Building PC - Advice Needed pleeeeeeese

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Moe

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Hey All!

My younger bro has decided he wants to build a PC. I've been out of touch with hardware for a long while.

Can anyone recommend some components for me? Budget is about 1800-2000

Motherbaord - no idea yet. but asus and gigabyte never fail
GPU - looking like GTX 1070 is the best option
CPU - i7 6700k seems to be the one everyone is going for.
RAM - anything kingston i guess
CPU Cooler - ?
PSU - ?
Case - ?
 

Dognacious

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Hey All!

My younger bro has decided he wants to build a PC. I've been out of touch with hardware for a long while.

Can anyone recommend some components for me? Budget is about 1800-2000

Motherbaord - no idea yet. but asus and gigabyte never fail
GPU - looking like GTX 1070 is the best option
CPU - i7 6700k seems to be the one everyone is going for.
RAM - anything kingston i guess
CPU Cooler - ?
PSU - ?
Case - ?
i7 is a little overkill unless you are going to use it as a server or plug it into a huge screen (ie a tv). I have a i5 and an i7 in my house and they dont perform any differently in most things. The K on the end means the CPU is overcloackable, so only pay the extra for it if you plan to overclock (which is generally unnecessary).

The GTX 1070 is an awesome card, but just released so a bit overpriced. The 1060 is hundreds cheaper and still faster than the previous generation. My 970 (the previous gen) still plays all the latest games at top settings (@ 100+ fps), at 1920x1080 (the res most people's PC screens will run at). You only need more power in the card if you want higher resolutions (ie you are gunna plug it into a huge TV instead of a PC monitor). If you use higher resolutions on a std PC screen (mines 27") everything will just look too tiny

The biggest speed different / improvement you will get from one piece of hardware is an SSD drive. Since i put one in my PC, id never have one without an SSD. Mines an intel, they are very good SSDs.

Antec and Thermaltake make good PSUs from experience (ive built over 500 PCs in the last 18 years).

I have a thermaltake case. Just go for one that you like the look of. If you get a seperate PSU it wont matter. If you get a small case use liquid cooling, if you get a big one they usually have plenty ariflow and 120mm fans to keep it cool enough.

I have a coolermaster CPU cooler than only cost about $50. You dont need liquid cooling unless its in a hot room, the case is small so has poor airflow or if you run 2 video cards that create a lot of heat. Or if you overclock, but as i said i dont recommend overclocking. You risk voiding your warranty and rarely is overclocking necessary.
 
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Moe

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i7 is a little overkill unless you are going to use it as a server or plug it into a huge screen (ie a tv). I have a i5 and an i7 in my house and they dont perform any differently in most things. The K on the end means the CPU is overcloackable, so only pay the extra for it if you plan to overclock (which is generally unnecessary).

The GTX 1070 is an awesome card, but just released so a bit overpriced. The 1060 is hundreds cheaper and still faster than the previous generation. My 970 (the previous gen) still plays all the latest games at top settings (@ 100+ fps), at 1920x1080 (the res most people's PC screens will run at). You only need more power in the card if you want higher resolutions (ie you are gunna plug it into a huge TV instead of a PC monitor). If you use higher resolutions on a std PC screen (mines 27") everything will just look too tiny

The biggest speed different / improvement you will get from one piece of hardware is an SSD drive. Since i put one in my PC, id never have one without an SSD. Mines an intel, they are very good SSDs.

Antec and Thermaltake make good PSUs from experience (ive built over 500 PCs in the last 18 years).

I have a thermaltake case. Just go for one that you like the look of. If you get a seperate PSU it wont matter. If you get a small case use liquid cooling, if you get a big one they usually have plenty ariflow and 120mm fans to keep it cool enough.

I have a coolermaster CPU cooler than only cost about $50. You dont need liquid cooling unless its in a hot room, the case is small so has poor airflow or if you run 2 video cards that create a lot of heat. Or if you overclock, but as i said i dont recommend overclocking. You risk voiding your warranty and rarely is overclocking necessary.
Thanks man. I did a bit more research and used the msy (shop in sydney) price list to get this.


