Yet Another PC Build Thread

[Paingod]

My wife informed me last night that she's been setting aside a little money now and then for me to work with to build a new PC - she's currently sitting on $1,500 and plans to make it $2,000 shortly. I'm floored by the gift and need to plan it out as best as I can. My current machine ran about $1,200 and has run well for around 5 years - but is showing it's age and goes into slideshow mode in Fallout 4 sometimes - and is nowhere near ready to run Star Citizen. I've re-used my case for the last 15 years, but it's probably time to get a new one as the power button falls out, a couple of the face plates fall off when I open it (abused by kids before they were old enough to stop playing with it), and the side panel is bent and can't be placed correctly anymore (but still stays in place due to being wedged).

I've got some homework ahead of me as I only brush up on hardware when I need to build out a machine. I'm completely behind on hardware now, so I'll be spending a few days just exploring it. I see a couple other relatively recent build threads here and will be exploring those, too, for input.

I'm going to work on this and keep some notes here as I go. Bear with me...

For cases ... something with good airflow is a must, preferably with filtering options since we have a lot of animals and dust. Lighting effects, clear windows, etc ... aren't needed, but are nice to look at.

For HDD's ... I'm thinking it's time to move into a RAID array to improve my load/access times - and would still want to use a good SSD for the OS (not in the array). I'm looking for multiple terabytes of drive space to expand into (I like to keep every PC game I own installed without needing to uninstall/reinstall to make space; current that's sitting at around 1.5TB across 5 older drives). I'm not even sure if RAID is a good choice for gaming. Research (and opinions here) will tell...

• I could re-use my SATAIII 64GB SSD for the OS. It's 5 years old, but still running well - and the OS isn't a big deal to me if I need to reinstall it if/when this fails. Steam apparently can see old installs and tie back into them if I have to rebuild the OS, and it's pretty painless to reinstall other digitally owned games. A 'nice to have' but not essential component right now.
• If I use a minimal number of 3TB drives...
  • 2 drives at RAID 0 is double the read/write speed, but lacks survivability. I'd have 6TB of drive space - ~$210
  • RAID 1 is good for survivability, but isn't quite as fast and cuts the space in half. I'd have 3TB of drive space, with maybe twice the read speed and no write gain. ~$210
  • RAID 5 requires at least 3 hard drives, but boosts read speed and survivability. I'd have 6TB of space, double read speed, and can lose a drive. ~$315
  • RAID 10 requires at least 4 drives, and greatly boosts read and write, and I can lose a drive safely - but cuts into drive space a lot. 4x read speed, 2x write speed, 6TB of space - ~$420
• I suppose this decision needs to be put on hold until the other components are selected, with at least $210 in mind for hard drives.
• Instead of 6TB of space with some arrays, I could use smaller drives to get 3TB of space and lower the cost.
• 3TB is an objective simply based on the current growth of my games library. 6TB is probably optimal to carry through into the next build 5 years down the road, but not a requirement.
• Western Digital has always been a preferred brand, but they seem to have gone off the deep end and make drives for specific purposes now? Color coded... Purple Surveillance, Red NAS, Gold Datacenter, Black Performance (Gaming?), Blue Home PC... so I guess I'm looking at the Black options and their competitors' parts.
• 4 2TB Western Digital Black drives in RAID 10 would offer the most performance, 4TB of space, but costs $560. I could save hours of time waiting for load screens in the next 5 years using this, though.

For Audio ... I'm not an audiophile and stock headphone connections to motherboards have been working fine for me for over a decade. I use an $80 pair of headphones for gaming that are working well still.

For CPU ... 99% of what I do is gaming and web browsing. I don't farm bitcoins or do fiendishly complex celestial calculations.

• A previous thread here suggests the i5 is a solid choice as a lot of games don't take advantage of the i7's capabilities (yet?). Also saves on the budget.

For Video ... the heart of the beast. Preferably as future-proof as possible.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Are you including a monitor as part of your $1,500 - $2,000 budget, or is that budget intended solely for the PC itself?

