I plan on playing games 1080p on ultra settings. I'm mostly surfing the web if I'm not gaming. I do photoshop every now and then. I chose 16GB of RAM because sometimes on my current pc with 8gb of RAM would be low on memory (windows notifies me, aero gets disabled). With that being said, I do not plan on overclocking, at all.
Help understanding: This is my first PC build, and I have been doing research and replacing parts back and forth for MONTHS. I'm pretty sure I am all set with this build. However, I am still confused about the airflow in my case. I have heard of terms like push/pull, exhaust, intake, etc. Basically, what is the best method of getting cool airflow in my case (Corsair Air 540)? I was concerned about this, since I do not want the airflow to be out of place (resulting in computer to be hot when it shouldnt because of no knowledge of airflow)
Go for an i7 6700 over an overclockable i5, also an RX 470 over a 3GB 1060, I don't think anyone should buy a 3GB 1060, 6gb would be minimum, although I'd say go with the AMD card mostly because of free-sync displays being a lot cheaper than G-sync displays, the on here is 1080p 75hz TN free-sync
IPS has better color reproduction than TN, but modern TN is pretty good and free-sync helps smooth things out
the display you have there isn't at all worth it's cost, far too much for a basic 60hz TN display
You can add a 1 tb HD later. Allot of games really suck so a 240 ssd will keep you happy for a while. When you find really good games you will never look at the box unless there is a problem, get the cheapest case you can find. IMHO
If you are not planning on overclocking you can save money by not getting the 'K' (unlocked for overclocking) version of that CPU. The stock CPU cooler will also be fine, so I would consider ditching the after-market one.
With regards to air-flow; I would recommend one intake fan at the front (at the bottom), and one exhaust fan at the back. Unless you are overclocking or have SLI/Crossfire (multiple GPUs), there will not really be much temperature difference whether you have two fans, or five fans. All they do is make a racket. Fans also draw extra power, and in turn heat. I recommend removing the upper front fan on that case. I bet there is virtually no temperature difference. Test it out. The case is very well ventilated.
May I just commend you on such a solid build. Too often we see new builders with either overkill parts for what they need, or ones full of crappy components, or a mix of both. I think you really hit the sweet spot in terms of consistency/quality/performance/cost.
I noticed that you didn't list any storage. What are your plans for that?
Thank you for the air flow recommendation, I will consider it!
As for the i5 6600, I might as well go for the 'K' for future proof, if I ever do end up overclocking or finding a use for it (plus it looks like it is cheaper for me)
Also, thank you for the commendation! I have been looking at pc parts for my future build for months now, and I'm glad to see that I have hit a sweet spot!
I was going to stick with my WD 1TB HDD, but I figured I might as well get an SSD since this 3 year old HDD was the computer part making noises. I was debating whether to get the Mushkin Triactor 480GB SSD or the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD. I think I'll be going with the Mushkin, just because it is a lot cheaper than the EVO. The most I have used in this 1TB is 500gb, but now that I have cleaned up my computer from junk a few months ago, I'm almost at 200gb. It should be plenty for me
Typically I don't do much input on threads like this and rarely do builds since @Streetguru is typically great and in line with what I'd do. You said you mainly game and would like ultra at 1080p. Looking long term here AMD is going to be better than that 1060 because of the fact that it performs better in dx12 and vulcan, not to mention the fact that driver improvements typically improve AMD card performance whereas Nvidia is stagnant from the beginning. Also, since you don't plan to overclock I stuck a non-k cpu in there as well as a 212 evo to keep things quiet.
This is what I've come up with (not changing too much, like case/psu, personally I'd go with seasonic for psu manufacturer but this corsair seems decent enough).