Video card - 8G GTX 1070 Gainward Phoenix OC (3699) - 679
CPU - Intel i5-6600K - 332
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 - 99
Motherboard - Asus Z170-PRO-GAMING - 249
RAM (memory) - 16GB 3000 Corsair Vengeance Black - 125
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250G - 119
HDD - Western Digital Blue 2TB - 98
Case - Thermaltake VP400M1W2N A71 - 91
Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart Power 80+ Bronze 750w - 128

I stuck with the 1070 cause it's almost double as fast as the last series. But went with gainward who i have used in the past. took your advice on the i7. most people said the same. the CPU cooler and K series is just a future proof.
there was 3600 RAM available but i feel its still new and a bit pricey.
SSD's are cheap as chups now!
And case and PSU i stuck with thermaltake
 
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dogkat

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Couldn't your brother have created this thread?
 

Dognacious

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Thanks man. I did a bit more research and used the msy (shop in sydney) price list to get this.


Video card - 8G GTX 1070 Gainward Phoenix OC (3699) - 679
CPU - Intel i5-6600K - 332
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 - 99
Motherboard - Asus Z170-PRO-GAMING - 249
RAM (memory) - 16GB 3000 Corsair Vengeance Black - 125
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250G - 119
HDD - Western Digital Blue 2TB - 98
Case - Thermaltake VP400M1W2N A71 - 91
Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart Power 80+ Bronze 750w - 128

I stuck with the 1070 cause it's almost double as fast as the last series. But went with gainward who i have used in the past. took your advice on the i7. most people said the same. the CPU cooler and K series is just a future proof.
there was 3600 RAM available but i feel its still new and a bit pricey.
SSD's are cheap as chups now!
And case and PSU i stuck with thermaltake
Looks like a v good rig. Asus is good reliable gear so good choice of motherboard. I only use asus or gigabyte for those. Think it will kick ass.

also strongly recommend mechanical keyboards for a gaming rig. They are dramatically more responsive and durable than even top end non mechanical ones
 
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Mr Invisible

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MSY *giggles*
ARC and Mwave are my go to guys these days.

I've gone a little over budget, but this is what I'd be looking at.

upload_2016-8-7_22-55-39.png


CPU - i5 6660 (non K) is fine if you aren't overclocking.
MOBO - Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 is a solid board, super reliable, and decent cooling on the mosfets and solid capacitors. The LED is excellent feedback too for troubleshooting.
RAM - Corsair 16GB (2 x 8) should be fine these days. 32GB is overkill imho.
CASE - Corsair make cracking good cases, and the 650D is one of their better ones. Easy to access and decent cooling. Very decent build quality.
VIDEO CARD - I'd have opted for the 970, but you wanted to futureproof, so 1070 ASUS Strix is the go. Prefer ASUS over Gigabyte these days, and MSI trump both but don't appear to have a 1070 yet.
OS HARD DRIVE - This new M2 drive is an absolute screamer and will blow any 2.5" SSD out of the water with responsiveness. The EVO in the M2 doesn't even come close. Consider this a hard drive, operating at RAM speeds, directly connected to the system bus.
DATA HARD DRIVES - Hybrid SSD Seagates in RAID 1. Protection from a single drive failure, whilst decent responsiveness. Still backup to external drives if important.
POWER SUPPLY - Corsair make solid power supplies, and the H series is both affordable and reliable. The A series kick arse but are super expensive. (BTW the old Thermaltakes were good, but recent ones are junk).
OPTICAL DRIVE - Don't bother with a Bluray burner, and bluray playback is annoying on a PC without software.
OPERATING SYSTEM - I've left this one off. I prefer Windows 7/8.1 these days, but 10 might be your only choice.

Hope this helps.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Hey All!

My younger bro has decided he wants to build a PC. I've been out of touch with hardware for a long while.

Can anyone recommend some components for me? Budget is about 1800-2000

Motherbaord - no idea yet. but asus and gigabyte never fail
GPU - looking like GTX 1070 is the best option
CPU - i7 6700k seems to be the one everyone is going for.
RAM - anything kingston i guess
CPU Cooler - ?
PSU - ?
Case - ?
The 1070 is currently the best price per performance you can get if you're planning to run at 1440p (which I would suggest). It still struggles for 4k and is overkill for 1080p. If you get the 1070 I wouldn't go below an i7. Previously the i7's were overkill but the 1070 and 1080 take full advantage of them now so anything less will bottleneck on some games, currently only a few games take full advantage of it - The Division, Arma 3, The Witcher, possibly future games.

PSU: There's many good options, just don't go under 750w and preferably Corsair

RAM: Kingston is still good. Aim to get a motherboard with DDR4 so you can get DDR4 ram

CPU Cooler: Corsair or Coolermaster, then it just comes down to whether you want water cooling or just a fan. If you don't plan to overclock the CPU then it doesn't really matter and if you get an i7 then there's not really much use overclocking the CPU for a while.