[Paingod]

My monitor is a 23" hand-me-down, but is running fairly well still. Unfortunately, I don't have enough space on my desk for two larger monitors - but I'm considering a slightly larger replacement if I can afford it and I'd hand this down to my kids to use on their computer. We have been planning, separately, to buy a $100 monitor for the kid's computer - so maybe that could be folded into my budget and they can have my older monitor in trade.

So, I suppose, it's in flux - based on how everything else comes together. It's not a specific objective, but would be a nice to have.

Other peripherials - keyboard, mouse, headphones - are still good and I like what I have.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'd go with a similar build to the one I mentioned in GreenGoo's recent thread, which is largely based upon the current PC Perspective High End System Leaderboard recommendations.

Here 's a basic parts list courtesy of PCPartPicker.com (I only included a single SSD, so I suggest you add the necessary additional storage you're likely to need):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($419.50 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($43.53 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($12.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($189.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($338.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($117.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1467.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

To maximise affordability, it may behoove you to switch the Core i7-6700K CPU for a Core i5-6600K (which ought to give you a few hundred dollars more to spend on additional storage and such).

[Paingod]

I read through that - he mentioned moving up to the 980 over the 970 and loving it. I'll look through that and maybe call it a baseline.

Thank you!

*Edit - that is an awesome website. Holy simplification of the process, Batman...!!

A rough first draft, based on that list you provided with some modifications.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($479.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-I ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold S 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1975.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-14 13:52 EST-0500

The Gigabyte board has some unfavorable mentions of BIOS and RAM issues. The SSD was more than an OS needs (250GB is more, too - I'll probably trim that and find a better fan). I included 4 WD 7200RPM 2TB drives for a RAID 10, for 4TB of space that provides 4x read speed to help quickly load games.

*Edit: Somehow I got turned around and was looking at the CryoRig C7, which was odd for my build and had 2 reviews. The H7 has glowing reviews in general and I'll give that one a whirl.

[stessier]

Don't go lower than 250 GB on the SSD. I don't play a ton of games and thought "Pshaw, I'll be fine!" My computer arrived 10/31 and I've only got 120 GB left. I'm thinking of getting another one.

My understanding is you play way more than I do and much newer (and thus larger). Go big.

[Paingod]

Don't go lower than 250 GB on the SSD. I don't play a ton of games and thought "Pshaw, I'll be fine!" My computer arrived 10/31 and I've only got 120 GB left. I'm thinking of getting another one.

My understanding is you play way more than I do and much newer (and thus larger). Go big.

I've been using a 64GB SDD for 5 years and getting by - everything is installed to the mish-mash of other drives I have. A 300GB here, 500GB there ... a mess, really. They're all connected, and I've got drives C through H in my computer currently. It'll be nice when it's C, D, and E.

Since you mention it, though, the 250GB is only a little more expensive and would let me load a couple "high performance" games on it maybe - I think Star Citizen (if it ever comes out and is worth playing) wants to run from a SSD ... and is 120GB(?).

[stessier]

You know your data needs better than I, of course. I have a 2TB drive and the 250 GB SSD. The only thing I have on the 2TB are pictures and music. All the programs are ending up on the SSD because it's just so darn fast!

[Isgrimnur]

1TB SSDs are going for ~$350. Looks like you gould get 500GB for ~$160.

[Smoove_B]

If it takes you...4-5 days to download a current AAA game because you're on the 2016 equivalent of dial-up, opt for more space. Or I guess if you're on a restrictive data cap each month. If I could essentially download games on demand (like some people I know), I'm pretty sure I could live with a 128 GB SSD.

[Paingod]

I suppose I am - basic Time Warner internet service.

As it is, my library on Steam is permanently installed (202 games) and GOG (36 games) and I have all the shortcuts organized by types - so when I get in a mood, I just open the folder for that and select something to play. I drift in and out of games a lot and it's rare for me to focus exclusively on just one at a time. Last night, for example, I played Fallout 4 for 1.5 hours and Tharsis for 2 hours. Another night I might do a couple hours of MechWarrior Online and State of Decay.

