Alright PC parts choosen! So much for my Friday night
For now at least this is still a while out so things will change. I think this may also be my longest post to date.
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ I always write way too much ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QQthxr
And the explanation:
Holy inconsistent writing style, Batman!
PCPartPicker part list:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QQthxr
Price breakdown by merchant:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QQthxr/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($241.98 @ Newegg)
This is pretty overkill tbh, but I have my reasons. For this CPU the i5 means it's a quad core CPU with no hyper-threading. Hyper-threading is a system that allows the CPU to theoretically have 8 cores even though it really only has 4, it's confusing but this one doesn't have it. The 4690 basically means it's the best i5 you can get, the next highest 4##0 would be a 47#0 which would make it an i7 which does have hyper-threading and is more expensive because of that. And the little K at the end means that you can Overclock this CPU. Overclocking basically means you can speed up the CPU past the stock speed, like modifying a car to have a higher max speed, it costs more (for some stupid reason) but it means you can get more performance for fairly little. Also another reason for this CPU over something else is because currently (this will likely change) there is a combo deal with the motherboard I have selected which will save you 50 bucks when bought together.
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($47.99 @ Mwave)
This is actually an optional extra sorta. If you are planning on overclocking your CPU then you will need an after market heat sink. The one that comes with the CPU is ok for stock operation. And by definition overclocking isn't stock. You could drop down to a $30 heat sink and still be fine but this is just a higher end option, that will keep the CPU cooler and live longer as a result.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($151.98 @ Newegg)
I always have a hard time explaining the Mobo I choose, so I'll just list some of the good things about this board. There are 6 SATA3 connectors and SATA3 is really the lowest you should use nowadays, now don't get it confused with SATA 3gb/s because that's SATA2. SATA3 is 6gb/s. It's a bit confusing but it's pretty easy to get the hang of. This board has a fair amount of upgradeability as well, with RAM it has 4 slots and I've chosen 2 sticks so if you wanted you could add 2 more sticks. Or just download more RAM that works to
This board also has the ability for SLI and Crossfire which means that you could add a second graphics card for way more power. The board also looks quite nice with a simple black PCB and orangey-gold highlights, quiet classy.
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
RAM is pretty straight forward really. 8 GB so pretty easy. DDR3 is just a standard really and on it's own doesn't mean much. The 1600 though that is also equally unexciting, basically it's just the clock speed of the RAM in MHz. This RAM also has a CAS Latency of 9 which is how many clock cycles it takes for the memory controller to actually talk to the memory modules on the PCB, but all that you really need to know is that 8 is great, 9 is good, 10 is acceptable, and 11+ should probably be avoided.
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($75.73 @ Amazon)
Overkill strikes again. But much less this time. The idea of an SSD is to just be way fucking faster than a Hard Drive, and that's about it really. It is expensive for the amount of storage you're getting but when you install your OS and commonly used programs on here, everything will just FLY!
This SSD is one of the best that Samsung makes and Samsung makes really good SSDs. 850 is just the most recent line of them and EVO is the best of that line, with the 850 Pro and 850 being marginally not as good.
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.99 @ Amazon)
I just chose this because it was the cheapest 1TB drive I could find that I would trust. WD makes good shit. You could upgrade to a 2TB or 3TB for $30-$60 really easily, and you could even just go down to best buy and pick one up IRL.
I'm actually not quite sure of most of WD's color definitions. But I do know that Green is power efficient, Red is for NASs, and that's all I know. But blue is consumer grade so it's fine.
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
The Video Card is always the hardest part of a build IMO. I chose the 280X because it's basically as good as a GTX 970 but it's 50 bucks cheaper. It should be easily overclockable too for a little extra boost.
And if you want me to explain the name I can't because AMD's naming scheme is shit. Basically it's the third best single GPU card of this generation they make, behind the 290 and 290X.
Case: OPTIONS HERE There is a little thing that says "From parametric selection(
show)" click the show and it'll list all the options
I left this one open to your own choice here. I chose a bunch of cases that I really like both because they look nice and are really good cases. And for a few of them there are a lot of color options floating around as well. Normally with cases I say get the best Corsair case in your budget. So you should definitely go with the Corsair 450D
The price difference between them is ~40 bucks from the cheapest to most expensive so you can really just choose the one that you like the most, and if you hate all of them I can make a new list.
So what makes a good case? Plenty of room for graphics cards, enough room for cable management in the back, as many 3.5 or 2.5 inch drive bays as you will need, and as mentioned aesthetics. Now for a couple of them I would recommend picking up 1 or 2 more fans to put in the case just to increase the airflow so nothing overheats too much.
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Fairly simple one here. 550 Watt which is a little bit more than this PC should ever use which is ideal usually you want ~100 watts of headroom, and this is probably a bit more than that. The 80+ Gold is specifying how energy efficient the PSU is. Basically it's just how much of the energy that gets pulled out of the wall is wasted. So the more efficient the PSU the closer it's peak Wattage is to the actual wattage it pulls. It also means that generally the components are better and the PSU will last longer. Semi-Modular just means that you don't need to have every cable crammed somewhere in the case, you can leave the cables you don't need out.
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.93 @ Amazon)
It's an optical drive. You'll use this thing twice, maybe.
Operating System: OPTIONS HERE
Basically it's down to windows 7 or 8.1. The difference in price is like 6 bucks and both should give you the option to upgrade to Windows 10 when that comes out. And like the hard drive, best buy also carries this stuff, so no real need to order online.
Monitor: LG 23MP55HQ-P 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($137.98 @ NCIX US)
I think I already explained this earlier but I'll go again. It's a 23" 1080p 60Hz IPS Monitor. So it has great color, great viewing angles, an acceptable refresh rate and 1080p just looks nice at 23-27 inches.
Total: $1192.54 UNDER BUDGET
a little WOOT!
So there can be a few upgrades here and there, but also remember the change in price between the case you choose. I would say that the best upgrade would probably be to an R9 290 or jumping up to some i7 CPU probably a 4770.
And the price is a bit wobbly based on where you buy each part from. Pretty much all the companies that PCPartPicker links to can be trusted.
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-13 23:59 EDT-0400
Overall this is a REALLY solid build with a fair amount of room for upgrading. You will easily be able to use that CPU for 5 years with careful overclocking. The GPU should be good for 3-4 years but that's if you want to run everything at Ultra/High, and again you can overclock to gain a little bit more for fairly little work or you could just throw a second one in there. RAM can be doubled rather easily, all storage can be upgraded with RAID arrays or just more drives very easily. Now the PSU is a bit of an issue because it's only a 550W DO NOT try to run 2 graphics cards without swapping it out for a 700-750W, now what you could do is get a 700W+ PSU now for probably 40-60 bucks more, if you felt that you would for sure get a second card.
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