First post on here. Been creeping around for a bit and really like the way this community... is better than almost all. But enough of the flattery. I need advice, I would like to build a PC for myself and I did my best to read everything I could about the subject before I ask the stupid questions, but its a pretty large subject and I got lost pretty quickly. I was going to include my possible build from PCpartspicker but since I pretty much just hit sort by top rated and picked a decently priced one from the top I didn't think it would really be worth your time. So here we go.
- Budget. How much are you willing to spend? I am going to build this pretty slowly so starting price of around $600. But I need things like the motherboard, CPU and probably power supply to be better than the current build needs since I plan to keep fiddling with it and learning.
- Where do you live (what country), and what currency do you use? USA.
- -Is there a retailer you prefer? The one that doesn't rip me off
- Do you need or already have peripherals? (this can add to costs) I have a "monitor" its actually a 720P TV I got for free. I'm sure its lacking in many ways but for now its what its gonna be
- What will you be using your future computer for? Gaming? Rendering? Mix of both? Or is this a home media PC? Mostly gaming but It will also sorta be a NAS, not sure if thats the right term since all I will be doing is mapping the hard drives to my media center. (Its an old laptop running XBMC thats running out of drive space) So lots of storage will end up being added in.
- Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking? Not at the moment. That may be in the future but I'm gonna start with small steps
- Do you plan on going for custom watercooling now, or in the future? Water? In a computer? Sounds scary! lol but for real, that seems to be a little farther than I need to get in to at least for a while
- OS. Do you need a new one? Yes. Was thinking Windows 7 but I don't actually mind windows 8.1 that much. Both of my laptops use it and I do fine, but if there is a good reason for one or the other let me know. I also would like to learn some Linux since I know nothing about it. So I might like the option for a dual boot set up in the future. I'll have to learn more though on that topic though
If you Game-
- What kind of settings do you like or what FPS do you want to play at? I want to be able to run new games on mid (or better) settings. I'm actually used to an Xbox 360 so from what I hear no matter what I'll be pretty happy.
- What resolution will you be playing at? //or would like to play at. See above
- What kind of games do you like to play? First person shooters, racers, some strategy (I enjoyed Plague evolved and from my younger years I really loved Age of empires.
- What specific game will you be playing (if you only really play one) Fallout 3/New vegas. I don't get in to games like fallout but I do love fallout.
If you don't have peripherals -
- What kind of keyboard do you prefer? Mechanical, scissor, membrane, etc. Don't have one. No idea
- What type of mouse-grip do you have? Palm, claw, combination? Don't have one. Looks like palm, I guess.
- What kind of games do you play? (mmo vs fps, for button management) I think I answered this...
- What size monitor are you looking for, and what resolution? Screen type (IPS, S-IPS, TN, etc.), hertz (60, 120, etc.) My 32" 720p 60hz POS TV. It won't be the best but free is always the best.
Two last things. I don't like flashy cases. I liked the under stated look of Fractal Design but I'm not gonna be all "it has to be this or that or the other thing." Just an idea of my preference. I also prefer Intel over AMD. No real logic there its just something that I would like.
Also any other tidbits of advice you have on really any related topics would be awesome. I'm not starting from the complete bottom but I can see it from here.
Scour through sites like newegg and amazon. I usually stick with newegg, no sales tax, and shipping is usually free. Check out the FS/FT thread, can sometimes find a good deal in forums like this one. Just gotta watch out for scammers. Best read up on components as well.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JFEY
I feel like this would be a pretty decent place to start.
CPU - Athlon X4 760k - probably the best budget CPU around.
Motherboard - To be honest I don't pay a ton of attention to motherboards, and I'm a little bit biased towards Asrock since I have one of their Z77 motherboards. I'm sure others will be able to suggest superior alternatives.
RAM - Cheap 8GB 1600 Mhz Cas 9
Hard drive - WD Caviar Blue 1 TB - it seems to me to be one of the best hard drives for the price that is a quality part.
Graphics card - MSI R7 265 - this seems to be dirt cheap, I'd definitely try to pick this up before it returns to its regular price
Case - should be fairly simple/not flashy, and was on the cheaper side. There's a lot of personal preference here though, you can always change it if you wish.
Power supply - Corsair CX500 - fairly decent power supply for the price, by no means top tier in terms of quality but still pretty good.
OS - windows 7 home premium
There's still $25 or so leftover for peripherals, since you need them from my understanding. Since you're only playing at 720p, the R7 265 should be able to play a vast majority of games on pretty high settings, and if you ever upgrade to 1080p should still be able to perform decently.
Been checking. Looking at example builds and stuff. The main reasons I'm even asking for help are things like knowing how big of a graphics card I can fit on a certain motherboard, are there certain components that won't play nice together, are there brands that its common to stay away from? I could go out and build one right now but money is an issue. So I would rather not go though a bunch of mistakes that end up costing me money. I can spare the time to learn things, but I can't just buy things and find out I missed one letter or one specification and it won't work.
Thank you for Quick reply's. At least now I have a better idea of where I should be starting and what to look for.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JQpH
Any problems with this set up? I'm pretty sure the MOBO and power supply are overkill but it looks like they will offer me lots of options down the road. The price is a little higher than I wanted to be at but I plan on buying in chunks so i should be alright. I was a little unsure about a CPU cooler, from what I have read I won't need one till I get in to over clocking but someone telling me that for sure would be nice to hear.
Well so much for the $600 dollar budget :P
Anyway, it looks to be a pretty decent setup. You won't be able to overclock any meaningful amount since the i5 4570 doesn't have an unlocked multiplier; you'd need to pick an i5 4670k to do that. As for a CPU cooler, the stock Intel fan will cool an i5 to acceptable levels, but you'd get much better temperatures and a quieter system with an aftermarket cooler, even when you aren't overclocking.
Everything does look good though. It's a bit of an unbalanced build, what with an i5 and only and R7 265, but since you're playing at 720p that will be ok.
I know its a little lopsided but my thought was go big on the stuff thats a little more difficult to change. The graphics card will last me till I get a better monitor and changing that out should be way easier than doing a new motherboard or power supply. As far as overclocking goes... I knew that about the 4570 but since I'm not even sure I'll be trying anything with overclocking and the 4670 is about $50 more expensive. I wasn't sure it would be worth it to me. Any suggestions for a moderate aftermarket cooler?