I wish I could just run what I wanted for a couple SSD's and call it good - but I go too many ways for that to be cost or time effective. A single 1TB SSD might be enough to install just what I consider worth playing a lot and let other things come and go - but I'm afraid that's still going to cap out quickly. The angle I come from is that I never really know what I'm going to be in the mood to play on any given evening, and my gaming time is somewhat limited (~3 hours per night).

Thinking about it, though - maybe I could scoot by with 2TB of SSD space working in RAID 0? A drive failure kills the whole thing, but it could be just $50 more expensive than 4 $139 regular drives and a $90 SSD. Half the space, but so much more speed.

I'm hunting around for a different case now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($12.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($479.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold S 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($154.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1902.66

I could keep using mine and replace the older (louder) fans, but it's still kind of a clunker. Not getting a new case frees up a fair amount of money, though.

*Edit: Okay, so research indicates that SSD's in RAID 0 get a nice boost. To boot, there's a 1TB SSD for $260 - two of them is 2TB for $510. That's cheaper than my 4TB build, less space - but more than I have now and screaming fast to boot. Damn choices...

[coopasonic]

If I get up to 6 games installed I feel the urge to clean house... I can't even imagine. I'm not sure which one of us has the bigger problem. If I decide I want to play something else it generally takes 10 minutes to download it (sorry Smoove).

I am on the brink of an upgrade myself and I will definitely be going with an SSD.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'm hunting around for a different case now.

Any particular reason you're opposed to the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case? Having now built a system with it myself, I found it absolutely lived up to the praise it received in this HardwareCanucks review; it's a real pleasure to work with. Even without any additional cooling options, it should be more than capable of keeping a very powerful system sufficiently cool and stable, and it's incredibly spacious to boot. It may not be the fanciest-looking case around, but for the quality, features, and versatility it provides, you'd be hard-pressed to find much better bang for your buck at its price range, IMHO.

[Paingod]

I'm hunting around for a different case now.

Any particular reason you're opposed to the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case? Having now built a system with it myself, I found it absolutely lived up to the praise it received in this HardwareCanucks review; it's a real pleasure to work with. Even without any additional cooling options, it should be more than capable of keeping a very powerful system sufficiently cool and stable, and it's incredibly spacious to boot. It may not be the fanciest-looking case around, but for the quality, features, and versatility it provides, you'd be hard-pressed to find much better bang for your buck at its price range, IMHO.

The one you linked was white, which doesn't go well with the dark decor in my room. I did see similar cases from the same company in darker colors. You're right, though - they're pretty un-fancy to behold. I haven't ruled out the Phanteks brand, I was just looking for something in a black or dark green theme. The case and hard drives are my last sticking points, I believe. I'm pretty comfortable with the motherboard, CPU, memory, power, and video card selection - but I'll still look all of those over again before I buy anything.

I'm looking at the RAID 0 SSD's giving me 2TB of very fast drive access and I'm loving it... but it's not as much space as I was hoping for (I have a hoarding problem in my computer, I know). I could do 2TB of SSD's and then throw in a cheap 3TB HDD later, I suppose. Steam wouldn't care if I took the install folder for a game and archived it and then brought it back later to use it.

That just leaves me with the niggling concern over using RAID 0, where a single drive failure cripples the whole thing. It's a calculated risk. I've never personally had a drive of any kind fail on me, but I've seen it at work a number of times and it's a miserable event. Using two drives doubles the failure chance... but the speed is awesome.

If I get up to 6 games installed I feel the urge to clean house... I can't even imagine. I'm not sure which one of us has the bigger problem.

Probably me. I hate letting anything go once I put it into my computer. I have old documents spanning back 20+ years that I keep organized in folders. I have game installers and patches stored and organized. I have multiple versions of drivers for devices in my computer stored. I have multiple installer versions of apps I install and use stored. I just keep carrying it all over, one computer to the next. I don't even know if most of it is still functional. Will I ever need to go back to Word 2000 for something? I don't know - but I could.

I'm leaning toward this case, for both aesthetics and function. It's got exterior fan controls, lots of fans to work with, space behind the motherboard try to run cables, and just plain looks cool. I don't see dust filters except on the bottom, so I'll need to make/find others and use those with this.

