Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions
Showing 1 of 33 conversations about:
TheMichigander
4
May 29, 2018
bookmark_border
Greyleaf
6
May 29, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderPretty good parts, but coming from a guy that makes computers for a living, you might want a GPU that has a little more VRAM than 3gb. That’s a good motherboard and I think anyone would be pleased with it. Like you said you probably should upgrade that ram, that’s the minimum requirement for some modern games, and you don’t want to buy a bad cheap case, do get a case like the NZXT S340. The cooler is very important, you don’t want a cheap one of the either. I would probably go for the Deepcool
GAMMAXX 400. The EVGA SuperNOVA 650 power supply I would recommend to anyone. Sorry for the long paragraph, but I hoped this helped.
TheMichigander
4
May 29, 2018
bookmark_border
GreyleafThanks, Greyleaf! Like I said, this is my first build, so your tips are valuable to me.
jcm5991
6
May 30, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderIf you don't plan on overclocking then this should be a good build for you. (i do recommend you try OC sometime, its a lot easier and less risky than most newcomers think it is) You can still overclock your GPU though, that is very easy to do with software! Here are my thoughts
CPU: solid choice if you dont want to OC MOBO: ASUS is great and i love their MOBO's although since you arent OC, maybe look at other options to cut cost(or get one capable of overclocking for upgrade room down the line), not saying this is a bad choice, this is just my opinion. GPU: depending on what games you plan on playing, id recommend getting the 6gb variant if you can afford it. RAM: not bad to start, recommend getting another 8GB stick down the road HDD: solid choice for steam library (i had to get a 3 TB enterprise drive after about a year or so, games and possible recording take up a lot of room) SSD: i have the 512gb version of this, AMAZING SSD, extremely fast for OS and smaller games!
Case: dont go too cheap like the $40 budget cases, go for around the $70-$80 range at least, trust me, you'll thank me later. (hated my first case). Look at Fractal Design, corsair, cooler master, etc. for some solid cases but stay away from their budget lines, specifically corsair
PSU: Safe with going anything at least 500W, dont go more than 750W. I would recommend a reputable brand such as EVGA or Corsair and AT LEAST 80+ bronze.
COOLER: HYPER 212-EVO, tried and true, budget friendly and efficient.
Good luck on the build. Any specific questions, hmu - Faygofeet@gmail.com
CPU: solid choice if you dont want to OC MOBO: ASUS is great and i love their MOBO's although since you arent OC, maybe look at other options to cut cost(or get one capable of overclocking for upgrade room down the line), not saying this is a bad choice, this is just my opinion. GPU: depending on what games you plan on playing, id recommend getting the 6gb variant if you can afford it. RAM: not bad to start, recommend getting another 8GB stick down the road HDD: solid choice for steam library (i had to get a 3 TB enterprise drive after about a year or so, games and possible recording take up a lot of room) SSD: i have the 512gb version of this, AMAZING SSD, extremely fast for OS and smaller games!
Case: dont go too cheap like the $40 budget cases, go for around the $70-$80 range at least, trust me, you'll thank me later. (hated my first case). Look at Fractal Design, corsair, cooler master, etc. for some solid cases but stay away from their budget lines, specifically corsair
PSU: Safe with going anything at least 500W, dont go more than 750W. I would recommend a reputable brand such as EVGA or Corsair and AT LEAST 80+ bronze.
COOLER: HYPER 212-EVO, tried and true, budget friendly and efficient.
Good luck on the build. Any specific questions, hmu - Faygofeet@gmail.com
TheMichigander
4
May 30, 2018
bookmark_border
jcm5991Thanks! I just shot you an email about mobo options. Awesome info and much appreciated.
mattlags
1
Jun 1, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderI did my first build with this processor a couple weeks ago, thing sits at 3.8ghz average and is a beast, you won’t regret it with a 1060.
Just FYI your CPU will utilize ram clocked up to 2666MHz. It may not be much more to get a little more speed. Definity the upgrade to 16 will be worth it.
