Hello Everyone, (I know this is a lot of information, I understand if it is too long for some haha)
I have been contemplating building my own PC for the last couple years now and am finally expecting to have the kind of money I will need to buy all the parts at once soon. As a bit of a background, I am a college student about 6 months away from finishing my degree. I major in Multimedia Design and Development and hope to work in 3D environmental design for things such as games and/or animations. I will also possibly be working with web page design, video/image editing, programming, and illustration. I would also like to record my gameplay, edit, and upload to YouTube/stream to twitch.
I want to build a high-end gaming and workstation PC in the price range of about $1500 to $2000, including some peripherals, that will be able to last me for several years and will be fairly versatile in general. As of this point, I have been doing a lot of research, consultation amongst my computer enthusiast friends, and revisions, and have come up with a parts list with pcpartpicker.com.
I would like to note a few things before I get to the parts list though:
one, I already have a mouse, so I do not yet intend to get a new one.
two, I am expecting to be able to have Windows 7 provided for me by my school for free. ( I do not like Win 8 and might be interested in Win 10 at some point in the future if it proves to be a reasonably good OS)
three, I am pretty set on the case. I really like the Carbide Air 540 by Corsair and was a part of my original builds, but recently my attention has been brought to the newer Air 240, the mATX form factor case, and I really feel that, after consideration, the benefits of having an mATX form factor fits my plans for this build. My thought process goes as such: I do not intend to have more than 2 graphics at any point, I like that it will be fairly compact and portable, and I will be able to save some money without hindering my expectations of the build quality.
four, there are several parts that I currently do not yet intend to buy and might possibly upgrade to later. At this time, 16 GB of RAM will be plenty (but I enjoy the thought of possibly upping that to 32 in the future), I am comfortable with a single powerful graphics card (with option of adding a second later down the road, probably SLI), and I do not intend to OC this build at this time and have been advised by a few people that I do not specifically need a replacement CPU cooler at this time (but am considering added components such as a closed loop liquid cooler for the CPU). Also, I am considering replacing all fans with Noctua, or possibly some other quiet set with LEDs built in, at some point.
five, I would like WiFi compatibility as well as possibly an HD gameplay recorder for my consoles.
The current build as it stands is: ( http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kibex55/saved/wfsj4D )
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core (I think this is a bit overkill but I like the idea of going big with the CPU, have considered a xeon but if I do want to OC later then I am told that it is not good for that and the base clocks are more important than amount of cores for games so it better to go with i5 or i7)
MotherBoard: MSI Z97M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1150 (really like this board, "decent" price with a lot of features)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 (price range possibly around 80 to 180, i would like to keep the color similar to the board unless another RAM is significantly efficiently valued)
SSD: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 256GB 2.5" SSD (I would like an SSD for boot and frequent programs speeds, maybe 120 up to 256 so I can hold OS, programs, and some frequent games, reasonable price range seems around $80 to $140)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM (looking at around 1 to 3 TB for my first HDD, price range around $60 to $120)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 (I was originally looking at the MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V, but I feel like the case might have a height problem with that one. I am looking for a card with maybe 3+ GB, probably Nvidia 900 series or a very powerful 700, like the 980/970 or 780ti. My price range is very dependent on performance. I could say possibly between $240 and $560, with going over $400 needing to be very worth it. if I go over $400, I will likely need to cut back on expending on something else like maybe the CPU, but I would rather keep that pretty powerful because of the editing I plan to do)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower (love this and the Air 540 case, don't think I will be willing to change to any other)
PSU: Rosewill 750W ATX12V / EPS12V (price range seems reasonable around $60 to $140, gold seems fine, I would like to keep it at least semi-modular)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24.0" (definitely interested in a high-end monitor within the price range of about $100 to $300, I would like to get a G-sync monitor, but they are way too much, maybe I could upgrade later down the road. For now, I would like something around 24" with a high refresh rate, low response. 16:9 is completely fine, but I just can't help but consider something like 21:10 (maybe something like LG 25UM64-S). also, I would be interested in a monitor that has HDMI in and out so I can play games without any added latency and run the output from the monitor into my computer so it can record. at least some reasonably good freedom of movement would also be nice.)
WiFi Card: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 (seems a bit over the top, but with the builds price range I am being a sucker for the pricey good looking stuff haha)
*HD Capture: AVerMedia C985 Live Gamer HD * (like I said, I would be interested in getting a good HD capture card for a reasonable price like around $80 to $180, this one looks good with decent software available, HDMI pass through, minimal latency, audio ports, adapters, and 1080p 60fps recording, etc.)
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K70 (I am looking for a good quality, easy to clean keyboard, probably with a number pad and even a few M keys, this one looks great. I am probably just going to go with the cherry mx red and add rubber o-rings to shorten the distance and quiet the bottom out since I bottom out often.)
alternatively, I am still considering going above and beyond by getting the Air 540 case and going with a bigger build with an ATX board and possibly even 2 graphics cards (though that sends me over my price range). I have a secondary build list with this setup here ( http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kibex55/saved/Ngn7YJ ) just in case.