You know what, that case you linked the review to just plain looks quality. I don't go in for the white fan blades, but the dust covers are a must for me and the simplicity of design with really tight interior and pre-laid cabling is more than nice. I'll go for it.

So that puts me here...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($12.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($479.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($107.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($152.95 @ B&H)
Total: $1883.15

The 850W PSU may be overkill - all the parts are put together for 370W, but when I added the chasiss, the number didn't go up. I generally try to get double my estimated wattage for the PSU to make sure I'm not pushing it at all, ever... plus the Corsair RM850i has an excellent review here.

The Mushkin drives get good but not great reviews - which is fine for me. They pass muster for stability and functionality, and I'm paying $260 for them, not $400. Running them in a RAID 0 will bolster performance and 2TB of drive space running at "Good" SSD performance should blow running traditional drives out of the water.

The money's in the bank by mid-day today. I'm going to chew on this over the weekend and maybe start buying parts unless some big red flags come up.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I haven't ruled out the Phanteks brand, I was just looking for something in a black or dark green theme.

Coincidentally, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case is also available in traditional Black or Titanium Green (which is the newest version, with a more militaristic appearance).

[Paingod]

I missed the green somehow, I like it. I'll swap that one in.

I was checking monitors, too - I've got a little extra - and I found this and wanted it: BenQ 24" 1ms Gaming Monitor

It pushes me over by $60 - but I'm pitching it to the committee as an opportunity to hand down my old monitor and get the 21 year old 35lb 19" CRT off my son's desk and into a waste disposal center. That's right. I've got a monitor in my house that's legally old enough to drink and it's still running strong.

[Jag]

Nice list. I built this one a few months ago and it's been a lovely beast:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znXPBm
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znXPBm/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
(actually went to 16GB)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $149.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (Purchased For $309.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $79.99)
Total: $1133.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-15 11:06 EST-0500

Was really really close on the Phanteks Enthoo, but pulled the trigger on the Fractal Define R5 instead. Easy case to build in.

The 980s were also stupidly expensive when I built, so the graphics will probably be the first upgrade within the year.

Best decision I made was the 500GB SSD. I have most of my current games sitting on that drive with room to spare.

Added this monster recently:

Acer XB270HU bprz 144Hz 27.0

G-Sync is just sooooo nice

[Paingod]

27" wouldn't leave me much room on my desk. I've got a lot of 'happy clutter' - toys, knick-knacks - and a bigger monitor would dominate the space completely. I'm actually scaling back by an inch to get the 1ms response speed (from 5ms).

All the parts have been ordered, due to arrive Wednesday - with the case coming next Monday at the latest. I'm hoping the Shipping Gods look upon my order favorably. I just didn't want to spend an extra $15 for 3 days sooner. It might make it by then anyway.

[Kasey Chang]

There's always a monitor arm...

I am tempted to dump my entire desk as I had in mind a monitor arm WITH a laptop arm ($70 new, as low as $45 used), but that's a luxury I don't need right now. I'd welcome the desk space though. I got too much **** on my desk already.

But most arms have no problem handling 24 inch monitors or maybe even larger.

[Kasey Chang]

If I get up to 6 games installed I feel the urge to clean house... I can't even imagine. I'm not sure which one of us has the bigger problem. If I decide I want to play something else it generally takes 10 minutes to download it (sorry Smoove).

Hmmm...

(looks over at Steam)

Installed games... 64 (was 71 yesterday)

But then, I don't install games on my C: drive (the SSD). My laptop was big enough to have two HD bays, so I have a 700 GB Seagate spinner and a 256 Samsung SSD.

[hitbyambulance]

If I get up to 6 games installed I feel the urge to clean house...

can you uninstall games, then reinstall later and keep playing? i assume all save and config data is retained, and the game doesn't care. it hadn't occurred to me to do that to save HDD space.

[coopasonic]

If I get up to 6 games installed I feel the urge to clean house...

can you uninstall games, then reinstall later and keep playing? i assume all save and config data is retained, and the game doesn't care. it hadn't occurred to me to do that to save HDD space.

