Hey guys,

so I've never built a PC before but am looking into building my first one! I'm combing through tons of sites/articles to figure out a lot of this stuff. I'm trying to spent ~$1500 and I have a handful of question if certain upgrades are really worth it...

Here was a first stab at a build but it comes out to ~$1750... I'd like to drop it to down to $1500 as mentioned but need help on what to downgrade or better alternative parts

1. EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 vs 1070 - I don't have any plans for 4k gaming and a 1070 would save me ~$100, I don't really know much about the difference between the 1070 vs 1080 though other than people recommend the 1080 if you want 4k gaming, thoughts?

2. Is there a better alternative for the CPU?

3. I know there are cheaper power supplies too but thats one area where I feel very in the dark... there's a bunch and idk what I really need for this build but I'm pretty sure the one below is overkill

4. Similar to above, whats the sacrifice with going with a cheaper cooler or motherboard?


5. Am I way off base with this first draft and am missing something?

CPU - Core I7-6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache - $327
Cooler - Cryorig R1 Ultimate Dual Tower CPU Heatsink - $89
Motherboard - Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard - $160
Graphics card - EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB -$472
Case fan - Thermaltake 51.1 CFM 140mm Fan - $18
HDD Toshiba P300 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM HDD - $63
SSD Samsung EVO 850 500GB 2.5" SSD - $172
RAM 2 x 8GB (32GB) G.Skill Ripjaws 4/5 Series - $117
Case Fractal Design Define R5 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case - $110
Power supply EVGA 850W Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply -$ 120
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bi


Thanks for any feedback guys I'm excited to finally get something put together! I'm basically gaming/streaming newer games but would like a build that will last a while and need few upgrades here and there

A better SSD is the Samsung 960 Evo (NVMe SSD) around 5-6 times faster than a normal SSD.

How urgently do you have to upgrade? Because a whole new generation of processors and video cards are slated to release this fall/winter. If you aren't in a hurry it might be worth it to wait until intel coffeelake / nvidia volta.

You can get forum-ready copypasta from pcpartpicker.

Buy OS license from r/microsoftsoftwareswap/ - you get it much cheaper. These are resellers and I (and multiple others on the forums) haven't had one problem.

If you want to stream I would seriously look into Ryzen 1700 or the 1700X (The X if you don't want to OC). These have much more power for the money - an i7 6700K will lagg and drop frames due to lower amount of cores. A Ryzen equivalent will have double the amount of cores and threads - even with slightly lower single threaded performance it's still a wash.

An example build would be:
Spoiler!

Some new graphic cards is about to drop around 29. May and they might press the prices more down.
But of course - things will always get cheaper if you wait (and wait, and wait).

anyone planning a current build, read this ^^^


Forgot to update after building the old mans PC but the 960 evo was the best part. Boots to win 10 in under 15 seconds, searching feels almost instant. Even after being used to SSD's it feels seriously fast.

I've heardhttps://pcpartpicker.com/product/93C...-cpu-cooler-h7is better than that ugly brown noctua cooler and it's half the price and looks 100x better. I'd also get a 1080 over a 1070. AMD is announcing their gpu's by the end of the month so at least wait for that.

Hey guys,

anyone planning a current build, read this ^^^


Forgot to update after building the old mans PC but the 960 evo was the best part.Boots to win 10 in under 15 seconds,searching feels almost instant. Even after being used to SSD's it feels seriously fast.

I dont really see a point to get the R7 1700X. Maybe you can go as high as the R7 1700 but I think the sweetest spot is the R5 1600. Anyway, you can do something like this. I tried to maintain the rest of your original post and just changed the CPU, board and PSU. 850W for PSU is also a bit high. Maybe you can even get rid of the CPU cooler for now and try the stock cooler that comes with the Ryzen CPU. I heard they are good ones.