Case: I really like the Fractal Design Meshify C series of cases, they make ATX and mATX.
TheMichigander
4
Jun 1, 2018
bookmark_border
mattlagsThanks, man! That's actually the case that I decided to go with.
Roboyt0
5
Jun 2, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderI'm going to try to sway you to AMD since their new CPUs offer a lot of bang for their buck especially when you consider their vastly superior multi-threaded performance.
The AMD "equivalent", or superior, would be a Ryzen 2600 for the same money. The automated boost clocks will be very similar between the two chips, but AMD has the advantage at same clock speeds. Intel can and does win in situations where the clocks speeds are overclocked beyond what Ryzen is capable of. But you are looking at a locked CPU, so Ryzen is the better choice especially once you consider the AMD Ryzen chip has twice as many processing threads at 12, opposed to the i5's 6 cores without hyperthreading, and all Ryzen chips are capable of overclocking if you wanted. This means better multi-tasking capabilities and anything that will utilize more processing threads is going to crush that i5. Games are also definitely benefiting from extra cores/threads with DX12 becoming much, much more popular. If you are building a machine, it is best to be as "future proof" as possible, and 12 threads compared to 6 is definitely a future proofing move. If you spend an extra 20 bucks you can get the Ryzen 2600X. That X means the chip has the XFR2, xtended frequency range 2nd gen, ability. What this means is that is the chip has enough power available and is running cool enough, it will boost beyond it's normal advertised boost speeds. XFR2 works so well that a few review sites have stated that manual overclocking is unnecessary for additional performance...manual overclocking may potentially even be worse performance than letting the chip do everything itself. This would be the best case scenario for you since you weren't planning on overclocking anyway.
For your purposes an AMD B350 series motherboard will be plenty. If you fancy Asus then they have the same board for AMD: ASUS ROG Strix B350-F Gaming. I am more of a fan of Gigabyte personally and am using the GA-AB350 Gaming 3 board. It is a little cheaper than the ASUS but still will do everything you need it to unless you must have the RGB lighting that ASUS does.
As someone else has suggested 3GB VRAM is just a little shy of what you will want presently, as well as the fact that the 3GB actually have less GPU cores than the 6GB. Pending the gaming title in question there can be fairly substantial performance differences between the two. Once again we are back to attempting to "future proof" your build. So the extra money for a 6GB 1060, or moving to AMD would be a wise decision. Nothing wrong with the 1060, I have a 6GB 1060 in my HTPC...primarily because I got a sweet open-box deal on it for $200. Anyway, AMD RX 570 4GB is best bang for your buck AMD wise. You get that extra 1GB of VRAM and AMD's general superiority for DX12 titles.
Great choice for RAM with the Corsair LPX, although I would suggest going to a higher speed as it definitely makes a difference A) for Ryzen specifically and B) for all around performance including modern games. 3200 MHz is the sweet spot for price/performance. I will say from experience that 16GB of RAM is currently unnecessary even with modern AAA game titles. I run Far Cry 5 on ultra settings, 2560x1080 @ 75Hz with 8GB of RAM and it works just fine. This is an area where you could grab more RAM later if need be.
I like WD collectively, but the blue drives are entry level and most likely prone to failure. A WD Red is a good alternative from WD for a few extra bucks, or the Toshiba P300 is very similar in price and Toshiba drives have excellent reliability.
Great choice for your SSD purchase, but you must be careful to purchase the latest revision of that drive which has a black PCB; model WDS250G2X0C. The blue PCB is the first gen and was not nearly as fast as the likes of Samsung and run EXTREMELY hot. I have the first gen in my gaming rig and it needed a heatsink to not constantly be running at max temperature and throttling. Any PCIe NVME drive you ultimately end up with will benefit from a heatsink though.
Cases are largely dependent on personal preference. I particularly like Corsair, Fractal Design and Silverstone.