Yes, Steam is pretty good about keeping your save games safe when you delete local content (I won't speak for other games and clients). I won't say it is universal, but I haven't noticed an instance where it failed me.

[Paingod]

Agreed - Steam does a lot of cloud syncing, too - so your saves are backed up outside your computer.

Aside from being a digital hoarder, I like to be able to play whatever game I'm in the mood for when I'm in the mood. It took around 5 hours to download Fallout 4 between two evenings. Having done that, I'd rather not do it again. The same could be said for a lot of games. Indie titles that come in under 1GB download quickly - but heck - they don't take up any space so why not just keep them installed?

... I'm quite excited to have 2TB of SSD space to work with, running in RAID 0 and pushing speeds faster than a single SSD can.

[coopasonic]

You guys tricked me into ordering a new computer...

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro
CPU: i7-6700K
CPU Cooler: Asetek 550LC Liquid Cooling
HD1: 512GB Samsung 950 Prod PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD <- read up on these M.2 SSDs, I had never heard of them, but wow
HD2: 512GB SanDisk X300 <- only because there was no "skip the hard drive" option
Ram : 32GB DDR4/2600 (8GBx4)
Mobo: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro
PS:600w no name
OS: Win 10 Home

I'll be moving my ASUS GTX970 4GB over from my current machine.

It should be here just in time for XCOM 2... which you know, totally needs a beefy system.

[Paingod]

HD1: 512GB Samsung 950 Prod PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD <- read up on these M.2 SSDs, I had never heard of them, but wow

Righteous speed - 2500MB/sec read, 1500MB/sec write. Damn impressive.

I thought I was doing good with my 560MB/sec read, 460MB/sec write - and with two in RAID 0 that'll be something like 750/600. I'll just have to 'make due' until my next upgrade in a few years when I move into something like 6TB of space at 5000MB/sec read...

I note you mention 'no name' on the power supply; I'm personally fond of digging up anything I can and making sure the parts all meet a solid standard. I really liked the review on the Corsair RM850i I bought. Probably seems weird because power is power, and what I got is likely overkill for my machine - I just feel better about it that way.

[Jag]

I note you mention 'no name' on the power supply; I'm personally fond of digging up anything I can and making sure the parts all meet a solid standard. I really liked the review on the Corsair RM850i I bought. Probably seems weird because power is power, and what I got is likely overkill for my machine - I just feel better about it that way.

Power supply quality is as important as actual power. I did a decent amount of research before building and the one component you absolutely want to make sure about is the power supply. Especially if you are going to overclock, SLI or do anything that creates more heat. That's why I picked up the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified PS when it went on sale.

[coopasonic]

I note you mention 'no name' on the power supply; I'm personally fond of digging up anything I can and making sure the parts all meet a solid standard. I really liked the review on the Corsair RM850i I bought. Probably seems weird because power is power, and what I got is likely overkill for my machine - I just feel better about it that way.

Power supply quality is as important as actual power. I did a decent amount of research before building and the one component you absolutely want to make sure about is the power supply. Especially if you are going to overclock, SLI or do anything that creates more heat. That's why I picked up the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified PS when it went on sale.

Once I added the M.2 SSD I had to make everything else as cheap as possible. I have no idea what brand power supply I will end up. Whatever cyberpower defaults to which will be whatever is cheapest I presume. Yes, I suppose a real name would only be $20 more but whatever.

[Smoove_B]

Once I added the M.2 SSD I had to make everything else as cheap as possible. I have no idea what brand power supply I will end up. Whatever cyberpower defaults to which will be whatever is cheapest I presume. Yes, I suppose a real name would only be $20 more but whatever.

FWIW, I'm waiting for my RMA replacement video card that just keeps black-screening at random times in different games. If the new card also black screens, my last guess is the no-name 600W power supply that Cyberpower used when I built this PC 5 years ago. While it exceeds the general power requirements outside of using a multi-meter under load, I have no idea if the power it is providing to the card is steady or within whatever range the card needs when being taxed heavily. If I could go back 5 years and pay $20 for a name brand / certified power supply I absolutely would as my next option is to bribe someone with beer or Scotch to rip and replace the current power supply.