Case: More of a preference thing. Find a case that looks good then check the reviews

Also, As Dognacious mentioned, get an SSD. Doesn't need to be too big, 120gb or 240gb. Big enough to put Windows, maybe Office if you're using it and maybe one poorly optimised game (Arma 3, The Division)
 
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Hacky McAxe

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MSY *giggles*
ARC and Mwave are my go to guys these days.
Haven't used ARC yet. I have used Mwave about 6 times and 3 of those times I had issues with them. I also don't like buying online 'cause I'm about as impatient as they come. If I want a new component then I want it now. That said I bought my r9 390 online because it was extremely cheap at the time from Newegg. Newegg are decent but there's a long wait time compared to Australian stores and the warranty is pretty much non-existent.
 

Mr Invisible

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Mwave still (I think) have the express courier service where you can have parts in a few hours from order. You can also pickup from store.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Mwave still (I think) have the express courier service where you can have parts in a few hours from order. You can also pickup from store.
I always did the pickup option when I worked nights. Now that I work business hours it's a lot more difficult. A couple of times when I chose pickup for items they had in stock, after I paid they told me that they needed to get them from the warehouse then I had to wait 2 weeks before I could pick them up.
 

Moe

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Mwave were no where near cheaper. The cheapest places were MSY, DIY Computers in Granville then IJK in enfield.

I ended up getting pretty much what we wanted. Got them from MSY and IJK (cause stock varied at each place).

CPU - Intel i5-6600K
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard - Asus Z170-PRO-GAMING (This board is hectic)
Video card - 8G GTX 1070 Gainward Phoenix OC (3699)
RAM (memory) - 16GB 3000 Corsair Vengeance Black
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250G
HDD - Western Digital Blue 2TB
Case - Corsair Carbide spec-3
Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart Power 80+ Bronze 750w

Carefully put it all together, learning from my last experience that CPU cooler should be installed first before locking in your mobo.
The cooler was massive, i had to lower a fan to fit it in. luckily they were adjustable.

And lo and behold, when I went to turn it on it all worked first time! From the fans, lights, and fromt panel inputs. I still go it lol

Although we didn't do any benchmarks, the thing is quick. And that without OC the CPU or GPU.
 

Nano

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Mwave were no where near cheaper. The cheapest places were MSY, DIY Computers in Granville then IJK in enfield.

I ended up getting pretty much what we wanted. Got them from MSY and IJK (cause stock varied at each place).

CPU - Intel i5-6600K
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard - Asus Z170-PRO-GAMING (This board is hectic)
Video card - 8G GTX 1070 Gainward Phoenix OC (3699)
RAM (memory) - 16GB 3000 Corsair Vengeance Black
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250G
HDD - Western Digital Blue 2TB
Case - Corsair Carbide spec-3
Power Supply - Thermaltake Smart Power 80+ Bronze 750w

Carefully put it all together, learning from my last experience that CPU cooler should be installed first before locking in your mobo.
The cooler was massive, i had to lower a fan to fit it in. luckily they were adjustable.

And lo and behold, when I went to turn it on it all worked first time! From the fans, lights, and fromt panel inputs. I still go it lol

Although we didn't do any benchmarks, the thing is quick. And that without OC the CPU or GPU.
Haha I remember my pc building days, my last pc I had I used for gaming took me ages to build due to the water cooling and cable management but it looks so good.
 

Mr Invisible

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IJK are pretty good, also (like ARC) good to deal with if you have warranty issues.

MSY are a nightmare if you have warranty concerns.
 

Hacky McAxe

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IJK are pretty good, also (like ARC) good to deal with if you have warranty issues.

MSY are a nightmare if you have warranty concerns.
I've only had one item fail from MSY. A power supply. Took it back 3 months after I bought it and said "it failed". They plugged it into a test system, said "nope, not turning on" then gave me a new one.
 

Moe

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One thing you have to note when buying hardware from these places is they don't look after warranty. Once you buy it, and it fails you have to deal directly with the vendor. That's the trade off for cheap prices.

I think that's why Mwave are slightly more expensive, they offer more of a service. Not just selling parts.


In other news, the GTX 1070/10180 won't work on Win10 unless you are on the latest build. There is a Nvidia hotfix that doesnt get installed until your OS is up to the current version. And if you know windows 10, it takes ages for it to pick up new build updates.
 
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