You will not need a very large PSU to power what you are doing, but this is the last place you want to save a couple dollars as a cheap one could potentially ruin every other component in your build if it fails. ~600W is the most you would need and will be more than sufficient. I do highly suggest getting an 80+ Gold rated PSU as they generally carry a substantially longer warranty as they use superior components to run more efficiently; At the minimum you will want a 80+ Bronze rated unit. For ease of cable management I would suggest at least a semi-modular unit, which means that all power cables aside from motherboard/CPU are removable. This allows you to only plug in what is necessary and not have a giant extra ball of wires sitting in your case. There are many companies that sell nice PSUs, but the fact of the matter is that there are only so many actual manufacturers of PSUs that make them according to 'X' company's specs/request. EVGA, Antec, Silverstone, Seasonic and Rosewill to name a few good ones. A couple suggestions would be Seasonic 550WFocus SSR-550FM or EVGA Supernova G3 550W; both are gold rated and ~$70.
Water cooling is nice, but the cheaper AIO (all-in-one) solutions are prone to pump failure and the less likely issue of a leak, but they don't necessarily cool significantly better than a *similarly priced* air cooler despite what most may believe. By installing an entry level 120mm AIO cooler the temperatures will initially appear amazing and much better than air. The fact of the matter though, is that it takes longer for the AIO to be saturated with heat and to get to the plateau temperature. Fortunately new AMD chips are extremely efficient and don't require a massive cooler at all. For example by media center/HTPC is using a Ryzen 5 1600 with a mild all core/thread overclock of 3.7 GHz (at stock voltage) with the $20 Cryorig M9a. My HTPC case does not have very good air flow due to the layout and size, but the CPU never exceeds 70C even under extended synthetic benchmark stress. I also really like Cryorig because their installation bracket/hardware is some of the easiest to use out there. Between their reasonable prices, great performance and ease of installation they are my go to for air coolers.
Last thing to touch on is operating system. You definitely don't have to pay ~$100 for Windows 10. Simply go on eBay and search for 'windows 10 pro key' and you will get numerous sellers with system builder keys for <$10. You do a buy it now and within a couple minutes you get an eBay message with the license key for the software; hasn't failed me yet for any of the 5 PCs I have in my house or any of the builds that I have done in the last few years.
You said you have ~$1K Budget so here is what I have come up with..all pricing from Newegg but feel free to shop around:
$209 - Ryzen 2600X $105 - ASUS B350-F ROG Gaming Strix (normally $120 but there is a $15 bundle discount) $67 - Season 550W SSR-550M $115 - Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB kit (2x4GB) 3200 MHz $63 - WD Red 1TB Hard Drive $110 - WD Black 256GB NVME PCie SSD $280 - Gigabyte Aorus RX 570 4GB $20 - Cryorig M9a
$970 Total
Of course you still need a case which will slightly breach $1000, but not by a whole lot. You could tone back on the hard drive, RAM speed, or get the standard Ryzen 2600 to bring the price down a bit if need be. But this would be a beastly machine that will spank that i5 8400 is just about every aspect.
This is a lot of information so feel free to respond with questions :D
The AMD "equivalent", or superior, would be a Ryzen 2600 for the same money. The automated boost clocks will be very similar between the two chips, but AMD has the advantage at same clock speeds. Intel can and does win in situations where the clocks speeds are overclocked beyond what Ryzen is capable of. But you are looking at a locked CPU, so Ryzen is the better choice especially once you consider the AMD Ryzen chip has twice as many processing threads at 12, opposed to the i5's 6 cores without hyperthreading, and all Ryzen chips are capable of overclocking if you wanted. This means better multi-tasking capabilities and anything that will utilize more processing threads is going to crush that i5. Games are also definitely benefiting from extra cores/threads with DX12 becoming much, much more popular. If you are building a machine, it is best to be as "future proof" as possible, and 12 threads compared to 6 is definitely a future proofing move. If you spend an extra 20 bucks you can get the Ryzen 2600X. That X means the chip has the XFR2, xtended frequency range 2nd gen, ability. What this means is that is the chip has enough power available and is running cool enough, it will boost beyond it's normal advertised boost speeds. XFR2 works so well that a few review sites have stated that manual overclocking is unnecessary for additional performance...manual overclocking may potentially even be worse performance than letting the chip do everything itself. This would be the best case scenario for you since you weren't planning on overclocking anyway.