[coopasonic]

On the plus side I can replace the power supply myself without beer or scotch. On the down side, if any component failure will cause damage to other components, it's the power supply.

[Daehawk]

Ive built PCs since 1994. I prefer G-Skill and Patriot memory. I wouldn't buy a MSI video card again for no reason. Terrible TERRIBLE fan quality..EVGA for video. For PSU Corsair or Seasonic who build the Corsair ones anyways. And as a personal opinion I would never use liquid cooling..just my own preference.

[Paingod]

Power supply quality is as important as actual power.

It's easy to think of the power supply as being the least sexy part of the computer, and thus less deserving of scrutiny. Quality is why I stepped back from the original PSU I picked and moved to the Corsair. The original was good, but the Corsair tested better in a detailed review.

Ive built PCs since 1994. I prefer G-Skill and Patriot memory. I wouldn't buy a MSI video card again for no reason. Terrible TERRIBLE fan quality..EVGA for video. For PSU Corsair or Seasonic who build the Corsair ones anyways. And as a personal opinion I would never use liquid cooling..just my own preference.

The first one I built was somewhere around 1995, but I've tried to avoid developing a strong brand loyalty - I tend to just read reviews and happily flip to whoever seems to meet my needs at the time. I've had MSI parts in the last three computers I made - motherboards, video cards - and never had an issue with fans or function. I'm not saying they can't fail or can't suck, just that it hasn't happened to me yet.

My current AMD/Gigabyte machine is running a MSI Radeon HD 6970 with 2GB of DDR5 memory. It's served me well, and I can hear the fan struggling to keep up when I get into Fallout 4 and roam the cities - but I've also got the settings turned up over whatever defaults the game sticks in there based on what it thinks my card can handle. It also struggles on a hot day in the summer - but I've never faulted it for that. I struggle on hot days in the summer. My current PC is running Corsair Vengeance (8GB DDR3 1600) memory as well; I didn't plan for it, just a coincidence.

On the plus side I can replace the power supply myself without beer or scotch. On the down side, if any component failure will cause damage to other components, it's the power supply.

On the plus side of the down side, if a power supply fails in that manner it's more likely to do it within the warranty period.

[Paingod]

It's killin' me - All my parts are in, and the case is in Connecticut. It's had a long journey from California to Arizona to Oklahoma to Illinois to Pennsylvania ... The site says it'll be here tomorrow, but I doubt it'll make it; they'd have to get it from the CT facility to the ME facility before the truck rolls out to make deliveries tomorrow morning. I'd love to build it Friday night if I could.

I've already put the monitor into play and it needs some tweaking to get just right. The default settings are too sharp and it ends up with very hard edges to everything. I've got it to a point of looking good, but could be a little better with more adjusting. For some reason, 10 steps from hard edges to blurred text doesn't seem like enough - like I want to set it to 5.5 instead of 6 or 5. What it lacks that I didn't plan for is height. The base doesn't bring it very far up off the desk and my previous monitor was. Easy fix, though.

I'm not wholly sold on Windows 10 yet. I'm still concerned over the whole "we're watching you and you can't turn it off" thing. Realistically, they can watch me play Fallout 4 for 200 hours and I could care less ... morally, it just seems objectionable. I'll be starting with my non-upgraded Windows 7 key, regardless. I've also heard that it can be a pain in the ass to move your free Windows 10 install from one build to another, so I've got that in my favor. And ... DirectX 12...

[Daehawk]

My monitor sits on top of my PS4.

I HATE Win 10. its such a clunky horrible interface. My wife's laptop upgraded free from 8.1 to 10 and I dont care for it in the least. This PC gaming rig of mine is still Win 7 x64 and plan to keep it that way.

