI express to write it out). Your case is more suited for a business machine.
That being said there are two GeForce 750ti's with low-profile (also known as half-height, which is confusing since height sometimes refers to the number of PCIe Slots a Card covers (which can be up to three)). One from Gigabyte (the GV-N75TOC-2GL) or the KFA2 one (which does NOT include the low profile bracket, which can be bought seperatly). A 750ti does not perform really well in games. You probably won't be enjoying GTA V on that card (the card is only 125$ so what do you expect?). If you are only planning on LOL and other mobas (whatever that abbreviation stands for) as well as no very demanding games you will be fine. You could make a point out of that and mainly play the gargantuan, very affordable, library that exists for Retro and Indiegames (because Dude: Have you ever played ... Vampire the masquerade bloodlines for example (with the fan patches). Settling for a 750ti will still provide you with a ton of great games, but probably not the newest games (which are only sequels to the games I'm talking about, am I right?).
Alternative: You could ditch the case (return if possible, probably sell at a loss, or don't sell, whatever) get a decent sized one (from 30 bucks up) and then get a GTX 960. What is your budget in numbers exactly?
Listening to you guys, I'm seriously thinking ditching the old case (it was from an old computer) for something more appropriate... on the budget side, I'd prefer not to spend a thousand dollars... but i can pay a little more for performance :) And for the games... GTA, Bannerlord, battlefront, and more! I really want to switch to PC :)
Maybe cut down on the ram. 8gb should be enough, and maybe get a gpu with over 4gb memory. Most current games are demanding a lot more memory. You could save 10-20 bucks buying windows 7 and then using the free upgrade to get windows 10.
Change the case to an mATX one, whilst an mATX board fits perfectly fine in an ATX case it just leaves a whole lotta vacant space. Cheap, nice matx cases:
Apart from that do you really need that fancy monitor? You could get something that is a lot cheaper - IPS panel, 24". With that saved money you could up the GPU perhaps to something even stronger like a 4gb 380.
You can still go cheaper on the case as @deejeta suggested. You do not have extravagant hardware in there (yet). At your budget, I would go 22 inch HD IPS panel. Anything bigger eats budget more than I would like to see. You can always move into a bigger/fancier case later. As for monitors: 4k it's where it is going, I would expect the 4k displays to be the norm in ... 4 years maybe? PC users keep their monitors forever, so I'd advise against dropping 300 bucks on a HD-monitor right now (4k is still too expensive, so cheaper HD is where it's at).
Those calculators are always a bit high in their recommendations (most of the times they are from PSU manufacturers, after all) but following their minimum recommendations
Jup. Another Calculator tells me 353 Watt. I would keep the realtively beefy PSU though since you do not know what your next GPU will be (might be more power-hungry than the GTX960 which is quite modest in power consumption). That being said, there are other benefits to a decent "oversizing" of your PSU: PSUs age a bit over time so you lose a bit of peak performance. PSUs are often more efficient at medium-high loads (50%-60%). Efficiency meaning turning AC current from the wall to DC current for your computer. Higher efficiency means less heat-loss, meaning cooler running PSU. A PSU that operates within the mediocre range will run cooler and therefore quieter.
So a 500-550 Watt PSU is okay for your build. Leaves room to grow.