For your purposes an AMD B350 series motherboard will be plenty. If you fancy Asus then they have the same board for AMD: ASUS ROG Strix B350-F Gaming. I am more of a fan of Gigabyte personally and am using the GA-AB350 Gaming 3 board. It is a little cheaper than the ASUS but still will do everything you need it to unless you must have the RGB lighting that ASUS does.
As someone else has suggested 3GB VRAM is just a little shy of what you will want presently, as well as the fact that the 3GB actually have less GPU cores than the 6GB. Pending the gaming title in question there can be fairly substantial performance differences between the two. Once again we are back to attempting to "future proof" your build. So the extra money for a 6GB 1060, or moving to AMD would be a wise decision. Nothing wrong with the 1060, I have a 6GB 1060 in my HTPC...primarily because I got a sweet open-box deal on it for $200. Anyway, AMD RX 570 4GB is best bang for your buck AMD wise. You get that extra 1GB of VRAM and AMD's general superiority for DX12 titles.
Great choice for RAM with the Corsair LPX, although I would suggest going to a higher speed as it definitely makes a difference A) for Ryzen specifically and B) for all around performance including modern games. 3200 MHz is the sweet spot for price/performance. I will say from experience that 16GB of RAM is currently unnecessary even with modern AAA game titles. I run Far Cry 5 on ultra settings, 2560x1080 @ 75Hz with 8GB of RAM and it works just fine. This is an area where you could grab more RAM later if need be.
I like WD collectively, but the blue drives are entry level and most likely prone to failure. A WD Red is a good alternative from WD for a few extra bucks, or the Toshiba P300 is very similar in price and Toshiba drives have excellent reliability.
Great choice for your SSD purchase, but you must be careful to purchase the latest revision of that drive which has a black PCB; model WDS250G2X0C. The blue PCB is the first gen and was not nearly as fast as the likes of Samsung and run EXTREMELY hot. I have the first gen in my gaming rig and it needed a heatsink to not constantly be running at max temperature and throttling. Any PCIe NVME drive you ultimately end up with will benefit from a heatsink though.
Cases are largely dependent on personal preference. I particularly like Corsair, Fractal Design and Silverstone.
You will not need a very large PSU to power what you are doing, but this is the last place you want to save a couple dollars as a cheap one could potentially ruin every other component in your build if it fails. ~600W is the most you would need and will be more than sufficient. I do highly suggest getting an 80+ Gold rated PSU as they generally carry a substantially longer warranty as they use superior components to run more efficiently; At the minimum you will want a 80+ Bronze rated unit. For ease of cable management I would suggest at least a semi-modular unit, which means that all power cables aside from motherboard/CPU are removable. This allows you to only plug in what is necessary and not have a giant extra ball of wires sitting in your case. There are many companies that sell nice PSUs, but the fact of the matter is that there are only so many actual manufacturers of PSUs that make them according to 'X' company's specs/request. EVGA, Antec, Silverstone, Seasonic and Rosewill to name a few good ones. A couple suggestions would be Seasonic 550WFocus SSR-550FM or EVGA Supernova G3 550W; both are gold rated and ~$70.
Water cooling is nice, but the cheaper AIO (all-in-one) solutions are prone to pump failure and the less likely issue of a leak, but they don't necessarily cool significantly better than a *similarly priced* air cooler despite what most may believe. By installing an entry level 120mm AIO cooler the temperatures will initially appear amazing and much better than air. The fact of the matter though, is that it takes longer for the AIO to be saturated with heat and to get to the plateau temperature. Fortunately new AMD chips are extremely efficient and don't require a massive cooler at all. For example by media center/HTPC is using a Ryzen 5 1600 with a mild all core/thread overclock of 3.7 GHz (at stock voltage) with the $20 Cryorig M9a. My HTPC case does not have very good air flow due to the layout and size, but the CPU never exceeds 70C even under extended synthetic benchmark stress. I also really like Cryorig because their installation bracket/hardware is some of the easiest to use out there. Between their reasonable prices, great performance and ease of installation they are my go to for air coolers.