[Paingod]

I might use my battered and well-loved copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so it becomes part of my desk decor.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'm not wholly sold on Windows 10 yet. I'm still concerned over the whole "we're watching you and you can't turn it off" thing. Realistically, they can watch me play Fallout 4 for 200 hours and I could care less ... morally, it just seems objectionable. I'll be starting with my non-upgraded Windows 7 key, regardless. I've also heard that it can be a pain in the ass to move your free Windows 10 install from one build to another, so I've got that in my favor. And ... DirectX 12...

FWIW, there are quite a few Windows 10 privacy tools available that may help allay your concerns. Here's a useful 'Comparison of Windows 10 Privacy tools' courtesy of ghacks.net.

ShutUp10 is one of the better freeware choices IMHO, as it doesn't need to be installed (so there's no OpenCandy adware shenanigans or the like). It also includes decent descriptions of its various tweaks. Coincidentally, it's made by OO-software.com, though obviously no relation to our humble abode.

[Paingod]

ShutUp10 is one of the better freeware choices IMHO, as it doesn't need to be installed (so there's no OpenCandy adware shenanigans or the like). It also includes decent descriptions of its various tweaks. Coincidentally, it's made by OO-software.com, though obviously no relation to our humble abode.

The first utility I looked at included the OpenCandy software and all I could think of was "Who the f**k trades up spyware for adware?" I'll have to dig into this one a bit. I loved seeing that they're a Microsoft Gold App Developer.

If it works as promised, I'll likely end up joining the arms race between app developers stopping Microsoft and Microsoft plugging holes the developers use to stop them.

[Paingod]

Thoughts on the completed build...

• In putting it together, there's a 12v fan hub in the Enthoo case that my motherboard doesn't support. That's fine, though, since the hub can be bypassed and the fans used as normal. The Enthoo case is cavernous, and while the PSU being on the bottom was odd to me, it works well and there was no problem running cables to every device. On cabling, the allotted space behind the motherboard tray was just enough. The cover is acting like a girdle and holds the velcro-secured cables in check. For drives, I wish the case came with a second SSD mount. My second SSD is currently secured using a combination of gravity and cabling that should keep it in place safely. I really like the air filtering trays and they're all relatively easily accessible (lifting off the case front and top to access those). The glass on the side is crystal clear and provides a really nice view of the inside.
• It's recommended that you update the motherboard BIOS before installing Windows, which I did. I got this tidbit from an Amazon review of the board, and the BIOS update was easy enough using a USB flash drive and the BIOS Flash port on the board.
• The "CPU_Fan" 4-pin plug on the motherboard didn't work. Despite the CPU fan spinning up when powered on, it showed no fan connected in the BIOS and generated a boot-stopping error. A little digging and I discovered the CPU_Opt connection can also be used, which works as expected. I'm not the first person with this issue on this particular board. This may have been corrected with the BIOS update - I haven't gone back in to adjust the connections since the BIOS update.
• The RAID0 config was easy to work through and hasn't caused any issues in booting or Windows function. Load times in Fallout 4 seem much shorter than I recall, but are nowhere near instantaneous. In normal Windows operation, I'd say the function is excellent. I haven't tried opening or loading massive files, but navigation has been extremely fast and responsive.
• The "customizable lighting" on the motherboard is generated by a small covered LED in the middle of the board, and it had no effect on the bright white "Start" button, bright red "Reset" button, or red LED trail on the back of the board. Additionally, the LED is completely hidden by the monstrous MSI GeForce GTX 980 4G card unless I bend down to look under the card. The light it throws is visible below the card, but only barely. This light can pulse, strobe, or go through rainbow effects (controlled through Windows app) but still doesn't change the other board colors. I need to find a way to disable the bright Start and Reset lights at a minimum.
• The MSI GeForce GTX 980 4G runs beautifully and controls its own fan speeds. In regular Windows functions, only one fan is kind of moving. Even with Fallout 4 running in Ultra settings, the fan didn't roar. Granted, I've yet to have a chance to do a full hour of play, but it was very quiet in operation. This card also comes with a bright white LED on the outside edge that looks neat, but is brighter than anything else in the case.
• I had trouble with Windows 7 64-Bit and the USB drivers for the board. Getting the Ethernet drivers in was a breeze, and then when I went online and downloaded the latest USB drivers from the ASUS website, they installed - but the OS flickered at the end and I completely lost keyboard and mouse input. Every USB port on the machine was dead and there was no easy way to interact with the machine to repair it. Ultimately I had to force/stop Windows boots enough to get it to let me into Safe Mode where the KB/Mouse worked and then perform a system restore to my very first restore point (the next three had unknown errors). After that restore, normal function was restored and I used the included DVD to install all the device drivers instead of the ASUS website. That worked out fine, but I still need to get the most up-to-date ones.
• In operation, the PC is barely audible. The PSU controls its own fans, and has been silent so far. The video card controls its own fans and has been silent. The CPU and case fans also have speed controls through the motherboard apps and they've been fairly quiet. The CPU temp drifts between 29ºC and 31ºC during normal Windows operations. I haven't had a chance for a good extended video card test using a taxing game. This computer doesn't generate anywhere near the same heat my old one did - after hours of operation in my small computer room, I don't feel like it's cooking the room. My old PC did and the fans were always churning heavily.
• The Network connection has been spotty. During downloads of large files, it spontaneously craps out. Google Chrome would get 200-700MB into a 820MB driver download for the video card and suddenly stop downloading. Internet Explorer would do the same, but at least had the option to "Resume" so I could finish it. In Steam games would randomly fall to the bottom of the update list after a few minutes of downloading and need to be bumped back up. Since finishing a slew of Windows updates, I haven't seen this happen again - but I also haven't been specifically looking for it.
• The Unity Player for games like Darkest Dungeon, Dungeon of the Endless, and Bionic Dues failed to load originally with a memory allocation error at 0x00000000. I had to fight with it for a while. Research turned up info about corrupted Font files, audio driver issues, and memory allocation issues. I set my paging file to a specific 16GB, farted around with Fonts, and the ultimate resolution was (I believe) updating the video card driver (to that version that kept crapping out in download). The video card drivers included new audio drivers. That seemed to be the key. Unity is working normally now.
• Carrying over Steam games was easy enough using a Batch file and Robocopy. Steam, however, has decided that a lot of games have massive gaps in them. For example, I carried over Fallout 4 - but Steam still felt like it needed to download an additional 10GB of data before the game could run. It's done this with a lot of the games I'm reconnecting.