PCPartPicker part list/Price breakdown by merchant

CPU:AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor($218.49 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler:CRYORIG - R1 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler($88.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard:Asus - PRIME X370-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard($149.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory:G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage:Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive($159.00 @ B&H)
Storage:Toshiba - P300 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive($62.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card:Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Turbo OC Video Card($489.99 @ Amazon)
Case:Fractal Design - Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply:EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply($79.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Total:$1483.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-16 09:15 EDT-0400

Not likely. And inconsequential, since we've pretty much reached the current SSD limit anyway.

Not likely. And inconsequential, since we've pretty much reached the current SSD limit anyway.

No mention of consumer vega today at the AMD investor press conference.

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if I could get some upgrade advice. I currently have the below setup

i5-3570K CPU
GA-Z77-DS3H LGA 1155 Z77 Mobo
Radeon HD 6950 2 GB GPU
4 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 RAM
Antec NEO ECO 620W PSU
1 TB HDD

I mostly play FPS like BF4, BF One, Overwatch, etc and would like to improve my performance without spending a lot. I was thinking about getting a 1060 3 GB or RX 480, SSD, and upgrading to 8 GB of ram.

Would that be the best bang for the buck?

The RAM you chose is Samsung D-Die.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...nfusion_eg_on/

Also - there isn't really a point in getting the X370 chipset. Asus is actually delivering updates later to the Prime X370 board than the B350 one. Performance wise there hasn't been any difference between X370 and B350, even with people overclocking to their heart's content.

And as I've said before - the Samsung 960 is superior to all other SSDs so there is no point in buying a 850 even though it has double the amount of storage. It's like buying a Yaris instead of a Gallardo.

Oh, I just tried to use the same parts that I can find aside from the CPU and board actually. On the X370, I thought I read that there are less issues with X370 than B350.

My point is, I'm just surprised to see a lot of build questions with i5 or i7 on it. Do these people even know about Ryzen? Some care about a couple of fps that a single high clocked core can provide over the 6c12t ryzen when everything else other than gaming will run better on Ryzen.

That's why all I usually do is insert any Ryzen CPU and board to the mix.

About the SSD, I dont know brah, I'm actually still on the poverty M1 on my system and I dont think I need anything faster than that for now. Maybe on my next setup, maybe next year. If ever, all I plan to get this year is a new GPU.

Ok, I have a Corsair 400c case and I'm looking to upgrade my cooling a bit. I'm really thinking about pulling the trigger on a Kraken X62 for my 1600x. I could use that on the front of my case as intakes and get a nice 120mm fan for exhaust on the back. Any recommendations or different ideas? I have a clear side and only thing lighting up right now is my EVGA 1080 and a bit on the MB so I wouldn't mind a little RGB action. Still undecided on what I want really.

I've got an X41 and pretty happy with it. Hardware wise cooler is nice, hoses are long enough to put in at the front of the case easily and all cables reached where I needed them to. Downside is CAM software is a bit crap, ok sometimes it's a lot crap. I haven't looked at other options yet, once I set a colour on mine I don't even run the sofware anymore, using a noctua fan it never spins fast enough to notice no matter what software or bios option is doing the controlling.

I have a x61. I did replace the fans though because the ones that come with are loud as fuark. As far as CAM goes, before I could just set all my fans curves and save the profile. Then it would adjust automatically, even without the CAM software running.

Recently reinstalled Windows. Now I have to have the CAM software running in the background or the fans won't ramp up speed. Wtf. Any clue? Do you always run the software in the background? Because I never used to.

I don't have it running anymore, but I'm not sure if its on the BIOS controlled curve or the CAM one. I'll mess around and see when I'm home. Would have thought your motherboard would ramp the fans up if there wasn't an alternative control from CAM or another program though? Do you have any other OC or monitoring programs which could be interfering?

Dunno how yours is but on my model there is a fan header/splitter that connects all the fans with the pump and sata power.

Does it still have a header on it for the motherboard CPU fan point though? From memory it doesn't take power from it but the signal and control is still fed from it.

Damn^ That must be what you've been waiting for bro. That should have more than 40 lanes. I wonder how much is that.