Last thing to touch on is operating system. You definitely don't have to pay ~$100 for Windows 10. Simply go on eBay and search for 'windows 10 pro key' and you will get numerous sellers with system builder keys for <$10. You do a buy it now and within a couple minutes you get an eBay message with the license key for the software; hasn't failed me yet for any of the 5 PCs I have in my house or any of the builds that I have done in the last few years.
You said you have ~$1K Budget so here is what I have come up with..all pricing from Newegg but feel free to shop around:
$209 - Ryzen 2600X $105 - ASUS B350-F ROG Gaming Strix (normally $120 but there is a $15 bundle discount) $67 - Season 550W SSR-550M $115 - Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB kit (2x4GB) 3200 MHz $63 - WD Red 1TB Hard Drive $110 - WD Black 256GB NVME PCie SSD $280 - Gigabyte Aorus RX 570 4GB $20 - Cryorig M9a
$970 Total
Of course you still need a case which will slightly breach $1000, but not by a whole lot. You could tone back on the hard drive, RAM speed, or get the standard Ryzen 2600 to bring the price down a bit if need be. But this would be a beastly machine that will spank that i5 8400 is just about every aspect.
This is a lot of information so feel free to respond with questions :D
Spartaton
1
Jun 5, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderI would advise you to get a regular 2.5" SSD instead of M.2 and spend the extra money on a more powerful gpu.
For a case you can't go wrong with a P400 from Phanteks, plenty of room (especially for cable management) and a basement to hide the PSU. Plus lots of variants so you can get exactly what you want.
For air cooling you can get a Hyper 212 EVO on a budget, but if you have a bit extra consider a Noctua (or if you don't like the look Be Quiet although they are a bit more expensive) for better/quieter cooling. Make sure it will fit inside whatever case you get!
As for PSU, don't waste money getting much higher wattage than you need. Use a wattage calculator (https://bit.ly/2F6HyCy). For example I have a 6700k, gtx 1080, 3xHDD, 1xSSD, 16g ram and some extra stuff with a 550W psu. Check out this PSU tier list https://bit.ly/2mERtXB for info on the best brands/skews.
2 more tips: have multiple options in mind for HDD/SSD, ram and PSU. You never know when there will be a great sale on where you can save a good chunk of money. Also, unless you're in dire need for a computer, you don't need to buy everything at once. Get something if there is a good sale, don't be afraid to have that part waiting for a few days in case something else goes on sale later.
cadaveca
0
Jun 5, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderI'd move from ASUS to either ASRock or MSI for the motherboard. ASUS does have some outstanding BIOS issues on many of their boards 300-series products, along with software problems, so you could look to other brands' products within the same price range. I'd also suggest trying to get two ram sticks rather than just one, as this will have a huge impact on the performance you get.
Also, if you can step up to a 6 GB 1060. I understand that there is a significant price difference there, but it is totally worth it.
So, two things here really, memory size on both accounts; the ASUS board part is manageable with a little bit of careful planning and avoiding using automatic overclocking or their software that is provided with the motherboard. XMP settings for memory over 3200 MHz can set voltages to the VCCSA domain that will be scary-high (Gigabyte does this as well, which is why I did not mention them as an alternative)
Also, if you can step up to a 6 GB 1060. I understand that there is a significant price difference there, but it is totally worth it.
So, two things here really, memory size on both accounts; the ASUS board part is manageable with a little bit of careful planning and avoiding using automatic overclocking or their software that is provided with the motherboard. XMP settings for memory over 3200 MHz can set voltages to the VCCSA domain that will be scary-high (Gigabyte does this as well, which is why I did not mention them as an alternative)
Mamba93
0
Jun 7, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderDude if it’s not too late I 100% recommend a 6gb 1060. It costs so little more but performs so much better. Also, I recommend a Samsung 970 Evo for your SSD, similar price for better speeds. for good budget cases check out phanteks or NZXT, you should chose your own case since you’ll be the one looking at it and both of those companies make great products. For power supply, just get the cheapest sea sonic, evga, cooler master or Corsair PSU with 80+ bronze and full modularity. Use pcpartpicker for PSU options. Good luck!