Overall, though, I'm very happy with my computer's functionality now that it's settled down. I look forward to getting into more games and testing them out.

[Jag]

[Paingod]

I tried to take a few, but all I got was a blurry mess with my phone. I don't have a tripod and expensive digital camera to work with. The case review video does it more justice

[Paingod]

So the build has a flaw. The network adapter on the motherboard is borked.

I've been sorting out a number of minor annoyances and they all led back to a NIC issue. I spent 20+ hours fighting Shogun 2 to get it running, and in the end it turns out disabling my NIC was all I needed to do. When Windows shuts down, it'll hang for a LONG time before closing (sometimes bluescreening instead of shutting down) - a disabled NIC and it snaps shut. The indicators go on and on. Everything's up to date, motherboard, chipset, NIC drivers ... sooooo...

Now I have to decide if it's worth the hassle of rebuilding the system to return the motherboard, or if I just pick up a quality NIC and disable the on-board adapter permanently through the BIOS. I'm leaning towards just getting a NIC for two reasons... 1) I don't know if my RAID 0 array will survive swapping out the controller (I hope it would, but I need to research it) and 2) the thought of tearing everything apart, cleaning up thermal paste, and putting it all back together doesn't sound like fun.

As a matter of principle, I want to make sure I've got working parts. As a matter of practicality, that's a huge waste of my time.

*Edit: Looks like the RAID0 array "should" survive a motherboard replacement as long as I move to the same BIOS version and plug the drives back into the same ports they came out of. I guess it's up to NewEgg. I'll RMA the whole thing, or they can offer some small incentive to buy a NIC to fix the problem.

*Edit 2: NewEgg has agreed to give me a $20 gift card towards the purchase of a new network card. That satisfies me and solves the only real issue I have with the board, without needing to tear the whole computer apart.