John246
14
Aug 5, 2018
bookmark_border
TheMichiganderhyper 212 evo for cpu cooling since you are not overclocking, this is the best bang for buck cooler out there.
As for case i believe Fractal Design's Meshify C is a good case, good air and easy build in.
The power supply i think a 500watt is the max that you should get since computer parts are getting more and more efficient there is no need for anything for situation. Plus most brand has 10 year warranty.
GL.
For motherboard it is hard to say since i dont know what are you using it for but i think a cheap motherboard from a reputable brand should be good enough since it doesn't really affect the performance for your pc.
Related Posts
BillA2021
Buy replacement quartz movement
Is an original quartz movement or a suitable substitution available for my Wenger 7900X watch at a reasonable cost, or is this not feasible I’m new at this. Thanks.
Mar 18, 2021
reswright
Basic Flip Smoothing
So you picked up a budget bearing knife as a ‘project’ knife to putter around with and you’re looking for ideas? One thing you can do is polish the bearing works, smoothing both the flip and the close action until you've got some semblance of a noiseless flick open and a smooth, gravity drop shut. This can be done many, many different ways, as many ways as there are to smooth and then polish metal; your humble narrator prefers to use a Dremel, using the following steps. I should probably make some kind of disclaimer statement here - this guide is for people already handy with a Dremel. If you’re not already handy with one it’s best not to learn how to use one while handling pocket knives or other sharp and pointy things. Hand held high RPM rotary grinding tools can be surprisingly violent if they get out of your firm grasp, they can impart an astonishing amount of kinetic energy to small sharp things you're trying to polish, sending them flying further and faster than...
Feb 6, 2021
RayF
RayF's Guide to Thanksgiving Day Watches
Please do enjoy your Thanksgiving (for those of you in countries where that means something), but please, please, please--whatever you do--don't wear either of these tacky watches while you're doing it!
Nov 26, 2020
Trending Posts in More Community Picks
Graham88
Completely surprised by the lack of blade diversity here on Drop...
I’ve been a collector of Blades since before my teens, and a retailer coming up on 15… or maybe 20 years. Drop has really been kind of an interesting experience for me, because I do occasionally get to see some unusual tech and sometimes EDC items that otherwise I might not have been aware of. And maybe it’s because I have a deep love of cutlery and bladed weapons, but I find myself trolling through the site looking at it what’s available; and it’s just it’s pretty much the same. And the bladed community here is just always confused me.. every single knife is about the same, they’re almost all drop points and although the handle materials change and brands change.. it’s really just the same knife over and over and over again... occasionally you’ll see a tanto or a slight variant; but rarely… and almost never a serrated blade. And I’m just deeply amazed at this diversion of serrated blades. And I’m just surprised there isn’t more of a request for diversity here.... and I...
Mar 12, 2020
JellyDPhoto
Can we get Sony E-Mount or other mirrorless camera options please..
Would be nice to see some Sony E mount full frame cameras on here. I currently shoot with a A99 and they killed the lense path for better or more option lenses and now is all E-Mount. 🤔
Jan 13, 2020
RayF
There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Drop Refurbished
Like-new products you can trustDrop Rewards
Get $5 for every 500 points you earn! Learn more
Drop Keyboard Club
Become a member and expand your keycap collectionCollaborate With Us
For Brands & DesignersFollow Drop
CPU: Intel i5 8400 MOBO: ASUS ROG Strix H370-F Gaming ? (Recommendations appreciated for the motherboard) GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3Gb RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (Hoping to upgrade later) HDD: WD Blue 1TB SATA 7200 RPM SDD: WD Black 256GB Performance SSD - M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe
If anyone has good advice for cases, power supplies, or cooling (planning on using air cooling), I'd love to hear that as well.
Thanks!